Newsletter Term 1 Week 4

Principal's Message

Dear Parents and Families,

This week we say goodbye to 2 much-loved teachers on staff, Mrs Zoe Morris and Mrs Belinda Crowe, who both commence family leave as they await the arrival of their respective babies in March. We will miss their expertise and the commitment they show to the students in their care and hope while they love their time at home, we see them back before too long at St Mary’s.

A warm welcome to Mason and Mahlani who joined our school community last week and good luck to all the   
St Mary’s swimmers who are competing in the Division Swimming competition this afternoon. 

Positive greetings and taking the time to say hello and ask how you are is our first school-wide Positive Behaviour focus. Staff record the names of students they notice really making an effort to practice this important life skill. Each day, 3 names are drawn from our Blitz box and awarded a slushie voucher; whilst on Fridays, 2 students receive a movie voucher.

Welcome Picnic
Next week, Tuesday February 25th, we are holding our annual welcome picnic and a chance for all families from the Foundation -Year 6 area to meet each other. Families are warmly invited to bring the picnic rug, a picnic tea and enjoy time at school from 5.30 pm-7.00 pm, mixing informally, having a look around our school and enjoying some music by Tony Haley in the passive play area.

Ninja Playground
The Ninja playground continues to take shape with the installation of rubber soft fall last week. Next up is the mulch filler around the track and then the playground should be ready to open for business!

Play Pod
While it might look like junk to some, one man's trash is another man's treasure, Over the past few months, we have converted part of the sports shed to house a Play Pod and have been collecting items to use in the Play Pod for construction and creative play during lunch times. Year 6 Pod Squad Leaders have been elected and Mrs Dacey has kindly undertaken the co-ordination of the Pod Squad team.  This week marks the official opening of the St Marys Play Pod! Why not enjoy this video the Year 6 Pod Squad Leaders put together to show our students what's involved.

First Aid in Schools
First Aid in Schools Program is a free program delivered by St John Ambulance Professional Trainers, teaching primary school students on the importance of First Aid and what to do in an event of an emergency. We have the team back this week delivering this very valuable program to all year levels. This year the program is focussing on what to do in an emergency with our older students learning the basics of CPR. It has been great to see so many levels making connections to this incursion in their inquiry units.

Supervised Eating for Students
At St Mary’s we have supervised eating times for students at recess and lunch. Students have 5 minutes of supervised eating at recess and 25 minutes in the yard and 10 minutes of supervised eating before going out to play at lunchtime.

In the morning literacy block, students also have the opportunity for a small fruit snack break (eg. a small amount of chopped fruit or vegetables), known as Fruit Stop.

At 11.00am, Recess commences with 5 minutes of supervised eating. Any students who are still eating at 11.05 am are encouraged by teachers to take their food (without wrappers) and sit outside their classroom to finish their snack before heading to play.

Have a lovely week and hope to see many of you as you drop off or pick up from school.

Kate

"Never See a Need Without Doing Something About It"
Mary MacKillop - Sisters of St Joseph Foundress

Key Dates

Monday February 17th
Division Swimming
Wednesday February 19th
Year 6 Leadership Day
Foundation Rest Day
Wednesday February 19th - Thursday February 20th
First Aid in School incursion
Friday February 21st
Assembly 12.25pm - 6N
Tuesday February 25th
Welcome Picnic
Wednesday February 26th
Foundation Rest Day
Thursday February 27th
Year 5 Open Watering Learning Experience
Friday February 28th
Assembly 12.25pm - 6O

Wellbeing with Mr Doran

Curriculum with Mrs Hall

At St. Mary’s we strongly value your partnership and support with home reading.  

RE with Mrs Davies

Beginning of Year Liturgy
On Friday we held our Beginning of Year Liturgy in the Gym. It was a lovely celebration with our theme of Growing Together in God’s Love. Our school captains were recognised with their badges and received a special blessing for the year ahead. Thank you to Fr James for leading our liturgy and to all the families and friends that attended.

PE with Miss Clark

Division Swimming
Goodluck to the 26 students representing St Mary’s today at the Division Swimming competition today! These students have qualified from our school time trials to compete against other local schools at Swan Hill Town Pool. We hope you all enjoy the atmosphere and swim your very best!

Year 5/6 Summer Sports practice sessions
Students in Year 5 and 6 will begin their coaching sessions for Summer Sports starting this week on Tuesday afternoon during their sport time. They will have five sessions in total on the following dates; Feb 18th, 25th, March 11th, 18th and 25th of March all on Tuesday afternoons. The students will be coached by the Sport and Rec MacKillop College students. The sport options available to the students were Basketball, Tennis, Cricket and Softball. These coaching sessions allow students to practice and enjoy their nominated sport for the upcoming Division Summer Sports competition day   
on Friday the 28th of March.

@2 Murlong Before & After School Care

The Out of School Hours Care program, @ 2 Murlong, is operating out of the gym hub and provides before and after school care for school age children in the Swan Hill area. Please express your interest via the following link;

https://prodadmin.myxplor.com/enrollment/index/dHdBOThsSW9JeHUxYTEwaHNxZlMrdz0

News from the Office

Working with Children Check
A reminder to bring your Working with Children Check with you if you are coming on to the school grounds for volunteer purposes. If you would like to apply for a Working with Children's Check, please follow the link below;

https://service.vic.gov.au/find-services/work-and-volunteering/working-with-children-check

PAM (Parent Access Module) - How to make bus changes on PAM
We encourage you to make bus changes via your PAM account. This includes bus passes, not on bus, change of bus etc. 

• Log in to your PAM account.
• From the three line menu in the top right hand corner, select “Transport Passes”.
• Ensure the date is correct, displayed above the student schedule table.
• Click on the “Edit” button of the child you wish to add/remove from a bus. 
• “Select New Route” will allow you to add your child to a bus, add your child to a different bus or select “No transport needed” if your child is not to travel on the bus on that particular day.

 Scheduled Transport - this is for children who are on a regular bus schedule. It is the bus that your child would usually catch on that day.

Actual Transport - the bus that your child is catching on that particular day eg. if a change has been made.

 Bus changes via PAM must be made by 2.30pm. For last minute changes, contact the office on 50332541. You can action bus changes up to 7 days in advance. If your child requires a permanent schedule change, please contact the office. Need assistance? Please contact the office 50332541.

Book Fair
Scholastic Book Fair is coming to our school in Week 4 (Monday 17th of February - Friday the 21st of February). The books will be displayed in the library where the children will complete a wish list in their normal library time. This will be sent home with an order form, if you wish to make any purchases. 30 -40 % of the sales from Book Fair will be used to purchase new books for our school library. Last orders are due in by Friday the 28th of February.

News from the Canteen

Volunteers Needed:
We are looking for canteen helpers in 2025!
You will need your VIC WWCC. Volunteer hours at 11.30am-1.30pm.
Please email office@smswanhill.catholic.edu.au if you are able assist.

Sushi special coming to Wednesdays!
Available through CDF Pay, Niko Niko Sushi will be available on Wednesdays from February 19th. Order now!! Limited amount available.

Happy Birthday!

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