Friday 11th October ~ Issue 30

Child Safety Statement

School Values

Treat others the way you would like to be treated.

Respect Our School - Hormati Sekolah Kita

Do Your Best - Lakukan Yang Terbaik

Help Others to Succeed - Bantu Teman Untuk Berhasil

Important Dates

Term 4

Tuesday 15th October - Cyber Safety Sessions - families at 5.30pm, at school

Thursday 17th October - Catholic Social Teaching Day (note has been sent home with details)

Friday 18th October - Mission Day (note has been sent home with details)

Monday 21st October - 3/4 Regional Hooptime

Friday 25th October - World Teachers' Day

Friday 25th October - Assembly

Monday 28th October - 5/6 Regional Hooptime

Monday 4th November - Report Writing Day - Pupil Free Day

Tuesday 5th November - Melbourne Cup Day Holiday - Pupil Free Day   

Wednesday 13th November & Thursday 14th November - Book Fair

ADVANCE NOTICE 

Friday 6th December - Christmas Parade @ 6pm

Tuesday 10th December - 2025 Orientation Day

Sunday 15th December - End of Year School Mass and Gr 6 Graduation @ 10.30am

Wednesday 18th December - Last day for students

Wednesday 29th January - First day of 2025 school year for Gr 1-6

Thursday 30th January - First day of 2025 school year for Preps

From the Principal

Dear Families,

We hope you enjoyed the recent holiday break and were able to rest and recharge for the busyness of Term 4! One look at the calendar above will let you know that there is a lot on!

And to add to this craziness, I am taking a super quick trip overseas to visit our daughter and her fiancee, who have been travelling since March and will return home in late February next year. We are missing them terribly so it will be just wonderful to hug and kiss them in real life! I will be away for Week 3 and 4, with Tania steering the ship in my absence. Thank you so much Tania and the rest of our fantastic team.

This week you would have received information about our Christmas Parade. This is a wonderful event for our school and wider community and it would be fantastic if as many as possible could help out. Please return your volunteer form as soon as possible so we can continue our planning.

Next Thursday and Friday we will participate in two very important days on our school calendar. The first is Catholic Social Teaching Day where we will explore what it means to share our gifts and talents to work for the Common Good in our world. Because we are a Catholic School we focus not only on our own gifts and how we can use them for ourselves, but also how we can use them for the good of others. On Friday, Mission Day, we will put our learning into practise, raising money for Caritas Australia who help people from both Australia, as well as other parts of the world. They work with communities to educate, provide clean water, develop farms and support them to develop the skills to then support themselves. It is wonderful to be living the message of Jesus!

Have a wonderful weekend, shared with those you love,

 Terrielynn

Catholic School Culture

MASS TIMES – 2024                                                 

Hamilton: Saturday 6pm and Sunday 10.30am                                    

Dunkeld: Sunday 8.30am                  

Glenthompson:  Sunday 8.30am

Penshurst: Sunday 8.30am

Prayers

We ask that you keep the San Ba family in your prayers following the death of Harry's grandmother. A very sad time for the family. 

The Moyle family are also mourning the passing of Carter, Charlie and Mason's great grandmother who died recently at the age of 103. We keep this family in our thoughts and prayers too.

Congratulations       

We send our love and best wishes to Bec and Nick Sherlock on the arrival of their precious daughter Bonnie Anne. We can't wait to meet her! She will be a much loved sister for Hamish and Henry.

Learning and Teaching

School Wide Positive Behaviours

School Wide Positive Behaviour Support is:  A multi-tiered framework for establishing the social culture and behavioural supports needed for a school to achieve behavioural and academic outcomes for all students.

For the next two weeks at St Mary’s we are working with our students on the following:

RESPECT -  Be willing to compromise - not everything will go your way!

SAFETY - Be cybersafe

 RESPONSIBILITY - Join in all activities by having a go

2025 Staff PD

Next year, our governing authority DOBCEL has made the suggestion that using the three days between Easter Monday and ANZAC Day for staff to collaborate with other school's through PD would be an excellent use of time! So...that means that the holiday break at the end of Term 1 will be three weeks long and we will return to school on Monday 28th of April to start Term 2.  

Sports Catch Up

Regional Athletics

We have 11 students who have gone to Ballarat today to represent us in the Regional Athletics. We wish them all the best and the results will be posted in next week’s newsletter.

Saturday Morning Netball - Term 4

Saturday Morning Netball starts this weekend! I have sent families who are involved a copy of the teams, as well as the draw for the season. Please make sure that you read these carefully so you know when your child is playing. Students will need to wear sports uniform and suitable footwear.

Your child must be registered before being able to take to the court. Please make sure that you do this as soon as possible.

https://registration.netballconnect.com/login 

You will need to either register or login to begin the process. The competition is under ‘Hamilton Netball Association’, and click on ‘Junior Competition - Term 4’. 

Grade 5-6 Swimming Program

A great week was had by our Grade 5-6 students at HILAC this week. A big thank you to everyone who attended and supported our students during this program.

Grade 3-4 Swimming Program

This will be held in Week 6 of this term. Notes were sent home on Monday outlining the information of the program. The blue note needs to be fully completed and returned by Friday 18th October.

