Newsletter Term 2, Week 3 2024
Thursday 9th May - Mother’s Day Stall
Friday 10th May - Mother’s Day Breakfast
Dear Parents and Carers,
As we reflect on the past fortnight and look to the next two weeks, I am delighted to share some highlights from our vibrant St. Margaret Mary’s school community.
Our school commenced the term with a beautiful Mass, led by Fr. Binh. The prayers, hymns, and active participation from our students and parishioners enriched the occasion, reminding us of the importance of faith and community in our journey of learning and growth.
Our wonderful school, parish partnership was further highlighted by Fr Binh supporting the budding comedic career of our student Alex, who performed some hilarious jokes at the end of last week’s parish masses. Alex raised $400.00 for SMM Colour Run with this creative sponsorship idea. Thank you Fr. Binh and well done Alex!
On Wednesday we held a service to commemorate ANZAC Day and acknowledge the service of all those men and women who have sacrificed and served in our armed forces. Our year 6 students showed great respect and maturity in honouring those brave individuals. A range of activities were run throughout the school and you can see some of these below.
Last Friday, our entire staff had the privilege of participating in the Flourishing Learners Vision for Instruction program alongside 700 colleagues from schools across the west.
This initiative, a part of the MACS system-wide effort, aims to enhance the learning experience for our students. The day was marked by productivity and collaboration, and already, we are seeing positive transformations in our school environment as the day’s focus was on refining our Behaviour Curriculum.
We are excited to share some of the simple adjustments that have yielded remarkable results in our daily routines. From F - 6 procedures for lining up and entering classrooms to enhanced student preparedness for learning activities, these changes have contributed to a calm, cohesive and conducive learning environment.
Both staff and students have embraced these adjustments wholeheartedly, fostering further our school values of excellence and respect.
On Monday the year 6 children participated in a prayerful Confirmation reflection day at school. This special day forms one part of the children’s sacrament preparation. In the lead up to the feast of Pentecost on 19th May, we recall that this event marks the beginning of our church and is fundamental to the sacrament of Confirmation.
We are reminded that the gifts and fruits of the Holy Spirit are qualities, dispositions and attributes that we are reminded to nurture within ourselves so that we may live our lives in harmony with others and our earth, for the good of all, and for our own wellbeing.
Anne, our dedicated maths leader organised for our children to have the opportunity to engage in the Bebras Maths Challenge. Many children signed up and all reported that they enjoyed completing this international (60 countries) mathematics computational challenge. Our students should be very happy with how they performed.
Next week we have the mother’s day stall on Thursday and the mother’s day breakfast Friday morning. All significant women in our student’s lives are very welcome to join us on Friday morning from 8am before school in the hall.
Take care everyone,
Colleen McCambridge
Principal
Cash For Cans
St Margaret Mary’s is now registered in the Container Deposit Scheme (CDS). When you donate to Victoria's Container Deposit Scheme, consider nominating SMM as the recipient for the funds from cans collected. Money raised will go towards FSG initiatives, including some new iPad for our preps!
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:
Week 2
Week 3
ANZAC Day
It was a special time for our school last week as we commemorated ANZAC Day. There were different activities and events around the school including a special commemorative service, classroom lessons and of course, making ANZAC biscuits.
Bebras Maths Challenge
This week some of our students completed the Bebras challenge. They should be very proud of their effort. Each year, the Australian Maths Trust (AMT) runs competitions to inspire, extend, and recognise mathematical understanding for hundreds of thousands of primary and secondary students in Australia and around the world. Bebras is a fun and engaging computational thinking challenge for students in Years 3 to 12. It is an international challenge that involves over 2.9 million students from 60 countries.
Student Wellbeing & Mental Health in Primary Schools (MHiPS) at SMM
Staff at SMM do many things to support the development of respectful relationships & interactions. In the last newsletter we looked at the multitude of influences from school, family, government & society that have an impact on young people’s wellbeing & mental health. Often children can be exposed to behaviours that directly oppose the prosocial skills being taught & reinforced in school. Studies in behaviour analysis indicate there needs to be a ratio of 5 positive interactions to counteract a negative interaction.
To experience wellbeing & good mental health, children need to feel safe, secure & positively connected to others. One of the best ways to create this environment is to provide them with messages that are consistent across settings & increase exposure of positive interactions to negative. We encourage parents & carers to work in partnership with us so we can provide the optimal conditions for our students to flourish & thrive.
Respectful relationships are explicitly taught through social & emotional learning lessons. In these lessons, teachers focus on:
● Self awareness, e.g. how aware am I of what I do in a relationship?
● Social awareness, e.g. what are acceptable behaviours/social skills that I need, to be able to form a positive relationship with others?
● Self management, e.g. what can I do to manage myself within the relationship, especially when emotions are running high? I cannot control the other person, but what can I control that will strengthen or break the relationship?
● Decision making, e.g. what positive choices can I make that will enhance the relationship? What negative choices might promote the break down of the relationship?
● What ethics, values & norms will help to guide respectful relationships with others? At SMM our values are Respect, Integrity, Compassion and Excellence (RICE)
● What stereotypes are presented about groups that may need to be challenged? e.g. particular groups in society are promoted as aggressive, tough, emotional, docile, passive, sensitive etc
When our students learn about respectful relationships in a variety of settings they show improved academic outcomes, more pro-social behaviour, lower rates of mental health problems & are less likely to engage in violent, risky & disruptive behaviour.
