A message from Denis

Dear Parents and Carers, 

Hasn’t it been lovely having some of that promising pre-Spring sunshine blessing our days after a long, cold winter?  Footy season is drawing to a close, a welcome turn of events for this once again disappointed Bombers supporter and we look ahead to warmer and longer days to enjoy with our families.  

Marian Tradition at St Mary’s

As we move ahead with designs and plans for our Master Plan and in particular our Stage 1 construction elements, I have been investigating how we can draw upon the Charism of St Mary to strengthen the Catholic Identity of our school.  

In particular I have been looking at how we can build in some of the Marian Charism into our school entrance and through my investigations I have learned more about our school motto; Respice Stellam.  The full phrase that it comes from is; Respice stellam, voca Mariam! Look to the star, call upon Mary! The words are from a sermon of St. Bernard of Clairvaux.  In our tradition, Mary is referred to as the Morning Star and the Star of the Sea and the words in our school motto are a beautiful reminder to us that we can look to and call upon Mary in our times of need.

We will look to weave into our designs images and references to Mary to help further bring to life the charism of our school’s patron saint.

Battle of the Saints August 31st 

The 2024 edition of the Battle of the Saints is coming up in a week and this year for us at St Mary’s, it holds an even greater significance as St Mary’s and St Theresa's will be playing for the inaugural Paul Hogan Cup.  Thank you to SMFASS for all of the work going on behind the scenes in organising this unique and special community event with our local Catholic schools.

The event is coming together well but we’d love to have some extra hands on the day so the event runs smoothly.  If you can help out for a brief period, please sign up using the below link:

Helpers will assist with simple canteen duties such as serving food and snacks and taking payments. 

I look forward to seeing as many of our community at Walter Reserve as we can, to enjoy a great day out with our families.

Fiesta 2024

Preparations for the 2024 Fiesta continue to gather momentum, throughout the coming weeks we will continue the call out for volunteers who can play a large or small role in supporting this amazing community event.  We will need your help to make this Fiesta the best one yet.

We have 1 more Gold sponsor opportunity left, be quick, this opportunity will be snapped up!  Gold sponsors enjoy a range of benefits as detailed in our Sponsorship Invitation below.

Be quick and get in before next Friday August 30th and your company’s logo can be added to the SMAV 2024 Fiesta T-Shirt merch line.  All Gold sponsors logos will be prominently displayed on the backs of adult and children’s official SMAV Fiesta 2024 T-Shirt merchandise. 

See the attached sponsorship information for details to secure your opportunity or simply email: sponsorship@smascotvale.catholic.edu.au

Be Ready 

My Be Ready example for this newsletter comes from me!  I’ve been busy with paperwork, planning and documentation; phone calls, on site meetings, video calls and petitioning the authorities to work towards St Mary’s obtaining funding to complete the rectification works on our Roseberry Street buildings and tie in stage 1 of our Master Plan. 

Most of these procedures, forms and applications are new learning for me as a beginning principal.  When I applied for the role of principal my focus was on energising the Learning and Teaching and Wellbeing of the school I hoped to lead.  Interestingly, while I do focus on these core aspects for our school, much of my time and energy is directed towards tasks that had not previously been on my horizon.  I am learning!  I am working to embrace all of these new tasks, in truth, I do love the challenge of them, but I’m sure I make many mistakes along the way and some of the tasks seem a hard mountain to climb.  I’m reminded of one of my heroes, Renzo Gracie, a storied BJJ black belt’s words “A black belt is a white belt who never quit!”  Maybe one day I’ll get my principal black belt and until then, I’ll keep working at it.

St Mary’s @ the Northern School Improvement Network

This week St Mary’s had the opportunity to share some of the Learning and Teaching innovations that we have been undertaking at the Northern Region School Improvement Network.  Olivia was selected to be on a panel with 3 other schools to discuss how St Mary’s has been implementing evidence based pedagogy with the 200+ community of educators and leaders in attendance.  Olivia shared St Mary’s practice in the Science of Reading field and how our school is working to sustainably implement these practices from the junior school up.  Thank you to Olivia for representing St Mary’s and the work we are doing here so well on the Northern Region stage.

Father’s Day

A very happy Father’s Day to all of the wonderful Fathers and Father Figures in our community.  I hope that you all get to enjoy a beautiful day with your families and get some time to sit back and appreciate all that you contribute to your family's lives.  Being a dad is my favourite role in the world and one that I feel very privileged to hold.  A special mention to those who are without their fathers on Father’s Day, I hope you are able to enjoy and reminisce on some great times that you have had with your dads over the years.

IMPORTANT Pickups and Drop offs

This week, I (again) had visits from some very upset neighbours regarding the blocking off of driveways, roundabouts and double parking by St Mary’s parents and carers looking to pick up their children.  The neighbours were extremely distressed and expressed that this is a serious and ongoing issue for them.  They have contacted the council about these issues and I expect that there will be parking inspectors and the like in attendance in the coming weeks to address these concerns.

Please do not double park near the drop off bays or que along the street outside of the pink pickup/drop off areas.  If you do, you risk fines or further action from council authorities.  These actions create blockages for traffic and dangerous situations for cars and pedestrians from our school community.  

If there is no space in the pink waiting bays for pick ups or drop offs you will need 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 role in helping be part of the solution.  Blocking off traffic access to our adjoining streets is a potentially dangerous activity and one that risks further action from council authorities.

Thank you for your support in helping maintain positive relationships with our neighbours.

Stay safe, stay healthy, stay connected,

Denis Johnstone 

Principal