St. Mary's eNews
Term 4 Week 10
Principal's Message 10th December 2021
Dear families,
Welcome to what will be our last newsletter for 2021.
How can a year have moved so fast, yet so slowly all at once?
What an incredibly busy week we have had.
Earlier this week classes were filmed in preparation for our Virtual Carols video which will hopefully be ready to be shared with families via Seesaw during this weekend. The children were absolutely lovely and I know you will enjoy watching it with your families.
Wednesday started off early with our Prep breakfast and ended with our special liturgy celebrating Mrs Chodowski.
Our Year 3 and 5 students also sat a practice run at NAPLAN online as our Year 3s and 5s next year will complete their NAPLAN tests online. This test-run was designed to see whether our IT infrastructure can withstand the number of devices required to be online simultaneously.
On Thursday, our Year 3/4 students got to go on an excursion for the first time together. It was great that we managed to fit it in before the end of the year.
It was also wonderful that our Year 6s did not miss out on the much-anticipated Big Day Out. There are many exhausted students and teachers onsite today!
Today, the weather held out just long enough for our school sports day to go ahead as planned. Congratulations to the Yellow team who took out 1st place today. I’m sure many children will be in bed early tonight. You’re welcome!
Yesterday, we sent our fee statements to families who were either in debit or credit. If you did not receive a letter, chances are you either have a zero balance or your child may have your letter in their school bag.
As classes have been running activities up until the last minute, we will not have a final excursion/incursion rebate figure to apply to your accounts this year. At the start of 2022, we will determine the exact amount that was not spent and apply a rebate to your 2022 levies.
Reports are accessible from today via the instructions shared with you in last week’s eNews. If you have any problems accessing your child’s report, please contact Ronnie at vtucker@smaltona.catholic.edu.au
On Tuesday next week, children will participate in “Step Up Day”. They will get to spend some time in their 2022 classroom with their new teacher and classmates.
I am pleased to announce the following staffing arrangements for 2022:
Role | Staff |
Prep |
|
Year 1/2 |
|
Year 3/4 |
|
Year 5/6 |
|
Specialists |
|
Intervention/ |
|
Leadership |
|
Learning Support |
|
Speech Pathologist |
|
Counsellor |
|
Administration |
|
Have a wonderful weekend,
Sonia
End of Term 4
A reminder that Term 4 finishes on Wednesday 15th December at 3.20pm.
Gates will open at 3pm so that families can gather (social distance please) in the school grounds to catch up before the holidays.
School Sports Day
Thanks Ms Sottile for organising a great day for us. Thanks to the parent helpers and staff who ran the events and supervised the children. Thanks to the P & F for providing icypoles for the kids and most of all thanks to the students who participated so well.
Free Dress Day - Monday 13th Dec
2022 Dates to Remember
These assessment days will be on Monday 31st January (9 - 12noon / 12.30 - 3.30pm) and Tuesday 1st February (9 - 12noon / 12.30 - 3.30pm).
Our Preps will come for a half day, from 9 - 1pm on Tuesday 1st February.
Classes will then commence for all students on Wednesday 2nd February.
Upcoming Important Celebrations
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.
Dates to Remember
The Quick View calendar also comes to you as part of your eNews each week. Make sure you take a look.
Literacy: Summer Reading & Library Challenge
As we enter into the final month of the school year (I can’t believe it either), it’s time to think about avoiding the ‘summer reading slide’.
Like many skills we acquire in our lives, if we don’t use them on a regular basis, we lose them. This holds true with reading, including important skills in decoding, comprehension, visualisation, thinking and language ability.
Over the summer, it’s important to keep up a reading routine with your children that is easy to manage and enjoyable. Here are some tips to instill the love of reading and literature into your family routines:
- Read together and discuss the information you’ve read
- Set an example - during down time, pick up a book yourself
- Let your children read what they want for enjoyment - tap into their interests, this could include cook books, newspapers, magazines and graphic novels as well
- Read signs and packaging in shops, traffic signs, signs posted on hiking trail etc
- Create a summer scrapbook to record events and fun outings, collect brochures along the way (also helpful for those with ‘Holiday Recount Writer’s Block’ at the start of the school year)
- Celebrate finishing a book - draw the character, make cookies or treats around the theme of the book, act out a favourite scene or create it with Lego
- Write letters or emails - have your child write letters to family or friends
- Schedule a daily reading time
- Subscribe to magazines
- Make your own book about a family trip or event or daily life
- Visit the library
This year Hobsons Bay Libraries are running a BIG SUMMER READ Challenge.
What is the Big Summer Read?
The Big Summer Read is a fun way to keep you reading during the summer holidays. Using an app called Beanstack, you can track your reading and compete for prizes. The student in Hobsons Bay who reads the most books will win a $300 grand prize!
How do I sign up?
I’ve attached the instructions on how to sign up for the challenge below. There is also a paper tracking sheet that can be submitted for those who do not wish to use the app. Hobson's Bay Libraries
When?
Registration has started now with the challenge running from December 1st to January 31st!
Sign up today and let your teacher know that you are enrolled, I have prizes for the first 50 students at St Mary’s who sign up.
Some of the staff will be tracking our summer reading too (not in the competition but we’d love to see if you can beat us!) - so let the competition begin!
Click here to read more about it.
Sign up information
Please feel free to email me with any questions
Brenda Lycke
Literacy Leader
blycke@smaltona.catholic.edu.au
Laverton Football Club
Laverton FC are currently doing recruitment drive in the hope that they can give kids the best footy experience possible next year by having as many kids participating with them as they can.
They are a small family oriented club and welcome kids of all abilities, genders and races to play and would love to have some of our students go along and have a go with them.
They will be holding a couple of come and try family events in the new year, the first being on January 29th.
For more information, click here
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