Dear Parents, Guardians and Community, 

This week we celebrate the Feast of St Joseph. Mary MacKillop was known around the area of Williamstown and when the opportunity to take over St Mary's school came about, the Sisters of St Joseph were more than happy to help. The Sisters of St Joseph taught in our school for 99 years and although not teaching in the school today, they are still living in our Parish community and attend school celebrations. Their founding Sister is St Mary of the Cross MacKillop. St Mary of the Cross is Australia’s first Saint.

Science Week (August 12-20) Thank you, we already have four parents interested in doing some science in our school during science week. If you are interested in being part of this please send me an email at principal@smwilliamstown.catholic.edu.au or speak to me before or after school.

Data Literacy: This week we have four staff doing further training on our School Improvement Goal of improving our Data Literacy. We will be working with Bradley Geise who has flown over from California. previously we have been working with him on-line. Bradley's work is about Continuous School improvement using all the school data sets, student, demographic, perception and process data. 

Our Other School Improvement Goals.

Instructional Coaching. We are now through most of the training phase and have now a number of staff going through coaching cycles. So really building the momentum here.

Intervention Framework/ Behaviour Management. We have had a really strong focus on setting up our processes and procedures across the school as a result we can see a very settled school. Of course, students are not robots and we still deal with some issues, but overall things are running very smoothly.

Student Voice, agency and participation. Last year we focused on leadership procedures across the school, you can see now students running assemblies, our school leaders processes were improved and we have more structure around our student representative practices. This year we shift our focus around student voice, agency and participation into their learning and how we can support students to better understand their own learning needs and the actions they need to take to improve their own learning.

Harmony Day. This Friday is Harmony Day and we take this day to celebrate the diversity in our school. Students will be involved in activities throughout the day. Students will be weraing casual clothes with a gold coin donation to go to Project Compassion.

Playground Update: Our Playground plans are still sitting at Council which always takes time, however we have been able to make a small start. One of the goals of the plans is to make the outdoor area a better learning space and you may have noticed this week we added some numbers to the playground in that the we had some numbers put on the building measuring up to 800cm/ 8 metres in height. We finally removed the old 175th sign on the side of the building on Parker st, but with the crane on site, we got them (Gemma's brother, John Goode) to also make some signs up and put them on the side of the building. We want to put lots of Maths in our playground. I would love it if someone has an old large scales we can put in our playground so our students have more familiarity with grams and kilograms. Weather stations, tape measures are also things we would like to have outside for students to use as part of their learning and play.

Ride to School Day: This Friday is National Ride to School Day so we encourage all students to make an effort to ride to school. A great way for students to start their day

God bless 

Anthony

Reminder that school photo day is on Monday April 3. All students need to be in their Summer Uniform. If your child has sport on that day they are to bring their sports shoes in their bag. No sports uniforms are to be worn on the day. Thank you

St Mary’s Faith News

School and Parish Connections

Gospel – Sunday 19th March 2023

John 9: 1-41

One day Jesus was walking with His disciples. They saw a man who had been born blind. The disciples asked if the man was blind because he had sinned or because his parents had sinned.

The Savior said that neither the parents nor the man had sinned. The man was blind so that Jesus could heal him and show people God’s power.

Jesus made clay out of the dirt. He put it on the blind man’s eyes. Jesus told the man to go wash his eyes.

As soon as the man washed the clay from his eyes, he could see!

When his neighbors saw him, they were not sure who he was. He told them that Jesus had healed him. The neighbors took the man to the Pharisees. The man told the Pharisees that Jesus had healed him.

Some of the Pharisees thought Jesus must be a righteous man. Others thought He was a sinner. When the man said Jesus was a righteous person, some of the Pharisees were angry and threw the man out.

Jesus found the man. He asked the man if he believed in the Son of God. The man asked who the Son of God was. Jesus said that He was the Son of God, and the man worshipped Him.

Project Compassion

‘Working together for justice and dignity. Walking together in hope.

Building together a thriving future for all.’

ONLY TWO WEEKS TO GO!!!

Last week the children set the goal of raising $250.00 for Project Compassion. The school and parish thank you for your efforts and contributions.

As of Friday the school has raised $365.35.

As we have reached the goal of $250.00, the Charism have now raised the goal and are now hoping we, as a school can raise $500.00.

Ways the children can contribute are:

1. Put some of their pocket money into the box.
2. Choose to donate icy pole money.
3. If the children have given up a treat - try and donate the cost, so the children can see their abstaining is benefiting someone else.

Lenten Liturgies

There will be a Lenten Liturgy held every Friday afternoon in the school hall at 3:00pm.

The Liturgy will be followed by the school assembly, where Student of the week and birthdays will be celebrated.

Thank you for your support and we look forward to seeing as many of you at the next few Liturgies/assemblies.

Some important Dates to Remember for Term 1

There has been a change in date

Important information for Year Four Families

In the next week there will be an information booklet coming home with information about The First Eucharist.

I hope that the booklet will answer any questions you may have about preparing the children for the Sacrament and what to expect on the day.

