Dear families,

I hope you are travelling well. I’m sure most of you will be looking forward to the long weekend.

Over the last few weeks I have enjoyed getting into heavy conversations around student learning and results.

It’s so exciting to be a part of a staff who is so obviously committed to our students. We are asking the hard questions and challenging ourselves to think and work differently in order to optimise results for all our students. 

Teachers have also begun to identify their own learning goal for this year. I’ve enjoyed touching base with them and having discussions about their chosen area and explored it more deeply to help them refine their individual learning path. Challenging yourself and making mistakes is such a huge part of the learning process and it is so important we as educators and adults model this life-long learning with our students.

Our uniform shop hours have recently changed. The uniform shop is now open on Tuesdays between 8:30am and 8:45am. We are currently looking at recruiting more volunteers to help open on other days. If you are interested, please contact the office.

Could you please remind your children that they are to use the school gates between 8:30 and 8:45 (Church, Sargood and McBain Street) each morning when entering the school? They are not to use the office between these hours as parents are usually dropping in at this time.

Invoices have now been sent out to all families. If you have not received yours, please contact Katrina.

As mentioned previously, I am arranging small Meet and Greet sessions where I can meet some of you and talk about your hopes for the future of St Mary’s. Please indicate your availability using this form and I will hold sessions on the most popular days and times. I’m looking forward to spending some time with you and hearing about your thoughts and dreams for our shared future.

Have a wonderful weekend,

Sonia

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On Tuesday 16th March we are fortunate enough to have Trent and Sam from 'The Cyber Safety Project' come to our school. During the day they will run workshops for all our students, as well as run our staff meeting. 
Trent and Sam will then run a live Parent Webinar beginning at 7pm.

The session will run for an hour and aims at providing parents and guardians with the insights and important information about popular social networking platforms and the online world that young people today have access to. Building a positive and healthy family environment where digital use is encouraged but managed effectively can be a tough balance. We will discuss ways you can ensure your children stay safe through making use of an application’s privacy settings and help them to build positive digital habits through your family’s digital user agreement.

This is the third year we have had Trent and Sam work with our school and they are always highly engaging and informative. The feedback from the parent evenings in the past has been extremely positive so be sure to sign up for the live webinar event. 

Please register for the webinar via this link.

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Footy season starts soon so be sure to sign up to the St Mary’s Primary School Footy Tipping Competition.  Please note that it is a new competition from previous years.  St Mary’s Primary School Altona, 2021

The password to enter the competition is: smaltona

 

You will need to have an account with www.footytips.com.au to join the competition.

It will cost $20 per person, $35 for two or $50 a family (up to 6 members of a family). Money can be sent to the school office in a sealed envelope marked Footy Tipping with the names of ALL the tippers. There is a $5 weekly jackpot if you select 9 winners for a round. No amounts smaller than $5 will be distributed.

Half the money collected is distributed in prizes at the end of the season and the other half is presented to the school as fundraising. 

A great way to have some fun throughout the year and also support our school. 

If you have any questions, issues or difficulty signing up please email Ronnie Tucker 

vtucker@smaltona.catholic.edu.au

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I’ve been in teaching for a number of years now and in a variety of settings. My first teaching experience was as a swimming instructor; I started this role as a 17 year old and found myself still at it 10 years later. 

I’ve now taught in primary, secondary and in specialised schools here and overseas before landing at St Mary’s, where I've been teaching since 2005.

I enjoy a variety of sports but running is one of my main interests. I’m currently involved with Professional running leagues running track events in the summer and cross country in the winter.

I also really enjoy the outdoors and have had short term stints working for outdoor companies. I love a good crime novel and also watching my daughter develop her soccer and flute playing…….skills she definitely doesn’t get from me. 

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The National Day of Action against Bullying and Violence is an important day in our school calendar to join with other schools across Australia to say ‘Bullying. No Way!’. 

HOW CAN YOU BE INVOLVED?

• Get a SPLASH OF ORANGE for your child to wear with their school uniform
• Give someone a SMILE 

• Show someone that you CARE about them
• Talk with your children about Bullying

 We’re proud to be an NDA school! We’re proud to say ‘Bullying. No Way!’ We are putting our bullying prevention initiatives in the spotlight and calling on our school community to stand with us on Friday 19 March 2021.

At our school, we encourage students to take hold of the issue and talk about what works. 

Students will be talking about bullying in their classrooms – what bullying means, what to do if they are bullied, what to do if they see someone being bullied and most importantly about the importance of respecting and getting along well with others.

And to help with your discussions...

What is Bullying?

Bullying is repeated negative behaviour towards someone else.

Bullying is not a one-off case. A one-off case is really a conflict.

Bullying is much more than a conflict over some issue. It happens over and over again. It’s this relentless nature of bullying that wears people down.

