Mrs Ryan's Fortnightly Reflections

Welcome to Term 4 everyone! What an exciting time of year. We are so grateful for the consistent pattern of school and holidays and we are looking forward to ending this wonderful year well! 

I do hope that all children and families had a well deserved break, enjoyed the break from the school routine, rested and are all now revived! The term has started extremely well and staff, students and families are all happy and smiling on their return. The school is alive with learning, laughter and excitement for the term ahead. I do know that the extra closure days over the long weekend may act as a mini break that will support families with the longer term. 

This week we welcome St Mary’s Brekky club! We are in our first few days or trial, error and monitoring of need. It has been a huge success so far, and great to see our students topping up on some sustigine to start their day of learning. Our staff are volunteering along with our impressive Year 6 leaders. Brekky club is currently being supplied by community volunteers such as the generous Moama Bakery. We will seek further community support in the coming weeks and will invite families who would like to contribute in a small way also. A focus from now until the end of the year will be to have our Community Care team and practice up and running and ready to be there in times of need! Chris Dainton will ultimately lead this for St Mary’s once settled into his role. I would like to thank all of the student and staff volunteers who have made this already such a success! 

At the end of last term we were excited to be able to welcome our second Deputy Principal, Chris Dainton. Chris will particularly work in the areas of Community Wellness and is very much looking forward to getting to know, and being a part of our community. I have included a biography of Chris which he is happy to share with our community in this newsletter. 

St Mary’s is in the final stages of completing our fee policy and collection procedure. This will be shared with families in the very near future along with our fee schedule for 2023. St Mary’s school fees are set in consultation with Catholic Education Sandhurst. The setting of fees strive to keep increments to a minimum to assist families. I recognise the increased cost of living and St Mary’s will also strive to keep increases to a minimum. Fee payment will be collected in 2023 by direct debit at each families preferred times and families needing any alternate option will need to meet with me to discuss. Final fees for 2022 are currently due and the administration staff will be sending reminders of accounts in the coming weeks. If anyone requires fee support or assistance at anytime, please feel free to book an appointment with me. 

Term 4 usually welcomes the sunshine and re-enacts our SunSmart policy. For our staff and students this means that hats are to be worn when outdoors at all times. Please feel free to put sunscreen on your child before coming to school. St Mary’s SunSmart policy recognises that we wear hats and clothing to minimise sun damage, sunscreen of 30+ applied when UV levels rates over 3 and when the weather is in excess of 37 degrees and shaded play areas are not adequate, alternate and indoor play will be provided. We ask that families please ensure your child has a labelled hat available daily in term 4 and 1. 

Currently, myself and the leadership team are in a phase of employment for 2023. It is an exciting time meeting new and potential educators to join the St Mary’s team. I know that term 4 always brings intrigue with families in regard to their children’s following year teachers. As much as I would like to be able to divulge this information, we still very much have solid teaching and learning time to focus on, and it is so important to teach and grow our students to the end. This year we will be trialling a few new ways to include student voice in placing our students in classes with friends or peers they believe they learn best with for the following year. Once this process is finalised I will share this with our community. I ask that parents trust the staff while classing and staff allocations unfold. 

Thank you to the many families who completed the uniform survey. The survey has now closed and I look forward to summarising the findings. We have been exploring some samples and I look forward to sharing final options with you all soon. 

I know this term will be even more successful than our first three. I look forward to seeing many of you in and around school this term. Please be sure to keep up with Curriculum newsletters and dates on our newsletter so you can attend as many celebrations and events as possible.

 

God Bless & Stay Well

Jasmine Ryan 

Principal