Friday 31st January 2025 ~ Issue 1

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

Tuesday 11th February - PUPIL FREE DAY - all staff at Structured Literacy PD

Friday 14th February - Assembly at 2.55pm

Sunday 16th February - Beginning of the Year School Mass, 10.30pm at St Mary's Church

Wednesday 26th February - Family & Child Sacramental Meeting (students in Gr 3-6 are eligible) - 7pm at the Mackillop Centre

Friday 28th February - Assembly at 2.55pm

Wednesday 5th March - Ash Wednesday - Mass at 10am

Thursday 6th March - Athletic Sports for Gr 1-6 at Monivae

Monday 10th March - Long Weekend

Friday 14th March - Assembly at 2.55pm

Monday 17th March - St Patrick's Day - wear a touch of green with your uniform

Monday 17th March - Learning Walk for 2026 families

Wednesday 19th - Friday 21st - Gr 5/6 Camp

Thursday 27th March - Learning Conversations

Friday 28th March - Assembly at 2.55pm

Monday 31st March - Learning Conversations

Wednesday 2nd - Friday 4th April - Sacrament of Reconciliation

Friday 4th April - Last day of Term 1 - 2.15pm finish

From the Principal

Dear Families,

Welcome to the 2025 school year! We are very excited to see what opportunities come our way!

A very warm and friendly welcome to the students and families who are beginning their school journey with us this year. We hope that St Mary's provides you with a positive and strong educational experience. We also welcome back families that are already part of our community.

I would like to acknowledge the outstanding work of our staff in preparing for the school year. Their dedication means that our students have the best start possible. Thank you!

Know that I am always happy to assist with any queries, concerns and ideas or just to be a listening ear. You are always welcome to contact me by phone at school or call in for a chat. If you would like to use email or Seesaw to make a suitable time that would be great, otherwise ring the office to check my diary. My door is always open!

For those that are new, you will notice that the information in our newsletter is presented under five headings - Catholic School Culture, Learning and Teaching, Wellbeing, Community Engagement and Leadership and Stewardship - which are the important characteristics that highly effective Catholic Schools focus on. All the work we do at school falls under these headings.

As you would undoubtedly know, our hearts were broken over the holidays when we heard of the tragic death of Mather Bell, the son of our beautiful friend and colleague Madeleine and her husband Josh. Words can not adequately express our deep sorrow and heartache. We will walk with the family now and always.

We are deeply grateful to our team for their kindness and care in ensuring all our students, particularly Prep B, have had a settled start to the year. We greatly appreciate Tania Stevens, Lindy Cullinane and Eliza Groves stepping into the Prep teaching role for this term to support Madeleine. We would also like to thank Erin Wolfe, Renee Perriman and Kate Dixon for being the consistent presence for our Prep students and families.

In amongst our sadness, Darren and I have welcomed our first grandchild, a beautiful little girl, Francesca Peggy. We are smitten! In Week 3, I will be taking leave to be with them in Brisbane as Francesca's dad is sitting his Paediatric exams and her mum, our daughter, could do with some help over that week! Tania will be Acting Principal during that time. Thank you Tania.

Thank you for a wonderful first week at school!

Enjoy the weekend with those you love,

Terrielynn

Catholic School Culture

MASS TIMES – 2025                                                 

Hamilton: Saturday 6pm and Sunday 10.30am                                    

Dunkeld: Sunday 8.30am                  

Glenthompson:  Sunday 8.30am

Penshurst: Sunday 8.30am

Condolences

We would like to express our deepest sympathies to the Ezard family on the passing of Chantz's grandfather, Doug and to the Caruana family following the death of Hudson's great grandmother, Margaret. The families are very much in our thoughts and prayers at this sad time.

We were also saddened to hear of the passing of Gerald Healy. Gerald is the husband of our former colleague Mary Healy and the uncle of former staff member John Healy and current staff member Rebecca Kearney. Again, our condolences to the family.

