HAPPY FEAST DAY!

December 8 is the feast day of our school and parish. The Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception is a Catholic feast celebrating Mary's conception without sin. Even though this feast day occurs in the liturgical season of Advent, which prepares for the birth of Jesus, the Immaculate Conception refers to the conception of Mary.

We are extremely grateful to the P & F Association for providing ice blocks for all our students as part of our feast day celebrations.

Unbelievably, we are rapidly moving toward the end of the school year, with this week being our last full week for the year. It is a time when we can get caught up in the 'busyness' of life. Our focus moves toward finishing the year, being organised for Christmas and in the school context, preparing class lists, packing classrooms and finalising reports. However, it is also a time to take stock, to celebrate achievements, no matter how big or small, to celebrate time with family and friends and to find a place for Jesus in our world.

Advent is a time for looking both backward and forward.  We look backward as we prepare to celebrate the historical birth of Jesus. At the same time, we look forward to his Second Coming, as we prepare ourselves to welcome him into all areas of our lives during the Advent season. We see the traditional signs of Advent in our Church: violet vestments and banners and the Advent wreath. We light a candle on this wreath each Sunday until all four are lit. These candles remind us that we are waiting for the rebirth of Jesus in our hearts and lives in love, mercy, compassion and forgiveness.

Advent reminds us of the need to be wakeful and watchful. We are often so future - oriented that we frequently forget the present entirely.  We spend too much time trying to protect ourselves against future misfortunes.  We save for a rainy day, to get married, to buy a home, to send the children to university, to retire in comfort and to protect ourselves against future misfortunes, with a multitude of insurance policies.  But we often forget that we can also be more awake spiritually.  As the story below suggests, we need to take the opportunity to make this Advent season a time to slow down in the midst of our haste, in order to more thoroughly prepare ourselves for the best result. 

"There was this very strong woodcutter who asked for a job with a timber merchant and got it. The wages the timber merchant paid were really good and so were the work conditions. For that reason the woodcutter was determined to do his best. His boss gave him an axe and showed him the area where he was supposed to work. The first day the woodcutter brought 18 trees. "Congratulations" the boss said, "go on that way." Very motivated by the words of the boss, the woodcutter tried harder the next day, but he could only bring 15 trees. The third day he tried even harder but brought only 10 trees. Day after day he was bringing less and less trees. "I must be losing my strength," the woodcutter thought. He went to the boss and apologised, saying he could not understand what was going on. "When was the last time you sharpened your axe?" the boss asked. "Sharpen? I had no time to sharpen my axe. I have been very busy trying to cut trees."  

We may have been busy with so many things, we may have neglected our spiritual life. Like the axe that needs sharpening, we also need to sharpen our spirit. Let us sharpen our spirit this Advent by becoming more loving, more prayerful, more compassionate, more generous and more faithful. Life is not about finding yourself! Life is about recreating yourself! Advent is God's marvelous gift to all of us. Wishing you a week ahead that provides opportunities to live the message of Advent and to make Christ Our Way and Life.

Tina Murray

Principal

CLASSROOMS FOR 2022

When Mary Immaculate opened in 1986 we did so as a two-stream school. Next year we will be one class away from being a completely three-stream school. This means we will have outgrown our present buildings and will need to embark upon another building project. This will involve the demolition of the present Year 2 classroom block and the building of 9 new classroom spaces. Once completed this stage will be followed by the complete refurbishment of our first original building that currently houses Year 3, 4 and 5. In preparation for the commencement of this project we expect to take delivery of a number of demountable classroom buildings during the Christmas vacation period. These classrooms will initially accommodate Year 3 students and then Year 2 students, once demolition and building begin. We are grateful in advance for the flexibility and patience that will be required during this building project. Changes will be necessary to accommodate the reduced playground space. However, the short-term pain will certainly be worth the long-term gain. Thank you to our Year 6 students and their teachers who have undertaken learning in the Library space during 2021 and to Mrs Bryant who relocated the Library to a much smaller space. Despite the initial reservations many of the Year 6 students have identified working in the combined class setting as a highlight of their final primary year.  

 PROMOTION TO CLASSES FOR 2022

Students will have the opportunity to meet their teacher and classmates for 2022 on Monday December 13. New students who will be joining Mary Immaculate in 2022 will be invited to attend remotely via Zoom. Students will be provided with information about the 2022 grade requirements and a school list will be sent to all parents via Compass.

END OF YEAR LITURGY / FAREWELL TO YEAR 6

Our last day as a school community will be on Wednesday 15 December.

Due to COVID restrictions we will not be able to gather together in the church, as a school community but we will, by the power of technology, be able to stream our end of year liturgy to all classrooms. This liturgy will include an opportunity to farewell our leaving students and staff. To each of our valued staff - Chris McInerney, Megan Price, Ally Carter, Alyssa Galvez-Salonga, we say ‘thank you’ for the contributions you have made to making a difference to the lives of our students. We wish each of these staff abundant blessings as they begin their new adventures. We also wish to acknowledge the wonderful contributions of the dedicated casual staff who have contributed to our community throughout the year. 

At the completion of this liturgy the students in Kinder - Year 5 and staff will have an opportunity to farewell our Year 6 students with a modified leaving track through our school playgrounds.

At the conclusion of this farewell Year 6 will be able to meet their parents at the Aquamarine Drive gates at approximately 11.45am and begin their Christmas holidays early.  Year 6 parents are invited to wait outside the Aquamarine Drive gates to collect their children. We will arrange for any siblings to be ready to also leave at this time to avoid the need for parents to wait and to alleviate congestion.

Students in Kindergarten to Year 5 will have an opportunity to leave early on this day and normal afternoon staggered dismissal from the three gates will be undertaken as follows;

12.00 – K / Year 1

12.10 – Years 2 / 3

12.20 – Years 4 / 5 

A Compass alert will be sent to parents shortly, this will allow parents to indicate if you will be picking your child up early or if they will be remaining at school for the full day.

If someone other than the normal pick up person will be picking your child up from school on this day please make sure that a note confirming permission is provided to the class teacher at the beginning of the day.