Dear families,

I hope you’ve had a wonderful Easter and break. It has been lovely seeing the children back and so happy.

 

While students got an extra long break, our staff was privileged to have the time to work with some great presenters and to reflect on our current teaching practices before setting some directions for the upcoming term.  

MACS visit

As the primary principal representative on MACS’ Technology Advisory Group, I am fortunate to be involved in working with the MACS Technology and Transformation team who is responsible for setting the digital landscape in Melbourne’s Catholic Schools.  On Wednesday, we welcomed members of the team to St Mary’s. They met with a representative group of Year 6 students and staff to introduce and seek feedback on MACS’ planned Digital Ambition; technological principles and aims for MACS over the coming years.

I was so proud to hear the team was thrilled with the feedback from members of our community. They were full of praise for the way our students interacted and shared their experiences and opinions. Our students were articulate, thoughtful and collaborative. One of the team members commented that he wished that members of his own team worked as well! 

Our students were excited to receive Microsoft merchandise as a thank-you for their contributions.

 

Uniform

As we begin to move into cooler months, remember that we have now transitioned into a capsule-style uniform, meaning that students can mix and match what they wear based on their preferences as well as the weather. 

Students wearing the old uniform can also follow these guidelines. 

There has been some confusion around some items. Please note the following:

• The winter dress (both old and new) may only be worn with the white, long-sleeved polo. Skivvies are not part of our uniform.
• Students choosing to wear the new navy skirt can choose to wear either the white long-sleeved polo or their navy short-sleeved polo with it. 
• Casual long-sleeved t-shirts are not to be worn under the uniform.  We have introduced many pieces of uniform that can be used to create enough layers to keep our students warm. These include windcheaters, softshell jackets and puffer jackets.

Please contact me if you have any queries or need any further clarification on our uniform.

Old Uniform Sale

We will be hosting one last big final sale of our old uniform stock next Friday 5 May from 3pm.  Cash and EFTPOS payments will be accepted.

If you are unable to attend but would like to purchase items, please contact the office before Friday to place an order.

All stock will be half price.

After the final sale, any remaining stock will be donated to an overseas charity.

P&F Information Night and AGM

Please see our separate article for details of our upcoming Parents and Friends Information Night and Annual General Meeting on Wednesday, May 10.  A pizza dinner will be provided along with child minding. Come along and see what this dynamic team is all about!

Enjoy your weekend,

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Respect • Responsibility • Resilience • Courage

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Do you like pizza and having a chat with others?  Then this event is the one for you...

Please indicate, by completing the Google form, how many family members will attend the P&F AGM/Pizza night and how many children will require childminding.

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As you would be aware Mother's Day is coming up on Sunday 14th May.  It's great opportunity to thank the many women who are very special in the lives of our students.  
Therefore, we will be having some celebrations of our own that you are invited to participate in! Thursday 11th May ~ Mother's Day Stall
8.50 - 11am in the hall
Gifts range from $1 - $5
Children should bring a carry bag for their purchases.
Students will attend with their class teachers.
Please check the recently sent Operoo as the P & F would love some help in setting up and selling gifts.



Friday 12th May ~ We welcome our community to join us to celebrate at the following...
9.15am: School Mass
10.15 - 10.45am: Classroom visits
10.45 - 11.20am: Morning Tea in the hall



We hope to see as many mums, grandmas, nonnas, aunties and other special women of St. Mary's community.

Regards
Marg Masseni
Deputy Principal/Wellbeing Leader

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Respect • Responsibility • Resilience • Courage

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Friday 19th May is Walk Safely to School Day.  We are going to coincide this with another Walk/Ride 2 School day. We are proud to say that we have been promoting active transport for many years now and are always greatly encouraged when we see the number of children who not only participate in our Walk/Ride to School Days but also those who come to school in an active way on a regular basis. 

National Walk Safely to School Day is now in it's 24th year. It's a campaign that encourages all primary school children, their parents and carers to walk safely and regularly to school.   The event seeks to promote better health, road safety, public transport and the environment.

