Our Explicit Improvement Agenda

Student Voice and Agency

Planning for improved student learning - key focus in Mathematics

Celebrations of Community

Mary MacKillop Feast Day Celebrations

Today we celebrated our Feast Day with a whole school Feast Day Mass at 9.00 am in the Allen Hall. Tomorrow (Friday 9 August) we welcome back KABOOM SPORTS with their OLYMPIC extravaganza on the small oval 11.30-1.00pm. Parents and families are welcome to join us and bring along their own picnic blankets and chairs and enjoy a Subway lunch (if ordered). Students can wear their sports uniform on this day. Assembly in the afternoon will commence at 2.15pm due to the altered timetable for the day.

GREEN and GOLD Day and Potato Olympics

Last Friday was an amazing day celebrating the Olympics with our GREEN and GOLD Day and Potato Olympics.  During MMPS News this week the middle level shared their potato athletes and some of the activities they engaged in.  It was a fantastic day with lots of fun, laughter and outstanding potato athletes.

A special thanks to Jacqui Meunier who has come in early each morning to add to our Olympic medal tally on the Welcome Garden fence.  With Australia winning so many medals in Paris, it has been a very big job indeed!

Celebrations of Learning

Foundation 100 days of learning

On Monday we celebrated our Foundation students 100 days of learning!  It was fantastic to see so many excited and engaged centenarians enjoying this milestone in their first year of school.  A big thank you to Mrs Lane, Mrs Lardner and Mrs Nicoll for their preparation to make this day a special celebration.  

Year 2, 3 & 5 Excursions

As part of their inquiry learning (History) Year 5 students visited Coal Creek yesterday and our Year 2 and Year 3 students are waiting in excitement and anticipation for their upcoming excursions to Como House (Year 2) and IMAX/Melbourne Museum (Year 3).  Throughout Term 3 students are engaged in a wide variety of learning activities / events including Feast Day celebrations, Australian Mathematics Competition, Write a Book in a Day Competition, Book Week, Child Safety Week, Sacrament of Confirmation and Footy Day at the end of Term.  All upcoming events are published at the end of the newsletter.

Year 6 Camp

From Monday 5 August to Wednesday 7 August, our Year 6 students attended Camp at The Ranch, Cape Schanck.  A big thank you to Marg Vlajankov, Josh Kippen, Sally Lane, Clint Timothy and Beatrice Camilleri for attending camp and for the preparation, planning and going above and beyond, for our students to have such a memorable and fun camp experience.  Photos of the camp will be included in next week’s newsletter.

Planning for 2025 School Year

2025 Student Class Placements

Teachers will begin planning for our 2025 classes in the coming weeks.  We respect and value parent input and ask that you email me – ejones@marymacnarre.catholic.edu.au, or put in writing and leave at the Administration Office, if you have information about your child that could impact on their placement for 2025.  Please ensure your request is received by Friday 30 August, 2024.  

Parents please be mindful of the following:

• Staff use their professional judgement and a range of information when placing students into classes.  This information includes student learning progress, learning strengths, learning needs, NCCD Data, gender balance within classes and across the level to provide an optimal learning environment for ALL students. 
• Parent requests are forwarded onto staff when placing students into their 2025 classes. Please note, the 2024 class teacher places students from their 2024 grade into the 2025 class groupings.
• Please be aware that your letters of request are not a guarantee of your child’s placement. 
• Please note that requests made in previous years are not necessarily considered in the process.  Historical information provided by parents regarding their child’s placement will need to be re-submitted if the concerns expressed in previous years are still relevant for consideration in 2025.

Requests received after the cut off date of Friday 30 August are very difficult to take into consideration.  We ask parents to be mindful of our teachers’ preparation and time that goes into student/class placements which is not an easy task taking into account all the areas mentioned above.

Today, we have also sent out a form via PAM for all Foundation to Year 5 students regarding their intention to return in 2025.  Please ensure that you complete the eform by Friday 23 August.

Student feedback

An integral part of our cycle of teaching and learning is student feedback.  Every week, staff record and acknowledge feedback to students and this is shared with them in class and  via the school newsletter, at Assembly and in MMPS News on Wednesday mornings. Read on for this week’s feedback to students.

Many thanks to families and students for attending the School Family Parish Mass. Well done to the students who read prayers, participated in the processions and choir. A lovely occasion for all to share and be part of.

Amazing work by the Year 2 students during the Potato Olympics. You cheered each other on with enthusiasm and created a wonderful atmosphere.

Well done to all the Year 1 students for showing fantastic teamwork when participating in the Potato Olympics activities! 

Fantastic work Year 3 students on your enthusiasm and encouragement during the Potato Olympics. We had such a fun day together!

Congratulations to the Foundation students on their 100 days of school! There was so much excitement around the day and we loved seeing all the effort put into your costumes! 

Great job to the Year 5 and 4 students who stepped in for the Year 6 students this week while they were at camp for Bless This Day and MMPS News.

Awesome job Year 6’s on a successful camp! You went out of your comfort zone and showed resilience in having a go at all the activities! You worked well as a team in your activity groups and displayed empathy towards others! Great Work!

Feast of St Mary of the Cross MacKillop

Today is a day of celebration as we honour Australia’s and our school’s patron, Saint Mary of the Cross MacKillop. Many thanks to all staff, students and their families for attending the School Parish Mass last weekend and today’s whole school Mass celebration. These special occasions bring a strong sense of community and a witness of faith.  Happy Feast Day to all!

Kaboom Sports Day 

Friday 9th August on the small oval beginning at 11.30am. Students can wear their school sports uniform. Parents and families are welcome to come along to spectate and stay for a picnic lunch/Subway lunch beginning at 1.00pm. Bring your own chairs, lunch, etc.

