St Mary's Primary School Newsletter Term 4 Week 11

Acknowledgement of Country

St Mary’s Primary School respectfully acknowledges the Traditional Owners of the
Wimmera Mallee area, the Wotjobaluk, Jaadwa, Jadawadjali, Wergaia and Jupagalk
peoples, and pays respect to the ongoing living cultures of First Peoples.

As partners in Catholic Education and open to God’s presence, we pursue the fullness of life for all.  St Mary's Catholic Primary School  is committed to the safety and well-being of all students.

Key Dates

Principal's Report

Welcome to Term 4 Week 11

Hello families, this is our final newsletter for 2023. As we finish school in this fourth week of Advent, it is fitting we finish with the week of Love. 

At Christmas time, Christians believe that God’s greatest gift of love was Jesus, the Savior of the world. As we read the Christmas narrative in the Gospels, an angel appears to Joseph telling him that he will have a son and instructing Joseph to name his son Emmanuel, meaning ‘God with us’. Jesus was born a baby, fully God and fully human, and taught us how to love by living with us on earth and being an example to us.

Jesus taught us to love everyone, no matter what.

He taught us to love our enemies.

He taught us not to discriminate, not to label people, not to play favourites.

He taught us to welcome strangers into our homes, to feed people who are hungry, to give clothes to those who need clothing, to visit people in prison and to give a drink of cold water to those who are thirsty.

Simply put, he modelled what it means to really love our neighbours as ourselves. May we follow this model as we strive to be God's instrument through this Christmas season. 

Prayer

God of all love,
Thank you for loving us. Thank you for the Advent and Christmas season, which reminds us of how to love others as ourselves. Be with all of our friends families through this time, keep tham safe and reveal to them through us that they too are loved.
Amen.

This week we formally farwelled our Grade 6 students at our Graduation Dinner on Wednesday night and Graduation Mass on Thursday night. For Tom, Ollie, Tyson, Carly, Finn, Phoenix, Eljah, and Eedie, congratulations on your achievements and thank you for your contributions throughout your time here at St Mary's. May you be blessed and filled with grace and opportunites for your next chapter in secondary education. 

We also farewell this week staff leaving or taking leave. To Jayden Smith, Eilish Flagg, Claire Schulz and Victoria McPhee, thank you for your professionalism and all you have offered St Mary's this year. We hope 2023 is amazing for you, and we look forward to those returning from leave in 2024. 

With staff leaving, we welcome new staff for 2023. Marg Clancey will be our Grade 1/2 Wheat teacher and Andy Malcolm will be the Grade 5/6 Lentils teacher.  Ongoing teachers Clare Letts will be our Grade 3/4 Barley teacher with Louise Kemp our Foundation/1 Chickpeas teacher. Specialist teachers Jess Boyd will continue with Japanese, and Fiona Holland with Music, Technology and Art. Meg Werner also returns from family leave to be with us one day a week next year. Our terrific learning support staff - Deb Templeton, Sarah-Jayne Holland, Bec Lewis and Bron Orval will be on deck, along with new member Alyssa Muller and as always, fabulous Paula Winsall in Administration and Peter Jess our gardner and maintenance. St Mary's is so blessed to have you all on staff. 

Whilst it has been a challenging year with lots to navigate, it has also been one of great achievements and memories, especially for our Grade 6 graduates.

To the families, friends and extended community of St Mary's, I wish you all a safe and blessed Christmas, and look forward to seeing you all again in 2023. 

Travel safely with God's blessings,

Nerrida

2023 school return and upcoming events

School book pickup and uniform purchases will be available on Friday 27th January from 8:30 am to 12:30 (there will be no one available after this time as all staff will be in meetings)

Students return on Monday 30th January

Our Getting to Know You meetings will be held on Tuesday 7th February and Thursday 9th February from 3:30pm to 5:30 pm.  Bookings will be able to be made for a 10 minute time slot with your child's teacher and specialist teacher through PAM, and available to book from Monday 30th January. 

We will have our Beginning of Year liturgy on Friday 10th February, at which our 2023 school leaders will be inducted and presented with their badges.  Further details will be given early next year. 

For other dates in the term, please see the key dates at the beginning of the newsletter

School Closure Days 2023

For your planning purposes, the following days have been designated as school closure days for 2023.  These student free days are important for staff to undergo professional development and complete necessary requirements for compliance. We are all on-going learners! Below is information from DOBCEL which has asked Principals to share with you. 
DOBCEL Student free guidelines and procedures
Student free days are days where students do not attend school within the gazetted attendance
period, but are designated for staff professional development, school professional development
activities, planning and/or report-writing. Each year the first day of term one and the last day of term four, will be a student-free day in all schools.
A request will be made to the Governing Authority (ie DOBCEL), regarding the scheduling
of up to six student-free days each year to meet local school needs, based on the school’s annual
School Improvement Plan, which must include a day with a Religious Education or Catholic Identity theme.

