Dear Parents and Caregivers,

Whilst we are enjoying the freedom of fewer restrictions, we are being hit hard with staff members now catching Covid and being required to stay away for 7 days or longer. This has had a massive impact on our community with some days up to 10 staff members are away at a time. Getting relief teachers is proving to be very difficult and some of your children are seeing myself, Mrs Liebregts or Mrs Tucker in the classrooms filling in for absent teachers. Even though this takes us away from our usual work, we have loved spending time at the coal face with the beautiful Mary Mac students. There is always a silver lining to every cloud. I am really hoping that the current wave passes quickly and that we can return to a more normal routine.

Resilience Reflection People who are resilient continue to move towards their goals in the face of challenges without the driven-ness that leads to stress, overwhelm and burnout.

NSIT (National School Improvement Tool) Please remember to fill in your surveys as the closing date for your feedback is this Friday 20 May.

First Holy Communion Our First Holy Communion Masses are set to proceed as planned on Saturday 28 and Sunday 29 May. As most of our families have prepared well by attending weekend Masses, we now believe that all students will receive the body of Christ in Holy Communion for the first time on these dates and we won’t need the back up dates planned for June. Please keep our students and their families in your prayers as we approach this important milestone in their lives.

Kindergarten 2023 I have started the enrolment process and the field for next year is very strong. One class is already full and the other one is filling quickly. Our highest priority is to keep our families together by granting younger siblings automatic enrolment. However, we don’t necessarily know if you have another child coming unless you tell us. Please make sure that we know about your younger children as I would hate for them to miss out. It is looking highly likely that both classes for next year will soon be full.

Camp Our camp is set to proceed from Wednesday 1 to Friday 3 June.  We have spent the past few years fine tuning this camp at the Ern Halliday site in Hillarys and it is an action packed and fun time. The focus is on team building and taking on new challenges. Many students will be pushed outside of their comfort zones. However, we know this is the space where growth occurs. The students will come home exhausted but the feedback we have received over the past couple of years has been outstanding. All students will be required to provide evidence of a negative RAT before they can go, so let’s hope that happens. I have been going to camps for many years now, and I believe that this one is best on offer.

Yours sincerely
Laurie Bechelli