Dear families,

I hope you are all doing well.

It’s been great to see some normality continue to return to St Mary’s with lots of excursions happening throughout the week.

 

 

I’m sure those of you with children in Year 3/4 would have noticed most of your children slept well last night after their trip to the Aquarium.
Year 1/2 parents, I hope the same goes for you tonight!

I hope all our mums had a great Mother’s Day and that you were spoilt by your family.

Thanks so much to the P&F team for preparing and hosting the Mother’s Day stall.

NAPLAN

The first week of NAPLAN has come and gone. It was a seamless experience for our students and teachers, who, for the first time took NAPLAN assessments online. 

The online assessments were adaptive in nature, meaning that every student could have potentially completed a very different test from their peer. As students answer the first set of questions, the test adapts according to how well they did with those questions. If a student got this set correct, the next set is harder; if they were difficult, the next set was easier.

Ultimately, this means that the results that are garnered will be far more accurate than they have ever been.

Historically, the results for both students who found the test very difficult or very easy, were not very helpful as they did not tell us exactly where their students sat. This year’s test results will be more accurate as students will be challenged at their own level, rather than all sitting the same test.

See below for a visual representation of how the test is formulated.

Reconciliation

It has been wonderful to be able to recommence Sacraments this last week. I know some of our students were nervous, but Father Michael has been able to adapt the processes to make sure the children who needed extra support were comfortable. Who would have thought that even our Sacraments can be adaptable to accommodate students’ needs?  Thanks Father Michael for helping our children re-connect with their faith.

Parents and Friends

Our Parents and Friends Annual General Meeting (AGM) will be held this term on Wednesday 3rd June at 7:30pm. Stay tuned for more details. We would love to increase the number of parents on the team. It’s a fun, dynamic group and meetings are a lot of fun. Please consider joining. You don’t need to be available during work days to join us. We acknowledge that you may only be able to commit to certain events or times. Any level of involvement is welcome.

We’d ideally be looking to have the team include 2 or more members from every year level.

The team tries to meet monthly (depending on term dates) from 7:30pm at school. Meetings run for approximately an hour.

Enrolments

Next week we commence our Enrolment interviews for new families. We are looking forward to commencing the process. We will soon be scheduling enrolment interviews for our existing families who have a child starting in Prep in 2023. 

Have a wonderful weekend,

Sonia

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Interested in joining the Parents and Friends Team? Please take some time to read about our two upcoming meetings for more information.

Please note that our next P and F meeting with be held on Wednesday the 25^th of May in the staff room at 7.30pm.

We also have a date for our annual AGM meeting. This will be held in the school staff room on Wednesday the 8^th of June at 7.30pm.

Please bring a friend, and if you know of any parents who are interested, lease let them know.

There will be a few people stepping down from their roles, as this is their final year, or due to life commitments.

I encourage you and others to support  and come to both evenings where possible.

Many thanks.

- The P & F Team

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On Thursday the 12th of May, the students in Year 3/4 were lucky enough to catch the train into the city to visit the Melbourne Sea Life Aquarium. They went there to explore marine animals and learn all about life cycles and food webs to inform their learning in Integrated Studies this term. 

Some of the highlights of this fascinating excursion were learning that sharks are one of the top animals in the food web, like whales which means that apart from humans, they have no real natural predators.

The students also learnt all about interdependence particularly, how each animal has its place and purpose within a greater food web or environment and how they all contribute to the survival of the others within that same web or environment.

For example, sharks are crucial to keeping oceans free of disease and healthy numbers of sharks in a marine environment, ensure there isn’t an overpopulation of fish.

Students also got to get up close and touch some shark eggs and sea stars. The students of Year 3/4 are very much looking forward to taking a deeper dive into all things 'life cycles' and 'food webs' during their inquiry unit this term.

Check out some of what we saw:





Your 3/4 team
Lisa Said, Nicole Barnes & Randa Assaad

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What a wonderful thing it has been to celebrate the Sacrament of Reconciliation at St Mary's once more. Over the past two weeks many of our Year 3s along with some Year 4s, 5s and even 6s have all sat down with Fr. Michael for what we once called the Sacrament of Penance. The church of Mary Help of Christians provided a lovely atmosphere for this private sacrament and many a photo was taken in the foyer to help mark and remember the day for prosperity. By the end of this sacramental program it is expected that over 50 of our St Mary's students will have unburdened themselves of their first church confession. Here are just a few of their smiling faces:



Many eyes are already turning to the celebration of the Sacrament of Eucharist where potentially upwards of 70 students will be making their First communions. A booking form has already been released to secure spots at either the celebration on the 23/7, 30/7 or 6/8 (all at the 9:15am parish mass). More information about the preparations for and celebration of this sacrament will follow next month.

Yours in Faith
Matthew Taylor
Leader of Religious Education

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Next Friday 20th May is Walk (or Ride) Safely to School Day.  Come along in an active and safe way to earn house points for your team.  Meet the House Captains on the netball court to let them know how you traveled to school. 

We are also looking for the Most Active Class.  Join in the fun!

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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 the importance of "Starting the chat".
Ongoing family conversations about online use is an effective way of supporting children to be digitally safe and learn to self-regulate their wellbeing.

Listening to your child and sharing experiences can go a long way
to develop trust and open lines of communication.

Read more in this fact sheet 

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For this weeks Community News we have Mrs. Sims' Garden Club Info, our Church Bulletin, news from Emmanuel College, Music Lesson information, Foster Carers Information, as well as Soccer Academy registration and a School Readiness Session.

Church Bulletin

Emmanuel College News

School Readiness Session

Creative Music

Williamstown Community News and Upcoming Events

Foster Caring

Soccer Academy

Gardening Club

Are there any parents/grandparents who are avid gardeners and would like to be a part of a small gardening club at St Mary’s?

Cathy Sims together with some very keen students and Bunnings are looking to revamp our garden beds.

Please see Cathy or email her csims@smaltona.catholic.edu.au

If you think you could possibly space an hour a week to help.

Remember you must have WWCC and be triple vaccinated

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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I grew up in the area going to Catholic Primary, Secondary School (St Paul’s) and University. I have taught over several decades at five different Catholic Schools as a junior, middle and senior classroom teacher, specialist PE and ICT teacher and a variety of other roles in between.

I played football and cricket as a youngster and continue to play cricket to this day, which I love. I live with three amazing women, my wife Julie, daughters Marieclaire and Eloise and two beautiful labradors Margery & George. 

I enjoy working around the house renovating, maintaining and gardening on the weekends, if I'm not playing cricket or watching Carlton in the footy.

Having taken on the Mathematics Leadership role this year, I am relishing supporting our enthusiastic staff, to improve their understanding of developing Mathematical skills and understanding with our wonderful students. I am loving getting into other classrooms to see the increased passion and enthusiasm for Maths. I’m also keen to support our families to help build positivity about learning and using Maths through games and drills at home.

Tony Freeman
Year 5/6KF
Maths Leader

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