From the Acting Principal 

Dear Families 

Welcome back to school and a very happy New Year! It has been wonderful to see our school come alive again, with smiling faces, full classrooms and a real sense of excitement for the year ahead. A very special welcome to the families who are new to our St Mary’s community and especially to our Prep families and their little Mary Bears, who have settled in beautifully. A heartfelt thank you to Glenice (Friend and recent School Grandmother) and her friends for lovingly knitting our Mary Bears they are very special and much loved already. We are so delighted to have you all as part of our St Mary’s family. A warm welcome to:

Prep: Candace, Ally, Letti, Aaron, Delilah, TJ, Aster, Alexander, Hugo, Sacha, Josie, Reuben L-M, London, Reuben M, Audrey, Leilani, Emilio, Gabriel, Xavier, Naomi, Archie and Tate 

Year 2:  Navy  

Year 4:  Ellie

New Staff 

We are delighted to welcome several new staff members to our St Mary’s community this year. Sharelle Braithewaite joins us in the Physical Education role and has already brought great energy and enthusiasm to our students. We also warmly welcome back Stephanie Schultz, who will be working with our Year 4 students on Thursdays. We welcome Elisha Broderick, who joins the Year 5/6 team. Each of you has settled in so naturally and it has been wonderful to see the positive impact you are already having across the school. Thank you for your contributions during our recent Professional Development days we are very grateful to have you as part of our St Mary’s staff.

There were plenty of works happening at St Mary's over the summer break. The holidays saw the following important maintenance and improvement projects taking place:

• painting touch-ups interior and exterior in Westbury St Campus 

• patching and painting P-2 rooms after the install of interactive panels

• installation of 4 new interactive panels in the middle and senior schools

• mulching of all foliage from recent tree pruning

• installation of temporary watering system to keep our beautiful Zen Zone area green and lush 

• installation of poles and netting along Westbury Street to keep balls in the play ground

• landscaping of the Year 5/6 Atrium 

• refurbishment of the staff toilet in the specialist campus

Our Start-Up “Week” has provided a positive and energetic launch into the year, with a real buzz around the school as students settled back into routines. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed hearing about the many holiday experiences and adventures shared by our students thank you for those lovely moments of connection. There is a strong sense of enthusiasm across the school, with students keen to learn, grow and spend time again with their friends.

A huge thank you to our amazing Parents & Friends Association for hosting the sausage sizzle last Friday. It was a joy to see families reconnecting and sharing in the lively atmosphere as we began the year together. Our first P&F meeting will be held next Thursday and the commitment and generosity of this group continues to play an important role in supporting our school.  We look forward to welcoming families to our Welcome Drinks at Wonderland, Chapel Street on Friday 20 February at 7:00pm a wonderful opportunity to connect and build community.

Parent Teacher Chats

These 1-1 interviews are an opportunity to meet your child’s classroom teacher and discuss how they have settled into the year, as well as share information with your teacher about the needs of your child. An effective partnership between the home and school is key to the education of your child and we appreciate your time to make this conversation happen.

Online interviews via video link will be taking place on Wednesday 11th February from 3:45pm to 4:45pm 

Face-to-face interviews in your child’s classroom will be running on Thursday 12th February from 1:30pm to 6:30pm. A reminder that students will be dismissed at 1:00pm on this day.

BOOKING LINK:

https://www.schoolinterviews.com.au/code/3qm2e

Year 6 Leadership in action

Our Community Leaders have been busy ensuring that the Zen Zone and its activities are up and running for 2026.   Sustainability Leaders have been setting up the watering schedule for Term 1. Well done to all our leaders as we being the new school year.

Beginning of Year Whole School Mass

We warmly welcome everyone to our Beginning of School Year Mass on Sunday at 5.30pm at St Mary's Church. During the Mass our Year 6 school leaders, and the Student Representative Council (SRC),  will receive their official badges and along with a special blessing from Fr Jerome.

New Principal Appointment Process

The process is underway and more information about the process will be in the following newsletter. Our school MACS Senior Manager, Jen Hawkins, consulted with Staff at our meeting this week and will present to and consult with, the School Advisory Council (SAC) at our first meeting for the year, next Wednesday evening.

Assembly

Assembly is each Friday 3:00-3:30pm upstairs in the Flexi Space. Everyone is most welcome and we have  a lift if required . Thank you to our hosts: Marko and Mavis for leading our first assembly for 2026. It was a pleasure meeting with them to prepare for tomorrow.

I am very much looking forward to a year filled with learning, growth and a strong sense of community here at St Mary’s Primary School, where each person plays an important role in our shared journey as a St Mary’s family.

Take care, and may God’s blessings and peace be with each of you as we begin the year together.

James Millane