Dear families,

Welcome back to a new year.

I trust you had a wonderful Christmas and the school holidays were re-energising.

 

I begin by apologising for the lengthy first message of the year. For our new families, I can assure you my messages are not usually this long!

It was exciting to be back in classrooms visiting the students in their new environments.  

There is already such a calm presence in the classrooms, it was great to experience.

Thank you to our P&F who organised morning tea and a coffee van for our parents this morning. It’s always great to catch up with you all in this relaxed way once the children have all ventured off to their classes.

On Tuesday staff met to set ourselves up for a great year of teaching and learning. We launched our keyword for the year, which is consistency. This year, we’ve also taken up an image/object to represent this keyword. Our symbol for consistency this year will be a duck. I presented staff with ducks of different varieties and asked them to choose one for themselves. 

Why ducks? Here is the explanation I shared with staff:

When we think of rubber ducks everyone has a very similar (consistent) view of them.  I’ve chosen these ducks to represent our 2025 theme to signify that while we are aiming for consistency, we don’t want/expect to lose our individual flair. 

Keep a look out for your child’s teacher’s duck. Maybe you can ask them why they chose theirs.

Our Annual Action Plan for this year looks a little different, as we have chosen specific goals for each year level, as well as whole-school overarching goals.

We will continue to keep you updated throughout the year on how we’re tracking.

I wanted to take this opportunity to thank one of our parents, Daniel Moshtagh, who generously donated his time and expertise to clean up our school grounds in time for the commencement of our school year. I’m sure you would have noticed how great the grounds looked this morning. If you need any gardening/mowing done, you may like to consider supporting Daniel’s Jim’s Mowing business (0481948669). 

Thank you to parents who took the time to complete the Homework survey at the end of last year. Teachers have begun to look at the results and as expected, there are a wide variety of opinions. We will review our current practices in the coming weeks and decide what homework will look like throughout the school in the coming weeks. We expect to have an updated policy by the middle of this term, after which homework will be set.

This year, as well as welcoming a range of new staff, I am delighted to announce that we will also be welcoming a therapy dog into our crew. Amelia, one of our learning support staff, owns a therapy dog and has volunteered to have him onsite 1 day per week.

We will initially be timetabling Nova to spend time in each class, allowing students to become familiar with her and having her around.

We will then look at a more structured program to help support students.

If your child is afraid of dogs, please give me a call to discuss how we can ensure they are comfortable at school. 

Beginning of year reminders

The beginning of a new school year is always a good time to remind our community of ways we can keep our children safe.

Please ensure you park within the lined parking bays at all times. 

Do not park across driveways. This includes school driveways.

If possible, please avoid turning into driveways to change direction during peak times. With so many children crossing roads, reversing can be incredibly dangerous. Please consider looping back around to avoid these moves whenever possible.

Gates open at 8:30am. A teacher is supervising from this time. Junior school children, if accompanied by supervising guardians, are able to play on the Junior playground before and after school. Please ensure you are actively supervising your child if they are on the playground. Staff will ask children to leave the playground if their adult is not present.

We encourage parents not to linger at doors and windows from 8:45 and before the end of the school day. This can often be distracting and distressing to children, especially if they have just settled in.

If children are having difficulty separating from you, we will come and assist you. If this continues, we will arrange to meet with you to discuss ways to help your child in the mornings. We have helped many children overcome these difficult mornings.

Gates open at 3pm for the end of the school day.

Parents can enter school grounds at this time. Again, we encourage parents to keep their distance from the windows to ensure the children have a settled dismissal.

Please try and refrain from engaging in lengthy discussions with teachers either at drop off or pick up. Teachers are responsible for their classes from 8:45 and should be in their classrooms at that time. We also have meetings after school which commence promptly at 3:30, so we need to give our teachers time to get themselves to the meeting on time. 

That said, if you need to pass on a quick message or let your child’s teacher know about something urgently, please have this chat then. If something requires more focussed time, please contact the teacher to arrange a mutually suitable time to meet without distractions.

Our Get to Know You chats take place on Monday and Tuesday next week. This is always a great opportunity for your child’s teacher to learn all about your child from the people who know them best. It’s also a great opportunity to get to meet your child’s teacher.

If you feel you may need more time with your child’s teacher, please let them know. 

Looking forward to a fantastic year of learning,

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Respect • Responsibility • Resilience • Courage

 

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Welcome back for another year of community involvment.
Have a look at the local events starting next week in the area.

Williamstown Community & Education Centre

Newport Calisthenics Staring on Feb 1st 2025

Creative Music - Term 1

Aussie Hoops Basketball

Hook in 2 Hockey- Hockey sessions starting Monday 17th Feb

Camp Australia - A new pricelist for 2025 has been included

 

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Respect • Responsibility • Resilience • Courage

 

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Next Tuesday will be our final Swim training/trials session, in the lead up to the District Swimming Carnival.  Sessions are held at the BayFit pool in Mason St, Altona North. It's not too late for your child to sign up, in fact they would be warmly welcomed. Training sessions are open to all students in Years 3 - 6.  Students should be able to swim 50m in some recognised strokes. 

