Dear families,
I’m sure I’ve mentioned this before, but these short weeks seem to last so much longer than your 5 day week!
I had the pleasure this week to host many potential families for school tours.
It always brings such joy sharing this special place with others and my favourite tours are definitely those that take place during the day when the children are here. It’s a delight to see the children engaging in learning when we walk through and it’s even better when potential parents get to see in action what I’ve mentioned during our chats.
We have one more official tour booked and I am quietly confident we will be able to accept 2 full classes of prep next year.
If you have a child starting next year, you will have received an enrolment form. Please return this filled form as soon as you can as we are hoping to plan for enrolment interviews early next term.
Values
We have put the last 2 values up for a staff vote after they scored equal points in the last.
I can confirm that our 4th value will either be Courage or Integrity.
Stay tuned for more details.
COVID Update
It appears that we were given a large number of RATs due to a processing error at the distribution centre. Hopefully, this means that the recommendation of RAT screening won’t continue into Term 2 as I had predicted in last week’s newsletter.
We have seen a spike in positive cases in the last 4 days. In fact, we’ve had more cases in this week that the rest of the term combined.
This was to be expected as families return to pre-COVID activities.
I encourage you to continue twice-weekly testing to try and reduce the spread of positive cases in our school.
ECSI
Thank you to those who have already completed the survey.
We are getting there slowly!
Our status report indicates that we still require 27 families to complete it.
If we don’t receive the sample size required, we won’t be able to consider the data as statistically representative of our parent community.
If you need help accessing or completing the survey, please email me and I will send you instructions or talk you through the process.
Fee statements
Fee statements have been distributed to the eldest in the family. If you have not yet received yours and you have checked your child’s bag, please contact the office to have another re-issued.
We also ask that you let us know your intended payment method here if you have not already done so. We will send you the relevant documentation based on the method of payment you have chosen.
Under a new Concessional Fee Policy, parents with a current Health Care Card in their name, qualify for a reduction in fees. Please use the link above to let us know you qualify and I will be in touch to arrange the reduction and commence a payment plan.
Staff news
Congratulations to Nicole Barnes and Caitlyn Gallagher who will be finally getting married to their respective partners, John and Nick next weekend.
Both couples have had to heart-breakingly postpone their weddings many times in the last 2 years.
We wish both couples a wonderful future.
Have a great weekend,
Sonia
Catholic schools in the Archdiocese of Melbourne will celebrate Catholic Education Week 2022 from 13 to 20 March. This year's theme is 'The Way of the Gospel' and is based on Archbishop Peter A Comensoli's 2021 Pastoral Letter.
More than 330 Catholic primary and secondary schools employ 17,000 staff to teach more than 150,000 students across Melbourne. The annual event is held to promote the ethos of Catholic schools and highlight the inspiring activities that take place in Catholic schools every day.‘The Way of the Gospel’ challenges us to find the living Christ in our midst and to respond and adapt to the questions that are asked in each generation.
• Where do we find the living Christ in the midst of these questions?St Mary’s School Altona proudly partners with the Cyber Safety Project to support our whole community with proactive and ongoing cyber safety education.
The Cyber Safety Project’s mission is to empower every young Australian to self-manage their own cyber safety and digital wellbeing. 
 
This week, our Prep - Year 6 students attended an incursion with the Cyber Safety Project Team to understand online risks and practise safe and responsible digital citizenship.
 
Our staff are equipped with a sequenced curriculum mapped to the Victorian curriculum framework and the latest resources to support their cyber safety teaching. 
 
Our parents and guardians are invited to engage with the Cyber Safety Project parent events (click the link to access booking details) and home resources. 
The Cyber Safety Project is endorsed by the eSafety Commissioner as a Trusted eSafety Provider. You can find helpful online home safety guides, conversation checklists and resources for creating a safe digital environment at home via https://cybersafetyproject.com.au/families
 
Additional online safety support resources: 
Now that we are settled into the routines at school and your children are bringing books home to read, it’s a good time to establish a home reading routine to support your children’s reading success.
As I mentioned at the end of last year, it is important to continue to practise reading skills, such as decoding, comprehension, visualisation, thinking and language ability regularly.
When you see take home readers come home from school, remember, these are deliberately set at an easy level so that your child can be independent, practice fluency and so that reading is enjoyable for all. Your child’s teacher will work with them at their instructional level and help them to take the next step in their reading development during school time.
Before reading take-home books with your child, take a moment to discuss what they have been learning during their reading sessions. Are there any sounds or blends that they are focusing on? Is there a particular goal that they are working on in their focused teaching group?
Reading these books with your child and listening to them read to you, helps to reinforce what is being taught in the classroom. Students often enjoy rereading the same books and this is great! This should be supported as it builds fluency and the automatic recognition of words. Fluent reading sounds like the reader is talking or having a conversation rather than sounding stilted, monotone or robotically slow. When reading fluently, children should also be able to retell/summarise what the text is about and make connections to their own lives, the world around them or other texts as they are not concentrating all their effort into word breaking so they can take in meaning and enjoy the process and content more..
Keeping a reading routine with your children works best if it is easy to manage and enjoyable. Here are some tips to instil the love of reading and literature into your family routines:
Thank you for all of your support at home, happy reading and don’t forget to reach out if you want more tips and tricks!
Brenda Lycke
Literacy Leader
blycke@smaltona.catholic.edu.au
A very big congratulations to Charlie Wright for receiving a ribbon in her Breastroke swim.
A very big thank you to Nicole Singleton, Miss Sottile and all of the parents who helped and supervised the students on the day.
FOSTER CARERS NEEDED
If you have thought about foster care, please get in touch and
ask the questions you have always wanted to.
Ring: Key Assets 1800 932 237 or 1800 WE CARE
Email: info@keyassets.com.au
Web: canifoster.com.au or keyassets.org.au
What will happen: Interested families would receive a brochure, information and no pressure!
Catholic Education