Dear families,

Last Saturday, our Year 6 students celebrated their Confirmation in a beautiful, personal liturgy led by Bishop Martin Ashe with Fr Michael. Many extended family members joined to support our young people as they became fully initiated into the Catholic faith.

Today, we celebrate the Feast of St Mary MacKillop, Australia’s first and only Saint. 

Our school was founded by the Sisters of St Joseph, the order to which St Mary belonged, and our school’s charism is based on her legacy.

A big Happy Anniversary to Fr Michael, who today celebrated his 44th year of priesthood.

We have had another big week of learning with our Year 1/2s experiencing a big city trip with visits to the Museum and Captain Cook’s cottage on Wednesday. 

Our seniors were visited by volunteers from Courage to Care. The students learnt about the impact of racism, prejudice and bullying and how important it is to take action when they see injustice in the world. What a great follow-up from our Confirmation celebration, when Bishop Martin addressed the importance of full members of our Catholic faith to go out into the world and do what is right and what we are called to do.

Photography

Please note that we do not permit parents to take photos during Masses, unless Fr Michael has expressly mentioned it is alright to do so.

In these cases, these photos should not be published or shared with others, especially if they contain images of other students for whom you are not responsible. 

Guardians must give express permission for the use of any image including their children.

If you were at Mass this morning, you would have noticed a photographer taking photographs during Mass. This is a parishioner who was taking photos to commemorate Fr Michael’s anniversary.

We have asked him to send us any identifying photos of our students. Only non-identifying photos will be shared with the parish.

School closures

Earlier this year, we shared closure dates with our community. Some were yet to be confirmed. Thank you for your patience.

There has been a change in our upcoming ones. The early September ones have had to move to early Term 4 due to facilitator availability. We will let you know these dates in the coming weeks, as one of our facilitators is currently overseas.

Thursday 18th September will now be an additional closure day. This is the second last day of this term. 

We have notified Camp Australia, who will let us know if they will be able to operate.

Have a great weekend,

Respect • Responsibility • Resilience • Courage

Respect • Responsibility • Resilience • Courage

Proudly supporting Bullying No Way: National Week of Action

Bullying No Way Week is a commitment being made by thousands of schools and supporters across the country. It provides an opportunity to demonstrate our commitment to bullying prevention. It gives us an opportunity to connect with students, staff and school communities to implement workable solutions to prevent bullying.

The theme for this year's campaign is Be Bold. Be Kind. Speak Up.

It takes a community to be brave and address bullying behaviours, within and beyond the school gate.

Students can be bold, kind and speak up to support others being bullied. While trusted adults are there to support children and young people learn how to be kind to each other and report bullying.

This Bullying No Way Week, we’re asking you to be bold and say something, be kind and support someone and be proud to speak up against bullying.

During the week we will be engaging students in meaningful discussions and activities aimed at promoting empathy, understanding and respect for diversity. We encourage families to take this opportunity to have open and honest conversations with your child about the impact of bullying and what they can do if they need support.

For more information about Bullying No Way Week and bullying prevention, visit the Bullying No Way website.

Regards
Marg Masseni
Mental Health and Wellbeing Leader

Respect • Responsibility • Resilience • Courage

Pre-Book Week Incursion: Thursday 14th August

Our students will enjoy a special live performance by Perform Education titled Treasure Hunt, inspired by this year’s CBCA Book Week shortlisted books.

P–2 performance: 9:30 am – 10:30 am
Grades 3–6 performance: 11:40 am – 12:40 pm 

Book Week 2025: Events for the Week

Monday, August 18: Read Aloud in the Library @ 8:45 am

Families with preschool-aged children are invited to a special storytime in the library after the bell.

Thursday, August 21: Dress-Up Day Parade

Our much-loved Book Week Dress-Up Parade will be held at 9:00 am on the netball court.
Students are encouraged to come dressed as their favourite book character.
Families are welcome to come along and watch the parade.
Prizes will be awarded for best costume in each year level - and even for best dressed teacher!

