Newsletter Address ~ Term 1 Week 9 & 10 2022

A Prayer for Ukraine

Gracious God, we pray for the people of Ukraine suffering from war. May they be held in your loving care and protection and given the strength to endure their suffering and hardship.

Transform the hearts and minds of those who perpetuate the violence and oppression. Grant wisdom to world leaders in advancing efforts toward peace; may they not be compromised by self-interest and blind indifference.

We ask all this through the intercession of Our Lady of Perpetual Help and in the name of your Son Jesus, and the Holy Spirit, now and forever.

Amen.

Praying Lent This Year 2022

Lent offers us all a very special opportunity to grow in our relationship with God and to deepen our commitment to a way of life, rooted in our baptism. In our busy world, Lent provides us with an opportunity to reflect upon our patterns, to pray more deeply, experience sorrow for what we've done and failed to do, and to be generous to those in need.

Lenten Prayer

Almighty and Everlasting God, You have given the human race, Jesus Christ our Savior as a model of humility. He fulfilled Your Will by becoming Man And giving His life on the Cross. Help us to bear witness to You By following His example of suffering And make us worthy to share in His Resurrection. We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son.

Amen.

Easter Message

Easter is the time when we examine our role as Disciples of Christ. In dying on the cross Jesus imparted to us the ultimate sacrifice to humanity, a death that symbolizes hope, love and compassion. In this action we are challenged to be Christ like. How will you bring hope to those about you? Will you love unconditionally and by doing? Are you able to be compassionate to all God’s creation – human or non-human?

How might you be more like Jesus this Easter?

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

HOLY WEEK in the PARISH: Please note the Holy Week ceremonies and the times of our liturgical celebrations.

HOLY WEEK at St Mel’s Christ the King Church

2022 PALM SUNDAY 10TH April - your most welcome to bring your own, palms will still be provided. Gather outside the Church for blessing of palms. 9:30am and 5pm Mass.

CHRISM MASS - Tuesday 12TH April - referred as the blessing of the oils (sick, baptism, and chrism) 11am at Sacred Heart Cathedral, Bendigo.

PARISH RITE of RECONCILIATION - Tuesday 12TH April at 7pm in the Church.

HOLY THURSDAY - 14TH April - Evening Mass of the Lord’s Supper at 7pm with the watch until 9:30pm which concludes with night prayer of the Church. All ministers of the Eucharist are invited to come and renew your commitment to this ministry. During the Mass all will be invited to have their hands washed.

GOOD FRIDAY - 15th April, 9am - Prayer of the Church, followed by the stations of the cross at 9:30am. At 3pm the celebration of the Lord’s Passion.

HOLY SATURDAY -16TH April, 9am - Prayer of the Church with the EASTER VIGIL commencing at 7pm with the lighting of the Easter Fire and presentation of the CANDLE outside the church.

EASTER SUNDAY - 17TH April - ONLY ONE MASS AT 9:30am. There is NO 5PM Mass this day!

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.

Last day of term

Early finish today April 8th, 2:30pm. For those wanting to pick students up earlier please ensure you inform your child’s teacher.

Principal’s Message

Dear Parents and Friends of St Mel’s,

Welcome to the final week of term. It has been a busy beginning to the year and there have been many highlights. On reflection, there was much to celebrate and there’s plenty to look forward to for the remainder of the year. With the easing of restrictions, we look forward to having more whole school events and celebrations.

Our students and staff have had a great term of learning. To see our students learning and interacting the way they do is testament to their keenness and desire to achieve their goals. Our approach to teaching and learning is inclusive of all needs and our students are very lucky to have the opportunities they have.

At the core of what we do is the child. The capable child. The competent child. The child ready to explore the world and to make meaning of what they experience and see. Our students learn through explicit instruction and interaction and as I have mentioned before, our ‘preppies’ have settled well into the routine of school life and are becoming more independent. Like many of you, I am amazed how quickly kids pick up the skill of reading words, correcting mistakes, and telling you how to do things because that’s what their teacher has told them!

I would like to take this opportunity to thank the wonderful staff at St Mel’s for their hard work, dedication, and commitment in making learning fun, exciting and meaningful for our students. All staff are exceptional in their work, and we are fortunate to have such a wonderful group of professionals as role models for our kids. Don’t forget to thank your child’s teacher/s if you get a chance.