LIFE ED

LIFE ED 1.54 MB

Confirmation - Parent & Child Workshops

Parent/s and their child are invited to attend one of the workshops as part of the preparation to receive the Sacrament.Final session offered tonight - Thursday 8th August 2024 5.00pm or 7.00pm. Please bring the Sacramental Journal booklet and your pencils/cases.

Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle B

Sunday, August 11, 2024

John 6:41-51
Jesus responds to the murmurs of the crowd, who wonders what he means when he says that he came down from heaven.

In next Sunday’s Gospel, some of the people in the crowd are upset because Jesus told them that he was the bread of life that came down from heaven. They don’t believe this because they seem to think they know Jesus.  Jesus says that those who listen to God will know that Jesus came from God. This is important for us to understand because there are many details about Jesus' life that we don't know. But knowing these details would not tell us what we need to know about Jesus. We learn all we need to know about Jesus from God’s Word to us, the Scripture. Scripture teaches us to have faith that Jesus is God's Son who brings us salvation. We also have the gift that Jesus gave us in the Eucharist. We grow closer to Jesus when we celebrate the Eucharist.

Last Friday the Year 1’s had the best day ever! We got to wear our Green and Gold clothes and participate in fun games for Potato Olympics! We got to decorate our potatoes, name them and complete an athlete profile!

Our day started with the opening ceremony. Our classes represented France and Germany. We got to walk around the hall with our potato athletes. Some of us even did a relay - we rode horses to pretend we were racing in the equestrian events. 

After recess we finally got to show how good our athletes are by participating in the following games: 

• Potato toss
• Potato dance off
• Potato balance 
• Potato spoon race
• Potato bowling 
• Potato roll 

Below are some photos of the day and how much fun we had! We each got a spud-tacular award for participating and being so enthusiastic throughout the day. 

‘Write a Book in a Day’ is a fun, creative and collaborative competition for students in years 5 to 12 and adult writing groups. Teams of up to ten have just twelve hours to write and illustrate a book from start to finish. To make it even more fun, unique parameters must be included in the story. Digital editions of the completed stories are made available on the Online Library and shared with hospitals across Australia.

Funds raised through sponsorship go to The Kids’ Cancer Project, a national charity supporting childhood cancer research.  In 2023 the competition raised $901,045 for childhood cancer research, thanks to 1,939 teams, 694 schools and 14,073 individual writers from every state and territory.

This year Mary MacKillop Primary School and the Year 6’s have again taken on the challenge to write a book in a day - from 8:00 am to 8:00 pm. This will occur on Thursday 22nd August 2024. Our wonderful team of writers and illustrators are:   

Dior, Zara, Demi, Eliza, Raffael, Jovan, Alyra, Jeremy, Emily and Layla

We need help in raising money for this event so we will hold a Lucky Dip throughout the school where we ask students to bring $2.00 to have a turn at the Lucky Dip competition.

The Lucky Dip will take place in:

Week 5 (Monday 12th August, Tuesday 13th August or Wednesday 14th August) 

Week 6 (Monday 19th August, Tuesday 20th August and Wednesday 21st August)  

Students are invited to bring along a $2.00 coin on these days if they would like to participate.

Please Note: Students participating can have more than one turn but every turn requires the $2.00 donation - the number of turns may need to be limited based on the amount of prizes.

We hope you can support this wonderful cause and help the ‘Write the Book in a Day’ team raise as much money as possible.  

Thank you from

THE MARVELOUS MARY MAC WRITERS

Term 3  - Health, Wellbeing & Personal Safety Programs

During August the following Health, Safety and Wellbeing programs will be offered to students across Foundation to Year 6.  We look forward to empowering our students with simple strategies if faced with an unsafe situation.

We are a Happy Families School!                                                          

Our school is subscribed to the Happy Families School Membership! Owned and run by Dr Justin Coulson, one of Australia’s leading parenting experts, the membership offers a wealth of parenting education and resources. We will regularly share resources available through our membership with you, including Insight Articles and Webinars. You can also access your resources at any time using the below URL (unique to our school) and password.

Unique URL - https://schools.happyfamilies.com.au/login/mmnwn

Password - happymmnwn

We recommend bookmarking this link. You should only need to put the password in once and the site will remember you.   The latest weekly Insight Article 'The Power of Perspective' (see attachment)

https://marymacnarre.catholic.schooltv.me/wellbeing_news

Bullying No Way: National week of action

Mary MacKillop School is participating in the Bullying No Way: National week of action – 12 to 16 August 2024.  By working collaboratively within our community, we can collectively help reduce bullying. The theme for this year's campaign is Everyone belongs. This theme highlights the importance of creating a sense of belonging and inclusion for students.

Parents and carers play an important role in helping children understand bullying, and know how to respond to it.   If your child tells you about things at school, or you observe something in public that involves conflict or bullying, parents and carers can take this opportunity to have open and honest conversations with their children about the impact of bullying and what they can do if they need support. You can visit the Bullying No Way website for tips around how to have this discussion

Questions you could ask:

• What do you think bullying is?
• Have you seen it? How did you feel?
• Have you ever felt scared at school because of bullying?
• As well as me, who are the other adults you would talk to when it comes to things like bullying?
• Have you or your friends left other kids out on purpose? Do you think that was bullying? Why or why not?
• Have you ever tried to help someone who is being bullied? What happened? What would you do if it happens again?

Remind your child that bullying is never okay and discuss how they can respond safely if they experience or witness it.  Encourage them to seek help from a trusted adult and keep seeking support if needed.  By promoting open communication, we empower children to stand up against bullying and create a safer environment where everyone can feel that they belong.

For more information, visit bullyingnoway.gov.au.

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