Grade 3-4 and Grade 5-6 Regional Hooptimes

We have 5 teams across our Grade 3-4 and Grade 5-6 students who have qualified for the Regional Hooptime days, to be held in the next couple of weeks. Notes were sent home earlier in the week for students that this applies to. Could you please ensure that you bring the slip back as soon as possible. I would also love a couple of volunteers to score for our teams on the day. Please indicate this on the note if you are able to assist.

Representative Basketball

Over the holidays, Pippa Richards attended the Golden Nugget Basketball Camp, and she has been selected to play in the U/14’s Country Victorian Team. Over the summer holidays, she will play against other players who come from other states around the country. One of our School Captains from last year, Aiden Mhasho, was also selected. What a fantastic achievement, well done Pippa and Aiden!

Dates for your Diary

Saturday Morning Netball: Begins Saturday 12th October @ Pedrina Park

Grade 3-4 Regional Hooptime: Monday 21st October @ HILAC

Grade 5-6 Regional Hooptime: Monday 28th October @ HILAC

Grade 5-6 District Cricket: Friday 1st November @ Pedrina Park

Grade 3-4 Swimming Program: Monday 11th November - Friday 15th November @ HILAC

Grade 3-6 Swimming Carnival: Friday 29th November @ Monivae Pool

Junior Athletics Carnival (Prep - Grade 2): Friday 13th December @ St. Mary’s

Latham Wishart

lwishart@smhamilton.catholic.edu.au

Garden Gurus

A big thank you to Lyn and Ezrah who gave the chook yard a spring clean over the holidays!
After harvesting some parsley and celery, Lyn and Ezrah dried them with a view to moving closer towards beginning our kitchen garden where we can start to use our produce in some interesting and delicious ways.
Garden Gurus is scheduled each Thursday where some leaders and other students from different areas of the school work in the garden or complete important tasks to enhance our school garden.

Catherine Egan

Library News ~ Book Fair

Great news - our annual Book Fair is back for 2024! It will be held in Week 6 of this term, in the new classroom space, next to 5/6MW.  

The Book Fair will be open for browsing on the Monday and Tuesday of that week, with the buying days being Wednesday 13th and Thursday 14th November, both before and after school.  It's a great chance to grab some Christmas gifts too!

More information will be sent home in the next couple of weeks and I will keep you updated in the newsletter. Thanks!

Tania Stevens

Wellbeing

Child Safety 

The eSafety Commissioner is once again running some valuable parent webinars for Term 4.  The one listed below is a very important one with the end of the year approaching and our Grade 6 students transitioning to high school.  They are just half an hour and definitely worth checking out!

Supporting healthy tech use as your child transitions into high school
This webinar explores the social pressures, peer influences, and technological challenges young people face as they transition into high school. It also offers practical strategies for navigating online friendships and connections to help minimise negative experiences.

It's suitable for parents and carers of children in upper primary school (ages 11 to 12) and Year 7.

Term 4 dates

Tuesday, 29 October, 12.30 pm
Thursday, 28 November, 12.30 pm

Tania Stevens

Cyber Safety Sessions

On Tuesday 15th October, Keleigh Flavel from Victoria Police will conduct Cyber Safety sessions with our 3/4s and 5/6s and also with families at 5.30pm. A Google form has been sent out to gauge parent interest and the link is below.  Please complete this form if you would like to attend this very important information session. Thank you to those families who have already replied.

Whooping Cough

The incidence of Whooping cough cases is continuing to increase across Victoria, particularly among school-aged children.

Whooping cough is a very contagious infection, mostly spread through coughing or sneezing. 

Symptoms include:

• blocked or runny nose
• tiredness
• mild fever
• severe bouts of coughing, often followed by a ‘whooping’ sound on breathing.
  

Whooping cough can lead to life-threatening infections in babies.

If your child is unwell, they should not attend school. Please see a doctor if you or your child develops whooping cough symptoms. Early diagnosis and treatment will help reduce the spread of the infection.

Students diagnosed with whooping cough must not attend school

If your child is diagnosed with whooping cough, they must not attend school for 21 days after the onset of the cough, or until they have received 5 days of antibiotic treatment.

You must notify the school if your child is diagnosed with whooping cough.

To further reduce the spread of infection to your child and the school community, the Public Health and Wellbeing Regulations 2019 require that some students who were in the same classroom as a student diagnosed with whooping cough should not attend school.

Your child should not attend school for 14 days after they were last exposed to a person diagnosed with whooping cough, or until they have taken 5 days of a course of antibiotic treatment if they are:

• aged less than 7 years; and
• not fully vaccinated with 3 doses of whooping cough (pertussis) vaccine.

This exclusion is required by law – refer to the School exclusion table for primary schools and children’s services.

If your child is diagnosed with whooping cough, please contact the school to let us know.

Your support in keeping our students safe and well is greatly appreciated.

For more information about whooping cough, refer to Whooping cough on the Better Health Channel.

Vaccination is the best way to reduce the risk of whooping cough. The Department of Health recommends staying up to date with immunisations, including booster doses. A free booster dose of the pertussis vaccine is covered under the national immunisation program for students aged 12 to 13. If you are unsure about your child’s vaccination status for whooping cough, please discuss with an immunisation provider, such as your doctor.

Community Engagement

St Mary's Christmas Parade

Leadership and Stewardship