Dear families,

I wanted to start off by saying a huge thank you to all families who helped out at the working bee on Saturday. Walking around the yard this week I continued to admire how much better the grounds looked and it was great to see children playing in areas that were either not accessessible or too rundown to play in. I was absolutely blown away by the time and effort that was given by our lovely volunteers. All of the shovelling, raking, sweeping, cleaning, lifting and pulling weeds has made such a huge difference to our yard and it actually looks like someone cares about it! It really shows what an awesome community we have and how lucky our students are to be a part of it.

On Tuesday we had a very special visit from Michael Rodd who was 2007 Melbourne Cup winner riding Efficient. Michael spoke to the students about what it is like to ride in the cup and life in general as a jockey. The students were then given the opportunity to ask questions and they really came up with some fantastic questions. Michael’s presentation was very engaging and informative and we were also lucky enough to have both the 2022 Melbourne Cup and Patrobus’ 1915 Melbourne Cup be brought in on horse drawn carriages. It was a unique and educational experience for all students who were engaged throughout.

As you are aware we have now set up the Parent Access Module (PAM) to allow communication between schools and families to be much more efficient. Our permission slips for excursions will now be sent through PAM. If you are having trouble setting this up please speak to Kylie, Tara or myself.

As a school we continue to have the safety of all children at St Mary’s as a major focus in all that we do. We have updated many of our processes and policies at school in line with the revised Victorian Child Safety Standards. These changes help all of our community to keep our children safe. All policies and procedures are available for parents to access on the school website. As always I encourage all parents to contact me if you have any concerns or questions about child safety or any other issues that concern your child.

Please have a great weekend.

Kind regards,

Julian