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Dear Parents, Guardians and Community,
I take this time to wish everyone a Safe and Holy Easter. This is the most Sacred time on the Church Year and I hope everyone gets the opportunity to stop and reflect and celebrate this Easter. I also take this time to wish our Muslim community a Happy Ramadan which began on April the 1st and concludes on May 1st.
It has been a very busy term, our first full term for a long time. Some of the highlights.
- Parent Meet and Greet
- Intervention Framework for Staff
- Instructional Coaching Training for our Leaders
- Bike Education Training for Staff
- Swimming Trials
- Atheltic's Day
- Family Masses
- Feast Of St Joseph Mass
- Diabetes Training For staff
- Prep Parent Information Evening
- Two Board Meetings
- Two Parents and Friends Meetings
- Fair Committee Meetings
- First Communion
- First Reconciliation
- Year 5/6 Camp
- Year 3 Try Sailing
- Agile Leadership Training
- Data Literacy Training.
- Western Region Leadership Dinner
- Clean Up Australia Day Activities
- Lenten Liturgies
- Catholic Education Week Cathedral Mass
- Jogathon
- Wheelchair Football
- Excursions
- School Photos
- 52 Prep Tours for 2023!!!
I am sure I missed a couple too!!
Easter Raffle Assembly: Due to skyrocketing Covid numbers across schools and our desire for our families to be covid free this holidays, (remembering at Christmas where we had an outbreak that extended past Christmas Day) we will run our Easter Raffle Assembly by Google Meets for the students to avoid a large gathering. This will take place Thursday afternoon.
Sustainability. The school takes great pride in its work around sustainability. The school is well known for this and leads other schools in some of the work we do. The school has a very strong recycling practice and is continually looking for ways to improve our practice. The large water tank in our playground is connected to our toilet system and we are able to mostly use this water to run our system. Some things we are looking to do in the future. Solar. The school is looking for ways to install solar panels. We do have a bit of a challenge working around the heritage overlay of the school, but we hope to have some inroads into this in 2023. Electric Car Charging: Yes, this is on our mind and we have spoken to council about this. I think the realisation that within the next few years most of us will have electric cars so we will need to have the infrastructure to support this. These of course are big ideas and quite expensive, however we can all do things in our daily practice to support a better world for our students.
- limiting the amount of plastic wrap we use in our lunch boxes.
- recycling soft plastics at the supermarkets
- donating old school uniforms to the uniform shop so they can be reused
- using the school book swap at the entry to the school
Who Gives A Crap. The school is now using 'Who Gives A Crap." products in our staff toilets. Unfortunately they do not supply large scale toilets. 40% of the world does not have access to a toilet and there are around 700 childhood deaths a day form poor sanitation. Who gives a crap donates half of their profits to building toilets in developing countries. St Mary's is proud to support this organisation. https://au.whogivesacrap.org/
Art Teacher Prize. Good Luck to Stephanie Streets in the Art Teacher Prize. Stephanie entered a piece in it. The competition closes soon so there is still a chance to vote.https://zart.us.launchpad6.com/ntap22/entry/4955?fbclid=IwAR3nFNJjtxDc15ygEl77u63u0gYZQTiuyJ8UoxYQ-iRRZ9QdULfqWdZohoE
Over the holidays we have the School Being Painted Externally and the Shade Sails being installed. The internal painting of the school will take place mid year.
Have a Safe and Holy Easter
God Bless
Anthony
Faith News - School and Parish Connections
Project Compassion
A very Big Thank You!
Thank you to all the students and their families for their support.
The children had a lot of fun participating in the challenge.
As a school we raised a staggering $386.00 completing the trail.
The trail measured an amazing 18.57 m.
The final total raised (The Gold coin trail and project compassion boxes) was astounding $917.00.
Other Sacramental Dates for 2022
Year 4 Eucharist
We will be opening the bookings on Thursday 7th April at 4:00 pm.
Important dates to Remember for Term 2
We look forward to welcoming parents back to school Masses and liturgies in the Church.
