Dear Parents and Carers, 

Today marks the end of an extraordinary semester of schooling, the likes of which we hope we will not experience again.

If we stop and look back to the end of last term we find a school with only 4 students in attendance and the beginning of remote learning. To start this term, St Mary’s had around 30 students attending daily with remote learning in full swing.  Where would have we been without SeeSaw?

In Week 3 we invited all students back for one day a week and I’ll never forget the daily survey to gather information on who would be coming each day and ensuring we had the appropriate timetable and supervision to cater for what was expected.

Finally in Week 5 we were able to invite the entire student community back to face-to-face teaching.  It has just been wonderful to have our students back and filling the school with joys they bring.

Usually the schools cross country is one of many whole school activities that St Mary’s engages in.  This year the cross country was a very significant event indeed. It marked the first whole school activity that was outside of a video link up, since COVID-19 restrictions were put in place.  While the event was modified to meet the current restrictions and we couldn’t yet have our wonderful parent community in attendance, it will be the beginning of future whole school activities.

With all the changes that occurred over the semester a significant amount of pressure was placed on our teaching staff to keep offering quality learning experiences and our parents at home to help deliver and support the activities planned.

I thank everyone for their hard work and commitment to St Mary’s and encourage you all to have a restful break, to take time to enjoy the simple things in life and to find time to recharge the batteries ready for an exciting return to Term 3.

Go gently,

Mr Phil Nielsen

Principal