Principal's Message

Tonight's welcoming picnic and BBQ is always a wonderful celebration as a school community.  There is always an exciting positive vibe throughout the night with parents catching up and meeting new people as well as our students playing happily with each other. It is one of the highlights on our events calendar. 

We know at SMDP that parents, families, and carers are a child's first and most important teachers. When families and schools work together children’s learning is enhanced.

Partnerships for learning and wellbeing are about parents and carers, schools and communities working together to ensure that every parent can play a positive role in their child's learning, school community, sport, and social life.

Parents and families play an important role in supporting their child's education. 

Research has shown that when schools and families work together, children:

• do better
• stay in school longer
• are more engaged with their schoolwork
• go to school more regularly
• behave better
• have better social skills

We continue to encourage parents to be involved in school activities and events such as helping supervise on excursions, joining our PIP group or attending our Mothers and Father’s Day breakfasts. However, I understand a number of you work and lead busy lives and therefore may be concerned that you can’t help your child. Don't worry, as you do not have to be at school to support the learning that goes on during school hours. 

You can assist us everyday in your child's learning by doing the obvious things like checking that your children have correct uniform, responding and commenting to Seesaw posts, reading with them, making sure they are in bed at a reasonable time, packing a sensible amount of good healthy food for lunch, dropping and collecting them from school on time. All of these efforts demonstrate the strong partnership between home and school and send the message to your child that learning and school is a high priority for you.

Parish Schools Education Advisory Board

As you are aware the Holy Trinity Parish is made of five schools. Queen of Peace Altona Meadows, Stella Maris Point Cook, Lumen Christi Point Cook, Mary of the Cross Point Cook and St Martin de Porres.  

Each term,  Fr John Healy, the five principals, and two parent representatives from each school, meet together as the Parish Schools Education Advisory Board. 

Our SMDP school representatives are Elspeth Neale (who has Finlay in Yr 6 and Aoife in Yr  4) and Xavier Rodrigues (who has Ashton in Yr 5).

The school representatives support the principal  

• ensuring that, at the local level, Catholic schools remain ‘actively embedded in the life of the faith communities of the local Church 
• articulating and enacting the school’s mission and vision, and promoting the school’s Catholic ethos and culture by promoting faith formation and development  
• encouraging the partnership and participation of the school, parish and wider community in the life of the school and parish
• as a sounding board for all stakeholders that provides feedback to the principal and parish priest

As you know my door is always open, however Elspeth and Xavier are another point of call for parent voice. If you have any ‘big picture’ ideas and suggestions about school improvement they are parents who will be happy to chat to you.   

I look forward to seeing you tonight to celebrate a successful start to the school year. 

Warm Regards,

Dan Ryan

Principal

St Martin de Porres Primary School is committed to creating an environment where the safety, well-being, and participation of all children within our care is paramount. 

2024 - School Closure Days

Listed below are our school closure days for 2024. These are student-free days. Staff use these days to develop their learning further and keep informed with current practices and procedures. 

NOTE: These dates may be subject to change that may be outside of our control.