2025 Term 4 Week 2
Principal
Dear Parents, Guardians, and Community, Welcome back! We hope you all had a restful break.
Mark Your Calendars 📅
This Week | Next Week | Upcoming Dates |
Tuesday, October 14: Year 6 Boys Volleyball Finals. Werribee | Monday November 3rd: School Closure Day, Time in Lieu | |
Wednesday, October 15: Principal Forum Catholic Leadership Centre (CLC) | Wednesday, October 22: 2026 Prep Orientation 9:30 am | Tuesday November 11 and Wednesday November 12: Matilda Performance Year 3/4 |
Thursday, October 23: School Board 9:30 am | ||
Friday, October 18: Bishop Martin Visit. | Friday October 24: Italian Day | |
Friday, October 19: Ned Show. Resilience and Yo-Yos |
School News
This week we welcome Bishop Martin Ashe to our school. He is visiting the Parish and School this Friday. He will be visiting students, meeting with school leadership and teachers. It will be a great opportunity to share the great things that are happening at our school.
St Carlo Acutis
In 2025, the Catholic Church canonised it's first Millenium Saint, Saint Carlo Acutis. He was just 15 years old when he died of leukaemia in 2006. For someone so young, he lived an extraordinary life. He was born in London, but grew up in Italy. From a young age he devoted his life to God. At aged 11 he developed a website dedicated to miracles, where he catalogued all miracles from around the world. He became known as, 'God's Influencer." He also gave a lot of money to the poor. On September 7 this year, he officially became a Saint.
What was special about him?
Beneath his ordinary exterior, Carlo developed a great love for Jesus in the Eucharist at an early age. Ever since his First Communion, he has been attending daily Mass.
- Carlo was 12 years old when he researched and catalogued, on the internet, an exhibition of over 130 Eucharistic Miracles which occurred throughout history. Why? Carlo’s desire was to prove the true presence of Jesus in the Eucharist. The exhibition has been translated into 15 languages and is known worldwide.
- After his death, a first miracle in 2013, the healing of a young child, was attributed to Carlo’s intercession.
- In 2018, his body was exhumed and found to be ‘intact’. To this day, his body lies in Assisi, Italy.
- Only 14 years after his death, Carlo was beatified ‘Blessed’ in 2020 by Pope Francis. This is considered exceptional.
- A second miracle, the healing of a college student, was also recognized in May 2024. Pope Leo XIV has announced that Blessed Carlo will be canonized in 2025, making Carlo the first millennial Saint
- His Feast Day is October 12.
- His official website https://www.carloacutis.com/en/association
St Mary of the Cross, Pray for us. 🙏
Anthony
After School Play on the Maclean Reserve
We’ve heard a few reports of rough play and other behaviours happening on the green after school. As this area isn’t supervised by staff after 3:30pm, we kindly ask parents to keep a close eye on their children during this time. Thank you for your support in helping us keep everyone safe.
Bus on Nelson Place
Representatives from Hobsons Bay Council visited the school today and have asked us to share the following message:
If any families have concerns regarding the black bus or the dog located on Nelson Place, please contact the Hobsons Bay Council directly.
Ned Show
This Friday we also have the Ned show, which is a powerful about Resilience. I have seen this show previously in other schools and it has some great messages for our students. We pay them through Yo Yo sales, which is a big part of their show. There is normally a yo yo craze in the school for a while as students learn some tricks. The students are really looking forward to the show on Friday.
Year 6 Boys Volleyball Final
Well done to our Year 6 Boys who made the district Volleyball finals on Tuesday. They travelled to Werribee with a large group of supporters and played really well finishing third for the district, which is a great effort. Well done to the team and Mr Daryl.
Parent Education

Religious Education
St Mary’s Faith News
School and Parish Connections
Gospel: Luke 17: 11- 19
It seems that no one has returned to give thanks to God except this foreigner.

On the way to Jerusalem Jesus travelled along the border between Samaria and Galilee. As he entered one of the villages, ten lepers came to meet him. They stood some way off and called to him, ‘Jesus! Master! Take pity on us.’ When he saw them he said, ‘Go and show yourselves to the priests.’ Now as they were going away they were cleansed. Finding himself cured, one of them turned back praising God at the top of his voice and threw himself at the feet of Jesus and thanked him. The man was a Samaritan. This made Jesus say, ‘Were not all ten made clean? The other nine, where are they? It seems that no one has come back to give praise to God, except this foreigner.’ And he said to the man, ‘Stand up and go on your way. Your faith has saved you.’
St Mary’s Family Monthly Mass
Sunday 26th October 2025
This Mass is also the Year One family Mass

