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Dear Parents and Community,
Thank you to everyone who was able to get to our Meet and Greet yesterday. It was a very successful night. Thanks for all those who made it and please make a time with your teacher if the times did not suit. We really value your input as you will always know your children better than us. I thank our teachers and other staff. They do not get paid extra for those nights, or camps or weekend events etc. I really appreciate how they go above and beyond for the families in our community.
Closure Days Next Week: Next week, Thursday and Friday, March 4th and 5th, are closure days for our bi-annual retreat. What differs us from a government school is the faith element of the school, so Catholic schools will generally take the time every year or two and reflect on spirituality. For many of our families, their connection to faith is through the school. This retreat we will be working with Father Elio Capria with the theme of, "What should a Catholic School look like in the 21st Century." As part of these two days we will be also writing a school prayer that we can use at assemblies and other events.
Middle Leaders Course: Congratulations to Brittany Rickman who successfully applied for the Middle Leaders Course starting this week. I know it was a very popular course and only a limited number of people were selected. Brittany will travel to Ballarat to work with the Brown Collective. It is a great opportunity and a great credit to Brittany that she was shortlisted for the course. Well done Brittany.
Garden: We managed to get our garden looking like a garden again instead of a jungle. Thanks to Charlotte Lipnicki and the students who helped out. We even found some things growing in there!!
Staff Meeting: National Consistent Collection (NCCD) of Data: As a staff we have been learning more about the NCCD. The NCCD is the ways schools are able to support many students in our school. It funds our employment of Learning Support Co-ordinator and Officers (LSO's) our Speech Pathology Service and our School Psychologist. We are hoping our new Psychologist, Kelly, will be able to start in the next week or two.
Sustainability/ Community: Charlotte Lipnicki has taken on an extra role this year and will use some of this time on sustainability and community liaison. Charlotte will do a wonderful job in these areas. Charlotte will be out of her classrooms one day a week as she does one day per fortnight looking after our Religious Education Curriculum and the other day per fortnight will be sustainability/community liaison.
Landscape Architect: At the moment I am meeting with Landscape Architects with the hope of working towards a masterplan for the school playground. We are just looking a fees proposals at this stage to formulate a ten year plan so the school can plan for it in it's yearly budget. We are not looking at possible designs yet, that will come later when we will talk to students, staff and families.
Traffic Plan Update: I had a message from Hobsons Bay City Council this week that the traffic plan around our school will still be going ahead and has been delayed because of Covid and street dining. We should start to see some changes in April.
St Mary's Parish School Building Fund. For those do not know, the school has a Building Fund that is managed by the Parish. The school can use these funds for any building and repairs. The good news is that this is Tax Deductible. This year our Jogathon donations will come directly into the school, a change where previously Jogathon donations all went to the Building Fund. The reason for doing this is quite simple. It allows us to use the money for a wider range of things from Technology purchases, playground equipment, BBQ's Equipment and Marquees. It also means that donations from Parents will be spent more quickly in the school. This year we are using the School Building Fund for two big things. Re carpeting the whole school and replacing the glass doors with an electronic door to try and improve the temperature regulation across the school. If you wish to still donate to the School Building Fund and receive a Tax Deduction, please transfer to the following account. BSB 083 347 Account number 153900034.
Canberra Trip Update: After speaking to our tour operator we are feeling very confident about our trip to Canberra for Year 5 and 6 students. The processes and plans they have are excellent. Our tour operator have three schools in Canberra this week and two more next week. It is an amazing opportunity and one we do not want the students to miss out on.
God Bless and stay safe
Anthony
Reconciliation Information for Year 3 Families:
The dates for any Year 3 child who is making their Reconciliation in 2021 are:
Tuesday 23rd March
Wednesday 24th March
Thursday 25th March
From 3.50 - 6.30pm
Friday 26th March
From 3.50 - 5.30pm
A time slot of 10 minutes is allocated for each family.
Bookings will be released on Tuesday 9th March at 4pm. A code to use in your booking given shortly.
**Please note**
Year 2 Family Mass - Sunday 28th February
If you were unable to book online, you can sign the register on arrival at the church on Sunday or scan the QR code at the door. We CANNOT use other people’s booking details, the purpose of the booking system and register is for contact tracing so please:
- If you have over booked for family members that are not attending the family mass, please update your online booking
- If you cannot book online, please sign the register at the church on Sunday or scan the QR code
Upcoming Events...
