Thursday 7 June 2018

Term 2 Week 6 2018




Dear Parents and Friends,

Throughout this term it has been an absolute pleasure to interview the new families enrolling their children into St Mary’s School. I always ask parents the question of why they want to enrol their children into a Catholic school and in particular St Mary’s School. Answers vary of course, but a common theme is present in all their responses which is usually around the importance of teaching the Catholic values and celebrating the Liturgy as a community. For our leaders and teachers in the school it is about proclaiming the story and passing on the story to our children. We are the storytellers.

Historically St Mary’s School has experienced the four charisms of the Marists, the Josephites, the Mercy Sisters and the Jesuits and our students learn about the unique qualities of these religious orders. Have you noticed the beautiful artwork at the front entrance to the school? This new work of the Madonna and Child looks very much at home in the entrance area. It bridges the design elements and materials of the new buildings with its laser cut and computer engraved stainless steel elements, while also being sensitive to the history of the old buildings represented by the traditional cast bronze. Please stop and look when you are passing through.

Congratulations to Tayissa O in Year 6 and Bianca R in Year 4 who have made it through to Mackillop level in Cross Country.  This is the third representative level and a very big achievement. 

 Today I met with principals and their parent representatives from Trent Zimmerman’s electorate for a briefing with the Minister, Senator the Hon. Simon Birmingham on education issues resulting from the Gonski review. The opportunity also allowed for Sydney Catholic School principals to raise our concerns over the school funding debate and the current SES model which disadvantages so many of our Catholic schools in the Sydney Archdiocese because of their capital city location. Our brief to the Minister was to keep the high quality low fee system of Sydney Catholic Schools and remind him of the great work we do in all 152 schools in the Archdiocese of Sydney. I sincerely thank our St Mary’s School parent representative, Mr Sam Duggan for his expertise and generous support in this process.

 The staff are very busy at present preparing the Semester 1 reports for the children. We aim to provide detailed information to parents so that a very clear picture of each student’s achievements is accurately recorded. At this reporting period we are also concerned with giving directions for areas of improvement and growth in the second semester. Following the dissemination of the reports, parent/ teacher interviews have been arranged for the last week of the term to discuss the areas of improvement and growth. Please view the meetings as an important part of the communication in the learning process.

 It is with great delight that I congratulate the Year 6 class parents, and in particular Lisa Porter and Katie Delaney for their outstanding efforts in the recent Lapathon raising $26,000 for our new library. Well done to all!

Best wishes,
Beverly Coffey