Friday 19th July ~ Issue 20

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

From the Principal

Dear Families,

Welcome back to Term 3! I hope you all had a restful and enjoyable break. It's been wonderful hearing all the students and staff sharing their stories of holiday adventures and special family times together. The weather has certainly turned very cold and wet and while we welcome the rain, it was tough starting the term with inside play on Tuesday!

Our new classrooms are only weeks away from being completed! Yay! They look amazing and we can't wait to get into them. Please check out the photos later in the newsletter.

And speaking of newsletters - we hope you enjoy our new format. We would love to hear your feedback as we are in the very early stages of development and would love to hear any ways we can improve. Just note that our term dates and events are down the left of the page - don't want you to miss out on anything!

Have a wonderful weekend, shared 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

Prayers                                                                       

Please keep members of our school community in your thoughts and prayers as they battle some serious health issues.

Congratulations!

Congratulations to staff member Tracy Keen and husband Max on the recent arrival of their fifth grandchild, Myles. May he bring even more joy to their family.

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 next two weeks at St Mary’s we are working with our students on the following:

RESPECT - using people's names when you greet them 

SAFETY - playing safely on the playground

RESPONSIBILITY - engaging with learning 

Staffing News!

We are very excited to announce that Mr Darryl Fry will be taking on the PE teaching role in Term 4 when Mrs Rebecca Sherlock takes Maternity Leave. Darryl is a very familiar face at our school and we are very much looking forward to welcoming him to our team.

We have also welcomed Vickie Button to our team! Vickie will be working in the 1/2 area, replacing Dana Smith who has started her new position at Monivae.

Structured Literacy

On Monday our staff participated in professional learning focused on Structured Literacy. You may have heard about this in the media. Structured Literacy is an evidence-based approach to teaching Literacy that ensures all the necessary building blocks of reading and writing are taught through a systematic, cumulative, explicit and diagnostic course of instruction. We are looking forward to finding out more!

Student Learning Showcase!

On Monday the 12th August from 2.30pm, we invite families to attend our Learning Showcase. This is a wonderful opportunity to visit homerooms and have your child talk to you about the learning they are doing at school. Invitations will come out next week. We look forward to seeing you there!

Book Week

It is almost that time again....Book Week!  We love to celebrate all things reading and books and Book Week is the perfect opportunity!  The theme this year is 'Reading is Magic', so students can base their costume around this theme, or their favourite book character.  As in previous years, this is not compulsory, only if your child would like to dress up.  

Our Book Week Costume Parade will be held on Friday 16th August.  We will have our parade at 9am on this day to share all of the wonderful and creative costumes.  If you have any questions about our Book Week celebrations, please contact me.

As many of you are aware, we usually have a Book Fair around this time as well.  However, due to our building project, we have decided to postpone our Book Fair until Term 4. At this stage, the Book Fair will be held in Week 4 of Term 4 - week beginning Monday 28th October.  More information will be available closer to the time.

Tania Stevens

Sports Catch Up

State Cross Country

A huge congratulations to Isabella Templeton and Charlotte Morton who travelled to Melbourne yesterday for the State Cross Country. Isabella competed in the 11 year old girls, finishing 32nd, and Charlotte finished 69th in the 12 year old girls. What an amazing achievement to compete in a state event, and we are all incredibly proud of you!

Hockey 7’s

We had eight eager students who played in the Hockey 7’s today. More about the day will be in next week's newsletter.

Grade 5-6 Netball

I have sent home the note for the Grade 5-6 netball this week outlining the teams, umpires, scorers and coaches. A huge thank you to families who are giving up their time to assist us on the day. A reminder that we will be providing transport to and from Pedrina Park, but please let me know if you are intending on taking your child directly to Pedrina Park in the morning.

Grade 5-6 AFL 9s

Thank you for your promptness in returning the slip for AFL 9s. I am currently in the process of organising the teams for the day. We will provide transport on the day. Thank you also to families who have offered to coach a team, it is greatly appreciated.

Grade 3-4 and Grade 5-6 Hooptime

I am still working on completing our Hooptime teams for later in the term. As soon as these have been confirmed, I will send a note home outlining the information for families. I will also be in contact with Grade 3-4 families who have put their hand up to score for us. Thank you for supporting us on this day.

Dates for your Diary

Grade 5-6 Netball: Wednesday 31st July @ Pedrina Park

Grade 5-6 AFL 9’s: Thursday 15th August @ Pedrina Park

Grade 3-4 Hooptime: Tuesday 3rd September @ HILAC

Grade 5-6 Hooptime: Friday 6th September @ HILAC

Latham Wishart

lwishart@smhamilton.catholic.edu.au

Parent Access Module ~ PAM

During Term 3 we will introduce you to PAM. PAM is an acronym for Parent Access Module. 

As a parent you will be able to view the following information within SIMON which is the program we use here at St Mary’s to record all student activities etc. This includes: • Daily messages and upcoming events • School links • Student information and timetable • Student attendance • Student Assessment and reporting • Parent Teacher Online/Interview Bookings • Student Medical details •Excursion permissions etc.

There is an app associated with PAM called SIMON Everywhere. 

I will send out more information in Term 3. Monivae currently uses PAM  - so a few of you will already know how it all works.

Wellbeing

 Child Safety      

SPECIAL REPORT: Celebrating NAIDOC Week

Last week, July 7th - 14th, was NAIDOC Week.  NAIDOC Week celebrates the history, culture and achievments of Aborignal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and is a great opportunity to learn more about Aborginal and Torres Strait Islander communities.  This Special Report from SchoolTV shares the origins of NAIDOC Week and why it is an important event in our Nations calendar.

https://smhamilton.catholic.schooltv.me/wellbeing_news/special-report-celebrating-naidoc-week

Tania Stevens      

Community Engagement

Grandparents’ Day

By now you should have seen the notes that have gone home regarding Grandparents’ Day. It is one of our most favourite days of the year!

We are going to run the day as we did last year. For those that are new to us and for those that need a reminder, here is what the day will look like.

1. We will divide the children into their house groups and have them in particular areas of the school.
2. At 10am on Friday 28th July, Rosaria and Fatima grandparents will come to school and do an activity with their grandies.
3. At 11am ALL the grandparents will gather at the Chevalier Centre, Monivae, for morning tea.
4. At 11.45am, the Rosaria and Fatima grandparents will go home and the Lourdes and Loreto grandparents will come to school to do an activity until 12.45pm.                        

Christmas Parade!

Our annual Christmas Parade will be held on Friday 6th December. Shannon has already started the process of road closures so planning is underway!

We are on the hunt early for Christmas Parade Coordinators! If you are super enthusiastic about one of the below mentioned areas or would like to know more, please contact us at school.

Baking - Need Coordinator                      ✪ Stall Holders - Lauren Cottrill

✪ Decorating - Nat Templeton                 ✪ Parade Entrants - Shannon Smith  

✪ Advertising - Terrielynn Groves            ✪ Parade Marshalling - Tendai Mhasho  

 ✪ Raffle - Siana Causer                             ✪ BBQ & Cold Drinks - Katrina Turnbull & Teeghan Brown

Leadership and Stewardship

School Fees

All accounts for 2024 are due and payable by 30th June 2024 unless you have a regular payment plan in place or if you have recently spoken to Helen.  The collection process for unpaid fees will begin in early Term 3.  Thank you.

Change of Pick Up

If you are needing to change the arrangement of how your child is getting home, please ensure this is done by 1:30pm. We cannot guarantee being able to pass messages on close to the end of the day, due to the influx of phone calls and messages.

Building Update!