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Dear Parents, Guardians and Community
This week our thoughts and prayers are with the Sheedy family as we remember Jim's life and his contribution to St Mary's Williamstown and Catholic Education. We thank all families at St Mary's for their support which will allow staff to attend the funeral of Jim this Friday. Thank you also for all the kind messages we have received. So far we have about 12 staff away for several hours attending the funeral and from indications we will have about half the students here in some classes and in some classes less. If anyone has not filled out the survey can you please follow this link
Colour run update. With everything happening last week I forgot to acknowledge the success of the colour run. A big thank you to Claire Beckton and Amanda Osuchowski who put this event together. I do not have a final figure, however I know it was over $10000 that was raised which is a great effort. Our playground redevelopment continues to gather momentum in the background with our masterplan moving to the point where more detailed drawings are now being developed in readiness to hand over to contractors to start construction. Our drawings are still a few weeks away so I imagine we will not be able to get anything done over Christmas, but it will not be far away after that.
Learning Walk. I hope you can join us for our next Parent Learning walk this Thursday at 9am. The focus for this week's program is our Phonics program with a Question and Answer session after that. Laura Graham and Charlotte Lipnicki will be answering most of the questions in this session.
School Captain's Speeches. Tomorrow our we have our Year 5 students presenting their speeches in the hope of becoming one of our School Leaders for 2024. The students have been working with Unleashing Your Potential in preparation to teach them about what real leadership is and the role of all us to be leaders. The speeches will take place in the School Hall from noon.
5/6 Bike Ed: This Friday our Year 5 and 6 have a Bike Education incursion. This day will not only involve training in the school but also with riding around the Williamstown area. St Mary's Williamstown has a very high percentage of students riding their bikes compared to other schools. It is great to see our students becoming healthy and independent young adults.
Garden Update: Our garden continues to thrive. We can see the rocket growing well (Anyone is welcome to take some, otherwise it will just go to waste) our peas and beans, which have been popular with the students, are still growing, our carrots are growing well and we soon we will have an abundance of zucchinis. We can see some chives, coriander and tomatoes coming through. Once again, please help yourself, there is no point letting it go to waste.
God Bless
Anthony
CSEF - Camp, Sport and Excursion Fund
Do you qualify for CSEF (Camp, Sports and Excursions Fund)?
Families holding a valid means-tested concession card or temporary foster parents are eligible to apply. A Special Consideration category also exists. Schools can receive applications from families over terms one and two.
Families can list more than one student in the one application form if they are attending the same school.
Criteria 1
The applicant must be one of the following:
- a parent/carer (of the relevant student) who is:
- on the first day of term one (30 January 2023) or the first day of term two (24 April 2023) an eligible beneficiary of either a Centrelink Health Care Card or a Pensioner Concession Card; or
- an eligible beneficiary of a Veterans Affairs Gold Card; or
- a temporary foster carer; or
- a student is 16 years or older and holds a valid concession card (such as a Youth Allowance Health Care Card or Disability Support Pension Card).
The parent/carer must apply to the school before the end of the term.
Parents/carers who receive a carer allowance on behalf of a student, or any other benefit or allowance not income tested by Centrelink, are not eligible for the CSEF payment unless they also meet the above eligibility criterion.
Where the parent/carer is seeking eligibility based on holding a Centrelink Health Care Card or a Pensioner Concession Card, eligibility will be determined when the relevant concession card successfully validates with Centrelink on either the first day of term one or term two.
If the eligible card is in the name of the student, the fund is only granted to that student, not their siblings.
Criteria 2
For CSEF, students may be eligible for assistance if they attend a registered Victorian school. Typically, these students are aged between five and 18 years.
School is compulsory for all Victorian children aged between six and 17 years of age.
CSEF is not payable to students attending pre-school, kindergarten, TAFE or who are homeschooled.
Special consideration
A special consideration category exists for:
- families on a bridging visa, temporary protection visa, are in community detention or are asylum seeker families – a letter from Australian Red Cross or similar welfare institution, visa grant notice or ImmiCards is required as evidence.
- students in temporary out of home care arrangements, including statutory kinship care – a letter of support from the institution facilitating the arrangement (for example Mackillop Family Services) or the Department of Families, Fairness and Housing is required as evidence. Copies of court orders are not required.
Permanent care arrangements such as permanent visas and permanent foster care do not meet the criteria for special consideration.
Applications for special consideration can be made through the standard application form and must be submitted by 23 June 2023.
Schools can accept applications from newly arrived refugee and asylum seeker students who enrol in Terms 3 and 4.
For more information please visit - https://www.vic.gov.au/
If you would like a CSEF form emailed to you, please email gmarshall@smwilliamstown.
St Mary’s Faith News
School and Parish Connections
Gospel – Matthew 25:1-13
Jesus told his disciples this parable:
The kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom.
Five of them were foolish and five were wise.
