Principals 

Message

Dear families,  

We are now into Week 2 of Term 4 and we are starting to experience some nicer weather as we reach the pointy end of the year. I hope that you all had a wonderful break with your children. 

We have been off to a flying start so far this term with our Year 3/4 camp, Foundation transition day and some of the students attending the District Athletics in Shepperton.  

3/4 camp 

Last week, our Year 3/4 students attended their camp for 2024 at Charnwood (close to Benalla). Bianca, Hailey and myself attended with the students, as well as staff and students from St Joseph’s Nagambie.  The students took part in mountain-bike riding, archery, flying-fox and a variety of other fun activities. 

I was absolutely blown away by the students’ behaviour, engagement and enthusiasm throughout the time away. I also thank our staff for attending the camp away from families. 

Babies, Babies, Babies 

I am really excited to inform you all of some pregnancies that we have within our staff. 

We congratulate Prue and Hugh Barlow, who are expecting a little one in Jan 2025. 

I am really excited to announce that my wife and I are expecting a little boy in February 2025 and Thea and William Parry are expecting toward the end of Term 1 next year.  

At this point in time, we are working through budgets, structures and staffing for next year. 

Budgeting, enrolments and 2025 planning 

Last week, Georgia and I attended our 2025 budget workshop in Shepparton. We spent the day forecasting income and expenditure for next year. It was a really positive day and will inform how we resource and staff for 2025. 

Last week, we held our first Foundation transition for Term 4. We had a wonderful turnout and it was amazing to see the 2025 Foundation students enthusiasm and excitement.  

If you are aware of anyone who might be interested in enrolling at St Mary’s for 2025, please encourage them to come in and talk to us as we are in the midst of planning class structures and staff allocation. 

Magnify Sandhurst 

Last term, I provided a small amount of information regarding a Diocese-wide framework for Learning and Teaching, student behaviour and teacher instructional coaching. This framework is named ‘Magnify Sandhurst’, two words that you will hear us refer to quite a bit as we are very excited for it.  

Magnify Sandhurst allows us to access, as a system, resources, programs and professional learning that may have been out of reach for schools individually. Magnify provides research-backed practices that are grounded in evidence and that are proven to promote academic growth for all students.  

Over the past couple of weeks, our staff have attended training sessions for how we can embed best practice into our classrooms for 2025. In some of the sessions, there have been excess of 500 Catholic Education Sandhurst educators, learning and collaborating together. 

Once again, this is amazing for our St Mary’s community in delivering contemporary learning and teaching for our kids... they deserve it!!! 

Visit from our Executive Director 

On Friday, we welcome Kate Fogarty into our school for a visit. Kate is the Executive Director of Catholic Education Sandhurst Limited. Kate has been instrumental in the planning and implementation of Magnify and we are really looking forward to her coming in and seeing our beautiful school and students in action. 

Grandparents Day Mass/ Sausage Sizzle and Walk-throughs.  

Tomorrow, we have our Grandparents (special friends) Mass at 12:30pm in the Church. Following this, we invite families (and grandparents/past families) over for a sausage sizzle and a walk through our school. We look forward to seeing lots of friendly faces and smiles within our school.  

Please RSVP with our admin if you intend on coming along. 

2025 Sacraments

We are currently planning for our 2025 sacramental program. If your child is in Year 4 or above in 2025 and you would like them to complete their sacraments please reach out and let us know.

Attendance

As you know, our school strives for 95% attendance for all of our students. If a child misses just 10 minutes of school per day, that equates to nearly 6 days per year. Through SIMON Everywhere, we have set up monthly reminder percentages to be generated and sent to families to enable you to monitor your child's attendance. 

In my experience, families often do not realise how much their children have missed unless it is continually monitored.

As always, please do not hesitate to contact or come and see me if you have any questions or queries.  

God bless you all, 

Vin Ryan