A message from Denis

Dear Parents and Carers,

The year continues to roll on with those beautiful Melbourne Autumn days upon us.  I love the clear crisp and cool mornings that turn into gorgeous sunny afternoons and evenings.  Even if I’m confined to walking the dog in the mornings and not my usual morning runs.

This week the Johnstone’s celebrated a special milestone with Hendrix completing his first Reconciliation.  This was a beautiful and proud occasion for us as a family as Hendrix took his first independent step into our Catholic faith tradition.  Most days Jess and I still can’t work out how our frist born is in grade 3 already, time really does fly.

This has been a longer than usual Term 1 and many of us are feeling tired, a bit rundown and perhaps even a bit stressed.  It’s times like these where it is helpful for us to exercise more compassion and kindness towards each other, before we can head off for a break to rest, reset and recharge.

Thank you and farewell Sinead Fahy

Last week we farewelled a much loved teacher on her way to starting the adventure of motherhood.  Sinead has been a wonderful teacher and staff member at St Mary's and will be sorely missed.

We wish Sinead and Ger God's blessings on their expectant arrival and pray that they experience health, happiness and harmony as a family.

Learning Conversations:

Next week you will have the opportunity to meet your child’s teacher for Learning Conversations.  If you have not done so already, please ensure you have booked in on either Tuesday 25th or Thursday 27th of March via the NFORMA parent portal:

At St Mary’s, we have two opportunities for Learning Conversations across the year, at the end of Term 1 and at the end of Term 3.  Formal written reports are given at the end of Term 2 and Term 4.  Our structure ensures that you as parents receive significant feedback regarding your child’s progress and areas to focus on each term.  Scheduling these for Term 1 and Term 3 also gives great opportunity to discuss what areas need to be focussed on for the ensuing term, before formal written reports are completed.  This may be opportunities to excel or to catch up.

I encourage you to embrace these opportunities and continue our strong home/school partnerships.

Build Update:

We now have all 4 classrooms handed over, with only one grade 2 classroom needing some items installed before 2B moves in.  We have made good progress with the council and plumbing work to be able to push on with the new entrance, reception area, first aid and office/meeting rooms construction with the concrete slab scheduled for pouring next week.

These rooms will take more time to complete as there are numerous internal walls and construction required.

We remain on track for a before end of term 2 move into the admin spaces.

2026 Enrolment

Enrolments for 2026 are now well underway.  If you have a child who you are looking to have begin at St Mary’s in 2026, could you please complete an enrolment form and submit it at your earliest convenience.

St Patrick’s Day Melbourne Archdiocese Catholic Schools Mass

Today I had the pleasure of taking our School Captains (Kate Telfer and Gus Gadsby) and Vice Captains (Bella Barden, Lucas Nguyen and Ares Liew) to the annual MACS St Patrick’s Day Mass at the historic and beautiful St Patrick’s Cathedral.

All 300 + Melbourne based Catholic schools were invited to attend and represent their schools.  Our school captains proudly carried our St Mary’s banner to the alter and represented our school with pride.  We followed on from Mass with a lovely concert at Treasury Gardens where the best and brightest from MACs highschools performed music for the happy crowd.

Thank you to our School Leaders for their terrific representation of our school and a great day.

Friends of St Theresa’s of Nzara

Thank you for your support of Harmony Day and donated funds towards supporting the Friends of St Theresa’s of Nzara.

This Foundation, whose board includes Peter Hogan, brother of our past principal Paul Hogan, is building and maintaining a much needed hospital in South Sudan.  Our 4-6s listened to Peter talk about the vital work the Foundation is completing in Nzara with specific reference to getting a pediatric ward up and running.

St Mary's will be working towards funding a bed for this ward which will include the hiring and specialised training of local people to work and service their community in the hospital.  We will continue these efforts across the year in the hopes of raising $3 - $6 000 to sponsor a bed in the hospital.  

Today’s efforts raised over $550 towards this cause.

Be The Light

The work of the Friends of St Theresa’s of Nzara is my Be The Light example for this week.  South Sudan and Sudan have been war torn countries for many years.  The residents of these countries have seen and experienced many atrocities and much violence and darkness across the years.  The work of the foundation is the literal example of bringing light to where there is darkness.  And most importantly giving hope and belief to those that need it most.

Stay safe, Stay Healthy, Stay Connected,

Denis Johnstone

Principal