Beginning of the Year School Mass

Our Beginning of the Year School Mass is on Sunday 16th February, at St Mary's Church, 10.30am. All families are invited to join together in celebrating our beautiful school and the new year. Students are asked to wear their school uniform and to sit with their families. It would be greatly appreciated if a small plate of food could be brought along to share after Mass. Thanks!

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 -  Use kind words

SAFETY - Keep hands and feet off others

RESPONSIBILITY - Make the most of the learning opportunities offered

Sports Catch Up

Dates for your Diary

2025:

• School Athletics Carnival: Thursday 6th March @ Monivae/St. Mary’s

The Athletics Carnival is for our Grade 1 - 6 students. Parents/guardians and grandparents are most welcome to attend and support their child/ren.

We will have a Prep Aths day later in the year.

Parent Access Portal (PAM)

PAM has been released - you should have received an email from St Mary's Student Portal. Please follow the instructions to log in.

I see that we have a few families who have not logged in and completed the consent forms for 2025. If you could please check your emails and log into your PAM account and complete these and the Medical Form ASAP, it would be greatly appreciated. It also ensures we are set up for the new 2025 year.

Many thanks,

Shannon Smith                                                             

Wellbeing

Child Safety

Welcome to our 2025 school year!

Each week, I will bring you links to helpful websites and information that assist in the area of child safety. Once again, our Diocese has partnered with SchoolTV to bring a range of helpful resources to families from a variety of experts, such as Dr Michael Carr-Gregg. There will be videos, interviews, fact sheets, articles and more. Please find a link to our school landing page for this valuable resource below. 

Tania Stevens

Standing Tall Mentoring Program

Again this year, we are delighted to be a part of the Standing Tall Mentoring Program. This program matches students with a mentor and they spend time together at school on a weekly basis. This program allows students to form a special relationship with their mentor, someone who they can chat to, play board games with or spend time with in the garden. Please contact school if you think this is something that might assist your child.

Leadership and Stewardship

Student Attendance

It is a legal requirement for schools to contact families if students are absent from school without an explanation. As a result, our office staff are required to contact you from 9.30am if your child is absent from school and you have not let us know. Please phone or email. Thanks!

A Few Reminders

School Fees
School Fees for 2025 will be sent out next week. Direct Debit forms are available from the office or if you would prefer to set up your own Direct Debit, the account details are located on the top right hand side of your fee statement. All accounts
are due by 30th June, 2025 unless you are on a regular payment plan.
The Family Fee Assistance scheme will be available again in 2025. Families who qualify for the scheme (if you hold a Health Care Card or Pension card) will pay $520 per annum for primary school tuition fees. The discounted fee covers tuition
and capital fees only. It does not cover additional charges such as camps, student fees, and excursions. Please note that students who are holders of Health Care Cards are not eligible. An application form needs to be completed unless you have previously filled it out and you have no changes to your family situation i.e. a new prep student starting. These forms are available at the office. The forms, plus a copy of your current Centrelink card, must be received by Monday 24 th February, 2025. The Camps, Sports & Excursions Fund (CSEF) is provided by the Victorian Government to assist eligible families to cover the costs of school trips, camps and sporting activities. Please see below for eligibility or please contact the office. Forms are available at the office and must be completed no later than Monday 24 th February, 2025.
If during the year your circumstances change and you become eligible for Centrelink, please come and discuss this with Helen. If you have any queries concerning your account, please contact me at the office or via email helen@smhamilton.catholic.edu.au  Thank you, Helen

Community Engagement

Assembly

Our next assembly will be on Friday 14th February at 2.55pm.

Icy Poles

This term we are selling icy poles every Friday for $1.00 each. We will meet with our Students Leaders to determine what organisation we will be raising money for and let you know. Our first day of selling will be on Friday 7th February.

Town bus cost

 There has been a price rise for tickets, the new prices and term pass prices are listed below.

• Student Single $1.50
• Student Return $3.00
• Student Weekly $14.00
• Term 1 Pass $131.60
• Term 2 Pass $142.80
• Term 3 Pass $123.20
• Term4 Pass $148.40

Town bus routes are availiable at the front office

Garden Gurus

Community Events