Welcome to St Mary's Parish Primary School

Dear Parents and Friends, The year has been one that has brought many positive outcomes for us as a learning community, but being a community we are reflective of the wider community, therefore some sadness and challenges have also been experienced. To all those who have faced difficulties in their lives, I trust that the peace of Christmas will help heal your pain. As a learning community, we were honored to have been chosen as one of three Victorian schools to be a part of the ACARA 15 Illustrations of Curriculum where we show cased our work in implementing the Australian Curriculum. This Project is almost completed and each Illustration will be available on the ACARA website as a resource for all schools. We have also been actively involved in Projects with Apple and Google and the work we have done in these Projects will also be used as a resource in general education arenas. We have once again been successful in the sporting field with individual students and Teams making it through to the State Athletics with Erin taking out the State Championship in the Triple Jump. Our School Performance in July was well received and the students gained some wonderful learning through this experience. Through the enthusiastic, committed and hard work of the Grounds Committee, a sub Committee of the School Advisory Board, ably supported by the MAD Team, Bonnie’s Playground was successfully developed. And in June, many of us had the pleasure of attending the Robbie Williams experience, organized by the Parents’ Association where $10,000 was raised for the school. When reflecting on all these experiences and successes, it can only be said that we are a dynamic community working together for the common good. Thank you to everyone for allowing all this to happen. STAFFING 2015 This week we farewell Candice who leaves us to join the staff of St. Joseph’s in Brunswick and also Christine, who after 7 years as Tuck shop coordinator, is taking on a new direction for the future. Christine has provided our students with an excellent service over the years and I thank her sincerely. As mentioned last week, Candice has been a much respected and valued teacher at St. Mary’s and we will miss her contributions and presence amongst us. Good luck to you both. Julie finished her contract with us but I’m sure we will see her doing work with us in the future. Thank you Julie for all the work and your participation in the life of our school over the past year. Next year Nicole will join our teaching staff and Melanie has been employed to manager the Tuck shop. I trust the Christmas season will be celebrated with joy, peace and hope as you commemorate His coming amongst us. Enjoy the holiday break and I will look forward to catching up with everyone in the New Year. Principal Helen Anderson