Dear families,

Welcome back! It has been an exciting, energising, exhausting week, has it not?

It has been wonderful welcoming the students back to school and especially lovely to see our new Preps settle in so beautifully.

 

If you are new to St Mary’s, an extra special welcome to you and your family! I hope you have been made to feel at home in this beautiful community. We look forward to a long and happy relationship with you.

My message this week will be quite lengthy. Please take the time to read through it as there are a few items we are requesting feedback around and ask for your participation.

RATs

We received our final allocation of tests for this fortnight. If you have not yet received one box per child for your family, please contact Marg and she will arrange for one to be sent home.

We will be sending home the following fortnight’s allocation on the week beginning 14 February.

Positive COVID cases

The school only needs to be notified of a positive RAT result. 

I have decided to inform all parents of positive cases, even if the case was not in your child’s class. I feel this is a better way to communicate and reduces the chances of misinformation. The Operoo subject line will feature the class/es affected, so you are not obliged to read any further should you choose. 

Parents onsite

It was lovely to be able to have some parents onsite and I thank you all for making the conscious decision around your need to be on the school grounds. It was important that our Prep parents, in particular, were able to attend. I continue to ask that you assess the need to be onsite, as we try to navigate the reduction of risk of isolation of both staff and students.  

Dismissal

Each gate (Sargood St, McBain St and the church gate) will be opened each day just before the end of school. We have allocated grades to exit via certain gates to reduce congestion. Feel free to enter the school grounds once the gates have been opened and wait for your child onsite. It’s often helpful to have a pre-determined meeting space for your child so they know where to find you.

At 3:35pm, the teachers on duty will take uncollected students to the office. If you are running late, please let the office staff know so we can pass this information on to your child whilst they are waiting.

The current COVID advice will be revised towards the end of this month and as always, I will keep families updated as this information comes to hand. 

Playgrounds before and after school

Students in Prep-2 are allowed to play on the junior playground both before and after school if their parent/carer is present. It is expected that if you are onsite, you will be actively supervising your child.

Students in Years 3-6 are allowed to play on the senior playground after school only under the same expectations, as there is no staff on duty before school.

Uniform Shop

This year, the uniform shop will be open on Tuesdays and Fridays between 2:30pm and 3pm. Please enter the uniform shop using the external door (to the left of the main front entrance). If you are able to help out during these times or any other time, we would love the extra help. Please email me your availability and I will pass on your contact details to Katrina.

Parent feedback requested

Values work

This year we will be working on an important body of work that will see us develop a school-wide set of values that will drive so many other aspects of our school life. We invite you along to participate in contributing to the early work in this space.

I ask that you spend some time contemplating the following:

• What values are most important to instill in your child?
• By the end of their time at St Mary’s, what values do you want your child to represent?
• What values do you want to see develop in your child?

You are invited to fill out this form and identify 5 of the values that are most important to you. 

Our students will also explore the concept of values and will also have the opportunity to have a say in what is important to them.

From this, we will identify our St Mary’s values. At this stage, we are hoping for four values. This work will then inform our wellbeing work, behaviour management policies and procedures and many other school-wide practices.

From this work, we intend to have students learn about various people in our community and the world who live by these values. Four people will be selected and we hope to be able to name our 4 house colours after these inspirational people.

Parent information nights

We will soon begin planning for the information sessions we’d like to hold for families. Before we commence this work, I feel it’s important to gauge what aspects of school life you would like to know more about. Please fill in this questionnaire to help us plan these events.

Enhancing Catholic School Identity

Every 4 years, as part of the Review process undertaken by schools, staff, parents and students are asked to complete a survey to determine our effectiveness in establishing the Catholic identity of our school.

This survey usually takes place the year before a school undertakes the thorough review process.

The survey will be available for families before the end of this term. It is quite a lengthy survey and rather wordy in parts, but I ask you to consider spending some time to complete it. The results help us set our Religious Education and Catholic Culture goals for the next four years, so it is important we receive as much feedback as we can.

If you have any questions about this, please let me know. Instructions on how to access it through Operoo in the coming months. 

Enrolments 2023

This is not a typo!

If you have a child commencing Prep next year, please email me or contact the office to let us know. We will send home an enrolment form or you can download yours here. This information will help us know how many places we have for new families before we commence school tours next month.

If you know of any friends who are interested in joining us, feel free to direct them to our website so they can register for an upcoming tour.

Condolences

Please keep Matthew Taylor (our Religious Education/Learning and Teaching Leader) and his family in your thoughts and prayers following the passing of his dear father, Russell, over the holidays. 

Thanks for reading until the end! 

Enjoy your weekend,

Sonia

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How wonderful to have everyone back onsite this week.  We would like to extend a special welcome to our 2022 Preps.  They started school on Tuesday and have continued to come back each day so we must be doing something right!
Welcome also to the students in other year levels who are new to the school this year. We will give them a little time to settle in and introduce you to them at our first assembly on 14th February.

Welcome back to everyone else.  We hope that our year together is peaceful, joyful and free of COVID lockdowns!

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A reminder that our beginning of the year Parent Teacher Chats will happen on Monday 7th and Tuesday 8th February.
  
  To book a time to speak with your child's teacher please note the following.

Bookings can be made in one of 3 ways.

1. Click this link 
2. Go to www.schoolinterviews.com.au and follow the simple instructions
3. Click on the quick link icon on our school website home page.

