St Mary's Primary School Swan Hill eNewsletter

Principal's Message

Dear Parents and Families,

In a week of arrivals and departures, we said farewell to Bailey from 4N and to Mrs Hanns who together with Tim, are on the countdown as they wait for their baby to arrive in September. On Friday, we welcomed Levi Hogan to St Mary’s and it was lovely to hear what a warm welcome all the children in Foundation F gave him as he joined their class. Congratulations go to Chaz Talboys who completed his teaching degree and as of Friday, traded in his LSO job at St Mary’s for a teaching position at the school. We are excited to have Chaz on staff and really look forward to having him on our teaching team.

School Review Preparations
Preparations for our External School Review scheduled from August 16-17 have been finalised and we are looking forward to meeting with the panel next week to celebrate achievements over the past 5 years and set goals for 2023-2027. We began the groundwork for the review in Term 3 last year with members of staff, students and parents completing the School Improvement Survey that measured the organisational health of the school. The collated and analysed data from these surveys, along with other data collections formed the basis for our School Reflection Report and St Mary’s Data Profile. At our last SAC meeting we presented our identified key improvement priorities for the next five years. A panel of three external reviewers will spend two days at St Mary’s and use these reports, plus their visits to the school and interviews with members of the school community, to complete the review process and present a report of their findings.

The Review validates the school’s achievements and challenges in the areas of Catholic School Culture, Learning and Teaching, Student Wellbeing, Leadership and Management and School Community. This review process takes place every 5 years and forms the basis of goal setting for school improvement.

School Feast Day 15th August- The Assumption
Next Monday is a special one on our school calendar as we celebrate our school feast day with our Assumption of Mary Mass. Mary, Mother of Jesus is a very important and special woman in our Catholic tradition and Thursday’s feast honours her as “God’s Mother”. Our Feast Day celebrations will begin with our Assumption of Mary Mass in the Gym at 1.30pm. All families are invited to attend. Thanks to the Year 2 teachers and students for their leadership of this special Mass. The fun continues with Luke from Kaboom Sports here to run his much loved tabloid sports day for our Foundation-6 students.
On this day, children are able to wear their PE uniform to enable them to participate fully in the outdoor activities.

P&F Disco Profit
Our recent school disco was a great success and raised almost $2000 which will help pay for some new playground designs, to be installed over the Christmas school holidays. Here is a sneak peak of some of the designs which the students chose in a recent survey put out to all classes.

Book Week 20th – 26th August 2022
Book Week is celebrated each year in mid to late August. This year’s Book Week theme is “Dreaming with eyes open.”. To celebrate this, we will be holding the annual School Book Parade on Thursday 25th August at 9.00am. On this day the children can dress as any one of their favourite book characters. Look out for more information about this event on a separate flyer going home this week.

Bus Travel
A majority of our students travel to and from school using the country and town bus service. Our drivers do a marvellous job as they transport our children to and from home. We encourage all parents to reinforce the message we give to our children at school about appropriate behaviour on the bus and treating their bus drivers with respect. This includes: sitting in their seat using a seatbelt (when fitted), only getting up at their bus stop, using quiet voices while travelling, treating others kindly and being respectful of the driver.

Flying Start
Flying Start concludes this week. It has been fantastic to witness the growth in confidence amongst the preschoolers who have attended and we are looking forward to them joining us again for transition days in Term 4.

Parent Teacher Interviews and Student Led Conferences
Tuesday 23/8 and Wednesday 31/8 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 2-4 students will run 3 Way Chats with both parents and their children required to attend. Foundation and Year 1 will have Parent/Teacher interviews where the children are not required to attend. Bookings will open later next week.

Enjoy what the week brings and we look forward assembly prayer led by 4N
on Friday,

Kate

Key Dates

Monday August 8th
St Mary of the Cross MacKillop Liturgy - 9.15am

Tuesday August 9th
Courage & Crowns - Workshop 1

Thursday August 11th & Friday August 12th
Flying Start Session 4

Friday August 12th
Assembly 12.25pm 4N

Monday August 15th
St Mary's Feast Day Mass - 1.30pm
Kaboom Sports - wear your PE uniform

Thursday August 18th
Come & Try Morning
9.30am-11am

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

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

Thursday August 25th
Book Week Parade

Friday August 26th
No Assembly
Senior Athletics (Year 3-6)
More information to come

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 see some words below from presenter Megan Simpson.

