Issue #15 3rd September 2025
Principal's Update
Father's Day This week we look forward to celebrating our dads and father figures. The Father’s Day Stall will take place on Thursday, followed by our Father’s Day Breakfast (7.00-8.50am) and Liturgy on the top playground (9.00-9.20am) on Friday morning. As you arrive for breakfast, please make your way over to the tables to collect your order tickets, before moving to the canteen to collect your food. Thank you to all of our volunteers who are attending school on Thursday or Friday to help; we can't run these events without you. In particular, thank you Maria M and Corinne I who have organised ordering the stall items and breakfast food. A reminder that all orders have closed for the stall and breakfast. After breakfast we will hold a beautiful Liturgy that Year 2 will be running on the top playground. Following the Liturgy, we invite dads to take part in the Dads vs Year 6 soccer game, which will be held on the modified oval due to the building works. We hope you can join us as we say thank you to all the wonderful dads and role models in our community. Happy Father’s Day!
Our new building begins We've spoken about it over the last few years, and finally our building works have begun! Fencing and the site itself will be established this week, before additional works from Monday. We look forward to the positive changes this will make to our school. A Compass Feed went to parents yesterday with a few changes from today, and we encourage all children to bring their water bottle with them to recess and lunch, so they don't have to walk too far for a drink during play time. Please see the letter from North Construction at the bottom of the newsletter if you seek further specific information from them.
Confirmation On Saturday many of our Year 3 students, and some students in the older grades also, celebrated the Sacrament of Confirmation. It was a very special morning for our students and their families, who were led in the rite by Fr Brian Moloney.
Sport Dates for your Calendar
- Thursday 18th September: Athletics Carnival Presentation, 9.00am
- Thursday 25th September: Broken Bay Badge Presentation, 9.00am
- Tuesday 16th September: Year 5+6 Gala Day (Netball)
- Tuesday 23rd September: Year 3+4 Gala Day (Netball)
Tree of Hope Today, your child will come hope with the attached flyer (one per family) and a small pebble (one per child). This is to support our current initiative 'Tree of Hope'. We invite families to come together to write, paint or draw a short word or message of hope on their pebble, and then send this back completed to their class teacher. We will bring these messages together as a shared space of encouragement and hopefulness. Please return all pebbles by next Friday.
Catholic Schools Parents Leadership Evening Our Diocesan Catholic Schools Parents Evening will be held on Thursday, 18 September 2025. It is a wonderful opportunity for a parent from St Mary's to attend and connect with parents and carers from across the Diocese and celebrate the launch of our new diocesan Strategic Plan. The evening will be held at Catholic Schools Broken Bay Central Office from 6.00pm. If you are interested in attending as our school's representative, please contact the school office (02) 72562143 by 8th September so I can be in contact with you.
Year 6 Public Speaking Finals Congratulations to Willow and Zara, who were exceptional representatives of our school last week. They spoke so well in front of a large audience and then were given an unknown topic and wrote a 1-minute impromptu speech in just 10 minutes. Well done, girls!
Playgroup and Kinder 2026 Last week we held our final Playgroup for 2025. Soon, on October 15, we will welcome our Kinder 2026 students to our school for their first Kinder Transition morning.
Illnesses As you know, there are many persistent illnesses going around at the moment. Our staff are not unaffected by this. At times, your child will have one or multiple casual teachers, and occasionally their class may be split. We always do our best to ensure that your child's learning is unaffected. Thank you for your understanding. If your child is sick, please keep them home until their symptoms cease.
Broken Bay Athletics Recently, 12 of our students represented St Mary's at Broken Bay Athletics. They were all terrific competitors, and each made our school proud with their effort and results. A special congratulations to Flynn B, Evie C and Madi R who came in the top three in the finals of their individual events and are now off to Polding. Congratulations!
Spelling Bee This week is the final round of the in-class component of our Spelling Bee Competition. Next week, the two champions from each class will advance to the Grade Finals to be held later in the term. Once the time and date for each grade's final is finalised next week, parents and carers will be notified if your child qualified.
Sister Sister On Friday 19th September our Parish and local Catholic Schools have organised an evening to fill the mind, body and spirit. We encourage any women in our community to get a table together of friends, or come along yourself, for a wonderful evening. The attached flyer is below. Call our school office and speak to Victoria if you would like more information!
From our REC
Diocesan Religious Creative Arts Competition
It was wonderful to have so many students enter the Diocesan Religious Creative Arts Competition. We had entries across all categories; Visual Art, Music, Dance, Drama and Short Film. On Thursday all place getters will receive a certificate for their effort and achievement. The students who placed first in their category have been submitted as school finalists for the Diocesan Competition. Congratulations to our finalists. Please find below our school's results.
Sacred Spaces - 2 Blue and 1 Blue
2 Blue shared their learning in Religious Education. It was wonderful to see 2 Blue share with our community how a K-2 Religion Lesson would look. They shared the story of the Good Samaritan, reminding us the importance of reaching out and helping others regardless of their race or religion.
1 Blue shared the importance of having our needs meet. They shared how this doesn't always happen in some places in our world. They shared with our community the importance of respect and supporting one another. We loved their singing and actions to "Heal the World."
Sacramental Program Year 4 - High School - Reconciliation and First Eucharist
Our Parish Sacramental Team, led by Sister Jennifer, is holding a Parent Information Sessions for any student who has been Baptised and Confirmed and would like to continue their faith journey and prepare for the Sacraments of Reconciliation and First Eucharist. These students must be in Year 4 2025 or higher. There is a parent information session in our Church at St Mary's and online. It is compulsory to attend one of these sessions. Please reach out to the Parish Office if you have any questions.
Congratulations!
We are thrilled to share with you that Katy-Leigh, Maddie and Indie from Year 5 were again asked to record a song with Andrew Chinn. They have worked hard and produced a wonderful Father's Day song, "Blessing for Fathers." This is one of the tracks included in our Father's Day Reflection. Thank you Andrew for creating this opportunity for a students and fostering their love of singing.
Father's Day Liturgy
Our Year 2 students look forward to leading our school in our Father's Day Liturgy on Friday morning at 9am.
Other Information
North Construction will be completing our new build. You can download information from them here.