Newsletter Term 2, Week 2 2023
Mother’ Day Stall- Thursday the 11th, please bring $$$
Dear Parents and Carers,
I hope you have all returned refreshed and ready for another exciting term of learning and engaging in our dynamic school.
The teachers are not waving but learning!
The term started with our teacher’s learning how to deliver highly interactive, (hence the hands up in the photograph) structured spelling lessons drawn from the evidenced informed “Spelling Mastery” program.
Spelling Mastery uses explicit Instructional lessons that progress students through a sequence of learning that helps them learn dependable spelling skills by blending three approaches: the phonemic approach, the whole word approach and the morphemic approach.
This explicit sequence of learning enables students to learn about the relationship between sounds, word parts and spelling patterns, and apply these principles to their writing.
Our instructor was Claire Scott, an Australian educator who has extensive international teaching and learning expertise, specialising in the psychology of learning and explicit literacy instruction.
Our first day saw our school gather to mark two important occasions. At the 9am assembly we were led by the Year 6 captains for our ANZAC Day Ceremony. Together we prayed, read the “Ode” and the poem “Flanders Field;” and observed a minute’s silence during the playing of “the Last Post.”
We sang our national anthem and remembered all those who sacrificed their lives during war and gave thanks for the freedoms we enjoy in Australia. In the afternoon our Year 1 / 2 children presented a prayer liturgy for the Resurrection of Jesus.
We remember through the Risen Jesus, the message of hope and the call for us to be the light for others in how we act and speak.
We welcomed Bishop Ashe to our school this week. He met with staff and the Year 6 children who are preparing for their Confirmation. We thank Bishop Ashe for his ongoing support of our parish school community.
The Mother’s Day stall is next week on May 11th. Please remember to send your child with some money. Items will be priced from $1 to $5. See flyer for details.
Also, we look forward to seeing Mums, Grandmothers and special friends join us for Mother’s Day Breakfast Friday morning, starting from 8.15am.
Thank you to the Easter Raffle team for raising the great amount of $1,700. We are raising funds to provide our children with an audio visual system in the hall for their learning, the student audio visual creations and class assembly presentations.
We also have plans to install a Gaga pit for the children in the yard. The initial quote for this was around $6,000 so all funds raised are greatly appreciated! Please come along to our FSG catch up at the Spotswood Hotel on Tuesday May 30th.
We had a great turn out last time and alongside catching up with each other, it's a great opportunity to chat and discuss different ideas. Dad’s are most welcome and encouraged to come along. So Dads, find a mate and convince them to join the FSG. I hope to see lots of our parents, carers, and friends of SMM there!
Last few points:
A new split system air conditioner was installed in the Year 4 /5 classroom last term. I have applied for a grant to assist towards the cost to install more split systems in the classrooms and hall. We were unfortunately unsuccessful for this government grant.
We are looking to purchase additional books for the library and especially for the classroom to enhance our Science of Reading approach to Teaching and Learning of Reading. We have also ordered student books to facilitate the student’s participation in Spelling Mastery.
Students and Mr Devlin are working together to begin a STEM lunchtime group. There is a wish list of resources. More details to follow.
We are resuming our partnership with Scienceworks this term. Scienceworks have responded positively to our communications and the SMM staff are working with Scienceworks to facilitate experiences for our students. Stay tuned!
As the weather is getting colder, please remember we are moving to Winter uniform. Please let the office know if you need assistance with this.
Take Care,
Colleen McCambridge
Principal
Upcoming events and reminders
Thursday the 18th of June our Year 6s make their Sacrament of Confirmation. Everyone is welcome at Mass to support our Confirmation Candidates. The mass is held at 6.30pm at St Margaret Mary’s church.
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 2, Week 2
Term 2, Week 1
OUR AMAZING PREPS
I could not be any more proud of our Prep kids and their teachers!!!
This week they have been totally smashing it out of the park!
The teachers and students have been working very hard at consolidating their SATPIN sounds as well as learning their next lot of sounds. Mrs Craword, Mrs O’Dea and Ms Graham make learning sounds and letters really engaging with the use of whiteboards, magnetic letters, catchy little video clips and colourful decodable big books.
