Term 1, Week 5, 2023

Dear Families,

Today (Friday) I am attending the funeral of a friend and colleague, Cecelia Quigley, who passed away last week. Some of you who have been associated with St Mary Magdalene’s School for some time, may remember Cecelia as she was Deputy Principal here for a number of years. She is fondly remembered by several of our current staff members. Cecelia had been Principal and Acting Principal in a number of our Catholic Schools in South Australia. I pray for Cecelia, her husband Peter and her children and grandchildren, some of whom were students in one of my previous schools. I ask for God’s blessing upon them at this very sad and difficult time.

This week we had a visit from the City of Playford traffic inspectors. You may have seen them out near the exit gate on Harvey Road one afternoon. They were issuing people with a warning about parking or stopping in the wrong place on Harvey Road. The reality is you are not allowed to stop or park where there is a yellow line on the edge of the road for example adjacent to the exit gate through to where the oval is. You are permitted to park on the other side of the medium strip on Harvey Road near the houses. We are also permitted to park in the church car park across Fairfield Road and get the children to cross using the school crossing.

The inspectors said that they will visit again in the coming weeks but instead of giving a warning they will begin issuing fines. So please follow the local by-laws and park in the appropriate place. Remember also that the speed limit along both Fairfield Road and Harvey Road, adjacent to the school, is 50kph when students are present. Sadly, we regularly have people exceed this limit, including some of our own parents. I have included a ‘Parking Safety in the City of Playford’ brochure with this newsletter for your information.

Do you have Broadband access at home via the NBN? On 3 February the Hon Michelle Rowland MP issued a media release outlining the Australian Government’s initiative to provide 12 months broadband for up to 30,000 families – for FREE! The only requirement is that you have a child(ren) attending school and you are currently not connected to the internet at home. If you do not have Broadband access and would like to have it, please contact the school and we will put your name forward and hope that you are successful.

Thank you to those who families who have paid their Resource Fee of $250 or have started making payments. This is greatly appreciated. If you have not yet paid or arranged to pay by instalments, please do so as soon as possible.

Next Tuesday we have a school assembly at 2:15pm. This will be led by the Year 2 and Year 4/5 classes and parents are most welcome to join us.

Since our last newsletter we have welcomed a new staff member, Will Splann, who will be a Co-Educator in a number of classrooms. We also welcome Laura (Year 3) and Mikaela (Reception) (whose dad and grandmother attended St Mary Magdalene’s as students) and welcome back Jayden (Year 4) who returns after some time in Queensland.

In this second week of Lent we remember that God is always with us, always present in our lives, giving us courage and strength. So, this week I think about two of our school values: Courage and Justice and I invite you to be brave and stand up for things that you see as being unfair. I wonder what the world would be like if we all ‘called things out’ if they are not just and fair, just as Jesus did in his time? Each one of us is able to make a real difference to the lives of others.

Shaping the Future Together

Peter Mercer

Head of Campus

I never thought in terms of being a leader. I thought very simply in terms of helping people.” - John Hume

Term 1 is certainly off to a good start! Last week we celebrated Shrove Tuesday by eating some delicious pancakes. Our school community also came together for a Liturgy on Ash Wednesday. As Lent has begun, the Year 3 class have reflected on what we will be doing more of or what we will be giving up during the 40 days leading up to Easter.

Some of the responses from students were:

Karim: “I am going to be kinder to both my sisters and listen more to my brothers.”

Harry: “I will take more care of the environment and help by cleaning up litter in the school.”

Poppy: “I will not use rude words to my family and friends.”

Riley: “I will help out my Mum more at home.”

This week, we welcome our new student, Laura Williamson, to our class who has joined us at SMMS. The Year 3s have been very busy with NAPLAN testing approaching in week 7. Last week, Mr Mercer helped us set up our brand-new iPads which we have been using for our NAPLAN practice. We have also been using our iPads for different learning activities such as researching the History of ‘Shrove Tuesday,’ spelling and Maths. We look forward to the upcoming weeks.