St Mary's Primary School Swan Hill eNewsletter

Principal's Message

Dear Parents and Families,

The Welcome Picnic last Tuesday proved to be a great opportunity for families to mix informally, have a look in classrooms and around our school and enjoy some music by Tony Haley in the passive play area….not to mention the kids loved it! Sincere thanks to our wonderful staff - their combined efforts made the night such a success! Check out the highlights video!!!

This week marks the season of Lent with classes celebrating Shrove Tuesday before participating in the Ash Wednesday Liturgy led by Year at 9.15am. All families are warmly invited to attend this liturgy which will be celebrated in the outdoor assembly area.

It was a proud moment for our newly appointed Pod Squad Leaders last week as we officially opened the Play Pod. It was a real success with the children taking advantage of this new play area on our school grounds.

Keeping the momentum going, there was great excitement this morning as we opened the new Ninja Playground.

A huge thank you to our Parents and Friends who committed their fundraising efforts for over 2 years to assist in making this amazing new area a reality. It looks fantastic and will be a very popular part of our playground going forward.

Video showcasing St Mary’s
Our beautiful facilities, amazing teachers, commitment to wellbeing and great academic results are worth celebrating! To do just that we have captured some highlights of what makes our school a standout in this short video. A huge thank you to the many staff and children who made a cameo appearance and to Kev who listened to our story and produced this for us. Kev has thrown out a challenge that we will not reach 1200 likes on Facebook in a week….I hope you help me prove him wrong by taking 2-3 minutes to see our school in action!

Open Day 1 - Wednesday 5th March Tours at 5 pm
Have you caught our ads on 3SH, spotted us in the Guardian, or seen our posts on social media? Our first School Open Day is happening this Wednesday!

We warmly invite new and existing families to visit St Mary’s on Wednesday, 5th March, with tours kicking off at 5pm. This is the first in a series of Open Days, giving prospective families the chance to meet our School Leadership Team and Foundation Teachers while exploring our fantastic programs and facilities. We look forward to welcoming you!

Please call the office on 50332541 or register online; https://smswanhill.catholic.edu.au/book-a-tour/

Casual Dress Day
Everyone enjoyed the opportunity to wear casual clothes with the $580 raised to support our school by sponsoring a child through Caritas Australia. This was a wonderful effort and a practical application of living out the gospel message.

NAPLAN
NAPLAN is being held this term in Week 7-8, March 12th- 24th.

Students in Years Three and Five will complete four assessments - Writing (narrative or persuasive), Reading, Conventions of Language and Mathematics. Each online session will run between 40-50 minutes depending on the topic and year level. NAPLAN is a point-in-time assessment that allows parents to see how their child is progressing in Literacy and Mathematics against the national standard and compared with their peers throughout Australia. At the classroom level, NAPLAN provides additional information to support teachers’ professional judgment about student progress.

The best way you can help your child prepare for NAPLAN is to reassure them that NAPLAN tests are just one part of their school program and to advise them to do the best they can on the day. Ensure your child has had proper rest and has a healthy snack and lunch as usual. Students who are funded under Special Needs may be exempted from completing the NAPLAN tests. Parents/Guardians who do not want their child to sit the test, please contact the school for an Exemption form. If your son/daughter is not a funded student, a parent/guardian may withdraw the student from one or all of the NAPLAN tests. Parents/ Guardians need to contact their child's teacher, Kyle Doran or myself if they wish to withdraw their child from any of the NAPLAN tests.

Parents & Friends - Shout out to new members!
We would love you to consider joining our Parents & Friends. Parents & Friends are a very important part of our school community. They provide an opportunity to take an active part in school activities. These activities are predominantly social and fundraising, but there are also opportunities for information, making suggestions and contributing to the maintenance of the school. The money raised by Parents and Friends enables the school to purchase equipment that makes our school a better place for learning and play. Parents and Friends meet regularly, with dates advertised in the school newsletter. Our Parents & Friends generally have four major fundraisers each year. It would be fantastic if you would consider helping out with one or more of these events. For more information about our wonderful P & F please contact the office.

Pupil Free Day: Friday 7th March and Public Holiday: Monday March 10th
Just a reminder for all families that this Friday 7th March, is a pupil-free day (no school) as our staff work collaboratively with St Mary’s Sea Lake and St Mary MacKillop College on deepening our knowledge of the new Victorian curriculum. Monday 10th March, is a public holiday in Victoria so all schools are closed on that day.

St. Pat’s Family Fun Day Race Event
Save the date as this is seriously a fun-filled family event! ! Sunday March 16th, 2025 is the annual St Patrick's Cup Family race meeting in Swan Hill and a major fundraiser for our school. With free children's activities run by Hart Sports there is everything from face painting, foot races, kick the footy in the ute, the jumping castle and pony rides, not to mention the actual race. All this makes it a terrific family day out.

100% of proceeds from the entrance to the races and raffle sales go towards our school fundraising efforts. This year all money raised is being used to purchase Lego Spike kits for STEM. the purchasing playground equipment for this area.

Tickets can be purchased online;

Click this link to purchase tickets

Homework
Homework has commenced, with all year levels across the school sending some home-based tasks to be completed during the week. A detailed explanation of homework for each year level at St Mary’s will be sent to each family via PAM.

