This week, we celebrate Australia’s only saint and the woman who is a role model for all of us. I am of course talking about Mary MacKillop, whom our school is named after. There are only two schools in Western Australia named after her: us and MacKillop College in Busselton. I think this should make us feel very privileged. We are having our annual Mary Mac Week celebrations and as usual, we will be holding our art exhibition. This year, we are trying something a little bit different. As we now have a dedicated Art teacher and programme, we are wanting the students’ work to be presented as if we were in an art gallery. Therefore, each class will have their work presented on a canvas on an easel. Like an art gallery, all works will be on sale (no doubt, for a bargain price) and all money raised will go to the P&F. Some of you will have the opportunity to purchase these priceless pieces of work that would look amazing in your home. Keep an eye out for a message with all the details of how to place a bid for a piece of artwork. I would like to take this opportunity to thank Owen Miller for putting this exhibition together. It is his first year here with us and it has been a daunting task to say the least.

Welcome back to the start of the second half of the year, although I’m sure many of you are watching the situation in Sydney, Melbourne and now Adelaide and are saying your prayers that it doesn’t happen here as well. Over the past 18 months, we have had to change most of our planned activities and deal with a number of disruptions. I’m very pleased to say that here at Mary Mac, we have caught up and delivered on most things whilst many other schools have just cancelled them outright. I know many of you appreciate this and it is a testament to our staff for not wanting our students to miss out. It also demonstrates their commitment to our community.

We have finally made it to the end of a very long and busy term with an unfortunate lockdown thrown in at the end to make it interesting! Thank you for your ongoing support of our community and all that we do to provide your children with the best education possible. As announced in the past two newsletters, we have had to change the date of our whole staff professional development day next term. Please note that school will now commence for all students on Monday 19 July. The day that was originally planned has been moved to Friday 13 August which will now be the pupil free day. I will send a further reminder next term. Again, thank you for your patience and understanding. We do live in a time where the only constant thing seems to be change, as shown by the latest COVID restrictions.

As a part of our school improvement plan, the staff have undertaken some community service activities to help support our gratitude focus. Last Friday night, Sonja and Lee Robertson, along with Dee Wright accompanied Fr Mark into the city to feed some of the homeless people there. I did it a few weeks earlier and it was an incredible eye opening experience. Over the coming weeks and months, a number of the staff will also go out with Fr Mark.

Thank you and well done to all our interschool swimmers as we came second overall at the recent interschool carnival. This is one of our best performances ever and everyone should be very proud of their achievements. A big thank you is extended to Mr Power for his excellent organisation of our squad.