Friday 14th March 2025 ~ Issue 7

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

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

Monday 17th March - Learning Walk for 2026 families

Friday 21st March - Harmony Day - wear a touch of orange with your uniform

Thursday 27th March - Learning Conversations *bookings open on PAM*

Friday 28th March - Assembly at 2.55pm

Monday 31st March - Learning Conversations *bookings open on PAM*

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

Thursday 3rd April - Farewell Assembly for Lindy Cullinane at 2.55pm

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

TERM 2

Monday 28th April - First day of Term 2

Monday 28th April - Open Day

Thursday 1st May - Step Into Prep

Friday 2nd May - Assembly

Thursday 8th May - Step Into Prep

Thursday 8th May - Spend the Day at Monivae (Grade 6 students)

Monday 12th May - Mother's Day Celebration at school

Friday 16th May - Assembly

Monday 26th - Friday 30th May - Catholic Education Week

Wednesday 28th May - Friday 30th May - Gr 5/6 Camp - Warrnambool

Friday 30th May - Assembly

Wednesday 4th June - School Photos

Friday 13th June - Assembly

Friday 27th June - Assembly

Friday 4th July - Last day of Term 2

PUPIL FREE DAYS IN 2025

Tuesday 22nd April - Religious Education PD - Hamilton

Wednesday 23rd April - Whole School PD - English Curriculum - Horsham

Thursday 24th April - Numeracy PD - Hamilton

Wednesday 14th May - Whole School PD - Diocesan Strategic Plan - Horsham

Friday 19th September - Structured Literacy

From the Principal

Dear Families,

It was lovely to enjoy an extra long weekend, a great way to rest and relax and get ready for the last few weeks of term. Hasn't Term 1 flown by!

The students and staff have done a great job of working through the NAPLAN assessments this week. We look forward to seeing our results later in the year.

On Monday we will celebrate St Patrick's day by wearing a touch of green with our uniforms. Then, next Friday we will be acknowledging Harmony Day by wearing a touch of orange with our uniform and completing learning activities in our homerooms. This year's theme is 'Everybody Belongs' and could not be more appropriate as a strong message for our students here at school and out in the community. 

Just a heads up for our Mother's Day gathering next term. Due to the Prep swimming program, we will be celebrating this wonderful day on MONDAY 12th MAY from 1.30pm. More details to come but please pop this in your diary.

Have a wonderful weekend, shared 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

Sacramental Program

Preparations for the Sacrament of Reconciliation have begun, with sessions at Saturday night's Mass and weekly Zoom meetings. The Sacrament will be received in the last week of term.

Project Compassion

Every year during Lent at St Mary’s we fund raise for Caritas through Project Compassion.

Each child is sent home with a Project Compassion box and are asked to take on something or give something up as a way of raising money.  We have challenges at school - Making positive choices around our words and actions.

This year we are going to have a major focus on water. We will learn about people in different parts of the world who do not have access to clean water and how not to take this precious resource for granted.

Children will be challenged during Lent to make some water saving efforts in their home - they can use this as a way of raising money. Eg, parents might sponsor their child 20c for every time they have a 2 minute shower. OR, donate 20c for their child turning the tap off whilst brushing their teeth.

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 manners

SAFETY - Make sure your choices don't make someone else unsafe

RESPONSIBILITY - Participate in everything!

Sports Catch Up

Saturday Morning Netball

After this week all of our teams have a bye coming up, so this will be the second last game for all our teams. I hope you are enjoying the season! Please note, our Grade Three/Four team has the 9.30am game this week.

