St. Martin de Porres Primary School

Principal's Message

Earlier this year, Jane Padden, our gifted Music Teacher, entered our School Choir and School Band into a Melbourne Archdiocese of Catholic Schools (MACS) music competition. A winner would be announced from each of the four Melbourne school zones. We belong to the Western Zone. The winner’s performance was to be professionally filmed and made available on the official MACS’ site to promote catholic schools as well as promoting their own school. 

 

Guess what!? 

We won! 

What an amazing achievement! 

Our school was chosen to represent all Western Catholic schools. 

 

Please CLICK to watch the video and enjoy. 

I have thoroughly enjoyed watching the performance and sharing it with my friends, family and colleagues. When I have been feeling a bit flat through this latest lockdown, I have revisited it for a quick cheer up. What I enjoy most about the performance is the pure look of joy and passion on the faces of our students.

 

The film also tells a story of who we are. 

 

It reflects our embrace of multiculturalism. It tells the story that at SMDP we believe the importance of every student knowing how to read, write and complete mathematics confidently but also our desire to grow each student socially and emotionally. We want our students to be brave and share their music, sporting and creative arts skills. It reflects our vision to bring joy, engagement and passion into learning. 

 

We understand that success looks different for different people. We want to acknowledge and celebrate this difference. At SMDP, we are truly about developing the whole person.

 

I hope after watching this performance it brings a warm smile to your face. A big thank you to our gifted and talented singers and musicians, our wonderful music teacher Jane, and Denise, our hard working Deputy Principal, who did a lot of the behind the scene work to make this all happen.

A Big Thank You!

I hope, like me, you have noticed a vast improvement of the parent parking and driving behaviour in our school car park before Lockdown 4.0.  Once again, it is up to individual parents to be the role models and to follow our parking rules. These are designed to keep our students safe.

 

Please continue to follow these rules:

  • No getting out of your car in the drop off and pick up zone.
  • Do not park in non parking spaces. If the car park is full, you must leave and find an alternative area. Either Pearce or Campbell Streets.
  • Do not use the double front gates as a pedestrian entrance. This is for vehicle entry only. Use the side gates.
  • Do not park in the staff car park area.
  • Always be polite and well mannered to fellow drivers. Your child is watching.

Let's hope that this improvement continues when we are all back next week. 

Goodbye Jess - Our Wonderful 3/4 Teacher

Jess Schembri, our Year 3/4 teacher, will begin her maternity leave at the end of this term, in preparation for the arrival of her twins, in early August. What an exciting time for  Jess & her husband Chris.

 

Jess has been at SMDP since graduating in 2016. It has been a pleasure to watch her grow into a confident, nurturing and expert teacher who is a master of her trade. She has been instrumental in making learning visible at SMDP and leading this with staff and students. She will be truly missed by her colleagues, students and me. We hope to see her back soon.

 

Next term we welcome Lana Oreto to our school community. She will be taking over from Jess in 3/4J. Lana is an experienced educator who is currently teaching at St Francis of Assisi, Tarneit. 

 

Finally, as we move out of Lockdown 4.0, we are reminded of the trauma and heartbreak this pandemic has caused to so many, especially to those in our school community, who have lost loved ones overseas. Our prayers and thoughts are with you. I do believe we are beginning to see an end in sight. If we continue to follow the latest government guidelines and advice and get vaccinated our lives may return to normal. For some, this may hopefully mean getting on a plane to travel overseas to see the people we love and miss, or to welcome our loved ones into Australia .

 

Warm regards,

 

Dan Ryan

Principal

 

St Martin de Porres Primary School is committed to creating an environment where the safety, wellbeing, and participation of all children within our care is paramount.

2021 School Closure Days

Listed below are our school closure days for 2021. These are student free days. Staff use these days to further develop their learning and keep informed with current practice and procedures. 

  • Friday 11th June - Literacy Professional Learning - Focus: Reading
  • Friday 25th June: Learning Conversations
  • Thursday 16th & Friday 17th September - Catholic Identity
  • Monday 1st November - Report  Writing
  • Friday 3rd December - Planning 2022

NOTE: These dates may be subject to change that may be out of our control.