Dear families,
I trust this message finds you all well and that your children had a rejuvenating break and have had a great start to the term.
While I have been at home this week resting my injured leg, Mrs Masseni has been keeping my updated with all that is going on at St Mary’s. I have missed being a part of the buzz that surrounds the beginning of term and I thank the parents and students who have inquired into my wellbeing and sent lovely messages. I hope to return next week.
This term promises to be jam-packed with Sacraments, finalising our new uniform and launching our Values and House Team names and Book Week celebrations. We also can look forward to the great learning experiences our teachers have planned for our students, particularly in the area of Science with our inquiry units and in establishing great new strategies around writing that we picked up during our closure day last term.
Uniform Update
I will be meeting with our representative from Noone’s next week to finalise our uniform choices. We have received an overwhelmingly positive response to our samples and there are clear favourites. We will work with Noone’s to ensure that the pieces selected can work well together. If there are any other decisions that need to be made, we may return to you for further feedback if required.
Our uniform shop will continue to sell current pieces at a heavily discounted price until sold out.
Values
After great discussion amongst staff, I can present to you the agreed-upon definitions for our school values. We wanted something that was succinct and easy to recall and understand. Classes will work through these statements, unpacking them and working on developing not only students’ understanding of them but also the applications of these values in our daily lives and learning. You may want to incorporate these into your own family’s discussions. I’m eager to hear what you think and what our students will be sharing with you this term and beyond.
School Logo
Given that we are revamping our school uniform, I felt it was also time to review our school logo. I was keen to make a few amendments to it. Namely, the following:
I do not intend to alter the logo image itself in any way as I think it is a unique connection to our parish and the wider community.
I engaged the services of a firm to have a play and they have come back with some options. You can see them here and offer your input.
I’d love to hear what you think. Feel free to offer a mix and match suggestions (ie, font from Sample 3 with layout of Sample 8) as this is only the first round of options offered.
Fathers’ Day celebrations
After a suggestion from the School Advisory Council regarding Mothers’ Day celebrations, we’d like to ask families for feedback on the timing of our Fathers’ Day celebrations that will be held on Friday 2nd September this term. We understand that our dads and significant father figures in the lives of our children have different schedules and we’d like to be able to hold an event that suits most families.
Please fill in this form to nominate your preferred time to attend a Fathers’ Day celebration with us.
School Closure
MACS have allowed schools an additional closure day to make up for the extra hours teachers have missed in planning due to covering increased staff absences. We have selected Friday August 12th as our student-free day. Please make note of this day in your calendars.
I look forward to seeing you all soon.
Stay safe and well,
Sonia
Yours in Faith
Matthew Taylor
Religious Education Leader
After a fantastic experience last year, this year we will again be entering as many of our students as possible students into the Australian Maths Competition (AMC). The competition aims to cater for students in years 3-12 and is based on problem solving.
The AMC offers five papers: Middle Primary (Years 3–4), Upper Primary (Years 5–6), Junior (Years 7– 8), Intermediate (Years 9–10), and Senior (Years 11–12). It has 25 multiple-choice questions and five questions that need whole number answers. Students may attempt as many questions as they wish. The earlier problems may use more familiar mathematics while the later problems are more difficult and intended to challenge, needing more sophisticated problem-solving skills.
The competition this year will take place online from 3rd - 5th August. There is a small cost to enter the competition, which will happily be covered by the school.
Last year we had 69 students enter from years 3-6 and 40 of those students attained certificates of Proficiency, Credit or Distinction. We put a sign up form out on Operoo late last term and we are pumped to see 71 students have already signed up.
If you haven't responded yet, don't worry there is still time. Please read the Operoo note from the Australian Maths Trust about the competition and complete the consent there. All consents need to be completed by Friday 22nd July so we can register the students for the competition. You only need to respond digitally but if you have would like to submit a hard copy of the note and have trouble printing this form at home, please let us know and we can have one printed for you.
