Dear SMCM Community, Wominjeka!

It was wonderful to have our SMCM community come together last Thursday evening for our end of year picnic and to celebrate the festive season with our Christmas carols. Thank you for your support!

Staffing for 2026 has now been finalised

We welcome the following new staff members to SMCM:

Giulia Mazzarella - joining us from Sacred Heart, Preston
Brian Chung - joining us from Eyensbury Primary School, Eyensbury
Feui Tipelu - joining us from Sheringham Primary School, London
Robert Simpson - joining us from Papatoetoe South School, Auckland
Aya ibrahim - current casual replacement teacher at SMCM
Madison Ditel - completeing an Education Support Traineeship

Homegroup teaching staff:

Foundation: Sandra Pacheco, Emily Hodgson, Emily Bray, Patricia Fiaalii Silulu
Year 1: Hayley Messina, Caterina Capogreco, Brian Chung, Louise Maurici
Year 2: Natasha Solomons, Cassandra Martin, Jesslyn Tian, Tasha Brace
Year 3: Vivian Rosales, Georgia Clarke, Elna Van As (4 days)/ Aaron Dean (1 day)
Year 4: Rebecca Jenkins (3 days)/Stephanie Di Salvatore (3 days), Narelle Bzdel, Ria Mani, Giulia Mazzarella
Year 5: David Lewis, Michelle Marsh (3 days)/ Melissa Morabito(3 days), Daniella Slee, Feui Tipelu
Year 6: Melissa Leach (3 days)/ Michaela Biddick ( 2 days), Stephanie Lo Piccolo and Robert Simpson

Learning Support: Bernadette Lancaster; Rosemarie Stella; Christine Santos; Charmari Hemachandra; Romani Alwis; Nicole Allison; Jessica French; Paul Wookey; Christina Chatterjee; Johanna Smyth; Bellinda Allison; Vicky Do; Melissa Fernandes; Linda Macri; Tammy Tsomidis; Shenelle Toshack; Shammi Jayasuriya; Saba Rahmani, Rosita Bifera, Alex Koutsambasis; Frosa Temelkovski; Madison Ditel

We look further to welcoming additional Learning Support Officers to our team at the beginning of 2026.

Specialist Program:

Yolanda Gross - Physical Education
Lisa Palma - Physical Education
Melissa Leach - Physical Education
Ellen Gravina - Visual Arts
Aya Ibrahim - Visual Arts
Yumi Matsushima - Japanese
Mike Caruana - STEM
Rachel Troiani - Visual Arts & Performing Arts
Simone DeAndrade - Oral Language & Digital Technology

Intervention:

Literacy - Cate Fabri
Maths - Kiara Misale
Maths Coach Prep-2 - Sawako Gannon
Maths Coach Yr3-6 - Aaron Dean
Maths Coach Yr3-6 - Michaela Biddick
School Counsellor - Vicki Ale
Learning Diversity Support - Alana DiDomizio

Leadership Team:

Claire Pitcher: Principal
Lisa Heath: Deputy Principal & Student Wellbeing Leader
Jess Herrick: Deputy Principal & Learning Diversity Leader
Rafael Fernandez: Learning & Teaching & Digital Technologies Leader
Sarah Spiteri: Education in Faith Leader
Kristie Hocking: Community & Family Engagement Leader

Administration: Erwin Avila-Sandoval; Kelly Farrell; Rebecca Herft

Maintenance: Joe Gionta

Semester 2 Reports

Tomorrow the students will bring home their Semester Two School Reports. This should be an opportunity for families to celebrate their children's success. It was a pleasure to read the teachers' comments and reflect on the academic and social growth that each students has made this year!

Congratulations to Ron, Evelyn, Gabriel (Hope Homegroup) and Amiya for receiving their Australian Citizenship at a ceremony last week.

This will be the final newsletter for the 2025 school year. We thank and farewell the following members of the SMCM community:

Congratulations to the Graduating Class of 2025

We look forward to celebrating the 2025 Graduating Class with our Year 6 students and their families at tomorrow evening's Graduation Mass. We wish our Graduating Class well as you embark on your journey into Secondary School!

Next Tuesday we also farewell the following students who will be moving to new schools in 2026:

James Tsmakis
Evaliah Babadzovski
Agam Sandhu
Marla Hamo
Frederick Sedena
Nathanael and Julian Ishak
We wish these children and their families the best of luck at their new schools and into for the future.

The following families will be leaving SMCM at the end of their primary school journey:

Alessi, Anand, Antony, Armota, Barbosa, Berke, Carvajal, Caserta, Cerra, Cheng, Chung, Cleary, Damtsis, Farah, Galati, Garisto, Garreffa, Jaworsky, Jins, Kaselias, Kavichchelvan, Lawrence, Le, Liang-Cardenas, Liril, Malkoun, Marchitto, Mercuri, Moore, Nguyen, Olivieri, Petrusevska, Pisano, Prasanna Kumar, Spinello, Vouros, Yavuz and Zehra

We thank you for your contributions to our school community and look forward to hearing from you often.

We thank and farewell the following staff from SMCM and wish them well with their future careers:

Catherine Lennon, Sarah Cardamone, Rachel McMurtrie, Lenora Denise, Biljana Stavreski and Lorraine Dawson. Clare Spillane and Jessica Mosca will be on leave from SMCM in 2026.

As the 2025 school year comes to an end I want to share my gratitude and appreciation to all members of the SMCM school community.

I would like to extend my heartfelt thanks to the incredible staff of SMCM who work tirelessly each day in the very best interests of your children. Their dedication, care and commitment does not go unnoticed and makes an extraordinary difference in the lives of our students.

To our families, thank you for the trust you place in us and for the strong partnership we share. Your support, encouragement and collaboration allow us to nurture each child’s learning journey, faith formation and overall wellbeing in meaningful and life-giving ways.

And to our wonderful students, thank you for the joy you bring to our school each day. Your curiosity, resilience and tenacity inspire us continually and remind us why what we do matters so deeply.

It is a privilege to walk alongside this wonderful community and I look forward with great optimism and excitement to continuing our journey together in 2026.

I wish all members of our SMCM Community a happy and holy Christmas and a safe and restful start to the New Year!

We praise and thank God in Jesus’ name at Christmas, for all the blessings and gifts of this school year.

Claire

Principal

claire.pitcher@smcmeppingnth.catholic.edu.au

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