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Dear Parents, Guardians and Community,
It is hard to believe it is half way through the term. The news of the new covid restrictions means you will see face masks around the school again. School events like First Communion can still go ahead with face masks for anyone over 12 and within the density limits of the building.
A good time to remind families not to send your child to school if they are unwell. Coughs and Colds are spreading through our classrooms quickly with students and staff getting unwell. Under Covid 19 guidleines, students should not be attending school if they are unwell.
Bicentennial Mass: On Monday we joined schools from across Melbourne for Mass at St Patrick's Cathedral to celebrate 200 years of Catholic Education in Australia. Three of our St Mary's Students, Ben, Bayley and Charlie, read at the Mass and our school was spoken about as the longest continuously operating Catholic School in Victoria. Another interesting thing that Bishop Peter Comensoli said was that most Catholic Schools started with lay people and that the Sisters, Nuns and Priests were involved later. We were lucky enough at the end to have a photo taken with the Bishop. We had our own Bicentennial Mass today to celebrate as a community. Thank you to Michelle Ebinger and Charlotte Lipnicki for all their organisation.
First Communion. We wish all our students celebrating their First Communion this weekend all the best. First Communion is a special event with many of our candidates looking forward to taking part in communion. It makes them feel very grown up. Once again, thank you to Michelle and Charlotte and Kieran Condon and Danielle Mahony for their organisation and work preparing the students.
Teaching and Learning. There has been some great things happening in our teaching and learning. This week our grade 5/6 team continued their work with John Munro identifying students who are gifted in Abstract Thinking. Our work on Mathematics with Paul Swan continues later this term and our work around Data Literacy for Continuous School Improvement with Bradley Geise is also taking place.
Change to School Report. We continue to look at ways to improve our school reports, this Semester we are introducing students in grades 3 to 6 writing their own comments into the reports as well as the teachers. Previously we have had students assess themselves with the marking system. This will be the first time it has been done, so I sure there will be lots of mistakes and we will get better each time we do it. The students will be writing directly into the reports themselves, so their comments will not be edited. What we are trying to do is help our students to better identify what they need to learn and then have some action to help them achieve this. I have been reading a lot about Growth Mindsets and the message I am taking from it is, goals are great, but if you have no plan as to how you are going to achieve the goal, it will never happen.
Community Portal: Thank you to all the families who have registered for the Community Portal. Once you are registered you will not be able to login until we activate the portal. On Thursday we will resend the email to those who have not validated their invite. Hopefully that means we have enough parents registered to activate the account and start using it.
Jogathon: Congratulations to 1K for winning the prize for collecting the most money for Jogathon. Altogether, nearly $11 000 was raised which comes directly to the school.
Building Fund. As we move closer to the end of the financial year, you may wish to make a donation to the St Mary's Parish School Building Fund. All donations are tax deductable. BSB 083 347 Account number 153900034
P and F. One of our major ticket items for this year is due to arrive this week with our new Marquees due to be delivered. These will have the School logo on them and sports' teams names. These will be used at school events and functions.
Filming: A reminder there will be filming for a movie out the front of school on Monday May 31. Filming will take place between 10 and 12 noon. The scenes will involve mainly the church, but will include some scenes of actors using the crossing and entering the school.
God Bless and Stay Safe
Anthony
Please remember in your prayers the Year 5 students who are making their First Holy Eucharist this weekend
Upcoming Events
Term 2 |
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Wednesday 26th May 9.15am |
200 Years of Catholic School Education Whole School Mass
School event only - due to numbers in the church
No parents please! |
Saturday 29th May 6pm Sunday 30th May 8.30am & 10.30am |
Year 5 First Eucharist
To attend Mass, everyone will need to register their details at: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/stmarys
Numbers will be limited to 10 people per family (including the candidate)
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Tuesday 1st June 4pm |
Year 4 First Eucharist bookings open: Please log into https://www.schoolinterviews.com.au/ and use the code: 86fkb
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Saturday 5th June 6pm |
Year 4 Family Mass
To attend Mass, everyone will need to register their details at: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/stmarys
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Saturday 19th June 6pm Sunday 20th June 8.30am & 10.30am |
Year 4 First Eucharist
To attend Mass, everyone will need to register their details at: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/stmarys
Numbers will be limited to 10 people per family (including the candidate)
|
Sacrament Dates for Term 3
Confirmation (Year 6)
Tuesday 27th July, 6pm
Wednesday 28th July, 6pm
Thursday 29th July, 6pm
On Friday, students participated in a multi-age Wellbeing session. Students collaborated and completed an activity that looked at what our school’s expectations looked like in various environments.
Our school’s expectations are based on what we affectionately refer to as “The 4 Bees. Be Safe, Be Respectful, Be Responsible and Be Kind”. These are constantly reinforced at all school gatherings and displayed throughout the school.
Students also participated in an activity to identify different Character Strengths and how personal strengths can be a SUPERPOWER!!!
Below is a link for parents to find out more about the importance of Character Strengths.
Parent information on Character Strengths
The Australian Government’s eSafety Commissioner has launched a book titled: “Online Safety: a guide for parents and carers”.
This book covers some of the key online safety issues for young people and includes a range of practical tips and advice on what to do if things go wrong. You can also find a list of important services that can offer extra support.