Dear Parents and Carers, 

It has been great to see students back into routine for 2024. We have lots of exciting things happening and I encourage families to utilise the newsletter, Facebook page and Compass to ensure communication about these events are received. If you are having trouble connecting to any of these mediums, please don’t hesitate to reach out. On this note, keep an eye out for our Kinder profiles in next week’s newsletter. Student buddies will be interviewing our Kinders and begin introducing them to our school community through these profiles!

Opening School Mass

I’d like to thank our families for attending our Opening School Mass this afternoon. It is always great to see parents, guardians and extended family members attending these special events - you are always most welcome! A special thanks to Miss Buckmaster for her organisation and our staff for providing lunch for our families afterwards.

Family BBQ

Next Thursday 15th February St Mary’s look forward to hosting families for our annual school barbeque. This is a great way for our school community to come together and meet some new faces, particularly our Kinder families. We have organised a 5pm start and ask that parents/guardians fill out the attached form (click link) as this will help with organisation on the day. We look forward to seeing you at school!

Swimming Carnival

Thank you for your understanding around the change of date with the swimming carnival. It is always difficult making these decisions and I appreciate families' support. We’ll have another crack at it tomorrow - the weather is looking far better than Monday so we look forward to an enjoyable day at the pool!

REMINDER from last week: The carnival will commence at 9:30am and conclude by 1:00pm. As mentioned, all students will come to the pool as there will be competitive events, novelty events and some water play activities for our younger students.

Students will need to bring the following items with them for the pool:

• swimmers including a rashie top (students don’t have to wear their rashie in competitive races)
• towel
• Sunscreen
• packed recess and lunch. We will do lunch orders for those not wanting to bring a packed lunch. The kiosk will be open for a small part of the day if students would like to purchase something.
• plenty of water
• goggles (if needed
• thongs may be worn. 

This is a non-uniform day and students are invited to come dressed in their house colour (red for Hume/green for Hovell). No hair spray please. Students who are not confident swimmers will have some novelty type events to enter throughout the day. It is a relaxed program and a fun day for all. 

Breakfast Club

Thank you for the offer of parent assistance for Breakfast Club - we will trial running this ‘breakfast top-up’ every day. Please see the parent roster below. If you are unable to make your morning, please contact the school and a staff member will coordinate this for the morning. If other parents want to come in and assist, don’t hesitate to contact the school

Monday - Chelsea Dudley

Tuesday - Miran Edwards

Wednesday - Miran Edwards

Thursday - St Mary’s staff

Friday - Chelsea Dudley

* Parents whose roster varies from week to week can come in on any of the above days

Enjoy the remainder of your week,

Ryan

Opening School Mass

Today we celebrated our Opening School Mass, inducted our school leader and welcomed our new Kindergarten students to the 2024 school year. With many family members and local parishioners attending, it was a wonderful celebration that brought together our school community and set a positive tone for the year ahead. Year 5/6 presented our Mass beautifully with Father Joe presiding. 

It was a special way to begin our year and acknowledge a sense of belonging and unity among students, staff, and families.