Dear Parents and Carers,

Thirty students nominated for Primary Leadership positions. Their willingness to serve is an example of the desire of our younger students to lead their peers and take on responsibility. St Mary’s educates students not just for the now but for the future. The 2024 College Secondary and Primary Leaders will be commissioned at the Opening Mass, Thursday 29th February.

Northern Region Manager

Sarah Parry the new MACS Northen Regional Manager will visit the College in Term Two. It is important for Sarah to hear about St Mary’s history, present context and plans for the College’s future.

MACS School Improvement Plan (SIP)

The College Executive worked with MACS staff on Tuesday 20th February to draft the 2024-2027 Strategic Plan. The MACS five spheres guide the process:

Religious Dimension
Learning and Teaching
Leadership & Management
Student Wellbeing
School Community

Goals, Key Improvement Strategies, Outcomes, Actions and Annual Action Plans are developed for the Strategic Plan. Staff will meet to continue to development and at the conclusion of the process the Strategic Plan will be released to the College community.

Australian Classroom Behaviour Standards

In my years of experience in education I have seen the wheel turn many times in pedagogical models, teaching practices, many curriculum changes and state and federal governments mandating school systems implement many varied programs in already overcrowded curriculum. Annually there is a world release on western countries literacy and numeracy standards. Their jobs of the future will require literacy and numeracy as essential criteria’s even with the advances in Artificial Intelligence (AI). The Educator October 2022 Teaching Behaviour: How Classroom Conduct Can Unlock Better Learning’, quotes Dr Tim McDonald, a specialist on the federal government’s Engaged Classrooms Initiative. The PISA results confirm his belief comments confirm his belief that teaching good behaviour should be a part of the formal curriculum. MACs Curriculum is moving to the more emphasis on the core areas of reading, writing and numeracy. The St Mary’s 2020-23 Strategic Plan focus was Improving Reading Outcomes for all Students.

Over 2022-2023 a St Mary’s Positive Behaviour Learning (PBL) team was formed to develop a PBL model for St Mary’s. PBL core outcomes are to create an educational environment where a safe, positive and supportive climate enables all students to learn and develop. The work completed by the PBL, and College Wellbeing Teams has taken pastoral care and behaviour expectations to a level where consistency is valued, are commonplace in classroom andbehaviour practices are tailored to the needs and age development of the students.

Students have a right to learn and flourish within our College community. Teachers have the right to teach. Dr McDonald’s belief in the importance of a consistent understanding of expectations and behaviours in and out of theclassroom parallels with the wonderful work the PBL team has done over the past two years. The Educator October 2022: ‘The most recent figures from a Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) study of 15-year-olds shows 43% of students said that they were in classrooms that were noisy and disruptive. According to the samedata, Australia ranks at 69th out of 76 countries on the ‘disciplinary climate index’, placing Australian schools among the least orderly in the world.

Dr Tim McDonald, a specialist on the federal government’s Engaged Classrooms Initiative, says these statistics show teaching good behaviour should be a part of the formal curriculum. So, what might this look like in practice?

Dr McDonald said a behaviour curriculum is “the expectations of behaviour that the school expects of all its Students. Included in a behaviour curriculum is a clear understanding of the basic routines of how students need to conduct themselves so that all students are safe and can learn in calm and orderly classrooms".

Dr McDonald’s behaviour curriculum is already active at St Mary’s.

MACS Vision For Instruction

In a future Marian there will be information for parents on the release of the Melbourne Archdiocese Catholic Schools Vision For Instruction – Flourishing Learners position statement. The document has been guided by educational experts from around the world to develop an evidenced and research-based approach to consistent MACS classrooms teaching. The Deputy Premier of Victoria the Honourable Ben Carroll a former student of Catholic education spoke at the release of what an excellent document it is. Mrs Gordon and I attended the media release last night in Melbourne. The photo of Mrs Brock and Nash Corradin is a snippet from the document.

The Best Version of Myself

Josh Porter is a St Mary’s student in Year 10. Josh is a member of Padua House. If St Anthony of Padua was alive today and read Josh’s reflection in Mrs Hooper’s English class, St Anthony would be proud of Josh’s maturity and the importance he is giving to his education. Josh’ s reflection:

Dear Mrs Hooper,

I hope this letter finds you well. My name is Josh Porter, and I am a Year 10 student at

St Mary's College Seymour. I am writing to help you understand a bit about myself

both inside the St Mary’s gates and away from the College.

To begin, I would like to tell you a little about my family life. My dad Ian, who was born and raised in New Zealand before moving to Australia for work when he entered his early adulthood, and he is a passionate sportsperson. My mum Sam, was born and raised in Australia, is a loving, kind and generous person. I have 3 siblings, Claudia who is 22 years old, Sienna 14 and Evan who is 11. My family is always on the move travelling around the place pursuing our passions and dreams.

On the topic of dreams, passions and ambitions, I am very passionate about AFL football.

I train 2-3 times a day consisting of 1 morning training and 2 to 3 after-school trainings, weekdays, this being solo, with teams and various coaches. AFL is something that I put a great lot of time into and am looking to take it to the highest level.

Aside from AFL, I enjoy playing Golf. Whilst football takes up a large portion of my life when I do have some spare time I like to go play golf whether that be with fellow

year 10 student Tom White, with my dad and brother or just by myself.

I enjoy golf because it's a time when I can be outside, socialise, relax and reflect. Whilst I am not very good at it, I have learned many new skills that I can implement into my football, school, and social life.

The ‘mamba mentality’ is a way of thought that I adopted a few years back. It consists of you consistently working hard every single day over a long period of time. You not only become better, but you get ahead of your fellow competitors and gain almost an advantage over the rest of them. Always getting better every day, and leaving every training session better than when you come are things, I drive myself to achieve. I believe that I have a constant hunger to be the best footballer I can be. The best version of myself I can be.

Thank you for taking the time to read my letter. I hope you learnt something about me, and I look forward to reaching new standards in my schooling.

Warm Regards,

Josh Porter

It is of no surprise that Josh has been selected in the Murray Bushrangers U16 squad for 2024. Some years ago, I gave some advice to a handy footballer I know that if you commit to both your schoolwork and your sporting dreams then both are complemented so that you become the best version of yourself.

Melbourne Archdiocese of Catholic Schools: St Mary’s College Parent/Carer Code of Conduct

Over the past decade there has been an increase in aggressive parental behaviours that schools deal with. Often it is communicated through emails. Any first-time mother and or father can probably testify that they walked into a world of the relative unknown when a new life arrived in to their world. Becoming a parent brings a new dimension to the word responsibility and there was no manual. We all love our children, and we express that bond in different ways. THE MACS Code of Conduct Policy applies to all schools in the archdiocese. A link to the code is attached. No one is perfect but aggressive behaviour understandably is not appreciated or welcome in any workplace.

https://www.smseymour.catholic.edu.au/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Enrolment-Policy-ParentGuardianCarer-Code-of-Conduct.pdf

May the weekend be kind to our College commumity.

Best wishes

Wayne Smith

Principal

DipEd (ACU) DipREd (ACU) Bed (ACU) GradCertEdAdmin (Edith Cowan)

GradDipREd (ACU) MEdAdmin (Charles Sturt) MTheoStudies (BBITAITE)

Director of Wellbeing

Mrs Allison Moore