Dear Parents and Carers

We have finally come to the end of a very busy and successful term. I am sure we are all excited to have time to recover from Winter and enjoy the sunshine and warmth that Spring is bringing to our days.

I take this opportunity to thank our wonderful families for their support in so many ways this term. Your attendance at our Parent Teacher Student Learning meetings enables us to work together to provide the supportive environment in which children shine – we truly believe that it takes a village to raise a child! Your presence and support at the disco, the sausage sizzle for Footy Day, the Father’s Day celebrations and the range of other activities we have celebrated this term, have enabled us to join as a community to enjoy fun times with the kids and to raise much needed funds to purchase resources for the school. We appreciate all you do and value the community that we have at St Mary’s.

Today is the final day for families to put forward considerations for their child for the 2024 school year. I have had the opportunity to speak with many families who value the decisions made by the teachers with regard to class structures for next year. We work very hard to ensure our classes meet the needs of every child and, despite this being challenging at times, we know that our teachers know your child well and have a depth of understanding about who your child works well with and who will support your child’s learning and wellbeing. I thank you for the feedback I have received and our team will spend the next several weeks creating the class structures, allocating staff to classes and assigning students to their classes for next year.

Last week was Child Safety Week and, as always, our focus continues to be on the ways we can provide a safe and inclusive environment for all children. One initiative we have at our school is our Mini Oblate Leadership Team. This team are responsible for providing support to all children in our school on a daily basis.

Mini Oblate Playground Support

The school has a Mini Oblate initiative (named after the order of priests who support the school and parish) which comprises of most of the Year 6 students who are responsible for leading social justice in the school. As part of the initiative, we have two of the Mini Oblates rostered on each recess and lunchtime to be a support to students in the playground, ensuring that the children feel safe and supported. They wear hi vis vests and their Mini Oblate medals and walk around the playground looking for ways that they can support the children. The teachers support this initiative by creating a rolling roster for the children to follow. The medals and hi vis vests are provided so that the children are easily identified.

The initiative was well scaffolded by the teachers in each class who explained to the children what the Mini Oblates were all about and what their role would be in the playground. The teachers also support the initiative in the playground by encouraging the children to reach out to the Mini Oblates if they need help, especially those children looking for someone to play with.

Outcomes

The presence of the Mini Oblates and their dedication to the safety and wellbeing of the children, has made a significant difference to the children in the school, as they feel comfortable approaching the Mini Oblates to seek support. The teachers feel supported as they have the Mini Oblates to help them with the children on the playground. Throughout the term, the children have been learning skills from the Mini Oblates such as: how to make friends and what to say when initiating joining a game or activity. As the term has progressed, the Mini Oblates have become aware of the ability for the children to take what they have learned and initiate joining games and creating friendships themselves. We have 25 Mini Oblates who are part of the initiative and continue to show great enthusiasm and commitment to supporting children across all levels of the school. We will continue to provide this opportunity and support our Mini Oblates to engage with this initiative as the success in one term is beyond what we could have planned or hoped for. If other schools feel that this is an initiative that they would like to take on, the advice would be to make it voluntary as the students need to have a strong desire and commitment to helping others and be prepared to miss out on their own play time to enable this initiative to succeed.

I wish you all a wonderful holiday and look forward to another exciting term ahead.

Kind regards

Lisa