Newsletter - 14th February 2024

Upcoming Dates

21st & 28th February:  Foundation students rest day

20th February:  School Closure Day - Staff Professional Development:  Structured Literacy

21st February:  Parent-Teacher-Child Conversations for Senior Students

23rd February, 1st, 8th, 15th & 22nd March:  Swim & Gym Program at Ballarat Aquatic & Lifestyle Centre

1st March, 3:30pm:  SAC Meeting

11th March:  Labour Day Public Holiday

13th-25th March:  Naplan Testing Period

23rd March:  Clarkes Hill Community Fair

28th March:  Last Day of Term 1; End of Term Assembly 1:30pm

29th March:  Good Friday

31st March:  Easter Sunday

15th April:  Term 1 starts; School Closure Day - Staff Professional Development

16th April:  Students return to commence Term 2

Principal's Message

What a great start we have had to the school year! Thank you to everyone for making me feel so welcome and contributing to this. 

The Year 3/4/5/6 students had a wonderful camp at Anglesea last week and a huge thanks must go to Sue and Jenny for making this happen.  At the same time, the F/1/2 students participated in some fun activities back at school, thanks Louise for organising these and to the parents that helped.

This week we have had parents dropping off flyers for the Community Fair and Playgroup, I really appreciate this.  I feel very lucky to be working within such a supportive community. We are hopeful that Kelly will be back soon and are grateful to Lyndal and Sarah for covering her duties during this time.

Kind regards,

Clare

Ash Wednesday / Beginning of Year Mass

We were delighted to have Fr Sajan celebrate Ash Wednesday and our Beginning of Year Mass at school today.  Thank you Sue for preparing this Mass and thank you to those who could come along and join us.

Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of the Church’s season of Lent. The marking of the ashes on our foreheads on this day is a public expression of our faith and humility. It is a time of prayer, fasting and almsgiving. Through prayer, we come closer to God so that we are better able to realise the promises made for us at our baptism, to live justly as Jesus teaches us. Fasting joins us in solidarity with people experiencing poverty who often have no choice but to go without the basic human needs. Sharing what we have, or ‘almsgiving’, is a sign of our commitment to justice and our thanks for all that God has given us.

Lent prepares us for the season of Easter, the most important time in the Church’s calendar. By praying, fasting and giving alms, we are reminded of Jesus’ death and resurrection. Jesus brought the promise of hope to all people so that we may, “have life and have it to the full” (John 10:10). As we live into that fullness, may we also be challenged to act with love and hope, now and for all future generations. (Caritas website)

Punctuality

Just a reminder that school commences at 8.50a.m. and it is important for you to have your child/children at school before 8.50a.m.  It can be disruptive to others and to your child’s learning to arrive late.

Pastoral Care 

This week we welcome Tina back as our pastoral care worker.  Tina works with students, families and staff at St Mary’s every second Thursday. Her dates are in the calendar.  If you haven’t met Tina or you’d just like to say hi, come in on Thursday morning when you drop off your child and have a cuppa. 

Student Free Day - Structured Literacy Professional Development Day:  Tuesday, 20th February

Tuesday, 20th February is a student-free day as staff will be attending a Structured Literacy Professional Development Session.

Parent/Teacher/Child Conversations

F/1/2 - Louise will be in touch with parents of students in Years F/1/2 to arrange a time for this conversation. 

3/4/5/6 - If you have a child in Years 3/4/5/6 please book in a time with Sue and Jenny on PAM.  These will be held next Wednesday 21st February. The purpose of the conversations is to discuss how the children have settled into school, any concerns, what we need to know to help your child learn best and to chat about any assessments that may have been completed. 

Camp

A fabulous time was had by all at camp last week.  I am sure there would have been some very tired children (and teachers) on Friday night.  A huge thank you to Jenny and Sue for their work organising the camp, preparing the students for camp and of course, ensuring everything went smoothly at Anglesea. I hope the parents have heard all about canoeing, stand-up paddle boarding, bodyboarding, bike riding and more.  

Help Needed

Is there a parent that could help out with a run to the tip for us? We have some old equipment, shelving and small tables that we need to get rid of.  We are happy to pay the cost of the tip fees. You would need a trailer to take it all.  Please contact the office if you can help.

Swim and Gym

Our Swim and Gym classes will begin next Friday, 23rd February and continue every Friday until the end of term.  We will be leaving school at 11.15a.m. and returning at 2.15p.m.  If you are planning to pick your children up from the Aquatic Centre please let your child’s teacher know. 

