From Our Principal

Newsletter  ~ Term 2, Week 8, 2025

Principal's Message:

Dear Parents, Carers, Families and Friends of St Mel’s Primary School,

Last Sunday, our Sacramental Candidates, their sponsors, families, friends and parishioners gathered to celebrate the Sacraments of Confirmation and First Eucharist. Held on the Feast of Pentecost, when we remember the coming of the Gift of the Holy Spirit to the Apostles, Sunday was an opportunity for all to recall Baptismal promises and support our young children as they take this next step in their journey of faith. Bishop Shane Mackinlay, our Bishop of Sandhurst, concelebrated the Mass with Fr Ronald and Fr Ruel, and reminded us all of our call to use our gifts to make our parish, our community and our world a better place, as we follow in the steps and example of the Apostles to the early church communities. 

Please find following our newsletter for this fortnight.

Feast of St Anthony:

Happy Feast of St Anthony to all our families!

The Feast of St Anthony falls today and recognises St Anthony of Padua, patron saint of the poor, of sailors and fisherf, of priests and travelers. People offer prayers to St Anthony in the case of 'lost things': people, objects and spiritual goods. The parish of St Mel's has held traditional celebrations in honour and respect of St Anthony for many, many years. Feast day celebrations have been extremely well attended and celebrated across time.

Parish Celebration of St Anthony's Feast Day - This Sunday from 10:00am

All families are welcome to the Feast of St Anthony celebrations being held in our parish and hall this coming Sunday.

        10:00am Mass in St Mel's Church

                          Procession of St Anthony's Statue (in the grounds of the church)

                          Distribution of Breads 

         11:30am (approx) Entertainment & Shared Lunch in the St Mel's Hall

Come for all or part of these wonderful celebrations.

A reminder: The Feast Day organisers are seeking performers for the after-mass celebrations in the hall. Children, parents and carers able to offer a musical, dance or other 'act' are most welcome to come along on Sunday and offer your skills/gifts. 

Sacramental Preparation:

Many thanks to the Parish Sacramental Team for preparing the children for Confirmation and Eucharist: Mel Shiels, Sr Pam Barlow, Danae Napier, Elisabeth Holligan and Anthony Hollagan. Our Parish-Based Sacramental is a wonderful collaboration between our St Mel's Parish and our parish schools, St Mel's PS and St Anne's College.

Magnify Sandhurst' 

Every Student - Every Teacher - Every School - Every Day!

St Mel's PS Framework for Positive Behaviour & Support  

As an important aspect of our Framework for Positive Behaviour, our staff and students continue to implement our initial four school wide routines:

• Cue to Start
• Classroom Entry
• Classroom Exit
• End of the Day Classroom Exit

These routines also include how students move in and around our campus e.g., entering and exiting learning areas, entering and exiting assemblies and gatherings, moving between specialist subject sessions. Fidelity to these routines, and alignment across the school, is supporting calmer, quieter classrooms and enhancing student engagement in their learning.

Next week we welcome a coach from The Knowledge Society who will visit classrooms along with the members of our Leadership Team to observe these routines in practice and provide feedback to our teachers as we continue to hone our skills.

Teachers and students regularly revisit our Behaviour Curriculum which sits within our broader Framework for Positive Behaviour and Supports. 

For more information regarding the Behaviour Curriculum please contact your child/ren's Pastoral Group teacher.

MultiLit Literacy Approach:

Last week we received a visit from representatives from MultiLit and the Catholic Education Sandhurst Ltd Learning & Teaching Team to observe our Foundation to Year Two teachers deliver the InitiaLit literacy approach, including intervention programs. Our teachers received extremely positive feedback on their implementation fidelity from our learned visiting experts. Considering we have been implementing the new literacy approach as part of the Magnify Sandhurst curriculum reform for around 16 weeks, this early positive feedback is most welcome and a credit to our Staff Team.

Student Progress Reports:

Semester One Student Progress Reports will be released online via SIMONeverywhere  at the end of this term. Our teachers have been busy preparing reports at this time, in addition to their usual planning, assessment and teaching responsibilities. The Student Progress Reports contain an overview of student learning, progress and development for the first half of this year. 

Enrolment Enquiries & Applications ONLINE:

A reminder for parents and carers with students to commence Foundation in 2026 to go 'online' and complete the relevant Enrolment Application Form.

If you are aware of other members of the broader local community seeking enrolment please direct them to the ONLINE forms.

The NEW enrolment enquiry and application portal 'Enquiry Tracker' can be accessed via our St Mel's PS Website at: www.smshepparton.catholic.edu.au 

OR by clicking the following live link: https://www.smshepparton.catholic.edu.au/enrolment-application

We are continuing to accept enrolments for 2026.

Illnesses:

Thank you to parents and carers keeping ill children at home during this time. We have recorded higher levels of absence than usual due to the run of colds, coughs, flu and other illness circulating through the community. In addition to student absences we have also experienced a higher level of staff absence than usual at this time. Fortunately through the support of staff members working additional days or sessions, engagement of Classroom Relief Teachers (CRTs) and Leadership support usual school routines have not been impacted, with classes running as usual. Its been a very big few weeks for members of our Staff Team who have taken on additional work, which I am very grateful for. 

Become a St Mel's PS Community Volunteer

Our Volunteer Sign Up Form can be found here:

Staffing Update:

We look forward to welcoming Tegan Gibbings - Johns to our School Administration Team in coming weeks. Tegan joins us after working in the administration area of the birthing suite at Goulburn Valley Health and may be known to some of our families. Tegan will work in our Administration Office each Monday, Tuesday and Thursday. We are grateful for the ongoing support of the Catholic Education Sandhurst Ltd Office (Finance Team) with Karen Myers and Andrea Penmann who will support Tegan's induction to our administrative processes. Tegan commences on Monday 23 June.

Special mention to Maria Makin, who has continued to support our school community through the weeks of transitioning from our previous administration provision to our new provision to commence on Monday 23 June.

Microsoft 365 Migration

We continue to work through teething issues connected with our migration from Apple & Google products, platforms and apps to Microsoft365. I am grateful for the support of the St Mel's PS Staff Team as we continue to fully migrate.

Emails to St Mel's PS Staff [Repeat]:

Due to our Group Email issue, we will make greater use of SIMONeverywhere (PAM) notifications for informing parents and carers.

Parents and carers, please contact our school staff directly by their school issued email e.g., 

shicks@smshepparton.catholic.edu.au

dnapier@smshepparton.catholic.edu.au

dwalker@smshepparton.catholic.edu.au

mmakin@smshepparton.catholic.edu.au

etc...

School Dates:

Please check the Upcoming Dates & Events section of the newsletter regularly.

Some important religious dates coming up for our St Mel's Parish and School:

• Feast of Saint Anthony of Padua (Friday 13 June) - TODAY!
• Parish Celebration of the Feast of St Anthony (Sunday 15 June) - Mass in our church at 9:30am, followed by the Procession of St Anthony's statue, Distribution of Bread and a wonderful parish lunch and celebration in St Mel's Hall. All welcome!

Thank you for your ongoing support of your child/ren and our Staff Team.

Stephen 'Steve' Hicks

Principal

Did you know? ~