Newsletter Term 3 Week 1

Principal's Message

Dear Parents and Families,

Welcome back one and all! I hope you all enjoyed the holidays and are back rested and ready  for another exciting term of learning. New to our school this term are Enrick Lijo James and Arlo McKenzie. We hope these two Year 1 students quickly settle into life at St Mary's and we look forward to getting to know them and their families.

A warm welcome to Mrs Hanns and Mrs Crowe who are returning on a part time basis from family leave and Bon Voyage to Miss Clark who has headed overseas for the term. Mr Smith has stepped back into familiar territory as the PE teacher for the term in her absence. 

There's been lots of work behind the scenes with a new history wrap installed in the office detailing the schools history from inception, a refresh of the gym entry, security  upgrades and outdoor clean ups all occurring while it was nice and quiet on site.

Start of School Day and Bus information
As shared last term the new industrial agreement for schools has implications for students who are walking, riding to school or who are being dropped off by car.

• At St Mary’s school gates will open when the first buses arrive at 8.30am with teachers on duty in the yard until classrooms open at
  8.40 am. 
• From Day 1 of Term 3, there will be no teacher on bus or yard duty before 8.30 am and students should not be dropped at school prior to this time unless they are accessing before school care at our OSHC program.
• Contact the office if you wish to enrol your child in before school care, children attending OSHC before school, need to be signed in by parent/guardian.
• Children that walk or ride, will need to adjust the time they leave home so they do not arrive before the 8.30am start of day time.
• There will be staff on crossing duty at both front gates from 8.30 to assist students to use our pedestrian crossings safely.
• All town and country bus travellers have received additional information via PAM  about the changes to pick up times in the morning for all bus routes.

This morning everything went very smoothly and I sincerely thank parents for quickly adapting to these new organisational changes and your support in understanding that the new industrial agreement has meant changes to long standard travel arrangements in our district and to the time we open ‘for business’ each day. If you have any questions about the new arrangements please make contact with the  office

Junior Hub progress
Despite the rain, there's been lots of work happening over the past fortnight. The exterior cladding has commenced, windows are in, and the plasterers are busy. The junior hub contains 8 contemporary classrooms which all open into a large internal learning street. Complete with offices and wellbeing spaces, we are very excited about the way the junior hub will enhance our current school facilities and allow us to start to reduce the number of  portables used as  classrooms at the school.

Flying Start and 2024 Enrolments
We are really looking forward to the 2023  Flying Start program which commences next Thursday and getting to know many of our 2024 Foundation students and their families before they start school next year. We have had strong interest in this very successful program with a few spaces in each group available for any preschooler in our district to come along and join the fun! Just ring the office to find out how to register your child.

Learner Agency PD Wednesday July 19th - Pupil Free Day 
In August 2022, we had our last external school review. The panel were here for 2 days and validated the school’s achievements and also provided recommendations for future strategic direction. One key recommendation was to increase student agency (ownership) of learning, by giving students more voice and choice in what they are learning and how they will share that with others.
Next Wednesday July 19th, we have a school closure day for staff to work with James Anderson, a leading expert in  this area.

St Mary’s Way - Respect Blitz
As part of our commitment to School Wide Positive Behaviour we regularly choose a pro-social skill to focus on. Our next whole school ‘blitz’ is on Respect.

This week we are doing the groundwork about what that looks like in our interactions with others in class or on the yard, and in the way we move around the school and how we look after our school.  Watch out for the students promoting this on Seesaw and sharing their achievements at assembly. Our whole school ‘blitz’ on Respect starts in week 3.

MacKillop College Transition Day 2
A reminder that the next transition day is Wednesday 26th July and is only for those children who are already enrolled at St Mary MacKillop College for 2024. On this day the Year 6's are to wear their sports uniform and make their own way there and home. Country bus travellers are dropped off at MacKillop in the morning and shuttled to the Secondary College to get their bus home. More details about the transition day will be provided to families by MacKillop College prior to the day. Year 6 students enrolling at the Swan Hill Secondary College attend school on the 26th as normal.

Curriculum Newsletters
This week via PAM, you will receive your child's curriculum newsletter that outlines the key learning that will take place in their classroom and when they attend specialist classes. The curriculum newsletters are produced to assist you to know what is happening at school so you can chat more knowledgeably with your child about the many exciting things they are involved with at St Mary’s.

