From Our Principal
St Mel's is a proud Catholic Education Community, striving, learning
and achieving together through Christ our light.
Newsletter ~ Term 2, Week 8, 2026
Principal's Message:
Dear Parents, Carers, Families and Friends of St Mel’s Primary School,
Over the past few weeks our teachers have been spending considerable time compiling their written comments and progression point judgements in support of our Semester One Student Progress Reports. As the comments are finished I have commenced reading through these summaries of student learning, development and growth across the first half of this academic year.
Though time consuming at this time of year I always enjoy reading each child's written comments and reflecting on my knowledge of the children from my many encounters with them either in class or at play. Various opportunities to teach the children from time to time when teachers are away add to my impressions of the children as learners in our school community. Since the implementation of the various elements of our CESL Magnify Curriculum, Behaviour and Wellbeing approaches I have seen the many improvements occuring across the school, across all year levels in student learning, development and growth.
I am especially grateful for the ongoing hard work of our teachers, learning support and other staff in implementing Magnify with fidelity and alignment across the school on a weekly basis. We are certainly reaping the rewards of this significant investment in our children and their wellbeing and learning. Last week we received a visit from a Classroom Mastery coach, Jo Griffin, who observed our Pastoral Group and Specialist teachers implement a range of routines and provided individual feedback to these teachers and our Leadership Team. Jo was very complimentary of our teachers and their application of the various routines and teaching strategies used to support our children's learning and positive behaviour. The ongoing and regular 'Drop Ins' conducted by Di Walker, Danae Napier and myself reinforce we are continuing to provide a quality educational experience for our students, support our teachers continually improve and share best practice.
Student Progress Reports
We are on track to release these important overviews of student learning, development and growth on Friday 19 June as previously indicated. Three way interviews (Parent/Carer, Teacher & Student) will be held in the second week of Term Three and provide an opportunity to discuss learning to date and set goals for the second Semester.
Feast of St Anthony:
Tomorrow is the Feast of St Anthony (13th June).
We focussed on his life and works at a school prayer assembly today.
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:
The Majellan Ladies postponed their first meeting here which will now be held in Term Three. 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.
Magnify Sandhurst'
Every Student - Every Teacher - Every School - Every Day!
Approaching Student Free Day:
Last Friday our Staff Team joined school personnel from all CESL primary schools and colleges for a professional learning day focussed on wellbeing and safeguarding.
We gathered at our parish sister school St Anne's College, Kialla which also provided an opportunity to mix with St Anne's colleagues and tour their facilities.
A focus on the Positive Psychology and Positive Education was a key feature of the day's learning. We look forward to implementing Positive Education into our wellbeing approaches from the start of next year
Future Staff Professional Learning Days (Student Free Days):
Please be advised of the following days coming in Term Three:
CESL Spirituality Day - Wednesday 5 August 2026:
Our school will host four other CESL schools and the staff of the CESL Central Team (Tatura Office) here for this day of reflection and faith formation. Last year we hosted St Anne's College Kialla for this annual CESL Spirituality event. The staff of St Anne's will also be joined by the Staff Teams of:
- Sacred Heart PS, Tatura
- St Mary's PS, Mooroopna
- St Joseph's PS, Nagambie
We look forward to hosting these school and office staff here in our lovely school environment for this important day.
CESL Teaching For Impact PL Day - Thursday 13 August 2026:
Our teachers, Learning Support and Wellbeing staff will travel to St Mary of the Angel's College for a professional learning day facilitated by Teach Well, an organisation focussed on enhancing teaching, direct instruction and supporting student learning. We look forward to this day of professional learning with colleagues from local CESL schools and colleges.
Accepting 2027 Enrolment Applications: [Closing!]
Our Foundation enrolment period will end soon. Families with new students yet to enrol for 2027 are urged to register via the ONLINE APPLICATION FORM now!
Individual family tours are also available by contacting our School Administration Office: 5821 3163
Colds, Flu & Covid: [Reminder]
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!)
Staffing Update:
- Year 6 teacher Lauren Calder will return to school on Monday following her recent period of Long Service Leave. We look forward to seeing Lauren next week and hearing of her adventures.
- After approximately 11 years as a member of staff and after significant periods of leave this year, Katie Ferrari (LSO) has resigned from St Mel's PS, effective the end of the term two school holidays. We wish Katie well for the future and thank her for her contribution to St Mel's during her employment here.
- Cindy Lombardozzi (LSO), Annalei Moon (Yr 5 teacher) & Cyndilee Watson (Yr 3 teacher) have recently experienced periods of unexpected illness.
- Steve, our principal, has been on Carer's Leave this week supporting Michelle, who is currently receiving treatment in GV Health following complications with her treatment regime.
- Cassie (LSO) has required Carer's Leave to support a family member this week
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: [Repeat!]
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 School Holiday Care:
The St Mel's Uniting Outside School Hours Care service has created an exciting and interesting program for the approaching school holidays. Students can be booked in from one day through to the ten days of the program.
Please find the exciting Winter School Holiday Care program below:
Be sure to BOOK IN NOW to secure your child's place over the holidays.
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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