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Dear Parents and Guardians,
This week we have our Year 5 and 6 students completing the Beach program. Restrictions have been easing up so we are having a very busy last few weeks as we try to catch up on a few things. Thanks to all the staff who have been putting in extra hours to try and give your children as many experiences as they can in a short amount of time.
Advent: The Advent season, within the Catholic Church, has begun. Advent is a time of waiting, a time to prepare to celebrate the coming of Jesus celebrated at Christmas. It is a time also to consider what the presence of Jesus, the Christ means to us today. Advent encompasses the four Sundays and weekdays leading up to the celebration of Christmas and it is a time of preparation for our heart and minds for the anniversary of the Lord's birth on Christmas.
At St Mary's, one new way we celebrate Advent is by putting up an Advent Wreath and lighting candles each week. We also hold a Advent Liturgy each week to help the students to remember the real meaning of Christmas.
Data Report: Families would be interested to know what is the data telling us about students falling behind because of remote learning this year. The good news is that the testing is showing us that our students are tracking where they are meant to be and that Covid has had minimal impact overall. This has followed what happened in Christchurch (NZ) after the earthquake where students continued to learn well. Christchurch had completely closed schools during the earthquake recovery. Research is really clear that the home environment is more important than the school environment for learning so well done. There are some students who have struggled in this time and the tutor program will directly assist these students. We are currently getting teachers to list these students and the testing results that show us what has happened. Once we know who we need to teach them and what sort of assistance they require we will plan a course of action.
Parent and Guardian Survey Feedback. Thanks to the many people who filled in the Parent and Guardian Survey. We had a real range of responses and a couple of themes came out. More Communicating about what students are learning. We have been looking at this and how we can manage it. It is one of those things, if we add on to teachers' workload, something must be taken out. So we are trying to look at ways of doing this simply. Swimming got a few mentions. We looked at this last year and the decision was made not to incorporate this as most families are already doing swimming lessons. Sustainability and the garden also got a few mentions. We actually still do quite a lot in this area so perhaps it may be a matter of us communicating more what we are doing. Some of the positives mentioned included the community feel, the teachers, parent teacher interviews, community engagement, administration staff, open classroom mornings and the school spirit. Overall, the comments reflected that the community is very happy with the Faith Component of the School. Thank you very much for those who completed the survey, it gives us a sense of where we are at and where we need to go.
Student Leadership: One of the things that has been difficult this year is Student Leadership. We try to give our students as many opportunities as we can, however this year there were not as many. One thing the school is trying to do more and more work in is increasing student voice, that includes student voice in how our year 6 students would like to organise the leadership roles. Our Leadership model for 2021 will be done early next year as the students settle into Year 6. The students will be given the chance to talk about how they would like to shape student leadership in 2021.
Planning Day this Friday: This Friday we will be planning as a team about 2021 (this will be a Pupil Free Day). There will be a focus on Religious Education, Literacy and Numeracy planning. Next year, as already indicated we will begin our focus on Mathematics. Schools tend to move between Literacy and Numeracy as their main focus and St Mary's has had a strong focus on Literacy recently. It does not mean that we have not looked at Numeracy at all during that time, it still has a large focus, it just means Literacy got more. We now shift that with Numeracy taking a bigger lead.
Community Skills and Passions: Thank you to everyone who added their information to the Community Skills and Passion from earlier this year. This year probably meant we did not use it to its full advantage, but many parents were able to be contacted to use there expertise and passions. A few of the things I used the community for included
- Getting feedback on a quote we received on solar panel installation
- Parents reviewing and feeding back on the new website.
- Advice from Parents around Marketing
- Parents helping with the selection process for new staff.
- Financial counselling for families.
And many other things
What we would like to do next year is to tap into a few of the interests. Two of the areas that came up a lot were the environment and promoting women's rights. We will look to organise somethings in these areas in 2021.
God Bless and Stay Safe.
Anthony
We bring peace to the world when we bring peace to our world
Advent focuses on repentance each year. During the second Sunday of Advent, we hear John the Baptist proclaim loudly, “Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand!”
Jesus brings the kingdom to Earth when he becomes human. He’s completely divine and yet completely human, fully God and fully flesh-and-blood.
Jesus came to bring peace. He tells people, over and over, not to be afraid. But peace begins at home, within our walls and within ourselves.
Confirmation 2020
Many thanks to the children who have returned their white confirmation card to school. Parents / Caregivers, this card contains important information that is stored at the presbytery. Could we please ask that these cards are returned to school no later than Thursday 3rd December.
Upcoming Liturgies
As we are still unable to gather as a whole school group in the church, we will continue to provide liturgies of important feast dates and occasions over the loudspeaker.
Celebration |
Date |
Year Level |
2nd Week of Advent |
Thursday 3rd December |
Year4 |
Feast of the Immaculate Conception liturgy |
Tuesday 8th December |
Year 1 |
Confirmation Ceremony |
Tuesday 8th December 6pm |
Year 6 |
Confirmation Ceremony |
Tuesday 8th December 7.15pm |
Year 6 |
Confirmation Ceremony |
Thursday 10th December 6pm |
Year 6 |
3rd Week of Advent |
Friday 11th December |
Prep |
End of year liturgy |
Wednesday 16th December |
Classroom teachers |
They have arrived!! The professional printed Christmas Cards have arrived and will be distributed throughout this week. They are all looking fabulous ! A huge thank you to Ms Lipnicki and to all the staff that supported this initiative but most importantly a big thank you to the children for their contribution. An update for the handmade cards for Preps – Grade 2 will follow early next week.
St. Mary’s Epic Christmas Raffle
Over 100 fabulous prizes to be won in the St. Mary’s Epic Christmas Raffle.
Prizes include: A stunning Emporio Armani ladies watch donated by Filigree Jewellers • Gourmet food & wine hampers • $100 Altona Gate shopping voucher • $50 Total Tools voucher • Fresh produce box donated by Flavorite • kids skateboard, toys, games and more!
Get your tickets today on CDF Pay!
https://smwilliamstown.cdfpay.org.au/
Tickets are available until 11.30pm Thursday 10th December. You can buy bundles of 5 tickets for $10 or 11 tickets for $20. You can also buy tickets for friends and family, simply enter their name when prompted on CDF Pay.
Winners will be drawn on Friday 11th December and hampers distributed the final week of school. Ticket numbers will be allocated electronically. All funds raised go towards the Parent and Friends Committee Fund which funds school projects, ancillary costs and community engagement activities.
Volunteers for 2021
A reminder that you if you able to volunteer in 2021 we would love to hear from. Please use the online form https://forms.gle/4amHWsxmMZNpE1wq8, we are asking if you could please do so by Friday 11th December.
For those of you that have already completed the green forms for Maclean Reserve and Icy Poles you don’t need to complete those fields on this form.
Lunch Orders
A quick reminder that lunch orders need to be submitted via your CDF Pay account https://smwilliamstown.cdfpay.org.au/
All orders must be in by 9.30am on Tuesday or Thursday, and to help with planning you can order a couple of weeks ahead.
Please don’t contact the lunch order supplier as they are unable to process any orders after the cut-off which is 9.30am.
If you experience any issues with CDF Pay please contact David Valerdo treasurer@smwilliamstown.catholic.edu.au
If you have any questions or queries for the P&F Committee, please submit via email vicepresident@smwilliamstown.catholic.edu.au
Many thanks
Jemima Bowen
Vice-President