Have a great week and enjoy the extra long weekend,

Kate

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

Key Dates

Tuesday March 4th
Shrove Tuesday
Wednesday March 5th
Ash Wednesday Liturgy - 9.15am
Open Day - Tours at 5pm
Friday March 7th
Pupil Free Day - Staff PD
Monday March 10th
Public Holiday
Tuesday March 11th
Regional Swimming
Wednesday March 12th
NAPLAN Period commences
Backflips Against Bullying incursion
Friday March 14th
Assembly 12.25pm - 2S
Sunday March 16th
St Pat's Race Day Event

Save the Date - Italian Day

Italian Day will be held on Wednesday, 26th March
Every two years we hold a whole school Italian Day to celebrate the Italian language and culture. Students are invited to come to school dressed in an Italian themed costume or the colours of the flag.

The day will begin with a whole school parade at 9.15am in the outside assembly area. All families are welcome to come along and see all the wonderful costumes and the sea of green, white and red. This will be followed by a fun filled day of Italian themed activities as well as yummy food available to purchase from the canteen. Gelato and cannoli will be available to purchase for $1 and there will be Italian food available to order for lunch. More details to follow in the coming weeks.

Wellbeing with Mr Doran

Brain breaks for cognitive wellbeing
Brain breaks are simple physical and mental exercises. They have a positive effect on learning by:

increasing engagement and cognitive functioning
supporting the brain maturation process
enhancing focus, mood and learning
increasing students’ perceived competence
improving classroom behaviour
strengthening teacher-student relationships.

Furthermore, if the brain breaks are physical, they have the additional benefits of:

increasing circulation
increasing the oxygen in the bloodstream which leads to improved concentration
allowing the students to get out of their chairs!

Check out the link below for some simple brain breaks you can teach your kids at home

https://education.nsw.gov.au/teaching-and-learning/learning-remotely/wellbeing/wellbeing-at-home/general-information/brain-breaks

Curriculum with Mrs Hall

NAPLAN Timetable

RE with Mrs Davies

Shrove Tuesday
On Tuesday 4th March we celebrate the much loved Shrove Tuesday (or Pancake Day as most kids know it!)Shrove Tuesday is celebrated by Christians around the world. Traditionally it is seen as the last chance to eat rich foods before Lent, and a chance to use up all the luxury food items that may exist in one’s home which may go off during lent. As a result of this, Shrove Tuesday is associated with eating pancakes. Here at St Mary’s each classroom will be making and eating pancakes together.

If your child has any allergies to pancakes, please make contact with your child’s teacher to organise other arrangements.

Ash Wednesday
On Wednesday 5th March we celebrate our Liturgy with Father James for Ash Wednesday, which is the commencement of the Lenten Season (the six weeks in the lead up to Easter) and culminates in the celebration of Christ’s Resurrection. Lent is about the preparation for Easter, which includes prayers, fasting and penance over forty days. It is a time for personal reflection as we struggle with our bad habits and find new opportunities to turn back to God.

Lent is a wonderful opportunity to spring clean our lives and start anew. Many of us will connect Lent with Project Compassion and donate money to help with projects around the world which impact greatly on the lives of others. We also connect Lent with giving up something we enjoy, like chocolate. Making sacrifices is also an important part of Lent, we are called to come from a place of selfishness towards caring about and appreciating others and hopefully our lives will take on a meaning that is more about others than ourselves.

Project Compassion boxes will be coming home this week as a part of the Lenten Program. If you have any spare coins laying around, you may wish to have your children place these in the Project Compassion box for Caritas Australia. You are also able to visit the Caritas website to see some of the stories behind the project. https://lent.caritas.org.au Thank you for your on-going support for the wellbeing of others. You make a difference!

All families are welcome to attend our Ash Wednesday Liturgy to be held in the outside assembly area beginning at 9.15am.

PE with Miss Clark

Regional Swimming
Regional Swimming is in a couple of weeks on Tuesday the 11th of March. St Mary’s will be cheering for 8 students who have qualified to swim at the Swan Hill Town Pool. It is such a great achievement for these students to be competing at this level and what a great experience for them to compete against the best swimmers from our region. Goodluck to our swimmers competing in their individual and relay events!

Year 5 and 6 Summer Sport Practice
The Year 5 and 6 students have completed their second coaching session for the Summer Sports. There are three more coaching sessions before the competition on Friday the 28th of March. It is also great to see some students practicing their chosen sport at recess and lunch times to get in additional practice.

The Division Summer Sports day is an opportunity for the Year 5/6 students to represent our school in their chosen sport and compete against other local schools in a fun and competitive atmosphere. The sports will take place at the following venues with these supervising teachers;

Basketball- Swan Hill Stadium (Miss Clark, Mr Daniels and Mrs Davies)
Cricket- Swan Hill Showgrounds (Mr Smith and Mr Cleeland)
Tennis- Swan Hill Lawn Tennis Club (Mrs Free, Mrs Jobling and Mrs Dacey)
Softball- Ken Harrison Reserve (Mr Bonney)

@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.

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.