Principal's Update
Dear Parents and Carers,
Last week on Tuesday August 15th, we celebrated the feast of our patron saint, The Assumption of Mary. On Friday Grade 6 Maegen led a beautiful prayer gathering to celebrate this special day in our school calendar. This week I came across the following article that depicts who Mary was as a person and how her spirit lives on in us and the St. Mary’s school community today;
May I introduce Mary of Nazareth.
Mary of Nazareth knew very well what it meant to be strong. She was strong enough to know that she had been favoured by God when the society said she couldn’t be so favoured, and the tradition said she wouldn’t be so favoured.
She was strong enough to realise the strength of another woman when she went to Elizabeth for support and affirmation.
She was strong enough to bring the right concerns, the right questions, the right witness, the right insight into our world, even if it meant questioning.
She was strong enough never to give up, not to be afraid, to begin over again and again and again, after Bethlehem, and after Egypt, and after the crucifixion.
Mary is not simply “Mary, the Mother of God.” No, on the contrary. The Mother of God is the image of women everywhere. The Mother of God is Mary, independent woman; Mary, the unmarried mother; Mary, the homeless woman; Mary, the political refugee; Mary, the Third World woman; Mary, the mother of the condemned; Mary, the widow who outlives her child; Mary, the woman of our time who shares the divine plan of salvation; Mary, the bearer of Christ.
Mary of Nazareth made feminism an article of the faith, and power holy. Mary shows us the sanctifying power of a human being who has become fully human.
Bequest from Mary Margaret ‘Bernadette’ Lenehan
Last week we received a letter informing us that our school bequeathed a sum of money from the estate of Mary Margaret ‘Bernadette’ Lenehan.
Bernadette (as she was known), was born on 28/11/33 and passed away last year on 15/8/22. She grew up in Coragulac as one of 16 children and attended St. Brendan’s Coragulac. In the latter years of her secondary school life she was a boarder at Genazzano in Kew and was a school prefect. After finishing school, she joined the SFCJ order of nuns and went to England to study her teaching degree.
On her return to Australia, Bernadette held down a number of senior maths teaching positions in Benalla, Genazzano and St. Columba’s in Essendon.
Due to health reasons she left the order and returned to live out her years in Colac, devoting much of her time to tutoring her nieces and nephews. Bernadette spent her final years in Mercy Place, Colac.
Clearly her family and education were significant in her life. We are having ongoing discussions at leadership and Advisory Council level about ways we can honour Bernadette’s wonderful life and her generosity to our school.
Book Week
This week we have been celebrating Book Week. Tomorrow, the children will dress up as their favourite book character for our book parade which commences after prayer gathering at 9.30am, and then complete Book Week activities back in their classrooms. Mixx FM will be broadcasting from our book parade which will be a highlight. In advance, a big thank you to all parents for providing the opportunity for the children to dress up. It’s a day on the school calendar that they really enjoy.
School Hats
In line with our Sun Smart policy, all children are to start wearing their school hats. I ask that all children bring their hats to school tomorrow, clearly named, and ready to start wearing tomorrow.
NAPLAN
NAPLAN results for 2023 were recently released to schools. Children who completed the tests were issued with their results in a sealed envelope last week. The NAPLAN testing format is a learning environment that is not a regular part of our day to day experiences in the contemporary classroom, where discussion, interaction and group sharing are encouraged. Therefore, we do not make judgments on the children based solely on their NAPLAN results, as it is only one of many assessment tasks that the children participate in throughout the year. If you have any queries regarding your child’s NAPLAN results, please make contact with his/her teacher.
Enjoy the rest of your week.
Michael Mahoney (Principal)