Newsletter ~ Term 4, Week 2, 2025

Principal's Message:

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

We are now well and truly back into the rhythm of school life after the holiday break. It has been wonderful to see both students and staff settle so quickly back into learning and teaching programs. Our students are to be congratulated on their enthusiasm and focus on learning and growth, and our staff on the calm and purposeful way they have re-established routines across the school.

Our thoughts and prayers continue to be with Michelle and Steve Hicks, as Michelle continues to receive quality care from the medical teams of the Peter MacCallum Hospital in Melbourne. Our principal, Steve, and myself, are maintaining ongoing communication, as required, across a range of school foci, and Michelle and Steve are very grateful for the thoughts, prayers and well wishes from our students, parents, carers, Staff Team and CESL Office staff. Steve will continue to support Michelle at this time and looks forward to being able to return to school once Michelle's situation improves. He sends his best wishes to everyone back at St Mel's for the school term ahead.

Please find the following our first newsletter for Term Four.

Sacramental Program ~ Focus on Reconciliation:

Last night, parents and carers gathered for an informative adult faith session focused on the Sacrament of Reconciliation. Parishioner and former St Mel's Primary and St Anne's College principal Dom Poppa, facilitated a wonderful session for those gathered.

Our 2025 Reconciliation candidates will commence gathering in small 'Our Time Together' groups in the coming weeks to share in learning focused on the Sacrament of Reconciliation (forgiveness). Please keep our sacramental candidates in your thoughts and prayers going forward.

For more information about our St Mel's Parish Sacramental Program, please contact myself here at school (ph: 5821 3163) or Mel Shiels at the parish (ph: 5831 2194).

District Athletics Week (Term 4):

Our Year 3–6 students represented St Mel’s with such enthusiasm, pride, and respect at last week’s District Athletics Carnival. These events are not only a wonderful opportunity for our children to participate and showcase their talents, but also to build connections and friendships with students from other local Catholic, Government, and Independent schools.

It’s always inspiring to see the way our students encourage one another, give their best, and celebrate each other’s achievements. Students with particular strengths across the athletic events are also identified to compete at higher levels.

We are also grateful to PE Specialist Teacher Chris Munari for coordinating our school's involvement in these events, with the support of PE Specialist Teachers Lily Beer and Natalie Bibby. And of course, well done to all our students, we are so proud of the way you represented our school and lived out our expectations: Do your best, help others succeed, and respect our school.

Term 4 ~ School Hats

As we move further into Term 4 and the warmer weather approaches, students are now encouraged to transition to their summer uniform as the weather permits. As a SunSmart School, it’s essential that all students wear their school hat when outside for play, sport, or learning activities.

While our days are warming up, mornings can still be quite cool, so please make sure all jumpers and jackets are clearly named. This helps us return any lost items quickly and keeps our lost property pile to a minimum.

Thank you for your support, we look forward to learning & playing in this spring sunshine together.

Congratulations to Our Year 12s & Their Families 🎓

Our learning journey never truly ends, but for the 2025 Year 12 students, one special chapter is drawing to a close. We wish all our past St. Mel’s students who are completing Year 12 and celebrating this milestone every blessing and success as they prepare to take their next steps beyond school.

We feel truly blessed to have shared in the early part of their learning journey here at St. Mel’s and to see the wonderful young people they have become. A special congratulations also to our school families and staff who have children graduating and beginning their celebrations this week, what a proud and joy-filled moment for you all!

Magnify Sandhurst'

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

Information & Communication Technology:

Interesting the recent announcement regarding the impact of technology on the learning, development and growth of children and young people. Our CESL Magnify approach draws on the broad evidence-based learning and teaching research and incorporates careful consideration in the use of technology, particularly in the early years of education (primary school).

Parents and carers may recall the ban on student worn 'smart devices' e.g., watches and certain fitness monitoring and measuring devices which have been proven to highly distract learners and negatively impact on their focus, concentration, retention, information storage and recall. Further information will follow on the impact of technology on learning as we review our current practices across the school and broader Catholic Education Sandhurst Ltd system of schools.

