A message from Denis

Dear Parents and Carers, 

Welcome back to St Mary’s and Term 3.  I hope you managed to have a restful break over the school holidays.  Term 2 was a very busy one for the staff at St Mary's, and so the break was much needed and enjoyed.  We look forward to a great term at St Mary’s with many rich learning and community connection opportunities.

Vale Paul Hogan

At the end of last term we were met with the sad news of Paul Hogan, St Mary’s past principal, passing away in a tragic accident.  Paul served the community of St Mary’s excellently for over 6 years and had worked and led in numerous Catholic primary schools across Melbourne’s North West prior to his principalship here.

In speaking to many members of our community, he will be remembered for his kind, generous and fun approach to leading St Mary’s and I know that his impact on this community will continue to be lasting.  I am personally grateful for his generosity of time and for imparting his wisdom to me during the Principal handover process.  Paul continued to be a phone call or a text away if I had any questions I was grappling with as I took on the role.

St Mary’s will celebrate and pray for Paul at a whole school memorial mass next Thursday the 1st of August.  We invite our school community to come and join us for this occasion and pray for Paul together as a community.

If you have any messages, memories or tributes that you would like passed on to Paul's family please email:

triubutes@smascotvale.catholic.edu.au 

Be Ready 

We have welcomed a number of staff to our team over the past 6 months.  This term we have Daniela Day our Head of Wellbeing and Inclusion and Debbie Russell, our new Co-Educator beginning with us.  We welcome them to the St Mary’s team and look forward to the positive impact they will have on our students.

These new appointments had me thinking of the numerous items we need to prepare and be ready for when we start a new job.  We need to be ready and open to meet new people and grow relationships with them.  We need to be ready to learn new systems and processes that the job or role utilises.  We need to be ready to apply what we know from our previous positions whilst being ready to learn new skills that might be needed.

Most importantly I think we need to be ready to be open and embrace the new opportunities that we are presented with, whether they be small or large.  Our new staff members have taken on this task incredibly well and I congratulate them on their great start, and look forward to their ongoing work in our community.

Vinnies Big Sleep Out

On the last day of Term 3, our casual clothes day raised funds for St Vincent De Paul's - Vinnies Big Sleepout intiative that raises funds for those sleeping rough around Melbourne.  We were able to contributeover $400 to the cause, thank you to our families for supporting these efforts.

Master Plan update

We are currently waiting for the Supplementary Capital Funding process to conclude and gain further news on our application to facilitate Stage 1 of our Master Plan.  This proposed work will encompass the necessary maintenance work on the existing Roseberry St buildings while taking advantage of the reinstatement work to complete Stage 1 of our Master Plan.  

Further consultation and meetings with Smith and Tracey and MACS infrastructure and project delivery have been undertaken to ensure we are in a place to move forward should we receive the funding.  Next week I am meeting with our School Advisory Council to update them on the funding application and further details of the Master Plan.  

I met this week with our SRC group and showed them what the architects had come up with after consulting them on the design of the new Master Plan.   Our students were insightful and engaged and happy to see their input feeding into plans for St Mary's into the future.

School Review

St Mary’s has now completed our 4 year Review conducted by Valad Solutions on behalf of MACS.  This involved an exhaustive and rigorous 3 day process where St Mary’s policy, practices and procedures were examined in the areas of:

• Operational and Governance compliance
• Child Safety
• Religious Domain
• Learning and Teaching
• Leadership and Management
• Community
• Wellbeing

Our reviewer spoke to all staff members including office staff and co-educators, student focus groups and parent focus groups in order to get a clear picture of St Mary’s current strengths and opportunities for improvement.

We look forward to receiving the Review Report and working with our staff to build St Mary's 4 year School Improvement Plan to make our school an even better place for our community.

Music Lessons Scholarship Support

Last term I had a visit from the parents of a past student who has sadly passed away, Layla Waid.  Layla found her love of music during her time as a student at St Mary's and loved being a student here.  The family have generously donated funds that they would like to use to support families who are undertaking music lessons but are experiencing financial difficulty.  Please email me on djohnstone@smascotvale.catholic.edu.au if your family is in need of this support.

Pick ups and Drop offs

As we head into a new term, a reminder please do not double park near the drop off bays, this creates blockages for traffic and dangerous situations for cars and pedestrians.  If there is no space in the waiting bays for pick ups or drop offs you are encouraged to circle the block or park your car in a permitted spot in the surrounding streets and walk in for pick up/drop off.

Double parking and blocking the street remain an issue at pick up times so please play your part in helping be part of the solution.  Queuing across intersections and roundabouts is particularly problematic.  

I have had numerous neighbours come and voice their concerns about parents from St Mary's blocking their driveways and be unable to exit or enter.  Can I please ask again, that we are mindful and courteous to our neighbours who we share the surrounding streets with? Please do not block entries and exits and please allow cars to pass through and maintain flow of traffic.

Again, the best way to assist with these issues is parking your car in the adjacent streets and walking in to collect your child(ren).

Thank your for your ongoing support in keeping our school and students safe.

Stay safe, stay healthy, stay connected,

Denis Johnstone