Term 1 has started with a burst of energy across all our campuses with students enthusiastically joining in excursions, camps, swimming and athletics as well as the many classroom activities that their partner school and St Mary’s teachers planned for them. A big welcome to our preps at the South Morang and Wantirna South campuses and our year 7 students at Ringwood, South Morang, Dandenong and Sunbury campuses. I am looking forward to getting around to all the campuses next term and talking to each student about how their start to school life with St Mary's has been.
Opening assembly
The much anticipated annual event of the St Mary’s Opening Assembly, saw all students and staff came together to recoginse our award winners, acknowledge our student campus leaders and provide organised opportunities for students to connect and build friendships with deaf or hard of hearing students from other campuses. It was particularly wonderful for our prep and year 7 students from across the campuses to have an opportunity to meet each other as they commence their journey together at St Mary's. Our staff and student leaders put a lot of work into planning the day which I’m sure all in attendance would agree was a great success and a highly enjoyable day. It is always wonderful to see some of our parents join us at the event. Each year we hold the assembly at a different partner school, giving parents living locally a better opportunity to attend an learn more about our whole school.
Holy Week
Holy Week is the week before Easter Sunday, beginning seven days before with Palm Sunday. As a significant time in our Catholic tradition, students and staff at all campuses spend the last week of term 1 exploring and thinking about Holy Week’s message of hope and being loving and forgiving through liturgies, classroom activities and acts of compassion such as through the work of Caritas Australia. These messages are universal and it is wonderful to see all students regardless of their own faith background reflecting on how these simple acts can have such a positive impact on the lives of others.
Staff Leave Changes
I will be undertaking Enrichment Leave from 22nd April to 16th May 2024. During that time, I will be involved in a study tour of schools and provisions for deaf and hard of hearing students in the UK and Ireland where I hope to learn first hand of new ideas, as well as practices to avoid, in designing the best educational approach we can at St Mary’s College. During that time, Ms Narelle Stone will undertake the role of Acting Principal.
From 22nd April to 10th August, Ms Nicole Barrow will be undertaking the role of Deputy Principal and Head of Campus of the South Morang and Sunbury campuses. She will be replacing Ms Narelle Stone while she acts in the role of Principal as mentioned above and then commences 10 weeks of Long Service Leave.
Medical Management Policy
To ensure the safety and care of all students, MACS has introduced new policies and procedures for the recording and management of any diagnosed personal, health or medical conditions. When a student enrols at St Mary’s College with an existing diagnosed condition (including hearing impairment), parents/guardians are required to provide St Mary’s with a completed Medical Management Plan signed by the student’s usual doctor. The plan is used to guide the school in documenting a student health support plan (SHSP) for responding to anything that may arise during the course of the student’s education. This could include things relating to hearing loss such as swimming without devices, implants such as knocks to the head causing movement of the magnet or other medical conditions such as responding to incidents of a migraine or asthma.
The Medical Management Plan will then only need to be updated throughout the students time at school if there has been a change in any diagnosed conditions. The documented plan (SHSP) will be reviewed at PSG meetings and updated if a new activity or subject might mean a new response the school needs to consider.
All documents will be shared by St Mary’s Administration office with our partner school so you can be assured both schools have all the necessary information. There is no need to update the partner school directly. However, it is important that you help us in getting these new documents in place.
If you have any concerns or questions, please don’t hesitate to contact Lexie at the Administration office on 9800 2733 or myself. More information on our Medical Management Policy can be found here.
School Advisory Council
Our School Advisory Council will meet for the first time this year on Monday 15th April at 6:30pm. All our meetings are held online over Zoom to make it easier for people to attend. The work of the council is very important in ensuring parent voice and community perspective influence and support decisions of the school. If you have an interest in joining our School Advisory Council, we would welcome your involvement. Please contact Lexie Cull at our Administration office on 9800 2733 or admin@smdeaf.vic.edu.au for more information. She can also put you in contact with one of our parent council members if you would like to get a bit more information before making a decision.
Enrolments
Enrolments are currently open for:
Prep 2025 (closing Wednesday 24 May 2024)
Year 7 2026 (closing Friday 16 August 2024)
I hope you enjoy scrolling through the photos and reading more about the great events and activities that have occurred across our college over term 1. Wishing everyone a blessed, safe and enjoyable Easter break.
Amanda Purcell
Principal
