Term 1, Week 9, 2024

Dear Families,

At our assembly on Tuesday we welcomed three new students: Etana in Year 1, Hassan in Year 4 and Mariam in Year 6. We hope your time with us is full of learning, friendships and fun. We are blessed to have you joining our school community.

During the assembly we announced our Year 6 School Ambassadors: Maike, Najma and Mia. They will have a special role to play for our school, such as welcoming important guests or stepping up when we need students in an ambassador type role. We also announced our Sports Captains: Coolock -   Alexander, Fitzpatrick - Amelia and McAuley - Anastasia. Congratulations to each of these students for being chosen for these important leadership roles within our school.

Sports Day is next Friday 5 April. Hopefully the weather will be kind to us. My prediction is sunny and 22 degrees! Like last year we will have a sausage sizzle for lunch on the day. Every child will receive a free sausage and adults will be able to purchase them for $2.50. Cans of soft drink will also be available. Details about the day will shared by Mr Morgado and the teachers via Seesaw and or via this newsletter.

Thank you and well done to our Year 3 and Year 5 students who participated in the annual NAPLAN tests last week. This can be a stressful time because, sadly, they tend to come with lots of ‘hype’, rather than being a simple test on one day to provide us some information about how our children are performing. We look forward to receiving the student results in a few months time.

This week we have celebrated Holy Week with short liturgies about Palm Sunday, presented by our Reception and Year 1 students, Holy Thursday, presented by our Year 2s and Year 3s and Stations of the Cross, presented by our Year 5/6 students. Thank you and well done to our young people in the way they portrayed these important events and reminded us of the story of Jesus at Easter. Next week our Year 4/5s will present us the story of the resurrection and Easter Sunday!

Last year the Minister for Education provided all schools with funding to support Wellbeing. At St Mary Magdalene’s we value children’s (and staff / parents) wellbeing and monitor how our students are tracking using the Catholic Education Classroom Pulse Check In Survey, which we undertake every term in Weeks 5 and 6. We have used the money provided by the Education Minister to employ some new Co-Educators who are available to support children who may struggle to regulate at different times throughout the day. We have also released teachers to undertake training in PBIS (Positive Behaviour Interventions and Supports). This training is continuing and your children may have even spoken to you about some of the changes they have seen in the classrooms in this area. I would like to take this opportunity to thank the Education Minister for this funding and the support he has given to, not only St Mary Magdalene’s School, but to all schools in his role as Minister.

Earlier this week we sent home a letter about Parent Teacher Learning Conversations. These will be held on Monday 6, Tuesday 7 and Wednesday 8 May. Thank you to those families who have returned the tear off slip, indicating their preferred times, we have allocated times for you. If you have not returned your slip yet, please do so as a matter of priority.

We would like to remind students and families to be wary of approaches from strangers, especially when they are unaccompanied or travelling to and from school. If they are approached, students should not respond and should not accept offers of rides or gifts. Students should seek the assistance of other nearby adults if they feel unsafe and should report any events to a trusted adult (parent or school staff member) as soon as possible. SAPOL advises that taking out a mobile phone and calling police can deter an offender and they recommend the student making a formal report to their closest police station.

Please remember that we have the following dates set aside as Pupil Free Days for the staff to undertake professional development, staff reflection, complete hand over activities, etc. There is still one more date to be set for later in the year. Our remaining set dates are: Friday 23 August, Monday 14 October, Thursday 12 December and Friday 13 December. Please mark them in your diary and book in to OSHC if you require this service (spaces are limited).

During this Easter weekend I encourage you to spend some time talking with your children about the story of Jesus. This story is such an important and valuable one, because Jesus provides us with a different way of viewing the world and each other. Jesus was on about relationships: how we treat each other and how we treat the world. Help your children to understand that Jesus calls us to reach out to and care for everyone we meet and for the environment. Fortunately we have the Mercy Values in our school to guide us with this: Compassion, Courage, Hospitality, Justice, Respect and Service. How will you live out these values this Easter?

Kind regards

Peter Mercer

Head of School

‘Shaping our Future Together’

CATHOLIC IDENTIY

LITURGICAL CALENDAR INFORMATION

A Liturgical Calendar shows the cycle of seasons in the Catholic Church. The Church year consists of six liturgical seasons: Advent, Christmas, Ordinary Time after Epiphany, Lent, Easter, and Ordinary Time after Pentecost. In each newsletter we aim to highlight different events in the Liturgical Calendar that we might be focusing on or celebrating in our school.

