From Our Principal

Newsletter  ~ Term 2, Week 6, 2026

Principal's Message:

Dear Parents, Carers, Families and Friends of St Mel’s Primary School,

We are now over half way through Term Two with our children and Staff Team well and truly deep into school learning with fidelity and alignment to our CESL Magnify low-variance and knowledge-rich curriculum.

We have certainly come along way since I re-joined this multi-faith and multi-cultural Catholic primary school in January 2024 (many years after my own primary school education here!) Over the past few years our Staff Team have worked more closely together to implement a revised, contemprary and evidence-based learning program, which from our current learning data, is significantly improving student learning, development and growth across the school. Students are more engaged in their learning, classrooms are calmer, more orderly and routines becoming more embedded in support of creating more effective learning environments for all.

Over this time we have also continued to embed school-wide practices and approaches as part of our St Mel's Framework for Positive Behaviour, Intervention and Support, which together with CESL partnerships with The Knowledge Society (Classroom Mastery) and CESL Student Pastoral Wellbeing Team Education Officers has contributed to the calm, orderly and positive school environment experienced more frequently. Of course, as children continue to develop social skills, resilience, tolerance and 'ways of being in the world' we continue to address Behaviour of Concern within our school-wide approaches underpinned by our school-wide expectations: 'Do Your Best', 'Help Others Succeed' & 'Respect Our School'. It is heartening to experience our children playing appropriately during breaks and continuing to meet expectations.

I am looking forward to welcoming new families to our school in coming weeks as Enrolment Interviews commence, with a number of family tours for those who missed our Open Days. Thank you to our parents and carers for spreading the word of our wonderful school community far and wide as we continue to provide our children with the very best learning opportunities we can offer. I am extremely grateful to our Staff Team for their ongoing efforts to continually enhance the educational provision for the students in our care.

Sacrament of Confirmation / Eucharist:

Congratulations to the children of our parish who received the Sacraments of Confirmation and Eucharist last Sunday in our parish church, Christ The King. With Bishop Rene yet to be installed as Bishop of Sandhurst, our Parish Priest Fr Ronald presided over this important celebration. Confirmation is an opportunity for children to confirm their committment to our faith, after some life experience, and years of learning more about our Catholic faith.

During the ceremony they confirm the Baptismal Promises made on their behalf by their Godparent/s and receive the Gift of the Holy Spirit. During the celebration our children receive their First Eucharist (aka First Holy Communion) and receive the Body and Blood of Christ at communion time and in communion with those gathered. This weekend these children are welcomed back to our church by the parish in special 'Welcome Masses'.

Please continue to pray for our parish Sacramental Candidates.

Eid al-Adha (27 May)

Eid al-Adha, the 'Festival of Sacrifice' is one of the two most important festivals in the Islamic calendar. It honors Prophet Ibrahim’s (Abraham's) devotion to God, and involves communal prayers, gift-giving, and the sacrificial distribution of meat to family, friends, and those in need. We wish all our Muslim families every blessing during this significant celebration within their communities. We hope these families and their broader religious communities have experienced a wonderful celebration this week.

Feast of St Hannibal:

This Monday we celebrate the Feast of St Hannibal (1st June). With the arrival of the Rogationist Priests in Shepparton and into our parish, the founder of their Religious Order, has re-gained significance to our parish and school. St Hannibal Mary Di Francia also founded the Sisters of Divine Zeal who once established and operated the St Mel's Kindergarten. Immediately after St Hannibal was ordained priest he moved into the Avignone ghetto, one the most impoverished areas he could find, and began a life’s work with the poor. He worked with children and young people, especially from poor communities. The Rogationist priests continue his work to this very day. We will reflect on the life and works of St Hannibal at assembly on Monday.

Feast of St Anthony:

We are approaching the Feast of St Anthony (13th June) and will focus on his life and works at school assembly prior to his feast day. Our annual parish celebration of the Feast of St Anthony will be held on Sunday 21 June:

          9:30am Mass in 'Christ The King' church

                          Procession of St Anthony's statue

                          Distribution of Breads

         12:00pm Shared Meal in St Mel's Hall

All are welcome to attend this annual Feast Day celebration in honour of St Anthony of Padua. I have attended the past two years and this is a wonderful parish community event.

St Mel's Majellan Group:

Recently our parish Majellan Ladies met with me to explore the possibility of meeting occasionally here within our school. I am extremely pleased we will host their next meeting here on Wednesday afternoon next week. The St Mel's Majellan Ladies have a long tradition of supporting our parish and school and I am pleased we can support these wonderful women in this way.

Catholic Majellan Ladies groups (also known as Majellan Groups) are parish-based communities for Catholic women and mothers, operating under the patronage of St. Gerard Majella—known in the Church as the “Mothers’ Saint”.

The groups provide a friendly environment for women to socialize, deepen their faith, and discuss family themes. The movement is closely tied to Majellan Media, a Redemptorist apostolate in Australia focused on family advocacy.

Amongst many wonderful works of the St Mel's Majellan Ladies in 2019 they donated our 'Welcome Seat' which provides a lovely way for children to connect when they are feeling lonely or seeking someone to talk with. Our Graduation Gowns were created and donated to our school for use with our Year 6 Graduation Mass each year. We look forward to continuing our connection with this wonderfully supportive team of ladies.

