Our Explicit Improvement Agenda

Student Voice and Agency

Planning for improved student learning

CELEBRATIONS OF COMMUNITY

Father’s Day Breakfast, time in Classrooms and Assembly

Thank you to everyone who attended our Father’s Day Breakfast, Prayer time and Assembly yesterday.  We had over 400 dads, grandpas, pops and students attending this very special event.  It is a time where our community gives thanks for the love, support and guidance provided by the male figures in our lives.  A very special thank you to Mary MacKillop Staff & parent volunteers, for assisting with the planning, preparation, cooking and serving.  To all our dads, grandads, uncles in our school community, we wish you all a very happy Father’s Day on Sunday.  We hope you enjoy time with your family and loved ones.  Happy Father’s Day!

Footy Day Celebrations - Thursday 14 September

A reminder that if your child/ren wish to take part in the Sausage Sizzle, orders must be placed on CDFpay by next Thursday 7 September.  Unfortunately no late orders can be accepted.

Foundation & Year 1 Mass

We appreciate everyone who came out to the Foundation and Year 1 Mass celebration earlier today, including staff, parents, and family members. The liturgy emphasized the Season of Creation and our gratitude for all the things we have been given. It was a great event to come together in prayer and celebrate the beauty of the world.

CELEBRATIONS OF LEARNING

Year 6 Camp

Year 6 students are currently on camp at The Ranch, Cape Schanck.  A very big thank you to our staff Marg Vlajankov, Sally Lane, Breanna Cahill, Clint Timothy, Kelly Oldfield and Tylah Meunier for their planning, preparation and organisation of camp. We look forward to hearing our students stories, highlights, team work and experiences of overcoming challenges when they return tomorrow.

Term 3 Student Learning Portfolios

Term 3 Student Learning Portfolios will be sent home on Wednesday 13 September. The Term 3 Student Learning Portfolios includes the Parent Feedback sheet.  We respectfully ask parents to take the time to complete the Feedback sheet with their child after going through the portfolio samples of student learning. We are very proud of our students efforts to document their learning journey and hope families take up this opportunity to acknowledge their child’s efforts.  Term 3 Student Learning Portfolios are due back at the beginning of Term 4.

IMPORTANT INFORMATION

Term 3 PSG Meetings

Due to staffing availability, the Term 3 PSG Meetings will be rescheduled to early Term 4.   More information will be sent to families concerned.  The Term 3 PLP/SAEP documentation will be reviewed and included in the Students’ Learning Portfolio for Parents to view and discussed in the Term 4 PSG meetings.

School Advisory Committee [SAC] Meeting - Annual General Meeting - Tuesday 17 October, 2023 at 7.00 pm

The Annual General Meeting of the SAC will be held on Tuesday 17 October - 7.00 pm in the Staffroom.  Nomination forms for parent representative positions on the School Advisory Committee 2023-2024 are available from the Administration Office.  Alternatively you can request a nomination from via email frontdesk@marymacnarre.catholic.edu.au.

Dates and School Events

Twenty-Second Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle A

Sunday, September 3, 2023

Matthew 16:21-27
Jesus speaks of his Passion and rebukes Peter for his objection.

In today’s Gospel we again hear about a conversation between Jesus and Peter. Do you recall last week’s Gospel when Jesus called Peter a rock and said that the Church would be built on this foundation? How do you think Peter felt when he heard this from Jesus? In this Sunday’s Gospel, Jesus tells his disciples what will happen to him and what he expects of them as his disciples. Jesus told the disciples that he was going to suffer and die. How do you think the disciples felt when they heard this news? Did Peter accept what Jesus said? Peter did not want Jesus to suffer. Jesus tells Peter that he is not thinking like God.

Jesus teaches us an important lesson. He tells us that we must trust God and think of others before ourselves, just as Jesus did when he died for our sins. He loves us so much that he suffered and died for us.

When we think of others before ourselves, we are serving God. Ask: What are some ways that we can think about the needs of others and be helpful in our work, at home or at school?

Child Safety Week Bookmark Design Winners

In September 2023, the Diocese of Sale and Diocese of Sale Catholic Education Ltd (DOSCEL) will jointly celebrate Child Safety Week.

• Child Safety Week in the Diocese of Sale will run from 3-10 September, and will coincide with National Child Protection Week, and Safeguarding Sunday.
• The theme for Child Safety Week 2023 is: Every child, in every community, needs a fair go and a chance to grow up safe and supported. Child safety in action in the Diocese of Sale.

