Friday 30th May 2025 ~ Issue 15

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 2

Wednesday 4th June - School Photos

Monday 9th June - King's Birthday Long Weekend

Friday 13th June - Assembly ~ Peg Collery Awards

Friday 27th June - Assembly

Friday 4th July - Last day of Term 2

PUPIL FREE DAYS IN 2025

Friday 19th September - Structured Literacy

Wednesday 17th December - Last day of the school year for students

ADVANCE NOTICE

Wednesday 17th September - St Mary's School Concert at Hamilton PAC

From the Principal

Dear Families,

On Monday, a number of our students attended Regional Cross Country in Warrnambool. Congratulations to you all! Three of our students - Sean Nedziwe, Alaska Bremner and Johannah Winnell - have now qualified for the State Cross Country! What a fabulous achievement! We are extremely proud.

School photos will be taken next Wednesday 4th June. The children will need to be in full winter uniform, even if they usually have PE on this day. It might be timely to start looking for those jumpers! We do have a few spare jumpers here at school if families are in need. 

This year is a concert year and we are starting to get ready! Tania Stevens is leading the charge and your children might already be talking about it. The theme is looking at songs from movies - we are working on a fancy name! Get this event on your calendar - Wednesday 17th September.

This week is Reconciliation Week and the theme has been 'Bridging Now to Next.' We joined with the other schools in our district, as well as the Southern Grampians Shire and the Windamara Corporation, to walk through our town as a show of support and care for each other and to foster a more united and respectful community. Our schools are very important places to not only start these conversations but to also action them. 

Have a wonderful weekend, shared with those you love,

Terrielynn

Reconciliation Week Prayer

God of Holy Dreaming,

Great Creator Spirit, from the dawn of creation you have given
your children the good things of Mother Earth.
You spoke and the gum tree grew.
In the vast desert and the dense forest, and in the cities and at the water’s edge,
creation sings your praise.
Your presence endures at the rock at the heart of our Land.
When Jesus hung on the tree you heard the cries of all your people and became one
with your wounded ones: the convicts, the hunted, the dispossessed.

The sunrise of your Son coloured the earth anew, and
bathed it in glorious hope.
In Jesus we have been reconciled to you, to each other
and to your whole creation.
Lead us on, Great Spirit, as we gather from the four corners
of the earth; enable us to walk together in trust from the
hurt and shame of the past into the full day which has
dawned in Jesus Christ.

Amen

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

Congratulations

This week Eleanor Hinkley welcomed her new baby brother, Jasper. Congratulations to the family! We can't wait to meet him!

Sacramental Program 

Our Saturday evening Mass gatherings are well underway. During these sessions, the candidates work with a member of staff, learning more about the Sacrament of Confirmation.

Peg Collery Awards

At our Week 8 assembly we will award our Peg Collery Scholarships to three students, from P/1/2, 3/4 and 5/6. These awards are very important to our school. Peg Collery and her husband Joe were parishioners and, although they didn't have their own children, they were active members of our school community. Upon Peg's death, Joe set up a scholarship fund for our school, to be awarded to three students each year. The criteria is that these students live our school values and are hard working, kind people. Students are nominated by the staff in each area and our Leadership Team makes the final decision.

Diocesan Strategic Plan

Our Diocesan Strategic Plan will guide us over the next 10 years so that we are able to become an even higher performing system of Catholic schools. Development of this strategy has followed a process of co-design, with significant input from school leaders and representatives across the Diocese. We have also used the expert knowledge of globally recognised Finnish educator, Professor Pasi Sahlberg and Dave Runge, Director of Future Schools.

In next week's newsletter we will continue to unpack more of the strategy. 

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 - care for the people and resources in our school

SAFETY - uses resources and equipment safely

RESPONSIBILITY - ask questions about your learning

Reporting - Changes to the Reporting of Numeracy

This year we are reporting on the new Numeracy Curriculum. The staff have been teaching to this in 2025 and will be reporting on this too. One of the changes to our reporting is that instead of reporting to several strands - Number and Algebra, Measurement, Space etc - we will now report to 'Mathematics' which will include all of the strands. Look out for this when our new look reports come home later in the term.

Staffing

At the end of Term 2, Teagan Wishart will be taking Maternity Leave until the beginning of 2026. Leroy Perez will move into her role and we are very grateful to him for providing continuity of learning for the 5/6s. We are now in the process of appointing a part time teacher to join Chris Minney.

Sports Catch Up

Regional Cross Country 

We had 6 students qualify for Regional Cross Country on Monday in Warrnambool. Every one of our six students had a brilliant run. We are very proud of all their efforts. It is a wonderful achievement to make it to Regional level, and I hope they are filled with pride for their own marvellous abilities. What a bunch of superstars!

Well done to Alaska who won her age group, she finished 36 seconds in front of a girl who she hasn’t ever been able to beat before! Fantastic job Alaska. Congratulations to Sean and Johannah who also finished inside the Top 12. All three students have now made it through to the State Cross Country!! Absolutely incredible!! They will compete in Melbourne on July 24th. This is an amazing feat!