Event |
Date |
Time |
Where |
Mother’s Day Mass |
6th May |
9:15am |
Church |
Year 4 Eucharist Information Session |
11th May |
6:30 pm |
School Hall |
Year 4 Family Mass |
14th May |
6:00pm |
Church |
Year 4 Eucharist |
21st May |
6:00pm |
Church |
Year 4 Eucharist |
22nd May |
8:30am |
Church |
Year 4 Eucharist |
22nd May |
10:30 am |
Church |
Year 2 Family Mass |
12th June |
10:30 am |
Church |
Year 1 Family Mass |
19th June |
10:30 am |
Church |
Confirmation - Year 6 Term 3
Tuesday 26th July 6pm
Wednesday 27th July 6pm
Thursday 28th July 6pm
Congratulations to the girls volley ball team who won their Interschool School Sports competition last Friday. Well done!!
YEAR 1 FITNESS, FOOD & FUN NIGHT!
What a fabulous way to celebrate our learning about all the ways we can stay healthy and safe in Year 1!
The students in Year 1 had their first camp experience with a Fun, Fitness and Food night at school. The students rode back to school on their bikes or scooters and began the night with some fun fitness activities. The activities were a fitness circuit, basketball & soccer skills and a bike/scooter course. Then it was time for dinner in the staffroom! The students helped prepare their healthy meals with their teachers and on the menu was Chicken Fried Rice, Jacket Potatoes and Fruit Parfait! ?
The students were amazing and tried all the meals and displayed beautiful manners. It was definitely a fun night ?
Easter At St Mary's
Wrap-up of Term 1
Term 1 has been busy with a return to all of the activities that the P&F Association usually manage, albeit with some degree of complexity due to continuing Covid restrictions and the loss of Maclean Reserve. In saying this, the Jogathon was a huge success and to date we have raised $6543 through the generous sponsorship of parents. The Easter Raffle, organised by Ness Meikle, has raised an additional $3510. A huge thank-you to Ness and Charlotte Lipnicki who packaged up all of the beautiful Easter hampers, which will be distributed to the lucky winners on Thursday.
This Term the P&F Association helped purchase a new oven for the school kitchen/canteen area, as well as a full set of summer Interschool Sports tops for the students. The winter Interschool Sports tops have been ordered, and they are expected to arrive in Week 4 of Term 2. This purchase will mean all students playing Interschool Sport will have access to the appropriate uniform for their relevant sport.
Mother’s Day Breakfast
The Mother’s Day Breakfast will be held in the morning before the Mother’s Day Mass on Friday 6th May. We are looking for 10 enthusiastic fathers to serve at the Mother’s Day Breakfast. If you can help, or would like to volunteer a father to help out, please email Bianca Paton at volunteers@smwilliamstown.catholic.edu.au
Photos of Mum with their children for the photo display can be emailed to pnf@smwilliamstown.catholic.edu.au
Mother’s Day Stall
The Mother’s Day stall will be on Friday 29th April, which is during the first week back after the holidays. Vouchers for the stall are now available via CDFpay. Vouchers are $5 each and students will be able to purchase one gift with each voucher. Multiple vouchers can be purchased if your child would like to also buy a gift for Nonna, Grandma, Auntie or any other significant person in their life.
We will require volunteers to help on the day - if you are interested in helping out, could you please contact Biana Paton volunteers@smwilliamstown.catholic.edu.au
St Mary’s Pantry
In Term 2 we will be seeking expression of interest from people who would like to be involved with the St Mary’s Pantry. In the words of Mary MacKillop, “Never see a need without trying to do something about it”. Therefore in this spirit, the St Mary’s Pantry is a community safety-net for families within our school community who are struggling due to illness, death, job-loss or any other significant event. The pantry provides immediate access to an emergency meal for a family of 5. Volunteers can be called upon to provide additional meals as the need arises. Meals are provided and received anonymously, and are coordinated through the school. The expression of Interest form will be circulated in the first week of Term 2.
Jogathon
Two classes are neck-and-neck with 81% of their sponsorship pledges returned. Don’t forget your sponsorship pledges can be returned at any time using the CDFpay app; contact treasurer@smwilliamstown.catholic.edu.au if you require any help with this app.