Magnify Sandhurst' 

Every Student - Every Teacher - Every School - Every Day!

Approaching Student Free Day:

Our staff will be involved in the next MAGNIFY CESL Diocesan Staff Professional Learning Day on Friday 5 June (before the King's Birthday weekend). Our day will focus on Student Safeguarding and Wellbeing. A reminder that our St Mel's Uniting Outside School Care program will run as usual in support of working families requiring this service. Contact the service to book your child/ren in for the St Mel's Uniting OSHC Movie Day being held on Friday 5 June.

Swimming Week:

As per my emails during Swimming Week, this annual aquatics program was a great success with our students engaging wonderfully across the week. The children have been congratulated, affirmed and thanked for their respectful, enthusiastic and positive engagement across swimming week. It was truly heartening to see the children from all year levels embrace the experience, continue to improve their knowledge and skills, whilst having fun in the water! Though this is a mandated swimming program by the Victorian State Government and part of the Victorian Curriculum, given the acquatic environment we all live in, surrounded by channels, lakes, dams, rivers and backyard pools, its an absolute life skill. A number of our children have also commenced private swimming lessons at Aquamoves following this experience!

Accepting 2027 Enrolment Applications: [Register Now!!]

Our Foundation enrolment period is underway with families already enrolling their children for next year. With interest in our school as a learning environment growing current school families with children to commence Foundation (Prep) next year are urged to complete the ONLINE APPLICATION FORM now!

Individual family tours are also available by contacting our School Administration Office: 5821 3163

A reminder to current families with young ones to commence school in 2027 to complete online applications now to secure your child's place in our Foundation Learning Community for next year!

Enrolment Interviews in support of our enrolment process will commence in coming weeks.

Spread the word!

Colds, Flu & Covid:

With reports of illness relating to colds, flu and covid in the local Shepparton community a reminder to our families to keep children home when displaying symptoms and until they are well. We have experienced a run of absences due to illness together with children arriving at school unwell and needing to be sent home. Given the continuing teacher shortage and local schools competing for Classroom Relief Teaching support we are aiming to keep our staff as well as possible! Keeping ill children home will support us greatly in regard to staffing.

As I have previously indicated I am very pleased we have managed to keep our usual classroom programs operating over the past three years with CRT support, part time staff and members of school leadership covering absence teachers. Across that time we have split grades only a couple of times (something local schools are doing on a regular basis!)

School Progress Reports:

Our teachers continue to complete the Semester One reports for releasing on Friday 19 June.

These documents are prepared electronically through our SIMONeverywhere portal and is a complex process. Due to the online system and steps involved in production of these documents they cannot be made available earlier than this release date.

A reminder that previous report documents are available via the SIMONeverywhere portal under the 'Assessment Reports' tab.

Staffing Update:

• Year 6 teacher Lauren Calder is continuing her well-earned period of Long Service Leave for the next two weeks.
• Katie Ferrari (LSO) is on extended leave and is anticipated to return at the beginning of Term 4.
• Charlotte Wilson (Yr 2 teacher) & Annalei Moon (Yr 5 teacher) have recently experienced periods of illness.

• With a continued run of staff illness we are ever grateful for the support of our list of quality Classroom Relief Teachers who provide short and longer term support to ensure we are able to continue our learning programs with few disruptions. The availability of these valued staff has avoided splitting Pastoral Groups across the school.

   

Rubbish Issues:

A reminder to school families on a need to continue to support our care for the school environment by supporting our environmentally responsible approaches to caring for the local school, parish and broader environment.

CARPARK ISSUE - Please be careful when dropping off / picking up children in the carpark to keep fast food wrappers, disposable drink containers, etc... in your cars and dispose of at home.

WRAPPER ISSUE - School lunch boxes are still containing snacks that have wrappers.

Please send snacks to school in re-usable containers without wrappers. Children are tearing wrappers and discarding the torn off parts of wrappers OR the whole wrapper.

Over the past few years we have been making huge improvements in the care of our school environment, creating safer, cleaner and more attractive play and learning spaces. This needs ongoing attention and support from the whole school community. Thank you in advance!

St Mel's Uniting Outside School Hours Care - Vacation, Student Free Days and Before School Care: 

NOTE: Registering your child/children in St Mel's Uniting Outside School Hours Care can take up to a week to process, given the documentation required.

Parents and carers are recommended to register NOW if there is a possibility of using this service at any time this year. Once registered, children are booked in via the registration app.

Parents and carers seeking more information or wishing to register children for Vacation Care are directed to contact Uniting Vic Tas directly by:

             Phone: 1800 183 103

             Email: earlylearning@unitingvictas.org.au

St Mel's Uniting Outside School Hours Care - OSHC Staff Professional Learning Day:

To ensure our staff remains at the forefront of early childhood education practices and to continuously improve our services, we have scheduled our annual professional development day for our statewide team. 

Please be advised...

...that all OSHC services will be closed for the day on Friday 31st July 2026.

We understand that a closure may cause some inconvenience, and we apologies for any disruption this may cause to your routine. However, we firmly believe that investing in our team’s professional growth directly benefits your children's development and learning experiences. 

If you have any questions of concerns, please feel free to reach out to your service Director. 

Thank you for your continued support. 

Early Learning Team - Uniting VIC TAS

School Dates:

Please check the Upcoming Dates & Events section of the newsletter regularly.

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