Newsletter Term 3 Week 5

Principal's Message

Dear Parents and Families,

We’re proud of all our students at St Mary’s, and this week the spotlight is on our Senior Girls’ Football team. Under the expert coaching of Tenay Fellows, the team claimed victory at the Regional Girls’ Football last Thursday. They will now represent our school at the State Championships in Bundoora this week—a fantastic achievement and an exciting opportunity for every player.

A warm welcome to Sarah Gilbee from Swinburne University, who commences placement with Mr Cruickshank and 4J today.

Peer Support Leaders
Recently, 32 Year 6 students have undertaken Peer Support training as part of a new student leadership initiative. Three Peer Support Leaders are rostered on each break to be a friendly face for younger students—helping them find a friend, join a game, or connect with the teacher on duty. These Year 6 leaders have shown great responsibility and leadership, and their presence around the Foundation rooms and junior playground area is making a positive difference in our school yard.

Book Week Parade - Friday, August 22nd 
Every year, schools and libraries around Australia celebrate the talent of our homegrown authors and illustrators, with the highlight often being a day of dressing up as beloved book characters. This term, students have been enjoying many of the shortlisted titles in the lead-up to Book Week.

St Mary’s is well-known for its spectacular Book Parade, and we warmly invite you to join us at the outside assembly area at 9.10am this Friday. From Willy Wonka to Matilda, the parade will be full of colour and creativity as students and teachers bring favourite stories to life. A big thank you to our teachers for inspiring costume ideas and ensuring every class has explored the award-winning books, and to our wonderfully creative parents for their support in bringing these characters to the yard.

Parent Teacher Interviews and Student Led Conferences
Wednesday 27/8 and Tuesday 9/9  have been set aside for staff to conduct our second round of  Parent/Teacher Interviews. This is a great opportunity for all parents to book a time to spend with your child’s teacher. Our Year 5 & 6 students will participate in Student Led Conferences, while our Year Foundation-Year 4 students will run 3 Way Chats with both parents and their children required to attend. Details have been sent via PAM and are also contained within this newsletter. Please ring the office if you require assistance with bookings.

Grease Production
I’m sure most of us know of Sandy and Danny and the words to Greased Lightinin'! This year, our Year 5 students have been fortunate to be invited to Mackillop College's wonderful production of Grease on Thursday morning. Details about the production and ticket sales for interested families is available in our Community Section.

Enjoy what the week holds in store, and I look forward to seeing many of you at the Book Parade on Friday.

Kate 

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

Key Dates

Tuesday August 19th
Regional Boys Netball
Regional Girls Netball
Regional Boys Soccer
Thursday August 21st
State Girls AFL
MacKillop Production Excursion - Year 5
Friday August 22nd
No Assembly
Book Parade
Wednesday August 27th
Andrew Plant - incursion
Parent Teacher Interviews
Thursday August 28th
Senior Athletics
Friday August 29th
Assembly 12.25pm - Foundation Orange
School Disco
Monday September 1st
Father's & Special Friends event

Wellbeing with Mr Doran

Child Safety Standard - Families and communities are informed and involved in promoting child safety and wellbeing.

RE with Mrs Davies

Assumption of Mary Mass
Last Friday, 15th August, our school community came together to celebrate the Feast of the Assumption of Mary with a beautiful Mass. It was a truly special occasion, honouring Mary, the Mother of Jesus, and her place in our Catholic faith as a model of faith, love and hope.

The liturgy was prayerful and reverent, with our Year 6 students leading the celebration wonderfully. Their readings, prayers and involvement helped to make the Mass a meaningful and memorable experience for all. It was inspiring to see the whole school participating with such respect and joy. 

We are grateful to Father James for celebrating Mass with us.  Thank you also to the families who joined us for this important feast day—it was wonderful to share this moment of faith as a community.

The celebration of the Assumption reminds us to look to Mary as an example of trust in God and to carry her hope and love into our daily lives.

PE with Miss Clark

Regional Girls Footy
On Thursday the 14th of August we had our Senior Girls AFL team represent our school at Regional Girls Footy at Woorinen.

The girls had some tough competition but thanks to super coach Tenay grew more confident with each game and ended up winning all 3 games to get into the grand final. They can be very proud of how they conducted themselves after each win and it was great to see lots of encouragement and the girls getting around each other. The scores for each game were; 88-0, 49-30 and 28-6.

A tough game for the grand final but St Mary's got the win with the final score 63-31 and have qualified for State finals in Melbourne this week on Thursday the 21st of August.

Congratulations to Maeve M, Arlee P, Thea T, Scarlett F, Isabel F, Ivy P, Mia H, Eliza M, Indi P, Eve G, Tawney M, Stella W, Maggie O, Rubi K and Emme B

Regional Netball and Soccer
This Tuesday the 19th of August we have several teams that have qualified for Regional level sports after a very successful Division level. We wish our St Mary’s Boys and Girls Netball teams and Girls and Boys Soccer teams best of luck as they compete against other schools in the Loddon Mallee Region.

Senior Athletics Volunteers
The Senior Athletics is not too far away now on Thursday the 28th of August. Thank you to parents who have volunteered to help out with the events so far. These days rely greatly on parental assistance in order to have a successful day. Those who have volunteered, you will receive event information on which event you are helping out with this week. 

Below is the timetable of events and parents and family are welcome to watch and support our students at Ken Harrison Reserve.

Junior Athletics Carnival
Our Junior Athletics for students in Foundation - Year 2 is on Thursday the 4th of September 5th held here at St Mary’s on the oval. Information in regards to this was sent home last week.  Much similar to the Senior Athletics, many hands make light work so if any parents are willing to help out for the day please indicate the time slot that suits you.

@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

Picking your child up early? These are our announcements times....
Just a friendly reminder that if you need to pick your children up early from school, our announcement times are at 11am (Recess), 1pm (Lunch) and 3pm (End of Day). This is to avoid disruption within the classroom. Please consider this when making appointments/arrangements.

Labelling your school items
Just a reminder to clearly label any items your child brings to school, in particular jumpers. We collect a huge amount of jumpers every week, some of them brand new and they can't be returned unless they are named.

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 - Adding a student absence
PAM is our preferred notification method for absences. Absences must be entered prior to 9.25am on the day your child will be absent. Absences can also be entered in advance.

On PAM, you can add an absence if:

• Your child is going to be absent for the day (All Day)
• Your child is going to be late to school (Arriving Late)
• Your child is going to be leaving early from school (Leaving Early)
• Your child will be leaving school and returning eg. for an appointment (Partial)
• Your child is going to be absent for more than one day (Multi-day max of 7 days)

To add an absence:

• Log in to your PAM account
• Select “Parent Notified Absences” listed under “Students”. This can also be accessed by selecting the 3 line menu bar on the top right hand corner of the screen and selecting “Parent Notified Absence”.
• Select “Add Absence”
• Select the child who will be absent
• Select the reason for your child’s absence
• Select the appropriate absence period
• Select the absence date
• Notes can be added if required
• You can edit or delete current and future absences, by clicking on your child and amending it if required

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