Principals Announcments

Newsletter Address ~ Term 2 Week 7 & 8 2022

Alive with the Spirit 

Come, Holy Spirit,

and with the fire of your love draw me, 

pull me, lead me

from the dark of my doubts and 

fears into the light of your healing rays...

When I'm frozen in fear warm me with the fire of your presence and give me the strength to get up, to move, to take a first step and to go wherever you lead me...

When I'm tempted to run to the shadows, to hide from your wisdom and truth, give me courage to face what I must see to do what I must do

and to trust that you're on my side...

Come, Holy Spirit, 

fill me with your grace

and kindle the fire of your love in my soul... 

Come, Holy Spirit, and create in me 

a clean and faithful, trusting heart...

Amen. 

New - Pentecost Sunday

What is it?

Last Sunday, 5th June, we celebrated Pentecost Sunday.  

What is Pentecost Sunday? 

Pentecost Sunday is celebrated each year 50 days after Easter Sunday. It is a commemoration and celebration of the receiving of the Holy Spirit by the early church. John the Baptist prophesied of the first Pentecost when Jesus would baptise with the Holy Spirit and with fire. Jesus confirmed this prophecy with the promise of the Holy Spirit to the disciples. He showed Himself to these men after His death on the cross and His resurrection, giving convincing evidence that He was alive. Jesus told the disciples to wait in Jerusalem for the Father’s gift of the Holy Spirit. After Jesus’ ascension to heaven on Easter Sunday, on the Day of Pentecost (50 days later), just as was promised, the sound of a violent wind filled the house where they were staying and tongues of fire came to rest on each of them and all were filled with the Holy Spirit. They were given the power of communication, which Peter used to begin the ministry for which Jesus had prepared him. After the coming of the Holy Spirit, the disciples went out into the world to proclaim the good news. This was the beginning of the Catholic Church, as we know it.  Like the disciples, let us go out to proclaim God’s good news.

St Mel’s Parish Prayer

God our Father,

Bless our Parish so that we may love you more. Encircle our families with your loving care.  Help parents to be good examples to their children and our youth to grow in strength as good Christians. To the sick, grant health. To the aged, bring serenity and to those in sorrow, joy.

May we grow stronger in faith and may our love for one another become

 deeper in our daily living. 

Amen

Child Safe Commitment:

All students enrolled, and any child visiting St Mel’s, have a right to feel safe and be safe. The wellbeing of children in our care will always be our first priority and we have zero tolerance to child abuse. We aim to create a child safe and child friendly environment where children feel safe and are free to enjoy life to the full without any concern for their safety.

Principal’s Message

Dear Parents and Friends of St Mel’s,

Our swimming program this week has been a huge success.  Our students have done an amazing job organising themselves to be ready for swimming each day and getting changed after each session at the pool. These skills will hold the kids in good stead for at home and at school, more so at home, hopefully! 

Swimming and water safety is included in the Health and Physical Education Curriculum from Foundation to Level 10. This means that schools must ensure that they are implementing a swimming and water safety program that meets the requirements of the curriculum. 

Thank you to our staff for ensuring everything ran smoothly and to the staff at Aquamoves for delivering a great program.  Thank you, parents, for ensuring the kids had their swimming gear ready and ‘dry’ each day and for entrusting us with care of your children, especially at the pool ~ A huge effort from all involved.   

Teaching is an incredible vocation.  The rewards are many.   Seeing the children grow and learn over the course of a year is one the biggest rewards teachers get.  At St Mel’s we see this often.  Sometimes learning is obvious, sometimes it’s subtle but when you see it you can’t help but get excited. 

Last fortnight we had parent / teacher / student conferences. These conferences are a wonderful opportunity to share in your child’s learning.  It’s also a great opportunity for students to be proud of what they are doing at school. 

Whether it’s progression with reading, learning new skills or concepts in maths or being able to write a few sentences, we are extremely proud of our students because they are working hard to improve.  Developing independence through the assets of learning are key to being successful.  Remember not all students are the same and progress at different rates.  More importantly we must always encourage our students to try their best, work hard and please celebrate their successes with them. This is what encourages kids to try even harder.  Happiness and feeling good about yourself defines authentic learning.   Please take the time to ask your children what they like about school or what type of learner they are.   You’ll be glad you did.    Some children like to learn independently or like to work with others or enjoy spending one-to-one time with their teachers.  When students discover how best they learn they become better learners.   I’ve included below details of the learning assets we want our students to develop. These assets are part of our philosophy and help drive our learning and teaching approaches.   

Enjoy the long weekend this weekend.  Find time for joy, relaxation, and time for your kids and have a wonderful fortnight a head.

The school term finishes on Friday 24th June at 2:30pm.

Have a wonderful week everyone.  Do your best. Respect our school. Help others succeed.

Learning Assets - A Framework

We are researchers.

We can formulate questions and locate and use a wide range of sources and techniques to investigate problems, interests and issues. We think critically about the information we gather and we are careful to acknowledge our sources.

curious, courageous, resourceful

We are thinkers.

We can think logically, creatively and reflectively. We think about how we use our thinking and have different strategies for making our thinking visible to others. We remain open-minded and no that our thinking changes as we learn.

open-minded, flexible, persistent

We are collaborators.

We can work with others on shared goals, questions and challenges. We know how to be a constructive part of a team, to use different roles for different tasks and to actively listen to and respect other people’s views. We understand how our behaviour affects others.

empathetic, compassionate, reliable

We are self-managers.

we can learn independently and can make wise decisions about our learning. We know ourselves as learners and can set and work towards personal goals. We know we can continually improve as learners.

resilient, responsible, reflective

We are communicators.

We can communicate ideas confidently in different ways and for different purposes. We listen thoughtfully to what others communicate to us. We can adapt our communication style to different contexts.

confident, responsive, respectful

Canteen Update

As we are still on the lookout for a new canteen manager, unfortunately again, there will be no lunch orders for the next fortnight.  The canteen window service will be open from Wednesday to Friday.  Children can bring money to spend at the canteen Wed-Fri.   This will be the pattern of service until the end of the term or when we find another manager or until an alternative arrangement for lunch orders is sourced.   We will keep families posted.

2023 enrolments

We are currently taking enrolments for 2023.  We ask anyone considering St Mel’s next year to submit an application for enrolment as soon as possible. Enrolment forms are available from the office or can be downloaded from the school website: https://www.smshepparton.com/

Interviews will commence later next term. If you know any families who will be beginning school in 2023, please invite them to call the school office. 

June Birthday's

Happy Birthday to everyone that has celebrated his or her birthday this month:  Happy Birthday June Babies:

Armandeep Singh, Safaa Alramahi, Charlotte Rowe, Connor Young, Braylen Impey, Rory Bok, Cienna Bok, Ethan Currey, Noah Barbary, Lidija Nedelkovski, Luca Taylor, Naite Beale, Ammann Chhina, Blessing Butoyi, Dian Haque,  Kanwar Chhina, Noah Kemp, Jacob Sagoelo, Toby Hawker, Kai Henry, Prableen Kaur, Clover D’Angelo, Ananya Patel, Amby Jannenga, Emma McNamara and Jodi Cox.

Congratulations to all students who were students of the week last week. Thank you for doing your best; respecting our school and helping others succeed.

School Calendar

Please visit the 'Upcoming Dates & Events' page to keep informed about what's coming up and any date changes to events.