Friday 13th December ~ Issue 39

Child Safety Statement

School Values

Treat others the way you would like to be treated.

Respect Our School - Hormati Sekolah Kita

Do Your Best - Lakukan Yang Terbaik

Help Others to Succeed - Bantu Teman Untuk Berhasil

Important Dates

Term 4

Friday 13th December - Semester Two reports sent home

Sunday 15th December - End of Year School Mass and Gr 6 Graduation @ 10.30am - please bring a small plate of food to share

Wednesday 18th December - Last day for students - 3.15pm finish - children may wear casual clothes, just because!

ADVANCE NOTICE 

Wednesday 29th January - First day of 2025 school year for Gr 1-6

Thursday 30th January - First day of 2025 school year for Preps

Tuesday 11th February - PUPIL FREE DAY - all staff at Structured Literacy PD

From the Principal

Dear Families,

Our Christmas Parade last Friday was a huge success! The weather was kind to us and the people came out in droves! Amazing! Thank you to all those families who were able to assist in any way, particularly our hardworking area coordinators. I would also like to extend my thanks to Shannon who ensures the whole event comes together so smoothly and to our staff who prepare the students for the parade. As I walked down Gray St with the Preps, I felt such an enormous sense of pride to belong to such an outstanding school and community.

And here we are, heading into the last week of the 2024 school year. They say time flies when you are having fun so we must be having a fabulous time - this year has flown by! We have so much to be grateful for, especially the precious children we are so lucky to spend each day with.

We look forward to celebrating the year we have enjoyed at Mass on Sunday at 10.30am. The students are asked to wear their school uniform and to sit with their families. Please bring a small plate of food to share for morning tea if you are able to. Thanks!

Enjoy the weekend with those you love,

Terrielynn

Catholic School Culture

MASS TIMES – 2024                                                 

Hamilton: Saturday 6pm and Sunday 10.30am                                    

Dunkeld: Sunday 8.30am                  

Glenthompson:  Sunday 8.30am

Penshurst: Sunday 8.30am

Condolences

We send our deepest sympathy to Athea Wilson and her family on the recent passing of her uncle. Know that you are all very much in our thoughts and prayers.

Learning and Teaching

School Wide Positive Behaviours

School Wide Positive Behaviour Support is:  A multi-tiered framework for establishing the social culture and behavioural supports needed for a school to achieve behavioural and academic outcomes for all students.

For the last week at St Mary’s  for 2024, we are working with our students on the following:

RESPECT -  Use kind words

SAFETY - Keep hands and feet off others

RESPONSIBILITY - Make the most of the learning opportunities in the last few weeks.

Award Winners

Award winners from our assembly last Friday were Quinn O'Brien, Savannah Saunders, Isabella Njoroge, Anna Templeton, Bradley McRae, Elijah Holyoak, Zack Trotter, James Nankivell, Chase Dean, Brayden Williams, Sera Martin, Pascale Ferey, Billy Fitzpatrick, Ruby Kelson, Willow Ough, Chase Williams and Jacob Alex Kavil  who were all displaying the value of Help Others To Succeed. Congratulations! We are very proud of you all.

Library News

Thank you for returning all of your Library books to school - it's been wonderful to see all of the books coming back to the shelves, ready for the new year. If any more pop up out of the woodwork over the holidays, just put them aside and bring them back to school in 2025.

I also wanted to say a huge thank you for your support of our Book Fair earlier this term.  We earn comission from each sale, that we can then use to purchase resources for our school.  Thanks to your wonderful support, we were able to purchase two sets of books to support our Structured Literacy for next year - 144 new books! Thank you so very much!

Tania Stevens

Sports Catch Up

Junior Athletics Carnival

What a great day that we had today for our Junior Athletics Carnival! It was great to hear the excitement around the school from our junior students. Students participated in a range of athletics events, and this is great practice for those students in anticipation for our whole school athletics day in Term One next year.

A thank you to families who came along to support our students, and to our Grade 6 students who did a fantastic job with running each event.

Thank You!

I have had the absolute pleasure of being the Sports Coordinator over the past four years, and have loved seeing the excitement, joy and development of our students at many different sporting events over the years. I would like to thank everyone for your support throughout this time. To all of our families who have volunteered their time to help coach, umpire, score, support, transport and everything else, thank you so very much for your time and dedication to our sport program. Our kids wouldn’t have all of these wonderful opportunities without your support!

Moving forward to 2025, Elise Gordon will be taking on the Sports Coordinator role. She previously had this role before I took it on, and she is extremely experienced, knowledgeable and organised with how our sport program operates. She will do a fantastic job and I’d ask that you continue to support our kids in any way that you are able to.

Thank you once again, and I look forward to hearing the passion and enjoyment of sport from our students again in 2025!

Dates for your Diary

2025:

School Athletics Carnival: Thursday 6th March @ Monivae/St. Mary’s

Latham Wishart

lwishart@smhamilton.catholic.edu.au

Parent Access Portal (PAM)

PAM has been released - you should have received an email from St Mary's Student Portal. Please follow the instructions to log in.

