Principal's News

Dear Parents,

Congratulations to our wonderful parents on a brilliant effort with our 2023 fundraising. A huge thank you to Christa Howard, who coordinated the Bunnings sausage sizzle on Saturday, and all parents who volunteered their time or dropped in to buy a sausage and support our wonderful school. Both the chocolate drive and the Bunnings Sausage sizzle have been successful events. All money raised goes to our community garden in 2023. 

We have our big parents' social night coming up on August 4th at Hastings Hall. Please get behind our wonderful parent fundraising and social committee and come along and enjoy time together. Tables are filling fast! 

I was fortunate enough to be able to go with our Year 6 students to the Padua production of Mamma Mia last Wednesday. This was held in the spectacular new performing arts centre at Padua, Mornington. It was a brilliant performance providing such motivation for our students to see what they can achieve on the stage. 

Building positive connections with our feeder secondary school provides opportunities for us to build a Prep - 12 education for many students. I am meeting with Padua tomorrow to further discuss ways we can ensure our students are ready for the next stage of their education.

We celebrate the growth our students made in the first Semester of 2023 and also the positive results many achieved in Naplan. We continue with our main focus, coming out of review in 2022, of ensuring every student makes the necessary growth in Literacy and Numeracy. This includes minimising any interruptions to the learning blocks each day. Our learning design ensures students have two hours of Literacy each day and one hour of Maths. On top of this, our students also have 15 minutes of Maths fluency each day, providing above the expected time allocation for Maths.

We have a high priority of ensuring our students are working to the highest standard in these learning blocks and we are focusing on the learning dispositions required to be a successful learner. Don’t forget students sometimes need to squirm to learn and it is okay to feel uncomfortable in the learning zone. This enables students to extend their zone of proximal development and achieve their full potential.

Please keep supporting your child by ensuring all students are doing their home learning: reading every night and fluency and word work. The practice and repetition of basic facts makes a big difference to their learning growth. 

We wish our Year 4 students all the best as they prepare for the Sacrament of Eucharist on Sunday 30th July at 10am in Hastings.

Just a reminder students must wear full St Mary’s uniform. This includes leather like black school shoes. Unless an arrangement has been made with myself due to sensory needs students can not wear black runners as their formal shoes. 

We have funds from our wonderful Parishioners to buy shoes for students so please let me know if you need support.

Yours in Partnership,

Gab