To celebrate Child Safety Week each child was invited to design a bookmark. It is with pleasure to announce the following Winners and Runners up from each grade level.  Each winning entry will have their design printed on a bookmark and each child in the grade level will receive the winning design bookmark. Runners up will have their designs printed on a banner poster promoting Child Safety week. Well done to all winners, runners-up and those who entered the competition.

DOSCEL has compiled a set off resources to deepen awareness of child safety in our Diocese and promote the participation and empowerment of children through engagement of the resources contained in the package.

Please keep reading further in our Newsletter of all the upcoming Child Safety activities.

School Fee Reminder

Fee Statements to the end of August will be emailed to all families by the end of this week.   Thank you to all our families who continually support our school with up to date fee payments. 

Families who have direct debit arrangements are asked to ensure any voided payments are brought up to date as a matter of importance. Families who are in arrears are asked to contact the school to make arrangement to support payment of your fee accounts. We ask families to make contact with the school if you are finding it difficult to meet your school fee commitment and we discuss options available to support your family.

Last Thursday on the  24th August the Year 6 Write a Book in a Day team spent the day creating a book from 8:00am to 8:00pm. It was a long day but a rewarding one. 

They produced an exciting story called ‘The Ruby Heist’. They had to include certain parameters and words in the story which inspired them to come up with some great ideas! There were many discussions throughout the day, drafting and editing but finally at approximately 7:40pm, our book was submitted!

Thank you to all who bought a badge and donated towards the Kids Cancer Project. The amount raised was a fantastic $565.10!!

Here are some of the teams' thoughts about the day....

• David - First I’d like to thank everyone for their participation and I think that we made a great book together. I’m sure sick kids will love this book. We all did a great job cooperating with each other and not arguing and agreeing on a story. I personally thought it was one of my best experiences at school so it will be a great day to remember! Thank you everyone for donating to the WABIAD Fundraiser for the Cancer Council because you just played a part in helping sick kids get more help and hopefully one day a cure.
• Daria - I thought that the day went well, we all shared our great ideas and opinions and we all worked well together. We had tons of ideas and whether we liked them or not we gave respectful comments which is what we needed to do.
• Taylor - I enjoyed write a book in a day. There was a lot of teamwork involved and everyone cooperated and gave heaps of ideas. Even though there were some problems, we worked our way through them by communicating and suggesting solutions. This will be one of the things I will remember about year 6.  I hope the kids with cancer enjoy our book!
• Abigail - The day went fantastic, we worked well and made sure everybody was doing something. Although not all of our ideas were used, we made a great story that I hope children with cancer will love. It’s a highlight of this year for me and everyone who participated. Thank you to the teachers and staff who made this day happen. 
• Rahul - It was a marvellous day with teamwork and cooperation. The day was long and exhausting but we had a good time overall. Sometimes it wasn’t that enjoyable like when we had to reread our text lots of times and edit but other than that we were having fun doing all the roles with people making jokes along the way to entertain.
• Katelyn - It was a great experience overall. Sometimes it was a bit difficult to adapt and write our book based on the given circumstances, but in the end we did quite a good job and it was very rewarding. I feel like we all pushed ourselves to try our best, and it was evident. It was a long day, and it was a lot of work but the end product made it worth it. 
• James - Great experience, worked together really well, had great ideas there was a lot of cooperation. We all worked fast at the start of the day then we started to slow down. There was a lot of illustrating to do but the story was great at the end of the day.
• Ethan -The day was a great experience spending time with an amazing writing and illustrating team, although the day was long it went by quite quickly. Overall, I loved the experience, thanks to all the people who helped us throughout the day and I hope our book does well in the competition, and that the people of the cancer council in the children's hospital enjoy our book.
• Annabelle - I enjoyed the WABIAD activity. My participation in the authors section was a pleasant experience, and I think that all of us worked together really well especially since there were no arguments. It was really tiring and we all appreciate the amount of work and effort that the teachers put in to give us this experience. A Special thank you to Mrs. Vlajankov was there from 7:30 am to 8:00pm, to make sure that we had fun and we managed to get the book in just on time. Overall it was really fun
• Aria - WABIAD was a very different experience and really got me out of my comfort zone. I was an author but I also illustrated some drawings. Brainstorming and hearing others ideas was what made it so special! The teamwork. Without each other, we wouldn’t have been able to finish publishing the book. Don’t get me wrong, writing and drawing for 12 hours is super fun but it was also very very tiring…but also very rewarding. Getting to eat pizza in the staff room was totally cool, and I have to thank Mrs. Vlajankov and everyone else for making this happen.

