Dear Parents,

We warmly welcome all of our community back to St. Mary’s school and look forward to a wonderful year of learning together. We hope every member in our school feels a great sense of belonging and connection and achieves success in all that they set out to do. We warmly welcome all of our new families to our wonderful school.

Our whole school theme for 2023 is “What we’ll build”. This is based on the picture story book written by Oliver Jeffers. It provides us with a focus of building on our review by collaborating and imagining the future together.

Our review in 2022 has resulted in clear priorities for our work over the next four years. Our priorities are centred around building on our positive behaviour and ensuring growth for every student in their learning.

Our school vision of Faith, Hope and Love will guide our journey as we ask our students to strive to be respectful, compassionate and inspiring.

We do this by ensuring each student knows how important they are and builds positive belief in themselves knowing they are unique and can achieve great things. Together as the adults in our community we work for the common good of all by respecting the dignity and individuality of everyone in our school.

Our positive behaviour approach ensures we consistently have :

high expectations
come from a base of understanding
Is firm and supportive
Ensures high quality education for all
Respect for all
Ensures a consistent, strong home school partnership

We bring our school frameworks alive by focussing on a whole school theme and inquiry. Our inquiry in Term 1 is centred around Relationships. It is imperative in our school that every student knows themselves well and celebrates who they are and the relationships they build to ensure they flourish and thrive in our care.

We are thrilled to welcome parents back into our school and look forward to continuing to work in partnership with you throughout 2023.

Our Beginning of the year Mass will be held on Friday 10th February at 9.30am. At this Mass our Year 6 students will receive their leadership badges and staff will be commissioned for the year. We will commence the day with a community breakfast and we invite all of our community to this special event.

Please make sure all students wear their uniform with pride. It is an expectation that students wear full St Mary’s uniform including the correct shoes. We have some funds from our Parishioners if any family requires support with uniforms. All children are to wear their sports uniforms on Thursdays & Fridays for sports and P.E lessons.

I look forward to a wonderful year of learning, strong home school partnerships and ensuring together we will build the conditions and environment that ensures every student at St. Mary’s flourish, thrive and enrich our world in ways unimaginable.

I am so proud to be Principal of this wonderful school. Please do not hesitate to contact me on principal@smhastings.catholic.edu.au if you would like to meet to discuss any aspect of your child’s education.

Finally, we look forward to seeing all of our students officially commence tomorrow after their spending time with their teacher at the interviews. By ensuring this initial relationship building occurs and understanding of each child’s ways of knowing we feel confident that every student will have a successful commencement to the school year.

Yours in Partnership,

Gab

2023 Commencement Dates
TERM 1 2023
JANUARY
31/01	Students commence classes
FEBRUARY
08/02	St Mary's Swimming Carnival Grade 3-6 at Crib Point Pool
10/02	Community Breakfast 8.30 - 9.30am (all welcome)
	Beginning of the Year School Mass 9.30am
	Leaders' Ceremony and Badge Presentation (after Mass)
15/02	Beach Day Grade 1/2's
16/02	Beach Day Grade 3-6's
MARCH
17/03	The Fathering Project 2023 Gathering - Bowls Night 4-6pm. Book it in!

Dates to Remember