Dear Parents and Caregivers

By now, I’m sure most of you have read that due to an increase in federal government funding next year, CEWA has recommended that we reduce our fees by 25% to help our families during these challenging financial times. Like you, I sent my own children to Catholic schools, and I realise the commitment you are making. However, upon reflection, I believe it was one of the best decisions my wife and I made for our daughters who have since grown up to be fine young women.

Resilience Reflection It’s a funny thing about life, once you begin to take note of the things you are grateful for, you begin to lose sight of the things you lack.

Speech Therapy In 2023, we are entering an exciting new partnership with Curtin University. They will supply us with a speech therapist every Wednesday for most of the year. The qualified therapist (Katy Forrest) will come here with at least five or six university students, who under her direct supervision, will work with a number of our students. As we have only just begun this journey, I can’t give you many more details just yet. However, I do know that a good number of our own students will get support from these people from Curtin University at no extra cost. I know that there are very long wait times to get into a speech therapist, and that the costs can be prohibitive. Hopefully, this arrangement will help our students who need it the most, minus the waiting time and costs. In the long term, I am hoping to extend this programme into having occupational therapists here too. I will keep you informed.

Advent This weekend sees the beginning of Advent, a time in which we celebrate the birth of Jesus. Now we really know that Christmas is close! Please do make every effort to support our parish by going to Mass during Advent. I know Fr John and Fr Mark would love to see you.

Thanksgiving Mass and Christmas Concert Our annual Mass and concert will be held on our oval on Thursday 1 December from 6pm. The students will need to meet their teachers in their classrooms at 5.30pm please. As usual, there will be designated areas for classes and parents to sit. There will be an area for taking photographs as well. All parents are kindly requested to stay within these areas so they don’t interrupt the view of others. People with taller chairs are asked to sit behind the families on blankets. Your cooperation in advance is greatly appreciated.

Reports The end of year reports go live on Monday 5 December from around 4pm. This is done to give you the opportunity to meet the teachers in case you have any questions. I have finished reading all the reports and I was very impressed with the efforts of our students this year.

Transition to New Classes Every year at this time, we allow half an hour for each student to meet their new teacher and classmates for the following year. This year, the transition will be held at 9.00am on Wednesday 7 December. It is always a very challenging task placing students into their new classes. All students are asked to nominate five peers they would like to be with next year and we do our best to strike a balance in each class which we think will suit the needs of everyone involved. Once the classes are set, we don’t make further changes as just by moving one child, can cause a domino effect which can disrupt the whole class. Thank you for your understanding.

Year 6 Thanksgiving Mass On Thursday 8 December at 8.45am, we finally get the chance as a whole community, to say farewell to our Year 6 students who will be leaving us to go to secondary school. Many of them have been with us since Kindergarten, and it will be an emotional day for them. We also have many parents who will also be finishing their time at Mary Mac as their youngest child graduates. I take this opportunity to wish all our Year 6 students and their families all the very best for the future. You are always welcome to come back and visit us. The Year 6 students will then have their last day at Outback Splash having fun and enjoying each other’s company before they have their farewell dinner on Saturday 10 December at the Macedonian Club. They have been a great bunch of students this year and I am sure they will be very successful at their new schools.

Yours sincerely
Laurie Bechelli