Results

Sean N 12th

Claire M 39th

Alaska B 1st

Libby R 25th

Johannah W 12th

Bella T 18th

Grade 1/2 Swimming Program

Our Grade 1/2 students have had a busy week at the pool. We thank the incredible team of parents who assisted the students in getting changed after their lessons. It is a mammoth effort and your help is deeply appreciated. We also thank the staff who supported the Grade 1/2s across the week as well.

Grade 3-6 Expression of Interest Form

Could I please have all expression of interest forms returned by the end of next week so I am able to start putting together teams for all our Term Three sporting opportunities. I will be contacting families who I do not receive forms from across the next fortnight. 

Things become quiet on the sporting front for the rest of Term Two, but there are several sporting opportunities across Term Three. It shall be a very busy and fun Term!

Dates for your Diary

TERM THREE

July

Thursday 24th July - State Cross Country @ Melbourne

Friday 25th July - Hockey 7’s @ Hamilton 

August

Thursday 14th August (TBC) - AFL 9’s @ Hamilton 

Wednesday 20th August - District Netball @ Hamilton 

September 

Tuesday 9th September - Grade 3/4 Hooptime @ Hamilton

Friday 12th September - Grade 5/6 Hooptime @ Hamilton 

TBC Primary Golf and Table Tennis 

Elise Gordon

egordon@smhamilton.catholic.edu.au

Wellbeing

Child Safety ~ Child Safe Standards

The new Child Safe Standards (eleven in total) came into effect in July 2022 and are a
vital part of what we do here at St Mary’s. But, what do these standards look like in practice? Each week, we will look at a standard in closer detail.

Standard 7 -  Processes for complaints and concerns are child-focused.

At St Mary’s we can see this standard in action in a variety of ways. If a child is concerned about something, we encourage and welcome the reporting of these concerns. We work hard to ensure that concerns are responded to promptly, thoroughly and fairly. Each term we have student feedback that is presented to the school through our Monday morning check ins and shared as to how we can ensure any concerns are met. We also conduct Student Wellbeing Surveys twice a year (ususally in Terms 2 and 4, for Grades 1-6) to check in with how students are feeling and any concerns are followed up and dealt with promptly. We discuss our School Wide Positive Behaviours (SWPB) foci each week in our Monday Check-In Assembly and students are reminded to “talk to your teachers and other staff if you are having difficulties or notice something that is not okay - we will always help." Students know who their Trusted 5 are and know that they can speak to them to help with any concerns and worries they may have.

More information can be found on the Commission for Children and Young People (CCYP) website - the link to this website is below.

Each term, the eSafety Commissioner runs free Parent Webinars on a variety of topics around internet safety and the online world. The topics are listed on the flyer below.  If your would like to find out more information, including the dates available and to register, you can do so here.

Tania Stevens
tstevens@smhamilton.catholic.edu.au

Leadership and Stewardship

School Advisory Council AGM

Our School Advisory Council (SAC) AGM is on Wednesday 11th June. We are very pleased to know that Joyce Nedziwe and Rhassell Mhasho will take on their second term. We thank them for their generosity.

School Fees

Statements have been sent home today.  All school accounts for 2025 are due and payable by 30/06/2025.  This does not apply if you have a regular payment plan in place or if you have recently spoken to Helen about your fees. Please send final payments into the office as soon as possible.  

If you are having difficulties in paying your account please contact Helen or Terrielynn.   Thank you.  Helen

Term 2 Uniform

It is hard to believe that we are moving into winter on Monday!  However, as we are going into Week 7 and we have school photos on Wednesday, it is timely that we ask all students to be in full winter uniform from Monday.  Thank you.

School Beanies

We have navy blue school beanies the students are allowed to wear (they have our school name on them) here for sale at the office for $15 each.  If you would like to purchase one for your child, please come to the front office. You can pay cash or card.

Sickness

If your child is sick they should stay at home to stop the spread of illness to other students and staff. You should seek medical attention for your child as needed, including about when to return to school.

Kitchen Garden Green Light!

I am delighted to let our community know that our Kitchen Garden program will be starting in June! 

With a lot of work happening behind the scenes by our amazing volunteers, we are kitting out the kitchen and planning recipes that we can make according to the produce we will have.

There is much education that goes with a program like this, both for leaders and students. So, when it is your child’s turn to cook, make sure you ask them all about it!

We will start with groups of approximately ten students per cook and we will ensure that everyone gets to cook. We will share plenty of photos and recipes with you all.

I’d like to thank Monique Sobey who has championed us to get this program up and running and through her leadership position with the Kitchen Garden Foundation, has supported us financially, allowing us to purchase equipment and supplies that seemed so far out of our reach.

Catherine Egan

Community Engagement

Assembly

Our next assembly will be on Friday 13th June at 2.55pm. We will be presenting our Peg Collery Scholarships on this day.

Community Events