Principal's News

Dear Families,

A warm welcome to you all for the 2023 school year at St Mary's. It has been terrific to see students return through the school gates refreshed after the summer break and so ready to learn and to see and make new friends. Congratulations to all our students and staff for a wonderfully smooth and calm first week. Already classes are well into routine even after a just a few days.

A special welcome to the following families who have joined our school community:

Antao, Ball, Callery, Chambers, Cleary, Echavez, Grabowski, Healy, Jennings, McGowan, McGuinness, Milne, Morris, Mustafa, Padavan, Pearson, Pelling, Quinn, Roccasalvo, Styles, Walsh

We also welcome Miss Ewelina Podgorska (Prep Teacher) Mrs Yang Song (Mandarin Specialist Teacher) and Mrs Sam Sullivan (Year 5 Teacher) to our staff, and welcome back Ms. Elise Fisher (Year 5 Teacher) from maternity leave.

A shout out to our wonderful new Prep students who impressed Miss Walker and Miss Podgorska with how calmly and confidently they settled in on their first day of school on Tuesday. A terrific start to their learning journey!

Over the holidays further playground improvements were made, with two new cubby houses constructed along with a new mud kitchen in our Imagination Garden. With just a roof to go on the cubby houses and some bright coloured paint, the students have been able to engage in imaginative play in this new area. Part of our Adventure Playground area has also been resurfaced with artificial grass. Our Parents and Friends Committee have planned a number of terrific fundraising events this year to enable us to complete our playground upgrades.

Our motto 'Friends, family, community; together we grow' encapsulates the value St Mary's places on relationships, collaboration, home-school partnerships and community engagement. Strengthening family and community engagement will be a key focus for us in 2023. To kick off the school year there are a number of important events coming up next week that are all opportunities for connecting as a school community:

Parent/Teacher Chats - Next Wednesday 8th Feb (school finishes 1pm)
Beginning of Year Liturgy - next Friday 2:15pm on the main playground
Parents and Friends Icebreaker - 'Welcome Picnic' 5pm-8pm
Ash Wednesday Liturgy - Wednesday 22nd Feb 2:15pm
Prep Literacy and Maths Night - Wednesday 8th March
Art and Wellbeing Family Night - Thursday 30th March

Please check the Diary Dates page in this newsletter as well as further information in this newsletter.

Parent Teacher Chats

On Wednesday 8th February, we will be holding our Parent/Teacher Conversations for parents with children in Years 1-6. (Prep parent meetings took place at the end of Term 4) The purpose of these conversations is for teachers and parents to get to know one another as they begin working together, and for parents to share information about their children. Some things you might like to discuss with the teacher could include:

Your child’s interests and strengths
How your child learns best
What your child would like to improve on
Anything else you or your child might want the teacher to know

We ask that representatives from each child attend these meetings. School concludes at 1:00 pm on the day, with meetings occurring between 1:30 pm and 8:00 pm. Their Care is available for students who need supervision during the afternoon.

To book a meeting time, please follow the instructions posted to all families on Seesaw earlier in the week.

Year One-Four Swimming Program

Students in Year 1-4 will participate in a 8-session intensive swimming program at BlueFit Sandringham, commencing Tuesday 21st February. Lessons will be 45 minutes and students will travel to the pool by bus. The program uses the Life Saving Victoria Swim & Survive curriculum providing a strong base of swimming technique and water safety throughout each day of the program. Further information will be sent out via Operoo next week.

Being the first newsletter of the term, there is a lot of information in this fortnight's newsletter, so strap yourself in and grab a cuppa!

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Matthew Sweeney

Principal

principal@smhampton.catholic.edu.au