Curriculum News with Mrs Hall

Young Writers Award - “Smile”
The Young Writers Award Writing Competition is an exciting opportunity for Prep to Year 10 and multi-class school children across the Swan Hill district. The competition is devised to inspire pupils to write a narrative piece of no more than 500 words for primary students. As a school we are proud to be involved with this great initiative and look forward to reading many wonderful narratives written by our students across all year levels. This year’s theme is “Smile”.

Categories include: Grade Prep, Grade 1/2, Grade 3/4 and Grade 5/6. Prizes will be awarded to shortlisted entries and the winner in each of the categories. Students from the Swan Hill Secondary College senior literature class will shortlist entries in each section.

Religious Education with Mrs Davies

Mary Mackillop Liturgy - 8th August
This morning we celebrated the feast day of St Mary Mackillop at our whole school Liturgy led by Fr Jmaes and the Year 1 children. It was a lovely celebration that celebrated the wonderful and inspirational woman that Mary was and how she made such a difference in the lives of others. It was lovely to see lots of families attend to celebrate this special occasion with us.

Assumption of Mary Feast Day - 15th August
Next Monday is a very exciting day on our school calendar as it is our St Mary’s Feast Day. We have an action packed day with Kaboom Sports coming to run fun filled activities out on the oval for the whole school. After this starting at 1.30pm we have our Assumption of Mary Mass which will be led by Fr James and the Year 2’s in the gym.

For each canonised saint, the Catholic Church assigns one day of the year, known as the saint’s feast day, to honour and remember their unwavering faith and extraordinary contribution to humanity and the Church. Our school is named after the Blessed Virgin Mary, who is a very special part of who we are as a Catholic school. Mary was a woman of deep faith, trust and service. In the Gospel of Luke, we see Mary chosen by God to bring Christ into the world. She is with Jesus at his birth, nurtures him in childhood, is present during his ministry, witnesses his death, and stands with the early Church as it grows and proclaims the Good News.

Physical Education with Miss Clark

Regional Girls and Boys Footy
On Tuesday, the 2nd of August, St Mary’s had both the Senior boys and girls team representing the school at the annual Loddon Mallee Regional Footy event.

The Year 5 students had a big task to step up and play as the Year 6’s were on camp. Both teams won 1 out of 3 games and grew in confidence with each game and showed great sportsmanship on the day. Thank you to Mr Dullard who coached the boys team and to family and friends who came to support our students.

Senior Athletics Carnival
The St Mary’s Year 3-6 Athletics carnival will be held on Friday the 26th of August at Ken Harrison Reserve. Information regarding this event will be sent home to parents and families on PAM.

Junior Athletics Carnival
The Foundation - Year 2 Athletics Carnival will be held on Tuesday the 6th of September on the St Mary’s school oval. Information will be sent home in coming weeks.

Sustainability with Mrs Ward

The school is soon to have some updated signage about wastage. Our Year 6 students have been busy making educational signs that help our school community know which bins our waste should go into.

The poster below was created by James X in 6B.

@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).

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.

Foundation Health Assessments - School Nurse Visit
Kerrie McCosh, primary school nurse, will be visiting oSt Mary's this term and the beginning of Term 4.

Foundation Health Assessments: All parents/guardians of Foundation children will be asked to complete a Health Questionnaire and return the form to the school before her visit. If you do not wish your child to be seen by the school nurse, please sign the non-consent section and return the form to the school. Foundation Health Assessments will commence on Tuesday August 16th. Health questionnaire's will be sent home with your child this week.

Referrals (Grades 1-6): Parents and/or teachers may refer children from any grade for assessments of vision, hearing, basic speech, physical abilities, medical conditions, behavioural and parenting issues. Please collect a referral form from the school office. Completed forms are to be handed into the school office prior to beginning of Term 4. Should parents wish to have an interview with the School Nurse, please indicate your request on the form.

Signing in at the Office
Just a reminder to bring your Working with Children's Check with you when you visit our school and remember to sign in and out at the office.

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

Corn chips with salsa and cheese are available from the Lunch Specials menu on Fridays!

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:

Newsletter Term 3 Week 5