I see that we have a few families who have not logged in and completed the consent forms for 2025. If you could please check your emails and log into your PAM account and complete these and the Medical Form ASAP, it would be greatly appreciated. It also ensures we are set up for the new 2025 year.

Many thanks,

Shannon Smith                                                             

Wellbeing

Child Safety ~ SchoolTV - Christmas

It is hard to believe that we are approching the end of another year and getting ready to celebrate Christmas. Christmas is a joyous time, where we celebrate the birth of Jesus and  spend time with those we love the most.  However, for some people, Christmas can be a stressful or lonely time.  SchoolTV has a special report that gives tips on how to survive the 'silly season'. The link to this special report is below.

This is my final Child Safety update for 2024.  I hope that you have found this helpful.  I look forward to bringing you more Child Safe and Wellbeing information in 2025.

Tania Stevens

Leadership and Stewardship

School Fees
At our School Advisory Council meeting on Wednesday 27th November 2024, an increase in school fees for 2025 was approved.  In order to meet our increasing costs and provide the learning programs that we do, it was agreed to raise the fees by 3.0%. This calculates to the following:
Family fee          $1315 (remains the same per family)
Capital fee          $255 (increase of $47 per family)
Student fee        $300 (increase of $9 per student)
Please note that our fees only make up the difference between the Government (Federal and State) funding we receive and the amount the Government determines as the cost of educating a Primary student.  Fees do not mean that we have extra money in our budget to expend on additional resources. 
The Family Fee Assistance scheme will be available again in 2025. Families who qualify for the scheme will pay $520 per annum for primary school tuition fees. The discounted fee covers tuition and capital fees only. It does not cover additional charges such as camps, student fees, and excursions.
In 2025, the due date for school fees will remain at 30th June, 2025. The due date does not apply if you have a regular payment plan in place.
If you have any queries regarding school fees or funding, please do not hesitate to contact me. 

Helen O'Brien

$ 400 School Saving bonus 

The Allan Labor Government’s $400 School Saving Bonus is rolling out this week for 2025.  Catholic school students who will be in Prep through to Year 12 in 2025, and who are receiving the means-tested Camps, Sports and Excursions Fund (CSEF), are eligible for the School Saving Bonus.  

Catholic school students receiving the means-tested Camps, Sports and Excursions Fund (CSEF) in 2025 are eligible for additional support through the School Saving Bonus (SSB). The $400 bonus will be provided directly to each school and the school will apply it directly to your fee account.  The $400 School Saving Bonus is available for each child. That means an eligible family with three school-aged children will receive a total reduction of $1,200 to school fees. 

Families who have had their circumstances change (including new healthcare and concession card holders) and who may be eligible for the Camps, Sports and Excursion are encouraged to discuss this with the school.  These are real cost-of-living supports. 

For more information please contact Helen.

Holiday Office hours

Please note our school office will close Wednesday 18th December @4pm for school holidays, and reopen Wednesday 29th January 2025 @  8.30am.

Bus Travellers - Town and Country

A green bus form was  sent home last week for you to please fill out and return ASAP. This will then be collated into 2025's bus roll. If you have not returned the completed bus form for your child by the end of the term, we cannot guarantee bus travel at the start of 2025 as it is a duty of care that we know how your child is getting home.

Thank you for your continued support of the School Country Bus Program throughout the year. Please see below key information regarding 2025 bus travel arrangements for the School Country Bus Program.

2025 travel offers

Families of Country bus travellers (not the town buses) have been emailed travel offers today from the Student Travel Assistance Portal for bus travel in 2025. Families have until 14 December 2024 to accept travel offers for 2025.

• if you have changed address or school and your travel offer is incorrect, you will need to decline your travel offer, update your address in your profile (if required) and then submit a new travel application
• accept offers prior to the expiry date.

Bus service waitlist

Where bus services have reached capacity, some students have been placed on a waitlist. The Student Transport Unit reviews the waitlist every day and when a seat becomes available, the system will automatically email a travel offer to families. Priority of access is given to eligible students.

Term 4 travel

Applications for travel in Term 4, 2024 are closed to prepare for 2025. Any families seeking to submit a new travel application for Term 4, 2024 should contact the School Bus Coordinator at the coordinating school for an adhoc travel pass.

Contact

Families requiring assistance with STAP (including requests to change their allocated bus service/stop) can email: schoolbus@education.vic.gov.au or phone:1800 338 663.

Community Engagement

Garden Gurus ~ A New Team!

As we wrap up the year we wholeheartedly thank Lyn, Nola and all other garden helpers that have assisted in establishing our garden this year.

Congratulations and thank you to our Leaders who were simply amazing. They have paved the way for a smooth 2025.

And, welcome to our new team who we will introduce formally next year – but here are Lyn, Jax and Lola who had a little information session yesterday to learn some of the awesome things we will be doing in 2025. We can’t wait!

Community Events