Newsletter Term 4 Week 8
Principal's Message
Dear Parents & Families,
The term is flying by and it seems hard to believe that there is only three and a half weeks of school left for the children. With Christmas just around the corner, we begin our preparations here at school with our whole school Advent Liturgy. This takes place on Friday with the Foundation level leading the Advent Liturgy together with Fr James. This will begin at 9:10 in the Gym and all are welcome to attend. There is NO Assembly due to the Advent Liturgy. We continue to keep families affected by the floods in our thoughts and only hope that the ongoing rain and windy weather does not cause even more damage to crops and livelihoods. Please be aware there are financial supports available for any families impacted by flood waters while our senior leadership and wellbeing team is always available to support however they can.
Foundation 2023 Information Evening
This Wednesday 23rd November, we are holding our Foundation Information evening for the parents of our 2023 Foundation children. The meeting will take place via Zoom and we look forward to seeing everyone online and sharing important information about the start of the school year. All relevant information and links have been sent to families. Likewise, Fly into Foundation, our transition program for pre-schoolers commences on Monday 28th November. This program gives our newest students the chance to become familiar with the learning spaces at St Mary’s, the routine of coming to school and the development of connections and relationships with some of the teachers at our school.
Make A Scene Nativity Workshop
This week our students are in for a real treat with Fiona & Kay from Ballarat visiting our school and sharing their passion for Christmas with us. They are bringing along over 100 different nativity scenes plus artefacts from the period of time when Jesus was born. All classes are scheduled to visit this amazing display which runs from Wednesday to Friday in the staff workroom.
Casual Dress Friday 25th November
This Friday 25th November, is our next casual dress day with gold coin donations going towards the SRC purchasing presents for local families in need this Christmas. These gifts are purchased and wrapped by the SRC students and placed under the parish Christmas tree at the end of the year. The theme for this, is christmas themed outfits or colours.
Dogs Connect
All families received an update on Mac and his progress last week. Today each family will receive a checklist of considerations to read through.
OSHC Update - January Vacation Care
As many families would be aware, recently the families of St Mary’s and Swan Hill North students were informed they were excluded from the council run vacation care program over the January holiday period as they did not have sufficient staff to run their program for all school aged students in the district. Since then, we have been working hard to establish this program at @2 Murlong OSHC. We received word that our application for vacation care was successful and since then a great deal of work has been undertaken to quickly try to establish vacation care over January. We had a very positive response form our OSHC staff and it is wonderful to think that we can now offer care over January to families in need of childcare. We still have some limited places available each day, with families invited to register their interest via the following link;
https://prodadmin.myxplor.com/enrollment/index/dHdBOThsSW9JeHUxYTEwaHNxZlMrdz09
It is timely to acknowledge the work of 2 quiet achievers on our staff Maree McLean and Emma Brown who have both worked a great deal of overtime to make this OSHC vacation care a reality. Without their commitment and hard work this program simply would not have been able to be established in such a short time frame.
St Mary’s Got Talent!
Back by popular demand St Mary’s got Talent is coming soon! Auditions next week with 3 days of amazing talent on display during lunchtimes in Week 10! We all love this very popular Term 4 event and are always amazed at the talent we have amongst our student body.
Class Structures 2023
St Mary’s numbers have remained very stable and we will run 27 straight classes again in 2023. We are finalising our staffing needs and will share our classroom teacher placement for the next school year on the newsletter next week.
Foundation x 4 | Year 2 x 3 | Year 4 x 4 | Year 6 x 4 |
Year 1 x 5 | Year 3 x 3 | Year 5 x 4 |
I hope you all enjoy the week ahead and look forward to many families you joining us at the Advent liturgy on Friday.
Kate
Key Dates
Wednesday November 23rd
Foundation 2023 Parent Information Zoom meeting
Wednesday November 23rd - Friday November 25th
Make a Scene Nativity Workshops
Friday November 25th
Casual Dress Day - Christmas Theme
Advent Liturgy - 9.10am
Monday November 28th - Wednesday November 30th
Year 5 Camp
Friday December 2nd
Assembly 12.25pm - 5 Blue
Wellbeing with Mrs Gook & Mr Prockter
Sensory Processing and Social Skills training
As a school, we subscribe to Sue Larkey’s website. She is a strong advocate for supporting children with Autism and is well renowned in Australia. She also provides lots of strategies for all children which we implement throughout our school in our classroom and wellbeing programs.
Many children these days need support in the development of both fine and gross motor skills and help to develop age appropriate social skills.
The following are two resources that you might find valuable if you have concerns about your child. You can subscribe to the following website free of charge.