The booking code is fbujd.

An Operoo note was sent earlier in the week with further details.

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We have done a few website updates!  We hope that they make the information on our website even easier for you to access.  We'd love your feedback so if you have anything you'd like to pass on, email Marg (mmasseni@smaltona.catholic.edu.au) or Ronnie (vtucker@smaltona.catholic.edu.au)
We have added a PARENTS tab at the top of the home page.  In the drop down you will find lots of useful information.

Calendar, Newsletters, Aussie of the Month, Out of School Hours Care, Parent Handbook, Tuckshop, Uniform, Policies, School Advisory Council, other Useful Links 

Take a tour around our classes to find out which staff are teaching and supporting across the levels.  These pages are available by clicking these links but also under the CLASSES tab on the home page
Prep
Year 1/2
Year 3/4
Year 5/6
Auslan
Performing Arts
Physical Education
Visual Arts

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Are you keen to note upcoming school events such as school holidays, school closure days, excursions etc so that you can plan ahead?

  Then this is information you need to read!
You will find our calendar in two places:

1. Under the 'PARENTS' tab you will find a link to our calendar in the drop down.  This calendar is 'month to a page' and events can be easily added to your digital calendar by simply clicking on them.

  

2. The 'Event Quick View Calendar' is a widget at the very bottom of the home page.  Here you will find events for the next 30 days, that can be expanded. Once again, click on any of them and you can easily add them to your own calendar.

    

Please note the information in both calendars is the same....so you only have to decide which view you like the best! 

If you have any questions please contact me.

Regards
Marg Masseni (mmasseni@smaltona.catholic.edu.au) 
Website Curator

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Respect • Responsibility • Resilience • Courage

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our Student Leaders for 2022.
Congratulations and good luck in these very important roles.

School Captains:
Sophie, Daniel, Jacquelyn and Koby
      

Wellbeing Leaders:
Andy and Judah 
  

Social Justice Leaders:
Amelie and Zara
  

Choir Leaders:
Eilidh, Livina, Natalie and Zoe
      

Blue House Leaders:
Ashley and Mark
  

Red House Leaders:
Luca and Lina
   

Green House Leaders: 
Kamryn and Cooper 
  

Yellow House Leaders:
Kayla and Ethan 
  

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I would like to thank you for your flexibility with the testing timetables for the first two days of the the term for staff to assess students on their reading comprehension using the Fountas & Pinnell Benchmark Assessment system.

 
Teachers valued the one-on-one time, which allowed them to observe students' reading behaviours, engage in comprehension conversations that go beyond retelling, and make informed decisions that connect assessment to instruction.

Prep and 1/2 teachers have also begun to assess student knowledge of letters, sounds and words for the Little Learners Love Literacy program. Staff will then use this information to help plan for reading instruction to meet your child’s individual needs.

Brenda Lycke
Literacy Leader

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Welcome back everyone! This week's Community News features our Church bulletin, info on the Australian Girls' Choir Open Day, the Williamstown Community Newsletter, information on Guitar & keyboard lessons here on campus, and an adaptive sport program from Disability Sports Australia and Variety

Church Bulletin

Australian Girls Choir

Williamstown Community Newsletter

Music Lessons

Inclusive Sports Day


We would also like to thank Mancini Real Estate for their continuous support to St Mary's Altona


                                                                        

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As I welcome you to another school year, I would like to introduce you to one of our key priorities this year:

 To strengthen the Catholic identity of St Mary’s as an active and prayerful, contemporary faith community.

Catholic identity is a keystone for the evangelising mission of all Catholic education communities. It is expressed in structures and processes; in curriculum and the learning environment; in the formation of staff to support, teach and lead; in strategic planning and community culture; the wellbeing of students; and the engagement of parents, parish and wider community.

We have decided to focus on PRAYER for 2022 as our way in which to strengthen our Catholic Identity as we listen and talk to God. Prayer is at the heart of Christian spirituality and teachers and parents can help children and young people to be aware of the presence of God in everyday life and to become persons of prayer.

Our goal is to: Further develop and strengthen the prayer life of the school

As a Catholic school we endeavour to give students opportunities to:

• learn about prayer in the Catholic Tradition
• listen and respond to God
• embrace the beauty and richness of prayer in the Catholic Tradition
• develop skills for personal and communal prayer and Liturgy.

We would like to be able to confidently say that in our Catholic school community of St Mary's, everyone is encouraged to set aside time for personal prayer and to pray together with others. Further, we would like all members of our community to be able to articulate ways in which they see, hear and feel there is evidence of this in our school.

I leave you today with our school prayer and best wishes for a safe and blessed year ahead.

Yours in Faith
Matthew Taylor
Religious Education Leader

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Respect   •   Responsibility  •   Resilience   •   Courage

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We need each other more than ever right now! This month let's focus on reaching out to connect with others and doing our best to be a good friend. Our acts of kindness and connection ripple out and impact so many more people than we realise - and they also boost our own happy hormones too!
In stressful times people around us may be feeling the strain, so let's try to keep calm, take time to listen and show compassion.

What can you do through the month of February to connect with others?
Check out the Action for Happiness Friendly February calendar for some great ideas. Print it off and put it on the fridge.  Get the whole family involved.

Their website is a great go to as well.

Hope you have a 'friendly' and fun weekend

Marg Masseni
Wellbeing Leader

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