School information

Mothers day/Special Persons Day

We are looking forward to our upcoming Mother's Day celebration May 10th.  Please complete the following RSVP LINK by the 8th May to help us prepare for this busy and exciting morning.

Mother's Day Link

Principal Appraisal - Jasmine Ryan 

As a part of the contract of Employment, each Principal of a Catholic school in the Diocese of Sandhurst must undertake an appraisal.  The purpose of an appraisal is to provide the Principal with feedback about their leadership of the

school.  An appraisal also seeks to improve the professional practice of the Principal through feedback about the leadership of specific areas of school life. At the end of the appraisal process, the Principal will receive a detailed report about the information gathered from the process and this will support them in shaping their professional goals and practice for the future.  

To assist in this process you will receive an email in the next week asking you to participate in a short survey. The raw data results of the survey are confidential and will be used by the Principal Appraisal Panel in conjunction with other datasets gathered. Some parents will be invited to attend an interview with a panel member.

Surveys will be shared with all in our community via Compass by the end of this week. 

The survey will be open from 3rd May - 31st May 2024. 

IMPORTANT INFORMATION FOR BUS TRAVELLERS

St Mary’s children are very lucky to have multiple options of bus routes to travel home. St Mary’s staff are diligent in their after school duties in ensuring that all children get onto the accurate buses at the end of the day. Once the bus departs we are of the belief that your child can behaviour safely and appropriately, respectful of the code of conduct from Public Transport Victoria and is of an age where they can be trusted to travel independently.

We often have concerns brought to our attention by both the bus companies and the parents. We take action on all; we call meetings with the learners highlighting the need for safety, reminding our learners they represent our school in their uniforms and  follow up on incidents of concern. We are in regular communication with our bus drivers and companies. We do hope that our families also support the expected code of conduct and remind your children of the need to be safe when travelling for themselves and others. If unsafe and inappropriate conduct is repetitive, some children will be suspended or denied travel. St Mary’s is committed to working collaboratively with our bus companies to ensure safe travel and a respectful partnership. 

A message from the bus coordinator Echuca College:

It has been reported to our office that there are St Mary’s bus travellers arriving at Echuca College in the AM and proceeding to the BP service station or walking to school.

These students are crossing the interchange driveway during one of the busiest of times causing some very close calls with buses having to brake to avoid these kids running across in front of them.

Despite being told a number of times this is continuing.

All bus travellers are not to be leaving the Echuca College interchange after arrival and are to stay and wait their shuttle service to St Mary's. 

Parents Please Note:  As per signed bus agreement conditions that were signed by yourselves prior to your child being granted permission to use this service, it is your responsibility to please remind those that are arriving at the College of this process and stress the importance of safety whilst transferring at Echuca College.  

The agreements that were signed can be found under our bus travel information in our REFERENCE section of this Newsletter.  

St Mary’s 2024 Term Dates 

Closure Days 

St Mary’s, under Catholic Education Sandhurst has been allocated nine closure days for a school year. St Mary’s school closure days allow us professional learning and collaboration time to work towards achieving school improvement goals for our community and stakeholders. St Mary’s will provide families with six weeks notice of school closure dates to allow adequate time for alternate arrangements for your child(ren). Our current and known dates for 2024 are above. 

Have your personal details change?  

• Moved house, phone number, email address
• Photo permission 
• Medical information 
• Family custody arrangements

If any families have had any changes to their personal details or would like  to inform the school of any change please send the updated information to the school, please place it in writing and email to info@smechuca.catholic.edu.au 

Please explicitly include your child’s full name and grade to ensure accuracy of our records. 

Uniform 

Families please be reminded of our uniform expectations. It is expected that all children enrolled at St Mary’s wear the uniform in its entirety. The uniform has been designed for comfort, weather, cost and flexibility. Please find all of St Mary’s uniform needs at Hip Pocket Echuca. 

A reminder that all children are expected to wear white socks and complete black school shoes. If your child is wearing a sports shoe, it needs to be black in its entirety. Alternate running / sport shoes of varied colours can be worn on sport days. 

Please find linked our uniform price list and items. 

St Mary’s current and only uniform supplier is Hip Pocket Echuca! 

HIP POCKET ECHUCA

173 Pakenham St, Echuca VIC 3564

(03) 5480 1027

Assembly Dates 2024

St Mary’s will have three assemblies per term, one falling on the last day of each term to coincide with our Terrific Kid assembly. Please find the following dates for the year; 

St Mary’s assemblies are held in the Brigidine Centre 

St Mary’s 2024 Canteen Menu 

This year St Mary’s community can order canteen from Foodie Fit on a Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Orders are online and can be made via family accounts on QuickCliq - https://www.quickcliq.com.au/ 

Please find attached our current 2024 canteen menu; 

Daily Start & End Times 

St Mary’s school day for staff and learners is 8:30am. Please allow family morning routines to accommodate this. Classrooms and playgrounds are supervised from 8:30am. Our learners arrive at this time, unpack their items for the day and play in the yard until the music plays at 8:45am, signalling it is time to go inside. 

Families whose children walk, ride and scoot, please set a leaving time for your child to arrive as close to 8:30am as possible. 

Only bus travellers who arrive between 8:20am - 8:30am and are expected to gather in the Bridgine Centre until teachers commence the day at 8:30am. 

At the conclusion of the day, our bell dismisses our learners at 3:05pm. Our gates are unlocked at 3:00pm each day for parents who collect their children from various places in the yard. 

Families are to pre-arrange a collection point with their child. St Mary’s teachers are on active supervision until 3:25pm. Any learners at school past this time will be sent to the office for follow up communication with families. 

St Mary’s Communication

St Mary’s recognises that effective communication is crucial to successful

partnerships with our families. We are committed to having constant and regular

communication and an openness to share both our successes and challenges. We encourage our families to also stay in constant communication with their child’s teachers sharing what is going well and what might be improved.

In all first instances families are to go to their child’s classroom teacher. Your child’s classroom teacher interacts with your child daily, observes their social and emotional wellbeing and will be informed of any concerns or incidents that may have occurred during the school day. St Mary’s has a multitude of communication platforms which serve to keep our community well informed.

Modes of Communication

1:1 Meetings

• Parents are welcome & encouraged to contact the school office or teacher to arrange mutually suitable times for meetings.
• All meetings with families will be held in meeting rooms and sign in at the front office is required.
• In prearranged circumstances and with the consent of staff and families, meetings may be held online.
• Face to face meetings are preferred to discuss any concerns, issues & changes to an individual’s information.
• Minutes of meetings will be taken and provided to all parties in attendance. 

Email

• Parents are welcome to email teachers for minor communication and operational content.
• All teachers will provide their school email addresses at regular times throughout the year.
• Emails are checked and responded to within 48 hours, Monday - Friday.
• St Mary’s staff will actively use emails between the hours of 8am - 5pm, Monday - Friday during the school terms.
• Emails with inappropriate and defamatory content may not reach our staff inboxes due to filters and may not receive a response.

Parent Code of Conduct

• All parents on enrolment at St Mary’s are expected to commit, adhere and sign St Mary’s Parent Code of Conduct 
• Please familiarise yourselves with our Code of Conduct regularly