Our Explicit Improvement Agenda

Student Voice and Agency

Planning for improved student learning - key focus in Mathematics

Celebrations of Community

Andrew Chinn Concert - Thursday 29 August 2.00 - 3.00 pm

Please join us next week at 2.00pm pm on Thursday 29 August for singing and music with Andrew Chinn.  More information in the Deputy Principal section of today's newsletter.

Father’s Day Celebrations

Father’s Day Stall -  Wednesday 28 August 

Father’s Day Breakfast – Friday 30 August

Our school community will celebrate our Father’s Day Breakfast on Friday 30 August.  Information regarding the breakfast was included in the Week 4 newsletter (8 August). 

The timetable for the morning of the breakfast on Friday 30 August is as follows:

• Gold Coin donation supporting Trinity Families (Trinity Families is a charitable fund which operates to serve other charities supporting families in the Greater Gippsland area).
• Father’s Day Breakfast - serving bacon and egg rolls from 8.00 am - 8.40 am (please note starting time)
• Time in classrooms with your child - prayer, Father’s Day activity from 8.40 am - 9.05 am
• Father’s Day Special Assembly - in the Allen Hall from (including Father’s Day School Community Raffle) 9.05 am - 10.00 am approximately 

Families are invited to send a photo of students with their dad/grandfather/father figure/carer. These photos will be part of a powerpoint presentation to be shown during the Father’s Day Assembly. All photos must be emailed to lprivitera@marymacnarre.catholic.edu.au by Wednesday 28th August.

Celebrations of Learning

Book Week Dress Up

Each year, across Australia, the Children’s Book Council of Australia brings children and books together celebrating Children’s Book Week. Throughout the year, the CBCA works in partnership with authors, illustrators, publishers, booksellers and other organisations in the children’s book world to bring words, images and stories into the hearts and minds of children and adults.

Tomorrow, Friday 23 August, we will have our Book Week Dress Up Day. All students and families are invited to dress up in their favourite book character.

We are having a special assembly commencing at 9:00 am in Allen Hall, and families are welcome to attend.

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.

We have also sent out an eform via PAM for all Foundation to Year 5 students regarding their intention to return in 2025.  If you haven't already done so, please ensure that you complete the eform by tommorrow.

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....

Fantastic work Year 3 students on our excursion to Melbourne Museum and IMAX. We are so proud of the school values that you showed throughout the day and how excited you were for all the exhibits we got to visit. You asked thoughtful questions and listened respectfully to both your leaders and the presenters. A big thank to all for such a fun day!

Thank you to all the Year 1 students who demonstrated respect when participating in the LifeEd sessions with Harold this week! 

Amazing effort by the Year 2 students on our excursion to Como House last Friday. You represented our school with pride and participated in all the activities with enthusiasm and respect. We loved watching you all take on the persona of rich people, dance in the ballroom and bow or courtesy to your partner. We are very proud of the way you all embraced life in the 1850’s, well done.

Well done to the Foundation and Year 1 students on the way you sat reverently in their level Mass. You were respectful and participated in responses and songs. Great work. 

Thank you Foundies! We really appreciate the way you line up when the bell goes. It's great to see you sitting in a line waiting patiently for your teachers. 

As part of Book Week, Year 5 students had the opportunity to read their favorite books to their Year 1 buddies. It was wonderful to hear the students sharing why they love a particular book or author, and the teachers praised how amazing they were during this experience.

Thank you to all students who participated in the Lucky Dip Fundraiser. You helped raise A LOT of money for kids with cancer. Your generosity will help many sick kids get better. A MASSIVE THANK YOU !

Well done to the Year 5 boys playing soccer on the big oval at lunch time. You stopped your game as soon as the music started and could be heard cheering on your peers throughout your game.

A Concert With Andrew Chinn 

 Thursday 29th August, 2024 

2pm - 3pm in the Allen Hall

Australian religious songwriter and singer, Andrew Chinn, will be visiting our school to share his songs with our children. Andrew’s songs, such as “These Hands”, “Rainbow”, “An African Blessing” and “Rise Up!” are used in classrooms and liturgies around Australia, New Zealand, USA and Canada. 

Parents, families and friends most welcome to attend.  We look forward to seeing you there. 

Andrew Chinn: Biography

• Was a teacher for 20 years in Catholic schools in Sydney, taught all grades from kindergarten to Year 6 (was a kindergarten/prep teacher for two years)
• Song writing since 1993
• Has released 14 albums, 6 picture books, and 5 DVDs and has an online resource for teachers: www.butterflyhouse.online
• His music is used in schools across Australia, New Zealand, USA and Canada and he has visited more than 1100 different schools around those countries.
• His best-known songs are These Hands, Rainbow, An African Blessing, and Rise Up!.
• Lives in Wollongong with his wife, Bernadette and a couple of Shetland Sheepdogs called Mollee and Elbee, who love going to the beach.
• He has four daughters and TEN grandchildren!!
• He is a proud Sydney Swans, Illawarra Hawks and Brisbane Broncos supporter.
• Andrew’s music is available on Spotify and Apple Music.

