Dear Parents and Carers 

This Friday, will be a Pupil Free Day for our students as our St Mary’s staff gather for our Spirituality Day, last week Simon Kinch, Father Michael and I travelled to North Sydney to Mary MacKillop Place to reconnect with the Josephite Sisters who founded St Mary’s School and supported our school for many years. As a school we are seeking to connect with the values or Charism of our school in the past to understand our identity and purpose in our current society. Sr Monika Barlow shared with us the belief that the Josephite tradition was always to ensure the dignity of every person whilst  contributing to the community in ways that the government or society at the time does not. In the past, this was particularly service to the poor in the community, as a Catholic school we still see this as an important aspect of what we do and who we are. In the 21st century, we also look to the protection of the environment that in our current society is of imminent concern. We look forward to working with some of the Josephite sisters to begin the journey to develop our school Vision and Mission statement. 

Last week we were so pleased to welcome our Kinders 2020 and their parents to our Transition To School Playgroup. This initiative familiarises our new students with each other, our school environment and the staff. It helps to build community with our parents getting to know each other as their children play together. Playgroup will happen every Monday afternoon and Wednesday morning until next term.  A big thank you to Julie Valentini, Chloe Cerff and Karynne Treweek for making playgroup possible. 

We are having school photos this Tuesday, these photos will be taken in full winter uniform, including school ties and polishable black leather shoes. Uniform is a clear indicator of belonging and I urge you to ensure that your children are in full uniform everyday including a school hat. As the warmer weather arrives, I am happy for students to move to summer uniform after our photo day on Tuesday. Full Summer uniform will be expected at the beginning of term 4 for all students. 

 We are looking forward to the P and F Trivia night on Friday night at the Mollymook Surf Club. The committee have worked really hard to make this night happen so I ask you to join in the fun by coming along. A big thank you to our P and F for working to raise funds for our Nature Playground and a class set of Robotics. We look forward to seeing you there.

For the first four weeks of Term Four, I will be taking leave to support my son through the HSC Exams. I am pleased to announce that in my absence Mr Anthony Kenna will be Acting Principal. Mr Kenna is a very experienced Principal who currently works within the Catholic Education Office. I assure you, Mr Kenna is an approachable and professional leader and I have every confidence in his leadership in my absence. I know our school community will make him feel very welcome next term. 

Good luck to our very own Eden Sakora who today is competing at Homebush today in the MacKillop Athletics Chamionships. Eden is an astoudingly talented athlete, who always gives 100% effort and always displays a wonderful sense of sportsmanship. Congratulations Eden, we are so proud of you. 

This will be the final Newsletter for Term 3, and the next two weeks promise to be full of opportunities for our students to experience many varied learning experiences beyond the curriculum. We will celebrating Grandparents Day on Friday 27th September, inviting grandparents/ special visitors to share a picnic lunch with their children in the school grounds then join us for a special performance of our school play. The premiere of our school production “The Bee Musical’, will premiere on Wednesday night 25th at 5:30 with a matinee performance then on Friday as part of our Grandparents’ Day Celebration. Many hours of hard work have gone into making this production a reality for our students, our staff team consisting of Ann Marie Wilson, Erin Chard, Chloe Cerff and Daniella Cooper providing guidance and support to our budding actors. Please try to make one of these performances, I guarantee it will give you a ‘BUZZ!’ 

Have a great week, I hope to see you at school.

Yours in Partnership 

Laurinda Nelson