Dear families,

What wonderful weather we have been blessed with this week.

Last weekend, we commenced our Sacramental program with several children in Year 3/4 receiving the Sacrament of Penance.

The children were admittedly a little nervous, but they took up this next step in their faith journeys with great courage. It’s certainly one of the scarier  sacraments for children as it is one they must encounter as individuals rather than a group. After speaking with a few of the children this week, they said that in the end, it wasn’t scary after all and Fr Michael guided them through the process step by step. The sacrament will take place for other Year 3/4s over the next 5 weeks. Please continue to pray for the children. You are also welcome to join us at Mass on Saturdays at 9:15 or 6pm.

Today we celebrated our mums and other significant women in our lives with Mass, classroom visits, morning tea and our Mother’s Day stall. It was so wonderful to see so many in attendance. Wishing you all a special Sunday. May you be deservedly spoilt!

We are heading towards the busy end of Term 2 as teachers begin writing reports and preparing for Parent/Teacher/Student Conferences. Reports will be available online from Thursday 17th June. Conferences will take place on Monday 21st June between 1pm and 8pm and Tuesday 22nd June between 3:45 and 5:30pm. These can be attended in person or online. Appointments will be made through School Interviews online. Details will be shared in the coming month.

Please note that our last day of term will be Wednesday 23rd June, finishing at the usual time of 3:20pm. Staff will be away at a Conference on the last Thursday and Friday of term.

During our time away we will be delving into our student achievement data, both current and historical to gain insights into what we are doing well as educators and also where our focus needs to lie moving forward. The whole of the first day will be facilitated by Philip Holmes-Smith. For the last 16 years, through his company SREAMS, Philip has been helping both primary and secondary teachers analyse, interpret and use performance data to inform their teaching.
Philip will help us look at what our trend data is telling us. How have our students tracked over the years? Are there areas the school has taught well? In what areas are our students not achieving expected growth? It will be the first time we as a staff will explore such questions with this much depth and I have no doubt it will help us continue to make more  informed decisions about the learning and teaching at St Mary’s.

On the second day of our time away we will be exploring Sacramentality and living Sacramentally with Fr Elio Capra. Fr Elio is a lecturer in Liturgy and Sacramental Theology. He is also an established author and also has a passion in the area of teaching Religious Education through the Arts. 

To all of our mums and special ladies, have a most well-deserved special Sunday.

God bless,

Sonia

---

The Big Life Journal has some great advice for those times when you engage in a conversation with your kids that goes something like this...

“How was your day?”
“Fine.”

“What did you learn today?”
“Nothing.”

Yes, these types of conversations happen in lots of homes.

How do we get our kids to open up and share about their day?

What we really want is a deep connection with our children (this helps a LOT when they're older)...and it doesn't happen if we don't get to know their world. 

One-word answers don’t help us reconnect with our kids after a long day apart from each other.

That's why Big Life Journal put together a great list of suggested questions you can use to create great discussions. Click here to download.

If you like this advice and would like more, click here to subscribe to the Big Life Journal emails...all free!

---

Hi, I’m Marg Jones.

I’ve worked at St Mary’s for 11 years as a Learning Support Officer.

I really enjoy working with the wonderful students at St Mary’s and helping them with their learning. I’ve worked mainly in the junior area of the school & this year I’m working in the 3/4 area.

 

I was born & bred in the Southern Suburbs of Sydney & we moved to Melbourne 12 years ago for work. With my husband Paul & our two daughters Brooke & Meg, we now live in the Western suburbs of Melbourne. It’s a wonderful place to live & we love it !

When our children were young (before we moved to Vic) we used to love escaping to the Southern Highlands of NSW. We had lots of fun adventures there with family & friends as our girls were growing up.

Now that we’re living here, it’s great to go exploring different places in Victoria every chance we get ! When family & friends come to visit from interstate, we like to take them somewhere different each time.

In my spare time, I find it relaxing to do some gardening, watch movies, go on weekends away to the country (or anywhere), walk our dog, read a good book & go out for dinner. I also love going back to Sydney to visit family & friends.

---

There is an upcoming parent webinar presented by The Office of the eSafety Commissioner. 

This Term 2 webinar will look at how parents and carers can set up devices and apps to help kids and young people stay safe online. 

It is designed for parents and carers of children aged 4-13.

It will cover:

• the benefits and limitations of parental controls
• how to set up iOS and Android devices for safety
• how to set up popular games and apps like YouTube and Roblox for safety
• using family tech agreements and other parenting strategies to manage online risks
• how eSafety can help when things go wrong.

This webinar will include practical tips, demonstrations and advice. There are two webinar dates left in term 2 for June. Click here to see dates and register.

---

You will find important reminders and notes for your diary below.
Student Mobile Phones
If you permit your child to bring their mobile phone to school, please remind them that they are to take it straight to the office for safe-keeping. Students are not permitted to keep their phone in their bags or to use them on school grounds at any time. As we have explained to the senior students recently, we must gain parental permission to take children's photographs, therefore they too are not permitted to take and particularly publish, photos of each other at school without the consent of the child's parent.
We ask that you enforce this important message with your child. Students who are found to be keeping their phones during the school day instead of handing them in will be asked to not bring them to school.
Any important messages for your child during school time should be sent through the school office. 

School Closure
Term 2 will end on Wednesday 23rd June for all students. Staff will be participating in a 2 day conference on the last 2 days of the term. Please contact Camp Australia if you'd like to sign your child up for attendance. They will only run if there is sufficent interest for these 2 days.

