Dear families, 

It has been a busy week at St Mary's!

Our focus on student safety began with the Cyber Safety Project on Tuesday working with all the students on how to stay safe online.  

 Ronnie, our digital technology leader, will continue to share resources on how you can help your children throughout the year.

There is also a special offer for St Mary's families to access valuable resources to continue the important job of building open and communication with your child when it comes to navigating the online world. 

This week we started our school tours for prospective 2022 prep families.  School tours always bring about such pride and this year has been no different.  Marg Masseni does an amazing job spruiking our school and the tours received great, positive feedback. 

We had a wonderful turn out for our healthy breakfast on Wednesday. Thanks to the parents who helped provide and serve an amazing array of options for the 70+ students who attended. 

Last night we had our first Parents and Friends meeting in over a year, and my first ever at St Mary's.  It was a wonderful turn out. We discussed many options for fundraising for the year ahead and also discussed various points of view regarding the drawing of Easter raffle.  It was decided that given we have already advertised and sold tickets, the raffle would be drawn the same way it has in the past. However, from next year, the raffle will be drawn as a 'traditional' raffle, with a limited number of prizes. The main problem with the raffle draw in its current format is that there are only a small number of students who miss out on receiving a prize. As with all fundraising efforts, it is a parent's prerogative not to participate, so by changing the format, it will mean that a smaller number of families win, but it also means that we don't end up with such a small number of students leaving empty handed. We will be addressing this inequity by giving those students an egg in their classroom. 

I will be hosting our Meet and Greet feedback sessions next week at various times. 

Please complete the form here to indicate a session you would like to attend. 

I ask that you consider the following questions for reflection:

1. What do you want to KEEP about St Mary's?
2. What do you want to CHANGE about St Mary's?
3. What do you want to STOP at St Mary's?
4. What do you want to START at St Mary's?

We are also in the process of (pardon the pun)  confirming a Confirmation Sacrament information evening for families of St Mary's Year 6 2020  students who missed out last year. Please keep the evening of 20th April free and we will send out a separate confirmation as soon as we are able. 

Take care and God bless, 

Sonia

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After a year where we were not able to celebrate any parish Sacraments, I am very excited to be able to announce the dates for the Sacraments of Reconciliation, Eucharist and Confirmation.

 While our aim was to hold Reconciliations in Year 3, Eucharists in Year 4 and Confirmations in Year 6, this did not happen last year and so the Year 4 students in 2021 will celebrate both Reconciliation and Eucharist.

Reconciliation:

This Sacrament will be celebrated by all eligible Year 3 and 4 students. It will be organised so that groups of 6 students and their families can book in with me to attend either the 9:15am or 6pm Saturday Mass in our parish Church and stay behind afterwards for the Sacrament of Reconciliation. More information on when and how to book will follow in subsequent newsletters. The following Saturdays are available for booking 1/5, 8/5, 15/5, 22/5, 29/5 and the 5/6 so please check your diaries and have a couple of options in mind for when bookings do commence.

Eucharist:

This Sacrament will be celebrated in class groups by all eligible Year 4 students. This keeps the numbers manageable and allows plenty of room for children to have more guests/family in attendance than if we did fewer ceremonies. The Masses will be held in our parish Church on Saturday nights at 6 pm on:

 21/8 for Year 3/4S 

 28/8 for Year 3/4B

 4/9 for Year 3/4A

 11/9 for Year 4/5L

 

Confirmation:

This Sacrament will be celebrated by all eligible Year 6 students. The Mass will be held on Saturday the 23rd of October at 6pm in our parish Church.

We are unable to announce further dates or details as we are still reviewing restrictions and current guidelines to see what parent/family information nights or workshops may be possible in 2021.  We thank you for your understanding at this time while we work to ensure the inclusion and safety of all concerned as best we can.

Yours in Faith

Matthew Taylor

Religious Education Leader

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