Our final session will be held from 7 - 8am on Tues 11th Feb at a cost of $10 per session.  Parents will need to drop their children at the pool (stay to watch or help out if possible) and then ensure that their child is taken to school.  Breakfast will be served to our swimmers from 8:20 - 8:40am in the school hall. 

If your child hasn't already participated but would like to please email me as soon as possible. 

Please also contact me via email if you have any questions.

Regards
Marg Masseni
Mental Health & Wellbeing Leader
mmasseni@smaltona.catholic.edu.au

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Respect • Responsibility • Resilience • Courage

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On Tuesday 11th February, we will celebrate the beginning of a new school year with our Opening of School Mass at 5pm, followed by a picnic dinner, on the oval.
This is a great way to make links with other parents of children in your child's year level and celebrate our new school leaders.

During the mass, we will also acknowledge the commitment of our student leaders as they receive their badges for the year ahead, recognising their dedication to leadership and service.

Following the Mass, we invite you to a picnic on the school oval. This offers an opportunity for parents, students, and staff to come together in a relaxed and enjoyable atmosphere.

Your presence enriches the school community, and we eagerly anticipate celebrating the beginning of the school year with you.

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Respect • Responsibility • Resilience • Courage

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St Marys is a SUN SMART SCHOOL and has been for 29 years.  As such students and staff are required to wear sun smart hats from 1st September to the end of April regardless of whether the sun is out or not.
This measure is part of our commitment to ensure the safety and well-being of our students during outdoor activities. Check out the widget at the bottom of our website which will guide you in the hours to especially check UV. 

Please make sure your child has their school sun smart hat (legionnaire or wide brim) each day, at least until the end of April.

Thank you for your cooperation!




Regards
Marg Masseni
Mental Health and Wellbeing Leader 

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Respect • Responsibility • Resilience • Courage

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Prep - 2 Literacy Programs
UFLI 
Last year staff at St Mary’s advanced our understanding of implementing a synthetic phonics program to align with the Science of Reading. Based on our new learning, we have decided to implement UFLI, which stands for University of Florida Literacy Institute.

UFLI is an explicit and systematic program that follows a carefully developed scope and sequence. It is designed to ensure that students systematically acquire skills needed for reading, writing and spelling. As it incorporates spelling it will replace our SMART Spelling program in 1/2. You can read more about it here

Our P-2 staff will all be attending further training on UFLI on Feb 19.
Although we will be de-implementing Little Learners Love Literacy (LLLL), which is a recognised synthetic phonics program, its resources will support UFLI so you will see take-home readers from the program come home with your child. The sounds in these books will complement what your child is learning through UFLI. 
Take-home readers for 1/2s will begin in Week 4. 

MiniLit Intervention
MiniLit is a Tier 2 small group reading program for students in the bottom 25% of the expected range for their age group in Year 1 and 2. The program provides explicit instruction in phonemic awareness, systematic synthetic phonics for reading and spelling, letter formation, and connected text reading.
We will begin assessing students next week and the program will commence soon.
Parents whose children will be involved in this program will be notified.

 

3-6 Literacy 
This term we are exploring resources through OCHRE Education which aligns with explicit teaching and the Science of Reading. These resources incorporate the Daily Review which is a fast-paced review to help students embed their learning into their long term memories. They also include focussed spelling words, which we will use in place of the SMART Spelling program. 

VCOP & The Big Write
We will continue using the VCOP structure to support Writing sessions in our classrooms. It focuses on four main aspects of the writing process (VCOP) and provides children with the skills to improve their own writing through self-assessment.
VCOP stands for Vocabulary, Connectors, Openers, and Punctuation
Big Write sessions happen throughout units of work, providing students with the opportunity to write a full start-finish writing piece with support of the teachers and VCOP resources.
Cold Write sessions are where students are not given the opportunity to talk about the topic before writing and the learning aides are removed. It often comes with a whole school stimulus to get everyone talking. This is an opportunity for students to display what they know without the assistance from external resources.

Brenda Lycke
Literacy Leader

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Respect • Responsibility • Resilience • Courage

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Our long standing tradition of running Fun and Fitness will continue in 2025!

Fun & Fitness sessions will be run by me every Wednesday morning from 8 - 8.30am on the basketball court beginning on Wednesday 12th February. Sessions 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.

House points are given to those who attend.

During the sessions, 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, send me an email (mmasseni@smaltona.catholic.edu.au) or catch me in the yard before or afterschool on Mondays, Tuesdays or Wednesdays.

I'm looking forward to seeing you there!

Regards
Marg
Mental Health and Wellbeing Leader

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Respect • Responsibility • Resilience • Courage

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From the Events calendar you can save events directly into your phone's calendar with ease!

       

Click on the images below to download Updat-ed, or visit the App Store for iphones and Google Play for Androids. Search for Updat-ed.  

      

If you already have the current app there is no need to download it again. 



If you are signed up for the app and you haven't been getting the alerts, please contact me. 


Regards
Marg Masseni - mmasseni@smaltona.catholic.edu.au
Community News Curator

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Respect • Responsibility • Resilience • Courage

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Our chapter books have arrived for our 3-6 OCHRE novel studies and we are seeking some experts to help contact them asap.
If you can assist, please email me at blycke@smaltona.catholic.edu.au  and I can arrange to give you the materials.

Thank you
Brenda Lycke
Literacy 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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