2025 Term 4 Week 3

Mark Your Calendar

This Week	Next Week	Upcoming Dates
Wednesday, October 22: Year 2 Big Day Out	Friday October 31st: 2 Blue reading to Robina Scott	Monday November 3rd: School Closure Day, Time in Lieu
Wednesday, October 22: 2026 Prep Orientation 9:30 am		Tuesday November 11 and Wednesday November 12: Matilda Performance Year 3/4
Friday October 24: Italian Day

Principal

This week we officially welcome our 2026 Prep students for their first orientation. Many of the students have visited several times already with a tour and storytime. We have almost reached full capacity with 50 enrolments for next year.  We are also picking up several enrolments for other classes in 2026.

Our Year 2 students have their 'Big Day Out" today finishing with a BBQ dinner. The will have a great day filled with activities and a visit to the zoo.  We hope the weather today treats them well.

We are excited to celebrate Italian Day this Friday—a joyful opportunity to honour the language, culture and heritage of Italy. Miss Edmunds loves this day and builds lots of excitement for all the students. Thank you Miss Edmunds. We look forward to a day filled with spirit, learning and celebration!

We also remember St. Francis of Assisi, one of Italy’s most beloved Saints. Known for his deep love of creation, peace and service to others, his example reminds us of the power of kindness and care for all people and the world around us.

Finally, some exciting news. St Mary's has been chosen to the promotional school for Melbourne Archdiocesan Catholic Schools (MACS) Christmas Promotion. This means we will be on billboards, advertising and social media. MACS staff are visiting this Friday to look around the school for where they may take the pictures. The photos will be taken next week and will involve lots of students. I know families have already completed a photo permission form, however, if you have changed your mind or wish your child to participate, please let us know.

St Mary of the Cross, Pray for us

Anthony

Parent Education

Bus on Nelson Place

Religious Education

St Mary’s Faith News

 School and Parish Connections

Gospel: Luke 18: 9-14

The publican returned to his home justified; the Pharisee did not

Jesus spoke the following parable to some people who prided themselves on being virtuous and despised everyone else, ‘Two men went up to the Temple to pray, one a Pharisee, the other a tax collector.

The Pharisee stood there and said this prayer to himself, “I thank you, God, that I am not grasping, unjust, adulterous like the rest of mankind, and particularly that I am not like this tax collector here. I fast twice a week; I pay tithes on all I get.”

The tax collector stood some distance away, not daring even to raise his eyes to heaven; but he beat his breast and said, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner.”

This man, I tell you, went home again at rights with God; the other did not. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the man who humbles himself will be exalted.’

St Mary’s Family Monthly Mass

Sunday 26th October 2025

This Mass is also the Year One family Mass

It’s not too late to send in your 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.

Christian Leadership Awards

The Charism of Mary MacKillop Award

At St Mary’s, it has been a long-standing tradition to present two students from each class with the ‘Christian Leadership Award’ at the end of the year.

This year, we are excited to announce a change to the name and focus of this award. It will now be known as the ‘Charism of Mary MacKillop Award’.

While the spirit of the award remains grounded in the values of Saint Mary of the Cross MacKillop, each year level will now focus on a specific quote and value that reflects a particular quality of Mary MacKillop’s charism. This change allows our students to connect more deeply with her example and live out her message in age-appropriate and meaningful ways.

Please keep reading the newsletter for further updates about this award. Once finalised, the quotes and focus for each year level will be shared for our community to read in an upcoming edition.

Term 4 Masses

Parish Newsletter

Colour Explosion Jogathon

The P&F Coordinating Group is excited to announce the St Mary’s annual Colour Explosion Jogathon is back again for another year of fun and colour. 

Like last year, we’ll be running the event with Australian Fundraising, with money raised helping to pay for our playground redevelopment.

The Jogathon will be held on Thursday 13 November, in the afternoon, on Robertson Reserve. We encourage parents to come along and cheer the students on, as they get covered in non-toxic biodegradable colour powder from head to toe. A timetable for the event will be provided closer to the date.

Yesterday, sponsorship booklets and instructions were sent home with the eldest child in each family – please check school bags if you haven’t received this as yet. The booklet provides instructions on helping you set-up your child’s cybersafe online fundraising profile. Go to www.myprofilepage.com.au and click the register button. Please note, we are registered as “St Mary’s Primary School (Williamstown)”. Once you’ve created a parent account and profile page, you can share that around to family and friends to receive online donations. We’d encourage you to set this up early, share links with grandparents, family members and friends.  

There are fantastic prizes available, with students able to earn up to 15 unique incentive prizes. At the end of our fundraiser, student incentive prizes are ordered automatically based on their fundraising total.

This is our main fundraiser for the year, and we appreciate your continued support.

Happy fundraising!

P&F Coordinating Group

Icy Pole Volunteers

Please complete the following link if you would like to volunteer for the Term 1 2026 icy pole roster. We would appreciate it if you could do this no later than November 17th for admin purposes

West Gate Tunnel Project

Dear Parents and families,

The West Gate Tunnel Project is nearing completion and to celebrate, a free 2.5km walk and paid 8km run ($62.40 per person) will be held on the 16th November to explore the project before it opens to traffic in December.

This is a community event where you can run, walk and discover the new roads, tunnels and paths with free activities at Yarraville Gardens.

Via Melissa Horne MP, our school community can get access to early registration before it opens to the public this Friday (24th October).

Please click on this link to register and gain access to the early registration code. This is available for both the free 2.5km walk and 8km run.

To register for the 8km run use: DISCOVERRUN

To register for the 2.5km walk use: DISCOVERWALK

https://bigbuild.vic.gov.au/community/community-events/wgt/discovery-day

PS There are no age restrictions but children under 16 must be accompanied by an adult, and all participants must be registered to take part.

Community