Dear Families

Thank you all for your concern regarding our recent water damage. It appears that the firehose pipe has been damaged and leaking slowly. Due to the force of this pipe it eventually erupted last Thursday evening causing damage to our Year 1 classroom, lift well, soft rebound surface under the shade sails and the concrete near the black gate. Fortunately we are insured and the work will be starting soon. So many people have offered to help if needed, which is the community that we are. Thank you also to many of you for checking in on the staff and Anthony and myself, your care and support is much appreciated. I will keep you updated accordingly.

Inter House Athletics Carnival

On a brighter note we had a very successful Inter House Athletics Carnival at BR Bricker Reserve Moorabbin. We look forward to taking on the staff, student and community feedback to improve the format each year. It was wonderful having the whole school together experiencing the highs and setbacks involved on the athletics track. Winning and losing graciously are valuable skills to experience and learn from. My highlight was when Ava in Year 5 came over and thanked me for the day, of her own volition.

At assembly on Friday we announced the following:

A wonderful day of team spirit, resilience, perseverance and great athleticism was had at our Inter House Athletics carnival. The scores were very close, with the Spirit Award being difficult to decide but we couldn’t go past the wonderful chant they constructed, so the 2023 House Spirit Award goes to Yellow!

Stand up Yellow and let us enjoy that chant once more!

The overall Athletics Award this year was also very close…

Yellow House came in 4th overall.

Blue followed closely

Red House were next

Green House were the overall winners of the events.

Congratulations Green.

A fantastic effort from everyone!

Record Breaking Swimmers

Celebrating Prep learning with Olivia and Ellie

Creations in the Zen Zone

School Uniform update

We are excited to announce that with support from the School Advisory Board and Parents & Friends, we have some additions to our School Uniform wardrobe. From Term 2 onward students may wear navy trousers instead of, or in addition to the Winter Tunic. In addition to the skivvy, the students will be able to wear a long sleeved shirt with a pointed collar or a Peter Pan collar with their winter pants or tunic. In Term 4 our students will be able to wear a short sleeved light blue shirt with tailored navy longer length shorts, as an alternative to the school dress. We are currently working with Primary School Wear PSW and will include the storyboard in our next newsletter. Please note that we are offering more uniform choice to be inclusive of all our students and to ensure that everyone feels comfortable.

Catholic Week 2023 and St Patrick’s Day

Tomorrow our Community Leaders, Wellbeing Leaders and Social Justice Leaders are celebrating St Patrick's Day at St Patrick’s Cathedral Melbourne and then eating our lunch at Flagstaff Gardens with lots of Primary and Secondary students from Catholic Schools across Melbourne. This is the first time we've had this usually annual celebration in four years. I am really looking forward to this excursion and thank Charmaine for joining us. The rest of the school will be celebrating by wearing a touch of green on Friday. Happy St Pat's Day to everyone.

This week we have celebrated Catholic Education Week culminating in the St Patrick’s Day mass and celebration in the gardens. Catholic Education Week is an opportunity for all Catholic schools in the Archdiocese of Melbourne to celebrate their Catholic identity and the important role they play within their local community. The theme for 2023 is ‘Forming lives of faith, hope and love in the light of Christ’. The teachers have been working with a number of resources available on the Catholic Education Week website https://catholiceducationweek.com to support schools in their celebrations and being supported by Ms Earle our Education in Faith Leader.

Forming lives of faith, hope and love in the light of Christ

Forming lives – Catholic education seeks to provide the young with the best kind of education possible, one that fosters a formation of the whole person that is deeply and enduringly humanising.

Faith, hope and love – Catholic education forms individuals with more than just skills, but with the virtues to live life as transformative agents in our communities. By cultivating a maturing of faith and the intellectual life through the modelling of good relationships, Catholic students are prepared for living fruitfully in the world.

In the light of Jesus Christ – Christ is our inspiration, the very life of our purpose as Catholic educators. Everything we do is illuminated by this.

(MACS 2030: Forming Lives to Enrich the World, p. 8)

Connecting with the wider community

Our Year 4s have been wonderful ambassadors for our community and helping our younger friends at Papilio Early Learning Centre St Kilda. It has been great hearing the activities they have been doing with the children and how much they have gained from the visits. In addition to this our Year 3 students have been reading with some Year 11 social Justice Leaders from St Mary’s College. Watching the students interact and discuss the shared books, highlights the importance of partnering with the wider community.

NAPLAN

Today our Year 3 and Year 5 students commenced NAPLAN with the written assessment. It is important to remember that these assessments are not designed to be stressful for the students but to give an informed snap shot of each student's learning at this point of time. We should receive the information from the assessments next Term, which allows teachers to strategically target learning to grow each child. We also look forward to the whole school data, which will inform our literacy and numeracy planning and teaching for 2024 and beyond.

Camp Rumbug

Next week our Year 5 and Year 6 students are participating in an outdoor adventure Camp in South Gippsland. Mrs Angela Mason, Ms Denise Santamaria, Ms Anastasia Romios, Justin Buttigieg and myself will be accompanying the students. I thank the staff for leaving their families to give our students the opportunity to attend Camp. Our Deputy Principal Mr Anthony Speranaza will be in charge of the school from Wednesday 22 March to Friday 24th March inclusively. Please contact him if you need to. It is always a privilege to spend time with our senior students and their teachers, whilst going out of our comfort zone and sharing lots of laughs. We look forward to sharing our adventure with you in our next newsletter. Please ensure that old clothes are packed and practice putting your sleeping bag into its cover!

Art at SMPS

Enjoy these art pieces and we thank Mrs Rosemary Perri for embracing ourYear 5M students' inner Picasso

Finally please keep Mrs Catherine Le Hunt, her husband Phil and daughters Chelsea and Georgia in your prayers and thoughts. Sadly Catherine’s father Anthony passed away early last week. Catherine please feel the love and support of the community at this time.

Take care and wishing God's blessings and peace upon each of you.

Mrs Cathy Ferrari

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