Newsletter Term 1, Week 6 2023
School Photos this Tuesday 14th March.
Hello Everyone,
Next week is Catholic Education week. We are excited to inform you that St. Margaret Mary’s will be part of a C.E.W. feature in the local Star newspaper.
In addition to this, we will recognise C.E.W. by taking our school captains and church leaders to join leaders from all Catholic Archdiocese schools at St. Patrick’s Cathedral, for mass, on St. Patrick’s day.
We have experienced another fortnight of engaging learning and positive opportunities to build connections between home and school. We have had footy clinics running onsite and all SMM students have attended the Life Education Van incursion as part of our whole school faith and life inquiry into our Identity.
The Foundation students have enjoyed their first full week at school and the student leadership groups have met with our Deputy Principals. The Year 6 school captains also met with student leaders from local schools offsite Wednesday as part of our SMM strategies for seeking and thus valuing student voice.
We also had another positive week for engaging parents in the life of the school. We had a terrific turn out for our first Fundraising Social Group (FSG) last Monday and there are many more who offered their apologies for the night and have offered to help organize events.
We will set a date for the next FSG meeting for early next term and give everyone plenty of time to come along to make new connections across our school. See below for details of our FSG fundraising goal. If you have any contacts or ideas for social events and fundraising, please email office@smmspotswood.catholic.edu.au and record “For the FSG” in Subject line.
The next fortnight is full of key events for your diary:
No school on Monday for the Labour day holiday
School photos are this Tuesday and
NAPLAN begins Wednesday: for which we use a calm home - school approach.
Sunday March 19th, all families are invited to celebrate the Feast day of St. Joseph at 10am mass at Sacred Heart Newport. It is a great opportunity to gather as a parish community after mass and enjoy lunch and child centered activities.
Tuesday 23rd March SMM staff and students will go to Sacred Heart Newport to celebrate our feast day
Thursday 23rd is our school athletics day!
Take Care,
Colleen McCambridge
Principal
Upcoming events and reminders
If you know of anyone looking for a school for their Prep student for 2024, please let them know about our open mornings and Prep 2024 Information Evening.
Open Morning for potential 2024 Preps:
Wednesday March 22nd from 9.30- 11am
Prep 2024 Information Evening:
Wednesday March 29th 7pm
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 1, Week 6
Term 1, Week 5
We’re Kicking Goals!
The Prep and Juniors have had the AFL Auskick visiting and showing us some skills. Students have been learning handballing, kicking and the art of taking a “speckie”. We look forward to seeing them develop into the next Ellie Blackburn or Marcus Bontempelli!
Life Ed
This week all classes have been involved in the Life Ed experience. Life Ed offers a range of programs designed to educate students around physical health, safety and social and emotional wellbeing. The students will be completing some follow up activities over the term and even got to meet Harold!
Easter Egg Raffle
Upcoming School Masses
Family Mass: Feast of St. Joseph
Sunday, March 19⋅10:00 – 11:00am at Sacred Heart Church
School Photos This Tuesday 14th March
If you are completing an envelope, please collect from the front office and return on photo day.
Important Dates
Trying to find an important date? Check out our updated Term Dates page.
Save the Date!
St Margaret Mary’s has recently engaged Inform and Empower to work with our students around cybersafety. Students will be involved in termly online sessions and we have an online parent information session as well. Raising Kids in a Digital World will take place on May the 11 and we would strongly encourage all parents to make the time to view the webinar. More information to come in following weeks.
Easter Bonnet Parade
On Wednesday the 5th of April we will be having our annual Easter Bonnet Parade from 9am. Students are invited to create and wear a hat to celebrate this special time. Our Easter Raffle will also be drawn at the conclusion of the parade.
Thank You
A big thank you to all those who came to the Spotswood Hotel last Monday evening. It was a great turn out and we look forward to raising some money for our students and school. If you couldn’t make it or would still like to join contact Simon on sdevlin@smmspotswood.catholic.edu.au
Target Aquired!
At the first FSG meeting some potential fundraising targets were discussed. One thing everyone agreed on was a new audio visual system for the hall was a must. Stay tuned for updates about how we can make this dream a reality.
