Dear Parents and Carers

Last weekend, we celebrated Good Shepherd Sunday. The Gospel reflected on the image of the Good Shepherd—one who knows, guides, and protects his flock. This resonates with the recent election of Pope Leo XIV, who, like the Good Shepherd, is called to lead and care for the global Catholic community. His election brings with it a renewed sense of guidance and hope for the Church, following the incredible work of Pope Francis.

Within our own St Mary’s community, we also witnessed this spirit of leadership and commitment as our Year 6 students made their Commitment at Mass. This special moment marks an important step in their preparation to receive the Sacrament of Confirmation in June. We pray that, inspired by the Good Shepherd and Pope Leo XIV, our students will embrace the next step in their faith journey.

We have had a number of students across the school travelling to represent our Archdiocese at different sports and today we have students travelling to Canberra to represent our Southern Region in Cross Country. It is such a wonderful achievement for our students to reach this level and we are very proud of them. Last week we had a great week celebrating Catholic Schools’ Week. The purpose of the week is to celebrate our Catholic schools, highlighting our catholic identity and our inclusiveness. We are very fortunate to have a strong K-12 Pathway for Catholic Education on the Coast. Throughout Catholic Schools’ Week we joined together as a Catholic community for many events and purposes. The week ended with St Mary’s and St Bernard’s Year 5 and Year 6 students joining together for Carroll Day. We enjoyed celebrations with Open Day and Mother’s Day. Our K-12 connection will continue with St Mary’s hosting a Teddy Bear’s Picnic on Tuesday 20 May. I know Kindergarten are very excited about this event!

Reading Instruction

St Mary’s has adopted evidenced based instruction that is underpinned by The Simple View of Reading and Cognitive Science. This research-based approach informs the design of our instruction and classroom delivery. The Simple View of Reading and Literacy instruction compromises of explicit and systematic teaching word recognition, subject matter knowledge, vocabulary, sentence comprehension and language from written texts. All schools are implementing evidence-based teaching practices, meaning every student in every classroom across St Mary’s is provided with highly impactful lessons that improve learning outcomes. These teaching practices are relevant in all year groups and subjects, they are contextualised with relevant learning materials and complexity. We have a strong focus on literacy, providing intervention programs and shared literacy curriculum resources for all year levels.

Parents are encouraged to read with their child every night. Discuss with your child/ren what they learnt or enjoyed in the book. For younger children, ask them to read aloud at least four times per week. Help your child learn new words by using tricky and complex words, explaining what they mean and how they can use them. The staff have been focusing on paired fluency.

What is fluency?
Fluency is the ability to read accurately, at a good pace, and with expression. It requires students to effortlessly combine a set of complex skills which is not often easy for all students and requires some dedicated practice.

Why teach fluency?
When students are able to read fluently, they can read with automaticity and accuracy which allows them to access the meaning of the text more easily. Many studies have highlighted the critical relationship between fluency and comprehension (e.g., Lai et. al, 2014; Kim & Wagner, 2015; Klauda & Guthrie, 2008). It is clear that students that are able to read with greater fluency can better understand what they read.

Enrolment Reminder
We encourage families to complete all enrolment applications by the end of May. If you know of any families wishing to enrol for 2026, please encourage them to contact the Front Office and complete an enrolment form online. We have already received a number of applications. Please encourage those thinking of enrolling to make contact with the Front Office for a school tour. 

iPhones and SMART Watches
I understand that some students may need to bring a phone or Apple watch to school to be able to contact parents on their travel to or from school. Just a reminder to all parents that these are not to be used at school. All phones should be handed into the teacher at the beginning of the day or left zipped up in their school bag. Smart watches are to be treated the same as phones at school if messages/calls can be sent to them. Any messages for students during the day can be received via the Front Office. We want to remove the distractions to support students to focus on teaching and learning. 

SAVE THE DATE: PARENT ENGAGEMENT WORKSHOP TUESDAY 17 JUNE
On Tuesday 17 June, we will be hosting an Open School Community Council Meeting. Our focus will be on facilitating a workshop on Home and School Connections, particularly around supporting student health and wellbeing. The Workshop will be led by Sarah Rose, Catholic Education Family Engagement Officer. There are three Primary workshops, and we will be engaging in Workshop One: Home-School Connections for Primary Student Health and Wellbeing. The workshop is designed to be run with parents and staff. Our teachers will be engaging in the workshop with parents.

Please find the link to RSVP https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/STMWorkshop2025 Childcare will be available. If you have any questions or need further information, please don’t hesitate to reach out to us.

NATIONAL WALK SAFELY TO SCHOOL
This week is National Road Safety Week. Today, we came together as a community for a fun and active start to the day by participating in National Walk Safely to School Day. It was wonderful to see so many students joining in and embracing the opportunity to promote road safety, health, and wellbeing.

SCHOOL COMMUNITY COUNCIL MEETING: MONDAY 19 MAY at 5:00PM 
Just a reminder that on Monday we are holding our next School Community Council meeting at 5.00pm in the Year 5 Classroom. Chloe Green, CE Governance and Policy Advisor, and Sarah Rose, CE Family Engagement Officer, will be leading our meeting to provide information on the purpose and role of a School Community Council. All parents and carers are invited to attend. It would be wonderful if you were able to join us. 

Blessings on the week ahead.

Kind regards
Jo 

Mrs Johanna Wain
Principal