Principal Announcements

As we begin the season of Lent, we enter a special time in the Church year focused on prayer, reflection and renewal. Lent is the 40-day journey that prepares us for Easter and invites us to grow closer to God and to one another through simple acts of faith and kindness.

During Lent, we are encouraged to focus on three key practices: prayer, fasting and almsgiving. For our students, this may mean spending extra time in prayer, making small sacrifices, and looking for ways to help others through generous words and actions. Even small choices — showing patience, including others, or giving our best effort — can be meaningful Lenten commitments.

Throughout the coming weeks, classes will take part in Lenten prayers, learning experiences and service opportunities to help deepen understanding of this important season. We invite families to talk together about Lent at home and consider simple ways you can share this journey of reflection and hope.

May this Lenten season be a time of peace, growth and renewal for all in our St Mary’s community.

Good News

New Maintenance Manager

We are pleased to welcome Lincoln Taylor to St Mary’s as our new Maintenance Manager. Lincoln joins our community with a wealth of experience in maintenance and emergency management, and we are delighted to have him supporting the care, safety and ongoing development of our school.

We also extend our sincere thanks to Phil Crowe for returning to assist with a smooth handover into the role. His time and support have been greatly appreciated.

Please join us in warmly welcoming Lincoln to the St Mary’s community.

Parish and Community News

Opening Mass and Presentation Assembly

Our Opening Mass and Presentation Assembly was a wonderful and prayerful way to begin the school year together. Thank you to everyone who contributed to making this special celebration so meaningful for our community. We are so proud of our new student leaders and look forward to their efforts and contributions to our school community this year.

We also congratulate our Prep students, who did an outstanding job sitting, listening and participating so beautifully alongside their Grade 6 buddies. It was lovely to see such respectful and supportive partnerships on display.

Apology Day Breakfast

We congratulate our Fire Carriers and student representatives who attended the Apology Day Breakfast in Shepparton and represented St Mary’s with great respect and maturity. This important community event provides an opportunity to acknowledge our shared history and continue the journey toward reconciliation. Our students demonstrated thoughtful participation and pride in representing our school.

Thank you to Catherine Dyke and Tahlia Cooper for their organisation and support in preparing our students for this meaningful occasion. We are very proud of everyone involved.

Swimming Carnival

Our inaugural Grade 3–6 Swimming Carnival held at the Mooroopna Pool last Friday was a wonderful success and a fantastic addition to the St Mary’s sports calendar. We were fortunate with kind weather, and it was terrific to see such high levels of participation across both the water events and the land-based activities.

Students demonstrated great enthusiasm, encouragement and house spirit throughout the day, supporting one another and giving their best in each event. Opportunities like this not only build skills and confidence but also strengthen our sense of community and teamwork.

A special thank you to Troy Watts for his outstanding organisation and preparation in bringing this event together. We look forward to this becoming a valued annual tradition at St Mary’s.

Student Learning Meetings

We hope our parents and guardians enjoyed the opportunity to attend the Student Learning Meetings last week. These meetings are a valuable time to build strong home–school partnerships, discuss student learning goals, and become familiar with our new teachers and learning spaces. Opportunities for open conversation help set a positive and purposeful direction for the year ahead.

We extend our sincere thanks to our staff for the extra time, care and dedication they gave to preparing for and conducting these meetings. Your commitment to working closely with families is greatly appreciated.

School Involvement Opportunity

Book Club Coordinator Needed!

A huge thank you to Simone Oliver for her wonderful dedication in coordinating Scholastic Book Club for our students in 2025. 

We truly appreciate all her hard work! 

As Simone steps down from this role, we are looking for a new volunteer to take over. This is a fantastic opportunity to get more involved in the school community and support our students’ love of reading. If you’re interested in helping with Book Club, please contact the school office—we’d love to hear from you and ensure a smooth transition for this program!