Student Toilets: [Repeat]

To clarify, the toilets accessible from the yard are Student Toilets Only.

In the interest of Child Safeguarding adults wishing to use a toilet whilst on school grounds are requested to use the toilets inside the School Administration Office.

Orima Survey Concluded:

Many thanks to the parents / carers who completed the 2025 CESL Orima School Improvement Survey. The results will be analysed in Term Four, supporting our ongoing strategic planning for school improvement. Information will be shared to our community once we have analysed the data.

In addition to Year 4,5 & 6 students completing the survey, staff and parents / carers were also invited to complete the brief survey instrument.

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

Our new relationship with Uniting Vic Tas to operate the St Mel's Uniting Outside School Hours Care provision here at school continues to go from strength to strength with the introduction of NEW services within this provision.

Last holidays, St Mel's Uniting Outside School Hours Care offered a Vacation Program for nine days of the school holiday break. This new initiative has been well attended and will continue for the Christmas / New Year school holiday period.

Outside School Hours Care will also be offered on Student Free Days where our Staff Team are engaged in Professional Learning or Administrative Days where it is appropriate to have students on site under the care of St Mel's Uniting OSHC staff.

Following a trial of Before School Care, for the first two weeks of this term, St Mel's Uniting Outside School Hours Care will continue to provide this service to our parents and carers.

With increasing numbers of parents and carers seeking a Before School Care option and increasing numbers of students arriving prior to 8:30am across the week, it has been decided to extend the current provision of Outside School Hours Care to meet this growing need in support of our working parents.

Offering yard duty supervision for an additional 50 minutes across mornings of the school week, within our staff yard duty roster, has been challenging for our school to sustain. The Before School Care provision will enable us to reduce the yard duty requirement by reverting to the 8:30 am school opening time each day.

Where parents and carers require students at school prior to 8:30am, they will need to be registered with St Mel's Uniting Outside School Hours Care for a fee.

More information is available in the attached flyer.

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

School families who do not currently use the service during the school term, who wish to make use of this service, are invited to contact Uniting Vic Tas:

Student Birthdays: [Repeat!]

We celebrate student birthdays as a school at our weekly assembly and in Pastoral Groups across the year. A reminder to parents not to send cakes, sweets, presents and other birthday treats to school.

Past Students on Student Free Days: [Repeat!]

The practice of past students returning on days their current school has a student free day has been identified as a liability risk to the system and individual schools. Past pupils may continue to return to their former school within the protocols associated with formal Work Placement, Work Experience and/or structured school events e.g., assisting with school athletics, tutoring, cross age activities, etc... They can also attend school and parish events open to the general public e.g., fetes and Masses. The practice of past students returning to spend the day at their former school when their current school has a student free day will not continue.

St Mel's Hall: [Repeat!]

The St Mel's Hall is not available for private hire / private functions.

The hall is used primarily by our school and for St Mel's Parish events. Our sister school, St Anne's College, occasionally use our hall for St Anne's College events. From time to time the hall may also be used by Catholic Education Sandhurst Limited for Professional Learning events.

Enrolment Enquiries & Applications ONLINE: [Repeat]

The NEW enrolment enquiry and application portal 'Enquiry Tracker' can be accessed via our St Mel's PS Website at: www.smshepparton.catholic.edu.au

OR by clicking the following live link: https://www.smshepparton.catholic.edu.au/enrolment-application

Staffing Update:

Stephen 'Steve' Hicks, principal, is on carer's leave.

Danae Napier, Deputy Principal, is Acting Principal.

Bridie Cooke, teacher, will commence Maternity Leave next week. We wish Bridie, Tyson and young Gus all the very best as they prepare for a new arrival to their family!

School Dates:

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

Thank you for your ongoing support of your child/ren and of our Staff Team.

Wishing you a restful and joy-filled weekend ahead.

Danae Napier

Deputy Principal

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