Principal's Message

Wayne Wood

Principal

To our St Mary’s community,

It has been wonderful to see St Mary’s in full swing. As I move through our campus, I am always impressed with the array of activities students and teachers are engaged in. However, it is the smiles in amongst the busy work that impresses me the most, and it is perhaps the best indicator of a healthy school. I thank our staff for their commitment and care for our students. 

At a recent Staff Meeting, I spoke about our enrolment interviews and the many conversations I have with parents and students. I really enjoy these discussions as they bring me back to our College’s mission and the privilege we have as educators to support parents in the education of their children. In these interviews, parents often talk about the importance of good values and how they want their child to live a life based on the values of their family. We speak about “growing good people” - good people who care for others, who are willing to work hard to help others, who find joy in the simple things, who are willing to stand up for the most vulnerable and who are willing to be kind. It is this goodness that makes a difference in our world. Advice that I often use with a graduating class is to “go and do well, but more importantly, go and do good”. Our mission of growing good people who are willing to make a difference in the lives of others certainly resonate with parents.

Our challenge as educators is to keep this mission at the core of our work. This is not always an easy task given the busyness of our work and the demands that fall on schools. However, the core of what we do as teachers is strengthened by our centrality of Jesus Christ. We are inspired by Jesus himself, His acts of love and His message of living for others.

Thank you to the parents who have so generously sent messages of thanks and encouragement to our College this year. A special thank you to those parents who have dropped off some yummy treats for our staff. Your kindness is appreciated.

Thank you to all parents who completed the Surveys that were sent out at the end of last term. The survey questions centred on our remote learning model. The results would indicate a very high level of satisfaction with the College from families. There was so much of what we do that was affirmed and there were some useful suggestions for things to us to work on.

God Bless