School information

ANZAC DAY

ANZAC Day Service.

If your child/ren would like to represent St Mary's at the Echuca ANZAC Day Commemoration, we will meet at 10:30am near Sussans (the march commences at 10:40am on Thursday April 25th). St Mary’s learners are asked to wear their school uniform.

We will march together, along with other community members to the Cenotaph. Upon arrival, we will find somewhere to sit together. We ask family members to also sit with us for the ceremony.

Often it is difficult to find a comfortable location to seat us all, so feel free to take your child/ren to a different location concluding the march.   

We hope to see you there. 

MOTHER'S DAY/SPECIAL PERSON CELEBRATION

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

Mother's Day Link

IMPORTANT INFORMATION FOR BUS TRAVELLERS

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 

As we embark on a new school year, 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

St Mary’s Uniform update from Hip Pocket

Hip Pocket has been extremely busy supporting our families in providing uniforms ready for the school year. We are grateful that HipPocket extended their opening hours for VIP access for our families for the majority of Sunday’s in January. We hope this was of great support to our community. 

Hip Pocket is expecting our Year 6 Polo shirts by the end of Week 2. The first shirt is provided by the school and will be distributed from school on arrival. This will act as an indication to families that additional shirts ordered will be available for collection directly from Hip Pocket. 

St Mary’s Second Hand Sales of Uniform 

St Mary’s is aware and supportive of the sales of second hand uniforms. We acknowledge that this occurs on an independent community Facebook page. The school asks that families not purchase obsolete and old uniforms as the following six months is the final roll over from old to new. Families wanting to recycle old and obsolete uniforms can drop washed items to the school and the school will forward it to our neighbouring school in Sri Lanka who are grateful for our donations. 

HATS!!!

St Mary’s is a Sunsmart school and hats must be worn when outside in terms one and four. If any families require a new hat we do have some available from the office. Hats can be purchased with cash or Eftpos from the office for $15 at anytime. 

The Term Ahead for St Mary’s Families - Term 1 

Please find attached our current and known Term One dates. Please be sure to regularly check Compass calendar and read your child’s classroom teachers correspondence regularly for additional dates and events that will occur throughout the term. 

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. 

Schools Out: Before & After School Care  

Schools Out is our supporting before and after school program. Schools Out is facilitated from Twin Rivers school. Families needing this additional care for the school day can find the contact details below.

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