A warm welcome back to Term 4.  I hope that everyone had a nice break and took some time out to relax with family.

Our prayers and thoughts go out to those families who have been affected by the tragic loss of Shane McDermott.  The St Mary’s community has also been saddened deeply and we would like to keep them in our prayers.  Our heartfelt condolences go out to Rhiannon and her beautiful children.

I was in Sydney this week to attend my graduation ceremony.  I was awarded my Masters of Education (Special Education) from Australian Catholic University, which took me some 5 years to complete and lots of blood, sweat and tears!  I know that my staff will try to sneak a photo in, so I will beat them to it!!  Studying whilst working full time, having a busy and active family, being a mum and trying to juggle work, family and study has been one of the hardest things I have done and probably one of my biggest achievements to date.  I often use this example to the children that being in the learning pit is something that I experienced often and that you have your best learning experiences after you have been in the pit.  I hope I am leading by example to our students that you never stop learning and that hard work and having a growth mindset really does lead to success.

We are hosting the Western Region Choir Festival today at McAuley.  Seven schools from across the Western Region will participate and we wish all the schools the best of luck.  We thank McAuley for their generosity in letting us use their school hall and facilities.

We look forward to our annual Golf Day this Saturday – if you haven’t put your name down to do a job – please do so and many hands make light work.  It will be a great family day out and it will be great to see all of our families out there supporting our school.  We would like to say a HUGE thank you to Jess Campbell who has been co-ordinating this event.

I will be on long service leave for weeks two and three.  Mrs Liz Murray will be taking up my role whilst I am away, and Mrs Cath Parker and Mrs Clare Pearce will be relieving Liz so she can attend to her many jobs.  I am sure that all will go smoothly and it will be business as usual whilst I am away!!

Have a great week!