Happy Mary MacKillop Feast Day!

Mary MacKillop, also known as Saint Mary of the Cross, is our first Australian Saint. We have much to learn from Mary MacKillop’s life including her dedication to education and her compassion for the poor. If you can, please join your child’s class for a Pilgrim Walk this Thursday where students will be reminded of the many icons and Catholic markers we have around our school to help us know Mary MacKillop better and to help us to strive to follow in her footsteps. 

We will also remember and give thanks to God for Mary MacKillop and our school on Friday morning at 9am. All are welcome.

Planning for 2026 School Year

2026 Student Class Placements

Teachers will begin planning for our 2026 classes in the coming weeks.  We respect and value parent input and ask that you email me – gverstraete@marymacnarre.catholic.edu.au, or put in writing and leave at the Administration Office, if you have information about your child that could impact on their placement for 2026.  

Please ensure your request is received by Friday 29 August, 2025.  Requests received after the cut off date of Friday 29 August are very difficult to take into consideration. 

We ask parents to be mindful of our teachers’ preparation and time that goes into student/class placements, which is not an easy task, taking into account all the areas mentioned below:

• Staff use their professional judgement and a range of information when placing students into classes.  This information includes student learning progress, learning strengths, learning needs, NCCD Data, gender balance within classes and across the level to provide an optimal learning environment for ALL students. 
• Parent requests are forwarded onto staff when placing students into their 2026 classes. Please note, the 2025 class teacher places students from their 2025 grade into the 2026 class groupings.
• Please be aware that your letters of request are not a guarantee of your child’s placement. 
• Please note that requests made in previous years are not necessarily considered in the process.  Historical information provided by parents regarding their child’s placement will need to be re-submitted if the concerns expressed in previous years are still relevant for consideration in 2026.

Tomorrow we will also send out an eform via PAM to all Foundation to Year 5 students regarding their intention to return in 2026.  Please ensure that you complete this eform by Friday 29 August 2025.

Our School Implementation Plan

This term we continue our focus on:

• Student Voice and Agency
• Planning for Improved Student Learning - key focus on Mathematics and Reading

Update on Father Michael - our Parish Priest (Our Lady Help of Christians)

Father Michael produced a short video which was played at each Mass last weekend. In the video he thanked everyone for their prayers and asked us all to continue to pray for him. This week each class has made a card for Father Michael and the messages in these cards are just beautiful.  We have also made a short video which will be sent to him with messages from students and staff.

Parish School Mass

Thank you to all the families and staff who attended the Parish School Mass last Saturday evening. Students were active participants throughout the Mass and performed our own school actions to the Pilgrims of Hope song (Andrew Chinn) for the recessional hymn.

Confirmation

This weekend we have some Year 5 and 6 students receiving the Sacrament of Confirmation. May they continue to recognise the gifts and fruits of the Holy Spirit in themselves and others. We thank their families, teachers and our Parish team who have worked hard to support the students in their faith journey. 

Staff Collective Feedback to Students

A huge thanks to the Year 6 students who ran assembly last week. You were all amazing! Not only did you set up the Hall quickly, you were also flexible when the slide presentation didn’t connect, and the typical order of assembly quickly became not so typical! We are proud of our senior students when they step up, and do so calmly and confidently - you were all fantastic during this time.  

Big shout out to Year 4 for the way you are calculating Area and Perimeter during our Maths lessons - your accuracy is amazing and the way you are explaining your thinking is clear and helping others to use this language to prove the answers are correct - Great Work!

Parent Evening - Raising Kids in a Digital World Thursday 11 September

Just a reminder to please keep this evening set aside - we have a link to enable you to register for this event. As it is quite costly, it will not proceed unless we have enough parents registering to make it worthwhile. Please see the poster further in the newsletter to register.