Mrs Ryan's Fortnightly Reflections

Lent at St. Mary’s has acknowledged the generosity of heart, mind, and spirit of all in our community! Our lead into Lent saw us cooking and purchasing pancakes and raising funds for Caritas, celebrating the burning of the palms, and connecting through liturgy on Ash Wednesday. Thank you to the many families who attended the various celebrations and liturgies; it is always fabulous to have our parent body in and around the school. Our Thankful Thursdays have also been a well-received initiative for our Lenten time of year. 

This week has been a short yet busy one, with all of our spaces deeply engaged in learning. St. Mary’s Year 3 and Year 5 learners have courageously taken on NAPLAN with very little angst or concern, all simply doing their best and being as focused as possible. We have had some learners out in the community making connections and contributing to the greater good, with Boys to the Bush. Another group of learners travelled to Shepparton for ‘Culture on Court.’ Year 4 has been busy back and forth to the pool, our Year 6 students were treated to a game of dodgeball led by our Duke of Edinburgh volunteers, and today we celebrate International Day of Mathematics. It’s hard to believe all of that has been accomplished in just four days! 

Regardless of the short week, we have high engagement and continued commitment to our learning in both Initialit and Ochre across the school. This week at our staff meeting, our staff triangulated current data sets and set benchmarks and targets for each term. The dialogue, analysis, and understanding of cohort and classroom learners was more than impressive. Our staff are happy with our data but are committed to progressing and supporting everyone's growth. 

In the coming weeks, we have our beginning-of-year BBQ, which we had to reschedule due to the heat. We are hopeful that many of you will still be able to attend. We will draw our Easter raffle and hope to invite a special visitor to share a chocolate egg or two! 

Prior to the end of this term, St. Mary’s will launch its annual enrolment campaign. We are asking existing families to complete the form that has been shared on Compass so we have ample time for organisation and preparation. As we have a longer break at the end of this term, our typical time for enrolments and interviews will be here before we know it! We are hopeful that we will have clear indications of numbers and school structures as soon as possible.  I hope many of you have been able to view our diocesan, ‘Choose Catholic’ campaign that is on our socials and on TV. Thank you to those families who have completed the Sibling 2026 form already. 

I wish everyone a restful weekend ahead. 

Take Care & God Bless,  

Jasmine Ryan  

Principal