Newsletter, W3, T1, 2024
Principal's Report
Dear Parents & Carers,
Welcome to 2024. We’ve had a wonderful start to the year here at St Mary’s and hope you have too!
To begin this report I’d like to extend a very warm welcome to all our new staff (Charlie Ford, Cenza Brigante, Aidan Davies, Sindy Nel, Lydia Kamau and Amy Bowcott). We are delighted to have them join us! I’d also like to say welcome back to Jayne Watson and Belle Giofrelle and a special mention to Tiina Price and Shaun Nel who have both been working with us for the past couple of weeks. Each of these people has already made a significant contribution to our wonderful community and we sincerely thank them for this.
We also welcomed our 2024 Preps, new students and families into our school community. They all seem to have settled in extremely well and are enjoying their first weeks at our school. It’s a pleasure to get to know our new students and to see their smiling faces each day.
At our Beginning of the Year Liturgy last week, we formally announced and introduced our School and House Captains to the community. Congratulations to the following students:
School Captains
Lorenza Chirchiglia & Montana Zappia
Social Justice Captain
Domenic Tute
Patrician (Green) House Captains
Maya Brigante & Ava Mezzatesta
Aquinas (Gold) House Captains
Luca Lammatina & Vincent Lammatina
Xavier (Red) House Captains
Dominic Falvo & Jimmy Healy
Early this week our very capable and eager group of student leaders headed to Melbourne for the annual student leadership GRIP conference. Here they will meet with other student leaders from around the state and have the opportunity to further develop their leadership skills. Thanks to Maryanne Leslie, Des Lowry and Ashleigh Roper for supporting the students on this trip. We are currently in the process of electing Class Captains from Years 5-8. Once appointed these students will join the others to form our Student Leadership Team for 2024.
As we settle back into school routines I’d like to offer a friendly reminder about how to access the school, particularly at the start and end of the day. Our bus students will always enter and exit via the bus shelter on Nicholls Street. For all others, the main gate on Watkin Street opens at 8.20am each morning for everyone to enter the school. In the afternoon this gate will remain closed. Parents who arrive early and wish to enter the school are welcome to come through reception. At 3.10pm the small Watkin Street gate will be opened for all students and parents to exit the school.
Thank you to the parents who attended Meet & Greet meetings last week. It was lovely to see so many of you here at school as we further develop the all important relationship between home and school. It is widely known that students learn best when this relationship is well established and at St Mary’s we aim to ensure this link is strong and the lines of communication are always open.
This week we celebrated Shrove Tuesday by learning about the origins of the day in our classrooms and understanding why we eat pancakes, and of course by eating pancakes. A huge thank you to Maria Camera, Amanda Molluso and their helpers for preparing and cooking this wonderful feast.
Shrove Tuesday is followed by Ash Wednesday which marks the beginning of the season of Lent. During Lent, Catholics focus on Fasting, Prayer and Alms Giving (or charity) as we prepare to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus at Easter. Here at St Mary’s we celebrate the start of the Lenten season with a whole school gathering. Each class has a Lenten Promise which they share at an Ashing Ceremony, a meaningful way to mark the beginning of this very important season and inspire all to embrace the penitential spirit of Lent.
Please note Thursday 29th February in your diary. This is the date of our annual Swimming Carnival. This is always a day full of sun, fun and healthy house rivalry. Information about the day has already been sent home and no doubt more will come over the coming week or so. Everyone is welcome and we hope to see you all there!
This Friday we are having a Garage Sale in an effort to clean out all our surplus furniture and other items following the completion of our major building project last year. The sale will begin straight after school for school families and at 3.30pm for the public. Please spread the word and keep an eye out on Facebook for more details about what is available.
Kind regards,
Andrea Welsh
Parish Report
The current Parish Sacramental Team has retired and new Sacramental Team is required. This Team will be reponsible for organising dates and the Sacamental Program for 2024.
Confirmation (Year 3 and above)
Reconciliation & First Eucharist (Year 4 and above)
If you are interested in being part of othe 2024 Parish Sacramental Team please contact Father Shaiju by leaving a message on the Parish Office phone number 50 263 068.
Primary
Foundation
Welcome to our Foundation students and their families! Whether it is your first child to attend school or your last, the first day is always such an exciting and sometimes nervous day for everyone! We are pleased to report that all Foundation students have settled in to the new classrooms well and are in full swing of learning. Students have worked hard on writing their names correctly, exploring numbers to ten and have even completed four InitiaLit lessons already.
As we finish up our second week of school this week, we asked a few Foundation students their favourite part of school so far:
* Learning to write (Savannah)
* The playground and playing in our backyard area (Zoe)
* Playing football with Leo (Hudson)
* That’s a good question, my buddy! (Antonio)
* Mrs Brigante (Tara)
* Playing with my cousins (Celine)
We look forward to a very busy and exciting school year with our Foundation students. Should you need either teacher, please contact us via Class Dojo or via the emails below:
Miss M/Mikayla: mmcgowan-rickard@smrobinvale.catholic.edu.au
Ms Cenza/Mrs Brigante: cbrigante@smrobinvale.ctaholic.edu.au
We will continue to use Dojo to update families of what we are learning each week and share some exciting photos!
