Dear families,
I hope you are all finding ways to manage these difficult circumstances we find ourselves in.
As we move into Stage 4 restrictions, I’d firstly like to acknowledge parents who have lost their jobs or had their hours reduced, making this tough time all the more difficult.
Please reach out if you are experiencing any difficulties or hardship you would like to discuss.
I’d like to thank the parents who have managed to make arrangements to have their children looked after away from school. This has meant we too can reduce the number of staff onsite and better look after the safety of those required to supervise. Please remember that the reasons for having your child attend onsite are now further restricted to the following:
Parents who intend to send their children to school must give the school a copy of the work permit issued by their employer. For essential workers such as police officers and medical staff who are not required to carry a permit, work rosters will suffice. These documents can be sent through to principal@smaltona.catholic.edu.au. Please note that as of Monday, we can only accept students if we have been given a copy of the necessary documentation.
I’d like to thank the truly wonderful group of parents who dropped care packs for the family we reported on earlier this week. This truly is a wonderful example of St Mary’s families living out our school motto as a caring Catholic community. The family was so moved by this kind gesture and they want us to know that they’re doing well and the parent’s symptoms are very mild. I publish the family’s response with their permission:
Dear Sonia, staff & St Mary's school community
We were touched by the overwhelming kindness and support we have received over the past week from the school. I can't express my gratitude and thanks for the food boxes and the kind words from the parents, staff and children at the school.
We feel as though the school is extremely supportive to us. Words can't express how appreciative your gesture was and it reinforces how special we are to reside in a small community such as Altona.
Yesterday you would have had the opportunity to catch up with your child’s teacher. I hope this was a useful meeting. I know the teachers were looking forward to finding out how you were all managing and to ensure that we are doing our best to meet your child’s needs, especially now, since it looks like remote learning will take us all the way to the end of the term. Teachers reported being sincerely moved by the many parents who inquired into their own wellbeing.
I want to thank our teachers who are doing the most remarkable job. I have received many emails from parents who report that their child’s teacher is doing so much to try and ensure their children are learning and continue to be challenged. Some of our newer families, who were able to compare how other schools took to remote learning, were glowing of St Mary’s procedures.
I’d like to take this opportunity to address a query I received about reducing fees. While I am more than willing to discuss payment options for families experiencing financial difficulties at this time, there won’t be a blanket reduction in school fees. I understand that parents have been asked to assist their children from home, but I can assure you our teachers have never worked harder or longer hours. The school’s running costs have continued and other costs have increased, such as costs associated with repairs to devices sent home, increasing subscriptions to many online programs and increased cleaning costs, amongst other things. Levies paid for particular services such as camps and excursions that have not been undertaken will either be refunded or parents will be offered the option to roll over these funds into next year. We will be able to offer more information about this next term.
Today we would have celebrated Mary MacKillop’s feast day which falls tomorrow, the 8th of August. Tomorrow will also be Father Michael’s 39th Anniversary of Ordination. It is a great shame we were unable to celebrate both occasions, but I can assure Father Michael that it will be a very different story next year. We have 12 months to prepare! Congratulations Father Mchael. May you accept and feel the prayers we send.
I leave you with these wonderfully pertinent words from St Mary MacKillop:
Let us be for our world beacons of hope and trust.
May God bless and strengthen us.
Confide all to God.
See how God carries us through the storms.
Continue to stay safe and strong in God’s love,
Sonia
Developing resilience helps children to adapt to change and face disappointment. So, what does resilience look like in learning? We see it when children take risks and try things out.
The age that we acquire resilience is not fixed; it is found within our daily life. The ability to trust yourself and manage challenges is something developed over time.
To encourage children to reflect on their growth you might like to build some of the following types of questions into your conversations about the day.
By engaging in these types of conversations about learning it encourages children to reflect on their experiences and values growth over time rather than instant perfection.
As Namka (2014) identifies, when the message “comes through again and again” that student’s attempts towards independence are met with support, then they might develop the “self-fulfilling prophecy of “someone believes in me so I must have what it takes to work out the threatening situation!”
Stefanie Harvey
Learning and Teaching Leader
She inspires us to want to serve others generously and joyfully, as she served them. Finally, she inspires us to pray regularly as she did. Who can be a better Advocate than Mary our Mother?
Mary treasured all these words and pondered them in her heart (Lk 2: 19).
On 15 August we honour Mary, Mother of God. She is known as the first disciple, the mother of the Church and she is given to us all as the model of discipleship. This Marian feast celebrates the completely faithful relationship between Mary and God that extends beyond life into death.
The liturgy celebrates with solemnity the Blessed Virgin’s Assumption into heaven. This is the day of hope and of light, because all men and women, pilgrims on the earth, are able to foresee in Mary the “destiny of glory” that awaits them.
Our Catholic Catholic Catechism teaches, “The Immaculate Virgin Mary, preserved from all stain of original sin, when the course of her earthly life was finished, was taken up body and soul into heavenly glory, and exalted by the Lord as Queen over all things, so that she might be the more fully conformed to her Son, the Lord of lords and conqueror of sin and death” (CCC:966). It is our hope as disciples we will follow her in faith.
On this feast day we celebrate all that is life-giving and hopeful in our world, communities and relationships; we look to Mary for strength and inspiration, so we too can be beacons of hope and faith in the world.
The Assumption of Mary assures us that in God’s eyes our entire humanity is precious and that we are that “you” of Jesus’ promise: “I will raise you up on the last day.” However dark the shadows that sometimes gather on the horizon and however incomprehensible certain events may appear to be in human history, we must never lose trust and peace. This feast invites us to entrust ourselves to Mary assumed into heaven who, like a shining star from heaven, directs our daily journey on earth.
I leave you today with a prayer to Mary to use in these dark and uncertain times:
“O Mary, Mother of hope, strong with your help we do not fear obstacles and difficulties; fatigue and sufferings do not discourage us, because you accompany us on the path of life and from heaven, you watch over all your children, filling them with grace. To you we entrust the destiny of the peoples and the mission of the Church”
(St. John Paul II, 2005).
Yours in Faith
Matthew Taylor
Religious Education Leader
Please email Marg mmasseni@smaltona.catholic.edu.au with your thoughts.
Two Tuning in to Teens courses will be running in term 4:
Registrations essential. Learn more over on our webpage: www.hobsonsbay.vic.gov.au/teens
Exaggerate - when you say something is way worse or better than it’s supposed to be
Verb
Synonyms: amplify, blow out of proportion, embellish.
He thinks I’m exaggerating when I say that the spider was the size of my head.
“I can hold my breath underwater for over 5 minutes,” Jack exaggerated
What are WOWs?
WOWS, or Words of the Week, are words that will appear every week both in the newsletter and in the display cabinets around the Prep/1 building as a way to help the students at St Mary’s Primary School build their vocabulary.
What we know from research about the importance of a large vocabulary is as follows:
What can we do with the Word of the Week?
It is important to talk about the words of the week with your child. Initially, discuss what the word means and put it in a sentence. Use the word frequently throughout the week – at set times like in the car after school or at the dinner table but also incidentally throughout general conversation where appropriate. When the child has a solid understanding of the word, you can think about other ways to build upon this knowledge and further increase vocabulary by thinking about other words that mean the same thing (synonyms) and words that mean the opposite (antonyms) to the WOW.