Dear Parents

This Sunday we commence a new Liturgical Year as we start with the First Sunday of Advent. In this new liturgical year, the Church not only wishes to indicate the beginning of a period, but the beginning of a renewed commitment to the faith by all those who follow Christ, the Lord.

The season of Advent is a season of waiting, that prepares us to welcome the mystery of the Word Incarnate, who will give the ‘Light’ to the womb of the Virgin Mary. At school over the last few weeks five of our children have also been waiting and preparing. Waiting and preparing for the sacrament of Reconciliation. Last night culminated in four children receiving the sacrament and one a special blessing at our Church. Well done to the families and teachers who have been working and ‘preparing’ the students this term.

Our final working POD (Grade 2, 3 and 4) is nearly complete after furnishings arrived yesterday. The building program internally is very close to completion and outside some footpaths and ramps are all that remains. I am hoping parents will be able to see our finished refurbishment before the end of the year.

The school will keep monitoring COVID regulations as we hope to celebrate our Grade Six students graduating from primary school. The teachers have some different options they are working towards and are hopeful a ceremony and day out celebrating together will be allowed in the current climate.

Prepare seems to be the word of the week. The school is preparing for the 2021 school year. Next year in 2021 we will have all of our flexible spaces (PODS) in working order. In POD 1 we have Foundation and Grade 1. The classroom teachers in this space will be Virginia Hellings, Kerry Barton and Serrin Stobie. In POD 2 we will have Grade 5 and Grade 6. The teachers in this space will be Di Austin, Samantha Zabaneh and Michael Todd. We welcome Sammi from St Mary’s Bairnsdale and she is looking forward to joining our staff. In POD 3 we will have Grade 2, Grade 3 and Grade 4. The teachers in this space will be Kathy MacLean, Bec Halley and Tara Battista. We are also fortunate to have some extra funding because of lost learning opportunities due to COVID. We will be using this funding to employ some mentor teachers to help some of our students in a variety of ways to support learning.

In the next newsletter I will share the full staff list to include the leadership positions, Learning Support Officers and administration positions. We will also have the opportunity to thank Kate Donald who will be working at Catholic College Sale full-time next year and Tina Verstedan who has resigned from her teaching position. We thank both of these ladies for the contributions they have made to St Mary’s.

I hope you all have a fantastic weekend.

Jason