Mrs Ryan's Fortnightly Reflections

A warm welcome to Term two for all of you! I do hope over the Easter period that we all managed to rest, rejuvenate and spend time with those we love. It has been fabulous to have all of the beautiful smiling faces return to school, eagerly sharing their holiday adventures. Our teachers have also returned well rested and ready for a robust and rigorous term ahead. This term is an eleven week term with 52 days of face to face teaching for our staff and learners. It is a great opportunity for deep and purposeful learning. I do ask that we do all we can to keep ourselves and our families well and healthy. With the change in weather, typical winter ailments and covid, we want our learners at school ready to learn! 

This term we welcome some new staff to our community. Mrs Amy Wickham is back in the Year 3 classroom, Mrs Natasha Govender has also joined the Year 3 team in readiness to fill Miss Hayley Martin’s maternity position. We welcome Danieka Hucker as a new full time ESO to the Year 6 cohort. We know that these new staff will be warmly welcomed by our families and learners. We do have further staff changes pending with a few more of our staff expecting in the near future. I will keep you well informed of the changes in due course. 

This week, the leadership team introduced us to our lunch time eating SME TV, (St Mary’s TV). It is where myself, Mrs Lloyd and Mr Anstee will record and stream a clip each Monday to provide our learning community with clarity of what is happening over the week, discuss our Ramp It up focus, clearly articulating what is expected and what is not. We are hopeful that this allows our learners to have predictability for the week ahead, a deeper sense of what is happening at our school, a joke or riddle and an opportunity to regularly communicate celebrations and news! I have had some positive feedback and some constructive feedback from our amazing children…and I am taking it all on board! I hope it generates some conversation at home. 

St Mary’s has concluded its lengthy process under a new leadership team of composing, proofing and launching our 2024 Annual action plan. This has been shared with staff and the St Mary’s School Advisory Board. I have attached a summary of the goals, strategies, data sets and resources here for those in the community interested. Each goal is led by a member of the leadership team, aligned with school improvement directions and states the explicit approach and impact. In summary St Mary’s will be striving to have an explicit improvement strategy, improved explicit instruction and differentiation in classrooms while continuing on with our commitment to be a restorative school in pedagogy and practice. The full document can be found on our website. 

St Mary’s Annual Action Plan 2024 Summary  

As we begin to enter the cooler times of the year, I thought it timely to remind parents about uniform expectations and options. All children enrolled at St Mary’s are expected to wear the accurate school uniform. Our winter uniform consists of navy yoga style pants for the girls, navy track pants and navy straight leg pants for the males. The girls are also able to wear our pinafore with navy tights. We have our t-shirts, rugby jumper and soft shell jacket to allow layering and warmth. White socks and entire black shoes / runners are also part of the uniform. Please do not add additions to the uniform. If your child is cold, please wear a singlet underneath garments. Our learning spaces are warm, and we do observe that most children enter playtime with just the rugby jumper or t-shirt on. We also have our school beanie available for cool mornings! Our uniform looks fabulous when worn in its entirety, it is comfortable and flexible to sensory needs. I thank you all for your support and cooperation. 

Term two is always exceedingly busy with great events, celebration and showcasing who we are to the community! In the coming weeks we celebrate Catholic education week where we open our school to the community, and embrace those wanting to enrol here. Our existing learners and families will be invited in to reflect and acknowledge what makes us so special. I do hope that we see many of you in and around during that week. If you have friends or family interested in knowing more about our community, please encourage them to follow our socials and come along! 

I hope you are all slowly adjusting or thankful for the return of school lunches and routines, we are so happy to have everyone back! Let’s hope it is a great term ahead for you and your family. 

Take care & God Bless, 

Jasmine Ryan 

Principal