For this Newsletter I attach the speech I was proud to present at our Term 1 Awards Assembly yesterday.  It was excellent to see a large crowd of parents in attendance…

I am thrilled that we can finally gather as a school and be together to celebrate the good work of these Award winners you have seen here this afternoon.  I wanted to begin by thanking and congratulating you all on the magnificent support you showed Mrs Stewart, her mum and the charity “Carrie’s Beanies for Brain Cancer” yesterday.  Today the website shows donations in excess of $7000 including the donations from our school community.

That truly is an amazing effort.  I hope, like Mrs Stewart spoke to us yesterday that this money can go towards vital research into brain cancer and help to make the journey easier for people like MeMar and others – some of whom we might know in our own lives.  Thank you all once again on Mrs Stewart’s behalf. I know she is very grateful for your support.  Congratulations and thanks to Jacob and Liam who also entered into the shave very graciously losing their mullets for a very good cause.  Well done boys.

As we return to normal I also say thanks to our Year 7 students, Miss Mason, Mrs Stewart and Mr Ellison for their great work at camp in Narrabeen last week.  The feedback about your cooperation, behavior and good manners was very positive so well done and thank you.

Mr Ellison and Mr Hughes had great reports of the Royal Easter Show trip at the end of Term 1 and a great experience for those Year 9 and 10 students.  Thank you to all there.

We have had a great many students attending sporting events over the last few weeks some realising notable results but all being excellent representatives of our school and community. Thank you and well done to all and to your families for their great support.

I wanted to particularly mention two groups today.  Firstly our Year 10 class of 2022.  It is pleasing to see you growing together as a group and working to support one another as leaders of our school.  I know I keep saying it but it is my dream that you might be the first year 11 class of 2023 and indeed the first graduates of Year 12 2024.  I’m learning that big wheels in education turn frustratingly slowly.  It’s also exciting to be able to help plan your Tasmania trip in December.  Thank you for a great start to the year.

A special welcome to our Kindergarten class.  You are a friendly and happy bunch and we are so proud of the great work you are doing with Mrs Crane in “big school”.  Well done to you all.

It is moments like yesterday that make all of us enormously proud to be a Mercy School.  Our foundations through the Mercy sisters and Catherine McAuley and transmitted to you by our teachings and our actions come to life in those moments.  When we receive such positive feedback from visitors and people we interact we know we are on the right track.  We are showing mercy, humility in action.  Catherine McAuley wrote “If we are humble and sincere, God will finish in us the work he has begun…”  These acts of Mercy link so powerfully to our Mercy Values and our school motto “Believe, Strive, Achieve.”

As COVID has worked to keep us apart I am so pleased that we are so quickly getting back to normal which means we are able to be together.  Each one of you brings a special set of gifts which in combination makes our school a great one.

I am continually blown away by the comments from new families and people seeking enrolment here that this is a “great” school.  What makes us great is each of you so thank you for the little things each of you do to help make that happen.

Congratulations to our Award winners today.  Thank you for your hard work and good example.  A special congratulations to those who have received Principal’s Awards today.  I try to present those awards to those students who impress me with their consistency, their great manners, their determination and most of all their commitment to our Mercy Values.  Today’s winners show Mercy, excellence, hospitality and dignity.  Well done and thank you to them.

So thank you all for your efforts in Term 1 and so far this term.  Thank you all for your commitment to our motto – to believe, to strive and to achieve.  A quote by Collier reminds us that “Success is the sum of small efforts repeated…” so keep doing the little things well because they soon become the big things.

As always, I close with the words of our school prayer.

Mary our Mother … look after us.