Curriculum with Mrs Hall
Big Summer Read
The Swan Hill Regional Library is participating in the BIG Summer Read again this year during the summer holidays. It will begin on 1 December 2022 until 31 January 2023. The BIG Summer Read program is open to children aged 5 to 18 years of age and is a great way to keep children engaged in reading during the summer school holidays. Please see below for more BIG Summer Read information supplied by our local library.
RE with Mrs Davies
Making a Scene at Christmas Workshops - 23-25th November
Making a Scene at Christmas is an education experience about the Birth of Jesus as told in the Gospels and illustrated by Nativity sets.
There are over 100 nativity sets that explore the two Gospel stories, the enculturating of the birth of Jesus and social justice issues. There are also coins of the period as well as frankincense and myrrh.
Over the past ten years Kay and Fiona have travelled the Diocese setting up the display and taking the program into both Primary and Secondary schools. During the past two years however, due to COVID-19 restrictions they have set up the display in a shop front in Ballarat.
Fiona and Kay will be visiting our school to run these exciting workshops for the whole school on Wednesday 23rd-Friday 25th November. We are really looking forward to this!
This nativity display will also be open to our school and parish community on Wednesday from 3.30-4.30pm in the staffroom area. All are welcome to attend.
Please find below the link for the October 2022 edition of “Our Diocesan Community”
PE with Miss Clark
State Basketball
What an amazing effort our St Mary’s girls team gave at the State Basketball championships on Tuesday the 15th of November. The girls played 3 games and won 2 and lost 1. Overall they came third which is such a fantastic achievement at this level. On behalf of the team, I would like to thank all the parents who gave up their time to help our students travel to Melbourne and support them in each game. A special thank you to Ash Roberts who coached the girls to keep them fighting until the end.
Well done again to Prue O, Isla B, Zoe B, Pippa W, Meg Y, Miela R, Violet C and Chloe N!
Regional Golf
On Tuesday the 15th of November we had four students representing St Mary’s at the Loddon Mallee Primary Regional Golf finals in Bendigo.
Well done to the following students and their results for the day;
Mason F- 2nd
Blake S- 9th
Kelland P- 15th
Saxcen C- 16th
Congratulations to Mason who had a fantastic round and scored 3 over par. Mason has qualified for the State finals on November the 30th at Kooringal Golf Club.
2023 House Captains
The House Captain interviews for the 2023 captains were conducted last week. All students that applied did such a great job in their application and interviews. Myself and Mrs Quin were very impressed with so many Year 5’s wanting a leadership role for next year. You can all be very proud of your efforts.
Congratulations to the following successful students;
Wombats: Eliza L, Charli S, Brody S and Cooper G
Bunyips: Indigo P, Kayla M, Archie B and Blake S
Bandicoots: Lola P, Sienna C, Oscar E and Aiden K
Dingoes: Prue O, Maddyn F, Jack B and Rory M
I am looking forward to working alongside these students next year.
@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
Families of Year 6 students enrolled at St Mary MacKillop College in 2023
St Mary MacKillop College has a small supply of uniforms available to support those families who are in need of assistance in this area, please get in touch with us on 50329771 or email Mandy McCallum mmccallum@mackillopsh.vic.edu.
Breakfast Club
Breakfast Club is kindly asking for donations of vegemite and jam. Donations can be left at the office.
Rapid Antigen Test Collection - Weeks 5 - 8
You can collect your test kits from the office window for Weeks 5-8 (2 boxes per student) between 8.30am and 4pm. Please notify the office via email if someone else will be collecting them on your behalf.
Book Club Issue 8 due Friday November 25th
Scholastic Book Club Issue 8 has been sent home. We will not be accepting cash payments for orders. Please order online following the instructions below. This is the link for LOOP, which will allow you to make an online order and payment;
https://mybookclubs.scholastic.com.au/Parent/Login.aspx If you are not registered for LOOP, click on the link above and create a new account. You will need to enter your details, add children and select our school (typed as is here); St. Mary's SWAN HILL
If you have any questions or are having trouble with the LOOP ordering system, please contact the office via email office@smswanhill.catholic.edu.au
News from the Canteen
CHECK OUT OUR NEW SPECIALS!!!!
WEDNESDAY - PIZZA PINWHEELS (x2) $2.00
FRIDAY- SUSHI BALLS (x2) $2.00
Our cut off time for CDF Pay orders is 9.30am
WE NEED YOUR HELP TO FILL THE ROSTER FOR THE REST OF THE TERM!!!!!!!
If you are able to help in the canteen in Term 4, please contact the office on 50332541 or email office@smswanhill.catholic.edu.au
Student of the Week
Birthday Wishes
Year 4 Camp
