Dear Parents and Caregivers

I often reflect upon the best characteristics of our school and I always come back to two major points. They both relate to our strength through our diversity. Firstly, we have a number of students who access our St Joseph Centre because they have a diverse range of educational and environmental needs. The second point is that we are a culturally diverse community where around fifty per cent of our students come from families who don’t have English as their first language. I firmly believe that this diversity brings with it a greater level of acceptance, tolerance, compassion and welcoming. I always say that once our students put on a Mary Mac uniform, they are Mary Mac kids and nothing else matters. They are a part of our family where everyone is treated with respect and dignity. Like all schools, we are not perfect, but our increased levels of acceptance and welcoming make us a special place to be.

Awareness/Compassion Reflection Empathy is simply listening, holding space and withholding judgement, emotionally connecting and then communicating that incredibly healing message that you’re not alone.

Code of Conduct Like all Catholic schools, we have a copy of our Code of Conduct on our website. I ask all parents to read it as it is very important that all members of our community abide by it. The Code describes how we must all behave to create and maintain our healthy learning community. Any breach of the Code threatens our students’ learning. Also, we know the most effective way to keep our students safe is by teaching them to choose healthy relationships. The Code of Conduct describes what such relationships look like. All of us must be examples to our students in our behaviour of the kinds of relationships we want them to have. This is especially important in situations of conflict with others. We know children watch and learn more from what adults do, than what they say. Therefore, any failure to act to the Standards of the Code of Conduct puts our students at risk.  It is extremely important to remember to be very respectful when dealing with all members of our staff, as well as other parents in the school. Everyone has the right to be treated with respect and dignity, no matter what the situation is.

Father’s Day This Sunday is a very special day for our fathers and grandfathers. We will recognise our fathers this Friday morning, 1 September, by inviting them to join in with games and activities on our oval from 7:45 am. I know that many of our fathers need to go to work, so we are making an early start to give them the best opportunity to come and have some fun with their children. They are then invited to come along to our whole school Mass in the Church from 8.45 am. If any are still here after Mass, they are most welcome to join us in the staffroom for some morning tea. As usual, our wonderful P&F will be holding their Father’s Day stall to help our students buy presents for their fathers. All details have been sent home already. I’m looking forward to seeing as many fathers and grandfathers as possible on Friday.

Faction Carnival This year’s faction carnival will be held on our oval on Wednesday 13 September and as usual, it promises to be a fabulous day. If it rains that day, please note that the back up day is Friday 15 September. The coffee van has been booked and our Netball Club will be organising the sausage sizzle to raise funds to support our teams who play on the weekends. Mr Boyce will be sending all the details home so please keep an eye out for them.

Footsteps of St Paul I will be away for the last three weeks of this term as I will be participating in a pilgrimage that retraces the steps of the Church’s greatest evangelist, St Paul. CEWA have appointed Mrs Lisa Liebregts as the Short Term Principal in my absence and I know she will do a great job, with the support of Mr Maxwell. I look forward to seeing everyone again at the start of next term which starts on Tuesday 9 October for students.

Yours sincerely
Laurie Bechelli