Friday 1st August 2025 ~ Issue 22
PARISH PRIEST: Fr Patrick Mugavin PRINCIPAL: Mrs Terrielynn Groves
SAC CHAIRPERSON: Mrs Joyce Nedziwe CHILD SAFETY OFFICER: Ms Tania Stevens
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 3
Monday 11th August - 'Bullying, No Way' day
Thursday 13th August - AFL 9s - Gr 5/6
Friday 15th August - School Feast Day - Assumption of Mary
Wednesday 20th August - District Netball
Friday 22nd August - Book Week dress up parade *NEW DATE*
Thursday 28th & Friday 29th August - Gr 3/4 Camp
Sunday 31st August - Sacrament of First Eucharist
Friday 5th September - Father's Day celebration at school
Tuesday 9th September - Gr 3/4 Hooptime
Friday 12th September - Gr 5/6 Hooptime
Wednesday 17th September - St Mary's School Concert at Hamilton PAC
Thursday 18th September - Last day of Term 3 - 3.15pm finish
PUPIL FREE DAYS IN 2025
Friday 19th September - Structured Literacy
ADVANCE NOTICE
Wednesday 17th December - Last day of the school year for students
From the Principal
Dear Families,
Last Friday we welcomed hundreds of grandparents and special visitors for Grandparents' Day! It was a truly wonderful day! Thank you to all our families for the beautiful morning tea that was provided and to those parents who were able to help serving the food and drinks.
'Bullying No Way' Day will be acknowledged on Monday 11th of August. This year's focus is on giving bystanders to bullying the skills to have a voice in stopping these incidents. Our Student Representative Council (SRC) have decided that our students can wear a touch of purple - the colour for this day - with their school uniform. Homerooms will have a focus on the theme during that week.
This week our staff attended a professional learning session about youth mental health presented by Dr Michael Carr-Gregg. It was a very informative hour and has made for interesting conversation in our staff room. We hope that many of you were able to attend the parent session too. One of the things spoken about was the issue of the online content our children are accessing out of school time. Just this week I have had reason to speak with students and their families about the extremely inappropriate content their children are viewing without their knowledge. This weekend might be the perfect time to just have a look at your child's search history. We are always here to help if needed.
Have a wonderful weekend, shared with those you love,
Terrielynn
The Lord's Prayer for Peace
God of Peace
May Your name be honored in our actions.
May Your will for peace be done on Earth as it is in heaven.
Give us the strength to share the resources of this world with compassion, so that all may thrive.
Forgive us our failures to live in harmony, as we strive to forgive those who harm us.
Help us to resist the temptation to divide and use power over, and guide us towards unity and understanding.
Deliver us from the violence and hatred that plague our world, and lead us to a future of lasting peace that we always help to create.
This day and as we go forward
We commit to being instruments of peace.
We commit to build bridges of understanding and to work for justice.
We choose hope over despair, love over hate, and unity over division.
May our actions and our words reflect the values of compassion and peace, so that all may experience Your love and peace.
Amen
Catholic School Culture
MASS TIMES – 2025
Hamilton: Saturday 6pm and Sunday 10.30am
Dunkeld: Sunday 8.30am
Glenthompson: Sunday 8.30am
Penshurst: Sunday 8.30am
Prayers
Our deepest sympathy to the family of Mark Brown, who passed away this week. Mark has always been a great friend of our school, particularly when his two daughters attended St Mary's some years ago. We send our prayers and love to his wife Sharee and their beautiful family.
Our Diocesan Community (Link below)
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 - show care for our beautiful school
SAFETY - use words to sort out issues
RESPONSIBILITY - ask for support in learning when needed
NAPLAN
This week we have sent home the NAPLAN results for those children in our Gr 3 and 5 cohorts. We were very pleased with the students' results, recognising that some of our children are exceeding the curriculum standard and some are needing extra support. We are always thrilled to see the growth that they are making.
Concert
We are getting very excited here - it's concert term! All homerooms have been working hard on their items and today we had our first whole school rehearsal - two classes showcased what they have been working on and it looked terrific! We can't wait to see it all come together over the term. Homeroom teachers will be in contact with any costume requirements, etc, so keep an eye on your Seesaw messages!
Our concert will be held on Wednesday 17th September at HPAC (Hamilton Performing Arts Centre). We will have two shows - our matinee at 11am and our evening performance at 7pm. Tickets will be on sale soon. They will be sold online and a link to the ticketing site will be linked to the newsletter and sent out via Seesaw. No tickets will be sold at school. Tickets will be $10 each. If you have a child under 2, who can sit on your lap and does not require a seat, you do not have to purchase a ticket for them.
We are aware that we will have many family and friends who will want to come along and support our concert. However, to ensure that everyone has the chance to attend the concert, we have capped the tickets at 5 per family. This is across both shows, not 5 per show! This is to make sure that everyone can come along. If there are unsold tickets closer to the concert, we will let you know. We thank you for your understanding with this.
Sports Catch Up
State Cross Country
Last Thursday we had three students participate in the State Cross Country. To have three of our students be within the fastest 100 students for their age group in the State is simply phenomenal! We highly congratulate Sean N, Alaska B and Johannah W on their outstanding achievement. They represented St Mary’s and themselves with such pride and should each be extremely proud of their fantastic accomplishments.
We especially celebrate Alaska B who finished 10th in her age group! She is the 10th fastest 11 year old girl in Victoria. How incredible! Alaska is going from strength to strength with her running at the moment and is unstoppable. This achievement sees her placed as an emergency for SSV Team Vic for Cross Country. Alaska displays an unwavering love for running and is highly motivated to constantly improve. Well done Alaska, you are a champion!