Parents, please note that during the year, there may be interruptions, presenter unavailability or other valid reasons as to why these dates may change. If so, staff and families will be given as much notice as possible if these dates are to change. 

The theme for each closure day aligns with the development of the 2023 School Improvement Plan, which has been designed in collaboration with Catholic Education Ballarat, following the 3 Key Priorities of the school's 5 year Action plan (developed from the School Review completed in 2021) 

Key Priority 1 : Cultivating staff knowledge and ensuring skills are transferred into classroom practice to create a holistic approach to engage students, families and all staff.

Key Priority 2: Empowering students to be motivated and respectful learners who are developing the skills to be reflective leaders

Key Priority 3: Improving communication to better partner with all stakeholders about how individualised student learning and wellbeing occurs and how they can be involved.

The closure dates for 2023 planned for are:
Tuesday March 14 (Note: day after Labour Day holiday long weekend)      RE - Enhancing Catholic School Identity and Fullness of Life Curriculum

Thursday June 1    Student and Staff Well Being

Monday July 10     ( Note: First day of Term 3)  Learner Agency

Wednesday August 30  Parental engagement through curriculum

Thank you families, for your anticipated support of staff for these days. 

Student Leadership 2023

Congratulations to our four new school captains for 2023- Mia, Evan, Bianca and Blake, we look forward to working with you and all our school leaders next year. (All captains-no vice, too close to call, all terrific candidates!!)

A big thank you to Phoenix, Eljah, Finn and Eedie for your leadership as Captains and Vice Captains this year. Thank you to all our grade 6 cohort, including Ollie, Tommy, Tyson and Carly for your work as House Leaders this year. To all Grade 6’s, your mentorship of the younger students, including your buddies is greatly appreciated. 

Congratulations also to 2023 Gold house leaders Olivia, Zoe, Blake, Evan and Colby, to Red House Leaders Arielle, Campbell and Bianca, and Blue House Leaders Mia, Kendra, Jesse and Fergie, we look forward to working with you closely in all House events for 2023.

There will be a formal induction of the school leaders early next year in Term 1 where students will be presented with their badges and parents will be invited. Congratulations again to all!

Rotary Breakfast

Thank you to John Tonkin and all involved in Rotary Warracknabeal for our yummy bacon and egg muffin breakfast on Wednesday morning. It was greatly appreciated and a lovely way to end the year. Thank you staff for the early morning start (with the late night ahead with Graduation Dinner as well!)

Christmas activities and Japanese Calligraphy

Students are still busy in classes, with a Christmas theme amongst many. From Japanese calligraphy, craft activities making reindeer hats, to coding in Scratch making Christmas characters come to life on the screen!

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Graduation Mass and Stomp

Thank you to all families for attending the Graduation Mass and STOMP presentation. It was a great evening and fabulous to have a full church and then lots of people back at school to watch the terrific dance perfomance by the students.  Thank you to Fr Matt for presiding over the Mass, and  to Clare and Bron and all involved in its preparation. 

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Code Red Day - Now Catastrophic

Catastrophic Fire Rating Days
In September 2022, Australia introduced a new fire danger forecasting system, the Australian Fire Danger Rating System (AFDRS). A nationally consistent system will more accurately predict fire danger and produce clear, simple messages for communities. Victoria has been using a 6‐tier system for fire danger ratings, from ‘Low’ or ‘Moderate’ to ‘Code Red’. The AFDRS will replace the
Victorian system this year and uses 4 tiers of fire danger, from ‘Moderate’ to ‘Catastrophic’
In response to the updated state Victorian Fire Risk register, St Mary’s is rated CAT 4. This means that our school must close on days forecast as ‘Catastrophic’, by the Bureau of Meteorology within our designated fire district. The decision to close will be confirmed by the Emergency Management Commissioner no later than 1.00 pm the day prior to the closure. Once we have received confirmation of the closure we will contact you through SMS, our Facebook page and email before the end of the school day to confirm this. 

Child Safe Standards - in child friendly language

During the transition day this week, our Grade 6 students worked with Ms Holland and Ms Flagg to look at the Child Safe standards and create statements in child friendly language for all students at St Mary's.  These will be revisited early next year with our 2023 school leaders. In consultation with students from all year levels, a final version will be created and posters put up around the school and in all classrooms, so everyone is fully aware of the child safe standards for our school.  Here is the draft the students have currently created, which is worded in a way they can understand. 

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