AFL Footy Tipping 2023- Starting Next Week!
Footy tipping is back again this year with all money raised going towards the FSG.
A few changes this year include:
The return of the Joker round
Away sides for non tippers
Bonus point for tipping 8
$25 to join and prizes for 1st, 2nd and 3rd to be announced soon.
Payments made via school FSG bank account. Please have entry payments made by round 3, using your footy tipping alias as a reference.
Account SMM FSG
BSB: 083 347
Acc: 365426557
You can also send in $25 in an envelope, labelled with your alias and titled "2023 footy tipping"
Join the competition below: https://www.footytips.com.au/comps/SMM_2023_AFL_Footy_Tipping_Competition?p=stmm3015
Easter Egg Raffle and Donations
Thank you for all those families that have donated easter eggs, crafts and books for our Easter Raffle so far. The Easter Raffle is one of our major fundraising events for the year and any assistance is greatly appreciated. If you require any more raffle tickets, please drop in to the office and collect another pack.
Emmanuel College News
Another activity filled week at Emmanuel College, has seen Interschool sport being played by
students at both campuses in the SACCSS and ACC competitions, with all teams demonstrating
outstanding support and encouragement for all competitors.
At St Paul’s Campus this week Year 12 students headed off for their retreat where they heard from
inspiring speakers, undertook study technique sessions, planning workshops and a range of positive
interactive activities. We also welcomed Dr Janine Biggin our new College Principal to her first Meet
the Principal event, where she met families and future students and then our current students took
families on a tour.
At Notre Dame Campus we will have a Meet the Principal event this week and our Year 7s head off
to their camp at Portsea. We look forward to hearing great stories about the adventures had and
new friendships made.
Year 7 2025
If your child is currently in Grade 5, it is a requirement to submit an application if you wish to be
considered for a place in Year 7 2025, even if you already have an older child who attends the
College.
A Prospectus Pack containing an application form can be requested under the Enrolment Information
tab on the right-hand side of the homepage of the College website: Request a Prospectus here, by
coming into either campus office or by calling our College Registrar on 8325 5119.
We look forward to seeing you at the College soon.
Yours sincerely
Jenny Hendricks
Community Connections Officer
Mount St. Joseph Girls’ College
OPEN EVENTS
VISITING MOUNT ST. JOSEPH GIRLS’ COLLEGE IS A GREAT WAY TO EXPLORE OUR DYNAMIC LEARNING SPACES AND EXPERIENCE LEARNING IN ACTION.
We invite you to join us at our Open Events in 2023 on the following dates:
OPEN DAY 10:00am – 2:00pm Sunday 7 May
OPEN MORNINGS 9:15am – 10:30am
23 February (Coming soon, register now!)
24 March
8 June
20 July
3 August
7 September
You will meet our College Principal, students and staff and see why Mount St. Joseph Girls College is the best choice for your child. Tours of the College are led by our student
ambassadors. This gives visiting families the unique opportunity to ask questions and gain an honest insight into our programs and what it is like to be a student at Mount St. Joseph Girls College.
To register your interest in attending, please visit our website on the VISIT US page
ACADEMIC NEWS
Congratulations to all our graduates of the Class of 2022. There were many stories of students achieving personal success and we are proud of the achievements of all our VCE and VCAL students.
We are pleased to share this snapshot of our results. We wish the Class of 2022 continued success in their future tertiary studies and career pathways.
College VCE DUX: Tanvi Arora (98.95)
College VCAL DUX: Lauren Agosta
Top Study Score: Zoe Nasser (Year 11), Psychology (50)
Median Study Score: 30
Scores above 40: 42 (Top 9% of the state)
Students with an ATAR above 80: 26%
Students with an ATAR above 90: 9%
ENROLMENT DATES
YEAR 7 in 2025
Applications for Year 7 at Mount St. Joseph Girls’ College should be made during Year 5 of your child’s primary school education.
Parents/Carers should complete an online application form with the required documentation and payment of a non-refundable $50 application fee. Applications for Year 7 in 2025 close 18 August 2023.
We welcome your feedback so if you have anything to contribute to the newsletter, questions about content or general feedback, please let us know.