Newsletter - 8th May 2024

Upcoming Events

9th May:  Athletics Carnival at Llanberris Reserve

12th May:  Mother's Day

13th May:  Mother's Day Liturgy and Afternoon Tea at 2pm

13th-17th May:  Family Week

20th May:  Golf Clinic, 2:25pm-3:10pm

24th May:  Parrwang Lifts the Sky Excursion, Ballarat Civic Hall

26th May:  National Sorry Day

31st May:  Netball Carnival

7th June:  School Closure Day - ReLate Wellbeing PD for Staff

10th June:  King's Birthday Holiday

13th June:  School Photos

19th June:  Inform and Empower Parent Session at Ballan

28th June:  Last Day of Term 2

Principal's Message

Dear Families,

It was wonderful to see so many families attend the ANZAC Day Ceremony at Bungaree and honour the sacrifices of those who have served. Thank you to Evie and Maeve for raising and lowering the flag and to Alexis, William, Quinn, Patrick, Adelaide and Genevieve for laying the wreath. A huge thank you to Emma Montano for making and donating the wreath for the students to lay. Today I received a card from the Bungaree and District Historical Society to thank us for our participation.  I am sure we will have this on our calendar every year!

Last week we celebrated 150 years of Catholic Education in the Ballarat Diocese. I was fortunate to attend a Mass and Dinner on Sunday evening to celebrate this with all current and past principals from the Ballarat schools. Several of the past and present principals spoke at the dinner and there was a lot of reminiscing too. 

I would like to finish by wishing all the mums and important women in your lives a very happy Mother’s Day for Sunday. We look forward to celebrating with you on Monday afternoon. 

Take care,

Clare

Mother's Day Afternoon Tea & Liturgy

Welcome Ellie

This week we welcome Ellie Dodd to our school.  It's fantastic to have Ellie, her mum Chelsea and dad Steven join the school community. We hope you find your time here enriching and enjoyable. 

Celebrating Catholic Education Week

Last week we celebrated Catholic Education Week with a family quiz that went home on Monday and was returned by Friday.  We hope you enjoyed matching the facts with a student or staff member’s name.  I think we all learnt something from completing it. Some facts we found out were…. 

• Leah has a farm in Landsborough and she likes to ride her quad bike there
• Evie’s middle name is Louise
• Genevieve’s favourite TV show is Thundermans
• Emilia likes to cook cupcakes
• Sue was Snow White and her husband was Prince Charming in a play at Primary School
• Chantelle ran the Olympic Torch in Wycheproof
• Tina worked for a non British royal family and travelled around to their palaces on a private jet
• Jenny fell off her bike when she was 8 and was badly concussed and chipped a tooth

On Friday the students went on a treasure hunt around the school to discover more about the history of St Mary’s Clarkes Hill.  They discovered….

• Our school was opened in 1946 and is 78 years old.
• The bricks at the front of the school with names on them were laid to celebrate the school’s 50th Anniversary and there’s a time capsule under them.
• The mural on our side fence was painted in 1996 to celebrate 50 years of Catholic Education at St Mary’s, Clarkes Hill. 
• The library extension was opened on 16th March 1986 by Monseigneur Henry Nolan.

Inform and Empower

Beginning this term, we are pleased to be partnering with the Inform and Empower Cyber Safety & Digital Wellbeing program. This means that your child/children will be tuning in to live streamed incursions (with their teachers) that focus on healthy and safe digital habits. The incursion content is all written and delivered by qualified teachers who are endorsed by the eSafety Commissioner as a Trusted eSafety Provider.

These sessions aim to help children better navigate the online world and become more aware, clever, brave and kind. They will focus on topics including navigating unwanted contact, cyberbullying, help seeking strategies, unsafe content, balancing screen time with "green time" and guidelines around sharing personal information. You will also be given resources to support conversations with your children at home.

On Wednesday June 19th there will be a parent information session at the Ballan Recreation Reserve Pavilion with parents from schools in Ballan and Gordon.  I have sent a flyer home for this and I would really encourage you to attend this session. Thank you to the parents who have already sent in their RSVP using the registration link bit.ly/stmarys2024.  You can also access this on the flyer attached to this newsletter.

Family Week

St Mary's is celebrating CatholicCare Victoria's Family Week during 13th-17th May, 2024.

Family Week is a time to reflect on the vital role of our families in our lives and in our communities.  It is a time to celebrate and strengthen family relationships.

This year's theme is "Building Compassionate Families and Communities".  Families are crucial to our wellbeing.  When families are compassionate, healthy, safe and nurturing, our overall wellbeing improves and that of our wider community.

Kalma, from the Engagement Team at CatholicCare, will visit us on Monday, 13th May, to speak to us about how CatholicCare support families and communities that face hardships in Victoria.

