Newsletter Term 4, Week 9 2022
Monday 5th December- School Closure
Dear Parents,
Last Sunday, we celebrated the beginning of a new liturgical year (Year A) with the first week of Advent.
The theme for this week is 'Hope'. As Advent is a time of waiting and preparing, having hope as our first focus is important – it sets a tone for our waiting.
Week 1 Theme: Hope: Let our Church be Jesus Christ's visible face to bring hope in the world today
Week 2 Theme: Love: Let our Church be Jesus Christ's visible face to bring love in the world today
Week 3 theme: Joy: Let our Church be Jesus Christ's visible face to bring joy in the world today
Week 4 theme: Peace: Let our Church be Jesus Christ's visible face to bring peace in the world today
Prayer at the lighting of the first candle
God of our waiting, We light this candle to remind us of the great promise that your Son, Jesus, will be born anew among us. We pray that you may deepen our awareness of the mystery of God in our lives, as revealed in your Son, Jesus.
COME LORD, A LIGHT PIERCES THE NIGHT!
Stay awake, you must be ready
Matthew 24:37-44
Be alert and watchful for the needs of others this week and be ready to respond to their needs.
Last week, was our Annual General Meeting of our School Advisory Council. During this meeting, I presented a financial report regarding the 2022 finances of the school.
At this meeting a 4.5% increase of school fees was discussed and ratified as well as the placement of a Building Maintenance levy of $200.00 a year per family which equates to $5.00 per school week. The school is sorely in need of refurbishment and compliance works, particularly the 1958 building which houses the administration area. Continued subsidence has caused major cracking and weakening of the front walls of the school which are currently being held up with what I like to refer to as the ‘Architectural feature - blue poles’! Please see below for an outline of the fees in 2023.
Reminder
The parking on Arras Street is the for school pick up and drop off zone, please refrain from parking for longer than 2 minutes. Also please do not park over driveways.
Follow our socials for the latest learning posts from the classroom
St Margaret Mary’s students are independent life-long learners inspired by Gospel values and empowered with a sense of purpose and responsibility. They confidently engage with others and are equipped with skills to adapt to an ever changing world.
Each week, students who embody our values, apply the school mindsets to learning, work hard to improve or persevere to deliver on learning objectives are awarded a class award. The students who earned an award in the past weeks are:
Term 4, Week 8
Term 4, Week 9
Grade 3/4 Design Project
The grade 3/4’s have been busy planning, designing and creating over the past term. Students were tasked with creating an inclusive space that can be enjoyed by all.
Junior Design Day
The Juniors have had a busy few weeks preparing for their Advent Liturgy, the Junior A assembly and designing bridges for the 3 Billy Goats Gruff to cross. There were some amazing designs!
School Captain Speeches
A special assembly was held to listen to the 8 shortlisted school captain candidates. We had a very large application group which goes to the credit of our future year 6 students. Students and teachers voted and the results will be announced at a special assembly soon. Environmental, Liturgy, Sports and Wellbeing captains will also be announced soon.
Call for new members!
Can you spare some time to help out with the FSG? We are currently looking for new members. Email Stacey to express your interest and find out more about how you can help out.
At Emmanuel, we truly believe in students being a part of our College community for life. This last week is a perfect example of this, with some of next year’s Year 7s visiting and our full Orientation Morning happening next week, while last Friday we celebrated with the graduates from the classes of 1972, 1982, 1992, 2002 & 2012 at the annual reunion. We have also farewelled our Year 12s after their final exams, there is certainly plenty going on at the College.
As we enter the final week for the students at Emmanuel for the year, we would like to congratulate them on a year of incredible resilience as they have bounced back from the COVID affected years. They have embraced school life and the opportunities presented to them with great enthusiasm.
Last week, we acknowledged high achievement in the College with the annual Celebration of Excellence evening held at ‘The Atrium’ at Flemington Racecourse, where students received awards for excellence in all facets of school life. We congratulate all students who achieved personal bests this year and who strove for improvements whenever they could.
Excitement is rising for the students commencing in Year 7, 2023 with the Orientation Morning held this week. Students came along and met new friends, learned which house and homeroom they will be in and met their teachers all while learning a little more about life at the College. We are very much looking forward to all 448 of them starting life at Emmanuel at our two campuses next year.
The College community would like to wish you all a safe and enjoyable festive season and look forward to seeing you at events in 2023.
We look forward to seeing you at the school soon.
Christmas Appeal
End of Year Mass and Concert 15 December at 6pm
We are encouraging students to wear festive clothes for the End of Year mass and class performance. Students will be performing their class dance learned in our Wednesday dance classes so comfortable clothes would be best.
The Mass begins at 6.00pm in the SMM Church, followed by the performance by the Juniors Learning Community and individual class acts.
BYO picnic rug, food and beverages.
Can’t wait to see you there.
School Fees
As you would be aware it is school policy for school fee payments to be finalised by the end of term 3 unless otherwise discussed with the school. Thankyou to all the families who have made payments towards their family school fees and levy accounts. Without this support from you, our school would not be able to run.
Currently there are $46,000 in outstanding school fees. As we are coming to the end of the year, we as a school are required to pay outstanding accounts and therefore need families to pay their fees.
If you have not started to make payments towards your account can we suggest you set up via your bank account, weekly, fortnightly or monthly direct debit payments. They are a great way to work towards settlement of your account.
We accept EFTPOS over the phone, or in person at the school office and you can make direct payments into our account. Please use your family name as the reference so we are able to allocate the payment correctly.
Our bank details are:
Account Name: St Margaret Mary’s School
BSB: 083-347
ACCOUNT: 463870010
Please speak to Andrea Richards if you are experiencing financial hardship.
Important Dates
Trying to find an important date? Check out our updated Term Dates page.
Keyboard Concert
A Keyboard concert led by our piano teacher Kate Tyugay will be held in the Hall on Friday the 16th December. Keyboard students will be given the opportunity to showcase their talents. See below for the timetable.
10-10.30 Junior Learning Community
10.30-11 Senior Learning Community
Choir Information
For students currently in our school choir, please see below important times for the coming events.
Fri Dec 9 - Graduation Mass at 5.30 - choir to meet at 5.15pm at SMM church
Thurs Dec 15 - End-of-Year Mass - choir to meet at 5.45pm at SMM Church
BYO iPad Information for our current Year 2 parents
Big Summer Read
The BIG Summer Read is about to kick off, and Hobsons Bay Libraries are running a campaign to get kids joined up to the challenge.
We welcome your feedback so if you have anything to contribute to the newsletter, questions about content or general feedback, please let us know.