Welcome to Term 2

It is a clear sign that change is coming when I look out my office window and see the amount of leaves covering the front lawn of St Mary’s College. Autumn has certainly arrived, and the leaves are changing colour and falling from the trees. Here at St Mary’s that means we are commencing Term 2 and continuing with our educational year. It is a busy time, and we look forward to our students engaging in educational, cultural and sporting activities as our term progresses. It was great to see all the smiling faces and to reconnect as we began our new term.

Nano Nagle Mass

One of the great components of being a Presentation school is the wonderful story of our foundress, Nano Nagle. More than 240 years ago, Nano made the amazing decision to found the Presentation Sisters and tomorrow we have the chance to celebrate her life with the annual Nano Nagle Mass. We will gather as a whole school across the campus with year groups in different areas due to our COVID-19 situation. In recent times our COVID-19 numbers in the Cathedral have been adjusted, so if you, as a parent/carer or alumna, would like to attend the Mass, please let Lisa O'Brien-Spaulding know via lobrien@smc.tas.edu.au. The Mass commences at 11.30am.

The Udder Way

A huge thank you to our Murphy's Café Manager and Sustainability Officer, Phil Shanny, for organising the purchase of Udder Way, a milk dispensing system. This Tasmanian designed, made and marketed system is amazing! Many local Tasmanian businesses are now using this system and are, of course, contributing to a much more sustainable way of using and selling milk products. Milk at the College will now be dispensed from Murphy’s Café into glass bottles. Have a read about the technology here. Congratulations to the team!

Meet the Principal Tours

The next ‘Meet the Principal Tour’ will be held on Friday 20 May at 1.45pm. The session commences with a meeting and presentation by me, followed by a College tour by student leaders so parents/carers have the opportunity to speak to students and staff, and see what we do during a day at St Mary’s College.

The closing date for enrolments are listed below:

Kindergarten enrolments for 2023 close on Friday 6 May.
Year 7 enrolments for 2024 close on Friday 9 September.

Future tour dates are available on our website.

Mother's Day Breakfast

We celebrated the special women in our lives this morning at the Mother's Day Breakfast. It was lovely to see so many mums and special women attend and enjoy time with their children. A special thanks to our wonderful helpers, including our Board members and Presentation Families representatives, who supported the event. View more photos from the event on our website gallery here.

The Year 12 Mother’s Day Breakfast will be held this Friday 6 May at 7.00am in the Year 11/12 Common Room and the Kinder Mother’s Day High Tea will be held on Wednesday 11 May at 2.00pm in the Kinder classroom. I take this opportunity to wish all a wonderful Mother’s Day on Sunday.

Junior School Water Safety Program

The program commenced on Monday and will run until Friday 13 May. The program is split into two groups, program one for the Years 3 to 4 and program two for Prep to Year 2.

COVID-19 update

As we begin Term 2 our COVID-19 situation continues to be part of our everyday workings. The mask mandate will remain in place for the immediate future and will be reviewed at the end of the month. In terms of all our new requirements for RAT tests, close contacts and other COVID-19 related matters, we have completed a comprehensive review of the current rules and regulations and they are available to read on the College website here, as well as in the COVID-19 section of this newsletter.

Damian Messer

Principal

Community news

RSPCA Tasmania Million Paws Walk

SVC Open Days – May 2022