Winter Uniform

In Terms 2 and 3 students wear the Winter School Uniform.  In colder weather due to the vast difference between temperatures inside the classroom and outside, it is highly recommended that children have a coat to wear. The School Advisory Council will look towards creating a gender neutral student uniform policy. Until then, as stated in the 2024 parent handbook, here is a reminder of the winter uniform:

​​Winter Boys: Woollen jumper with school logo, melange grey pants, long sleeve gold shirt polo with school logo, grey socks and black shoes.

Winter Girls: St Mary’s Clarkes Hill checked tunic, long sleeve gold polo shirt with school logo, woollen jumper with school logo, black tights, black shoes, coat with school logo is optional, melange grey pants are optional. 

SPORT UNIFORM: 

Boys: Bottle green tracksuit jumper with logo, gold polo shirt with school logo, bottle green rugby shorts or bottle green track pants, white socks and sneakers. 

Girls: Bottle green tracksuit jumper with logo, gold polo shirt with school logo, bottle green track pants/rugby shorts/skorts/culottes/netball skirt/briefs, white socks and sneakers.

Jewellery

The only items of jewellery permitted are a watch and up to two simple stud earrings or sleepers worn in the ears. Ear spacers are not allowed. Jewellery which is unacceptable will be confiscated and only returned to a parent/guardian. Extreme hair colours and/or extreme hairstyles are not permitted. No nail polish can be worn at school.

Attendance and Punctuality

Just a friendly reminder that school starts at 8.50a.m. Please make sure you have your child or children here before that.  If you know your child will be late for school please send a message to the school mobile 0491 734 779.

Athletics Day

Our Athletics Day will be held this Thursday, 9th May at Llanberris Athletics Reserve, located in York St, East Ballarat. Students are required to be dropped off at the venue by parents/caregivers between 8:45 – 9.00am for a prompt 9.00am start.

Students will need to bring snacks, lunch, water, sunscreen and a hat. Years 3-6 students are timetabled to participate in a variety of events throughout the day and will move to each event in their age group.

Students in Years F-2 participate in a Tabloid Sports program.  A program of events was sent home with students on Monday.  Could parents please let Sue know when you are taking your child home?  Finish times are approx 1.30pm for the F-2 students and 2.30pm for Years 3-6.

NOTE: Don’t panic if you see an event happening when you drop your child off, the 1500m events are starting at 8.20am which our students are not competing in. 

Gardening

Thanks to Maeve and Evie who had the initiative to establish a succulent garden in our old bubble tap trough.  The succulents were selected and purchased at the Melbourne International Flower and Garden Show and have been carefully placed in the garden.  We will all excitedly watch them grow!

What's been happening in the South Room?

Our weeks are moving along quickly and each week brings new learning opportunities. Everyone is engaging with our Auslan sessions each day and we have already learnt so many signs. We enjoy practising our signing by watching videos and  playing games.

We have been learning about the importance of feedback and how we can use it to make improvements to our work. We watched a video called “Austin’s Butterfly” which demonstrated the importance of clear and specific feedback and that often we need to repeat things multiple times to improve. We have received feedback on our ANZAC speeches and will apply this to some upcoming speeches we will do. The last couple of weeks we have been working hard on our crime prevention competition entries. We are focusing on creating catchy slogans and posters. We are also taking on board feedback to improve our posters for the competition. 

During maths we have been working in groups focussing on addition and subtraction. Some of us have been using different strategies to subtract including the skip, jump and compensation strategies, using doubles and near doubles. Others have been adding and subtracting decimals and fractions. We have also completed a pre test on ‘time’.

North Room News

WELCOME Ellie to St Mary's.  We are so excited to have you join us!  We are looking forward to getting to know you a bit more each day. 

Ollie Online: Screen Time, Green Time

The children took part in a national program on Monday morning learning how to balance screen time and green time.  The hosts even mentioned us when we were online! Ellie, Genevieve and Skyler drew what they liked to do for green time, some of their ideas were reading, cuddling toys, and painting. Please see a parent information sheet attached. Ask the children what other topics were explored during the session. 

NCCD Information for Parents

Parents are asked to read the following information regarding the Nationally Consistent Collection of Data (NCCD) on School Students with Disability.  Should you require further information or have any questions, please contact Louise Haintz.

Child Safety Information

Child Safe Standard 9:  Child Safety in Physical and Online Environments

Schools must ensure that physical and online environments promote safety and wellbeing while minimising the opportunity for children, young people and students to be harmed.

Child Safe Standard 10:  Review of Child Safety Practices

Schools must ensure that implementation of the Child Safe Standards is regularly reviewed and improved.

Child Safe Standard 11:  Implementation of Child Safety Practices

Schools must have policies and procedures that document how schools are safe for children, young people and students.

This concludes our brief outline of the Child Safe Standards.  Further information is available on our website or please contact the school.