Principal's News

Dear Parents,

We had our second Open Day today and I would like to thank our student leaders for taking parents on tour to look at our beautiful school. Our next Open day will be a twilight one on Wednesday June 5th. Please promote this twilight event in the community and invite any prospective parents to come along and do a tour. 

Thanks to our Eucharist students and families and many staff for attending the family and Eucharist Commitment Mass at Hastings on Sunday. We continue to build a positive connection with the Parish to promote a sense of belonging and a wonderful faith-filled community.

Recently, there has been a strong focus in educational research on the Science of Learning. This research demonstrates teaching practices that are aligned with how students learn are the most effective in improving education outcomes for all. It also shows strong evidence about the processes that occur during learning. 

These processes explain why some teaching practices are more effective than others. The Australian Education Research Organisation (AERO) has created a model to explain how effective teaching practices align with how students learn. The model is shown on the learning page of the newsletter. It includes how students learn by focusing on moving knowledge to long term memory through explicit instruction, retention, recall, mastery and application. At St Mary’s, we have embedded these techniques throughout our policies and practices. This includes the purchasing or designing of programs such as Multilit, Spelling Mastery, Number Fluency Bricks, Daily Reviews and many more. Congratulations to Amanda and the learning team on all the excellent work that is occurring in our school.

Be Kind! Be you!

May we always be a community who is looking out for others and passing kindness on in inspiring faith-filled ways. At St Mary’s, we follow the lead set by Mary MacKillop and never see a need without addressing it.

Have a great week and Be Kind, Be You in all that you do - self, others and the world.

Gab