This information will be sent home as a hard copy and as an email so that everyone receives the information.

Sacramental Program 2023

All dates and times for the Sacrament Masses are outlined in the table below. Year 4 and Year 6 students will be making their Eucharist and Confirmation as a class this year. Early in Term 2 we will open the ‘booking online’ for parents in Year 3 to make a time for their child to make their Reconciliation.

Information Sessions for the Sacramental Program

Altar Servers

Any student in Years 3, 4, 5 or 6 who would like to train as an Altar server, please contact with Fr Greg at greg.trythall@cam.org.au or Mrs Lipnicki at clipnicki@smwilliamstown.catholic.edu.au.

Training will be organised by Fr Greg. Fr Greg will also put together a roster which he will share with families.

Library News

Dear Parents and Guardians,

They say it takes a village to raise a child, and for nearly 200 years “the village” has been an important part of supporting St Mary’s students.

I often think about what makes St Mary's unique or special and the importance of family involvement in our students' school life. Every single thing we do at St Mary’s starts with the question “How will this help the children?” I’m sure it’s the same in your families and in your homes.

We want students to be supported, thrive with the opportunities presented to them, have fun and make great memories of their years at primary school. The broader St Mary’s community is an important part of that.

However,  we also face a challenge when it comes to managing all those extra activities and fundraising projects – the work of the P&F Association.

The P&F  Association at St Mary’s has always been extraordinary. Their workload is enormous and we must recognise the time pressures of busy lives. Reflecting on discussions with a number of parents and the Advisory Council, I feel it is time to find a way to keep the ethos of the P&F alive but share the load or find an easier/more manageable way for more families to be involved in our school.

Therefore, instead of the formal P&F Association we want to try a new way forward where all families can contribute in a way that is most manageable and enjoyable for them.

The trusty favourite activities will continue, but a few things might change and hopefully some new great projects/ideas/fun/educational ideas will emerge. The exact calendar and the way you can become involved will be communicated in the coming weeks.

Your ideas would be valuable so please contact Julie Carey at julieacarey0@gmail.com or me at principal@smwilliamstown.catholic.edu.au  if you have any thoughts. For example you may have the skills to help out at Science Week, which I mentioned in this week’s newsletter, or you may have a fundraising idea you could run … we’d love you to be involved.

I would also like to share more insight into the projects, and educational programs that the staff are working on. So this year – now the uncertainty and disruptions of COVID are mostly behind us - there will be more opportunities for face-to-face parent sessions and webinars with me or other members of the St Mary’s staff. If there’s a topic you would like to hear more about, no matter how controversial, let me know and I will try to run a session on that.

In 2023 we have a clear goal for our fundraising efforts to give our children some wonderful experiences and in particular a more exciting outdoor schoolyard environment to learn in and enjoy. We want to create an outdoor environment that is a great learning space, a space for curiosity, to take risks and have adventure, a place for quiet and a place for students to connect, be social and create lifelong friendships.

In summary, I hope you all have a chance (probably via an easy online sign up app) to nominate for a way to be involved with our school this year. We want it to be easy, we want less meetings, lots of ownership and the privilege of our students benefiting from the many skills out there in the St Marys community. Your involvement in St Mary’s should be fun for you and your children.

Thank you for taking the time to read.

God Bless 

Anthony

Another week and another round of exciting events at Emmanuel. Our Year 9 students recently visited the Victorian Space Science Education Centre (VSSEC) where they completed a simulated mission to Mars.

Year 7 2024 students came along and participated in the Amazing Race, getting to know other students, staff and their new secondary school a little more.  This is just one of a range of orientation events that we hold, while students are in Grade 6. This allows them to feel really calm about joining the Emmanuel community.

Last Wednesday morning we welcomed former students and staff to the College for the Annual Alumni Business Breakfast where Andrew Gaze AM was our guest presenter.  It was wonderful to see so many past students together, continuing secondary school friendships and reconnecting with staff. In further connections for our past students, on Monday we held the Nexus Mentoring Program dinner, where we connected students in the mentoring program with their Old-Collegian mentor. We had more than 70 people in attendance.

Our next major event is the College Open Day to be held on Sunday 21 May 2023, see times for each campus below:

St Paul’s Campus              10:30am - 1:30pm

Notre Dame Campus      11:00am - 2:00pm

Applications for Year 7 2025 are now open and will close on Friday 18 August 2023. 

If your child is currently in Grade 5, it is a requirement to submit an application if you wish to be considered for a place in Year 7 2025, even if you already have an older child who attends the College. 

A Prospectus Pack containing an application form can be requested under the Enrolment Information tab on the right-hand side of the homepage of the College website: https://www.ecmelb.catholic.edu.au/enrolment-information/request-a-prospectus, or by picking one up from either campus office.

We hope to see you at a College event soon.

Kind regards

Jenny Hendricks

Jawbone Marine Sanctuary

You are invited to attend our Family Fun Day on Saturday 25 March at the Jawbone Marine Sanctuary.