School Advisory Council

Our first School Advisory Council meeting is scheduled for Friday, 1st March, at 3.30p.m. in the multi-purpose room. Everyone is welcome!  For those new to the school and wondering what the School Advisory Council’s role is, here is some information from the DOBCEL website:

The School Advisory Council is intended to: 

• provide a voice for members of the school community 
• actively support, in collaboration with the local parish, the Vision and Catholic Identity of the School 
• provide input into and support for strategic planning and directions 
• actively support and promote child safety practices including the National Safeguarding Principles for Child Safe Organisations 
• provide input and contribute advice in the processes of school improvement and school review 
• support the Principal in meeting his/her responsibilities and accountabilities for educational outcomes, effective stewardship of resources, and annual reporting 
• actively support the Principal in the encouragement of family engagement 
• support the ongoing sustainability of the SAC and its members in its succession and learning.

Playgroup

St Mary’s Playgroup will be recommencing on Tuesday, 27th February between 9.00am and 11.00am.  Thanks to Bryden and Melinda for organising this and distributing flyers to kindergartens.  

LFBF - Little Feet, Big Footprints

Once again, our Year 6 students will be participating in “Little Feet, Big Footprints” this year. Next Monday, 19th February, Emilia, Evie, Leah and Maeve will join other Year 6 children from St. Brigid’s Ballan, St. Michael’s Daylesford, St. Patrick’s Gordon and St. Augustine’s Creswick to participate in a ‘getting to know each other’ day. We will be at Major League to play a number of sports and have lunch together. 

The purpose of this initiative is to give our young people the opportunity to:

•   grow deeper in self-awareness
•   expand their social and learning networks
•   grow in their leadership capacity
•   effect change in their immediate and broader communities

This initiative will continue to evolve throughout the year with regular opportunities for the students to engage with each other, both face to face and virtually. We see tremendous benefit and opportunity in this initiative for all of our Year 6 students, and look forward to them growing their self awareness, networks, and leadership capacity.

Student Absence

A reminder to parents to advise the school when students are away.  This can be done by either entering the information into PAM or by calling the office on 5334 5820.  You will need to provide a reason as to why the student is absent.   It is also worthwhile to continue to RAT test, considering there is still covid amongst the communities.

F-2 News

Welcome to St Mary's Genevieve and Skyler!  We love having you here with us at school.

Last week, while the Years 3-6 students were on camp, the F-2 students had the school to themselves.

Adelaide: Louise made us work hard every day but we had a fun ending each day too.  We had a special treat lunch and movie on Wednesday; we celebrated Skyler's birthday on Thursday with cupcakes and her mum Jess even painted our faces! 

Jeremiah:  Genevieve was a butterfly, Adelaide had a flower crown, Skyler was a cheetah and I was a dinosaur.

Genevieve:  On Friday we had donuts and made lanterns for the Lunar New Year. Each animal had a year named after them by the Chinese Emperor by winning a race across the river.

Skyler:  The lucky colour for the Lunar New Year is red.

Thank you Jess and Billie for painting our faces.

Years 3-6 Camp

The Years 3-6 Camp was held at Araluen Lutheran Camp, Anglesea last week.  By all reports, the students willingly engaged in all activities and made the most of the three days out in the fresh air.  Students were kept busy with surfing, boogie boarding, paddle boarding, bike riding and much more!  It was a jam-packed camp and the students were exhausted by Friday afternoon. 

Here are a couple of comments to give parents an idea of what took place:  

Kamden:  My favourite activities at camp were bike riding and boogie boarding. I met some boys from St. Michael's, they were really nice to Will and I. I liked the chips and flat head, but it was not better than dad's. The eggs were a bit sloppy.

Something that was annoying was the girls ding dong ditching us and Pat turned on the lights so we woke up at 1 am!!   I loved camp!

Quinn:  I loved camp because of the activities. All of the activities were my favourite but the one I loved most was paddle boarding.  Stand up paddle boarding was my favourite because you got to stand up, unlike canoeing.  It was great to stand up because you got to fall in and you could wobble the board so the  other person falls off the back.

Camp was also great for me as I struggled at times but I got through it.  My struggles were going to sleep at night and also canoeing. But I enjoyed it.

Shrove Tuesday Facts

Why do we celebrate Shrove Tuesday and why do we make and eat pancakes?

Shrove Tuesday is a Christian festival celebrated in many countries around the world. It is always on the Tuesday before the beginning of Lent which is Ash Wednesday. Lent is a period of 40 days leading up to Easter. During Lent, we remember when Jesus went into the desert for 40 days to fast and pray.