Sacrament of Confirmation

Masses will be celebrated next Friday 30th August evening and Saturday 31st August.  We keep in our prayers those students preparing to actively participate in the sacramental life of the Church and deepen their connection with God.

Twenty-First Sunday of Ordinary Time, Cycle B

Sunday, August 25, 2024

For the past several weeks, we have heard Jesus teach about himself in the Gospel. In particular, we have heard Jesus teach us that he is the Bread of Life. In next Sunday’s Gospel we will hear how those closest to Jesus responded to these words. As we grow in our faith, we will make our own choices about living our faith. But we can’t do this without God’s help and the help of the community of faith, the Church. We pray that God will help us be like Simon Peter and the disciples who chose to follow Jesus.

Como House Excursion

Last Friday, on the 16th of August, the Year 2 students went to Como House to learn about what life was like back in the olden days. Students learnt about the Armytage family who lived in the Como House for almost a century. The house gave students an insight into the lives of the Armytage family, who were quite wealthy and used servants to help run the house. 

Students participated in four different activities which consisted of a tour of the Como House, a detective expedition around the gardens to solve the mystery of the broken toy doll, playing a variety of olden day games such as sack races, drop the hanky and croquet and experienced what life was like as a servant by having a go at washing clothes without the use of a washing machine. 

Here is what students had to say about the excursion:

“I loved Como House. It was fun and exciting. There were lots of things to do. The Mystery Trail was very fun to do”. Anastasia

“Como House is very old and very fancy”. Rossane

“It was really fun to visit Como House”. Mia

“Como House was an adventure and we got to explore the past”. Katalina

“At Como House, we discovered lots of unexpected things like the toilet hidden in the drawers.” Elina

“I liked the games.” Aly

“They had to clean toilets at 9 years old.” Lucas

“They had to use a chamberpot and the men had the square toilet.” Mackenzie

“The servant children were unfortunate.” Sasha

“The shorter you are, the less you got paid. The taller you were, the more money you would get.” Skylar

“It was really fun. The kids had to do the dishes and clean up. I’m glad I don’t have to do that.” Logan

Thank you to our parent helpers for assisting and joining us on the day. 

On Friday 16th August, the Year 3 students went on an excursion to Melbourne Museum and IMAX to connect to our Inquiry topics around History and Geography for Term 3. Here are a few of the students’ favourite parts from the day: 

Our favourite part of our excursion was going to IMAX and watching the movie. The movie was called ‘Extreme Weather’. It was really interesting to watch how the ice collapses into the water and how tornadoes grow stronger. (Charlotte and Aria)

I liked the Mini Mega Museum. I really enjoyed looking through the camera, because you could press buttons and see pictures of the past.(Roko)

I really loved when we were learning about the short-headed kangaroo. (Lea)

I loved the crystals. There were beautiful colours and they were really pretty to look at. (Violet)

I loved seeing the triceratops! It was so cool! (Zeplin)

We really liked the dinosaur bones. We also got to have a short presentation from one of the staff at the museum who is also a cave explorer. He shared how he found fossils and he let us touch them! He told us fun facts, like how it can take him 1 hour to get to the bottom of the cave! (Ally and Ethan E)

We really liked seeing animals, especially penguins and kangaroos! (Regina and Aurora)

It was really cool to explore the olden day house. There was lots of really cool things inside! (Alex T and Mason)

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: Getting Along With Siblings is attached below:

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

Special Report: Healthy Study Habits

In today's world, where distractions are abundant and the pressure to excel is high, guiding children to develop healthy study habits is more important than ever. As students aspire to achieve academic success, the cornerstone of that achievement lies not just in their intelligence or drive, but in the study habits they cultivate.

It's essential for students to recognise that good study habits aren't merely about spending extra hours hitting the books. It's more about quality over quantity and having a more balanced approach. Emphasising the value of a routine is essential. Consistent study times establish a sense of structure and discipline, turning studying into a natural part of their daily routine rather than a burdensome task.

Additionally, how students approach their study sessions is equally important. Taking regular breaks is a crucial part of this process in maintaining focus and preventing burnout.

Maintaining a healthy lifestyle that includes sufficient sleep, a balanced diet, and consistent physical activity are indispensable elements that will significantly impact your child's ability to study effectively. Fostering these healthy habits is one of the most valuable gifts we can offer children, paving the way for a lifetime of learning and achievement.

This Special Report will help you support your young person as they embark on studying for exams.

Here is the link to your Special Report https://marymacnarre.catholic.schooltv.me/wellbeing_news/special-report-healthy-study-habits-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