Dear Parents,

Third Sunday in Advent

On Sunday we celebrated the third Sunday of Advent. Gaudete Sunday has the theme of joy! It is my favourite Sunday in Advent because the vestments the priest wears are pink, or rose coloured. This Sunday is about rejoicing and being full of joy as we get closer to the Nativity. The school is also full of joy this week, as we celebrate the approaching holidays and reflect on all that we have achieved in 2024.

MEG Language Lessons

For the last four years we have been learning Mandarin at St Martha's. The children have enjoyed building their knowledge of Chinese language and culture. Sydney Catholic Schools have been supplying the lessons and we have been very appreciative of this funding. From 2025 this funding is no longer available and after considering the cost and our current budget, we have decided not to continue our MEG lessons. If you would like your child to continue learning Mandarin in their own time through MEG, you can purchase lessons through the MEG website.

For parents who want their children to continue with Chinese, MEG has prepared this webpage to support parents who would like to self-fund that option. It would be using the Journeys self-paced platform, so it is something students can do from their own devices at any stage of the day, including from home.

Expression of Interest webpage: https://au.meglanguages.com/language-learning-beyond-the-classroom/

90 second Journeys explainer video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W1vTzFPq2uU

Amadeus 2025

We are delighted to continue the Amadeus Program in 2025. The students are making amazing progress and the ensemble groups sound fantastic. Our tutors will work to a slightly amended timetable in 2025. Students will have a three week rotating timetable. Each student will have the opportunity to work with their tutors for a 30-minute group tutorial on two of the three weeks. In the other week they will work with the tutors in an ensemble with the other strings or concert band students. We will continue to work with the extension strings group and hope to develop an extension group for wind instruments. Parents are asked to ensure that the students bring their instrument each Friday. Year 3 will have a few weeks of training before they are allowed to bring their instruments home. The best results are achieved when students regularly practise playing their instrument. If your child has a particular talent and you would like them to compete in the Sydney Catholic Schools Eisteddfod in 2025, please be sure to check out the Handbook available on the Arts HQ website. Registrations for solo performers are open in Term 1 2025.

Farewell

We say farewell to a number of families this year, many with long associations with St Martha's. We wish them all the best for the next stage of their child/ children's lives and learning. We hope they take many fond memories of their time at St Martha's and a strong foundation to build further learning in the future. Please watch out for messages about upcoming 100 Year celebrations in 2025. We would love to see past families at some of our celebrations next year.

Farewell to the following families: Bonett, Boustani, Brown, Bui, Chan, Chan, Chen, Cho, Choi, Condoluci, Cross, Dagher, Darwich, Eldahr, Eza Smith, Giovanni, Hakim, I Rajah, Ibrahim, Jaafar, Jaykar, Ju, Karagiannis, Karwowski, Khan, Kim, Kim, Kim, Lai, Ly, Maaran, Mouawad, Nguyen, Oh, Onyedika, Ouy, Park, Ramirez, Saad, Sattout, Screnci, Sebastian, Song, Susman, Symonds, Tawk, Touma, Vannitamby, Wan, Wang, Wei, Wong, Yu and Zhu.

Thank-you for being such a wonderful part of the St Martha's Community. We wish you many blessings in the future.

Reports and Access to Compass

If you are leaving the school, please ensure you have downloaded all of your childrens' reports as access will no longer be available after the end of the school year.

Staffing 2025

We are blessed with a wonderfully talented and dedicated teaching and support team at St Martha's. In 2025 Mrs Catherine Wood will be taking a period of leave for Terms 1 and 2. Ms Katie Farrell will be teaching Music and Drama for the time Mrs Wood is on leave. We wish Mrs Wood a restful break and welcome Ms Farrell, who is well known to the school and the students. Ms Adriana Tohme will return to classroom teaching in 2025. We welcome Ms Tohme back and are grateful to have her on as a full time staff member again. Ms Rachel Phillips who has been looking after our students in numerous Learning Support Officer roles has graduated and will be taking on teaching roles in 2025, including casual work at St Martha's. We thank Ms Phillips for her dedicated work in the school and look forward to seeing her back in her casual teaching role. Please see below a list of the staff and their roles for 2025.

Remembering

We are blessed to have access to ways of remembering our experiences. Our St Martha's Facebook page holds a wealth of memories. Please take some time to explore and relive the many exciting events of 2024. It has been a joy to share the year with this beautiful thriving Catholic community. I look forward to all the blessings 2025 will bring as we celebrate 100 Years of St Martha's School. Much gratitude to all the staff, students, parents, grandparents and to our wonderful Parish Team. May the peace of Christ fill your hearts with joy as we celebrate the Christmas Season.

God Bless,

Carolyn Parsell

Dates to Remember

- - - 2025 - - -