The foolish ones, when taking their lamps, brought no oil with them,
but the wise brought flasks of oil with their lamps.
Since the bridegroom was long delayed, they all became drowsy and fell asleep.
At midnight, there was a cry, ‘Behold, the bridegroom! Come out to meet him!’
Then all those virgins got up and trimmed their lamps.
The foolish ones said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.’
But the wise ones replied, ‘No, for there may not be enough for us and you. Go instead to the merchants and buy some for yourselves.’
While they went off to buy it, the bridegroom came and those who were ready went into the wedding feast with him. Then the door was locked.
Afterwards the other virgins came and said, ‘Lord, Lord, open the door for us!’
But he said in reply, ‘Amen, I say to you, I do not know you.’
Therefore, stay awake, for you know neither the day nor the hour.”
God Speed Mr Sheedy
It is with heavy hearts and deep sadness that we announce the death of Jim Sheedy to the school and Parish community.
There are many families at the school who knew and met Jim.
Likewise there are a lot of staff who worked with Jim, and his death has had a big impact on a lot of us.
Please be supportive of us as we grieve. For some of us Jim was our leader for a long time and we are shocked by his sudden passing.
Jim Sheedy was the Principal of St Mary’s, Williamstown for ten years from 2008-2018.
Jim was not just a Principal, he was an advocate for Maths and Science in all Catholic schools and he was a big advocate of “teach the child not the curriculum”.
As a teacher who worked with Jim, I can say that Jim always encouraged us, as teachers, to teach the children in our class and cater for every individual. His catch phrase was “know your kids” - and we did and still do - we know your children!
He also recognised the importance of St Mary’s, being the oldest continuing school in Victoria and encouraged everyone in the school to embrace our history and our connection to Mary MacKillop and the Josephite sisters. Jim took great pride in recognising and celebrating our school and its valuable history. We even have an inaugural stamp!
Jim Sheedy’s funeral will be held at St Augustine’s in Yarraville on the 17th November 2023 at 11:00.
There are a number of staff at St Mary’s who worked with Jim and will be attending the funeral. So as Anthony mentioned in the newsletter, we will have minimal staff on Friday 17th November
Our thoughts and prayers go out to his wife Therese and his beautiful family.
Some important dates to Remember for Term 4
Event |
Date |
Time |
Where |
Advent Liturgy 1 |
Friday 24th November |
3:00 pm |
School Hall |
Prep family Mass & St Mary’s family Mass |
Sunday 26th November |
10:30 am |
Church |
Seniors Mass |
Friday 1st December |
11:30 am |
Church |
Advent Liturgy 2 |
Friday 1st December |
3:00 pm |
School Hall |
Feast of the Immaculate Conception |
Friday 8th December |
9:15 am |
Church |
Advent Liturgy 3 |
Friday 8th December |
3:00 pm |
School Hall |
End of Year Mass |
Thursday 14th December |
11:30 am |
Church |
Please Click here to read
We hope you enjoy this updated edition and we thank all staff and students for their contributions.
Nicole Magee
Synergy eNewsletter
Last Friday we welcomed 280 Year 4 and 5 students to St Paul’s Campus who joined in the Annual Soccer Fun Day, it was a wonderful, fun-filled day. Congratulations to our Primary Schools and the Emmanuel students who helped out by showing great leadership refereeing all of the matches and helping serve at the BBQ lunch. This is another way that our students connect with our communities.
The Liverpool FC International Academy Australia program commences this Wednesday 15 November with very limited places still available.
The current program is for students that are in the 9-11 age group, to join our player-focused coaches in a weekly session during Term 4, where your child can develop valuable skills, not just on the field, but for a lifetime! Bookings are essential and can be made via this link:
https://lfcacademy.com.au/vic/emmanuel-college-altona-skill-development-clinics/
Year 2025 – Confirmation of Acceptance
Confirmation of Acceptance documentation was due back last Friday 10 November.
To ensure that we can process your child’s acceptance, please ensure that you complete and return all of the documents that were provided to you with the Letter of Offer. Failure to complete and return all relevant forms may result in the withdrawal of your offer.
If you have not already returned the documents and you would like to accept the place for your child, please contact our College Registrar as a priority, as we have an extensive waiting list at both campuses, thank you.
Yours sincerely
Jenny Hendricks
Invitation to join the Choir to perform at "Carols by Daylight at Federation Square"
If you enjoy singing Christmas carols and would like to perform in the choir at our annual "Carols by Daylight" concert event at Federation Square, we invite you to join rehearsals (free) at school during recess each week (Thurs 16 Nov, Fri 24 Nov, Fri 1 Dec) with Alexander Hazelbank. Register your interest: hello@hellomusic.com.au
St Mary's School is a Child Safe School and as such complies with all aspects and legal obligations that relate to the Child Wellbeing and Safety Act 2005 (VIC)