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Dear Parents, Guardians and Community,
Welcome Back and welcome to our new families. We are up and going and trying to do the best we can in current circumstances. To give the community an update, we already have quite a number of staff in isolation but at this stage we have no confirmed cases in the school. As you may be aware, we did have an outbreak at the end of the school year with my last contact from a family being on December 28. It was hard to imagine the challenges this brought to these families over Christmas.
Masks. Just to clarify, the expectation is that students and staff will supply their own masks at school. We are expecting a supply of back ups for students who forget occasionally, but it will be not an unlimited supply, so could families please supply their own masks.
Thankfully our Rapid Antigen Tests (RAT) arrived finally so we can all can start doing our twice weekly tests. This is asked of all staff and students. The school is expecting another delivery between February 7 to 11.
Parents Reporting Cases.
A reminder. If a child tests positive on a RAT they must be reported on the COVID-19 Positive Rapid Antigen Test Self-Reporting Form. The link to the form is below.
https://dhvicgovau.powerappsportals.com/rapid-antigen-test/
Please also let the school know as we need to record the result and inform other members of the school community. No names are used in our communication.
Information for students who have already Tested positive. Yesterday there was an update on students who have previously tested positive to Covid. If a child has tested positive for covid in the last 30 days, they do not have to do the RAT tests or go into isolation.
All schools have been placed under many restrictions at the moment and the official advice is to have no large gatherings, assemblies, Masses or mixing of classes. At the moment, all staff are not gathering together and we are holding all our meetings online. You may have noticed that we have set up some umbrellas so staff have more area outside to eat their lunch as staff are encouraged to spend as little time as possible in the staff room. This advice is for the first four weeks of school as we see how things settle down and we are hoping we can then do more of our community events.
Other than that, we have had a very positive start to the year and the classes have settled well. Our new shade sales are still waiting on council approval so they will still be a few weeks off. Our school is getting painted this year so that will be a chance to freshen things up. We also will be working with our landscape architect as we look to improve our playground over the next few years. It does look like Maclean Reserve is still a few weeks off. I know the contractor has had problems with staffing with covid which have slowed things down. Hobson City Bay Council have also told me that the traffic plan will continue with major works on Cecil St to make it a one way street and safer to cross for our students.
Teaching and Learning wise, Mathematics continues to be our main focus, although we continue to do work on our teaching of Literacy.
Our new strategic plan (2022 to 2025) now comes into play with our 4 major goals being
- Instructional Coaching for staff (to help improve our staff and provide better feedback.)
- Data Literacy - improve the way we collect our data and then use it to improve our students.)
- Behaviour Support for all students
- Student Agency, Voice and Action where we look at ways to empower our students in their learning and decision making.
This year we will be starting our journey of improvement in all those areas. Our goals come from our school review.
Meet and Greet
Please note we will be running our Parent Teacher Meet and Greet next Tuesday February 8 from 3.40pm on wards. We have had issues with parent email groups, something our IT department are currently looking into. We hope this will be resolved by the end of today or tomorrow, at which time you will all receive details on how to book for your meetings. We apologise for the delay.
Stephanie Streets: Our wonderful art teacher Stephanie Streets has entered the National Art Teacher's Prize for 2022. If you would like to vote for Stephanie and have a look at her work, please click the following link. Good luck Steph.
https://zart.us.launchpad6.com/ntap22/entry/4955?fbclid=IwAR3nFNJjtxDc15ygEl77u63u0gYZQTiuyJ8UoxYQ-iRRZ9QdULfqWdZohoE
New Staff. We officially welcome James Howat to our staff and welcome back Laura Barker and Rebecca Backman. We know our community will make them feel welcome.
Mobile Phones and Smart Watches
A reminder that all students who bring a mobile phone to and from school MUST hand it in to the front office at the beginning of the school day.
We have had a few incidents this week of students using smart watches inapproriately. A reminder that they must be on school mode throughout the day and only used as a watch in school time.
School Closure Days 2022
28/01/22 2022 Planning, Mandatory Reporting, Handover, Policies etc
08/04/22 School Improvement Plan (SIP) Goal: Behavioural Support - Intervention Framework.
24/06/22 SIP Goal: Data Literacy.
16/09/22 SIP Goal: Student, Voice, Agency and Action.
31/10/22 Report Writing and Preparation
20/12/22 2023 Planning and Preparation
God Bless and Stay Safe
Anthony
St Mary’s School Prayer
Creator God,
We at St Mary’s school pray that we continue to live by the Gospel in our work and play.
Help us to care and respect for each other as Jesus teaches us.
Bless everyone in our school, parish and beyond as we go forth and work together as followers of Christ to reach out to those in need.
