Dear Parents and Carers,

Here we are at the end of term 2 and yes, we have rounded the Winter Solstice and we are now in for the slow move towards longer and lighter days. And hopefully warmer ones in the not too distant future! I hope you and your families have managed to stay well over the latest cold snap. There have been lots of bugs going around, Zadie was quite sick and I ended up coming down with illness over the weekend too, but I managed to get in some good rest and bounce back before too long as has Zadie.

I haven’t given an update on the Johnstone family dog for a while, much has developed since then. We now have a very stocky, medium sized Airedale Terrier in Snickers, who is in what dog people call, the teenage stage - just over 6 months and choosing to push the boundaries. Training continues to go pretty well, Jess has been terrific with this and we have all tried our best to reinforce the learnings at home. We recently had a game changer at home when Jess purchased a nose harness for walking Snickers. It has actually made walking him pleasant and his behaviour when he returns home from a walk much calmer.

As the busy term draws to a close I hope that you and your family are able to have a quality rest and refresh over the holiday break. We look forward to welcoming everyone back for a productive second semester of 2025.

Grade 6 Students Confirmation

On the weekend I had the privilege of being a part of our grade 6 students’ celebration of the Sacrament of Confirmation. As a seasoned grade 6 teacher, I take particular pride in seeing our students stand up and profess their faith to our community. We had the special opportunity to celebrate with our sister Parish school St Margaret’s grade 6 students in the beautiful St Patrick’s cathedral. A special thank you to Bishop Ramirez, Father Desmond and Father Joseph for helping us celebrate the sacrament in such a special way. Genevieve Trevaskis our REligious Education Leader did a fantastic job of planning and organising the Mass, thank you to Gen. Thank you to our grade 6 teachers Alicia Walker and Alastair Ingham who helped prepare our children for Confirmation.

Our students and our communities are to be commended on the reverent way they celebrated the Sacrament. The Cathedral provided a special place for us to celebrate together and it will be a wonderful and meaningful memory for our students for years to come. Congratulations to all.

St Mary’s P&F Book Sale

We had a wonderfully successful inaugural St Mary’s P&F Secondhand Books Sale. The happiness and excitement that was evident on our children’s faces as they came in and purchased a book or two was absolutely priceless. Even more priceless was seeing groups of students sitting outside together at playtime, joyfully reading their books side by side. As teachers, there is nothing better than seeing a happy student enjoying a book and last week we were able to see so many of our students enjoying this simple pleasure.

On top of motivating our students to read and raising the excitement levels around books, the sale made in excess of $1300, an amazing effort considering books were sold for $1 or $2 each. WE will use the funds raised to purchase more new books for our children to enjoy and learn from. A huge thank you to Katie Keating who came up with the idea and made it happen and Shona Augello who worked closely with Katie and all of the amazing parent volunteers who came in and helped out during the day.

Farewell James Mitchell

The time is drawing near to farewell a St Mary’s icon in James Mitchell, he will complete his service to St Mary’s at the end of the term. James has been a stalwart educator here at St Mary’s for 15 years. We all know and love James for his stoic demeanour, booming voice and dry humour but we appreciate him most for his dedication to St Mary’s students, our school and our community.

James’ journey at St Mary’s began in 2011 where he was appointed by the Acting Principal at the time as a 4 grade teacher. He went on to teach grade 6, grade 5, grade 3 and is finishing off his time at St Mary’s as PE and Positive Education Teacher. He saw 4 principal changes and numerous staffing and structural changes over his time at our school.

His time at St Mary’s is punctuated by the relationships he has forged with staff, parents and students alike, once we all got past his dry and dead pan delivery. His work during the lockdowns of the COVID pandemic with students and families has been commented on to me many times as fantastic and a shining example of Being The Light in one of our darkest times. His work in the last few years in helping our sporting teams see regular success is also a particular highlight.

All this to say, James has made a significant contribution to St Mary’s over his time here and he has made a huge impact on countless students through his care, teaching, humour and most importantly, his quiet belief in them. Last year, his work here was honoured with a nomination to Australia’s Best Teacher’s awards.

We wish James all the very best for his move to St Magaret Mary’s and are full of gratitude for his presence and work in the St Mary’s community over the years. When I joined St Mary’s as principal in 2023, James and I had a conversation about change where James quoted to me “The only constant in life is change.” True to his words, Jame leaves St Mary’s to pursue the change and growth that a new setting will bring him. From all of us here at St Mary’s and from me personally, thank you James, you will be missed. Go well.

Build update - Administration and Front Entrance on Roseberry Street

Open from Term 3

A sincere thank you to our community, staff and students for your flexibility and agility while navigating the Roseberry Street refurbishment impacts. I am very pleased to say that today, we received handover of the spaces and will be able to open our new front doors and Reception Space from the beginning of Term 3. The newly refurbished classrooms, admin block and First Aid space are beautiful and inspiring spaces that highlight the connection between our school, our patron Saint Mary and our parish church St Mary of the Immaculate Conception.

We will have a blessing ceremony early next term that we will live stream to our community, more details to come in the future.

St Aloysius Musical - Greece

Last night I had the pleasure of being invited to watch the opening night of the 2025 St Aloysius production: Greece. I was thoroughly impressed with the show, a great showcase of singing, dancing, acting, humor and dedication. It is so impressive to see young people get up and perform after what must be countless hours of preparation and practice and nail it.

St Aloysius is one of the few Catholic Coeducational Secondary settings for our school and it is wonderful to continue our partnership with them as a feeder school. Congratulations to the staff and students who worked so hard to create the magic on stage last night.

Unwelcome visitor

Last week we (finally) caught this little guy in the drawer underneath the oven in the staffroom. Rest assured he was safely move along and we have blocked off entry to the building where he was able to squeeze in. Good luck little fella.

Be The Light

My end of term example of Be The Light is our parent community. Whether it is the fundraising and community building efforts of our Parents and Friends Group, G@S or SMFASS, the countless parent helpers assisting in class or on excursions, or the partnership and gratitude shown to our staff for the work they do with your children; the St Mary’s parent community is one that consistently works to Be The Light for our school. I have worked at 5 different Catholic Primary Schools across my career and St Mary’s parent community has by far had the most positive support and partnership of them all. And the other schools all had great support from their parent communities too.

So thank you to our parent community for Being The Light for our staff, students and school. We highly value your partnership in making St Mary’s the great school that it is.

Traveling to and from school - safety

A reminder that the Pink Zones at the front and rear of the school are not parking areas. You must stay in your car and wait for your child(ren), moving up the queue as it progresses. Please do not double park and call your children to cross the road to you, this is a dangerous practice that could see children and community members injured while trying to get to or leave cars.

Thank you for helping to keep our school pick-ups and drop-offs safe environments for our students and community..

Stay safe, Stay Healthy, Stay Connected,

Denis Johnstone

Principal

Positive Behaviour Learning (PBL)