Dear St Mary Families,

As I sit down at camp to write the newsletter this week, I can hear the Year 5 and 6 duty group finishing wiping down tables and the rest of the crew preparing for our evening activity. I did start to write it earlier in a break on camp, but between Stand Up Paddle boarding, strategising and collaborating in engineering sand designs, moving to the undercover area to avoid a brief but intense downpour, my efforts have been thwarted. I really enjoy school camp and the opportunity to work in partnership with the students and teachers in an ‘out of school’ environment. Our senior students have been a pleasure to work with. Each student should be immensely proud of themselves as they have stepped out of their comfort zones and embraced new activities, kept their cabin clean and tidy (!), navigated the timetable of camp, encouraged each other and further developed their friendships and relationships with their teachers. They have thrived through these experiences and it is beyond fantastic that they can do activities in real time. Please see some of our photos from camp further into the newsletter.

We thank Mr Speranza and our Year 4 students for leading our school, whilst our seniors were on camp. We are so proud of the student leadership shown. Next week our Year 6 leaders will host school tours on our first open morning on Monday 7th March and begin their Speak with Power course, working with Mr Ron Thomas. This course consists of six sessions and we look forward to hearing all about it. Our Year 6 Rugby Jumpers are on their way, due to transport challenges this is taking much longer than anticipated. Back at school I have been receiving regular texts from Mr Speranza and staff sharing their Shrove Tuesday, texts wishing us a successful camp and sharing little ‘wow’ moments of student learning.

We are looking forward to this evening and sharing Prep Welcome Drinks with our Prep families from 7-8:30pm. Again it is a delight to be able to offer these experiences, which I suggest we took for granted prior to 2020. The Prep Parents and Carers will experience our St Mary’s family and have the opportunity to meet others within their year level. We thank our 2021 Prep reps Liz Varney and Lynn Hendrix for their events management in setting this up for our 2022 Prep families.

Please keep Thursday 1st April free for our Whole School Welcome drinks to reconnect with each other, chat, laugh and celebrate the first term. More information to follow.

Thank you to our families and staff for celebrating Mass with us, last Sunday at 5:30pm. As one father said to me it felt surreal being in a full Church with children and parishioners, celebrating the Eucharist. Many families then shared a picnic in Alma Park and this was also wonderful to behold and to actually hold a school event! We look forward to more of this as we learn to live safely with COVID.

Congratulations to our swimmers, of whom we are very proud. This year we have the following students representing our Holt district in the following events. Mrs Mason will send out the relevant information to these families and will let us know how it goes. Thank you to Mrs Mason, Mr Scott, Joanna and Claude for supporting our students at the Holt Interschool Swimming Carnival.

Holt District Swimming Team for Beachside Division on Friday 11th March 2022, Oakleigh Pool, Oakleigh

This is the team :

9/10 yrs Girls Breastroke - Olivia

11yrs Girls Backstroke- Wilson

12/13 yrs Girls Backstroke- Walter

12/13 yrs Girls Freestyle & 12/13 yrs Girls Breaststroke - Ivy

9/10 yrs Boys (Mixed) Freestyle Relay- James , Alec , Isabella , Olivia

12/13 yrs Boys (Mixed) Freestyle Relay- Leo, Ivy , Walter , Poppy

St Mary’s College School - College Captain

We congratulate Elisa Leyva McEnroe, a past pupil of St Mary’s Primary School for being elected College Captain for St Mary's College. We are thrilled for her and her family and wish her every success.

Level 2 First Aid

The staff attended a two hour session last week, with an additional two hour session yesterday afternoon, in our First Aid training. Again having the opportunity to do this in person, with mannequins makes for a more informative, collaborative and engaging experience for all.

Thursday 10th and 11th March - Student Free Days for Staff Professional Learning

Anthony and l, in partnership with Melbourne Archdiocese Catholic Schools Leaders: Donna Anderson (Teaching and Learning Consultant) and Debbie Darvell (Regional Leadership Consultant) are using our School Review Documents to finalise the draft of our School Improvement Plan, which is an overarching four year plan. Beneath this sits our Annual Action Plan 2022. Together with our Leadership Team and staff this is how we work towards our goals and targeted outcomes.

Working together as a whole staff in collaboration ensures shared understanding and informed best teacher practices. This year on Thursday 10th March our focus is a review of our Wellbeing approach at St Mary’s focusing on positive behaviour management. When completed this will be shared with the community.

Long Service Leave 2022

Due to many of our staff not being able to utilise their Long Service Leave over the last two years due to COVID related travel bans, a few staff members will be taking Long Service Leave this year. When this occurs your year level will be informed via email. The teacher replacing the staff member on LSL will participate in a detailed handover process. This process consists of an individual student wellbeing handover, planning documents shared and learning outcomes clearly defined. We have ensured that the teachers will be writing their reports and be available for Parent Teacher Interviews at the end of Term 2. We thank you for your understanding and support with this as the teachers are entitled to this leave for their well being and at the same time, the needs of each student is paramount.

In addition to this we congratulate Mrs Anna Heta, her husband Dean and son Archie for the impending arrival of a new Heta baby in late May. Anna joined us in Term 2 last year, replacing Ms Stephanie Schultz’s whilst she was on Maternity Leave. Anna’s experience and professionalism was a wonderful addition to our staff and the Year 4s, Miss McGuinness and Ms Craven enjoyed working with her last year. This year Anna joined the Leadership Team, as our Literacy Leader and has reframed our Literacy Intervention to support our students in Years 1 and 2 in particular on the back of Remote Learning in 2021 and 2022. Further information about her replacement will be shared next term. In the meantime we thank her for all that she brings to our community and for her work this term and early next term in her new role.

Finally as Father Jerome stated at Mass on Sunday, the people in the Ukraine are in our prayers. Archbishop Peter has asked us to especially keep them in our prayers this Ash Wednesday. At St Mary’s we pray for peace in our hearts, peace in our school and peace in our world. Your family may like to pray the following prayer.

Prayer for the Ukrainian People

Loving God,

We pray for the people of Ukraine,

for all those suffering or afraid,

that you will be close to them and protect them.

We pray for world leaders,

for compassion, strength and wisdom to guide their choices.

We pray for the world

that in this moment of crisis,

we may reach out in solidarity

to our brothers and sisters in need.

May we walk in your ways

so that peace and justice

become a reality for the people of Ukraine

and for all the world.

Amen.

Take care and wishing God's blessings and peace upon each of you.

Mrs Cathy Ferrari

TheirCare Program