Dear Families,
Last week we had the Police Band visit and entertain our students. They displayed a whole variety of instruments from a small piccolo, right up to a very large tuba! They presented a variety of songs and music, most of which the students recognised from cartoons, movies and television shows. The children had a great time, with the opportunity to ask lots of questions and to find out about safety and how the police can help them in times of need.
This week all of our students are participating in the Classroom Pulse Check-In Survey. This survey occurs across all of our Catholic schools and provides the teacher with some useful information of how their students are tracking, in terms of their well being. Students do this survey around Week 5 of each term.
At the end of each year schools sometimes have families who relocate to new areas and new schools. For our planning for 2023 classes and other events it will be valuable if we know of any families not returning for whatever reason. If your child(ren) will not be at St Mary Magdalene’s next year, can you please let us know asap via email: info@smm.catholic.edu.au or drop in and see me. Likewise, if you know of families looking for a school then please let them know that we are here as we do have places in most year levels. Thank you to all those families who spread a ‘good word’ about our school to others, it is greatly appreciated.
Next Wednesday we will welcome our new Receptions for the first of their Transition visits. At this stage we will have 8 new Receptions to begin the new year and another 6 to join us in Term 3. Mrs Drewett has visited our new Receptions at Kindy in said how excited they all are to be starting school. We look forward to them joining us.
Our teachers have been very busy over the past few weeks sorting out class lists and writing the Semester 2 Reports, which will go home on Monday of Week 9 of the term. I would like to thank our teachers for the extra commitment this entails each year.
We look forward to our upcoming Sports Day on Thursday 1 December. My apologies for changing this date but, sadly, this has been our world over the past couple of years due to Covid. Each year our students participate in the Catholic Schools Athletics Carnival at Santos Stadium. Unfortunately, this stadium has been undergoing repairs which have been delayed due to Covid and the weather. This means that it is not ready as planned and our carnival has been moved and given a new date, which clashed with our school Sports Day. To still enable our students to participate in the carnival we have had to change the date of our Sports Day. All the best to those students who are now able to attend the Athletics Carnival at Bridgestone Arena at Salisbury.
Next Sunday, 27 November, is the first day of Advent. This is the season in the church year that we start to think about Christmas and the reminder that is of Jesus’ birth. The time of Advent is a time of preparation, of getting ready and being excited. It is after all only four weeks from then until Christmas. In our church during Advent, we see the colour purple appear (which we also see during Lent). Purple is a serious colour. It is the colour of royalty, of kings and queens and it indicates to us that something really important or serious is about to happen. That important event is the birth of Christ and it is good that we celebrate this occasion every year.
Working in Partnership
Peter Mercer
Head of Campus
‘Compassion should be our animating principle when undertaking instruction with children and adults, since they are made in God’s image.’ ~ Catherine McAuley
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