Term 2, Week 7 2022

Dear Families,

I hope you have managed to stay dry and warm over the past couple of weeks. It has been an exciting time, with a number of things happening. Firstly, we welcomed our Term 3 intake of Reception students who are in the middle of their three transition visits. This is an opportunity for them to become familiar with the classroom and school environment and meet their new classmates. We look forward to them starting officially in Term 3. If you know of any family with a five year old who is still looking for a school, please let them know about St Mary Magdalene’s, as we do have some places available.

This week our painters also began their work of transforming all the external ‘green’ into Woodland Grey. This work will take a number of weeks and will be somewhat dependent on the weather. Hopefully it will provide our buildings a bit of a lift.

We also began our AFL footy clinics this week, with each class participating in a session each Wednesday for the remainder of the term. The children thoroughly enjoyed their first session on a fairly wet oval, but the grass held up quite well!

Sadly, the Police Band were due to visit this week but had to cancel at the last minute due to illness. We will reschedule this session as soon as possible. We have still had a police presence in the school though, with the Year 5/6 and Year 3/4 students having a Cyber Safety Session titled ‘Think U Know’. The Reception to Year 2 students also had a session on ‘The Role of the Police’. The purpose of these sessions is twofold. Firstly it enables our children to see the police in a positive light, as people doing their job to keep us all safe in the community. Secondly it enables us to get a clear message across to our children about being safe, especially in an online world.

I am aware that there have been some children who have experienced some issues online. While these incidents have occurred at home, after hours, unfortunately, they then spill over into the school yard. It is so important that parents and caregivers are fully aware of what their children are doing when online. Supervision is the key to keeping your children safe. Of assistance though, are resources through the Carly Ryan Foundation and the eSafety Commission. Of special note are the Fact Sheets on a whole variety of ‘apps’ like YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Discord, etc. Most of these apps require the users to be aged 13 or older. Even Snapchat and TikTok require users to be 12. With Year 6 now being the final year or primary school, no primary school students at St Mary Magdalene’s are 13. In fact, none of them are even 12 yet! I believe parents are inviting trouble therefore, if they permit their children to use any of these apps, especially unsupervised, as they are interacting in an online world with others who are much older than them. Don’t be fooled by the old ‘all the other kids are on there’. Be the parent who makes the best decisions to ensure their children are safe online, based on the evidence and information from the experts.

I urge you to check out the following links:

1. eSafety Commission
2. eSafety Commission parent webinars
3. Carly Ryan parent link

I have had a call from the City of Playford asking me to advise parents that they are having a focus on people parking illegally around schools. Please be warned that inspectors will be doing regular checks and issuing fines to those who blatantly break the by-laws, especially by stopping or parking where there are solid yellow lines. Do the right thing and save yourself from getting a hefty fine!

Thank you and well done to each of our students on completing the ‘Classroom Pulse Check-In Survey’. They undertake this survey every term so that we can track their ‘wellbeing’ and ensure that they are travelling okay within themselves. Thank you to our teachers who monitor their children’s progress, both academically and socially. They have been putting in extra time over the past few weeks in preparing the Semester 1 School Reports which will be sent home in the last week of this term.

This week we held the School Board Annual General Meeting (AGM). The School Performance Report is available on our school website.

Please remember our Photo Day is Thursday 30 June and return the order forms to your eldest child’s classroom teacher if you have not already done so.

Our school counsellors, Shannon O’Toole and David Hillard are planning to hold a series of workshops on ‘Bringing up Great Kids’ next term. They are holding an information session about this on Monday 27 June at 9am at St Mary Magdalene’s so that we can determine interest in these workshops. Please consider coming along to find out more. Please see the flier attached.

Working in Partnership

Peter Mercer

Head of Campus

‘We should be shining lamps, giving light to all around us.’ ~ Catherine McAuley

The Liturgical Year of the Church and Special Celebrations 

This week we celebrate the Feast of the Holy Trinity. One of our oldest traditions has been to call God by the names of Father, Son and Holy Spirit. God shares himself with us through the three persons of the Trinity. We share the love of God the Father, the goodness of Jesus the Son, and the friendship of the Holy Spirit. God’s life is a mystery. It can be hard to understand with our minds, but we can deepen the understanding with our hearts. 

Refugee Week began on June 14 and the theme for 2022 is Healing. The purpose of refugee week is to promote harmony and togetherness in what can sometimes be a broken world. During refugee week we remember the millions of displaced people, refugees and asylum seekers around the world. We see their great courage and perseverance when they have lost everything. Often facing injustice, hardship and hostility, they show us how to stay strong and hopeful even when everything seems to go wrong. 

Next week we celebrate the Feast of St, Thomas More. One of the most respected figures in English history, Thomas More was a statesman, scholar and author. He was noted for his wit and also for his devotion to his religion. Thomas More was canonised by Pope Pius XI in 1935, and his feast day is celebrated on June 22nd.  This is the day where we celebrate the life of St Thomas More whom our sister school is named after.  He is certainly a great choice for a school, given that he was a man who spoke up for what he believed was right and just. 

Class Liturgy 

Week 8 Tuesday June 21 at 9am Reception Drewett and 1/2 Shapcott 

Sacrament Program 2022 

For information regarding our Sacramental Program, please email Melissa Musolino. 

mmusolino@smm.catholic.edu.au 

Welcome to Week 7!  We have had a very busy Term 2!  This term we are looking at observational recounts for literacy, focusing on equivalent fractions and patterns for numeracy, exploring the importance of emblems and symbols as well as different days celebrated and commemorated around the world for HASS and focusing on the theme of Justice for Religion.

Earlier this term the Year 4-6 students participated in a soccer carnival where they got to interact with students from other schools which they enjoyed very much. The students also said ‘Thank You’ to all the amazing staff at St Mary Magdalene school in celebration to Catholic Education Week. In Week 5 the Year 2-6s had their first liturgy. The theme for the Liturgy was friendship, in preparation for this students decorated crosses and wrote a special prayer to a friend or loved one which they then got to share. It has been a successful and very busy term. Here is what some of the Year 3 and 4s have to say about Term 2 so far:

“My favourite part of this term has been our observation recount activity where we watched a short clip of Mr Bean and then we got to take down notes and do a recount.” – Stella Chambers Year 3

“I have really liked learning about fractions because we do it through story-telling and Miss Sam uses all our names in the story which makes it funny. I also am doing better this term and I am proud of myself”- Kaeleb Rowe Year 3

“This term has been very fun, and I have enjoyed it because most of the people who were not here last term because of covid are here now. I enjoy the stories Miss Sam tells us every morning.”- Amelia Lang Year 4

“The highlight of this term is that it has been really cool because of our new spelling program, my favourite activity is the vowel and consonant activity and when we get to write stories with all our list words. It has not been too overwhelming.” – Maike White Year 4