Principal's Panorama

Dear Families of SMOTA, 

What a full couple of weeks!

From Reconciliation to Athletics; Mary Poppins to Holy Communion, English to Mathematics our wonderful school has been 'packed to the rafters'!

Amazing Attendance

Recently looking at our attendance data, I have been so impressed!

The school measures attendance of our young people in two ways, attendance rate and attendance level.

Attendance Rate, which is the number of days attended as a percentage of the total number of days available for a child to attend was: 91% this year for the same time period it is 93%!!!!

and our

Attendance Level, which is the proportion of our young people whose attendance rate is equal to or greater than 90% in 2024 was 62% and this year to date it is 78%!!

That is a huge improvement!

NAPLAN Writing

We have been hugely impressed with our young people and their NAPLAN writing scores which were released during the week.  

Year 3 Writing: 77% in Strong and 8% in Exceeding

Year 5 Writing: 90% in the Strong Category!

Kudos to not only our young people but also our educators who have been extremely focussed on our non-negotiables and great classroom practice, the changes that we have implemented over the past four years with the introduction of InitialLit, strong focus on Armidale Catholic School Non-negotiable Literacy and Numeracy block and of course more recently the reintroduction of weekly Big Writes is starting to demonstrate their worth.

As a principal, I am so chuffed to be a part of this achievement, especially when as a leader you often get push back from all sides, it is wonderful to see that... by staying focussed.. eliminating the distractors... and having an end goal in mind, it is all worth it.

Religious Education

With our whole Sacramental program completed over the past few weeks (having celebrated Confirmation on May 30th), our young people will still continue to build their knowledge of the Catholic faith as we continue through the year. 

They achieve this through;

•  Accessing the Catholic faith in the curriculum, 

• Being surrounded by SHA's who foster a Catholic ethos, being a part of a school which knows parents are the primary educators of their children.

• In a school which works in partnership with parents to support them in their efforts to educate their children in the Catholic faith
• With SHA's encouraging prayer and virtues
• and by actively engaging in social justice initiatives; such as our Mini Vinnies Winter Appeal PJ Day coming up.

It has been an honour to walk beside our young people, staff and parents over the past two terms, watching and guiding this development.  It is how everything should be completed in our school... with a direct line of sight to what makes us a Catholic school.

St Mary of the Angels actively works in the present.. centered on unconditional positive regard for all stakeholders. Fostering a sense of belonging, celebrating individual worth, and promoting respect for diverse backgrounds and beliefs. We recognise the inherent dignity of each person and in turn we create a welcoming environment where our young people can flourish and develop a strong sense of self.