Dear families,

What a privilege it’s been to have had such a busy week at St Mary’s.

It is truly beginning to feel like things are returning to ‘normal’, whatever that looks like!

We’ve had incursions, excursions, Reconciliations, a live Assembly, Mother’s Day celebrations to name a few.

It was so lovely to end the week celebrating Mass together with so many of our mums, grandmothers and special mother-figures in our lives. I know the children were very excited to have visitors to their classrooms.

 

It’s been a great week.

Signing students in/out

Please ensure that you are using the iPad to sign your child out when they are being dismissed early. 

We need to confirm that a known adult is here to pick up your child, therefore we are unable to send your child to the street to meet you or a relative. 

If someone other than a parent/carer or emergency contact is picking up your child, please contact the office to confirm who will be picking them up.

Semester 1 Reports

Based on some parent feedback at the end of Semester 1 last year and as a result of our improving practices around data gathering and usage, we will be reporting on the area of Maths (Number) differently this semester.

Staff have been working towards developing clear progressions of learning in Number. This, and our refined assessment practices in this area, have enabled us to more clearly articulate where individual students sit against the curriculum. 

In an effort to better align our assessments, teaching and reporting practices, instead of reporting against skills just at your child’s age-related standard, we will be listing the specific skills your child has been working on with their teacher. These skills may come from other levels, but are based on what our assessments have highlighted as needs for your child including addressing misconceptions and backfilling gaps in learning from previously covered content.

However, we are still mandated to show, via a ‘dot’, where your child sits against the age-expected standards ; and our assessment data helps our teachers to do this accurately. So while the 'dot' shows overall where they sit against the standards, the skills checklist will be a more relevant reflection of where learning has occured as it clearly lists actual skills your child has been working on in class with a teacher. The skills listed will show you the level they come from and also list the Victorian Curriculum Identifier (VCMNA103) for that skill. For those who are interested, this identifier can be Googled and can provide you with more information about that particular skill.

As always, I welcome any feedback once you’ve had the chance to see the new format for Number reporting. 

It is our intention to continue to refine these practices before applying the same process to other areas of our formal student Reports.

If you have any questions about these changes, please contact Tony Freeman, our Maths Leader at tfreeman@smaltona.catholic.edu.au

Parents and Friends

Our Parents and Friends Association is always looking for new recruits. There is no pressure to take on a formal role. You are welcome to join us for these fun meetings and share ideas for fundraising. We understand that many parents work, so our meetings are held in the evening and there is no commitment to attend any day-time events.  We will advertise our AGM shortly. 

Please consider joining our team and making a valuable contribution to our beautiful school.

Wishing our beautiful mums and mum-figures a lovely Mother’s Day this Sunday.

May God’s blessings be with you on this day and always. 

We also ask God to embrace all our heavenly mums as they watch over us in His love.

Have a blessed weekend,

Sonia

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Respect   •   Responsibility  •   Resilience   •   Courage

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This week all of our staff updated their CPR training qualifications.  After completing three online modules and a face to face practical session, we are all up to date on what to do in case of an emergency. This chart gives you a step by step plan of what to do if you find someone you think might be in need of resuscitation.

For your information, should anyone close by need it, we have a defib machine in our First Aid room.  This can be used both by the school and the local community.

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Respect   •   Responsibility  •   Resilience   •   Courage

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We would like to introduce (or re-introduce depending on how long you've been associated with St. Mary's) you to our Speech Pathogist Shevaun Pope.  Shevaun is an ex-St. Mary's student who is now all grown up!  She works with us two days a week alongside, Speech Pathologist Liv Rayner (O'Hare).

Shevaun graduated with a Bachelor of Speech Pathology at Australian Catholic University. She is a Certified Practising Speech Pathologist (CPSP) and a member of Speech Pathology Australia. Shevaun has clinical experience in assessment, diagnosis and intervention in a wide range of practice areas. She has worked in a variety of settings including private  practice, primary schools, acute and subacute hospitals, and community health centres. 

