Mrs Ryan's Fortnightly Reflections

“Now more than ever!”

Welcome to Reconciliation Week 2024! Now more than ever do we need to upkeep and continue to walk the learning journey with our First Nations People. This week at St Mary’s we have integrated key cultural learning of our nations ancestors, sharing stories, traditions and celebrating culture. St Mary’s is a diverse community which we are proud of and it has been a great week to highlight and continue to learn about First Nations, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. St Mary’s continues to live in hope for a world of equality, where we are all treated the same. As a school community we continue to promote that all people have a right to be seen and celebrated, to not be racist, worry about the colour of someone's skin or the culture they have come from - we are all diverse and beautiful! We are all loved in the likeness of our God. 

Monday we launched this week with our community Reconciliation Walk! A truly special community event that our first nations learners let me walk alongside! It was a wonderful turnout in our community and next year we hope to take a greater number of learners to be a part of the experience. 

Yesterday you will have received a letter around significant changes to the curriculum and assessment of Mathematics in Victoria. Please read the letter that has been shared with you via Compass and be prepared for changes to how we assess and teach mathematics in the coming year. The implementation of the new progression point and curriculum has taken effect immediately at St Mary’s however we need your patience and understanding as the practice and benchmarking of the learning and teaching in this area evolves. Clare Pentreath, our Leader of Pedagogy: Numeracy will keep our teachers and families well informed over the roll out. 

Tomorrow we conclude our Foundation 2025 Family enrolments and what a joy it has been to take part in these. The families are so excited about joining our school community and share their why. Reasons that have been shared with me this week are; high expectations, a balance of wellbeing and academics, passion of your teachers, exceptional resources and facilities and when we speak to the children in this school, we hope our child walks out like that! It takes a village to raise a child, and I am happy that this village is recognised for its greatness!

Thank you to the parents who have taken an interest in our new initiative SME TV! This is a small TV show that we  have launched with reminders, feedback and feedforward, Ramp It Up, a joke and messages for the week ahead. It is an internal broadcast only and we are hopeful in the future our Learning leaders take a role! Moving forward a summary of areas will be shared in our Learning and Teaching section of our newsletter. As we have had some parent interest we are happy to summarise and share key highlights of what is discussed in each episode. 

As a community we have a shared responsibility for all of our children at St Mary’s particularly at pick up and drop off. Over the past fortnight I have sadly observed parents continue to drive over our footpaths in peak hours, call their children onto the road - ignoring the safety measures of our council crossing staff. I receive regular concerns and complaints about the misuse of our front block. Over the coming weeks St Mary's will  cordened off the front block with a temporary fence to ensure the safety of our children and community. I know the area, roads, car parking does not accommodate our community and we are continuously working behind the scenes for improvement.  I thank those who continually strive to keep our young people safe while travelling to and from school, and I will keep you all well informed of our developments of car parking areas. 

Over the past fortnight we have happily farewelled Ms Lumsden & Ms Daly! These amazing women have both taken leave to have their second children. We are very thankful for their commitment and passion for those they have taught and we look forward to their return in the future. For now, I know you will all join me in wishing them safe and happy deliveries.  I look forward to sharing the arrival news with our community when it comes! 

God Bless You All, 

Jasmine Ryan 

Principal