Dear Parents and Carers,

Hasn’t this term flown by? The first eight weeks of the 2024 school year have been busy and productive at St Mary’s and it feels as if I’ve blinked and we have arrived at the end of the term.

Jess and I thought that we’d have so much more time on our hands after moving into the new house and cutting out the big commute. Somehow it seems that we now have even busier and fuller lives, however we are loving being in the new place and living in the local area. Thank you to the community for all the well wishes.

As the term draws to an end I hope you have the opportunity to slow down, engage in some quality family time and enjoy the break from school drop offs and pickups. We will be headed to the zoos to check out the dinosaurs at the request of Hendrix, an annual experience that we enjoy as a family. I’ll also be spending some time gardening and landscaping the front and backyard, activities that I enjoy as a break from the busyness of running a school. I hope for you, that you get some time out to do the things that bring you joy and enjoy the season of Easter and the hope that this time of year brings.

Be Ready 2024

My example of our 2024 theme Be Ready this newsletter comes from our greatest teacher - Jesus. At this time of Lent, we remember that Jesus spent his time praying, fasting and contemplating both by himself and with his disciples in order to prepare himself for his ultimate sacrifice.

On my pilgrimage to the Holy Land last year we visited numerous places where Jesus spent time in the lead up to his death. We went to the mountains and desert area where he spent 40 days praying and fasting. We visited the Garden of Gethsemane where he was arrested before he was put to trial. We visited the Old City of Jerusalem where Jesus was crucified and where now stands the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. During this time of Lent I find myself reflecting back on those amazing experiences and thinking and praying for the people who are still surrounded by war in that part of the world.

Jesus’ efforts to Be Ready for his ultimate sacrifice can help us think about the times when we need to Be Ready for the hard times in our lives. Often these times and experiences can be harder to prepare for than the good ones. They require us to prepare ourselves in a fashion for the unexpected, in order to be able to confront what is ahead of us.

Vale Rob Brennan

Last week I attended the celebration of life for Rob Brennan - Principal of Caroline Chisholm Catholic College in Braybrook and brother of Gavin Brennan - Principal of our sister school St Margaret’s Maribyrnong. Rob served Catholic Education for many years and was Principal of a number of Catholic Colleges across Victoria - assisting the education and life journeys of thousands of students. He even taught me in PE at Catholic Regional College St Albans.

On behalf of the St Mary’s community we extend our condolences to Rob’s extended family on his passing and to the school community of Caroline Chisholm Catholic College.

Fiesta

We are very pleased to announce the date for our 2024 SMAV Fiesta - Friday November 22nd. Please ensure your families save the date.

We received strong support from the P&F survey to the community regarding running the Fiesta in 2024 and supporting it through volunteer work. I am very pleased that this is the case, as it was my first introduction to the St Mary’s community just before I took over as Principal and my family and I loved the experience.

The SMAV Fiesta is a wonderful community event and fundraiser for our school, please read on to the SMAV Fiesta page of the newsletter to find out more about how you can offer your support.

NAPLAN

NAPLAN testing has concluded for our students’ at St Mary’s. I am very proud of the positive, enthusiastic way our students approached the assessments and I am grateful for the preparation and organisation put in by our staff to provide a calm and as smooth as possible testing environment.

We look forward to receiving this year’s results and analysing these with our wider staff group, honing in on areas where we can improve our pedagogical practice.

Building works

You may have heard or seen that we needed to move 4W out of their classroom last week. This was due to some faults being detected in the flooring of their classroom. I engaged the MACS infrastructure team to ensure we approached the issue safely and comprehensively. This led to the engagement of a building company and engineers to investigate the extent of the issue. The result has been a bit like pulling a thread on a wool jumper. As we explored one problem, other problems have also been uncovered.

Unfortunately, due to maintenance not being kept up in some of the buildings in the school over the time, we are now left with significant repairs to undertake both in the short and longer term.

My priority as always is to ensure a safe and secure environment for our students and staff. To this end I am working to schedule some reinforcing and refurbishment works over this school holiday break. These works will allow for a safe school environment in the interim period before more significant works will be carried out to ensure the long term sustainability and stability of our school buildings.

Master Plan

This year St Mary’s is engaging with Smith and Tracey Architecture firm to develop a Master Plan for the ongoing building and refurbishment needs of our school. This is an imperative document for the ongoing sustainability of the school as any future building, capital grant applications and refurbishments need to be strategically and financially accounted for.

This is an exciting process for St Mary’s and an opportunity for the community to input into the type of facilities and learning environment we want for St Mary’s in the future. We will undergo a consultation process with staff, students and the School Advisory Council. We will also open up opportunities for the wider school community to input into the direction of the Master Plan. Look out for these in Term 2.

Reminder - Foundation Enrolments Open

Enrolments close on Friday 26th April at 4.00pm

If you are an existing parent with a child due to start Foundation in 2025 please ensure you fill out an enrolment form for your child at your earliest convenience. If you know of families wanting to enrol their child for 2025, please pass this information onto them.

We also have a limited number of enrolment places across the school available, if you know of families in other years looking to join St Mary’s, please encourage them to contact the admin team for enrolment information.

Stay safe, stay healthy, stay connected,

Denis Johnstone

Principal

School Photos