Year 1/2
Welcome back to school, everyone! It has been such a positive start to the year. Firstly, we welcome Mr Aidan Davies to our 1/2 teaching team and also Miss Amy Bowcott who will be assisting us in our classrooms.
We had a delightful time connecting with many of our families this week through the Meet and Greet sessions and thank you all for making such an effort to come in after school and share information about your child which will be helpful moving forward.
We have eased into the year by establishing classroom expectations and reinforcing the school matrix. You may have noticed our learning environment is freshly refurbished and looks amazing.
Our maths groups will commence next week along with our Spelling Mastery groups. Lent and this will be a learning focus in our RE lessons.
Thank you also for the prompt return of notes that have been sent home over the past week. If you haven't returned your child's notes please do so as soon as possible.
It's great to see so many parents utilising the Class Dojo app to communicate with classroom teachers. Please contact any of us if you require help or clarification.
Miss O - Ferne O’Loughlin foloughlin@smrobinvale.catholic.edu.au
Miss Sophie - Sophie Westland swestland@smrobinvale.catholic.edu.au
Mr Davies - Aidan Davies adavies@smrobinvale.catholic.edu.au
Year 3/4
What a great start to 2024! The year 3/4 students are buzzing with excitement and enjoying fun activities to get to know each other and settle into their classroom routines. Students have been learning about classroom behaviour expectations and have focused on developing understanding of the School Wide Positive Behaviour Matrix.
The year 3/4 motto this year is TEAM which stands for TOGETHER EVERYONE ACHIEVES MORE. In order to instil the spirit of teamwork all the yr 3/4 students got together and celebrated the ideals of working in a TEAM by playing various games where they had to work together, problem solve and achieve success.
The teachers of Yr 3/4 would like to welcome all parents and carers. We look forward to an enriching journey over the course of this year, as we all work together towards ensuring the holistic learning of your child.
Should you need any of the teachers, please contact us via Class Dojo or via the emails below:
Ms RM (Room 9)– rmadhur@smrobinvale.catholic.edu.au
Ms Mitchell (Room 8)- smitchell@smrobinvale.catholic.edu.au
Mrs Sindy (Room 7)- snel@smrobinvale.catholic.edu.au
Year 5/6
Welcome back! We hope that you had a restful and enjoyable break. We are delighted to welcome new students Joshua Nel and Hamish McIntosh into the year 5/6 cohort.
On the return to classes, the 5/6 students have been focussing on behaviour expectations in and out of the classroom. Students have also participated in a variety of activities to develop team and classroom spirit. Students have also written their Class Captain speeches.
- Just some reminders for when classes have Physical Education (PE) - students are expected to wear their sports uniforms on these days.
Mrs C - Tuesday & Friday
Miss Jacky - Tuesday & Thursday
Mrs B & Miss Zappia - Tuesday & Thursday
- Nightly reading will begin soon, please encourage your child to read nightly and sign their diary.
- Homework will also begin soon, this is due on Friday. We will briefly revise homework in class each Friday.
Please let your classroom teacher know if you have any concerns or questions regarding PE, nightly reading, homework or any other questions.
Classroom teachers can be contacted via Class Dojo or email:
lchirchiglia@smrobinvale.catholic.edu.au
jchhun@smrobinvale.catholic.edu.au
jbaldock@smrobinvale.catholic.edu.au
nzappia@smrobinvale.catholic.edu.au
Thank you and we look forward to an exciting and rewarding year ahead.
Secondary
Welcome to the start of the 2024 school year at St Mary's! We are thrilled to have our Year 7 and 8 students back and ready to embark on a year of growth, learning, and exciting opportunities.
Firstly, we want to commend our students for making such a fantastic start to the term. Their enthusiasm and dedication to their studies are truly commendable, and we look forward to seeing them continue to flourish throughout the year.
The Year 8’s have been working with their Prep Buddies to make them feel welcomed.
We also want to extend our heartfelt congratulations to all the students who have earned Leadership positions within the school. Your commitment to leadership and service is commendable, and we are proud to have you represent St Mary's. We wish you all the best as you embark on your journey with the GRIP Leadership Conference in Melbourne.
We are also excited to welcome new members to our Secondary team; Mr Ford andd Ms Kamau, Mrs Sutton and Miss Belle Giofrelle, along with Mr Zappia and Miss Ash and who will be working with the Year 7’s. They bring with them a wealth of knowledge, experience and enthusiasm. We know they will be valuable additions to our school community!
A big thank you to all the parents/guardians who were able to attend our meet and greet this week. Your presence and support mean a lot to us, and we appreciate the opportunity to connect with you. If you were not able to attend, please feel free to contact us at school to discuss any questions or concerns you may have.
As we look ahead to the rest of the year, we have many exciting things planned and we look forward to your continued support and involvement. Together, we will make 2024 a memorable and successful year for our students.
Thank you for your continued commitment and enthusiasm. Here's to a fantastic year ahead!