Round Four - 15th March

8.30am 

St Mary’s Mavericks (5-6) vs Dunkeld-Coleraine Court 6

St Mary’s Swifts (5-6) vs College Sapphires Court2

9.30am

St Mary’s Magic (3-4) vs Gray St Navy Blue Court 3

Division Swimming

Well done to our St Mary’s Super Swimmers at the Division Swimming in Warrnambool! We are so proud of all of you!  Please see all our students results below:

Lachie R: Freestyle 10th, Backstroke 11th

Claire C:  Butterfly 5th, Breaststroke 7th, Freestyle 9th

Lucy O: Backstroke 3rd, Freestyle 20th 

Libby R: Breaststroke 15th, Backstroke 26th, Freestyle 30th

Owen L: Breaststroke 11th, Freestyle 35th

Michael T: Backstroke 17th, Freestyle 31st

Lexi W: Butterfly 5th, Backstroke 6th, Freestyle 13th

Nina R: Breaststroke 16th, Freestyle 16th, 

Hana C: Backstroke 26th, Freestyle 35th

Medley Relay (Lexi, Lucy, Nina, Claire): 3rd

Freestyle Relay (Meki, Hana, Lexi, Nina): 5th

Freestyle Relay (Claire, Lucy, Libby, Navvi): 7th

Regional Swimming 

We will have four students representing us at the Regional Swimming in Horsham on Wednesday 26th March. This is an outstanding accomplishment! Our Medley Relay consists of two 10 year olds and two 12 year olds, however they compete in the open age category. So getting to this level is a fantastic achievement! We wish all four girls all the very best!

Claire C - Butterfly 

Lexi W - Butterfly and Backstroke

Lucy O - Backstroke 

Medley Relay (Lexi, Lucy, Nina, Claire)

District Athletics

District Athletics is being held on Thursday 20th of March at Mitchell Park, for the students who have qualified from their results on our day. I have sent home a note which outlines the day and what events your child has been entered in. 

St. Mary’s are responsible for running the four high jump mats, and we do need assistance with this. If your child attends on the day, and you are available to help out, could you please fill the slip at the bottom of the note and return it to me, or contact me via Seesaw or email. 

School Cross Country

Our School Cross Country will be held on Friday 28th March at St. Mary’s. All students will participate around our course. The format of the day is:

Prep - Grade 2 students will be running from 10:00am - 11:00am.

9 and 10 Year Old students will be running from 11:30am - 12:30pm.

11 and 12 Year Old students will be running from 12:30pm - 1:30pm.

A note was sent home this week with all of the information of the day. I am still requiring some assistance on the day with the event, so please get in contact with me if you are able to help.

Little Athletics State Champion

A huge congratulations to Alaska Bremner who won the Under 11 1100m Race Walk at the Little Athletics State Championships last weekend. An incredible achievement! We are so proud of you Alaska and you should be immensely proud of yourself!

Dates for your Diary

March

Thursday 20th March - District Athletics @ Mitchell Park

Wednesday 26th March - Regional Swimming @ Horsham

Thursday 27th March - Southern Grampians District Tennis event @ Hamilton

Friday 28th March - School Cross Country @ St Mary’s 

Elise Gordon

egordon@smhamilton.catholic.edu.au 

Learning Conversations

Term 1 Parent Teacher Learning Conversations for students in Prep to Grade 6 will be held on Thursday 27th March and Monday 31st March between 2.30pm and 5.45pm.  This year, we have enabled these Learning Conversation bookings to occur within PAM.  You can also access the booking form through the SIMON Everywhere App. 

These bookings are now open.  Please let us know if you require any clarification on this booking system.

Please note - if you normally have a PSG meeting for your child (Grade P-4), these are being scheduled at a different time, so you do not need to book them a time for a Learning Conversation.  However, the Grade 5/6 team will run their PSG meetings through their Learning Conversations, so please book a time.  Thank you.

Wellbeing

Mental Health and Wellbeing Leader Role

Bec Sherlock has returned to school this year in a new role as the Mental Health and Wellbeing Leader. This is a role that is funded by our governing authority DOBCEL and provides us with the amazing resource of having a teacher who is able to coordinate our work in the area of mental health and wellbeing. Through training we are learning more about what this role looks like in schools and will share this with you as the year goes on.

Child Safety

Today is my final week in the series I will add from the eSafety Commissioner.  These resources can help us, as parents and carers for our young people, manage devices and apps that our children access. 

All of these resources are taken from the esafety.gov.au website.  This is an excellent resource and well worth a look if you have any questions regarding eSafety.

The resource that I have attached today is a flyer about how to get started with parental controls in social media, games and apps that our children may be using, such as Roblox, Messenger Kids and YouTube Kids. 

