Dear Parents/Carers,

Welcome to Week 2. We have a very busy couple of weeks ahead of us so please read the newsletter carefully so you don’t miss any upcoming dates.

Yesterday we welcomed our new Kindergarten class for 2025. I was impressed with how settled and how well they adapted to life at St Mary’s. Many thanks to all staff for their preparation and making our new students feel so welcome. It makes me very proud to lead such a fabulous team.

As mentioned in the last newsletter, our Community Council School Fete has been postponed to Friday the 22^nd of November. You can still donate to our stalls which are featured later in the last newsletter. These donations of old books or ‘trash n treasure’ can be dropped to the school hall during school hours.

Late last term, Mrs Emma Speedy organised some new sandpit toys for the students to play with during recess and lunch. These additions to the playground have proved quite popular and we thank all students for their excellent behaviour with this new playground equipment. The use of these sandpit toys coincided with the launch of our new positive behaviour approach of ‘Gotcha’ cards. Well done to Freddy Miles in Year 2 and Harriet Bell in Year 4 who were the first winners drawn out of the barrel. Who will it be this week??

On the weekend Parishioners of Catholic Churches in the Archdiocese of Canberra and Goulburn came together for the Archdiocesan Assembly. The gathering focused on celebrating the Year of the Holy Spirit and explored new opportunities for evangelisation in the life and mission of our local church. At the assembly, the themes of Encounter, Discipleship and Mission were a lovely way to discuss and discern how other churches around West Wyalong are reflecting on how the Holy Spirit has been at work in their Parish in this the year of the Holy Spirit.

Remember my door is always open.

Principal

Damian Collins