Dear families,

What a wild and exciting day it’s been today! Congratulations to Yellow team for taking out the Trifecta at this year’s sports day, winning the Chant, Dance and sporting points.

Our students are to be commended for their camaraderie and sportsmanship. It was great seeing everyone give things a go and live out our school values.

A huge thank you to Miss Sottile for coordinating today’s event and to the many staff who helped enact these plans.

Professional Learning

Last Friday, staff embarked on professional learning focused on establishing our learning characteristics. This work has been underway for some time and it was great to begin getting some clarity around these characteristics and how we will begin embedding the teaching of these from next year.

I present our finalised list:

• Risk-taking
• Self-motivation
• Curiosity
• Persistence
• Creativity

Staff will continue to work on creating clear definitions for each of these before beginning to teach what these look like and how these help us learn in our classrooms and beyond.

We look forward to sharing this work with you and showing you ways you can use these characteristics at home with your children as well.

Camps

As you may be aware, the recent Catholic Education Agreement implemented changes to acknowledge and pay teachers for hours worked outside the usual workday. 

Until now, teachers have volunteered their time for camps, information nights, weekend Masses, and everything else attended outside school hours. 

These recent changes have been introduced to rectify this and to ensure that we are no longer relying on goodwill to make these special outside-hours events happen.

These changes, however, cost a great deal of money and as we intend to continue to offer these opportunities for children and families, we need to find ways to minimise the monetary impact on school and families. 

After bringing this to the attention of the School Advisory Council, we decided that as of next year, we will implement the following to counter some of the financial effects of these activities:

• Students and staff who attend camp will have one day off either directly before or after the camp (eg if Camp runs Wednesday - Friday, students and staff will have the preceding day (Tuesday) at home
• Camp costs will increase to cover some of the costs involved

As these measures won’t cover all costs incurred to provide staff with time in lieu, we will also look at some whole school activities we can implement throughout the year to enable some staff to take these days in lieu without financial costs for replacement. 

I am happy to discuss this proposal with you and welcome feedback and suggestions on how we can keep providing these great opportunities for our students.

2024 Staffing and classes

We are beginning to finalise staffing for next year and I am pleased to announce we have hired some new teaching staff. Maree Nanos, who is currently a replacement teacher with us, will join us officially. We will also welcome Bridie Kennedy, who will join us as a graduate teacher after she completes her degree soon. Bridie is currently playing for Sydney Swans in the AFLW, so I’m sure our footy-mad community will have lots to talk to her about. 

 

Family news

 

Last week, the Pratheesh family welcomed baby Adrian to the world. Alfred and Aisotn are very proud big brothers. Congratulations to the family. We look forward to meeting Adrian in person soon.

 

 

Have a wonderful weekend,

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Respect • Responsibility • Resilience • Courage

 

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A very big thank you to all of the students, staff, parent helpers, family and friends for a very successful and fun day at the Altona Athletics track for our Annual School Sport Day.

Well done to all of our students who demonstrated our school values and for all of their efforts in the heat. 

A very big congratulations to the YELLOW House team for taking home the win for not only the Athletics events but also for the Songs and Chants! The shield will be waiting for you at Monday's Assembly. The Blue team came second in all events, Red came third and Green came fourth. 

Congratulations to our house captains who won the staff V student relay for the first time in many years.  Great work.

And last but not least a day like today cannot happen without a great deal of hard work and organisation.  Well done Ms Sottile for putting the day together. We love your work!

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                 Respect • Responsibility • Resilience • Courage

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Our Quick View Calendar is now up and running again so please be sure to check it regularly for upcoming events. You will find it as a widget on the website homepage and also on the Updat-ed App.

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Please check through the list below to ensure that you have these events in your diaries.
Week 11
11th Dec @ 9am: Advent Liturgy (hosted by 1/2 level)
11th Dec @ 2.20pm: Final Assembly ~ School Captains
11th Dec @ 3pm: Thank you Afternoon Tea for families
14th Dec @ 10am: Advent Liturgy (hosted by 3/4 level)
14th Dec @ 6pm: Year 6 Graduation
15th Dec @ 9.15am: End of Year Mass
15th Dec @ 3.20pm: End of Term 4 Dismissal
15th Dec @ 3.45pm: Creative Music Concert
15th Dec: NO Canteen

As other dates come to hand we will be sure to update you and we will let you know when our calendar issues have been resolved.

In the meantime, if you have questions about any upcoming events please contact the office.

Regards
Marg

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Respect • Responsibility • Resilience • Courage

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A reminder that once you have collected your walkathon sponsor money, place it in an envelope along with the raffle tickets and return your money and tickets to the school via your child's class teacher or straight to the office by Friday 17th November. Remember it's one raffle ticket for evey $20 raised. 

Our raffle draw will take place on Thursday 23rd November at 2.15pm.  Family members are welcome to attend.

If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to contact the office.

Regards
Marg Masseni

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Respect • Responsibility • Resilience • Courage

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St Mary's P&F Proudly presents,

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Bayside Netball Club are still looking for some new 9 years and under players and we have information included about a new holiday program.  You can sign up for Creative Music lessons in Term 3 and also read our Parish Bulletin.

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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Just a reminder that hats must be worn through until the end of April 2024.

Hats should be school legionnaire style or broad brimmed in keeping with our sun smart policy.

 Please ensure that your children have the correct hat to wear.....NO HAT, NO PLAY.

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Trying a new activity can be a great source of happiness. In challenging times, it also helps to take a new perspective or find new ways forward. The Action for Happiness New Ways November calendar is packed with ideas to help this month.
If trying something new feels overwhelming, that's okay. You could choose something you love to do but haven't done recently - like a favourite hobby or connecting with an old friend.

The important thing is to take action. Here's an idea. Just try that first small positive step...

Seeing with new eyes
Try the Action for Happiness new mindful moment to help you see things in new ways.

Regards
Marg Masseni

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Respect • Responsibility • Resilience • Courage

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