Dear families,

I’m sure you were as shocked as we were with yesterday’s announcement. Having come so late, we were forced to run today as a Closure Day. 

Teachers spent last night and this morning busily preparing items for next week’s learning and we are all ready to go from Monday.

To avoid the mad rush that we continually find ourselves in at the commencement of each lockdown, we will be implementing the following:

• Upon our next return to school, teachers in Prep and Year 1/2 will send home a pack of activities for the students to use on the first day of the next lockdown. The Year 3-6 teachers will post in Google Classroom. This means that the children will have work ready for the first day of our next lockdown.
• Given that the media usually leak information about potential lockdowns hours before official channels, we will assume these as fact and send home devices on the day.
• We will post an Operoo message on the same day, asking families to let us know if they fall under the categories for onsite supervision, so onsite supervision can commence on the first day of lockdown.

We know that there are many students who would benefit from onsite supervision but we are bound by Government guidelines around who is and isn’t eligible for onsite supervision. We ask that you read over the eligibility criteria carefully:

• Children where both parents and/or carers are authorised workers who cannot work from home, work for an essential provider and where no other supervision arrangements can be made:
• Where there are two parents/carers, both must be authorised workers, working outside the home in order for their children to be eligible for onsite provision
• For single parents/carers, the authorised worker must be working outside the home in order for their children to be eligible for onsite provision.
• Children experiencing vulnerability, including:
• children in out-of-home care
• children deemed vulnerable by a government agency, funded family or family violence service, and is assessed as requiring education and care outside the family home
• children identified by a school as vulnerable, including via referral from a government agency, or funded family or family violence service, homeless or youth justice service or mental health or other health service.
• Where a parent/carer indicates that a student with a disability is vulnerable because they cannot learn from home, and/or informs the school the student is vulnerable due to family stress

 If you don’t meet the criteria, please don’t put us in the difficult position of saying no. We would love to be able to accommodate every request but we also need to ensure we are following guidelines for everyone’s safety. There are other things we can put in place for your child if they are struggling but don’t fit the criteria, so please reach out to your child’s teacher if there is anything else we can do to help you or your child during these times. 

We know that with each lockdown things get harder and harder for many of you. We thank you for your support and efforts and for understanding that we are all doing our best. 

We will once again resume with online (slideshow) assemblies. These will be published on Mondays through Seesaw. Students who received Principal’s awards and Aussie of the Month awards will be presented with their certificates on Friday if we are back onsite.

If you take any great photos during the next week, please send these to Marg at mmasseni@smaltona.catholic.edu.au as it will be great to flood Facebook with happy posts.

Take care and stay safe,

Sonia

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Hi!  I'm Anthea Zimmerman and I’ve taught Art here at St Mary’s since 2012.

I grew up in Wellington, New Zealand and moved to Melbourne in 1996 with my husband, Russell. We have two children - Anthony who is 22 and Jamie who is 18. 

We also have a Vizsla dog who thinks he is human and gets grumpy when he sees himself in the mirror! 

I really love being outside - running, kayaking, mountain bike riding, painting and even mowing the lawn. 

It’s been great teaching at St Mary’s!  We have awesome students, teachers, parents and community.  I think it’s pretty special!

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Altruism is vital for the human race to survive and thrive; and each of our lives is supported by countless kind acts from other people. Yet in our world today, so much is directing us to think only about ourselves - and we often forget the happiness that comes by caring for others.

 
We want to change that. This August Action for Happiness asking everyone to take one kind act per day. Let's create a wave of kindness to spread around the world. 

Click here to download the calendar, which has great ideas for you to try.

Here's how you can get involved and make a difference:

• Take daily actions using the Action for Happiness calendar and app
• Go deeper & learn more by joining a local group
• Spread the word on social media #AltruisticAugust

This month's theme is based on Giving: Do things for others from the Ten Keys to Happier Living >> Find out more about the Ten Keys.

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This week we were super excited to see that 89 of our students had signed up to the Australian Mathematics Competition (AMC). The AMC is an engaging 30-problem competition that demonstrates the importance and relevance of mathematics in students’ everyday lives; open to students in years 3 to 12.

Australia’s leading educators and academics, with a deep understanding of our national curriculum standards, actively design the unique AMC problems each year. The AMC is fully online and coordinated by teachers in schools. Held in term 3, the AMC has five divisions: Middle Primary (years 3–4), Upper Primary (years 5–6), Junior (years 7–8), Intermediate (years 9–10) and Senior (years 11–12). 

We held two sessions with some of our years 3 & 4 students to complete the online competition paper and will hold sessions for the remaining students when the lockdown ends. There were some genuinely challenging questions and multistep problems and yet in each session there were smiles and laughter. We are extremely proud of both the number and the variety of students who took on this challenge. 

Congratulations to each and everyone who has participated so far and good luck to those still to compete. We look forward to seeing your the results of all your hard work in the coming weeks.

Ronnie Tucker, Lisa Said & Matt Taylor

    

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Take a look at this week’s Community News.

As well as our Church Bulletin we also have news from our local secondary school Emmanuel College.

Speech Pathologist group Now We're Talking are also offering some on-site tutoring. Click the link for more info!

Church Bulletin
Emmanuel College News

Now We're Talking - On site tutoring available 

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Over the next two weeks classroom teachers will continue to assess students on their reading comprehension using the Fountas & Pinnell Benchmark Assessment System.  Teachers are looking forward to having the one-on-one time to observe students reading behaviours, engage in comprehension conversations that go beyond retelling, and make informed decisions that connect assessment to instruction. Staff will then use this information to help plan for reading instruction to meet your child’s individual needs.

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Join the eSafety Commissioner’s expert education and training team for two  FREE live webinars as part of their Parent Series.
Guide to Popular Apps ~ Taking a look at TikTok, Instagram, Snapchat and YouTube!
This webinar focuses on popular apps used by young people. It will include case studies, research, and targeted advice so you can support the young people in your life to have safe, enjoyable online experiences

eSafety’s parent guide to online sexual harassment and image-based abuse
This webinar will provide parents and carers with an understanding of online sexual harassment
and image-based abuse.

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