A warm greeting from me this week, as the temperature has taken a freezing turn. As if it wasn't hard enough getting out of the house in the morning without adding an extra 10 minutes to scrape the ice off the front windscreen!

Wishing you all a relaxing and restful weekend when the time comes. We look forward to welcoming back Mrs Ferrari next week and hearing all about her trip to Broome in person. She hasn't forgotten about us, however, scroll down for a little update from her.

Mother’s and Special Friend’s Day Breakfast and Mass

Another perfect, crisp Autumn morning dawned again at St Mary’s and the smell of hot chocolates, coffees and perfectly cooked eggs and bacon wafted through the air. Once again, our fantastic community came together, this time in thanks and celebration of the wonderful women in our lives.

The delicious spread together with the sounds of animated chatter and laughter were a privilege to be part of and I trust that mums (and all special women in our lives) had a lovely day on the following Sunday.

A huge thank you to Jeremy and Paige, Brendon, Leigh, Rohan, Jon, Colin, Nick and Carlos for setting up, cooking, selling raffle tickets and helping make this morning as great as it was.

We congratulate the lucky Raffle winners: Ethan - Yr 1, Paige - Yr 2 and Henry - Yr 1

A big thank you to all the students who assisted with the Mass following breakfast and to little Thomas for allowing us to borrow his mum Mrs Mensen to once again lead our School Choir and of course Fr Jerome for his welcoming words and thoughtful insights on the special occasion.

National Walk Safely to School Day

Last Friday, our school community came together to celebrate National Walk Safely to School Day and what a wonderful morning it was! Some of you might even have heard the school’s activities aired on the Ross and Russ Breakfast show on Melbourne's own 3AW!

Students arrived at school full of energy and smiles, having walked to school alongside teachers, family and friends. What better way to arrive at school than with a police escort, a huge thanks to Officers Alyssa and Emma who tirelessly buttered toast all morning and Highway Patrol Officers, James and Brendan who greeted our students as they arrived.

It was fantastic to see so many families embracing this initiative, which encourages healthy habits, road safety and environmental awareness.

A highlight of the morning was the healthy buffet breakfast, generously prepared by our amazing parent volunteers. Students enjoyed a delicious spread of fresh fruit, hot drinks and plenty of hot buttery toast and more a perfect fuel after their active start to the day!

A shout out to Woolworths who awarded the school a $250 shopping voucher to help provide the delicious goodies for our families.

We’re so grateful to the parents who once again gave their time to help promote the message that active kids are healthy kids.

Thank you to everyone who made the morning such a success. Events like these remind us of the power of community and the positive difference we can make together.

National Simultaneous Storytime – A Shared Love of Reading

This week, our school once again proudly took part in the National Simultaneous Storytime, a wonderful initiative that, this year brought over 2 million children across Australia together to enjoy the same book at the same time. This year’s story, Truck Cat by Deborah Frenkel, was a delightful tale that captured the imaginations of our students and sparked meaningful conversations about friendship, resilience and finding your place in the world.

To mark the occasion, students from Prep to Year 6 were grouped into ten multi-age groups for a shared reading of Truck Cat, followed by a range of creative activities inspired by the story.

The day was a joyful celebration of reading, connection and creativity. A heartfelt thank you to all staff for facilitating such engaging sessions and to our students for their enthusiasm and thoughtful participation. Events like these highlight the power of storytelling to bring us together and inspire young minds.

An update from Mrs Ferrari

Firstly, thank you to Mr Millane, Erica and all the staff for allowing me to attend this week

in Broome. Highlights so far have been visiting community schools in Derby and Beagle Bay and hearing from people of the stolen generation and the effect it continues to have.

The children are delightful and could be any of our St Mary students; cheeky, clever and full of joy. Today we celebrated Mass at the Beagle Bay Sacred Heart Church. It was said in English and local Indigenous language. At the end the whole community blessed us in English and local Indigenous language. It was incredibly moving.

The sunrises and sunsets are too beautiful to put into words.

I can’t wait to see you all Monday morning and to hear about your week.

Take care and wishing God's blessings and peace upon each of you.