Forms were sent home on Friday. Thank you to all the families that have started to return the forms.
Please fill in the forms and return as soon as possible - especially if you would like your child to read at Mass. There are limited readings and we need to make sure the children have time to practice at home and then in the church.
Thank you to all those who have responded already. Your commitment is valued.
Everyone is welcome to sing with the choir. There will be a practice in the church with Monique and myself the week before the Mass.
Thank you for your support!
A heartfelt thank you to all families who encourage their children to participate. It is always wonderful to see familiar faces at these Masses, and we hope even more families will join us in this special school tradition.
New Front Office Display
Crosses from Around the World
The Cross display is starting to take form - Thank you to everyone who has donated a cross

We have had a few more crosses added to our collection that is taking shape above the staff room doors in the office area. Thank you to everyone who is donating a cross.
As part of our recent staff Reflection Day, we were inspired by the idea of creating a new display in our front office – a collection of crosses from around the world. This will be a whole school initiative, and we warmly invite our families and staff to take part.
If you have a cross from your travels – whether from overseas or within Australia – that you would like to donate, we would be honoured to include it. The crosses will be thoughtfully displayed on the wall beneath the mounted monitor in the front office.
Thank you for helping us bring this idea to life.
Wednesday Morning Masses
There will be no Wednesday Masses during the month of November
As part of our ongoing commitment to nurturing the spiritual life of our students, each class will continue to attend the Wednesday morning Parish Mass at 9:15am.
The response from teachers has been positive. The children have been able to connect with Parishioners and pay attention to prayers and rituals that they have been taught in class.
We continue to warmly invite parents, grandparents and carers to join their child’s class at the Wednesday Masses, when they are rostered to attend.
You may receive an email invitation or a paper invitation, so please check emails, children’s reading folders or take heed of your child’s verbal invitation.
This is a beautiful opportunity to come together in prayer and strengthen our connection as a school and parish community.
We encourage you to check when your child’s class will be attending the Wednesday Mass.
We look forward to welcoming you to this special part of our faith life.
During this Mass you are welcome to sit with your child, but we ask that you join us as a class - so please come along and sit with us at Mass.
After the Parishioners have received Communion, Younger students in years Prep to Year 3 will be invited to receive a blessing from Fr Greg. Everyone is welcome for a blessing. Those wishing to receive a blessing should approach Fr Greg with hands crossed over their chest.

Term 4 Masses
Event | Date | Time | Where |
Year 1 Family Mass & End of Month Family Mass | Sunday 26th October | 10:30am | Church |
Prep Family Mass - 2025 Preps welcome 2026 Prep families. | Sunday 30th November | 10:30am | Church |
Seniors Mass - all year 5/6 students | Friday 5th December | 11:30am | Church |
Feast of the Immaculate Conception - whole school | Monday 8th December | 9:15am | Church |
No Wednesday Mass | Wednesday 10th December | This Mass has been cancelled as the whole school will be out on excursions | |
End of School Year Mass - Whole school and families | Monday 15th December | TBC | Church |
Parish Newsletter
Class Representatives
Congratulations to our Term 4 Class Representatives
P Blue | Ashton Calleja and Abigail Ilievski |
P Yellow | Ariana Ardolic and Michael Kowalczyk |
1 Blue | Spencer Pepe |
1 Yellow | Frankie Malmberg |
2 Blue | Umi Chua |
2 Yellow | Thomas Nicholas |
3/4 Blue | Willow McGregor |
3/4 Yellow | Noah Canavan |
3/4 White | Oskar Zorko |
5/6 Blue | James Winter |
5/6 Yellow | Hailey Tan |
5/6 White | Ethan Murray |
Colour Explosion Jogathon
Get your colour on, the St Mary’s annual Colour Explosion Jogathon is back again for another year of fun. The event will be held on Thursday 13 November, in the afternoon, on Robertson Reserve.
Like last year, we’ll be running the event with Australian Fundraising, with money raised helping to pay for our playground redevelopment.
We encourage parents to come along and cheer the students on, so please save the date in your diary.
Next week, students will bring home a sponsorship booklet with instructions on setting up their cybersafe online fundraising profile. Students and families will have four weeks to fundraise ahead of the Jogathon.
This is the P&F’s main fundraiser for 2025 and we appreciate your support.
Thanks
P&F Coordinating Group
Parents and Friends
Choc Box Fundraiser due soon!
A huge thank you to everyone who supported our Cadbury Chocolate Box Fundraiser. If you haven’t yet returned your $60 per box, please do so by next Monday 20 October.
You can pay via CDFpay, EFTPOS at the office, or return cash in your envelope to the office.

Teeth on Wheels
Community
