Friday 25th July 2025 ~ Issue 21

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 3

Monday 28th & Wednesday 30th July - I Am Mindful well being sessions - Gr 5/6

Wednesday 30th July - Parent Sacrament Meeting

Friday 1st August - Assembly

Monday 11th August - 'Bullying, No Way' day (details to come)

Thursday 13th August - AFL 9s - Gr 5/6

Friday 15th August - School Feast Day - Assumption of Mary

Wednesday 20th August - District Netball

Thursday 28th & Friday 29th August - Gr 3/4 Camp

Sunday 31st August - Sacrament of First Eucharist

Friday 5th September - Father's Day celebration at school

Tuesday 9th September - Gr 3/4 Hooptime

Friday 12th September - Gr 5/6 Hooptime

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

Thursday 18th September - Last day of Term 3 - 3.15pm finish

PUPIL FREE DAYS IN 2025

Friday 19th September - Structured Literacy

ADVANCE NOTICE

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

From the Principal

Dear Families,

Our hearts were full of joy today as we celebrated Grandparent's Day, our favourite day in the school year. Having become a grandparent this year, I really, really understand the love a grandparent has for their grandchild and seeing the smiles on our students' faces today, I know how much they love their grandparents too. A huge thank you to our families for providing the most delicious morning tea. Your generosity is greatly appreciated. A truly fantastic day!

We have also enjoyed a wonderful first week back at school. The children have returned with many stories about their holidays and seem ready to get into the learning for Term 3.

Have a wonderful weekend, shared with those you love,

Terrielynn

Grandparents Day 2025

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New Term Prayer

We begin our term, 
honouring this life, 
with all its potentials and possibilities. 

We begin our term with trust, 
knowing we are created for loving encounter. 

We begin our term with hope, 
knowing the it can hold 
love, kindness, 
forgiveness and justice. 

We recall last term, 
May we learn, may we love, may we live on.

We make room for the unexpected, 
May we find wisdom and life in the unexpected. 

Help us to embrace possibility, 
respond graciously to disappointment 
and hold tenderly those we encounter. 
Help us to be fully present. 

We pray for all who will experience difficulty, 
May we support, may we listen, may we change.

We resolve to live life in its fullness: 
We will welcome the people who’ll be part of our term. 
We will greet God in ordinary and hidden moments. 
We will live the life we are living. 

This term and always
May we find the wisdom we need, 
God be with us. 
May we hear the needs of those we meet, 
God be with us. 
May we love the life that we are given, 
God be with us. 
Amen

                   Adapted from O Tuama P, (2017) Daily Prayer with the Corrymeela Community Canterbury Press: Norwich.

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

 Welcome!

This week we have welcomed Emerald, Kurtis and Lily to our school. Along with their family, we hope they enjoy being welcomed into the St Mary's family.

We also welcome Mrs Rebecca Kearney to the Gr 5/6 teaching team and Mrs Renee Perriman to the 1/2 team.

Congratulations

We are so thrilled to welcome Teagan Wishart's new baby Ella. We send our best wishes to her, Anthony and the family. We can't wait to meet Ella!

Prayers

Our deepest sympathy to Beau Plush and to Levi and Maddy Joseph on the recent death of their great grandmother, and to Oliver Manders whose great grandmother has also passed away. Our thoughts and prayers are with these families. Please also keep William Van de Hoef and his family in your prayers, as his uncle is very unwell in hospital and Zoe Kuilboer and her family, as her grandfather is also unwell.

Our Diocesan Community (Link below)

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 your manners

SAFETY - keep hands and feet off others

RESPONSIBILITY - be curious in your learning!

Sports Catch Up

  State Cross Country

Yesterday, Johannah, Alaska and Sean all ran in the State Cross Country in Melbourne.  What an amazing achievement!  We are so proud of all of you.  Next week we will have photos and results from the event.

St Mary’s AFL Superkick Program.

We are very pleased to offer AFL Auskick and AFL Superkick at St Mary’s in Term Three.

This will be a 5 week program aimed at 5-12 year olds. The program will run at St Mary’s on a Wednesday afternoon from 3.30pm-4.30pm. We are hopeful it will start in Term Three Week Two (Wednesday 30th July). It costs $55. No special clothing or football boots are required, the students would get changed after school (they can just wear their sports uniform if wanted) and then would need to be promptly collected at 4.30pm.

