Dear Parents,

This Thursday and Friday, staff will be attending the annual staff conference and we remind parents that both days are pupil free days at our school. The focus of the conference is on Positive Behaviour. We will focus on our policies, tools and strategies as we strive to ensure the highest standards of behaviour in our students. I look forward to working with my wonderful team and enjoying time together.

Our whole school theme for weeks 6 and 7 is focused on forgiveness, kindness and our character strengths. Please take time to look at the slideshows in our newsletter, providing parents and staff with an understanding of the key concepts in the weekly theme. This enables students to engage in a deeper exploration and inquiry, assisting them to make the necessary links between learning and life.

Congratulations to all the students who competed in the District Swimming sports last Thursday. Thank you to the staff who supported our students on the day. What a team of champions!

All students who competed on the day did so with such great positivity and resilience. We have two students going on to zone and we congratulate Charlotte and Maddy on a wonderful effort.

Tomorrow I will travel with some staff to attend a Languages professional learning in Geelong. We continue to implement our whole school language approach through learning functional words and code switching. Please take the time to watch the video on our home learning site and in our newsletter and practise the words as a family.

Language Page

Learning a language is a place where we can put our learning dispositions into action. The adults in our community learning Indonesian alongside our students is a significant message that we can all use our learning powers to be effective learners together. Each week, there will be a few words to learn and throughout the week we all need to find opportunities to use these functional words in our daily lives.

Students have a daily focus on learning the words of the week.

Monday - students watch the video found on our home learning portal

Tuesday - they revise the video using gestures

Wednesday - students use the words in a sentence

Thursday - students use the words in a game or chant

Friday - we revise our learning from the week

Daily Reading

Read to your child every day! It makes a world of difference to their success in life and you will make moments matter as you sit, snuggle, explore, talk and learn together.

One cannot underestimate the value of reading. Reading is important as it helps everyone grow mentally, emotionally, cognitively and psychologically. Every book gives you an opportunity to learn new things and explore new ideas. By reading every day, you expand your understanding of the world around you: broadening perspective, building vocabulary, increasing brain capacity and making important connections.

At St Mary’s, it is an expectation that each child reads every night and gets their diary signed. Please make this a high priority in 2023 as we strive to make moments matter together. If you cannot do this, please let us know so we can support you and assist in making sure your child reads every day.

Key dates for the remainder of the term are outlined below:

Tuesday 7th March	Prep welcome night 5.30pm
Thursday 9th & Friday 10th March	Staff Conference (Pupil free days)
Monday 13th March	Labour Day Public Holiday (No School)
Tuesday 28th March	School advisory meeting 7pm
Wednesday 5th April	Holy Week Student Led Liturgy 2pm
Thursday 6th April	End of Term 1 Students finish at 1pm
Monday 24th April	Curriculum Day (Pupil free day)
Tuesday 25th April	Anzac Day public holiday (No school)
Wednesday 26th April	Students commence for Term 2

Yours in Partnership,

Gab

Elysium - Pupil Free Days Program