Dear families,

I’m sure I’m not alone in thinking, “Where has the year gone?”

It’s been a trying year, but it has still managed to rush past us so quickly.

 

Congratulations to our Year 6 students who received the Sacrament of Confirmation over the weekend. We were able to hold 2 smaller celebrations which meant families were able to invite many more vaccinated relatives and friends along to join them.

This week, we welcomed our 2022 Preps who got to experience a few hours in their classrooms with their new teachers. We are all getting so excited! Next week they will have the first chance to be together as whole classes and will even get to meet their buddies for the first time. Our Year 5s are equally excited.

We also got to meet Louise Richards, who will be joining the specialist teaching staff at St Mary’s next year.

Mrs Richards visited some of the classes this week and already taught us some Auslan, which was a lot of fun.

Next week our classes will be filmed for our Carols video. Your child’s teacher would have let you know if there are any clothing requirements for their song. Some classes will be wearing Christmas clothing as part of their ‘costume’. If this is the case, they may wear it to school for that day. If you have any questions, please contact your child’s teacher.

There are many big events planned over the next 8 days left of school (gulp - I cannot believe it!).  Please see the article, “Upcoming Important Celebrations” for more information on what’s happening.

Reports will be available online on Friday 10th December. See this week’s article for information regarding access. If you’d like to discuss your child’s report with their teacher please contact them directly.

On the last day of school, Wednesday 15th December, we will open the school gates at 3pm and invite you to enter and wait for your child on our school grounds. We still ask that you respectfully distance yourselves from each other and that you don’t enter the school buildings (to avoid having to scan QR codes and show your vaccination certificates).

Finally, we congratulate Julie Russell on becoming a grandmother. Julie is currently working here 2 days per week but many of you will remember Julie from her time as a classroom teacher at St Mary’s.  Julie’s son, Shannon and his wife, Áine, welcomed baby Theodore (Teddy) earlier this week. We wish your family many blessings.

Keep well and God bless,

Sonia

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We have two important celebrations coming up in next week that we invite families to attend. All of these celebrations will be held in the Church.
Tuesday 14th December at 6pm: Year 6 Graduation Mass.  Families, friends and relatives are welcome to attend the mass to celebrate and farewell our Year 6 students.  We'd love to see the Year 12 buddies of our Year 6s.   Following the mass, students and staff only will head off to celebrate further in the school hall.

Wednesday 15th December at 9.15am: The End of Year Mass is where we will celebrate the year and our School community. This is a parish mass.  At the end of the mass, we will farewell those staff and students who will be leaving us and introduce our Student Leaders for 2022. 

As all of these celebrations will be held in the Church, only fully vaccinated visitors over the age of 12 are able to attend. You will be asked to show your certificate at the door for each of these events so we ask for your patience if there are some slight delays admitting people.

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Semester Two Student Reports will be available from the Parent Portal on Friday 10th December after 4pm.
You will receive an email with your login details once the reports are ready to access.

If you have questions please email Ronnie Tucker - vtucker@smaltona.catholic.edu.au

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Here's this weeks Community News! We have information on a Summer Reading & Library Challenge, Basketball camp, cricket and soccer academy, as well as a message from Emmanuel College, our Church bulletin, the Williamstown Community Newsletter & some information on onsite tutoring.

A reminder that prices have been altered at the Tuck Shop, so please double check when ordering that you are providing the correct amount. You can find the current price list here


The Big Summer Reading Challenge 

Church Bulletin

Emmanuel College News

Basketball Camp

Cricket Academy

Soccer Academy

Williamstown Community Newsletter

Now We're Talking - On site tutoring available 

Social Skills Group Program

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As we finished our second Advent liturgy this afternoon, we marked the halfway mark of our school's celebration of the Advent season. We thank the Year 3/4 and 1/2 children who hosted week's 1 and 2 liturgies. We look forward to Year 6 students and their buddies hosting next week at 2:30 pm on Friday before our Year 5 students host the final liturgy on Tuesday December 14 at 9:30 am. All liturgies are presented live over Zoom, with the link sent out over Seesaw in the morning.

At this time, we also remember that we are still taking donations for our Christmas hampers. We are very pleased with the donations that have already come in and remind families that donations of toys, Christmas items, longlife foods etc may be sent in with the children as each class has been allocated a basket to fill. Alternatively, donations may be dropped off at the office.

Thanks to Mrs Ryan and some student helpers, our school displays are also representing our preparations for the coming of the Saviour at Christmas as you can see below.

Yours in Faith
Matthew Taylor

Leader of Religious Education
mtaylor@smaltona.catholic.edu.au

  

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I am proud to hold the position of St Mary’s Principal.

This is my first principalship, though I was in an acting role for a year in my former school. I have held many roles in my career including IT leader (like Mrs Tucker) and Learning and Teaching Leader (like Mr Taylor).

I am enjoying my new role at St Mary’s as it allows me to work with students, teachers and parents. I believe I have met my first goal of knowing all students by name. I am now beginning to learn who is related to whom and also starting to get to know many parents’ names. 

I am married to Nino who is a computer technician for several Catholic schools in the North of Melbourne. We have been married for 20 years and have one son, Ryan who is 13 and has just finished Year 8 (today!) He attends Loyola College in Watsonia.

I am an only child and grew up in Reservoir with my Italian parents, who still live in the family home they built in the late 50s. I can speak, read and write Italian fluently.

My favourite hobbies are baking and watching movies. Living with a movie-buff son, I am exposed to many weird and wacky movies. I love that I often get to watch and enjoy movies that I would never have picked out for myself. My favourite genres are mysteries and courtroom dramas.

I have found St Mary’s to be a wonderfully welcoming community and I am looking forward to many years of service here. If I haven’t already met you face to face, please come up and say hello and help me meet my name goals.

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Thank you so much to everybody who bought books in this year's Book Fair. Thanks to your contributions, we got over $1200 worth of books for the school! A truly amazing effort, especially when the Book Fair was offsite this year.

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