The set up and the structure of the program will depend on registration numbers and the age of students interested in the program. AFL Victoria staff will make a judgement in the first session and will happily allow younger students to participate in the Superkick program if they feel this is more suited to them.

We would need at least 12 interested students overall for the program to commence. Please see the flyer later in the newsletter, it is also on SeeSaw and a hard copy has been sent home today. Please scan the appropriate QR code to register. Please contact myself or Jono Box for further information. Jono can be contacted at jono.box@afl.com.au

Dates for your Diary

TERM THREE

August

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

Wednesday 20th August - District Netball @ Hamilton 

September 

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

Thursday 11th September - WHP Table Tennis (round robin format, no progression to state)

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

TBC Primary Golf

Elise Gordon

egordon@smhamilton.catholic.edu.au

Wellbeing

Child Safety - Parent Webinars

The eSafety Commissioner presents free parent webinars on a variety of topics each term. They usually run for around 45 minutes and are offered at a variery of times.   Many of the topics offered next term are aimed at upper primary and secondary, but there are a few topics that are relevant for all ages.

These live webinars give parents and carers the knowledge, skills and tools to support their children to have safe online experiences.

The topics for next term are:

• Recognising online coercive control in young people's lives
• Understanding AI companions: What parents and carers need to know
• AI assisted image-based abuse: Navigating the deepfake threat
• The changing face of cyberbullying: Protecting your child in 2025
• Understanding and using parental controls to help protect your child online
• Sexual extortion: What parents and carers need to know
• Exploring the online experiences of boys and young men

A flyer with the times available can be found below. The link to register for these webinars is HERE

I Am Mindful Program

We are so excited to announce that we have been successful in getting a grant for the I AM MINDFUL wellbeing program, which will be delivered to our Gr 5/6s this term. A huge thank you to Michelle Winnell from Brophy Youth and Family Services, who secured the funding for us. Our staff have participated in a training session and and online session was also  offered to the families of our Gr 5/6 families on Thursday evening. We look forward to starting the student sessions on Monday.

Tania Stevens
tstevens@smhamilton.catholic.edu.au

Leadership and Stewardship

Kitchen Garden 

Our 3/4 students had the chance to cook this week.  A delicious beef and greens stir fry and savoury muffins were the result, using lots of fresh produce from our garden. 

This program covers so many curriculum areas, as well as promoting the very important life skill of learning to cook.  We are so blessed to have this program running at our school.

Thanks to Lyn and Judy for leading our students so capably.  We can see the joy and excitement that it brings!

Catherine Egan

Kitchen Garden Program - Week 1 Term 3

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Below is the recipe for the stiry fry that the students prepared yesterday.  They also added oyster sauce and 1kg of beef mince to the recipe.

School Uniform

We are right in the depths of winter now and it is great to see the students in their correct school uniform. One thing we are noticing with a small number of students is that they are wearing makeup and some jewelry that is not appropriate for school. We would greatly appreciate home support with this. Thanks! 

School Beanies and Coats

Our beanies and coats are a wonderful addition to our winter uniform! Just a reminder that both items are for outside use. Our school is lovely and warm and beanies and coats are nor required inside. Thanks!

Community Engagement

St Mary's Christmas Parade

This year our annual Christmas Parade will be held on Friday 5th December.

Here are our amazing 2025 coordinators:

Tendai Mhasho - Parade Marshall coordinator

Katrina Turnbull/Teeghan Brown - BBQ coordinators

Shae Outtram – Gourmet Gifts/Baking

Lauren Cottrill - Stalls @ the PAC and will create our Parade advertising posters

Siana Causer - Raffle coordinator

All we need now is a Decorations coordinator.

The Decoration coordinator  will choose decorations we will use in front of the PAC from our storage shed here at school. In the past we have used our Christmas trees and boxes wrapped up like presents. They  will also have volunteers helping load/ unload and put up the decorations at the PAC.

Later in the year we will ask for helpers to assist the coordinators in the above rolls and keen bakers to make gourmet gifts to sell (Christmas cakes, biscuits, rum balls etc) at our Gourmet gift stall.

If you have any questions regarding the Christmas Parade please contact Shannon at school.🎄

Assembly

Our next assembly will be on Friday 1st August at 2.55pm.