Week 7, Term 2

Long weekend!

This weekend we have a four-day break from school. Friday is a School Closure Day for staff, and Monday is the King’s Birthday Public Holiday. It is a well-timed opportunity for many in our community to rest and recharge, with both staff and students feeling the impact of the beginning winter season, with illness hitting hard.

We have had a number of staff members unwell and needing time away from school recently. At this time of year, this is unfortunately quite common, and we encourage staff to take the time they need to fully recover before returning, helping to reduce the spread of illness throughout our community.

Replacement teachers are currently very difficult to secure, which can sometimes result in classes being split or alternative arrangements needing to be made. I want to reassure families that staff are always working hard behind the scenes to ensure learning continues and students remain engaged, supported and supervised at all times.

If your child is unwell, we kindly ask that you keep them home from school. As working parents, many of us understand just how challenging this can be during winter, I certainly do firsthand! However, keeping unwell children at home helps reduce the spread of illness to other students and staff and supports the wellbeing of our whole school community.

Thank you for your ongoing understanding, care and support.

Community Open Morning!

We are excited to welcome everyone to our community open morning on the morning of Saturday June 13th at 10am.

Thank you to Rotary, Padua, Westernport Secondary, Katie Jurss and Bittern Kinder for supporting us on the day!

We will have baby Farm animals, a BBQ from rotary, face painting with Katie, craft and sporting activities as well as a coffee van. Everything is free to enjoy - just coffee is at normal prices at the coffee van!

We hope to see you there!

Positive Behaviour For Learning- PBL

At St Mary’s this year, we have begun our journey into Positive Behaviour for Learning (PBL), with the support of the Melbourne Archdiocese Catholic Schools (MACS). PBL is a whole-school approach that helps create safe, respectful and positive learning environments where all students can thrive.

Our school values, voted on and shared by our community, are Respect, Responsibility and Safety. We are working hard to ensure all students understand what these values look like, sound like and feel like in their day-to-day experiences at school.

At the moment, the value we would especially encourage families to discuss at home is Respect. Across schools everywhere, we are seeing an increase in defiance and refusal behaviours from young people, and we know that strong partnerships between home and school are essential in supporting children to respond respectfully to adults and peers.

At school, we will continue to explicitly teach and reinforce what respectful behaviour looks like in classrooms, in the playground and in conversations with others. We ask families to support these conversations at home by speaking with children about what it means to be a respectful member of the school community, listening to others, following instructions, speaking kindly and responding appropriately, even when feeling frustrated or upset.

Teachers and leaders will always communicate with families if there are concerns around how a child is demonstrating respect at school, and we thank parents for their ongoing support and partnership as we work together to help our students become successful, responsible and compassionate members of the community.

At St Mary’s, we have zero tolerance for physical aggression. Our priority is always the safety and wellbeing of every student and staff member. When physical aggression occurs, there may be a need for a student to be collected from school and remain home the following day while staff review safety plans and behaviour supports to help prevent further incidents.

We do not apologise for taking student and staff safety seriously. At the same time, we remain committed to working collaboratively with families to support every child to be successful. Open communication is always valued, and we encourage families to reach out to their child’s classroom teacher or a member of the leadership team whenever support or conversation is needed.

School Uniform

Just a reminder of our winter school uniform expectations. I openly share that I am terrible when it comes to policing uniform, but even I am noticing the mixing and matching of uniforms at the moment and they are not great! Bike shorts are never to be worn as part of the uniform on there own - underneath dresses or skirts yes- but as uniform- no!

There are always circumstances on an individual basis where school uniform needs to be modified but this is something that needs to be discussed with leadership and approved.

Thank you to our wonderful community for continuing to collaborate and work in partnership to support every person at St Mary’s, where everyone matters!

By working together with care, respect and open communication, we are creating a safe and supportive environment where every child can learn, grow and thrive.

Learning in Faith

Upcoming Sacrament of First Holy Communion Mass - All welcome!