What you can do to support your child & work in partnership with us to develop respectful relationships:
● Reinforce the SMM school values at home of Respect, Integrity, Compassion & Excellence
● Reinforce the SMM school rules relevant to positive relationships
-We keep our hands, feet and objects to ourselves
-We speak and behave appropriately
-We listen to the speaker
● Reinforce the SMM Social Expectations:
We believe that we all should….
- treat others with respect.
- have the right to feel safe.
- cooperate and support each other.
- try our best in all we do.
● Teach manners to improve social and relationship skills, e.g.
-greeting each other
-acknowledging others
-saying please and thankyou
-saying excuse me
-asking permission
-how to politely interrupt
-how to knock before entering
-how to take turns
-how to give compliments
-how to respect someone’s personal space etc
● Model conflict resolution strategies and win/win strategies
Often your child will not listen to what is said verbally, rather they observe what you do & how you handle your relationships & challenging situations. At SMM we sometimes refer to the CASEA program strategy of ‘Cool’(Assertive/calm), Weak (avoiding/passive/sulking) & Aggro (aggressive/combative/demanding/blaming) behaviours to help children understand their choice of response in a relationship & guide them to make a more prosocial decision to get their needs met.
● Read books or discuss movies that demonstrate behaviours that improve relationships/damage relationships & follow up with discussion
● Monitor your child’s exposure to negative content & content that does NOT promote respectful relationships between people & bring your child’s attention to this
● Develop an awareness of how many positive versus how many negative interactions your child is exposed to through media and family interactions
● Teach children the ‘Golden Rule’, that is, treating others as you would want to be treated
Thank you for working in partnership with us to teach our children/students about respectful relationships across settings to improve everybody’s mental health & wellbeing.
Kath (Student Wellbeing Leader)
Confirmation
Our year 6 students are busy preparing for their Confirmation coming up on May the 16th at 6.30 pm. This is a very special time in the students lives and they have been working hard to get ready. On Monday we had a special Confirmation Reflection Day to help them along. Remember parents of students being confirmed, there is a special preparation evening being held on Thursday the 9th of May at Sacred Heart Hall, 6.30 pm. If you have not yet done so, please complete your Confirmation Sponsor and Saint Name form here: https://forms.gle/iNLswd1p7FcNodAg8
The Comedy Kid
Congratulations to Alex S for his comedy performance at Saturday and Sunday mass. He killed it with his performance and raised over $400 for our school through the colour fun run. Keep an eye out for this kid- coming soon to a comedy club near you!
School Disco- 28 June
Get ready to boogie at St Margaret Mary’s Spotswood School Disco Party - it's going to be a night full of music, dancing, and fun!
The details of the school disco have been finalised and tickets are now available now via Eventbrite: https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/st-margaret-marys-spotswood-school-disco-party-tickets-893577613697?aff=oddtdtcreator
Book now to avoid disappointment!
Footy Tipping
Well we’ve had a slight change of the guard with yours truly (devdoggies) taking the lead with a Joker round. It was a shame the doggies can’t kick straight though! Bomberlove has slipped a bit making room for TeamHuds to take the place. The MillarBoys are steady at number 3 but we did see DontheSwan make an impressive jump from 10th to 6th. Could be one to watch…
Until next time and happy tipping!
A big thank you to Bunnings in West Footscray for donating a $200 voucher for our competition. They support us each year and we are grateful for their help. We are still looking for a few more donations so if you know of any businesses that are able to help out please ask them or contact Simon at sdevlin@smmspotswood.catholic.edu.au
We have 36 members this year which is amazing. Please remember to pay your $25 entry fee and stay tuned for updates in the coming weeks.
Click the link below:
https://www.footytips.com.au/comps/2024_SMM_Footy_Tipping?p=stmm3015
Mother’s Day Breakfast
Mums are invited to come along for a Mother’s Day breakfast in the Hall on Friday the 10th of May from 8-9am. Coffee and pastries will be offered, and our school Choir will perform at 8.45am. We would love to see you there and celebrate all you do.
Mother’s Day Stall
The FSG is once again running a Mother's Day stall!
It will be held on Thursday May 9 at school. All students wll have an opportunity to come to the stall to buy something lovely for their special person. Items will be priced between $1-5 dollars and all are brand new. We encourage students to bring no more than $10 to buy some amazing gifts.
We are in need of some adult helpers on the day, to set up and assist students with their purchases. We are also on the lookout for any new/unused items that you may be able to donate to the stall. We prefer to have many of the same item, to make it easier for the students to choose but one-offs are welcomed as well. Popular items are candles, hand cream, jewellery, chocolate/biscuits, stationery etc. We are also welcoming any cellophane bags, tissue paper, ribbons, stickers etc for merchandising purposes.
If you are able to help with either, please contact Larissa Cairns (Gilbert and Ruby's mum) larissasings@yahoo.com.au
School Photos
2025 Prep Enrolments Closing Soon
If you know of anyone looking for an amazing school, please let them know about our little hidden gem. Tours can be arranged by appointment via our website. Current families, please remember to enrol siblings too!
Emmanuel College News
Year 7 2026
Do you have a child in Year 5 this year? Applications for Year 7 2026 close on Friday 16 August 2024.
If you would like to apply, a prospectus can be obtained:
- Via the College website under the Enrolment Information tab or by following this link:
- By registering and joining us at a College event
- Or by coming in to see our friendly staff at reception of either campus
We look forward to seeing you at a College event soon.
Yours sincerely
Jenny Hendricks