The choir will be performing at Assembly next week (week 9). We would love to see you at our whole school Assembly on Friday 8th September. Assembly starts at 2.30pm

Book Week 

For Book Week we listened to a book called ‘The Perfect Hiding Place’ and after listening to the book we played Hide and Seek with our Year One Buddies. We had so much fun! Our buddies were so good at finding a hiding spot it took so long to find them! (Keira and Alyssa - 5JB)

Geography - Asia

In Geography, we are learning about Asia. We got to use Google Earth to search for famous landmarks (tallest mountain in the world, deepend end in the world etc.) and mark them on a sheet. We are also researching a specific part of Asia (East Asia, West Asia etc.) and researching its climate, population, religions and geographic features. (Emily 5-JB) 

We have been learning about one of the continents, which is Asia. We have been talking about the countries in Asia, the climate and thematic maps, including how there are lots of different types of thematic maps. (Milania 5-SD) 

Reading - Literature Circles

In Reading, we have been learning about the different literature circle roles such as Summariser, Researcher, Word Wizard and lots more. Then bit by bit we started filling them in as the days went by and soon we filled all of them in. This week we started our class novel. 5-JB are reading ‘Bridge to Terabithia’. (Lauren 5-JB) 

In 5-SD, we have been reading a book called ‘The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.’ The book is interesting and makes us want to read more of it. (Selina and Chloe 5-SD) 

Writing - Historical Narratives

In class, we wrote historical narratives about life in the late 1800s. We had to pretend to be a student living in Coal Creek, and use language which people would use back then. We had to include historical things which would happen back then, like writing with slate and stone, or a feather with ink. We wrote about getting whacked with a cane, or getting sent to the front of the classroom if you misbehaved. (Albert 5-JB) 

Spelling

Every Monday, we draw a table and choose our spelling words. We write our words each day of the week and on Fridays we do a spelling test and dictation. For dictation we have to write a sentence that the teacher says bit by bit and any words that we get wrong, we add to our list for the following weeks. (Adam 5-SD) 

Maths

We have been learning about location and we have been using the x and y to locate directions on grids or maps. We also know the directions North, East, South and West. We have been using safe websites to learn about location like mathsisfun.com.au (Leo 5-JB) 

In fractions and decimals, we learnt about continuing number patterns that use addition and subtraction. (Peppi 5-SD)

Child Safe Standards

Our school is safe, student centred and animated by our school values.  

We aim to Inspire Hearts and Minds.

"Children are the future of the human family: all of us are expected to promote their growth, health and tranquillity." Pope Francis 2021

At Mary MacKillop Primary School, we believe that ensuring the safety of the students in our care is an integral part of who we are as a Catholic faith community. We adhere to Victorian Child Safe Standards and Ministerial Order No. 1359.  We embed a culture of child safety and the matter is taken very seriously.

MMPS Child Safe Standards

Catholic Education Commission of Victoria (CECV)

The updated CECV Statement of Commitment to Child Safety - A safe, nurturing and empowering culture for all children and young people in Catholic schools, is attached to this newsletter.  This statement has been updated in light of the revised Child Safe Standards coming into effect from 1 July 2022 and the supporting Ministerial Order No. 1359

Parent Education - Rescources to support parents and carers

• eSafety Commissioner https://www.esafety.gov.au/parents.
• For Families https://www.esafety.gov.au/parents/parent-resources/online-safety-for-every-family
  • Online safety for every family 
    • Express learning for busy families 
      • eSafety's express learning series provides parents and carers with practical tips and advice on common online safety concerns. The videos are 5 to 10 minutes long and cover four important topics, including
        •  Setting up parental controls
        •  Digital technologies and mental health
        • Cyberbullying and online drama
        • Online sexual harassment and image-based abuse
• CCYP - Commission for Children and Young People https://ccyp.vic.gov.au/child-safe-standards/
• School TV https://marymacnarre.catholic.schooltv.me/wellbeing_newsBravehearts https://bravehearts.org.au/
• Happy Families https://schools.happyfamilies.com.au/login/mmnwn
  • Password: happymmnwn
• Your Insight article for this week:   The How-to's of Healthy Parental Involvement
  How_Tos_Of_Healthy_Parenting.pdf

  How_Tos_Of_Healthy_Parenting _pdf 134.18 KB

Child Safety & Wellbeing

Child Safety will be the focus of the upcoming week's classroom activities as we approach National Child Protection Week. All families have received information today describing upcoming events and activities that prioritize the health and safety of children and young people.

