Dear Parents and Carers

Welcome to the 2025 school year. I am excited to start the new school year with you all. On behalf of the staff, I extend a very warm welcome to both returning families and those who are new to our St Mary’s community.

As we embark on this new year, please know that you have my full support. Our K-12 theme for 2025, “The Holy Spirit reminds us first and foremost that we are children loved by God—everyone equal in God’s love, and everyone different” (Pope Francis), will serve as a beacon to guide us throughout this year. It is a reminder that each of us, with our unique gifts and talents, is equal in God’s love. This message will inspire us to be a guiding light for each other, fostering a sense of community, compassion, and understanding. Let us embrace this theme as we continue to build a school environment that reflects God’s love and care. I am looking forward to a wonderful year together!

We will mark the beginning of the school year with a Staff Commissioning Mass for K-12 Pathway schools at Sacred Heart Church on Saturday, 15 February, at 5:00 pm. This is a beautiful way to start the year, embraced by our school and parish community. All families are invited to join us.

TEACHING AND LEARNING
Last Friday, our staff engaged in a valuable day of professional learning focused on teaching and learning. We had the privilege of hearing from key educational leaders, including Natalie Wexler and Professor Daniel Willingham, who shared insights to deepen our understanding and practice.

Our day concluded with an inspiring address from Pam Betts, Interim Executive Director of Catholic Education. She reminded us of the role we play as Catholic educators—helping to shape our students into the people God calls them to be.

Teaching and learning is at the heart of our mission, and we remain committed to growing in our practice to best serve our students.

PASTORAL CARE AND BEHAVIOUR MANAGEMENT
At St Mary’s Primary School, we believe that Pastoral Care and Welfare are essential in creating a safe, supportive, and nurturing environment for all. Together, we strive to protect personal and community safety, heal destructive behaviours, restore relationships, encourage reconciliation, enhance wellbeing, foster responsibility, enable personal growth, and promote the common good.

If an incident occurs at school involving your child, a teacher—either the one on duty or the one supporting the situation—will make a phone call home. This ensures that all parents of students involved, including those of the victim, are informed. Please note that this may not necessarily be your child’s classroom teacher.

We always welcome open communication and encourage parents to reach out to their child’s classroom teacher to discuss any social, academic, or behavioural concerns. Please know that our doors are always open—we value working together to support the wellbeing and success of every child.

WELCOME BARBEQUE AND DISCO
We would like to invite all our St Mary's families to a Welcome Barbeque and Disco on Thursday 27 Feb from 5.00pm – 6.30pm. This will be held in the Performing Arts Hall and on the grass outside the Administration Building. There is no cost for the sausages and some of our Community Council members will be selling sweet treats. 

STAFFING UPDATE
I would like to extend a special welcome to our new staff members, including Mr Riley Nolan, our Aboriginal Education Worker, Miss Afton Haultain, Mrs Alyssa Ziegler, Mrs Rebecca Brady, and Mrs Ellen Shannon. Mrs Ziegler will be teaching Year 3 Thursday and Friday for Executive Release for Mrs Durnan and Year 1 on Wednesdays for Mrs Rebecca Brady who will be Aboriginal Contact Teacher. Mrs Ellen Shannon will be teaching Performing Arts Thursday and Friday. Miss Afton Haultain has joined our Classroom Support Team and will be assisting students in the classroom and on the playground.

SCHOOL COMMUNICATION
Communication between home and school is both valued and encouraged. We believe it is one of the most vital elements in creating an effective and welcoming community. Emails and messages through Compass are being pushed out regularly with updates and important information to remind you of events and changes that may be occurring for your children. All classroom teachers have group emails created for their parent group. If your email changes, please advise our front office staff. Parent emails are kept private. Staff will always use Bcc when sending group emails.

I encourage all families to visit our school calendar for key dates such as parent-teacher conferences, school assemblies, and special events. Stay tuned for detailed calendars and reminders throughout the school year. Parent Introductory Meetings are planned for Week 3. Information regarding these meetings was sent out to families at the beginning of the week.

SCHOOL COUNSELLOR
Ms Faith Costigan, our School Counsellor, will work Thursdays and alternate Fridays. Referrals can be made to the School Counsellor through myself. If you have any concerns or questions around counselling, please do not hesitate to come and see me.

We are looking forward to celebrating the achievements of our students throughout the year. From academic milestones to extra-curricular successes, we'll keep you informed about the fantastic accomplishments of our St Mary’s community. We are thrilled to have each of you as part of our St Mary’s family. Together, let's make this school year a memorable and successful one!

Please know we are here to support you in every way we can. My door is always open Thank you for entrusting us with your child's education, and we eagerly anticipate a fantastic school year ahead! 

Kind regards
Jo

Mrs Johanna Wain
Principal 

Year 3 have hit the ground running this week, trying their best with their learning both in the classroom and outside of the classroom. As a class we have a yearning for learning and are loving every opportunity to dazzle Mrs Durnan and Mrs Zielger. 

In Maths we have been working on reviewing our Year 2 knowledge of place value up to 10,000 as well as addition, subtraction and even some time tables! We are looking forward to extending our knowledge this year and are ready for the challenge.

In English we have already started on our class novel ‘Matilda’ by Roald Dahl. Even though it is a well known story, we are using this as a springboard for our writing by learning more about narrative and grammatical features of texts. This term we are learning how to write a detailed narrative which will be a submission for the Mayor’s Writing Competition. This year’s theme is on ‘Friendship.’ 

In History with Mrs Ziegler we have started to explore the knowledge we already know about the history of Moruya and the South Coast. We are looking at building a timeline of key events of our area from now back through to pre white settlement.  

In Creative Art we have been exploring the use of oil pastels and blending. We are in the process of creating a self portrait. We are using both cool and warm colours to show the contrast between shapes in a way to highlight our favourite colours and represent ourselves. In Drama with Mrs Shannon we are exploring the use of voice and movement to represent emotions. We are all very excited to be able to show our dramatic side each week on the stage!

In Religious Education we have been pausing in our day with Christian meditation. We have been learning how it helps nurture a deeper spiritual connection, helping children feel closer to God and understand His love and guidance. We have also been learning how it also helps with our emotional regulation giving us time to pause, balance and reset. Talking to God in meditation helps us to manage our emotions better, promoting a balanced and healthy emotional state as well.

We have also been learning about the heroes of the Church as part of our unit on ‘Jesus as our Image’. We have learnt about the qualities of Jesus and how we use these to model ourselves and we see role models in our community. We discussed the difference between a physical image of Jesus and that people didn’t take photos that long ago, and what he may have looked like and how we can imagine to be like Jesus as a role model. We have read scriptural passages from Matthew explaining Jesus’ ministry and compared them to people in our Moruya community who also help others. We visited the Church to look at images of Jesus and where we can see and feel his presence and created our own stained glass windows to show where and how we see Jesus around us.

Mrs Carla Durnan
Teacher 3 Blue