Statistics show that Australian children are becoming less active and that one substantial contributor is the decline in walking and/or taking public tranpost to school. Walking regularly is the best exercise for your health because you can build it into your daily routine.

We ask families to support our House Captains in their efforts to promote active transport and come to school in an active way as often as possible but most especially on these two days this month.

Regards
Marg Masseni and the House Captains (Thomas, Krystal, Silas, Charlie, MinhPhi, Michael, Eva and Adam)

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Respect • Responsibility • Resilience • Courage

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This term a group of students from Year 5/6 who have autism participated in a support group called Finding Your Neurotribe, with Rishika, our school counselor and Shevaun, our speech pathologist.  They met weekly for 4 weeks and talked about the strengths and challenges of being on the spectrum.

 It empowered them to know that they were not alone and that autism is not a deficit but can actually be a 'superpower.'

I would like to share with you all a reflection that was written by 2 members of the group:

"The Finding Your Neurotribe group focused on learning big words (like neurodiverse, neurotypical, autism, ADHD, ADD, OCD, Dyslexia… to name a few). In the group we discovered more about these big words to help us understand more about our brains and how they are different, different but not less. Even though as a group we were very different we still had something in common. We enjoyed our time with our group members and with Shevaun and Rishika. One of our favourite sessions was playdoh and art. We mostly enjoyed making our brains, We made our brains out of clay and when they were dry we added our strengths and challenges, and things that make us special. In this group, we felt like every child is allowed to speak their mind in a safe space. We all built confidence overtime to talk about our feelings and to connect with others in the group, who we wouldn’t usually talk to. We made a couple of new friends along our way. WE CAN’T WAIT FOR NEXT TERM" 

 

This has been such a positive experience for those involved and we hope to be able to provide some follow up sessions next term.

We also plan to offer a similar program to the Year 3/4 students.

I would like to thank both Rishika and Shevaun for their hard work and commitment to this group. They have done a wonderful job preparing for the sessions and making these children feel that they have so much to offer us all as well as helping them find people with whom they can readily identify.

 

Cathy Sims

Learning Diversity Leader

csims@smaltona.catholic.edu.au

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Respect • Responsibility • Resilience • Courage

 

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In Term 1, we advertised a CyberSafety Project webinar titled PLAN, PREVENT, PROTECT: Learning, connecting and playing online can be positive and safe, they spoke about how to create a safe online at home with practical advice for raising young people in a technology-rich world.

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Fun & Fitness is held every Wednesday morning from 8 - 8.30am on the basketball court.  Sessions are run by Mrs Masseni and are open to all children from Prep - Year 6. Parents and siblings are also welcome to attend and join in the fun but there is no obligation to stay.

We engage in a variety of games and activities suitable for all ages levels.  The more the merrier ~ so come along and try it out.

For more information, contact me via the school office, email (mmasseni@smaltona.catholic.edu.au) or catch me in the yard before or afterschool.

Regards
Marg Masseni
Wellbeing Leader

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Respect • Responsibility • Resilience • Courage

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At St. Mary's we are committed to maintaining a culture of child safety. We implement strategies which demonstrate this through everyday life at the school, guided by the documents listed in the 'Read More' section.
 Our Child Safety Officer is John Hein (DP & Learning & Teaching Leader).

Our Child Safety Team consists of John, Sonia Riccardi (Principal), Cathy Sims (Learning Diversity Leader) and Tony Freeman (RE, Maths & ICT Leader).

      

Please contact John (jhein@smaltona.catholic.edu.au) or another member of the team if you would like to discuss any matters related to Child Safety.

St. Mary's School Child Safety Code of Conduct

St. Mary's School Child Safety and Wellbeing Policy

St. Mary's School Child Protection - Reporting Obligations Policy
Strategies for Empowerment of Students

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Respect • Responsibility • Resilience • Courage

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Check out this weeks Community News!
Mount St. Joseph's Open Day

Water Polo

Tutor Wanted

Parish Bulletin

Music Lessons

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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