Take Note

Book Week | Fostering a lifelong love for reading 

Book Week is almost here! 

Get ready for a week of literacy adventures, imagination and the magic of reading as we celebrate Book Week 2025 with the theme: 'Book and Adventure'.

From shared storytimes and dress-ups to creative workshops and in-house competitions, exciting activities across the College will promote children's literature and the joy of reading.

You can view the full schedule of events tailored to your child/ren via the Connect Parent Portal. In the meantime, here’s a sneak peek at what’s coming up:

Junior School Book Swap: Our popular bi-annual Book Swap returns to the Student Resource Centre from Monday 16 August to Wednesday 20 Wednesday. In the lead-up to Book Week, students can donate books in excellent condition and receive tokens to redeem during the swap.

• Swap limits: Up to five books for Kinder–Year 2, and 10 books for Years 3–6.
• Unused books will be donated to charity. This is a great way to refresh your child’s bookshelf, support sustainability, and share the joy of reading, at no cost!

Dress-up Parade: Junior School families are warmly invited to attend our Book Character Parade on Wednesday 20 August, from 1.30pm to 3.00pm in the Nagle Centre. This event will follow directly after the Senior School parade and is a cherished part of our Book Week celebrations.

Come along and cheer on our students and staff as they bring their favourite book characters to life.

Costume guidelines:

• We encourage creativity and resourcefulness – borrow, make or reuse costumes.
• This event is meant to be fun and stress-free, not costly.
• Students may wear their costumes all day.
  • If arriving/departing via private transport, costumes may be worn to and from school.
  • If using public transport or walking, students must wear their PE uniform.

Weather and safety reminders:

• Dress in layers, wear comfortable footwear, and bring a coat to stay warm.
• Minimal makeup is preferred.
• Face paint may be applied at lunchtime, just before the parade.

We look forward to celebrating with you and wish you a magical Book Week ahead!

Anxiety in Children | Parent Seminar

We’re excited to share that in Term 3, we’ve secured a special parent session with clinical psychologist Lisa Ford from The Resilience Co.

Lisa will be working closely with our Year 4 and 5 students, staff and families from Kindergarten to Year 6, focusing on how we can best support children experiencing anxiety.

As you may know, anxiety is an increasingly common challenge among young people, and access to professional support can often involve long wait times. With that in mind, we would encourage you to make the most of this valuable opportunity to hear expert advice and practical strategies for supporting your child’s wellbeing.

We warmly invite you to join us for this important event on Tuesday 26 August, from 5.30pm to 7.00pm. 

We look forward to coming together to support the mental health and resilience of our children.

We’d love to see you there – click here to RSVP.

SMC x Worthy drink bottles

We are worthy of drink bottles that are Australian-made, sustainable, kind to the planet – and stylish too!

We are thrilled to announce that our SMC Worthy drink bottles will launch this week, available for purchase on the College Green after assembly at our Senior School pop-up.

But don’t worry – Junior School students won’t miss out! We’ll be doing something special for them soon, and the bottles will also be available at future College events. Stay tuned for more details.

In the meantime, Junior School families can order bottles via the Qkr! app and collect them from Student Services.

Launch details: 

• Thursday 14 August, 10.50am–11.25am
• College Green (Senior School)
• Cash or card accepted
• Also available via the Qkr! app

The bottles are made in Melbourne from 100% sustainably grown sugarcane using a carbon-neutral process.

Worthy was created to help reduce single-use plastic bottles. Did you know that one million plastic bottles are purchased globally every minute, often ending up in landfill or the ocean? The team at Worthy is working to change that.

These bottles look and feel like traditional plastic, but unlike stainless steel or glass alternatives, which use a lot of energy and resources to produce, Worthy bottles are carbon negative and generate zero waste during manufacturing.

You may have seen them featured in frankie, The Age, Peppermint and at various festivals and community events.

Thank you for your support! 

Olivia Hunniford-Webb

Wellbeing Prefect