Please enjoy your holiday break and if you can please join our parish for Holy Week services and Easter liturgies.

May the Blessings of the Easter Season be with you all.

Have a wonderful Easter everyone and enjoy a safe and relaxing holiday.

Do your best. Respect our school. Help others succeed.

Kind Regards

Please remember school resumes on Tuesday 26th April after Anzac Day.

Staffing updates

It is with sadness we farewell Joe Dwyer today. Joe has been working as a classroom teacher for almost 2 years and has had a profound impact on all at St Mel’s. Thanks, Joe, for your commitment, support, love, and care during your time at St Mel’s. Best wishes Joe on your new adventures.

Staffing Announcement

Whilst it is sad we say farewell to Joe, we are excited to announce Tanya Brand as our new 3/4 teacher commencing term 2. Many of you would know Tanya. Tanya's children Bryden, Morgan, and Logan are students at St Mel's and Tanya has been a CRT and active member of our community for many years. Please take the time to congratulate Tanya as we welcome her to our staff team.

Staff Wedding Bells

Congratulations to Natalie Witchen on her upcoming Wedding to Carl on Saturday 23rd April. We wish Natalie, Naite and Carl all the happiness, joy, and love on their special day.

Staff Stalk talk

We congratulate Bridie Cooke and Helen Ciancio on the announcement of their special news of having babies soon. Bridie will be working up until the end of term 2 and Helen, maybe a little earlier. We will be advertising for a maternity teaching position in the one / twos and for a Canteen Officer early term 2.

For more information, especially the Canteen Officer position (3 days per week), please contact the school.

We also wish Nathan Secchi all the best on the arrival of their second child early next term.

Community Stalk Talk

Congratulations to the Pannu family, Dilpreet and Shazman, they have a new baby brother!!

Wow! That’s a lot of newborns in our community.

Anzac Day ~ Monday 25th April (last day of the holidays)

Please feel free to join us at the 11am service at the centotaph in Welsford St. Grade 6 students / leaders are welcome to wear their school uniform and can help lay a wreath on behalf of St Mel’s.

School Fees

Thank you to families who have nominated their fee payment option with the office and have commenced paying your 2022 school fees. Fees for 2022 should now have started to come out of your nominated accounts unless you have elected to pay annually. If you have not yet taken the option to pay with direct debit or your own payment plan, can you please contact the office and notify them as to which method you will use to pay the fees.

If for any reason you are finding it difficult to pay school fees on time or your financial circumstances have changed, please contact the school. Catholic Schools rely on school fees to help fund the educational needs of our students. A quality education can only be realized when the right resourcing and programs are in place, and these come at a cost. Please consider your child’s education as an opportunity for a life of happiness and content.

Signing out students ~ Class Interruptions

We have noticed there have been more and more parents picking children up early from school. Each time a message is put over the PA system it interrupts student learning. Please only pick up your child/ren early if they have an appointment.

From Term 2, PA announcements will no longer be made for early collection of students, instead, parents will be given a ‘pass’ from the office and will need to collect children themselves from classrooms. Parents will also need to sign students out using the student register which is now automated through an iPad in the office. Thank you for your attention to this.

Happy Birthday April Babies:

Connor and Jack Barbary, Max Barbary, Niall McCarroll, Joy Yakani, Thomas Clarke, Joy Yakani, Zaid Jallo, Archie Rowe, Lucas Saville, Patrick Austin, Arya Banning, Sehaj Kaur, Luke Miller, Christian Damianopolous, Marina Hawke, Joel Nicholson, Sahajdeep Singh, Lachlan Miller, Indiana Emanuelli, Addyson Almond, Evie McNamara, Meaghan Dodd, Matthew O’Connor, Dean Simpson and Julia Barnes.

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.

Community Group Expressions of Interest to Join

Each year it is expected our school will commit to raising additional funds. All Catholic Schools have an obligation to raise additional funds to meet the capacity to contribute factor.

These funds will be put towards improving the educational needs of our students through hardware or programs and / or improving school grounds or facilities.

Please Note: Our Parents and Friends group are on the recruitment drive. If you know of anyone especially new parents who might want to be involved please encourage them to do so by contacting the school.

