Dear Families

Last newsletter we were looking forward to the Fete and now we are in the recovery phase celebrating how successful it was! The children still chat with me about it being their best day ever! It was great seeing everyone enjoying themselves. As I wrote in my Seesaw note there are so many people to thank and I know Louisa will do this on the Parents and Friends News page. Thank you to those families who have completed the feedback form about the Fete and early next year your responses will be collated as we explore our school fundraising options for 2024 and 2025. Your honest and positive feedback is very useful, as are your ideas for future events. Please keep the responses coming. Fete feedback form

Student Wellbeing Day

Term 4 is always action packed and this year is no exception. Yesterday we persevered around the rain and had our Student Wellbeing Day. The students participated in several activities in multi age groupings throughout the day. In the afternoon St Mary’s College kindly lent us Logue Hall, for our KABOOM Sports event. In 9 multi age groups the children participated in many activities rotating through running, throwing, jumping, dancing and kicking activities. In a word it was organised fun chaos! Luke and his team always do a great job and are always highly entertaining.

We were inside for the day, due to the weather and all our students are to be congratulated for the manner in which they conducted themselves and helped each other. We thank the staff; Mrs Kidman, Mr Addicoat, Miss Paula, Ms Earle, Miss Sarah, Miss Melissa, Mrs Abiad, Miss Kat, Mr Buttigieg and Miss Erica.

Across the road in the Specialist Campus Mr Speranza, our Learning and Teaching Leader together with Mrs Le Hunt (Maths and Learning Diversity Leader), Ms Earle (Religious Education and Faith Leader), Mrs Mason (Senior Literacy Leader) and Mrs Borgese (Junior Literacy Leader) led the staff as they planned for 2024. A productive day was had by all.

Year Two Sleepover

Last Thursday our Year 2 students began their preparation for school camp next year, with a school sleepover. Sadly I was unable to attend due to a Principal dinner, but loved getting updates and photos from the staff attending. When I visited the Year 2s on Monday morning to hear all about it, they looked older and wiser! We thank Miss Jacquie for organising the camp out and to Miss Raffaele, Mrs Borgese, Mrs Le Hunt, Mr Speranza and Miss Kat for supporting this exciting initiative. Thank you to Liz and Tara for serving 'camp style breakfast' Friday morning. I believe we had many tired little and big people on Friday night!

Australian Maths Competition 2023

Back in August we had some students sit the Australian Maths Competition. We are very proud of the students who participated and hope to have more next year. Please see the list of students from Mrs Le Hunt, in the Around the School page of the newsletter.

Year 5 Leadership Program

We are very proud of our student leadership model at St Mary’s Primary School, where student agency is front and centre. Last week our current Year 6 leaders shared their successes and challenges within their portfolios to the Year 5 students. Mrs Mason and Miss Romios have been working hard with the students as they have learnt about leadership, listened to a variety of guest speakers sharing their lived experiences. They learnt and experienced the importance of public speaking and the skills required to engage the audience and get how to get your message across.

Next week, I am really looking forward to hearing our Year 5 students speak to our Year 3 and 4 students about some of the portfolios that they are interested in applying for and what they can do for the community through these areas of leadership. These speeches together with their written applications are part of the process of applying for leadership. The staff together with the leadership team review each application and designate the students that will be working in the portfolios. The students work with a mentor to lead our school. We thank our current Year 6 students for their leadership and the many initiatives they have delivered as we look forward to the leadership our Year 6 leaders in 2024 will share with our community.

Thank you Drinks - Thursday 7th December 6:30-8:00pm

It is so important to acknowledge the many many people throughout the year who help make our school events the successes they . Thank you to those people who completed the form on the Seesaw note sent earlier in the week. We look forward to thanking you next Thursday evening 6:30-8:00pm in the Zen Zone. If you have been involved please fill in the form for catering purposes and join us. Attending the thank you drinks

Feast of the Immaculate Conception Mass - Friday 8th December 9:15am

Please join us for this Holy Day of obligation and our school Feast Day. As always if you join us for Mass please sit next to your child or children as we love it when our school family and parish community celebrate Mass together.

Upcoming dates

Tuesday 12th Dec - Up Day and Carols 5pm

This Sunday is the 1st week of Advent. This year we celebrate Advent - 'coming home':

Advent is an opportunity to take some time to prepare ourselves so we may enter the great feast of Christmas open and spiritually aware. The four Sundays prior to Christmas each have a theme for us to focus on to help us in this preparation, with the Advent wreath and candles sharpening our focus and attention and thus helping us to ‘stay awake’. We focus on hope, peace, joy and love as we prayerfully fine tune ourselves to welcome Jesus more deeply into our hearts.

By Lisa Hughes, Formation Officer, Catholic Identity at Melbourne Archdiocese Catholic Schools (MACS).

Monday 11th December to Friday 15th December

Our Year 6 students have their Big Day In on Monday and then their Graduation Mass and celebration evening on Thursday 14h December.

Friday 15th December 9:15am - Please join us for our end of year celebratory Mass

The students will be dismissed at 1:00pm, with our traditional guard of honour for our Year 6 students at 12:50pm. Parents and carers very welcome.

School Advisory Council

Last week we had our final School Advisory Council. (SAC) meeting for the year. We thank Claude Lam for chairing the meetings and Father Jerome, Anthony Speranza, Ben Merlin, Hywell Sebastian and Ruth Trevaks for their guidance, wisdom and support throughout the year. We farewell Ben Merlin and together with his wife Nicky and daughters Audrey and Josie thank them all for their support of our school and for all that they have given to the community over several years. If you are interested in learning more about being a member of the SAC please read the Around the School section of the newsletter.

Enjoy the last weeks of Term and we continue to pray for peace around the world for all.

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

Mrs Cathy Ferrari

TheirCare Program