Dear Parents and Carers,

This last week has been emotional for the staff and students at St Mary's. As you know, Mrs Jessie White’s children Matilda (Year 3) and Hattie (Year 1) and her mother in law were injured in a car accident on Monday afternoon. Both girls were taken to the Children's Hospital at Randwick. We have heard today that Hattie is now out of ICU and that Matilda has been discharged from hospital. We continue to pray for God’s blessings on the White family and send them our love and best wishes.  

Unsurprisingly, the wonderful staff at St Mary’s have picked up the load for Mrs White. A special thank you to Mrs Megan Grant for keeping the Year 6 students on their excellent ‘path to high school’ while Mrs White is away. We are very proud of this incredible group of mature and caring students. Transition meetings with Carroll College will occur next week, with Mrs Grant and Mrs Matthews involved when necessary. 

Fathers Day
Last Friday, we welcomed many of our fathers and grandfathers to our coffee and donut breakfast on the front lawn. Unlike the last few years, when we weren’t allowed to have parents on site, this year the dads could relax and chat. I am not sure how many dads actually got to eat their donuts though, as there seemed to be a lot of children eating them too!

I do hope the dads enjoyed eating the surprise goodies made by the students on Wonderful Wednesday. I thank the staff for their incredible energy and patience during the cooking sessions.

NAPLAN
Recently, we received our school’s NAPLAN results for our Year 3 and 5 students. We are thrilled with the improvements made over the past few years. Despite COVID and its disruptions, we have met our Annual Improvement goals of having increased percentages of students in the top two bands in reading and writing. Thank you to Mrs Sue Heffernan our Assistant Principal for her commitment to leading the Teaching and Learning at St Mary’s and to our incredibly talented teaching staff for their hard work and dedication to improving student outcomes.    

Little Investigators

We will be hosting another Little Investigators morning next Wednesday September 14,  from 9:30 -10:30 am. All 3-5 year olds in the community and their parents are invited to come along and join in on the fun. The children do not need to be coming to St Mary’s in 2023. Please share this opportunity with anyone in the community who may be interested.

Social Media/ Cyber Bullying
Unfortunately bullying via social media is becoming increasingly common, even in Primary school aged students. In recent weeks, I have spoken with a few of our students who are either experiencing cyberbullying or being involved in it themselves. At school, we use resources from Kids Helpline and E-Safety to support us in teaching the students about cyber bullying and its impact. 

In partnership with the eSafety Commissioner, the Council of Catholic School Parents NSW/ACT will run a free webinar on Tuesday September 20 from 7:30-8:30pm for parents and carers of students aged 10 -18 years. I highly recommend parents participate in this important session. It will cover:  

-starting conversations with your child about their online friendships and positive ways to deal with changing relationships

-understanding the rights, laws and community expectations that govern social media use

-where to seek help if your child is involved in a cyberbullying incident.

2023 Classes
We are presently finalising the class structure for 2023. We are excited to be able to offer an average class size of 18.5 next year. If you know of any families considering enrolling their children at St Mary’s next year, can you please urge them to contact Annette Hazell or Cathy Smith at the school office as soon as possible. Some parents may be having difficulty with the online enrolment form, so please let us know and we can help in that area. Similarly, if you think you may be moving out of the local area at the end of the school year, we would appreciate being informed at your earliest convenience. The final class structure is dependent on knowing exactly how many children we have enrolled in any one age group. Thank you for your support with this. 

With only two weeks to go, we are asking that the students remain focused on finishing the term well. It has been a very busy one with lots of great things happening across the school. Behaviour is excellent and the efforts put into learning are commendable. 

Students finish school on Thursday September 22 and return to school on Tuesday October 11, as Friday September 23. is a designated Pupil Free Day. The staff will be at St Bede’s Primary School in Braidwood on Monday October 10, continuing with their High Impact Teaching Practices professional learning. 

I did not realise until this week that Pope Francis has a Twitter account. He posted today.

"God works through unplanned events, as well as through setbacks. Let us ask the Lord to send us His Spirit so that He might help us to discern and to recognize His presence even in the unforeseen and painful situations in our lives."

God’s blessings on your families.

Noeleen O'Neill
Principal