St Vinnies Winter Appeal
We had a very generous  response to the St Vinnies Winter appeal and thank the SRC team for their organisation with this event. Our donation of 80 bags of groceries containing over 800 items to distribute  to families in need in our local  community was gratefully received by the team at our local St Vincent De Paul's centre.

Have a terrific first week back and I look forward to seeing many of you in the yard, out in the car park or at assembly hosted by Year 1X  this week,

Kate

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

Key Dates

Monday July 10th
Start of Term 3
Thursday July 13th
State Cross Country
Friday July 14th
Assembly 12.25pm - 1X
Monday July 17th
Tuning into Teens Parent Information Night (Year 5 & 6 familes) 7pm
Wednesday July 19th
Pupil Free Day - Staff PD
Thursday July 20th
Boys netball & Girls football competition
Thursday July 20th & Friday July 21st
Flying Start session 1
Friday July 21st
Assembly 12.25pm - 6Q

Wellbeing with Mr Prockter

In accordance with Child Safe Standard 9: Physical and online environments

Curriculum with Mrs Hall

CBCA-Book Week 2023:”Read, Grow, Inspire”
Each year since 1945 the The Children's Book Council of Australia (CBCA) has brought children and books together across Australia through CBCA Book Week. The annual CBCA Book of the Year Awards aim to: promote quality literature for young Australians; support and encourage a wide range of Australian writers and illustrators of children's books and; celebrate contributions to Australian children's literature. 

With thanks to the amazingly talented illustrator Matt Ottley, the 2023 CBCA Children's Book Week  theme "Read, grow, inspire" comes to life in the striking flying hero seahorse carrying young readers through an endless, boundary-less, sunlight lit space where imagination has unlimited scope for growth and infinite ...

During this term our teachers and students spend time celebrating the shortlisted books and Australian children's authors and illustrators, during our Literacy, Inquiry and Art sessions.  Book Week presents a time to celebrate favourite characters from classics through to contemporary books. While children are engaged in a range of fun activities to celebrate Book Week, families are reminded of the ongoing benefits of early reading for future success.

RE with Mrs Davies

St Vinnies Winter Appeal Donations
It was absolutely amazing to see the large amounts of donations that had been brought in towards the end of last term. This culminated in a whole school tally of over 800 items! The SRC worked very hard on the last day of school to collect these items from classrooms and put them into bags ready to transport down to our St Vinnies store. A very big thankyou to all families who sent in different items to be donated to help our families in need this Winter. This was all part of reaching out and helping others just as Jesus teaches us to do.

Sustainability with Mrs Ward

Windowsill Garden
Who wouldn’t like to grow their own herbs and veggies, cut down on waste and create a fun experiment at home with the kids?

All you need to do is save the ends from a range of herbs and veggies, such as mint, leek, celery and spring onion- and place them in a jar with 2xm of water. Keep the jar in a sunny spot and change the water daily. New shoots should start to emerge after a few days and once the roots have grown longer, it's time to plant them in your garden! - Coles Magazine, July 2023

PE with Mr Smith

State Cross Country
On Thursday 13th of July we will be wishing two St Mary’s students the best of luck as they will be competing in the State Cross Country in Melbourne. Oliver S and Evie K have both achieved amazing results to get to this level and St Mary’s will be thinking of them as they will both be running the 3km course towards the end of the week!

@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

School Beanies
With the weather cooling down, now is a great time to purchase a school beanie! Available on CDF Pay for $15.00.

Rapid Antigen Tests
We have excess supply of Rapid Antigen Tests available for families. You can collect test kits from the office between 8.30am and 4pm. 

Parent Teacher Interviews
Advance notice to all families, our second round of Parent Teacher Interviews will be conducted in Weeks 8 & 9 of this term. Online bookings will be advertised via PAM,  the newsletter and on our Facebook page closer to the date.

Book Club Issue 5 - Due Monday July 31st
Scholastic Book Club Issue 5 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

Ordering from our canteen for recess or lunch is online via CDF Pay
https://smswanhill.cdfpay.org.au/
Orders are to be placed by 9.30am. We recommend ordering the night before.

If you are able to help in the canteen on any of the dates in yellow, please contact the office on 50332541 or email office@smswanhill.catholic.edu.au

We need your help to fill the Term 3 roster!!!

Birthday Wishes

Student of the Week

What's happening in Foundation Green?