Newsletter Term 3 Week 3

Principal's Message

Dear Parents and Families,

Exciting times ahead for Mrs Hanns and her husband Tim, with Stacey finishing up shortly in preparation for the birth of her baby later in the term. I am really delighted that Miss Sophie Reed and Miss Rachel Moroney have accepted a job share position and know they are both really looking forward to getting to know the children and their families in Foundation F.

Our Year 1 & 2 students have had a fantastic morning participating in workshops run by Cricket Victoria while many of our Year 6 students are off to St Mary MacKillop College tomorrow for their second Transition Day. Just a reminder the Year 6 students 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. Students enrolling at the Secondary College attend St Mary’s as normal.

P & F School Disco July 22nd 
The disco was a huge success with over 450 students in attendance. Not only did they have a great time, it was a solid fundraiser with proceeds going towards new playground marking. A sincere thanks to Renee for her work in putting this together, the many staff and parent helpers who came along and got into the spirit of the night and to Ebony, who did a huge amount of work behind the scenes to make sure everything was organised and ran smoothly. 

St Mary’s Way-Manners Blitz
This week we continue our whole school ‘blitz’ on manners. Each morning we acknowledge some of the many students who have been noticed using their manners on the morning announcements and the spreadsheet detailing how many tickets have been awarded to each year level is updated each day. Meet some of the students at St Mary's who have stood out for using good manners over the past few days; Evie, Oscar, Farhan and Paige.

Flying Start
Flying Start was a big success last week with the preschoolers who attended embracing the program and generally having a wow of a time at school. They will be back again this Thursday and Friday to do it all over again! Thanks to Melita, Rach, Beth and the Flying Start team who make ‘big school’ so much fun for our newest students.

Year 5 & 6 Cyber Safety Workshop
This Wednesday we are fortunate to have Leading Senior Constable Andrew Downes presenting an information session for our Year 5 & 6 students outlining the legalities around Internet Use and Cyber Safety. Andrew is a regular on our school calendar and this term we have asked him to speak to the senior students in response to parental concerns about their children’s use of social media and devices outside school hours. Andrew’s workshop is a timely one, with the St Mary’s Mobile Phone and Wearable Device Policy ready to be shared with families shortly. For parents wanting to learn more about TikTok, Instagram and YouTube to help your child stay safe online, there is a wealth  of information on the eSafety Commissioners site https://www.esafety.gov.au/parents

New Child Safe Standards - Updates
The Child Safe Standards were updated on 1 July and they set out the minimum requirements and outline the actions organisations must take to keep children and young people safe. Although similar to Victoria’s current Child Safe Standards, key changes include new requirements:

• To involve families and communities in organisations’ efforts to keep children and young people safe
• For a greater focus on safety for Aboriginal children and young people
• To manage the risk of child abuse in online environments
• In relation to governance, systems and processes to keep children and young people safe

More information on the new Child Safe Standards:

• Telephone: 1300 782 978 or (03) 8601 5281
• Email: contact@ccyp.vic.gov.au

Visit the Commission’s website: www.ccyp.vic.gov.au

It was lovely to see so many families at our assembly last Friday. Congratulations to the very confident and capable Year 5 Yellow class that led our prayer. This week we look forward to hearing from 1P.

Enjoy the week ahead,

Kate

Key Dates

Tuesday July 26th
St Mary MacKillop Transition Day

Wednesday July 27th
Cyber Safety Talk with Andrew Downes
Year 5 & 6 students

Thursday July 28th
Regional Soccer
Regional Netball

Thursday July 28th & Friday July 29th
Flying Start (session 2)

Friday July 29th
Casual Dress Day
Assembly 12.25pm 1P

Monday August 1st-Thursday August 4th
Year 6 Camp

Tuesday August 2nd
Regional Football

Friday August 5th
Assembly 12.25pm 3G

Friday August 19th & Monday August 22nd
Pupil Free Days

Tuesday August 23rd & Wednesday August 31st
Parent/Teacher Conversations

Wellbeing with Mrs Gook

Courage & Crowns
We invite all our Year 5 & 6 daughters and mothers/carers to come to our “Courage & Crowns” workshops presented by Megan Simpson. Megan has 29 years experience in wellbeing and is a great advocate and leader in teaching young girls about self love, self worth and high standards. The workshops will be presented over 2 nights, Tuesday 9th August and Tuesday 6th September at 6.00pm. 

Workshop 1 - Building the foundations of self-love and self-worth. 

Workshop 2 - Developing a deeper understanding of emotional wellness and develop a personal suitcase of self-love.

Please find attached the below flyer for more details.

Religious Education with Mrs Davies

Sacraments of Confirmation and Eucharist
A big congratulations to our next groups of children who completed their Sacraments of Confirmation and/or Eucharist over the weekend. These groups included a range of Year 4, 5 and 6 students who have now completed all of their sacraments and were welcomed in as full members of the Catholic Community. If any children were unable to complete their sacraments over these weekends, please contact Fr James at the Parish to discuss a different date to suit your family. 

Next term we look forward to preparing our Year 3 children for their Sacrament of Confirmation which will be held on the 23/24th October. More information will be sent out closer to the date.

Physical Education with Miss Clark

Cricket Victoria Renegades visit
On Monday, our Year 1 and 2 students received a special visit from Cricket Victoria along with two players from the Melbourne Renegades team; Ella Haywood and Mackenzie Harvey. The students participated in a talk in which they could ask questions to the players and then participated in some Cricket station activities. St Mary’s would like to thank Cricket Victoria for organising this opportunity and hope to build a partnership with them in the future.

Regional Netball and Soccer 
This week on Thursday the 28th of July, St Mary’s has both Netball and Soccer teams representing our school at the Regional level. The girls Netball will be held at Swan Hill/ Tyntynder Netball courts and the Girls and Boys Soccer will be at Ken Harrison Reserve. We wish all teams participating the best of luck!

Gymnastics After School Program
The Gymnastics Active Afterschool program has received lots of interest with children wanting to participate. The maximum of 24 students has now been reached and a list will go up on the gym windows of the children who have been successful at getting a place in the program. There will also be a consent note on PAM to look out for.

There are 5 sessions;
THURSDAYS: August 4th, 11th, 18th, 25th and September 1st (3:30pm - 4:30pm)
There is also a waiting list if your child has missed out.

Sustainability with Mrs Ward

This week’s tip comes from Frankie M in 2U
"If you can, bring nude food"

@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
The days are freezing...........jump on to CDF Pay and order your child a beanie
($15 each).

Book Club - Issue 5
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.

Issue 5 orders are due by Thursday July 28th
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

Rapid Antigen Test Collection - Weeks 1-4
You can collect your test kits from the office window for Weeks 1-4 (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.

Donations of second hand uniforms
We are after donations of second hand tracksuit pants, grey long pants, grey shorts and winter skirts.  These can be left at the office.

Breakfast Club
Breakfast Club is kindly asking for donations of vegemite and jam. Donations can be dropped at the office.

News from the Canteen

Check out our meal deal options on the menu below are available Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.

Our cut off time for CDF Pay orders is 9.30am 

We require helpers in the canteen on Mondays and Tuesdays in Term 3. Please email the office office@smswanhill.catholic.edu.au if you are able to assist. 

CANTEEN ROSTER: 

Student of the Week

Birthday Wishes

Community News

What's happening in Foundation T?