Second Hand Uniform Pop Up Shop
The 2nd hand uniform shop will be back next term on Wednesday 27th April, from 8:30-9:30am in the hall, and fortnightly after that. In addition, uniforms can still be ordered at any time by emailing Sherrine and Meagan at uniformspf@smwilliamstown.catholic.edu.au
St Mary’s Fabulous Family Fair 2022
As we close the first term of school this year, we're sure every family is looking forward to a little well deserved rest over Easter! We hope you all get some lovely family down time.
When the new term begins we hit the ground running with the exciting plans leading up to our school's very own ST MARY'S FABULOUS FAMILY FAIR! 2022. It's going to be amazing and we look forward to joining together as a school to make it all happen.
Over the break we'd love for all families to consider how they might be able to participate in this huge event that impacts our school in so many ways: Fun, Fundraising and most importantly, Community. The children will thank you for it with their memories of the day.
Soon, pamphlets with donation details and sign ups will come home with your children. Please help where and when you can.
The Fair Working Group will meet once a month from Term 2 onwards. To make the Fair Working Group team as strong as possible, we're looking to add these roles:
Stall champions : Take on a fun stall! Stall champions will be guided along the process all the way. You'll be given information on what to gather, where to put it and even volunteers to help (or you can bring your own helpers). You will be the point of contact for your stall and liase with the Stall Coordinator to ensure everything is in place for the big day. STALLS AVAILABLE: Buy A Bottle, BBQ, Cakes & Devonshire Tea, Face Painting, Lucky Dip, Raffle Tickets.
Fair Communications Coordinator: Keeping our school community up to date is super important. If you'd be great at communicating across the newsletter, SZapp and keeping us all in the know, we'd love to hear from you!
Donations Co-Ordinator: Love to keep things organised? We would love a person who can be at the school every few days for a few minutes to sort and move all donations that come via our generous families through the front office. You'll liaise with the Sponsorship team and the Stall Coordinator to update what has come in and where we may be lacking.
Please send any emails and questions at any time through to fair@smwilliamstown.catholic.edu.au
Thanking you all in advance! Happy Easter and school holidays.
What’s happening in the 2nd Term?
This is just a snapshot of what the P&F Association has planned for the second term
Date |
What’s happening |
Wednesday 27th April (8.30am - 9.30am) |
Second-hand uniform sales in the Hall |
Wednesday 27th April (11.59pm) |
Mother’s Day Stall voucher sales end |
Friday 29th April (TBA) |
Mother’s Day stall in the Parish Centre |
Friday 6th May (TBA) |
Mother’s Day Breakfast (Hall), followed by Mother’s Day Mass (St Mary’s Church) |
Monday 9th May (7.00pm) |
P&F Association Meeting (Parish Centre) |
Monday 17th May |
Fair Working Group (Parish Centre) |
It has been fantastic to get through to the end of Term 1 with no COVID lockdowns. It has been amazing to see how adaptable our young people have been in managing their time and performance around isolation requirements. We have managed to enjoy some great activities with a highlight being the recent Project Based Learning (PBL) parent night. We had many Year 7 parents onsite who enjoyed seeing their children’s collaborative and negotiated work samples. They also had the chance to view the Year 9 work with their children and see the work that they can aspire to achieve.
Our leading mentoring program – NEXUS continues this year for students in Years 11 & 12. We recently conducted an evening where students and mentors were introduced and commenced the program for 2022.
The cricket academy named after the late, great Shane Warne continues on at SPC. This will run all year and people can join at any time. Check out their website for more information https://sportstaracademy.com
Our annual Open Day is our next big event at the College. This will occur as follows;
St Paul’s Campus - Sunday 22 May, 2022 - Between 10.30 am and 1.30 pm
Bookings for these events are essential and can be made under the Tours and Events tab on the right hand side of the homepage of the College website, www.ecmelb.catholic.edu.au
Applications are now being accepted for Year 7, 2024. These applications close on Friday 19 August 2022 with offers distributed on Friday 21 October, 2022. A Prospectus Pack containing an application form can be requested from the College website homepage under Enrolment Information tab, by emailing enrolments@ecmelb.catholic.edu.au calling the College Registrar on 8325 5119 or coming in to see the friendly staff at reception of either campus.
We hope to see you at the College soon.