State Cross Country
Team Vic Basketball
Nina R recently finished her intensive training commitment as an emergency for SSV Team Vic Basketball with a jumper presentation. It was an amazing opportunity for Nina to attend training sessions in Melbourne and be part of such a high-level program.
AFL 9s
We have four teams participating in the AFL 9’s competition at Pedrina Park on Thursday 14th August. We will have two boys and two girls teams playing on the day.
AFL 9’s is a modified version of AFL Football for our Grade ⅚ students. It highly encourages all players to have the opportunity to develop their skills, enjoy the game and build teamwork skills.
We would love to have another adult help on the day, if your child is attending and you would like to help coach please let me know. A note with information and teams will be coming home next week.
District Netball
We are looking forward to the Netball Victoria School Championships being held at Pedrina Park on Wednesday 20th August. We will have two very large teams competing on the day. Thank you to the staff and parents who have volunteered their time for this day. If anyone else is interested in umpiring (you need a C grade badge or must be very competent), scoring or coaching please reach out.
St Mary’s AFL Auskick / Superkick Program - It’s not too late to sign up!!
We are very pleased to offer AFL Auskick and AFL Superkick at St Mary’s in Term Three.
The program will commence on Wednesday 6th August. We have 10 children in the Auskick age bracket and 9 children in the Superkick age bracket sign up. But it’s not too late to jump on board still!!
This will be a 5 week program aimed at 5-12 year olds. The program will run at St Mary’s on a Wednesday afternoon from 3.30pm-4.30pm. It costs $55. No special clothing or football boots are required, the students would get changed after school (they can just wear their sports uniform if wanted) and then would need to be promptly collected at 4.30pm.
Please contact myself or Jono Box for further information. Jono can be contacted at jono.box@afl.com.au
Dates for your Diary
TERM THREE
August
Thursday 14th August - AFL 9’s @ Hamilton
Wednesday 20th August - District Netball @ Hamilton
September
Tuesday 9th September - Grade 3/4 Hooptime @ Hamilton
Thursday 11th September - WHP Table Tennis (round robin format, no progression to state)
Friday 12th September - Grade 5/6 Hooptime @ Hamilton
TBC Primary Golf
Elise Gordon
egordon@smhamilton.catholic.edu.au
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 'Book An Adventure', 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 22nd 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, in the past, we have held a Book Fair around this time as well. However, due to the success of moving our Book Fair to Term 4 last year (and with a concert to prepare for!), we will continue this into the future. At this stage, the Book Fair will be held in Week 5 of Term 4 - week beginning Monday 3rd November. More information will be available closer to the time.
Tania Stevens
Wellbeing
Child Safety
On Tuesday 5th August, the Hamilton and Alexandra College is hosting renowned cyber safety expert Susan McLean (often referred to as the 'Cyber Cop'). If you attended the Michael Carr-Gregg session last week, you would have heard him speaking about Susan. This will be a powerful session designed for students, parents, and educators. Open to the wider South West community, this event will explore the challenges and responsibilities of growing up in a digital world—equipping families and schools with the tools to foster safe, respectful, and purposeful online behaviour. The session will run from 7:00pm - 8:30pm and tickets are free. You can book a ticket to this important event via the link below.
I Am Mindful Program
We have greatly enjoyed our two days with the facilitators of I Am Mindful. Our Gr 5/6 students participated with great enthusiasm and respect and were so open to learning new ways to work with their emotions and feelings.
Leadership and Stewardship
Kitchen Garden
Our 5/6 students continued the cooking journey today. A delicious chicken and greens stir fry and a yummy roasted pumkin salad were the result, using lots of fresh produce from our garden. They also made pancakes with yoghurt and berry coulis for dessert. The recipes for these dishes can be found below.
This program covers so many curriculum areas, as well as promoting the very important life skill of learning to cook. We are so blessed to have this program running at our school.
Thanks to Lyn and Judy for leading our students so capably. We can see the joy and excitement that it brings!
Catherine Egan
Kitchen Garden Week 2
Below is the recipe for the pumpkin salad and the chicken stirfry that the students prepared today. Happy cooking!
School Uniform
We are right in the depths of winter now and it is great to see the students in their correct school uniform. One thing we are noticing with a small number of students is that they are wearing makeup and some jewelry that is not appropriate for school. We would greatly appreciate home support with this. Thanks!
School Beanies and Coats
Our beanies and coats are a wonderful addition to our winter uniform! Just a reminder that both items are for outside use. Our school is lovely and warm and beanies and coats are nor required inside. Thanks!
Speed Limit within Monivae
We have been asked by Monivae to remind families that the speed limit within Monivae is 15km per hour. This is particularly important as you approach the bus exchange and the pedestrian crossing, where many students are crossing at the beginning and the end of the day. We thank you for your assistance in this matter.
Community Engagement
St Mary's Christmas Parade
This year our annual Christmas Parade will be held on Friday 5th December.
We have been thinking of what we can do for our raffle - perhaps something big?
If you have any ideas please let us know.
Thank you to the lovely Trish Taylor who has put her hand up to be the Decoration coordinator 💗.
Later in the year we will ask for helpers to assist the coordinators in the above roles and keen bakers to make gourmet gifts to sell (Christmas cakes, biscuits, rum balls etc) at our Gourmet gift stall.
If you have any questions regarding the Christmas Parade please contact Shannon at school.🎄
Assembly
Our next assembly will be on Friday 15th August at 2.55pm.
