Dear Parents and Carers,

At morning assembly I asked the question, how do we normally finish term 1? A student replied “We finish strong”. The actual answer I was chasing was we normally finish with Holy Week, however her response triggered the realisation that we have had another strong finish to a term. Our students have development a culture to finish a term or school year in a manner that is positive and maintains our relentless focus on being compassionate, respectful, courageous, resilient and committed people of our school.

On Friday morning the school had a last minute opportunity to have a very special guest come and talk to our students. I was so pleased that we took this opportunity to have Josh Hanlon attend our Friday morning assembly. Josh was a student at St Mary’s from kinder to Year 2 and it was wonderful to have him come back to the school. As you know, Josh finished 6^th in the Men’s Slalom Sitting at the Paralympic Games.

Josh presented our students with their ‘Whatever you do, do well’ awards and then spoke to the school. He spoke about the adversity he had been through, and that he did not let this keep him down. In fact, just 10 months after his life was changed forever he began to explore his possibilities and started to set some personal goals. It was truly inspirational to hear Josh’s story and see how his determination and hard work has led to such a strong showing at the Winter Paralympics. Josh had a profound impact on our students and we are all excited to follow Josh in his upcoming events.

Our Counsellor Emma Mcrae will not be with us next term. To continue offering support to our students, families and school staff, Donna Spillman, a Telehealth Counsellor will be filling in for her. Donna will be available via Zoom two mornings a week and students will be provided with a private space with an adult close by to take them back to class when finished. Donna will also be offering some courses for parents and children, so this is a wonderful opportunity for us to make use of different services.

The first on-line course on offer is the Bringing up Great Kids program. This is free to parents and consists of 12 hours online in small groups, spread over the school term. Couples are encouraged to participate together to get the best outcomes for children. Donna would love to hear from you with other topics or activities that would be valuable for you and your children. You can contact her directly at donna.spillman@catholiccare.cg.org.au. The normal referral process for individual counselling will continue.

Thank you everyone for a wonderful Term 1 and we hope you enjoy the break over Easter.

Mr Nielsen