Principal’s Report

Dear Parents and Carers

On Friday, many of our students joined with children from other schools to experience a day of retreat and preparation for making their Reconciliation on Friday night. The notion of accepting responsibility for our choices as well as seeking and giving forgiveness is so central to the Catholic faith and is witnessed daily through our restorative justice processes with our students. Father Michael was supported by Father Leo from Nowra to lead the beautiful rituals involved in Reconciliation. The students entered into this sacred time with great reverence and open hearts, experiencing the healing power of forgiveness. Thanks to Father Michael, Mr Kinch , Mrs Valentini , Mrs Peters and the Parish Sacramental team for sharing their extensive knowledge and aspects of their Catholic faith with these children.

We are very excited next week to begin the first session of our ‘Transition To School Playgroup’ specifically for our Kindergarten 2020 students and their parents. These sessions will be held in our School hall on Monday afternoons and Wednesday mornings. The playgroup will give our new Kinders and their parents an opportunity to meet their classmates as well as ensuring that school is a friendly and familiar place for them. Please make our new families feel very welcome into our St Mary’s community.   

I hope that all of our dads, grandfathers, uncles and all the other special men in the lives of our children have had a lovely Fathers’ Day. Fathering is such an important responsibility, with current research saying that dads play a vital role in the development of children. Encouraging and supportive fathers that spend time playing with and caring for toddlers in the early years contribute significantly to better results in Mathematics and Reading at school. Father play also contributes to the development of emotional self-regulation, social adjustment and mental health. So many of our students are blessed to have such wonderful fathers and grandfathers in their lives, and it was great to have so many of these people come to join us for breakfast on Friday morning. A big thanks to Karyn Faust for organising everything and to the staff for cooking and serving. This was followed by a beautiful and very moving liturgy celebrating our dads. Thanks to Simon Kinch for all his efforts to make this so lovely. 

Our P and F Meeting is on tonight at 6 pm in the staffroom, we guarantee the meeting lasts for one hour only and we would love you to join us. The Father’s Day Stall was a great success and the plans for Trivia Night on the 20th September are well underway. It should be a great night, thanks to Jody Le and her enthusiastic team for their vision and energy for our whole school community. 

I would finally like to share with you some parenting ideas from Children’s author John Marsden. He is at times a controversial figure but often takes a grounded and practical perspective on the very difficult task of parenting.

1. Give children space, let them roam, let them be bored. 
2. Take them to real places, wiid places, avoid shopping centres and soulless sterile playgrounds.
3. Be the adult say ‘No’ to your child at least once a day. If you are not the adult in the home, one of your children will fill that role and it won’t be pretty!
4. Believe about 40% of the dramatic stories your children tell you of the injustices and corruption happening at school. 
5. Teach them empathy, if they win at sport remind them that the loss of the other team makes their success possible. 
6. Make sure they have regular jobs around the house and insist they are completed to a high standard. 
7. Help them develop language skills, give them time to speak and try new words. 
8. Teach your children to be wary of people who know absolutely everything, Every creature, every person  and every situation is complex. Our universe is a wonderful mystery. 

Reading that list, we are fortunate to have so many parents in our community who tick many of these points. Parenting is the most challenging job any of us have, I hope you find some of those ideas helpful to consider as you begin your week.

Yours in partnership,

Laurinda Nelson.