If you have any questions please feel free to contact us at
mtaylor@smaltona.catholic.edu.au
tfreeman@smaltona.catholic.edu.au
Kind Regards,
Matthew Taylor and Tony Freeman
Mount St Joseph Girls' College is delighted to offer a free presentation with Dr Kristy Goodwin to St. Mary's parents and carers. The presentation, “Raising Screenagers” will help confused and concerned parents navigate the digital world together with their child. Dr Kristy will inform parents with research-based yet realistic advice to help parents feel confident about how they can best support their adolescent’s physical health, mental wellbeing and learning online. This event would be of most interest to parents/carers of students in Years 4-6, but parents/carers of all year levels are welcome to attend.
When: Monday 25 July at 7pm.
Where: Mount St. Joseph Girls’ College, 133 Maidstone Street Altona.
Book here: https://form.jotform.com/221638628097061
Read more about Dr Kristy:
https://www.facebook.com/drkristygoodwin/
https://www.instagram.com/drkristy/?hl=en
Free Workshop
Children aged 5 to 12 years are invited to take a journey with local visual artist Frances Loriente, Wiradjuri Soprano Shauntai Batzke, Kokatha/Mirning musician Bart Willoughby, Yvonne Rigney Ngarrindjeri/Kokatha dancer and guest Taungwurrung, Yorta Yorta elder Maxine Briggs together with Indigenous elders explore what a totem represents through, colour, music, song and dance through these free workshops at Woods Street Arts Space in Laverton.
Dates:
Saturday 23 July 10am to 12.30pm
Saturday 30 July 10am to 12.30pm
Saturday 6 August 10am to 12.30pm
Sunday 14 August 11.30am to 1.30 pm
Exhibition and performance:
Sunday 14 August, 2 to 3pm
Bookings essential: www.trybooking.com/CAXBW
Children 5 to 6 years of age must be accompanied by a parent or adult carer. Children are asked to bring a healthy snack along and wear comfortable clothing.
For more information please visit: www.hobsonsbay.vic.gov.au/Community/Whats-On/The-Colour-and-Sound-of-my-Totem or The Colour And Sound of My Totem Facebook event
We would also like to thank Mancini Real Estate for their continuous support to St Mary's Altona
The Special Art team who work with Mrs Zimmerman creating various artworks around the school, are working on a new project beginning in Term 3.
Last term we visited the Louis Joel centre in Altona to look at a mural that is in their car park. It is made out of plastic bottle tops.
Seeing it gave us the idea to make small murals to represent each of the house teams. These will be made out of plastic bottle tops and will be displayed around the school.
We thought this would be another good way to RECYCLE, REUSE, REPURPOSE something that would otherwise get thrown into the rubbish.
But we need your help…
We are going to turn the collection of the plastic lids into a House Team competition!!
We have put together collection boxes so we can see which house team collects the most tops.
Tops can be any colour, shape and size.
We haven’t worked out how we will allocate points yet but will do that over
the next week and let you know next week.
In the meantime, we need you to start collecting! Just bring along the lids you save and drop them in. You can bring a few at a time or save them at home and bring in lots together.
Collection boxes will be in the foyer outside the staff room near the House Team boards.
By the way….Please make sure they are washed and clean before your drop them in.
Thank you
The Special Art Team & the House Captains
This is when I realised I wanted to be a teacher, so off to university I went and got my Bachelor of Education.
I was lucky enough to have a fantastic part-time job while studying at university. I worked at the Queen Victoria Market where I grew a love for cooking. I also had an amazing boss that let me take home the leftover food! Any struggling university students dream! I still enjoy cooking when I get the time, but this is something I have lacked over the last couple of years with the birth of my beautiful daughter, Leonie.
At the moment, Leonie and I are enjoying things like visiting her grandparents, going to the park, reading a few books at the local library and playing with her friends around the corner from our house. We are very much looking forward to our upcoming trip to Falls Creek to enjoy some family time in the snow!
Jane Kirkwood
5/6 KF