Dear Parents and Carers,

Welcome to Week 4 of Term 2.  I would like to thank our parent community for supporting the additional Professional Learning days that our system has granted.  St Mary’s has made wonderful use of the opportunity. Teachers have spent time collaborating and creating programs that will improve teaching and learning at the school.  We have also used the time to update relevant school policies to improve school procedures.

Pre Covid-19 student attendance data was extremely good at St Mary’s.  Obviously close contact and other restrictions have had a significant impact of students coming to school.  We are currently operating with very reasonable restrictions.  We are also moving into the period of the year that sickness is more prevalent, and it is time to put attendance at the highest priority.  Please do not ignore Covid-19 symptoms, but I strongly encourage parents to send students to school when they are well.  I have been reporting attendance numbers to the students and our record for the year is 7 students away.  We celebrated with some extra time for playtime.  I would welcome another opportunity to celebrate if we were able to beat that mark.

Thank you to our parents who pick up students in the afternoons.  You have made the adjustment and are now coming onto school grounds to walk your children safely back to your cars.  A reminder that when entering the Church car park the Court Street entrance is used and when exiting the Church St exit is used.  This is simply to enhance the flow and safety of the traffic.  I observed the problem of pick-up during heavy rain and I hope to have a change of procedure to help this situation coming out soon.

God Bless,

Mr Nielsen