As a school we are extremely grateful for the hard work and time our community members put in to making our school the best it can be. We are especially grateful for contributions and donations made when we hold school fundraisers or campaigns to help maintain and beautify St Mel’s.

Committee Recruitment

St Mel's relies on the support of our parents to make sure we can offer the best learning opportunities for our children. We are grateful to the commitment of those who are already on our Parish School Education Council and Social Committee and ask anyone who would like to be involved to please contact the school. All new or existing parents’ welcome!!

Project Compassion 2022

Caritas Australia’s annual fundraising and awareness-raising appeal, bringing thousands of Australians together in solidarity with the world's poor to help end poverty, promote justice and uphold dignity.

‘Cultivate with love the seeds of goodness, beauty and truth that God sows in every new generation’. Pope Francis.

Participating in NAPLAN

As children progress through their school years, it is very important that checks are made along the way to see how well they are learning the essential skills of reading, writing and mathematics – skills that will set them upon the path to success as adults.

NAPLAN is a point-in-time assessment that allows parents and carers to see how their child is progressing in literacy and numeracy against the national standard and compared with their peers throughout Australia. At the classroom level, NAPLAN provides additional information to support teachers’ professional judgement about student progress.

Federal, state and territory education ministers agreed to gradually transition NAPLAN online by 2022. NAPLAN online is a tailored test that adapts to student responses, providing better assessment and more precise results.

Read the NAPLAN information brochure for parents and carers (PDF 133 kb), also available in Simple English (PDF 1 mb).

To see the types of questions and functionalities in the online tests, visit the public demonstration site page.

All students in Years 3, 5, 7 and 9 are expected to participate in NAPLAN tests, and schools should not exert influence on parents or carers to withdraw their child from the tests. NAPLAN tests give you information on how your child is progressing against national standards. This information can be used to identify areas in which your child may benefit from additional assistance. NAPLAN does not replace, but rather complements assessments run by your child's classroom teacher throughout the year.

Adjustments can be provided for students with disability to enable them to access the tests on an equivalent basis to students without disability. Read about the adjustments in the next section.

Some students who have been attending school in Australia for less than a year before the tests may also be eligible for exemption. Exemptions should be discussed with your child's school.

Parents or carers may withdraw their child from the tests to address issues such as religious beliefs and philosophical objections to testing. It is recommended that withdrawal be considered in consultation with your child's school. States and territories have different ways of managing student withdrawals, but formal notification must be received by the school principal prior to testing.

Wherever possible, schools will organise for individual students who are absent at the time of testing to complete missed tests at another time during the test window.

Detailed information about exemptions, withdrawals and absences from NAPLAN can be found in the 'Student participation section' of this website.

https://www.nap.edu.au/naplan/parent-carer-suppor

Online Welcome Google Meets

Thank you to the many parents who were able to attend these meeting throughout the week. If you were unable to attend and would like information about your child’s education or anything else they will be doing this year, please contact your child’s teacher.

Enhancing Catholic School Identity (ECSI) Survey.

Parents are invited to participate in the ECSI survey this year. ECSI assist us in better understanding how our Catholic Identity is expressed in work and practice here at St Mel’s. We participate in this survey every 4 years and it is designed to capture a cross section of the school population thoughts and understanding of what catholic education means to us in our setting.

The ECSI survey is a key element in this process and families will be randomly selected to participate. It is completely voluntary and parents can opt in and out. It is completed online and all responses will be kept confidential.

If you would like to participate and have not received an envelope in the coming weeks, please drop into the school office to pick up a ‘sign on’ envelope.

The online survey also gathers responses from students in Years 5 and 6, all school staff, school council members and a representative sample of parents.

The Catholic University in Leuven, was commissioned by the Catholic Education Commission of Victoria Ltd (CECV) to design a process and tools, based on sound research, to accomplish the goal of understanding our current Catholic identity and where the school community might like to see itself in the future.

All Catholic Schools use the information gathered to form future goals and directions for enhancing their Catholic Identity, an essential part of who we are as Catholic Schools.

It’ll be wonderful for families to take up the opportunity.

For further information please contact the school.

School Calendar

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

Social Club News

Social Club contact details

Easter Raffle Winners