Dear Families,

We hope that all the Dads, Granddads, Step-dads, Mums who are Dads and special men in our community enjoyed our Father’s Day breakfast and liturgy last Friday morning. It was an incredible turn out with such a huge number of visitors -- a wonderful testament to the strength of our community and a reminder of how important it is for us to be reconnecting in real life.

Year 1 parents, in particular Bianca Fernando, Natasha Rosentreter and Briony Wringe who coordinated the stall and breakfast. Thank you to Cheer Toastie Truck and Roadshow Coffee for providing the hot toasties and fresh coffee!

Thank you to Miss Mannion and the St Mary's Choir for performing at the breakfast and at our liturgy and to the Prep and Year Ones for leading the beautiful liturgy in the church.

An enormous thank you and congratulations to all the dads who played on the St Mary’s Team at the Battle of the Boots on Saturday 27th August. Thank you also to all the families who came along and supported the day. As with the Father’s Day breakfast it was terrific to be able to hold this community event after a two year hiatus and the fine weather and huge turnout helped create an extremely successful day - and on top of that St Mary's won the day! The Battle of the Boots also raised an incredible $7,661 for the school, which will be used on our playground improvements. An equal share went to Hampton Primary School, and $2k went to the nominated charity Team Sport for All, assisting underprivileged children to participate in local sport.

A special thank you to Sean Brady, Peter Fourtzis and Jason Tickner who were instrumental in the organisation of the day, as part of the organising committee alongside dads from Hampton Primary School. Thank you also to the parents and Friends committee who helped run the canteen and BBQ on the day.

Our remarkable Preps topped the week off today with their assembly presentation of “Milo’s Birthday”, celebrating all the learning they have done so far this year with their letters and sounds as part of their Structured Literacy Program ‘Little Learners Love Literacy’. We are very proud of how far our Preps have come in their literacy skills this year and how strongly their learning confidence has grown. Thank you to Miss Gooden, Miss Walker and Miss Georgie for the amazing work they do with the youngest students in our school.

Earlier in the week we held a special assembly to wish Miss Anna Mannion well for her upcoming wedding, with students presenting her with a range of sage advice. Congratulations to Anna and Jake and we look forward to welcoming Anna back at the beginning of Term 4. Congratulations also to Mr Max Reid who has become a proud father to baby Audrey.

With one more week to go I want to wish everyone in our community a safe September school holiday period. We will be marking the end of term next Friday with Footy Colours Day, with students encouraged to come to school wearing their favourite team colours (AFL or other code). We will have a parade at 9am on the main playground. Our year Six Leaders are planning some fun activities for each year level to participate in, and the PnF are organising a sausage sizzle (please see the PnF news in this newsletter for more details). School will finish at 1pm on Friday.

School Fees

All outstanding School Fees & Levies are due for final payment by Friday 16th September. If you require assistance with your payments please contact the Office to arrange a meeting with Matthew to discuss options to suit family needs.

Reminder statement will be sent out early next week to all families with outstanding balances.

Matthew Sweeney

Principal

principal@smhampton.catholic.edu.au

PnF News

Plant a Difference

Footy Colours Day