Principal's News

Welcome back to Term 2. I hope everyone had a great break and a joy filled Easter. We were all very sad to hear about the passing of Pope Francis and would like to acknowledge his wonderful work and commitment to leading our Catholic church with love and humility. Rest In Peace!

We have had a lovely smooth start to the term and are all looking forward to a great term of learning. We are also looking forward to the continuation of our Stand Up Project and have recently chosen our Year 5/6 Stand Up Leaders, who will be working with Ms Marantz to lead the program at St Mark's. Please see the letter below that outlines the key goals of the program.

Student Voice:

This week at St Mark's a number of our student leaders have worked with staff at our staff meetings to undertake some very important tasks. On Tuesday our Stand Up Leaders worked with Dr Zach Greig to present the details of the Stand Up Program to the staff and on Wednesday our Social Justice Captains and FIRE Carrier Leaders worked with staff to review our FIRE Carrier Covenant and action plan and set some new goals for 2025 and beyond. It was wonderful to work with these talented, intelligent young people and incorporate their ideas into our work moving forward in these very important areas.

St Mark's Polling Booth on Saturday:

As you all know voting for the Federal Election will take place on Saturday 3rd May.

St Mark's Library will be used as a polling booth, so please come along and cast your vote at St Mark's on Saturday. Our hardworking Parents' Association team are organising a sausage sizzle on election day in the undercover area as an opportunity to raise funds for our school. They would love some helpers on the day, so if you are able to come along and help - even just for an hour, it would be greatly appreciated. If you can help, please call Frank - our PA president on 0433 610 609.

Mothers' Day Events at St Mark's:

On Friday the 9th May we will beholding our annual Mothers' Day Breakfast from 7.30 - 8.30 a.m. and then later in the day our Mothers' Day stall. Please stay tuned for the booking form for breakfast and information about these events that will be sent home very soon. 

Crazy Sock Day:

We will be supporting the Dingley Village Make a Difference Foundation by hosting our annual Crazy Sock Day on Wednesday 7th May. Children are invited to wear some crazy socks with their normal school uniform and bring a gold coin donation for the Make a Difference Foundation.

Hello from Ms Garlick:

It was lovely to hear from Ms Garlick, who is travelling and working overseas this year. She sent us some lovely photos of her recent time at ANZAC Cove in Turkiye.

2026 Enrolments:

We have now completed our school tours for 2026. We have had a big influx of applications for foundation for 2026 in the last two weeks and are now almost at capacity. If you have a child starting school in 2026 and have not yet put in your application form please do so before the closing date of 23rd May 2025.

Family Week Celebration:

We will be celebrating Family Week with an assembly/liturgy on Friday 16th May at 2.25 p.m. - Venue to be confirmed. We would like to warmly invite you to come along and be part of the event if you can.

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 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.