Dear families,

What a strange first week it has been for me at St Mary’s.

I’m sure none of us thought we’d ever go through a lockdown the first time around, let alone another yet, here we find ourselves.

I hope the children have enjoyed an extra week of holidays.  I’m not so sure parents felt the same!

As we head into a new and improved version of remote learning, I must say how impressed I’ve been with the staff and how positively they’ve taken to this challenge.

On Monday, we spent a great deal of time looking at your feedback about remote learning and have made some changes based on this feedback.  Whilst you can appreciate we cannot take all feedback on board (eg make specialist activities compulsory versus don’t have specialist subjects at all), there were definite themes we unpacked and have adjusted for in our planning.

Some of these include:

• The introduction of Wellbeing Wednesday. This day is designed to give students a break from their screens for the majority of the day, take some time to be creative and get moving. Specialist teachers will be online for student queries on this day as it is their lessons that will be posted.  Wellbeing activities will also be uploaded for families to complete.
• More live video chats as both a social activity and to help students access more assistance
• More pre-recorded video lessons and instructions for activities to help students complete work more independently
• Teachers will post student work each afternoon for the following day to help families who want time to plan the next day the afternoon or evening before (Senior students will be able to access scheduled activities each morning through Google Classroom)
• Each class will offer a suggested timetable for the week.

I have no doubt that a return to remote learning is weighing heavily on many of you and your children. Whilst our teachers will set the expected daily tasks and suggested timetables, I urge you to do what works for you and your family. If the structured timetable doesn’t work for you, adjust it so that it does. If your child can only manage to complete 2 activities per day, go ahead. We are not expecting you to take on the role of teachers, so if your child is struggling to understand or complete tasks, please don’t hesitate to reach out to your child’s teacher for help or to ask for simpler activities. 

When I met with staff for the first time in one-on-one chats, every single member mentioned their love of St Mary’s s supportive community. I have no doubt that we can work through this together, just as we did the first time.

In the words of Mary MacKillop (sorry senior teachers, I’ve lifted this straight from your video to students):

Do all you can with the things at your disposal and calmly leave the rest to God

St Mary’s has an abundance of things at our disposal; a supportive staff, committed parents and resilient students. 

We’ve got this!

God bless you and keep you safe,

Sonia Riccardi 

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Thanks to the families who've shared some great photos this week.
We've seen birthday celebrations, cooking, bridge making, chalk drawing and lots of game playing.
  We hope everyone is travelling well.
If you would like to share photos of the kids, the family, the pets etc...just email them though to Marg M - mmasseni@smaltona.catholic.edu.au and Marg will pop them up on Facebook and/or the website.

It's a great way during this period of remote learning to keep in touch.  
It helps families to stay connected as well as putting a positive spin on life.

       

  

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As you would know our Parent / Teacher interviews were held yesterday. Thank you to our staff and parents for engaging in such great conversation to help with the children's learning. As doing these interviews using the Whereby platform was new to us, we would value your feedback.

Please email Marg mmasseni@smaltona.catholic.edu.au with your thoughts.

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Catholic Care will begin providing counselling services to support the wellbeing of the children attending St. Mary’s Primary School, Altona. Our new counsellor is Rishika Sangeeta. Rishika will be available on Thursday each week, from next Thursday 30th July.

Rishika has been working with schools for the last two years to offering counselling services for children. As the school counsellor, Rishika’s role will involve working with children to support their learning, formation of healthy social relationships, emotional development and self-regulation, as well as offering strategies to reduce challenging behaviours within the classroom, school and home environment. She will work to support the teaching team and liaise with parents, when necessary, to meet the needs of individual children.

If you are interested in availing yourself of the counselling services for you child, please contact Marg Masseni via email (mmasseni@smaltona.catholic.edu.au) or the school office.

Marg will provide consent forms that will need to be completed and returned to her. Once the forms are returned to the school, counselling services will commence at the earliest opportunity.

 

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ENROLMENTS FOR PREP 2021 ARE NOW OPEN.
  Due to current Victorian Government restrictions, tours are unable to take place.
  FOR FURTHER INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT THE SCHOOL OFFICE ON 9398 4842.
  Enrolment Forms can be accessed from our website or be collected from the school office. We look forward to welcoming you into our Caring Catholic Community in Education.

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