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PRAYER
PRAYER
A special and warm welcome to the Preps and new families who have joined our school community this year.
God bless you all as you begin this new school year. We pray that it will be a happy and safe one for all.
News from our Principal
News from our Principal
Dear Parents and Caregivers,
Welcome back to 2022! We hope that the first week has been a good one for you all and that all of our children are enjoying settling back onto the various school routines. We certainly love having their smiling faces back with us.
A big welcome to all our new families, may you love the STM family and enjoy all our school has to offer.
Many thanks to you all as we have negotiated our return to school alongside twice-weekly Rapid Antigen testing and COVID-19 notifications. Your support through this has been much appreciated and we will make adjustments and fine-tune our processes as we move forward. Going forward, if we are notified of cases, we will aim to only send 1 covid notification per day instead of each time a positive case is reported. Hopefully, that helps you all.
Please note that these measures are anticipated to continue for the next 3 weeks and we will notify you all of any changes as they come through. We thank you for your vigilance with RAT testing so we can keep our community as safe as possible.
Congratulations:
A big congratulations to Carly Clinch who was married during the holidays. Carly will now be known as Mrs Lonergan and we wish her and her husband Reece a wonderful future together.
Congratulations also go to Mrs Vanessa Cutajar and her husband Luke on the safe arrival of their baby boy - Lewis Anthony Cutajar. We send all our love as they begin life as a family.
Farewells and New staff for 2022:
We farewell our Long standing LSO Miss Janelle Failla who will not be returning after her long service leave this year. We wish Janelle all the best in her new job and wish her much success.
We warmly welcome our new staff for 2022 as they begin our year with STM:
Mrs Stef Cuschieri (Year 1 classroom teacher)
Miss Archal Kumar (Year 2 Classroom teacher)
Miss Natalie Pring (Year 4 Classroom teacher)
Miss Lucinda Tamburrino (Grade 4 classroom teacher)
Chloe Hand (Year 5 Classroom teacher)
Miss Natalie Galletta (Year 6 Classroom teacher)
Miss Chloe Ciavarella (LSO)
Antoinette Matarazzo (LSO)
Mrs Christine Polizzi (Yr 4) & Mrs Laura Angiolino (Extension) & Mrs Jessica Eyar (Yr5) - returning to STM after their Maternity leave
General Information:
This is a Sun Safe term and all students are required to wear hats when outside. We also strongly encourage children to come to school with sunscreen on or carry some in their bag for self-application during the day.
Meet and Greet form: Please complete your meet and greet form (sent out by your child's teacher) by Friday next week ( Feb 11th). Meeting times/ arrangements will be communicated once we have all responses in.
Open days: We have locked in some dates for our upcoming open days. COVID restrictions permitting, we aim to hold tours of the school on:
Tues 15th March 6pm
Wednesday 16th March 5pm
Thursday 22nd March 6pm
See below for our open day poster.
Account fee statements will be sent out to families shortly so stay tuned for these
Drop off and Pick up of children will remain staggered as per the timetable in 2021. This supports our ability to safely provide access and exit to and from our school without bottlenecks and the congregation of large groups. We please ask you to continue to follow this process and not mingle at the school gates.
With the start of a new school year, it is timely to remind everyone driving their children to school via the Church (North Street) entrance, of the importance to DRIVE SLOWLY AND CAREFULLY WITHIN THE CHURCH CAR PARK AND ENTRY AND EXIT LANES. There are a number of people who still drive their cars TOO FAST especially when exiting the Church, after dropping off their children. There are always children walking to school via the Church and elderly parishioners attending morning Mass, so we ask for your cooperation in looking after our children and parishioners and DRIVE SLOWLY.
Parents on site
Whilst parents are now permitted to come onsite, we strongly encourage parents to only come onto the school property if they have a specific reason.
At this point in time parents are not able to enter the school buildings and any parent/ teacher meetings will be held via a Google meet.
Air Purifiers
All air putifiers have been installed throughout our school and are being used daily.
Masks
The rules relating to mask wearing have tightened. Students in Year 3-6 are required to wear a mask when inside the school building, unless a lawful exception applies. Students in Prep-Year 2 are invited to wear a mask when indoors but it is not a requirement. Any child in year 3-6 who does not wear a mask in year 3-6 will need to provide a written letter from the parent indicating the reason for the lawful exception.
