From the Principal
Mrs Cathy Ferrari
Dear Families,
We thank our P & F committee for organising our Welcome Drinks last Friday night, by all accounts a great night was had. We are really looking forward to our first working bee tomorrow afternoon from 3:30pm to 6:00pm. If you are unable to help at this one there are some more coming up. Fortunately the weather promises to be kind to us on Friday. Under the leadership of Steve May our Maintenance Officer we will start to landscape our side entrance. As always our community is vibrant, energetic and action packed!
Meet the Teacher Meeting
Meet the teacher is an important opportunity for parents and carers to meet with their teacher(s) to share valuable information about the best learning environment that we can work in partnership to create between home and school. It was great having so many families attend onsite and online. Our partnership with parents and carers enables us to give our students the best learning experience and opportunities that we can.
Raising Kids in a Digital World
Thank you to Mr Speranza for organising our eSafety and cyber safety educational approaches from Prep to Year 6. Our students participate in Inform and Empower each term, supported by our staff. It was great to have so many of our families participate in the parent/carer webinar focusing on raising children in a digital world and what this looks like and explore strategies to support their child/children navigate this space. For a replay of this webinar please see the Deputy page.
St Mary's Swim Team
Congratulations to our swimmers, who had a wonderful day at the Holt District Swimming Carnival on Friday 16th February. All swimmers represented St Mary’s with enthusiasm, in and out of the pool. The next stage of competition is the Beachside Division Carnival to be held on Friday 8th March. We wish Tara, Huy, Anna T, Ava, Poppy and Olive all the best.
Huy : 50m Freestyle and 50m Backstroke
Tara: 50m Breaststroke
Olive: 50m Breaststroke
Anna T, Ava, Poppy and Tara - 4 X 50 m freestyle relay
On Friday the 16th of February St Mary’s Primary School attended the HOLT swimming carnival at Oakleigh Recreation Centre. The weather was great and sunny, not a cloud in the sky. When we got there everyone was so thrilled that they got to participate in the HOLT swimming carnival. The races St Mary’s swam in were backstroke, freestyle, breaststroke and freestyle relay. Now we have 6 people advancing to the Beachside Division! Lastly we would all like to thank Mrs Mason, Mrs Braun, Miss Raffaele, Mrs Ferrari and Mrs Abiad, who have organised the trials and supported us at the carnival.
By Huy and Tara
Photo shoot
Thank you to our students and many families who helped us with our photo shoot, on Monday morning. Photos were taken of our school and all of the exciting activities and opportunities that are available. These will be used on our school website, Open Mornings and when promoting our school with the kindergartens and early learning centres in our area. It will give prospective families insights into what is on offer. A big shout out to our preps who were so patient and great to work with.
Open Morning
On Tuesday we had our first Open Morning in preparation for 2025. Thank you to Ms Denise Santamaria, Mrs Angela Mason and Mrs Borgese and our Year 6 Leaders for the manner in which they conducted these tours. The feedback from our prospective families was so positive about how articulate and confident the students were and that their love for the school was evident. Please help to spread the word about our upcoming Open Morning next Wednesday, but in reality we are open everyday for a tour, all families need to do is go on our website for further information. It was also great hearing about how much the local kindergartens enjoy our Year 3 and 4 students visiting and interacting with their students. In particular we congratulate Mrs Daniela Borgese who wears many hats including leading our marketing department. Her passion and energy is evident in the number of new families taking tours.
2025 Prep Enrolments Now Open
If you have a child commencing Prep in 2025 please complete the Enrolment Application Form. Interviews for siblings will be held later this Term. We look forward to seeing all our pre-school children and their families at our Wednesday Stay, Chat and Play 9:15-10:30am sessions in the Community Room. Later this term we will commence our pre-school story telling sessions, with Ms Kat Reade.
Interhouse Athletics Carnival Wednesday 20th March
This is always a highlight of the school calendar and you can read more about it in Around the School.
Prayers in Pyjamas Prep - Year 2 Wednesday 6th March 6:00-7:00pm
We are really looking forward to our first Prayers in Pyjamas next Wednesday evening from 6:00pm - 7:00pm. The focus of the evening is to learn about Love, Learn about God to grow our friendship in faith. This will be led by the staff, myself and Father Jerome, together with the Prep to Year 2 students and a parent(s) and carer(s).
Staff Conference
Next Thursday 7th March and Friday 8th March are Student Free Days to enable all our staff to attend our yearly conference. Professional Development as a staff is integral in ensuring we are using evidence based research to inform our learning and teaching. This aligns with our improvement agenda and teaching each student at their point of need.
On Thursday we are heading off to the National Gallery of Victoria - Encountering the Sacred through Art. Together with Father Jerome our presenter will lead us through an introduction to art and spirituality, then interactive activities in the gallery used to encounter the Sacred followed by reflection and a session with Father Jerome. Having the opportunity to develop and deepen our own faith personally and in community allows us to be witnesses to our faith for those we are in relationship with.
On Friday we are continuing our work with ReLATE through the Mackillop Institute, Empowering partners for greater impact. The focus for this day is to explore methods to reflect on our wellbeing culture at St Mary’s Primary School for staff, students and families. We will analyse and reflect upon wellbeing strengths of the school, how to make the wellbeing at school more effective to improve relationships to inform learning outcomes. The staff will have the opportunity to explore their own and professional stresses/challenges and how to administer self care.
Our Surf Life Saving Champions
We congratulate our Surf Life Savers; Lilly, Hugo and Sunday. Sunday was very excited to share her medals with us all last week. It is reassuring to know that if we need assistance or saving in the open water we are in good hands with these students!
Willem and the Lion
We thank Willem and Karen for sharing their lion and Chinese heritage with us all. Willem, supported by Mr Speranza as the tail, enthralled us at assembly last Friday.
The Chinese lion comes out at Lunar New Year time and brings good luck and good fortune to everyone. It also comes to festivals and special events.
The Chinese lion is like this costume or a giant puppet which is used by two people, one in the head and one at the tail. It is made out of paper mache, silky materials and sequins. It also has fluffy furry bits.
The Chinese lion dances and it acts like a playful lion. The lion dance also involves Martial arts and the lion busts out some KUNG FU MOVES! Plus it does acrobatics like jumping on pillars and the back person’s shoulders, but what's really cool is doing both at the same time!
The lion dances to loud drum beats, cymbals and gongs. Also there are long strings of firecrackers with this box jam packed with firecrackers at the top and it is lit and goes like this: CHCHCHCHCHCH BOOM! All of this noise is used to scare away evil spirits.
The Chinese lion dances at restaurants and shops to bring them good luck and fortune for the year to their business. The restaurant and shops give the lion red envelopes full of money which the lion takes with its mouth. The restaurant gives lettuce and the lion eats it and spits it right out to spread the good luck. It’s lucky if a piece of lettuce lands on your head.
This year I went to the city to watch the lion dancing. There were a ton of lions dancing all over Chinatown in front of each shop, dancing to get the red envelopes and bring good luck. This particular lion performed at the Crown for the past few weeks during the Chinese festivities. Goong hay fat choy! By Willem
Creative Arts Exhibition 2024
We congratulate Aurora and Anna T, for having their art work selected for Catholic Education Week Creative Arts Exhibition 2024. This is held at the Catholic Leadership Centre in East Melbourne. We also congratulate Mrs Perri for her visual arts program and the opportunities she gives our students. This exhibition is open to the public from Tuesday 14th March to Saturday 16th March. Please contact Mrs Perri if you would like the trybooking link.
Take care and wishing God's blessings and peace upon each of you.
Mrs Cathy Ferrari