Mrs Ryan's Fortnightly Reflections

Congratulations to each and everyone of you for completing another hugely successful school year! Schools are places of community, connection, challenges and successes and this year has again been reflective of this! As the principal of St Mary’s I have been welcomed, encouraged and supported in my first year by staff, students and families. I definitely feel like I truly belong to the wider St Mary’s family. Thank you all for making my transitional year such a wonderful one. As a team we have achieved so much! Our students have grown, learnt and progressed and are ready for the new school year ahead. Our staff have worked tirelessly to resume some level of normalcy on the back of covid. The staff first and foremost have gone above and beyond for every child in their classroom. In every school, it is the educators who make the difference and I am grateful for every educator at St Mary’s for giving this year their all. 

To St Mary’s School Advisory Council and Parents and Friends Association, thank you! You all contribute so much behind the scenes and most importantly provide constructive feedback and positively advocate for our school daily. We are thankful for all you do to ensure we are a well and productive learning community. 

Father Novie has been a breath of fresh air and even though he is intimidated by teachers, he has done an incredible job at winning the hearts of students and nurturing their faith journey. 

If we look back on the year we have experienced great change and many achievements. There has been significant change in leadership, the completion of the master plan and school improvement plan. Student voice, staff consultation and the structures of the leadership team! We have been able to consistently attend school and learn, progress and be back with our friends! Change is definitely an opportunity for growth, and this year has been that for all of us. 

At the end of every school year we farewell some staff and look forward to welcoming the new. Today we thank and farewell the following for their contribution to the St Marys community and the many students they have taught, cared for and supported. Many of these staff are moving onto schools to share their expertise, making changes for home lives and some taking completely different journeys. Whatever new beginning awaits these staff, we wish them every happiness and success! Farewell to; Mrs Di Dimovski, Mr Marty Dillon, Miss Katie Crowder, Mrs Carri Carter, Mrs Holly Virtue, Narelle Burke, Miss Brittany Symmons, Tammy McLeish, Mrs Brook Ward, Ally Stevens and Mr Chris Dainton. 

As we break for a well deserved rest and welcome time to be with family the 2023 school year will fast approach. Next year we will see further change and school improvement, new staff, new systems and new ways of approaching things. 

A major change will be our home - school communication platform. We will be moving from PAM to Compass. The reason for the move is that Compass has far greater functionality, precision and accurate data collection to allow us all as a school community to track trends and drive improvement. All parents will be emailed instructions to log on and personalise your password. Compass must be accessed by the 15th January 2023 as parent access to PAM will cease. I recommend all families download any reports from their child(rens) profile and store them on your personal device. St Mary’s will always have access to historic SIMON data however parents will not. 

Towards the end of January, all families will receive a bulletin outlining the year ahead. This bulletin will introduce staff and teams, inform the community of key goals and directions for the 2023 school year but for now it is time to rest, reflect and acknowledge what a sensational year it has been! 

From the bottom of my heart, thank you for the most sensational first year at St Mary’s Echuca. I look forward now more than ever to what lies ahead! I wish each and everyone of you a magical Christmas, filled with love, laughter and the holy spirit. 

Most importantly, stay safe, stay well and I look forward to seeing every beutiful face return in 2023. 

Merry Christmas & God Bless

Jasmine Ryan 

Principal