Principal's News
August Keystone
"Respect"
Dear Families,
At our assembly last week we had the pleasure of hosting Mark Dreyfus, our local Member of Parliament, who very generously presented awards to nine of our children. These awards were Junior Civic Awards and were given to the following children:
Zara D, Isobel M, Teddy G, Elena V, Havana B, Chloe R, Conor A, Hannah H, Sienna Y.
Congratulations to these children for their outstanding efforts to be civic minded, supportive members of our community.
Thanks to all the staff and students for my lovely surprise for Principal's Day. It was truly appreciated but very unexpected. I am very lucky to be part of such a wonderful caring and supportive community and count my blessings every day.
Confirmation:
Please keep the Year 6 students, who are making their Confirmation on Saturday, in your thoughts and prayers as they take this next important step in their faith journey. Thanks to Mr Davies, Stella and all the St Mark's staff who have worked with the children to help prepare them for this special occasion. Bishop Tony Ireland will be visiting us on Friday 23rd August ,to chat with the children recieveing the sacrament on Saturday.
School Production:
We are starting to get very excited and preparations are going nicely for the St Mark's School production which will take place on Tuesday 17th and Wednesday 18th August.
Please make sure you have paid for your child's production T-shirt - which will form the main part of your child's costume for the night and purchased your tickets for the show from the link below:
T-shirts can be paid for at the school office or via a direct debit transfer to the school bank account. Please make sure you use your child's name and class as the reference.
Book Week:
Don't forget our dress up parade on Friday 23rd August. Children are invited to dress up as their favourite book character. Next week from Monday 26th August to Wednesday 28th August we will be holding a book fair in the library. Gina our wonderful library manager will be selling books with the help of our school staff on Monday after school, on Tuesday before and after school and Wednesday before and after school. Elena V, one of our 5/6 students will also be selling bookmarks that she has made to raise money for charity. Please come along and buy some books and bookmark.
Child Safety/eSafety:
It is important that all parents and carers are familiar with and abide by the MACS/St Mark's Parent Code of Conduct. All parents/carers sign the Code of Conduct when they accept their child's place at St Mark's. As a reminder please have a read of the code of conduct attached below:
On Thursday 29th August our Year 5/6 students will be involved in a Cyber Safety presentation lead by the Australian Federal Police, known as "ThinkUKnow". We keep working with our students to ensure they are aware of how to stay safe online and be discerining in their online choices. Please ask your children to share some information about the presentation after next Thursday.
The year 5/6 students had a very successful Water Safety Day at the Monash pool last week and learnt and revised some valuable life saving skills.
Please remember that phones and smart watches are not permitted to be used at school at any time. Children who need to bring these items to school as they walk or catch public transport to and from school must leave them fully switched off and in their bags during the school day. They are not to be brought out until the children have left the school property.
It has been brought to our attention that some children are engaging in inappropriate activities on some social media platforms. We advise and encourage all parents to remain vigilant with their supervision of their children using these platforms and note that many of these social media platforms have age limits of 13/14, so primary school aged children should not be accessing them. Breaches of our IT agreement by students will be treated very seriously, especially if the breaches involve hurtful activities/content towards others.