Mrs Cathy Ferrari

Assembly Update

Thank you to all our families who support our school and students by attending School Assemblies on Friday’s at 3pm.

This week’s Student Leaders have been hard at work preparing for another jam-packed event. We welcome the Year 4s who are presenting tomorrow and next week we will be having a focus on a specialist subject - Physical Education!

Trivia question: What’s fun, inclusive and a great night out?

Answer: The St Mary’s Trivia Night of course

Tickets are on sale right now for the St Mary’s Trivia night. One of the major fund-and friend-raising events for the year, the trivia night is a blue-ribbon event not to be missed.

Come join us at the Specialist Campus site - $20 per person

Includes: Pizza, a lively atmosphere filled with excitement and laughter, plus some fun and interesting teacher facts.

Drinks available at bar prices on the night 🍻🍷🥂

TICKETS: https://st-marys-primary-school.square.site/

Democracy Sausage Sizzle: A message from St Mary’s Parish

Thien and I wanted to thank you all for last Saturday’s Democracy Sausage Sizzle. It felt like a successful event.

It was incredibly humbling to see our two communities come together and have some fun while we were at it.

Your planning and execution of the event was magnificent.

We look forward to future combined events that will be beneficially mutual for both communities. It would be great if we could do more in the future. Any ideas are welcomed.

These funds will certainly come in handy with all the unexpected surprises we are currently experiencing with the buildings on the grounds.

God bless,

Valerie Bissessur & Thien Nguyen (Office Manager - St Mary’s Parish)

Inform & Empower – Term 2 Student Webinars

Over the next few weeks, students from Prep to Year 6 will be taking part in this Term’s Inform & Empower webinar series. This Term’s focus is on finding a healthy balance between screen time and green time, with a particular emphasis for our middle and senior students on understanding how screen use before bedtime can affect sleep and wellbeing. Included below are parent tip sheets tailored to each year level. These not only outline the key learning points from the sessions, but also offer helpful conversation starters for families to continue these important discussions at home.

Student Awards

Lisa D	1R	For consistently beginning her Reading and Writing tasks and actively participating in SRC meetings.
Hugo I	3T	Taking ownership and responsibility for his own learning. He completes tasks within the allocated time, follows instructions and seeks assistance when needed. Great job Hugo!
Allegra C	5/6M	For always taking responsibility for her learning and ensuring tasks are complete in a timely manner and demonstrate her very best effort. Keep it up Allegra!
Christina S	5/6L	Congratulations Christina for always being responsible student in the class and on the playground. You are a role model for our whole school. Well done.
Olivia L	2J	For the responsible approach she takes to her learning . She participates actively in discussions and whether working in groups or individually Olivia settles quickly to work and stays focused until her activities are completed.
Rory M	4M	For demonstrating a positive and responsible attitude towards learning.
Carter R	1R	For showing great responsibility by independently starting his writing and carefully rereading it to ensure it makes sense. Well done Carter!
Sunday R	3T	For listening attentively during class discussions and managing your time effectively during all tasks. You consistently produce work that reflects your creativity and hardworking nature. Amazing work, Sunday!
Paige M	2J	For the consistent effort she makes to be organised and the positive way she approaches all learning activities, eagerly participating and always giving her best effort.
Austin C	4M	For making responsible choices for your learning by maintaining focus on tasks and contributing valuable insights to class discussions.
Samuel B	5/6M	For always acting responsibly around his peers and younger students. Your thoughtful actions and commitment to strive to always do your best is inspiring to others! Keep it up!
Siena H	5/6L	Congratulation Siena for always demonstrating being responsible student. You show courtesy and respect to your peers and teachers and you do your best in all learning tasks.

Community Calendar

The 2025 community calendar can be found on the Calendar page but we encourage all families to connect to the School’s Google Community Calendar.

Please also see link to our Google Calendar.

If you wish to add this calendar to your personal device, you can use the following ical link:

https://calendar.google.com/calendar/ical/c_c8el163bek1cvane44i0pm23eo%40group.calendar.google.com/public/basic.ics

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