Date/ Time |
Event |
Friday 26th February, 3.15pm |
Lenten Liturgy |
Sunday 28th, 10:30am |
Year 2 Family Mass |
Friday 12th March, 3.15pm |
Lenten Liturgy |
Sunday 14th March 10:30am |
Year 3 Family Mass |
Friday 19th March, 9:15am |
Feast of St Joseph |
Friday 19th March, 2.30pm |
Lenten Liturgy |
Reconciliation Tuesday 23rd March, Wednesday 24th March, Thursday 25th March 3.50 - 6.30pm
Friday 26th March, 3.50 - 5.30pm |
Sacrament of Reconciliation (Year 3 children and their families). |
Friday 26th March, 3.15pm |
Lenten Liturgy |
Sacrament Dates for 2021
Reconciliation (Year 3)
Tuesday 23rd March, 3.50 - 6.30pm
Wednesday 24th March, 3.50 - 6.30pm
Thursday 25th March, 3.50 - 6.30pm
Friday 26th March, 3.50 - 5.30pm
First Eucharist (Year 5)
Saturday 29th May, 6pm
Sunday 30th May, 8.30am & 10.30am
First Eucharist (Year 4)
Saturday 19th June, 6pm
Sunday 20th June, 8.30am & 10.30am
Confirmation (Year 6)
Tuesday 27th July, 6pm
Wednesday 28th July, 6pm
Thursday 29th July, 6pm
CONGRATULATIONS TO
ST MARY’S HOUSE CAPTAINS
Bayview - Anthony Bartolo &
Gianfranco Brogna
Winella - Rhys Darmanin &
Noah Darrington-Bell
Penola - Charlotte Petersen &
Coco Sammartino
Portland -Grace Johnson &
Chloe Mulcahy
I am sure that you have all noticed, the school garden no longer looks like a jungle.
We are in the process of cleaning up the garden area, so that we can get the children involved and start planting.
On Friday, I met with Jen McQueeny, the Sustainability development officer from Hobson’s Bay. I gave her a walk around the school and talked through ideas and events that I and she think St Mary’s can get involved in. We also talked about the recycling hub and how we can collect certain items for recycling. She was impressed with the focus on waste reduction as this fits in with Recycling 2.0 program in the area. Jen will help us bring a number of ideas to fruition and support us in grant applications.
I would like to acknowledge Nathan Mueke and Olive McKinney, who have taken on the duty of monitoring the bins and auditing the amount of rubbish we, as a school are sending to landfill compared to recycling. They will be reporting back each week and an audit will be put in each weeks newsletter.
Woolworths has reintroduced their discovery garden promotion. For every $30.00 spent you can collect one pot of herbs, veggies or flowers.
If you have any doubles or would like to donate your pots to the St Mary’s garden, there will be a box left at the front office for drop offs.
The garden club, which will be led by Ms Sutton will germinate the seeds and plant them in the garden.
CLEAN UP AUSTRALIA DAY
St Mary’s will have their own clean up Australia day on Friday 12th March.
Each year level has been allocated a particular area to clean up.
Hobsons Bay council will provide us with the collection bags.
All children need to come to school on the 12th of March with gloves ready to clean up our community.
There will posters and more information provided nearer the time.
Charlotte Lipnicki
This week in the library we celebrated the MR MEN series turning 50 years old! What a wonderful series of books they are. It is amazing that they continue to entertain children with their adventures. Which is your favourite Mr Men or Little Miss character???
The first P&F Meeting was held on Monday night and it is with sadness but with immense gratitude that we thank Leo Nardo for his commitment and contribution to the P&F over five years as President. Over that time Leo has helped to strengthen the financial sustainability of the P&F and building a culture of connectedness and community.
All positions were up for nomination, congratulations and thank you to you all for stepping into the following roles for 2021.
- President – Jemima Bowen (president@smwilliamstown.catholic.edu.au)
- Vice-President – Victoria Crowe (vicepresident@smwilliamstown.catholic.edu.au)
- Treasurer – David Velardo (treasurer@smwilliamstown.catholic.edu.au)
- Secretary – Jacinda Davies (secretary@smwilliamstown.catholic.edu.au)
- Volunteer Coordinator – Katherine McQuinn (volunteers@smwilliamstown.catholic.edu.au)
- Communications Coordinator – Tanya Dias (pf-comms@smwilliamstown.catholic.edu.au)
Thanks to all the new families that joined us last night and if you were not able to make it please come along to the next P&F Meeting in March.
Over the next few weeks will be confirming the activities, events and fundraising for 2021, keep an eye out for that, and if you are keen to get involved please email volunteer@smwilliamstown.catholic.edu.au
Jogathon
Jogathon flyers went home today that outline the Jogathon for 2021.
This year will be the 16th Annual Jogathon for St Mary’s. Run by the Parents & Friends Committee, Jogathon Day is a day when the entire school participates in a fun run to raise money for the school.
Jogathon is a fun activity for children to do along with their classmates and a way to engage them into physical fitness. To help the children think about their own physical health and wellbeing, we will start each jog with a special warm up. Justine Brogna, a mental health practitioner and mindfulness dance therapist from TreeHaus Williamstown along with Ms Karoline Cooke, our PE Teacher, will provide the warm up for each class.
The path around ‘The Green’ beside the school is the venue for the Jogathon. Based on the fabulous efforts from previous years we have provided an estimate of what we could expect “on average” the children to do. Bonus laps tend to raise the final lap counts when we can get our teachers and parents running with the students!
A timetable for the day will be published at a later date.
The Parents and Friends Committee receives all proceeds and donations from the 2021 Jogathon. A big thank you to our major sponsor TreeHaus Williamstown and also to sponsors Kelly Sports and Woolworths Williamstown. If you have any questions regarding the jogathon, please email mailto:special_events@smwilliamstown.catholic.edu.au
Second Hand Uniform Pop Up Shop – Monday
Due to popular demand second hand uniforms will now be available every Monday from 8.30am, in the School Hall Stage. If you have any spare coat hangers or clothes racks that you can donate can you, please leave these at the office