During investigations, they have been working on their mindset of persistence by writing design briefs and trying to stick to their briefs. The Preps use their phonic knowledge to sound out words they need to use on their design briefs. Investigations gives the Preps another opportunity to put their letter knowledge into action, this helps them make links between their learning and real life use.
Check out their design briefs, their creations and more importantly their massive smiles. Learning made fun is the best type of learning!!
Also please see our note below asking for resources donations.
Bebras Maths Challenge
Well done to our Mathematics and Computational Thinking club! Select students in year 4 and 5 competed in the Bebras computational thinking challenge. There were some very tricky puzzles and problems to solve as a team. We look forward to getting our results soon.
Inform and Empower Parent Information Session Thursday 11th May 7.30pm
Next Thursday the 11th of May at 7.30pm we will be having our online Cybersafety webinar for parents and carers.
This is an important session for parents and carers to attend. With the continued rise in time spent on devices and issues such as online bullying, exposure to inappropriate materials and social media pressures, SMM recommends all parents and carers attend.
Even if you feel like the horse has bolted so to speak, this session aims to help parents with the strategies and tools they need to feel in control.
To register for this event, click the link bit.ly/11may2023 before the session to get access to view the webinar.
Raising Kids in a Digital World 2023
Presenters: Marty McGauran and Carley McGauran
Date: Thursday 11 May
Time: 7.30pm (90min)
Here is the link to register for the webinar :
Please note this is a parent only event and some topics raised may not be suitable for children.
Mother Day Stall
Hey kids! Get your shopping bags ready. It's time to go shopping to buy something sensational for your mums and special people in your lives. On Thursday May 11, the F & S group will be hosting a fabulous stall for you to buy something amazing. Perhaps you mum would like a beautiful pot plant. Maybe your nanna would like some new earrings. Maybe your aunty needs a scrunchie for her hair.
All students will have a chance to go shopping in the hall to buy something during class time. Items will be priced between $1-5. We recommend students bring between $1-10 (cash only) and there will be enough items for everyone to buy at least one gift. All students will need to bring along a shopping bag to keep their items safe until they go home.
Holy Week Liturgies
Last week Years 1+ 2 presented our final Holy week liturgy. They led the school through the events of the Resurrection. They explained how the Resurrection is the foundation to our faith and hope, and how it should change the way we look at life.
Upcoming School Masses and events
Tuesday 9th- Confirmation Formation Evening- all Confirmands and parents to attend. 6.30pm
Thursday 18th May- Confirmation Evening
Sunday 18th June- Family Mass: Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus
Playground
Please note that the playground is not open before or after school as there is no teacher supervising the playground at those times. If your toddler or preschool child is playing on the playground before the bell in the afternoon it would be helpful if when the bell rang, they then came off the playground so other school children aren’t tempted to play alongside them. Thanks for your support with this.
Also, as much as we love the cute dogs that come down to school to pick up their humans we ask that they don’t come into the school yard. We have some kids that are frightened of dogs and like to be with their parents before having to walk past any dogs.
Important Dates
Trying to find an important date? Check out our updated Term Dates page.
Register Now!
Raising Kids in a Digital World 2023
Presenters: Marty McGauran and Carley McGauran
Date: Thursday 11 May
Time: 7.30pm (90min)
Here is the link to register for the webinar :
Please note this is an adult only event and some topics raised may not be suitable for children.
Hey All,
The junior classes need your help. We are after some resources to help ignite our investigations. If you are doing any clean outs over the holidays we want your clean, usable, second hand things! As always we are after natural based items, think wood, rattan, real life items etc basically NO PLASTICS.
We have listed some items on the graphic we are particularly after if you have any hanging around. If you have any small cardboard boxes (think packaging from online shopping) headed for the recycling bin please keep them aside for us. If you have any questions about an item's suitability please email Simone Laurie (slaurie@smmspotswood.catholic.edu.au) to say Yay or Nay.
Please send any items in with the kids or drop them off at the front office. Thanks in advance, Simone and the Junior Team
Target Acquired!
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.
Footy Tipping
There has been a bit of movement over the last few weeks. The jokers have been coming into play a bit more and are playing havoc with the ladder.
There are a few tough games this week and it will be interesting to see the changes over the next couple of weeks. There are 4 tipsters on 51, only separated by their margins. Too close to call. Make sure you get your tips in early to avoid disappointment!
