Dear Parents

To say that the last couple of weeks at Mary Mac were extraordinary, would be an understatement! With constant changes to the restrictions made by the Health Department and the State Government, it led to a very intense and confusing time for everyone. However, from what I saw, the staff, students and parents have all been remarkable. We are told that we are now coming into the peak of caseloads in WA, which I am hoping means that things will improve quickly for us. I am also very grateful to the parents who notified us of a close contact or positive case at home. Your diligence has helped us to manage the situation. CEWA have just created a new self-reporting portal which should make it even easier for you and us to keep track of all cases in our community. A message was sent out earlier this week with all the details. You can now inform us of your situation via the link that was attached to the message. Please do not underestimate the importance of informing us of a positive Covid case. Your actions will ensure the risk to others is minimised and that we do our very best to limit the spread of the virus throughout our community. This link will also be available on our website. Again, I would like to thank everyone for their patience and understanding during this very challenging time. Let’s hope that next term looks more like a regular term and we can go back to running our school in the way we always have.

Resilience Reflection Self awareness allows us to see opportunities for self development. Self compassion provides the courage to take advantage of them and gratefulness allows us to see the gift in each opportunity, no matter how challenging it may be.

First Reconciliation Thankfully with all the restrictions in place, there is one programme that we can continue to offer, and that is the Sacrament of First Reconciliation for our Year 3 students. This will take place on Saturday morning 19 March in our Church. Both Fr John and Fr Mark will be available to listen to the students make their First Reconciliation and the parents will be able to attend as it is done individually and with small family groups. We offer this programme at this time every year as it ties in perfectly with Lent, which is a time for reflection, healing and forgiveness. Also, this Lent, I ask all families in our community to offer their prayers for the people in Ukraine. We have a number of families in our community who are going through an extra difficult time as they have relatives living there who are experiencing the devastating effects of war. I know Fr John is very concerned as he has family there too and he would greatly appreciate your prayers.

Parent Teacher Meetings Normally at this time every year, we invite parents to make an appointment to come into school to meet the teachers for interviews to discuss your children’s progress. As the current restrictions prevent this, we are working on a way around it with technology. You will receive a notification soon which explains how you can book a time with your children’s teachers where they can phone you to discuss their progress. It’s a bit like how you used to write your name on the sheet on the classroom door, except it is done electronically. Interviews will be spread out over the last three weeks of term to ensure you have the opportunity to speak with the teachers.

Translations One of the things I love most about our community is that we are very culturally diverse. However, this can make things difficult for parents with limited English. To try and overcome this difficulty, we have extended the number of languages on our website which can be translated. There is a button on the bottom right hand corner of the screen for you to use which hopefully will help you keep better informed, especially with Covid updates. If there are any languages that are not on it, but should be, please let me know and I will get our website manager to add it.

School Photos School photos have been postponed until 1 and 3  August. All orders that have been placed will be honoured and new orders can be placed prior to these days. Further information will follow closer to these dates.

Yours sincerely
Laurie Bechelli

Prayer of Consecration

We turn to you, Lord Jesus Christ, Word of God made flesh for us,
and we entrust the people of Ukraine to you who once said to your
disciples, “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you” (Jn 14:27).
Hear the cry of your people; change the hearts of those who have
unleashed such suffering on the innocent; strengthen the resolve of
those who are working to bring the conflict to an end; be close to
those who have been driven from their homes and from their
homeland; heal the wounds of mind and heart inflicted on the
children; comfort the frightened and the lost; strengthen the faith
of those who are bereaved; give eternal rest and joy to those who
have died.
In your own agony on the cross you entrusted your mother to the
beloved disciple, and entrusted him and all disciples to your
mother’s care (Jn 19:26). It was through Mary’s faith that you, the
Word made flesh, came to dwell among us. That same faith
strengthened Mary as she stood at the foot of the cross. We pray
that your suffering people in Ukraine may know and experience
that Mary stands with them, too, in this time of their great distress.
You have given Mary to us as the Mother of the Church and the
Help of Christians. With great confidence in the power of her
prayer, in accordance with the tradition of your Church, and in
communion with our bishop and all the Holy People of God, we
consecrate and entrust the people of Ukraine to Mary and ask that
our prayers might be joined with hers as we come before you now
in hope and in trusting faith. Hear our prayers, O Lord, and raise up
champions of peace, of justice and of healing, so that the weapons
of war may be silenced and the people of Ukraine may know the
peace that only you can give.

Mary, Mother of the Church, Help of Christians,
Mother of the Ukrainian people, pray for us.