Parents in foyers
From the attendance at today's Mother's Day celebrations, we know how much you've missed being in classrooms. We will continue to offer these visits at other special times throughout the year.
We remind you however, not to enter the foyers/classrooms in the mornings. There are exceptions for students who may be struggling, but experience has shown us that these students also often benefit from short goodbyes. There are plenty of staff around in the morning to assist the students upon entering. Class teachers are expected to commence supervising students from 8:45 and are therefore unable to have lengthy conversations with you at this time. 
Our teachers are always willing to meet with you at times that a mutually convenient, so you are encouraged to contact your chuld's teacher to arrange a time to meet when you are both able to be fully present.

---

We would like to take this opportunity to wish all of our mothers and special ladies in the lives of our children, a very Happy Mother's Day.  We hope you have a relaxing day and are well looked after by the boys in your home. Thank you to everyone who joined us today for Mass, classroom visits, morning tea and the Mother's Day stall.  A great deal of time and effort went into preparing for the various event during the day, and the smiles on the faces of all of our visitors was the best reward we could have.

Here are a few photos but please check out our Facebook page to see some photos from today.

  

---

Congratulations to our students who competed in the Cross Country today. Everyone ran well and is to be commended.  A special congratulations the folowing children who earned ribbons in their race.  They will go on to compete in the Divisional CC on 26th May.
Well done to Luca - 1st, Lexi - 5th, Adam - 3rd, Astin - 2nd, Thomas - 7th, Ethan - 6th, Harry - 1st, Xavier R - 1st and Aidan - 8th.


Good luck for your next races.

---

Here is this week's Church Bulletin and some information from Emmanuel College.
Church Bulletin 9th May

This week we are celebrating Languages Week at Emmanuel where the school is immersed in Japanese and Italian Culture, food, flags and fun is being had everywhere you look.
The College Open Day is quickly approaching with details as follows:
Date: Sunday 23 May 2021

St Paul’s Campus: 10.30 am – 1.30 pm

Notre Dame Campus:11.00 am – 2.00 pm      

Bookings are essential and can be made at the Tours & Events tab on the right hand side of the homepage of the College website, www.ecmelb.catholic.edu.au  We would love to see you there.

It is important to note that applications for Year 7, 2023 are now being accepted. These applications close on Friday 20 August 2021. A Prospectus Pack containing an application form can be requested from the enrolment information tab on the College website, www.ecmelb.catholic.edu.au or by emailing enrolments@ecmelb.catholic.edu.au or calling the College Registrar on 8325 5119.

---

Congratulations to our Principal's Award winners for Week Three, Term Two.  They are:-

PREP HT:

Aurora Busuttil for her great attempts at forming new letters.

Winston Augustine for his great reading of three letter CVC words.

PREP S:

Neave Smith for demonstrating more confidence in all her writing and spelling.

YEAR 1/2B:

Elsie Rennie for coming to school each day with a smile and a positive attitude.

Meagan Nisbet for always being a wonderful and supportive friend to her peers.

YEAR 1/2G:

Sienna Carbone for being a friendly and enthusiastic learner.

Maks Cagali for sharing his passion for science during our water incursion.

YEAR 1/2N:

Tyler Thomas for being a wonderful helper in 1/2N.

Sofia La Barbarra for her resilience during reading, writing and maths. 

YEAR 3/4A:

Myla Bitkas for her positive and enthusiastic approach to all set tasks.

YEAR 3/4B:

Louis Nguyen for working hard to solve addition problems using different strategies.

Chloe Agius for her kind and caring attitude towards her peers.

YEAR 3/4S:

Jack Muller for working hard to solve worded addition problems.

Ava Reismanis for writing a descriptive and exciting recount of her holidays.

YEAR 4/5L:

Jayden O’Halloran for the thought, time and effort put into his wellbeing showcase project. 

Jacquelyn Le for her effort in narrative writing last week. 

YEAR 5/6C:

Segolene Houlihan for your effort and preparation of your Wellbeing Showcase project.

Oscar Thomson for your ability and effort to work independently to complete your Wellbeing Showcase project.

YEAR 5/6F:

Xavier Barry for overcoming adversity and pushing his limits on camp.

Josh VanZyl for overcoming adversity and challenging himself on camp.

YEAR 5/6KC:

Zara Azzopardi for her independent thinking when analysing characters.

Jack Bennet for his persistence and effort with Maths tasks.

---

The St Mary's Parents and Friends Committee will be holding its Annual General Meeting Wednesday May 12th at 7.30pm.

 

The P&F is a fantastic way to get to know the amazing families at the school, at the same time playing a huge role in raising funds that go directly back to our students. In the past the  P&F have raised funds that have been able to update the literature department, contributing significantly to upgrading IT for the students by purchasing iPads, as well as sports equipment, among many other things.

We currently have an amazing group of parents on our committee, but are always looking for new members to add to our team.  If you are interested in volunteering, please come and join us- as well love to meet new families.

As this will be an AGM, all of the following positions will be vacated, so if you feel you might want to fill a position, please send an expression of interest to me, Susie Holland (current President) directly or via Sonia (principal@smaltona.catholic.edu.au).

President
Vice President
Secretary
Vice Secretary
Treasurer
Vice Treasurer
Standard Committee

Due to COVID the P&F has been unable to run its fundraising events as normal, so we are looking to really get things back on track this year for our wonderful students. We look forward to seeing some new and old faces there!!

Susie Holland

---

Our next Walk/Ride to School Day will be held on Friday 14th May.  Although the weather is getting cooler it would be wonderful to see as many students & their families coming to school in an active way as possible.

---

Victorian Premier’s Reading Challenge

How many books can you read before the 17th of September?

With just under 100 days to go, it's not too late to join the Premiers' Reading Challenge!

 

The students with the most books read in the Junior, Middle and Senior buildings will win a prize, and all students who meet the Challenge will receive a certificate. 

See or contact Milly on asiebring@smaltona.catholic.edu.au to register!

---

  Click here to read more

---