Other Student Activities

Throughout the week, students will take part in special lunchtime library activities and creative classroom rotations based on the 2025 CBCA Book Week Shortlisted Books. These fun, book-inspired lessons are designed to foster a love of reading and imagination.

We look forward to celebrating Book Week with our school community and encouraging our students to dive into the joy of reading!


Brenda Lycke
Literacy Leader
blycke@smaltona.catholic.edu.au

Respect • Responsibility • Resilience • Courage

What Is the Container Deposit Scheme?

The Victorian Government’s CDS Vic allows you to return eligible drink containers and receive a 10-cent refund for each one. These include most plastic, aluminium, and glass drink containers between 150mL and 1L in size.

Instead of keeping the refund, you can choose to donate it to our school, helping us fund valuable programs and resources.

How You Can Help?

There are two simple ways to support our school through the scheme:

Option 1: Donate Your Refund at Collection Points

• When you visit a CDS Vic return point, you’ll be asked if you want to donate your refund.
  
  
• Simply enter our donation code or search for our school name at the kiosk or on the app.
  
  
• All your refunds will be transferred directly to our school account!
  
  

Our donation code is: C2000063591

You can find your nearest return point at: https://cdsvic.org.au/locations 

Option 2: Send Eligible Containers to School

• We will be setting up a collection bin at school next to 3/4W so students and families can bring in eligible containers.
  
  
• Please make sure containers are:
  
  
• Empty and not crushed
  
  
• Have the 10c eligible label
  
  
• Not broken or overly dirty
  
  

We’ll return them in bulk, and the refunds will go straight to our school for our ‘Recycle and Grow’ fundraiser. All funds raised through container deposits will go directly towards keeping our outdoor environment thriving.

Why Get Involved?

• It’s an easy way to support the school without spending extra money.
  
  
• It teaches children about recycling and sustainability.
  
  
• Every 10c adds up – together, we can make a big difference!
  
  

Thank you for supporting our school and the environment. Let’s turn trash into treasure and make this initiative a big success!

Respect • Responsibility • Resilience • Courage

If your child is registered, please ensure their reading progress is being recorded in the online portal. Meeting the book targets is essential for successfully completing the challenge:

• Prep to Grade 2: Read at least 30 books

• Grade 3 to Grade 6: Read at least 15 books

All students who complete the challenge will receive an official certificate signed by the Premier of Victoria. In addition, students who read the most books in each age category (Junior, Middle, and Senior) will receive a special prize!

Let’s continue to encourage and support our students to achieve their reading goals and celebrate their love of books!

If you have any questions or need help with the online portal, please feel free to contact me at blycke@smaltona.catholic.edu.au 

Happy reading! 

Thanks 

Brenda lycke

Literacy Leader

Respect • Responsibility • Resilience • Courage

Our Environmental Leaders, Chalia and Austin, have been hard at work this term and would like to share what’s been going on around the school.

They began the term by planting 20 new trees in the yard with the help of 5/6K. These were donated to us from Greater Western Water as part of their Trees for Schools Program.

National Water Week Poster Competition

Each October, National Water Week inspires us to work together on water issues.

In Victoria, this year's theme is “Water Heroes: Save Every Drop”.

To help celebrate, children from Kinder to Year 6 are encouraged to design, draw, paint or use digital media to create an A4 or A3 poster that demonstrates how saving water makes you a hero. 

There are gift card prizes ranging from $25 to $100, and each year, a $500 prize is awarded to a school or centre for a sustainability-focused project.

Entries close: Friday, 12 September 2025 and can be submitted online or handed in/forwarded to Austin and Chalia.

For more information, click here

Whiteboard Marker, Texta & Pen Recycling

We have also set up a recycling system for our used-up stationery, which will be brought to Officeworks to be recycled or repurposed. 
What a fantastic initiative!

This is what we have collected over the last 6 weeks or so:

Respect • Responsibility • Resilience • Courage

Respect • Responsibility • Resilience • Courage