The name comes from the old word ‘shriving’, which means to listen to someone’s confession and forgive them. In Anglo-Saxon England, Christians would go to church on Shrove Tuesday to confess and clean their soul. In other words, they would be ‘shriven’.

Traditionally during Lent, Christians would give up rich, tasty foods such as butter, eggs, sugar and fat (some Christians continue to do so, in fact). Shrove Tuesday was the last chance to eat them.

In other countries, Shrove Tuesday has different names. In Germany, for example, it’s called ‘Fastnacht’ (meaning ‘Eve of the Fast’) and in Iceland it’s called ‘Sprengidagur’ (meaning ‘Bursting Day’). In France and some other parts of the world, the festival is called ‘Mardi Gras’, from the French phrase meaning ‘Fat Tuesday’. And for many people, Mardi Gras means party time…

Pancake recipe!

Fancy joining in the fab pancake fun? Then get whisking and flipping with this pancake recipe.

Ingredients:

1 egg                                                                                               

1 cup of milk

1/2 teaspoon of vanilla essence 

1 cup self raising flour

1/4 cup of caster sugar                                                     

Butter for frying, plus extra to serve

Maple syrup to serve

Step 1:

Whisk eggs, milk and vanilla together in a jug.  Sift flour into a large bowl.  Stir in sugar.  Make a well in the centre.  Add milk mixture.  Whisk until just combined.

Step 2:

Heat a large non-stick frying pan over medium heat.  Grease pan with butter or spray with cooking oil.  Using 1/4 cup mixture per pancake, cook two pancakes for 2 minutes or until bubbles appear on the surface.  Turn and cook for a further 1-2 minutes or until cooked through.  Transfer to a plate.  Cover loosely with foil to keep warm.  Repeat with remaining mixture, greasing pan with butter or cooking oil between batches.

Traditional toppings are lemon juice and sugar. But you can also try chocolate spread, peanut butter, fruit, honey, whipped cream or a healthy dollop of yogurt. Tuck in and enjoy!

Birthdays

A belated birthday greeting to William (Will) who celebrated his birthday on 8th January during the holidays.  We hope you had a great day, Will!

Happy birthday to Skyler, one of our newest members, who celebrated her 6th birthday last week on the 8th of February. The juniors were lucky enough to have Skyler's mum and sister visit to paint their faces to mark this special occasion.  

Our next birthday will be celebrated on Wednesday, 21st February.  Alexis is turning 11 on this day!  Happy birthday Alexis, we hope you celebrate it in style!

SchoolTV

Dear Parents and Caregivers,

St Mary's is very excited to introduce a new initiative to help support the wellbeing of our students and better resource key staff. After all, happy and well supported students are better equipped to learn and succeed.

Because parenting doesn’t come with instructions, SchoolTV is an online wellbeing resource that can support you in the challenges of modern-day parenting. This award-winning resource helps build relationships, foster connections, enable understanding and break down barriers to navigate a pathway towards better mental health and wellbeing for young people. It can assist you in starting conversations on topics that are sometimes awkward or difficult to tackle.

Parenting is a learning journey and SchoolTV supports families by providing credible information from trusted sources offering practical strategies with a focus to empower confidence when difficulties arise.

We invite you to visit our SchoolTV site and view the content. Discover a host of interesting topics featuring interviews with leading youth wellbeing experts and researchers from around the world offering hours of relevant and practical information. Additionally, each topic includes a compilation of related resources from key organisations providing a comprehensive stream of content. Resources include informative fact sheets, articles, apps, books, podcasts, websites, and other videos - all related to a single topic, in one place for easy access!

Start exploring SchoolTV today!

Child Safety Information – all on website

As is stated on our Vision and Mission, our schools ‘…are committed to the safety, wellbeing and inclusion of all children and young people.’ Our procedures and policies are now in line with the 11 Child Safe Standards and can be found on the St Mary's website under the tab – Child Safety.

Child Safe Standard 1:   Culturally Safe Environments

Organisations establish a culturally safe environment in which the diverse and unique identities and experiences of Aboriginal children and young people are respected and valued.

Child Safe Standard 2:   Child Safety and Wellbeing is embedded in Leadership, Governance and Culture

Child safety and wellbeing is embedded in organisational leadership, governance and culture.  Our Child Safety and Wellbeing Policy confirms the school's commitment to child safety and includes a plan to ensure a child-safe culture is championed and implemented across the school.