Dear Parents and Caregivers,
This Sunday is the first day of Advent in our Catholic church. This is an indication that we are getting very close to Christmas. Advent is a time of waiting, a time of preparation, a time of getting ready for the celebration of Christmas, the day Jesus was born. As in the time of Lent, Advent is dominated by the colour of purple, the colour of royalty and of kings! Jesus is seen as a saviour but he wasn’t the type of king that the early Christians were expecting. He wasn’t a powerful king, with an army to defeat the Romans. Instead, he operated differently and turned things on their head. He challenged the way society did things with a real focus on caring for others and building relationships rather than fighting and putting people down. I think it remains important for us today to nurture this in our young people. Hence, we hold on dearly to our Mercy values of Compassion, Courage, Hospitality, Justice, Respect and Service and pray that we can eliminate or reduce things like hate, hostility, violence and poverty.
Speaking of ‘Service’, we have a number of staff who will be moving on next year to other schools or other things. We will farewell them at our End of Year ‘Thanksgiving’ Mass on 12 December.
Cloe Bowman has been with us this semester as a Reception teacher. Cloe has won a teaching position at Blakeview Primary School for 2024.
Sameera Sekhon has been with us for the past two years as a middle primary teacher. Sameera has won a teaching position at St John Bosco School at Brooklyn Park.
Janie Gosling has been our STEM teacher and Librarian for the past two years. Janie will be moving into retirement.
Sebestyen Maglai has been our PE teacher for the past 25 years and has been on leave throughout 2023. Seb has also decided to hang up his boots and call time on his career as a PE teacher.
We thank each of these Staff members for the contribution they have made to St Mary Magdalene’s School in their time with us. We wish them every blessing as they move on to the next stage of their personal journey.
Along with farewells there are usually new staff who arrive to replace those who are leaving. I am pleased to announce that we have appointed the following new teachers for 2024: Becky Hill (from St Ignatius College), Leah Dickson (from St Augustine’s School), Tayla Yon (from Immanuel Lutheran School) and Angela Rose (STEM teacher from Hewett Primary School). We welcome each of them to our school community and look forward to the talents and gifts that they will bring.
Congratulations to our St Mary Magdalene’s Got Talent kids who performed in front of a packed house of students, parents, grandparents and staff. The acts were simply amazing with a wide range from singing to dancing to magic, to kung fu and so on! Well done kids! Thanks to Ms Petersen, Miss Sam and other staff who helped to support the kids and put it all together. Thank you also to all the parents and grandparents who were able to join us.
We have Sports Day next Friday and you would have received a letter about this special event. We will be having a sausage sizzle with each child able to have a free sausage. If they are not able to have sausages then they will need to bring their own lunch. Once the children have had their sausages then we will sell our remaining sausages for $2 for adults or for students if they then want a second one. We will also be selling drinks for $2 per can. Please refer back to the letter for more information.
The next couple of weeks will be extremely busy with Student Reports going home, children having a mini transition visit to their new teacher, Christmas Carols, End of Year Mass and Graduation for our Year 6s. Then in the holidays we will be doing some renovations to the Library. With our increase in student numbers we will need to add an eighth class for 2024. The Library will be reduced in size and some internal walls will be installed to create three classrooms in that building for our senior students.
After our storms earlier this week and the flooded car park the weather next week looks to be moving into the 30s. Please remind your children about the importance of hats and sun cream … especially for Sports Day.
As we do move towards the end of the year I would like to remind families of the need to finalise their accounts as soon as possible. This includes the $250 per child levy and OSHC accounts. Please make this a priority and speak with John Mathew our finance person if you need to set up a payment plan.
Please remember that St Thomas More School offers Vacation Care for those families who may require that service. We do have some application forms available in our Front Office if required.
Some important dates:
Friday 8 December Sports Day 9:15 - 2:30pm
Monday 11 December Christmas Carols 2.15pm
Tuesday 12 December Year 6 Graduation 2pm
Wednesday 13 December Last Day of Term - School Holidays
Thursday 14 December Pupil Free Day (OSHC bookings required)
Friday 15 December Pupil Free Day (OSHC bookings required)
Monday 29 January 2024 School Resumes
Kind regards
Peter Mercer
Head of School
‘Shaping our future together’
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