Mrs Ryan's Fortnightly Reflections

“Action is the foundational key to all success.” Pablo Picasso 

Welcome everyone to the 2025 school year! It has been a sensational start on all accounts, and both the staff and learners have enjoyed their action-packed return. This is our first newsletter of the year, as I was well aware that there has been a great deal of information shared via Compass from classroom teachers and team leaders. I hope all correspondence so far has provided all families with great clarity about the year ahead while introducing many of the positive changes to our school community.

I would like to officially welcome our Foundation learners and their families, and I hope you are settling well into the school routine. Inside our Foundation classrooms, we have observed well-adjusted learners embracing school life. It has been wonderful to see many of you at drop-off and pick-up, and our Foundation learners participating in all things St Mary’s. It is also a blessing to be able to welcome many new staff to St Mary’s. St Mary’s is fortunate to have a variety of new teachers and educators join the team, bringing new perspectives and experiences to our school. Recruitment of teachers remains an area of concern within the education sector currently, and it is comforting to know that St Mary’s remains well-staffed.

As many of you may be aware, the whole school has been rolling out the diocesan-wide school improvement initiative - Magnify. Magnify is an evidence-based learning initiative designed to drive school improvement, ensuring we are teaching the science of learning while accommodating how our brains work and rolling out effective literacy, low variance, and high knowledge curriculum. In alignment with Magnify, St Mary’s has been committing to consistent school rules and expectations to ensure our learning spaces are positive, calm, predictable, and safe. So far, we have seen a very positive uptake from both staff and learners, and the commitment to all whole school initiatives has resulted in a great start of an extremely high standard.

Alongside our incredible learning, we have already successfully gathered for an assembly, a few liturgies, and our swimming sports! There is always so much on the calendar and exciting events ahead. Our apologies for the canceled BBQ; the heat is not easy to manage in our playground that late in the day. We thank you for your understanding and hope you will be able to attend on our new date!

A reminder to all families that our Family Information Booklet 2025 can be found on our website and was shared with all families via Compass at the end of last year. This is a vital source of information to support you all in our day-to-day practices and processes to ensure we are serving and functioning as a community well.

Wishing you all a fabulous weekend ahead.

Take care & God Bless,  

Jasmine Ryan  

Principal