Special celebrations that we focus on during classroom and whole school prayer throughout term 1 and those that come up in our liturgical calendar include:

Week 9

24/3 Palm Sunday

28/3 Holy Thursday

29/3 Good Friday

Week 10

Easter Sunday 31/3

HOLY WEEK

This week our school community celebrated the events of Holy Week to learn more about Jesus’ death and resurrection. In prayer, students shared through story and song, what happened on Palm Sunday, Holy Thursday, and Good Friday. When we return to school after the Easter weekend, we will celebrate the story of the Resurrection. See photos included in this newsletter of our celebrations.

Thank you Charlize and Titus from Year 3 Haylock for the beautiful Rosemary cross you made for the office prayer space.

CARITAS PROJECT COMPASSION – WALK FOR WATER

During term 1 each year, we aim to raise money to support the work of CARITAS through Project Compassion. The theme of Project Compassion 2024 is ‘For All Future Generations’. It is an expression of hope and reminds us that the good that we do today will extend and impact the lives of generations to come. It invites us to make the world a better place by working together now and finding long term solutions to global issues.

We have been reading about Leaia’s Story. Leaia and her family live in Samoa. When their water ran out, Leaia and her children had to collect water in containers from a neighbour down the street. The children would have to take several breaks as the buckets were very heavy for them to lift. To show our support for Leaia’s family and for other families around the world in a similar situation, and to raise much needed funds for Project Compassion, we will be holding a ‘Walk for Water’ event on Friday, April 12, where students will complete laps of the oval while carrying buckets and containers of water. We are hoping that you will support us by donating funds to Project Compassion. Look out for more information via Seesaw.

SACRAMENT PROGRAM

For those families who have enrolled in the program, please be aware of the following dates:

Eucharist Workshop Session 2

Saturday April 13

9am – 11am

St. Thomas More Church – 19 Laverstock Rd, Elizabeth North.

Students involved in the Sacrament Program have completed two family workshops with a focus on Baptism and First Eucharist. I invite you to pray for the following students in our school, who, with their families have chosen to complete the Sacraments of Initiation process and become full members of the Catholic Church.

Kamsi, Veritas, Amanda, Sebastine, Tilda, Jaxon, Keira

We look forward to walking alongside them as they complete their learning journey.

This week students in Reception LD and Reception RH have been working hard on making an Easter card and a placemat for patients that will be in the Calvary Central Districts Hospital over the Easter weekend. The students have worked very hard and taken much pride in making sure that these gifts will help to cheer up people in our local community.

Friday 5^th April 2024

On Friday 5^h April St Mary Magdalene’s School will celebrate SPORTS DAY starting at 9:15am. McAuley (red), Fitzpatrick (green) and Coolock (blue) will gather to contest the House Team Cup and the Spirit Trophy. Children are to arrive at school at normal time. Parents, friends, and relatives are all welcome to join us on the day.

On Sports Day the students can wear a T-Shirt that reflects their team colour along with their correct SPORTS SHORTS or PANTS and HAT. Students may also wear hair ribbons, socks, or hair spray (put on at home and not to be brought to school) that reflects their team colour. Children are NOT to wear coloured zinc cream or paint their body with coloured Zinc – normal zinc cream only! Class teachers will also have sun cream available for students to use. 

Please remember to send your student to school with a labelled drink bottle. Students will also require a packed recess including brainfood.

It is anticipated that Sports Day will finish at approximately 2:30pm. At that time parents may choose to take their child/children home. Students remaining behind will be supervised until 3pm.

Most parents taking images of children at sports day are doing so for acceptable reasons and are using appropriate methods. Please only take photos of your own child/children during sports day and avoid posting them on social media. Please do not post any photos or videos of other student online.

Students will be provided with a sausage sizzle lunch. Please let your child’s teacher know about dietary requirements. Sausages will be available for purchase for parents/carers and visitors. The canteen will be open during sports day to purchase food and drinks.

Children who do not want a sausage in bread for lunch will require a packed lunch from home.

Good Luck to all teams and supporters!

Cristian Morgado

P.E Co-ordinator

Hello Families,

I cannot believe we are already at the end of week 9. The end of Term is fast approaching and we have been busy bees in OSHC over the last few weeks.

The children have been particularly excited for the Easter break and in OSHC have been engaging in lots of Easter themed activities and craft including kinetic sand small world play, creating sock bunnies and lots of easter baking.

Its been wonderful to hear the comments of awe, excitement and wonder from the children each week as they come into the OSHC space and see the things the OSHC team have worked hard prepare.

We wish you all a safe and happy Easter!

Jenn Firth