Dear Parents and Carers,

I would like to welcome our continuing families to another exciting school year and extend a special welcome to our new families for 2021. This year we invite the Brose, Crerar, Fair, O’Meley, Patton, Pursehouse, Pike, Hardie and Wilson families into the school. I sincerely hope your experience with the school is positive and your students are engaged with their learning.

2021 already feels different to last year and with the contact tracing system NSW has developed, I feel extremely confident that we will be free to engage in usual school activities as years past. It was just wonderful to have our parents back at St Mary's swimming carnival and we look forward to more parent participation as the year rolls on.

It is also with great joy that I welcome 22 new students to our school.

• In Kinder Kind we have Poppi Barber, Clancy Blampied, Annabelle Brose, Harry Carne, Harrison Chantrill, Alex Crerar, Mae Dean, Indi Fair, Meila Fair, Lola Glasgow, Charlie Hague, Louis Morton, Ciara O’Meley, Ella Patton, Charlotte Pursehouse, Reuben Ridley , Lanie Sams, Adaline Stephens, Ivy Wilson.
• In Year 3/4 Trust we have Jasper Campbell-Pike
• In Year 3/4 Peace we have Jess Hardie
• In Year 5/6 Hope we have Hannah Campbell-Pike

I look forward to getting to know you all and finding out about your story.

2021 also sees two new teachers join our staff. I would like to offer my support to Mrs Rebecca McPake (Year 1 Joy teacher) and Miss Chloe Beach (Year 5/6 Faith teacher) and warmly welcome them to St Mary’s.

For those that are new to our community, I have been teaching in Catholic schools since 1999. St Mary’s is the third school that I have taught in, having previous experiences at Our Lady of the Sacred Heart Merbein for 1 year and St Mary’s Toukley for 7 years. I am passionate about developing the whole child and helping them to grow to the best version of themselves and about Catholic Education and the dimension Christ brings to all of us. I am passionate about supporting my staff and giving each one the resources they need to thrive in their positions and about working with the parent and wider community to promote a healthy connection with the school and the students that fill our classrooms every day.

I would like to offer an invitation to our entire school community to contact the school for any reason, either positive or negative. I am open to constructive feedback and no issue is too big or too small for the school to be contacted about. I am looking forward to collaborating with the entire School community.

Kind Regards,

Phil Nielsen

Principal