Dear Parents

As the term draws to a close, I take this opportunity to thank our wonderful staff for the way they have supported all children throughout a very busy, productive and successful term. We have so much to be thankful for at St Mary’s and the dedication of our staff and parents is definitely one to celebrate.

We have had a very busy couple of weeks with our Foundation Enrolment ‘Get to know you’ meetings. We are truly blessed with the new children and their families who will be joining us next year.

Next term we will be having Mindful Aus running sessions for both students, parents and staff. Mindful Aus has an exceptionally good reputation for supporting and empowering mental health and wellbeing and we are very excited to welcome them to our school community and look forward to the wealth of knowledge and expertise they bring.

As a school community, we are very conscious and proactive in supporting our students to build their resilience and courage to accept new opportunities. This has been true throughout COVID and continues in every classroom throughout the school, in the playground and whenever the children are engaging with staff and each other. We are thankful for the support you provide in continuing these conversations with your children at home. It is times such as these, when we are preparing our Year 6 students for secondary school, as well as welcoming our new students who start Foundation at St Mary’s next year, that the value of resilience and courage is most evident. As parents, many of you are feeling challenged by your children moving to the next stage of their school journey. The most important thing you can do for your child is to keep the lines of communication open. Your child needs you to understand that they may feel anxious, distracted or distressed, and it is helpful if you can explain to them that these feelings are perfectly normal and that the teachers who will be with them when they start at their new school understand these feelings and are there to support them. We will continue to do all we can to ensure they are prepared and that their transition is smooth and supported.

Congratulations to our students in Years 3,4,5 and 6 who performed prepared readings at the Eisteddfod. We had many wonderful success stories coming from the Eisteddfod and I thank our staff for their dedication to ensuring all children were well prepared and confident in the piece they were presenting. Our participation in the Eisteddfod is a huge commitment and one that we feel is extremely beneficial for our students, for their learning and their confidence.

Our Year 1/2s visited Old Gippstown this week and had a wonderful time. The preparation work that was completed before they went further enhanced their experience and helped them to understand how people lived many years ago.

We congratulate our students who participated in the District Athletics this week and feel proud of their achievements and the way they represented St Mary’s school.

Wishing you all a wonderful, well deserved holiday and I look forward to seeing you all for term 4.

Kind regards
Lisa