Bravehearts Day is dedicated to raising funds and awareness for the prevention of child sexual abuse. Held annually since 1997, Bravehearts Day (previously White Balloon Day) has changed the way Australians think about and respond to the crime of child sexual abuse. 

• In support of Bravehearts day and raising awareness, students and families were invited to wear a splash of purple yesterday. Each Year 6 student was provided with a Bravehearts wristband. GIFT A BRAVE HEART by donating to this very worthy organisation https://www.braveheartsday.com.au/event/2023/donation

Australia’s Biggest Child Safety Lesson (ABCSL) is all about consent!  Proudly produced by Daniel Morcombe Foundation.  

• All classes will view the live stream on Tuesday 5th September 2023 - [Parents/Carers are welcome to join classes]
  •  Communicating about consent in a respectful way can help children assert their right to stay comfortable and enforce their right to stay safe.  
• Early Years and Lower Primary from 9am AEST        
• Upper Primary from 10am AEST

For more information, please see the letter that was sent  via PAM to every family.  Additionally, each Level will send letters to families early the next week describing its participation in the ABCSL and other child safety-related content included in its program.

For more information please visit         www.danielmorcombe.com.au 

National Child Protection Week is happening across Australia from Sunday 3 to Saturday 9 September 2023. It’s an opportunity to recognise and promote the safety and wellbeing of Australian children with the message that ‘Every child, in every community, needs a fair go’.  To support National Child Protection Week 2023, eSafety has learning activities for students in Years 3 to 6, our students will participate in a  virtual classroom that explores how students can identify boundaries and support each other to be safe online. Students in these levels will be participating in the e-Safety Commissioners session on Be an eSafe Kid: Protect yourself.

R U OK? Day 2023 is Thursday 14 September. Wear a splash of yellow

It is a national day of action, when we are all reminded that every day is the day to ask, are you OK?

• R U OK? Day encourages people to stay connected and to let the people in your world know you are really there through meaningful conversations. A simple conversation could change a life.

Victorian Government Initiative & Victorian Fisheries Authority

The Victorian Government is investing $1.5 million from the Recreational Fishing Licence Trust Fund to provide up to 95,000 Little Angler Kits to primary school aged children in Victoria.  The free kits provide a wonderful school holiday activity for children with their families and help ease the cost of living, providing a fun activity close to home.  Grade 5 students at all Victorian schools, including ours, will be offered the opportunity to receive a FREE Little Angler Kit. Grade 5 students have been selected based on the Victorian Curriculum focus, movement and motor development, and safety considerations.  The program is entirely voluntary. Schools were provided with the option to opt out of the program. Our school has opted to stay in the program so that parents can decide whether they want their child(ren) to receive a free fishing kit.

Parents of Grade 5 students can advise the school if they do not wish their child(ren) to participate for any reason whatsoever. We support parents in making decisions that align with their family values and beliefs.  The roll out of kits will occur through the second half of 2023 (16 October - 4 December) so that all participating children will have a kit in time for the summer school holidays.  The kits include a rod, reel with line, tackle tray, some tackle and information on how to use them to catch a fish. Please note that the tackle tray includes fishing hooks. The tackle tray will be wrapped in cardboard and placed inside a pocket inside the fishing kit bag, which will be sealed with a cable tie to discourage students from opening their kits until they are with a parent or carer.

Kits will be handed out to students to take home with them as soon as the school receives them. Teachers will tell students not to open the kits until they are safely at home with a parent or carer, however parents can contact the school and request to collect their kit from the school themselves if they prefer.

The Victorian Fisheries Authority will create a Little Angler hub on their website, which will be live when the kits start being distributed. It will have useful information, instructional videos and online resources about where and how to fish linking to existing resources from Fishcare and new resources to be produced just for the Little Angler Kits program.  This initiative aims to grow recreational fishing participation in Victoria by actively encouraging primary school aged children to learn how to fish, as well as learning more about marine life and the natural environment.