Dear Parents and Carers

Welcome Back to the 2025 School Year!

I hope you had a restful and rejuvenating break. As we kick off this exciting new year, we are thrilled to reconnect and look forward to all the wonderful opportunities ahead. Let’s make this year full of growth, learning, and memorable experiences!

We welcome all our new Foundation students. Seeing all the smiling faces walk through the gate on Thursday as they began their educational journey at St Mary’s was fantastic. May they all enjoy the opportunities to learn, make friends, and become integral members of our school community.

Schoolwide Expectations 

At St Mary’s, we embrace four core values in our school-wide expectations:

• Be Safe: Prioritise safety in all actions and decisions.
• Be Respectful: Treat others with kindness, consideration, and respect.
• Be Responsible: Take ownership of your actions and responsibilities.
• Be a Learner: Strive for growth, curiosity, and knowledge every day.

Together, let’s work to make our school a positive and inspiring place for all.

As we enter our third week, I want to remind parents and students that we have a school-wide expectation that school hats must be worn on the playground in Terms 1 and 4. This is one of the many ways we are committed to ensuring your child's well-being at St Mary's.

We will conduct our assemblies on a Friday during our 2025 school year. These will begin from week 4, and all parents will be notified via Class Dojo.

  This year, we celebrate Jubilee - Pilgrims of Hope. What is a Jubilee?

A Jubilee is a special year of grace and conversion involving prayer, pilgrimage and sacramental repentance, held every 25 years or during other years as called for by the Pope. Through a series of concrete rituals, acts and commitments, the goal of a Jubilee year is to inspire and encourage holiness of life among the faithful and, therefore, to strengthen the Church’s witness to God’s loving mercy in and for the world.

The word "jubilee" is derived from the Hebrew word jobel, which means "ram's horn" since it was precisely that horn used as a trumpet, whose sound indicated to everybody the beginning of the jubilee year. The book of Leviticus, in the code of holiness, is the source that tells us of the significance of the jubilee year, a year of liberation "par excellence," which is at the end of seven weeks of years, the fiftieth year.

Maria