St. Mary's eNews

Term 1 Week 8


Orange Day ~ Friday 19th March

Thanks to everyone who wore a splash of orange today in support of the National day of Action against Bullying and Violence.

The day was filled with opporutnities for students to get to together, to share their knowledge and to have some fun. We hope families continue to spread the word that bullying is not okay and that we should Take a Stand Together.

Thank you to Jack and Zali, our wellbeing leaders, who prepared and ran today's assembly. They did a great job.

Introducing ~ Ronnie Tucker: Digital Tech Leader

I started working at St Mary’s in 2007. I worked full time in year 5/6 and prep before having my first child. I have then had many different roles over the years from release teacher, job share and Digital Tech Leader.

 I live close by and love seeing families out and about. The St Mary’s community is a unique and wonderful community.

 I grew up in Keilor and am the youngest of 4 kids with 2 older brothers and an older sister. I have many nieces and nephews, 11 to be exact, ranging from 19 years old to 2. We love spending time together and even go on holidays often. I have 2 girls, Maddie is in Year 4 and Layla has just started Prep. They go to Queen of Peace Primary School.

I barrack for the mighty Bulldogs and love playing netball and meeting family and friends at the park for plays. I love traveling and discovering new places and can’t wait till we can travel overseas again. 



CyberSafety Project

What a fantastic day we had on Tuesday when Trent and Sam from the Cyber Safety Project came and spent the day at St Mary’s. They ran workshops with all our students presenting and discussing important skills and issues that young children face when navigating the digital world.

 The Prep - 2s talked about ‘Thinking about how you feel’ (even with cute actions so ask the kids to show you).
 The 3/4s discussed making sure their passwords are ‘Long and Strong’ as well as how to take into account the perspectives of others when in the online world.
 The 5/6s touched on Cyber Safety and in particular Cyber Bullying and the importance of being an ‘UPSTANDER’ if you see it happening.
All groups looked at the different online spaces - Personal, Private and Public and what each of these spaces meant in terms of your safety online.


We had good attendance at our Parent Webinar where Trent went through some great information with us about different trending apps and games and even the language children are using to communicate with each other in these apps and games. Trent also spoke about having digital agreements in homes and keeping the communication between the kids and parents as open as possible. 


The Cyber Safety Project has a number of resources parents can access and tap into their expertise:


The Blog has information and ideas around parental controls for trending apps and games.

https://www.cybersafetyproject.com.au/blog


Subscribe to the newsletter to receive monthly updates straight to your inbox. 

https://www.cybersafetyproject.com.au/subscribe.html


On demand webinars and courses are available at their new families website. 

https://families.cybersafetyproject.com.au/


You can use the following code for a 50% discount: STMARYSPS


Other resources available to us: 

Office of eSafety Commissioner

https://www.esafety.gov.au/parents


Kids Helpline

https://kidshelpline.com.au/


And if anyone requires any help from the school please reach out to Ronnie Tucker (vtucker@smaltona.catholic.edu.au)



Mindful March

Let's take the time to pause, breathe & really take in what's all around us. 

 This month we're encouraging you to take some time to look within.

Learning to be more mindful & aware can do wonders for our well-being in all areas of life - the way we eat, the things we notice or our relationships. It helps us get in tune with our feelings and stops us dwelling on the past or worrying about the future - so we get more out of the day-to-day. It can also help us identify what we're grateful for, which has been proven to help boost your happiness levels!

Click here to download you copy of the Mindful March Action for Happiness calendar to find out lots of simple ways you can be more mindful in your life.

Healthy Breakfast

We had a very successful breakfast and Fun & Fitness session this week.  Around 70 students joined us for a yummy breakfast of fruit, yogurt, granola, toast, pancakes and more.  They then headed out to the oval and basketball court for some fun games and activities. Thanks to the parents who organised the breakfast - Bree and Stacey.  Thanks also to the many parents who helped to set up, clean up and serve breakfast.  Thanks to the many staff who organised and ran the games and activites.

And lastly thanks to the Bicycle Network for providing us with the $250 voucher that funded our event.

It was a great lead in to National Ride to School Day and National Day of Action against Bullying and Violence.


Creative Music ~ Term 2

Creative Musics for Schools conducts an instrumental music program here at school each week.  Lessons are currently on Fridays. 

 Check out this flyer for more information.

Interschool Sport

This week in Interschool Sport we played against Sacred Heart Primary.  We travelled to Newport for our games of Hot Shot tennis, volleyball, softball and basketball.

 The results were as follows.  Congratulations to everyone on putting in your best efforts.
Mixed Softball: 20 - 6 We lost
Girls Softball: 14 - 6 We lost
Mixed Volleyball: 0 - 2 We won
Girls Volleyball: 2 - 1 We lost
Mixed Hot Shots Tennis: 113 - 97 We lost
Girls Hot Shots Tennis: 7 - 5 We lost
Mixed Basketball: 12 - 9 We lost
Girls Basketball: 44 - 0 We lost

Next week we play away against Spotswood Primary here at school.

Community News

Click on the links below to access news from around our community for this week including news about St Mary's College Open Day.

Church Bulletin 21st March
Hobsons Bay Kindergarten Program
Williamstown Magic - Basketball

Emmanuel College News - 19th March

We welcome your school community to our Open Day on Sunday 21 March, 12pm to 3pm.

St Mary’s College is inner-city Melbourne’s only co-educational Catholic College. We are located in two adjacent campuses at:

Edmund Rice Campus - 11 Westbury St, St Kilda East and Presentation Campus - 187 Dandenong Rd, Windsor.

We would love to see your school community on the day. There has been a huge interest in our first Open Day, pre-registrations are recommended https://www.stmaryscollege.vic.edu.au/enrolments/open-day

 



Easter Raffle

Our EASTER RAFFLE will be held at a special assembly on the last day of term, 1st April at 12:45pm.

You should have received your raffle tickets yesterday or today. 

If not, there are spare booklets available at the office. 

  To make this raffle great fun for all of the children, we ask that you kindly donate an Easter gift (per child). 

This could be in the form of chocolate, a toy, or allergy free option. 

Please give this gift to your child, to give to their teacher over the coming weeks or take it to the office.


All raffle tickets and money need to be returned by Monday 29th March. 

Many thanks. 


We really appreciate your support!!!



Fun and Fitness is back!

Fun & Fitness will begin again next Wednesday 23rd February from 8 - 8.30am on the basketball court.  These weekly sessions are run by Mrs Masseni and are open to all children from Prep - Year 6.  

  If it's overly windy or raining, sessions will be run in the hall.

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 (mmasseni@smaltona.catholic.edu.au) or catch her in the yard before or afterschool.