Sometimes the form of the bullying changes, for example, name calling may change to threatening someone or destroying their belongings. Some victims have reported being mistreated in several different ways by the same bullies.

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Each year we hold a Healthy Breakfast followed by a Fun & Fitness session. Last year we received a Coles voucher from the Bicycle Network to fund our breakfast.

This year we will hold our breakfast on the second day of Fun and Fitness for 2021, Wednesday 17th March.

 

Breakfast will consist of muffins, a drink, yogurt and fruit.

All students are welcome to attend.

The Fun & Fitness session will be run by myself and other staff.

Children who do not attend the breakfast are still welcome to come to Fun & Fitness.

RSVP is Essential and should be done via Operoo by Wednesday 10th March.

Further details:

When: Wednesday 17th March

Time: 7.30 - 8am

Where: School Hall

Fun & Fitness: 8am on the basketball court.

 

Those offering to help will be contacted by email.

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Team Jackson and Jeremiah is taking on the Walk for autism from Sunday 21 to Sunday 28 March. We are challenging ourselves to walk 10,000 steps a day for 8 days from while raising much-needed funds to support people on the autism spectrum.

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This week in Interschool Sport we played against Seaholme Primary.  After the walk there we still had lots of energy to play our games.  The results were as follows.  Congratulations to everyone on putting in your best efforts. Mixed Softball: Lost 17 - 10
Girls Softball: Won 12 - 14
Mixed Volleyball: Won 0 - 2
Girls Volleyball: Lost 2 - 0
Mixed Hot Shots Tennis: Lost 8 - 3
Girls Hot Shots Tennis: Won 6 - 7
Mixed Basketball: Lost 24 - 14
Girls Basketball: Lost 12 - 9

Next week we play home against Altona North Primary.
Altona North do not have softball teams so our softball teams will use this time to practice.

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On Tuesday (2nd of March), Taylor from AFL Victoria came and visited the Prep-2 students during their allocated PE times. During each session, Taylor ran a fun and engaging footy skills clinic, teaching the students how to kick and mark the footy in a variety of different activities. 

Students discovered how to protect the ball when marking and where to face the laces of the footy when punting the ball.

Lots of fun was had by all.
Thanks Taylor and Ms S!

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Year 1/2 students and staff had a great time at their extended school day camp program this week.  'Proactivities' came along to run obstacle courses, tug of war and frisbee games and also activities with an amazing parachute.

Thanks to the Year 1/2 and other staff who helped out.

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Our first before school Fun & Fitness session will be held next Wednesday 7th February.

Fun & Fitness is held every Wednesday morning from 8 - 8.30am on the basketball court.  Sessions are run by Mrs Masseni and are open to all children from Prep - Year 6. Parents and siblings are also welcome to attend and join in the fun but there is no obligation to stay.

We engage in a variety of games and activities suitable for all ages levels.  The more the merrier ~ so come along and try it out.

For more information, contact Mrs Masseni via the school office, email her or catch her in the yard before or afterschool.

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Respect • Responsibility • Resilience • Courage

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In an effort to reduce rubbish at school and maintain our good hygiene practices, our Nude Food initiative will remain in place. 

Families are encouraged to send food to school in re-useable containers and students are required to take home any wrappings that they bring to school. Fruit peelings may be put into classroom general rubbish bins. 

Students are asked to eat food they purchase from the tuck shop on the grass steps outside the hall.  All children should be seated when eating.  Can you please reinforce this rule with your children.

Although students are given ample time to eat their food in the classroom, and are encouraged to eat what is given to them, there may be times when children are just not hungry and are unable to finish their food.

Please do not put pressure on your child / children to eat everything in their lunchbox every day. What we are finding is that some children are hiding food in corridors and around classrooms so that they don't have to take it home for fear of getting into trouble. As you will appreciate, neither of these scenarios are ideal.

We thank families for their support of this new way of working at St Mary's.

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Click on the links below to access news from around our community for this week. There are some great Yogo sessions happening locally that you might be interested in.

Church Bulletin 7th March

Dear Members of the Mount St. Joseph Girls' College Community,
The latest edition of the Synergy newsletter is now available to view or download.    Please Click here to read

Emmanuel College News

Children's Yoga Classes

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We had around half of our students come to school in an active way last Monday. What a great effort!

Yellow team was the most active team and 3/4B were the most active class. Well done to both. 
Yellow team earned 390 points, Green team got 350 points, Blue team 310 points and Red team 240 points. Our next Walk/Ride to school day will be on Friday 19th March which coincides with National Ride to School Day.

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The Uniform Shop opening hours have changed. 

The uniform shop is now open on Tuesday's from 9.00 - 9.45 am. 

Katrina Krol will look after your uniform needs. 

You can place an order by emailing the order form to stmarysaltonauniforms@gmail.com 
Orders will be sent home with your child.

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