I have also included a flyer from SchoolTV with information about an upcoming webinar, featuring Dr Michael Carr-Gregg and Susan McLean.  This is part one of a two part series and will be held on Wednesday 19th March at 7pm. Scan the QR code to register for this important event.

Tania Stevens

Leadership and Stewardship

Lifelong Benefits of Attending a Catholic School!

We're pleased to share new research based on data from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) Survey, which reveals that individuals who attended Catholic schools are likely to experience lifelong benefits in employment, general health, and overall life satisfaction.

The study highlights that Catholic schooling offers both personal and community advantages. On average, Catholic school alumni are more likely to be employed and earn higher wages compared to those who attended government schools, with wage differences ranging from 4% to 11%. Additionally, former Catholic school students are more inclined to work in public-serving industries and sectors, and they are more likely to donate to charity. The research also shows that Catholic school attendance positively influences personal health and life satisfaction scores.

Conducted by the Centre for International Research on Education Systems (CIRES) at Victoria University and commissioned by VCEA, the research adjusts for various individual and family characteristics to specifically isolate the impact of Catholic school attendance.

This evidence supports what we have likely known instinctively – that an education focused on developing the whole person leads to well-rounded individuals who are prepared to succeed, thrive, and navigate life with confidence, regardless of the path they choose.

We should take great pride in the substantial and positive impact we have on the lives of our students and families as they journey through our educational system.

Student Representative Council (SRC)

Each year we vote in a representative from each homeroom - except Prep - to be a part of our SRC. From Term 2 this group will meet each fortnight to talk all things school! It is vital that our students have a voice in what our school looks and feels like and this is a great way for that to happen.

Congratulations to -

Eleanor Hinkley 1/2E

Emma Dunn 1/2N

Janin Roll 1/2GK

Lucy McRae 3/4EP

Lachie Rhook 3/4S

Isabel Fitzsimmons 3/4W

Michael Taylor 5/6W

Lucy Outtram 5/6T

Chase Dean 5/6MP

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, Seesaw, use the Simon Everywhere app or email. Thanks!

School Fees

School Fees have been sent home with today’s newsletter. If you would like to set up a Direct Debit payment for your school fees, the bank details are located on the top right hand side of your fee statement. The reference is your account number (shown on the statement) or your surname. If you have any queries or concerns or you would like help to set up a payment plan, please contact Helen at the office. Thank you.

Community Engagement

Assembly

Our next assembly will be on Friday 28th March at 2.55pm.

Spend the Day at Monivae

Grade 6 students are invited to SPEND THE DAY at Monivae College and experience a day of classes and activities on
Thursday 8th May 2025.  Please save the date and register via this link ~ https://www.monivae.com/spend-the-day 

Easter Egg Raffle
Our wonderful Siana Causer is organising the Easter raffle again this year. Tickets have been handed out to the eldest in each  family. There are 10 tickets in each book and tickets are $1 each. These are due back by Monday 31st of March. The money raised will go to Project Compassion.

PAM App - Simon Everywhere

PAM has an app which you can download - this makes it an easier experience to log into and use PAM. The app is called Simon Everywhere (Simon is the software behind PAM and our user database). Seesaw will still be used for communication between staff and parents but the Simon Everywhere app will be used for all our consent forms (thank you for already completing these) booking of parent teacher interviews and other documents/forms in the future. You can also use the Simon Everywhere app to put in absences, which then pops it straight into the official attendance rolls - so no need to call/email and we dont have to follow up absences. There are many applications within the Simon Everywhere App which will be released as needed. Please have a look at the instructions attached to this message.

Garden Gurus

Community Events

Good Friday Bake Sale

The annual bake sale will be held on Friday 18th April, more details to come.
It’s a good excuse to jump out of bed, get a cuppa and stock up on some yummy treats for Easter.
Please share this information and get the word out. Come and support this awesome event and raise
some funds for the amazing Royal Children’s Hospital.
If we have any parents, grandparents or guardians who would like to bake for this day, please contact Erika on 0408 721 991.