Principal's News

Enormous thanks to Cassie, Frank and the Parents' Association for organising and running our Mothers' Day Breakfast and stall. Special thanks to all those who came along to help out, especially the dads who made themselves available to make the morning special for our mums.

PARENT INFORMATION NIGHT:

On Wednesday 21st June our year 5/6 Stand Up Project leaders will be presenting a parent night with Dr Zach Grieg about our continued involvement with the Stand Up Project. Please reply to the Operoo notice that will be sent home this week to let us know if you will be attending the night.

CONGRATULATIONS:

Congratulations to Elena, and her support team, Zara, Georgia and Leo for representing St Mark's so well at the Kingston Junior Mayor competition. Please see the blurb below about the event:

Our Junior Mayor team was up against some very polished competition last Thursday.  Twenty six of the thirty one primary schools in Kingston participated in the Junior Mayor competition. 

Our team is to be congratulated on their wonderful presentation, with Elena speaking very confidently. They all walked away very proud of their efforts and participation. Although Elena wasn't elected by the other students into the council, they courteously went out of their way to congratulate all the other students who were elected. 

Well done also to Ms Stuart for the hard work she put into getting the team ready, giving up many break times to practice with them and to Ms Ryan for accompanying the students to the event.

Congratulations also goes to our fantastic Cross Country Team who represented St Mark's on Tuesday at the District Cross Country Competition at Katkarook Park. 

Potential Power Outage:

On Monday 19th May we will potentially be having a power outage at school for part of the day. School will still happen, however teachers will teach the day without the use of technology. The main disruption for the day will be to the canteen and we will let you know closer to the date if the canteen will be open or not. We will also contact our phone company to organise how families will be able to communicate with us and us with you during the outage. There is a possibility that the outage will not happen at all too - so please stay tuned and we will keep you updated closer to the scheduled date, when more information is sent to us.

SCHOOL CLOSURE DAY:

Please don't forget that Friday 23rd May is a school closure day and there is no school for students on that day. Team Kids will operate for those families who need care for the children. Please book directly with Team Kids if you require their services. St Mark's staff will be working with Dr Nathaniel Swain to further our knowledge and skills in the area of the Science of Reading in order to fully implement MACS Vision for Instruction - Flourishing Learners initiative.

SCHOOL ADVISORY COUNCIL:

The next meeting of our School Advisory Council will be held on Tuesday 27th May at 7.30 p.m. in the staffroom.

2026 Enrolments:

Enrolments for 2026 close on 23rd May 2025. Please ensure you have submitted an application by the due date if you have a child starting school next year. We currently have more applications than places available so it is imperative that our current families have submitted their enrolment form prior to us sending out our first round offers.

Family Week Celebration:

We will be celebrating Family Week with a liturgy on Friday 16th May at 2.20 p.m. in the church. We would like to warmly invite you to come along and be part of the event if you can.

School Student Broadband Initiative:

The Australian Government has announced an additional $4.9 million in funding to NBN Co to extend the free School Student Broadband Initiative (SSBI) to 30 June 2028, to ease cost of living pressures and narrow the digital divide for unconnected families with school children. The extension will now allow the free services to continue for new and existing families, with up to 30,000 places available in the program. 

To apply, families and carers are encouraged to contact the National Referral Centre run by Anglicare Victoria on 1800 954 610 (Mon–Fri, 10am–6pm AEDT) or visit: www.anglicarevic.org.au/student-internet.   

Victorian Curriculum Update:

The Victorian Curriculum has recently undergone a refresh and we are now working with Version 2.0 in some areas. The Maths curriculum version 2.0 is now fully implemented. Please see the letter below from MACS explaining the changes.