Principal's News

Dear Parents,

This week we celebrate NAIDOC week for 2024. The theme is Keep the fire burning! Blak, loud and proud. This year's theme celebrates the unyielding spirit of our communities and invites all to stand in solidarity, amplifying the voices that have long been silenced.

The fire represents the enduring strength and vitality of Indigenous cultures, passed down through generations despite the challenges faced. It is a symbol of connection to the land, to each other, and to the rich tapestry of traditions that define Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. As we honour this flame, we kindle the sparks of pride and unity, igniting a renewed commitment to acknowledging, preserving, and sharing the cultural heritage that enriches our nation.

I spent the last week of term in the Northern Territory on the most wonderful Indigenous Immersion with Roger from Culture Connect. We connected to this most magnificent land we call home and visited sacred sites in Kakadu, walked on Arnhem land and visited the amazing Tiwi Islands. It really highlighted why we are so passionate at St Mary’s to ensure Indigenous perspectives and our first nations people are a high priority. 

Our Catholic Social Teachings of being stewards of this great earth is at the heart of the way the longest living community cared for our country over the past 60,000 years. Our Immersion also highlighted the importance of caring for the poor and vulnerable in our country and our first nations people are amongst the most vulnerable in our land. Let us always have these amazing people at the forefront of our school, striving for reconciliation and care for all.

I am very proud of all we are doing at St Mary’s in the area of Indigenous perspectives. I congratulate Marissa Egan, Natalie Dullard and Lucette Talbot who have recently been shortlisted for the State Tidy Town awards for their work in this most important area.

Welcome back to a wonderful term of learning at St Mary’s where we aim to ensure every child is reaching their full potential both academically and in their areas of strength.

Our focus on ensuring every child achieves excellent growth in literacy and numeracy continues this term. Staff have been highlighting the many ways we extend every child in their learning, ensuring students are progressing along very detailed learning continuums. Students are setting personal learning goals and staff ensuring students are providing multiple sources of evidence when assessing student work. 

Student growth across the school in the first semester was excellent, particularly in the area of Maths. Thank you for attending the student conferences where a comprehensive slide show was shared on every student.

 At St Mary’s, we have a response to intervention tiered approach. At a Tier 1 level in the classroom, all students' needs are catered for through differentiated learning across all domains. We strive to ensure every student achieves growth in their learning. 

Tier 1 - St Mary’s has high standard learning and teaching where every child’s learning is differentiated to their current needs across all domains.

Tier 2 - St Mary’s has significant and targeted intervention and extension programs across all year levels.

Tier 3 - St Mary’s works closely with health professionals and consultants to ensure every student is being assisted in their area of need or vulnerability. 

We are here to work in partnership with you to ensure you child reaches their full potential academically, spiritually, physically, mentally, socially and emotionally.

We ask all parents to ensure you are working with your child at home completing maths fluency tasks and vocabulary work each week found on the home learning site. We also ask that you find time to sit with your child and read each night. Parents that sit and discuss the reading content, making connections between text and life and ensuring comprehension through discussion and questioning will enhance their child’s literacy skills expediently. By sharing the story together, you can enhance word knowledge, oral language skills and general knowledge. If you are unable to read daily with your child, we are here to support you. 

Please make sure you ring the absentee line on 59791959 by 9am every morning your child is absent. Attendance at school on a regular basis is so important and will impact on your child’s growth and we urge you to ensure your child attends school every day unless they are ill. 

Our inquiry theme for Term 3 is Creativity where we incite a love of learning, a desire and passion to learn new things through a lens of discovery, exploration and being inquisitive in all that we do.

Our Year 6 students are preparing for the Sacrament of Confirmation over the next two weeks and we wish our Confirmation candidates all the best and we hope you are all filled with the gifts and fruits of the Holy Spirit as you shine in your daily lives. 

Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions, concerns or ideas as we strive to ensure St Mary’s is the place of first choice for excellence for all of our community.

The building is moving along and the student and staff toilets will be opened for the commencement of Term 3. The pathway of travel into the school will be changed with the main entrance to the school being opened. The works on the senior classrooms will be completed in a few weeks and we are very excited for our senior students to have new amazing contemporary learning spaces to flourish in. The next stage of the project is the new discovery centre and third classroom which will be completed by mid to late October. I thank you for your continued patience with this exciting upgrade of our beautiful school.

Yours in Partnership,

Gab Espenschied