2025 Term 4 Week 5

Mark your Calendar

Principal

Dear Parents, Guardians and Community,

I hope everyone had a chance to get a break.  A short week this week. This week we see the Beach Program begin for our Grade 5 and 6 students.  This program is our registered swimming program and receive government funding support. Our Grade 5 and 6 students attend Williamstown Beach and learn through the Life Saving Victoria Program.

We had our School Advisory Board Meeting during the school day for the first time. We are looking to do this more often which will also allow us to show Board members what is happening in our classrooms.

Next Week we see our exciting performances of Matilda being put on buy our Grade 3/4 students.  A big thank you to Gina Coetzee, who has been working really hard to prepare the students.

MACS Media visit follow up. Last week we had a great day hosting the MACS Media team as they were at the school for a whole day. It was a great opportunity for the students to be a part of the photo shoot and see how it is done.  The school was chosen as we have a previous relationship with the team through their visit for the Poetry Slam and other events. The Billboards will start to appear around December 10 across Melbourne. Our school is not identified in any of the pictures as it is a promotion for MACS Schools.  Thank you to the parents who said yes for the photos and to our teachers who had many interruptions during the day.  Gemma Marshall did a fantastic job coordinating the whole day.

St Mary of the cross. Pray for us.

Anthony

Parent Education

Religious Education

St Mary’s Faith News

 School and Parish Connections

Gospel: John 2: 13-22

 He spoke about the temple of his own body

Just before the Jewish Passover Jesus went up to Jerusalem, and in the Temple he found people selling cattle and sheep and pigeons, and the money changers sitting at their counters there.

Making a whip out of some cord, he drove them all out of the Temple, cattle and sheep as well, scattered the money changers’ coins, knocked their tables over and said to the pigeon-sellers, ‘Take all this out of here and stop turning my Father’s house into a market’.

Then his disciples remembered the words of scripture: Zeal for your house will devour me.

The Jews intervened and said, ‘What sign can you show us to justify what you have done?’

Jesus answered, ‘Destroy this sanctuary, and in three days I will raise it up’.

The Jews replied, ‘It has taken forty-six years to build this sanctuary: are you going to raise it up in three days?’

But he was speaking of the sanctuary that was his body, and when Jesus rose from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they believed the scripture and the words he had said.

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

Jogathon is Next Week!!

A huge thank you to those families who have already kickstarted their fundraising efforts. To date 49 out of 245 students have set up their profile pages.

For those yet to activate a fundraising profile, there’s still plenty of time. Simply head to www.myprofilepage.com.au and search for “St Mary’s School (Williamstown). Remember to share your fundraising link with grandparents, family, and friends to help boost your totals.

Don’t forget there are fantastic incentive prizes available, starting from when you raise just $10 or more. At the end of our fundraiser, student incentive prizes are ordered automatically based on their fundraising total.

To create some friendly competition, the class that raises the most funds will score a special “slime time” session. Currently, Year 1 Yellow (Ms Alves and Ms Gunn) are leading the charge, followed by Prep Yellow (Mrs Lipnicki). There’s still time for everyone to get involved and climb the leaderboard.

Volunteers needed

We’re still looking for volunteers to help the P&F run this event. If you can spare a couple of hours next Thursday 13 November, please sign-up here. Your support makes a world of difference.

What to wear

Where possible, please wear a white t-shirt to really make the most of the colour explosion experience, along with old shorts and sneakers. You might like to pack a change of clothes or an old towel (for the car trip home).

Jogathon details

• Date: Thursday, 13 November
• Location: Robertson Reserve
• Session 1: Prep to Grade 2 – 12.20pm to 1.00pm
• Session 2: Grade 3 to 6 – 1.10pm to 1.50pm

We’d love for you to come along and cheer on the students as they dash through clouds of vibrant, non-toxic colour powder. It’s always a brilliant afternoon for our school.

Happy fundraising.

P&F Coordinating Group

A Midsummer Night's Dream

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

St Mary's Prep Parish BBQ