Principals Announcments

Newsletter Address ~ Term 1 Week 5&6 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.

Message From Pope Francis

Pope Francis has declared Ash Wednesday (March 2nd) a day of prayer for all Catholics across the globe. Please share in the following prayer as an act of solidarity with all those experiencing conflict and displacement:

Lord God, Our Creator,

We ask You to grant that all countries may grow in the spirit of unity, and that all hurts,

fears and divisions will be overcome.

Lord Jesus, You came that the world might know the peace that You have experienced with the Father eternally. Yet, You taught us that in this life there will be division, resentment, anger and wars. Nations will rise against nations as violence works itself out in the world.

However, through You, the world may be saved.

O Lord, send Your spirit into the hearts of all humanity, that the world might know true

peace through Your abundant mercy.

We pray for those in positions of power and influence.  Let peace be their goal; let

forgiveness be given freely; let humility reign.

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. 

What will you do to make your Lent worthwhile! 

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,

It’s hard to believe we are halfway through the term.   It continues to be a settled time for our students with much enthusiasm for learning happening across the school.    Our preppies are amazing and have handled the transition to school incredibly well. Each Wednesday our foundation teachers have been conducting individual assessments which allows the school to begin to deliver teaching at each point of need and to continually review data and progress.  I am very grateful that families were able to support our teachers in bringing their child in for these important meetings.  Foundation students begin school fulltime after the Labour Day long weekend, however if parents feel that their child is having difficulty with this adjustment, please discuss your concerns with your teacher. 

Our year 6 students were notified of their leadership roles last week.   We usually announce our year 6 leadership teams at our opening school mass but due to ongoing restrictions we have not been able to do so, however, our year sixes have displayed outstanding leadership in many ways.   Our special events and social justice teams helped cook and serve over 500 pancakes on Tuesday in celebration of Shrove Tuesday.    By doing this they led our community through positive action and maturity, qualities we want our students emulate every day.   

We often remind students of the importance to be the best learners they can be and what it means to be a successful learner.

Our three school rules of ‘Do your best’; ‘Help others Succeed’ and ‘Respect our School’ are the cornerstones on which our expected student learning and behaviours are based.  These cornerstones determine all behaviours we want for all of our students and in everyday activities at school we envisage our students to achieve, monitor and model these behaviours, hence the reason why we actually take the time to teach children how to Do your best; help others succeed and respect our school.

Already, classrooms have co-created agreed class expectations and have these clearly displayed in their rooms. This is a recommendation affirmed from Dan Petro, a well-respected behaviour analyst, whom some of you will be familiar with.  Dan has worked with staff from St Mel’s in the past presenting his latest research regarding building Positive Behaviour Intervention Support (PBIS) in schools.  PBIS is the framework we use, as do many other schools across the Sandhurst Diocese, to help foster and teach positive relationships and behaviour expectations to students.  At the beginning of each year class teachers work hard to establish new routines, new expectations and build positive relationships with their students and, as a school, we continue to support these behavioural expectations.

We continually teach and model positive behaviours so they become part of our everyday practice and routine.  Eventually, hopefully, these become part of what students need to do to be successful learners and to be successful in life.  But it doesn’t stop at school.  We need family support.  Positive behaviours must also be modelled at home for real success to take place.  Sometimes it isn’t easy and sometimes we don’t always get it right.  Education is a partnership, a partnership forged in trust, respect and love for the children we teach and the families we care for in our community.  Let us all look forward to continuing to build these loving and trusting relationships, of which St Mel’s is so well renowned for, to give our students the best education they can.  They deserve it.

Please remember to contact the school or your child’s teacher if you need any clarity around what our expectations are for your child’s education and or/if you have any issues.

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

Enjoy a wonderful fortnight everyone,

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.

Running through the six weeks of Lent each year, Project Compassion is an extraordinary, ongoing demonstration of the faith, love and generosity of caring supporters, all in the name of justice and peace. It is the lifeblood of Caritas Australia; without it, they could not do the vital work they do.

Ash Wednesday – 2 March 2022 

(Week beginning Monday 28th February) 

We celebrated the start of Advent with a beautiful online liturgy with Fr Peter.  Many of our students participated through prayer or readings.   We had the Ashes sprinkled on our heads as a sign to turn away from sin and be faithful to the gospel.   The Ashes also remind us to live the way Jesus wants us to. We sometimes think of Lent as a time to “give up something,” to do “some penance” because self-denial is thought to be good for both body and soul.  However, Lent can be time for very positive action too when we can do something for others or for our own growth. Whatever we choose to do for Lent, we should ensure that it leads to a positive change, which in turn has a positive effect on ourselves and the people who we meet daily in our lives.

This week the season of Lent began with Ash Wednesday, which also marks the beginning of the annual Caritas Australia Project Compassion Appeal. Donations to Project Compassion allows Caritas Australia, the Catholic Agency for International Aid and Development, to work with local communities around the world to end poverty, promote justice and uphold dignity. 

The theme of Project Compassion 2022 is ‘For All Future Generations’ and reminds us that the good that we do today will extend and impact the lives of generations to come. It invites us to make the world a better place by working together now and finding long-term solutions to global issues.  We encourage you to put your compassion into action this Lent through your prayer, fasting and almsgiving by supporting Project Compassion. Each family will receive a Project Compassion box and/or a set of envelopes for their donations or you can donate online via the Caritas Australia website at: lent.caritas.org.au

Shrove Tuesday

On Tuesday we cooked pancakes for students and staff to celebrate Shrove Tuesday.  It kick-started our annual Caritas Project Compassion Campaign and of course the yummy pancakes filled many little tummies. Thank you Danae, Katie, Bridie, Joe D, Issy, Grace, and leadership kids for making it all happen.   

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.

Maths Assessment Interviews

Please visit the 'News from Around the School' for information regarding MAI Interviews and sign up links.

These are scheduled for Friday March 4th and Friday March 11th - (Pupil Free Days)

School Calendar

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