Shevaun is very committed and passionate about supporting her clients and collaborating with their families to provide holistic care, encouraging each client to reach their full potential. She has a keen interest in school aged language development, speech sound development, voice, social skills and early literacy skills. 

Prior to becoming a Speech Pathologist, Shevaun was an active volunteer within the disability sector for a non-for-profit organisation providing children with varying disabilities social connection opportunities. Through this experience, Shevaun found her passion for supporting and advocating for those with a disability to communicate with confidence. 

Alongside her passion for Speech Pathology, Shevaun is an experienced performer and vocal teacher. She has trained in musical theatre and classical voice, and frequently performs in Melbourne based musicals and theatre productions. 

Shevaun enjoys exploring new ways to make sessions engaging for clients, striving to make each session is enjoyable for her clients. She takes pride in working alongside families to ensure they feel well supported throughout their speech pathology journey.

Welcome back to St. Mary's Shevaun.

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Respect   •   Responsibility  •   Resilience   •   Courage

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For this weeks Community News we have our Church Bulletin, news from Emmanuel College, Music Lesson information, Foster Carers Information, as well as Soccer Academy and a Taekwondo Open Day.

Church Bulletin

Emmanuel College News

Creative Music

Williamstown Community News and Upcoming Events
Foster Caring

Taekwondo Open Day 

Soccer Academy

Hobsons Bay Libraries After School Explorers

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! 


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


                                                                              

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Respect   •   Responsibility  •   Resilience   •   Courage

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As a CyberSaftey Partner School we have access to some great resources including the newsletter bytes that we will send out to you on occasions.  This week you will be able to read about 'Creating a Safe Digital Environment at home'.
Plan, Protect, Prevent...are the three golden words you need to remember when it comes to Online Safety.  Digital Parenting doesn't have to feel overwhelming.  Break it down into these three phases and see how easy it can be. 

Read more in this fact sheet.

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Respect   •   Responsibility  •   Resilience   •   Courage

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Today we celebrated the special women in the lives of our students at a special Mother's Day mass.  How wonderful it was to have everyone together again.  Our mums & other visitors then joined the children in their rooms for some activity time, followed by a morning tea in the TRI Centre. How special it was to have everyone back onsite and celebrating together, we were so heartened to see so many community members in the Church and in the classrooms. We thank each and every one who took time out of their day to come to mass, visit their child's or even children's classrooms and the smiles and chats at morning tea were chicken soup for the soul. 

Our exciting morning was made complete as the children visited the Mother's Day stall to purchase lovely gifts. Thanks to all those who organised and manned the stall, perhaps next year we might get some dad volunteers..?

Thanks also to the many staff and parents who made today happen and contribute to it being so special. 

We would like to wish all of our mums, nannas, aunties and other special women in the lives of our children a very Happy Mother's Day!  We hope you all get spoilt and well looked after.  Enjoy your special day.

           

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Respect   •   Responsibility  •   Resilience   •   Courage

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On Tuesday this week the Year 4 students visited the St. Paul's Campus and Notre Dame Campus of Emmanuel College.  We got a taste of secondary school life and engaged in some wonderful activities.
We joined in a PE class and played Poison Ball and basketball, we engaged in a cool science lesson which involved an experiment to see what happened when we put M&Ms and smarties in water.  We found that the colours disolved and joined together.  We also made puppets in Art.

We had a great day.

Sam P & Kallista C (Year 4A)

             

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Respect   •   Responsibility  •   Resilience   •   Courage

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Today 16 students from grades 3-6 represented our school at the Altona District Cross Country carnival against 6 other schools. All the students did a great job and had a wonderful day.   Overall we finished in 4th place which is a fantastic job considering our school numbers compared to some of the other schools.

A very big congratulations and well done to the following students: Harry McC (10 boys), Max McC (10 boys), Jamie S (10 boys), Chloe A (10 girls), Ethan Le F (11 boys), Thomas Y (11 boys), Luca D (12 boys) who will be advancing to the Division Cross Country on the 1st of June  at Presidents Park Werribee.

Good luck!

        

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