Please pay now if you haven’t already done so!
$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
Best of Luck!
Congratulations Girls!
A big congratulations to the Siwek girls. Zoe & Maddisen competed at the Gold Coast International Taekwondo Open on the weekend and both claimed the Title & Gold Medal!
Maddisen fought in the Yellow Belt Child Division 25-28kg against an opponent from New Caledonia and won 2-0 to claim Gold.
Zoe fought in the Red Belt Youth Division 28-31kg against an opponent from QLD and won 2-0 to make the final. Her final was against a Victorian opponent and fought a hard tough fight to win 2-0 and also claim the Gold.
Grace (big sister) also took home a medal in her first Junior fight winning Bronze.
They had the best time and an amazing experience with clubs from all over Australia & the Oceania Region. Also catching up with old school friends.
Emmanuel College News
What an exciting time we have had at Emmanuel for Languages Week with students being able to embrace different languages and cultures and experience a range of food and activities. There was Judo, Flamenco dancing, Comedia Clowning, and Showko a comedy in Japanese, a Colour-in the world competition, with a Spanish food truck, sushi and gelati on offer at lunchtime.
At St Paul’s our Year 9-12 debaters participated in the second round of DAV debating. They grappled with a wide range of complex, topical motions that looked at the rise of AI technology, uranium mining, political donations and compulsory volunteering hours. Well done to all of our teams for their thoughtful, well-structured and persuasive debates.
In addition, a highlight last week was the Year 7 Project Based Learning (PBL) parent night. We had many parents here, who enjoyed seeing children’s collaborative and negotiated work samples.
Our annual Open Day is our next big event at the College on Sunday 21 May at both campuses, where you will hear from our College Principal, Dr Janine Biggin and Campus Leaders. There will be campus tours and lots or activities in all subject areas for you to visit. Times for each campus are as follows:
St Paul’s Campus
Between 10:30am and 1:30pm
Presentations at 11:15am and 12:20pm
Notre Dame Campus
Between 11:00am and 2:00pm
Presentations at 11:45am and 12:50pm
Bookings are essential and can be under the Tours and Events tab on the right-hand side of the homepage on the College website, www.ecmelb.catholic.edu.au
Is your child in Grade 5?
Applications are now open for Year 7, 2025 and will close on Friday 18 August 2023. with A Prospectus Pack containing an application form can be requested from the College website under Enrolment Information tab, by coming along to Open Day, by emailing enrolments@ecmelb.catholic.edu.au calling the College Registrar on 8325 5119 or coming in to see the friendly staff at reception of either campus.
I hope that you can join us at Open Day.
Yours sincerely
Jenny Hendricks
Community Engagement Officer
Mount St. Joseph Girls’ College
Mount St. Joseph Girls’ College Altona invites you to explore our faith and learning community at one of our Open Events in 2023
OPEN DAY
Join us for our vibrant and interactive Open Day on Sunday 7 May from 10:00am to 2:00pm. Explore the College on a guided tour led by our student ambassadors and participate in all the fun educational activities that we have to offer. As part of the carnival atmosphere, listen to our talented musical acts and enjoy a snack from the BBQ. Meet our Principal and teaching staff and see why Mount St. Joseph Girls’ College is the best choice for your child’s education.
Register to attend by visiting our website HERE.
OPEN MORNINGS
Open Mornings provide an opportunity for families to witness learning in action on a regular school day. Our Year 9 student ambassadors will give you a personal tour of the College. Visiting families will have the unique opportunity to ask questions of our ambassadors and gain an honest insight into our programs and what it is like to be a student at Mount St. Joseph Girls' College.
Register to attend by visiting our website HERE.
Thursday 8 June - 9:15am – 10:30am
Thursday 20 July - 9:15am – 10:30am
Thursday 3 August - 9:15am – 10:30am
Thursday 7 Sept - 9:15am – 10:30am
ENROLMENT APPLICATIONS
A reminder that enrolment applications for Year 7 in 2025 close on 18 August 2023. Apply online HERE or contact the College Registrar, Mrs Sherri Collins for further information.
Contact details: registrar@msj.vic.edu.au or phone 8398 2007.
