A message from Denis

Dear Parents and Carers,

The last week of term 1 coincides with Holy Week, we marked this special time in our Liturgical calendar with a beautiful Easter Liturgy that recounted the time before Jesus died and rose on Easter.  I hope your Easter break is one filled with fun, family time and hope for the year ahead.  

Thank you to Gen our REL and our SRC students for leading a beautiful and reverent liturgy.

Purple It Up for Epilepsy

Last Thursday we had Purple it Up for Epilepsy day Awareness Day. As a school, We learned about how some people’s brains work differently and how we can support everyone with kindness and understanding. Epilepsy is often called an invisible illness because you can’t tell by looking at someone that they have it. Around 1 in every 150 Australians lives with epilepsy, so that means around 2.5 students at St Mary’s are likely to have epilepsy.  It was a great day, raising awareness for a great cause.  We raised over $400 for research on the disease, thank you to all who contributed.

Athletics Carnival

Our Athletics carnival was a resounding success this past Wednesday, thanks to all of the wonderful volunteers who supported the day.  From parents, to grandparents, to the terrific high school students of our partner high schools Mary the Immaculate and Simmonds College to our staff; everyone put in a great effort to make the day a fantastic occasion for our students.

It was a great way to finish the term with great efforts from all of our students and super encouragement of all of their peers.  In the end Beta won the day with Gamma winning the spirit award.

Special shout out to Eamonn Murphy on his first athletics carnival.

Spotlighting Great Work

This week I was visited by some more hardworking students who put together some great persuasive pieces on why we should or shouldn’t have a school uniform.  The students are to be commended for their clever arguments and great use of persuasive writing techniques.  I’ll be pondering your arguments over the break 

Special Visitors

Last week at St Mary’s we had some special visitors; the future border force sniffer dogs!  These cute little guys came to visit to help with their socialisation and growth and development.  We are happy to have played a small part in helping keep our country safe!

Foundation 2027 enrolments

With high interest in our 2027 Foundation enrolments, I ask that if you have a child (sibling) you wish to enrol for 2027 you please do so ASAP.

Enrolments are now all online and can be accessed here:

SMAV Child Safety and Volunteer Training

Thank you to those parents who attended the online session.  Child Safety is paramount at St Mary’s and is an issue we are consistently working on.  Look out for our fortnightly Child Safety updates in the newsletter.

A reminder that all parents and friends who would like to volunteer at St Mary’s must complete the training and associated documentation requirements.

We will be recording a session for distribution to those who missed out early next term.

Never See a Need Without Trying to do Something About it

 My never see a need without doing something about it for this week comes from a long standing staff member who is retiring this term, Nola Davis. Nola has admirably served the St Mary’s community for over 35 years!  Nola was a tireless worker for our school community, ensuring she did her level best at all times to get the work done.  Many processes, interfaces and structures have changed in Nola’s time and she is to be commended for her ability to give things a go and learn a new way forward.  Nola, we thank you and hope you enjoy a very, very well deserved rest and relaxation in your retirement.  God bless and God speed.

Stay safe, stay healthy, stay connected,

Denis Johnstone

Principal