Goal Setting

In 2026, our whole-school learning focus at St Mary’s is Resilience. We are encouraging students to develop the confidence, persistence and positive mindset needed to face challenges, try new things, and keep going when learning feels difficult.

At our Week 2 assembly, students listened to the story Oh, The Places You’ll Go by Dr Seuss. This story helped us talk about what resilience looks like — taking opportunities, learning from mistakes, navigating setbacks, and continuing to move forward with courage and hope. These ideas are supporting students as they begin setting their Term 1 learning goals. Staff have also been engaging in similar goal setting, modelling the same resilient approaches to growth and improvement.

Ways families can help build resilience at home include:

• Encouraging children to have a go before stepping in to fix a problem
• Praising effort, persistence and improvement — not just results
• Talking about mistakes as a normal and valuable part of learning
• Helping children break big tasks into smaller, manageable steps
• Modelling calm problem-solving and positive self-talk
• Encouraging responsibility through age-appropriate jobs and routines
• Reminding children of times they have overcome challenges before

By working together, we can help our students grow into confident, capable and resilient learners

Founders’ Day – Monday 23rd February 2026

St Mary’s will celebrate Founders’ Day on Monday 23rd February, honouring the founding of our school, our Catholic identity, and our rich history. This day will also mark the beginning of our 90-year celebrations as a school community.

Students will take part in prayer, reflection and House-based activities that promote connection, gratitude and school spirit.

Families are warmly invited to join us for a Founders’ Day Family BBQ and picnic from 1:35–2:15pm on the school oval. BBQ food and drinks will be available for purchase (provided by Azem), and families are also welcome to bring their own food. Students and staff will picnic in their House groups as we celebrate together as one community.

St. Mary’s Alumni

As part of our celebrations for this year, we would love to hear from St. Mary’s Alumni – past staff, community members and students. We would love to hear about your past experiences of St. Mary’s. If you are willing to be involved please contact the school office on 5825 2858 or email at office@smmooroopna.catholic.edu.au

School Access Arrangements

Here are the key details of the new arrangements:

• School Gates: Gates will open by 8:00am and 3:15pm each day.
• Early Arrivals: Students arriving before 8:30am must enter via the front entrance, Toolamba Rd gate or the carpark entrance and will be directed to the library, where they can engage in quiet activities under supervision.
• Breakfast Club: Breakfast Club will continue to operate from 8:30am in the Marian Centre.
• Yard Supervision: All students will be actively supervised on the yard from 8:20am.
• Classrooms: Classrooms will open at 8:45am.
• During inclement weather: classes are open for earlier access

We continue to support the wellbeing of our students while also respecting the professional commitments of our teaching staff. We appreciate your cooperation and understanding as we implement these updates.

Thank you for your continued support of our school community. Should you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to reach out to the school office.

Before School Supervision

Please note that all students that arrive at school prior to 8:30am must fill out an application via the link below. For new and casual before school arrivals, please complete prior to 4:00pm each day to enable student lists to be updated for the following morning. I appreciate everyone's understanding and cooperation regarding this.

Before School Supervision

Principal’s Awards

 9th November

This week’s Principal’s award goes to Indi Oldfield. Indi is has transitioned so well into her new class, is always trying her best when participating, showing leadership skills and working so well supporting her new Prep buddy. 

Well done to Indi Oldfield!

16th November

This week’s Principal’s Award goes to Kingy Radevski for his outstanding transition into his new class. Kingy has shown great effort in participating and demonstrated impressive leadership skills. 

Congratulations Kingy! 

Attendance matters!

Every minute matters. This is a simple statement, but a true one. For every minute a child is at school they learn. For every minute they are absent they not only miss out on they not only miss out on learning, but they also lose some previous learning.

Ms V’s Inspirations

“Do not judge me by my success, judge me by how many times I fell and got back up again.” — Nelson Mandela

“It’s not whether you get knocked down, it’s whether you get up.” — Vince   Lombard