Mrs Ryan's Fortnightly Reflections

Welcome everyone to the 2026 school year! It is fabulous to be back, and the school is filled with little feet, giggles, and smiles. This is our first newsletter of the year, and it is always a robust one as we strive to set up the year for success and with clarity! 

A special welcome to our Foundation learners and families. It has been a delight being in the classrooms, learning the children’s names, and observing how settled and happy they seem to be in our St Mary’s environment. Our Foundation teachers are doing an incredible job at teaching them all the contextual norms and behaviours. Welcome to the many new non-Foundation families! We have approximately twenty new learners throughout other levels of the school, and I look forward to having morning tea with them all next Friday! Overall, whether new or existing, there is a beautiful, calm, content, and energetic atmosphere throughout the school—a great foundational start to what promises to be a wonderful year ahead for us all! 

The school year started a little earlier for staff, as we were here three days ahead of our learners, getting prepared for learning and the 2026 academic year. These days were a true blessing, and staff appreciated the dedicated time to plan and prepare. 

On our first day of school, we held a whole school ‘locked’ assembly for Year 1–Year 6 learners. This is something we do annually, with the purpose of establishing clarity of school rules and behaviour expectations, introducing new staff and learners, and sharing exciting news and initiatives for the year ahead! They were exceptional in their attentiveness and eager for what the year will entail. 

Families will hopefully have had the opportunity to explore the abundance of information available on Compass. At the beginning of the year, there is a lot of information that is required for annual acknowledgment or simply to revisit. Can I please ask that families commit to exploring what has been posted, and update medical profiles, fee commitments, and acceptance of our Parent Code of Conduct. All of St Mary’s key policies are available on our website; however, key policies I ask parents to review and support are: Student Behaviour Management, Attendance Monitoring, and Communication Process and Procedure. These policies outline the expected processes for both the school and our families. They will be posted on Compass for ease of access next week. 

Last Friday, I also shared our 2026 Family Information via Compass, which outlines all general information, including dates and how to access staff, pick-up and drop-off procedures, and uniform supplies. Please refer to this as needed and contact our office if you require further assistance. 

Thank you so much to all our families for ensuring your child comes to school in complete school uniform; they all look amazing! It was highlighted during our locked assembly that we can wear what uniform we choose; however, it must be St Mary’s from head to toe—white socks and black shoes or runners! I reminded our learners that hair longer than shoulder length needs to be tied up. During internal sports carnivals, we can wear our house colours, and on external sport days, we wear the complete St Mary’s team attire with the standard sports uniform. We discussed how we are a team that proudly belongs together, and I can see our families are also great advocates of this—thank you. 

Our administration team is here to support our community in many ways, particularly in getting messages and communication to your child in unexpected circumstances. We ask families who need to change end-of-day travel plans or have any unforeseen messages to please contact the office prior to 2:30 pm each day. The administration office becomes increasingly busy from 2:30 pm to 3:00 pm with end-of-day tasks and learners, and to ensure messages reach your child before the end of the day, communication needs to be received prior to 2:30 pm. Thank you for your cooperation on this. 

St Mary’s 2026 Annual Action Plan has been formalised and will be shared in summary in the coming weeks. We have robust goals, partnerships with families and the community, improved infrastructure and facilities, and continued investment in building the capacity of our staff! I look forward to sharing this and the progress we make throughout the year. 

In the coming weeks, I look forward to welcoming our families and carers back and seeing many of you on the school grounds. In Term One alone, we will have our first school assembly, the beginning-of-year Mass, and Semester One learning conversations. 

Here is to a great Term 1!  

In Faith, Trust & Love 

Jasmine Ryan  

Principal