Dear Parents and Carers

Welcome to Week 7, our year is rapidly coming to a close. Next week we enter the season of Advent which is a reminder that we should prepare our hearts for the celebration of Christmas. Traditionally, we are waiting and watching for the birth of Jesus signified through the lighting of a candle each week around an Advent wreath. These faith traditions and rituals ground us in a time of busyness and guide us in a time when it is easy to get caught in a world of presents and plans. All of our students will have times of quiet and prayer over the next few weeks to open our hearts to the message of hope and love. 

Last week we were involved in two significant events connecting us with our community, the first the celebration of NAIDOC Week. We marked this significant week with a liturgy and smoking ceremony led by one of our parents, Uncle Phil Butler and his son Axel. We were so privileged to share the language and stories of our local traditional owners. Through witnessing traditional song and dance you cannot not help but to be transported to the time when the local Aboriginal community lived with and cared for the local environment with a deep sense of spirituality. Our Aboriginal students represented their culture and identity with great pride during the ceremony as they shared their cultural identity with our school community. The children participated with a great reverence, respect and awe. We are so blessed to witness everyday from our hilltop the grandeur and preciousness of mother earth around us. An enormous thank you to Phil, Axel, Melissa Henry, Anne-Marie Wilson and our wonderful Aborginal Cultural group for sharing this day with us. 

Last week we also delivered many native plants to the residents of Conjola Park, an initiative from Convoy of Hope and Karen Lissa, to provide plants to bring back the gardens that were so sadly lost during the fires. Our school was represented by Lillie Phelan and Xavier Brooks who spoke at the presentation of bringing hope and love back to  this amazingly resilient community. Thanks to Brent Harding for managing this project at school with the Environmental group and Year 5. 

This week we are super excited to be holding St Mary’s inaugural Colour Fun Run, there has been such an enormous energy around this in the school. Our wonderful P and F are such a driving force of good and kindness in our school. The generosity of donors has been amazing, thank you to everyone for their support of our school. Great plans are afoot for the replanting of lost trees , the playground and a new school garden area. 

We are also very excited to be hosting the premiere of ‘Dragon Days’ this Thursday night at 5:30pm. Sadly our audience really is limited due to COVID restrictions, with two precious tickets being issued to each main characters’ families but please join in the fun by Zooming in on https://dowcatholic.zoom.us/j/95471488410. 

Every child in our school has a part, some will be present in videos which will be played throughout the play, so it is a must see for every family. A Zoom recording will also be made available for friends and families to see later. Our P and F have so kindly arranged a premiere pack for each family on the Dragon Days theme, so please make it a family event at home! None of this would have been possible without the dedication of Mrs Daniella Cooper, our director and Mrs Glenda Johnston on props and costumes. The dedication and commitment of these people is astounding, and of course to our emerging stars who are sharing their talents and being incredibly brave to get up on stage and shine! 

Lastly I am now in a position to share the teaching staff with you for 2021. I am making this announcement early as this can be quite a stressful time for children as they prepare to leave one class and teacher for new horizons. 

• Kindergarten- Miss Helena Karas 
• Year One - Mrs Lisa Collins
• Year Two - Mrs Ursula Porter
• Year Three - Miss Ashleigh Pace
• Year Four - Mr Brent Harding
• Year Five - Mrs Anne-Marie Wilson 3 days / Mrs Kristy Delia 2 days
• Year Six -Mrs Gabrielle Peters 4 days/ Mrs Katy Reid 1 day

In addition we will have the following teachers in specialist areas:

• Visual Arts/ SPLICED - Mrs Emily McGregor
• PE- Mrs Kristy Delia
• STEM- Mrs Katy Reid
• Dance/ Drama / Italian - Mrs Daniella Cooper 
• Music/ Learning Support - Mrs Erin Chard 

We are so fortunate to have such a wealth of expertise on our staff, we will be ensuring our children have opportunities to meet their new teachers over the next few weeks. 

Yours in partnership

Laurinda Nelson