Mrs Ryan's Fortnightly Reflections

This week we celebrate Bullying No Way Week! This is an ongoing topic that we often hear discussed in schools, often influenced by personal opinions and experiences. Regardless, at St Mary's, we strive to continuously educate and create an environment where bullying is not a common occurrence. Our staff is continually trained and expected to adhere to our behaviour policy and practices to ensure that we take a restorative approach in all our interactions. Being a restorative school means fostering relationships, resolving conflicts, and learning from mistakes, allowing us to use all experiences as opportunities for growth. Through these practices, alongside our life giving traditions and graduate outcomes, we explicitly teach and build social and emotional intelligence, as well as personal responsibility and accountability. The St Mary’s community of learners is growing and developing daily, and through the support of our staff and parent relationships, we hope to continue fostering the growth of all children. A valuable article for parents offered by Real Schools will help them understand the rationale behind our practices; “A Different Way of Working” 

On Friday, August 16th, we will have a timely closure day, and our learners will not attend school. All staff will be on-site to continue our professional development on how to teach and thrive in a restorative community. St Mary’s is halfway through our partnership with Real Schools, and this day will explore topics such as the human brain and behaviour, restorative consequences, and assessing harm. I thank all families for making alternative arrangements for Friday, and I look forward to sharing a learning reflection with you all soon.

I also want to thank all of our families who have adjusted their pick-up and drop-off routines to alleviate traffic in our key areas. A reminder to all families using the car pick-up area: this space has a two-minute waiting period to collect your child. If your child is not at the designated collection point, the adult picking them up will be asked to drive in a loop to ensure a smooth flow of traffic. St Mary’s aims to support traffic flow and minimise congestion. If grandparents or other family members assist with pick-up, please inform them of these procedures. Thank you for your continued support with this.

A teaching and staff shortage continues to challenge St Mary’s. I would like to publicly thank our amazing team of staff who, despite facing illness this winter, continue to collaborate to provide sustained and continuous learning for our learners. Our staff is going above and beyond to ensure that our learners can participate in sports and extracurricular activities while also engaging in professional learning. Although St Mary’s has a strong team of staff, we are currently experiencing a significant shortage of casual relief teachers.

Next week, Catholic Education Sandhurst will open our school-wide ORIMA survey. We will share formal correspondence and access with our community on Monday. This survey will be completed by staff, families, and learners to gather a collective perspective that will hopefully drive improvements at St Mary’s. This is the second year of the survey, and I am hopeful that with better organisation and rollout, we will receive a generous number of responses. Please keep an eye out for this information on Compass. There will be a two-week period for completion. Thank you to everyone who can support the school with this.

I sincerely thank all of you who attended our recent learning conversations. Staff have remarked on how supportive, affirming, and informative these sessions are. We aim to be creative in organising a peer learning day, which the learners enjoy, but it is certainly worth the effort. It is vital that we work in partnership with our children’s teachers to help them reach their fullest potential. Approximately 75% of our families attended - thank you!

I hope to see many of you at our athletics event on Thursday if your schedule allows!

Take care and God bless,

Jasmine Ryan  

Principal