Principal's Message
Wayne Wood
Principal
To our St Mary’s Community
School is in full swing! A glimpse of this Term’s calendar will give you an indication of how busy students and staff currently are. Many of the year’s more significant events have occurred this Term, including the Hugh O’Brien Centre Redevelopment Unveiling and Blessing, the Year 10 Retreat, the Year 7 Retreat, the Athletics Carnival, Year 10 SET Planning, our production of Shrek the Musical, and more.
Make no mistake, schools have always been busy, even through COVID disruptions that have seen various events cancelled or modified. However, getting back into the full swing of things is lovely. We are grateful for this kind of busy.
We continue to experience higher than usual rates of absence due to illness. Nevertheless, our College staff remain committed to ensuring our students are given every opportunity for a full educational experience. For this, I thank our wonderful and dedicated staff at St Mary’s.
Vaping Concerns
“Australia, we have a problem”, writes Nikki Gemmell (Weekend Australian). The writer continues, stating that the particular problem needs to be tackled with an advertising campaign as terrifying and effective as the anti-smoking campaign with the sponge and the filthy tar being wrung out. The problem in question is vaping.
Vaping is a growing problem and quite a concerning one amongst adolescents across the Nation. Schools are concerned by the number of students in possession of vapes; St Mary’s included.
It is important to remember that the health of our students is a priority, and as such, we will enforce our stance on this. Unfortunately, our external suspension data is dominated by students who were found vaping at school. More alarming were the misinformed claims by many of these students that vaping was harmless to their health.
The vaping industry is disturbingly predatory, luring children with false claims of harmlessness. Together, we must challenge these messages to ensure young people understand the dangers of this harmful habit. St Mary’s, we will continue to drive home this message among our students. We will also continue our increased supervision around the school toilet blocks. Finally, we will continue to take a strong stance against any student found in possession of a vape or participating in vaping.
Raising Screenagers with Dr Kristy Goodwin - Thursday 8 September
We look forward to hearing from Dr Kristy Goodwin in helping our teenagers safely navigate the online world. A parent evening session is scheduled for Thursday, 08 September, followed by student sessions on Friday, 09 September. RSVP for the parent session by clicking here.
Thank you to our Family Connect for sponsoring these sessions and placing value on assisting our College community to come together to learn about such a relevant and important topic.
NAIDOC Week Celebrations
We have been excitedly preparing for St Mary’s NAIDOC celebrations next week. This year’s theme is ‘Get up! Stand up! Show up!’. Systemic change can only come from a genuine commitment from all of us in supporting institutional, structural, collaborative, and cooperative reforms. Various activities are planned throughout the week, including our NAIDOC Assembly at 09:45 on Tuesday, 30 August. All families are welcome. I hope to see you there!
God Bless
Wayne Wood