All adults (teaching or otherwise) need to wear a mask inside the school buildings. Students and adults need to provide their own masks - Please help them ensure they have their own mask each day. Washing hands is encouraged and hand sanitiser is available in each classroom. Limiting student mingling and designated play spaces is also a priority.
Canteen
As we have had no covid cases in the last couple of days, we will proceed with the opening of the canteen as of Week 3 as planned. Please know that the canteen is operating under strict covid guidelines and will not include canteen helpers just yet to help limit covid risks in our community. See the notice that was sent home with your child yesterday for further canteen information and pricing.
School Photos
As you will have seen, school photo forms were sent out this week. Please complete as soon as possible. School photo day will be held on 3rd of March.
School & Class Leaders initiation Due to the current climate, we are unable to hold our usual commissioning mass. Next week we will present all school leaders and class leaders for 2022 with their leadership badges in the online assembly on Friday 11th at 2:30pm which will be streamed so parents can be part of the occasion. We will send you further information on this next week.
May you all have a lovely weekend and we look forward to the term unfolding.
Best wishes from the STM Leadership team
IMPORTANT DATES - EVENTS FOR TERM 1
IMPORTANT DATES - EVENTS FOR TERM 1
JANUARY
Monday 31st - First day back at school
FEBRUARY
Wednesday 02nd - Preps off on Wednesdays (scheduled testing time by appointment only)
Wednesday 09th - Preps off on Wednesdays (scheduled testing time by appointment only)
Wednesday 16th - Preps off on Wednesdays (scheduled testing time by appointment only)
Wednesday 23rd - Preps off on Wednesdays (scheduled testing time by appointment only)
Friday 25th - Curriculum Levy and term 1 fees due
MARCH
Tuesday 01st - Shrove Tuesday
Wednesday 02nd - Ash Wednesday
Thursday 03rd - School Photos (personalised flyer sent home)
Friday 11th - Curriculum Day - Student free day
Monday 14th - Labour Day Public Holiday
APRIL
Sunday 03rd - Daylight savings ends
Friday 08th - Last Day term 1 - casual clothes day (gold coin donation via CDFPay to Moira Kelly Foundation)
Friday 15th - Good Friday
Sunday 17th - Easter Sunday
Monday 25th - Anzac Day
Tuesday 26th - First Day back for Term 2
*** these dates are subject to change
WELLBEING
WELLBEING
PBL (POSITIVE BEHAVIOUR LEARNING) LAUNCH 2022!
WELCOME BACK TO SCHOOL!
This term we continue our Positive Behaviour Learning work and launch our four values RESPECT, RESPONSIBILITY, RESILIENCE and SAFETY. This week the children have been focussing on the PBL EXPECTATIONS BOOKLET (see below) which outlines the 4 values. The children will bring this home to you and will be able to tell you all about it! We ask you to sign your child's booklet and return it to school.
THE LOGO COMPETITION WAS VOTED ON BY STUDENTS AT THE END OF LAST YEAR.
THE LOGO COMPETITION WAS VOTED ON BY STUDENTS AT THE END OF LAST YEAR.
THE WINNER IS: BLAKE HILDERBRANDT WITH his SUPERHERO theme! Congratulations Blake and now we will have PBL SUPERHEROES doing wonderful work at STM!
NEXT WEEK WE WILL BE FOCUSSING ON:
NEXT WEEK WE WILL BE FOCUSSING ON:
MANAGING CHANGE AS STUDENTS RETURN TO SCHOOL
MANAGING CHANGE AS STUDENTS RETURN TO SCHOOL
Here are some examples of strategies that parents can use at home as their children settle into new and unfamiliar school routines:
Ensure children have plenty of sleep - a day at school is both mentally and physically exhausting so enough sleep is essential.
Display a class timetable showing sports days, library days and other important events so that children can be prepared by wearing the correct uniform and ensuring they have all the equipment needed for the day.
Teach children to pack their own bag - then they know they have everything they need and can find their things independently at school.
Talk about the great things that have happened at school each day - focus on the positive
Make healthy lunches together - this helps children feel like they helped make decisions and they are more likely to eat it if they have made it themselves.
Ensure all screens are kept out of bedrooms and turned off at least one hour prior to your child’s bedtime. Research supports this - staring at a phone, computer, or TV screen can interfere with sleep as the light they give off light that reduces the secretion of melatonin, the hormone that regulates wakefulness.
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