Jesus be in our thoughts. (use thumb to make a cross on your forehead)
Jesus be in our words. (use thumb to make a cross on your lips)
Jesus be in our hearts. (use thumb to make a cross on your heart)
Amen
Some important Dates to Remember
Event |
Date |
Time |
Where |
Beginning of school Year Mass |
11th Feb |
3:00 |
Online in classroom |
Year 5 Family Mass |
13th Feb |
10:30 |
Church |
Year 5 First Eucharist |
19th |
6pm |
Church |
Year 5 Eucharist |
20th Feb |
8:30 & 10 :30 |
Church |
School and Parish Connections
St Mary’s - 180 Years old!
This year marks 180 years of St Mary’s providing an education to children in Williamstown.
We will be celebrating this occasion with a Mass and other events. I am calling on parents who would like to support and contribute their time and skills in helping me make this a celebration and acknowledge the achievements of the school. If you are interested in supporting this milestone please contact me on clipnicki@smwilliamstown.catholic.edu.au
Dear Parents,
As some people do not go to weekend Mass as often as others, there may be some confusion with Mass times, I enclose the following:
Saturday 6pm
Sunday 8:30am & 10:30am
Our St Mary’s Parish needs a few more people on the lawn mowing roster which means one looks after just the front lawns once every 4 months for that month. Don’t hesitate to get in touch with me on this one: 0400524363 – it would be appreciated.
Also there is a Working Bee on Saturday Feb 26th from 9am – 11:00am which takes in the front area between the basketball court and St Mary’s Church including back of Parish Centre. There is much work to be done on that day with not only weeding, but cutting out or trimming of certain plants, removing of succours and lots of small things to tidy and beautify the parish grounds.
If you want any more information contact me on greg.trythall@cam.org.au or ring my mobile as above.
Thanks in anticipation
Fr Greg
Welcome back to St Mary's for 2022, and we would love to extend an especially warm welcome to all of the new Prep parents joining the St Mary's community for the first time from our Parent and Friends Committee.
Thank you for all your support last year and we hope that some of the activities we ran throughout the year helped everyone through another difficult year. With your help we raised over $25,000 and ran over 20 activities for the school. This year, fingers crossed, we will host our St Mary’s Fabulous Fair in November. We need a lot of support for this event so please reach out if you are interesting in being involved – big or small, president@smwilliamstown.catholic.edu.au .
The Parent and Friends Committee will be hosting our first meeting in February, we are just finalising dates so keep an eye out via the Schoolzine App. This will be our Annual General Meeting and we would love our community to get involved and come along, see what is in store for 2022. If you would like to attend please email Jacinda Davies secretary@smwilliamstown.catholic.edu.au .
Keep an eye out for updates via the Schoolzine App and key dates in the school calendar for upcoming events and activities and how you can get involved.
Many thanks for all your support
Jemima Bowen
P&F President
P&F Meetings
P&F meetings will be the second Monday night of the month. This year we are looking for parents who have fresh, new ideas to join the group. There are a number of benefits to joining the P&F:
1) Kids love seeing their parents getting involved in their school community.
2) Parents meet other parents in a stress-free environment
3) The school community benefits from your skillset, and you might learn a new skill set
4) It's fun being involved.
Meetings are open to all parents, so don't be shy, come along and be part of something great.
P&F Parent Survey
Many thanks to the parents who provided feedback via the survey at the end of 2021. The P&F will use this feedback to realign our activities for 2022. There was overwhelming support for the Jogathon, Mother's Day stall and Father's Day stall. There was also a preference for activities which strategically aligned with the educational ethos of healthy living, so we will take this opportunity to review the current activities planned for 2022.
Second Hand Uniform Pop Up Shop
Have the kids had a big growth spurt over summer? Remember that you can order any items from our Second Hand Uniform Shop at any time by emailing uniformspf@smwilliamstown.catholic.edu.au
Alternatively, sales will be held on the following dates between 8.30am and 9.30am in the school hall
- 16th February
- 2nd March
- 16th March
- 30th March
Lunch Order Update
Thank you to everyone who took the time to provide their feedback on Beaver’s Tail. Based on the feedback we are not continuing with Beaver’s Tail this year.
Over summer break, we connected with a new provider and will be providing an update on Wednesday this week, so please keep an eye out on Schoolzine app for more information and instructions.
Thank you for your patience as we work through the details.
Shrove Tuesday – 1 March 2022
To celebrate Shrove Tuesday the Parents and Friends Committee will be offering pancakes to all students on Tuesday 16th February 2022. We are seeking donations for:
Ø Plain/Original pancake mixture bottles (Green’s Brand only)
Ø Greens Maple Flavored Syrup
Ø Lemons
Ø Cottee’s strawberry Jam,
An update on the drop off point and more details will be sent out next week.
If you are interested in volunteering, please contact volunteers@smwilliamstown.catholic.edu.au
Icy Poles
Summer = Icy Poles. We are working through how we may run this safely in term 1, please be patient with us as we wait for things to settle down in the first couple of weeks at school. We will post an update as soon as we know when they are back!