Our Explicit Improvement Agenda

Student Voice and Agency

Planning for Improved Student Learning - key focus in Mathematics

Celebrations of Community

Thank you to all our mums, grandmothers, aunts and special people who came to celebrate our Mother’s Day breakfast and morning tea last Friday.  We had over 450 guests to mark this very special occasion.  A very big thank you to our ‘dad’ helpers - David (Emilia and Elijah’s dad), Greg (Layla and Zac’s dad), Peter (Alexandra’s dad), Christian (Harry’s dad), Luke (Alyssia’s dad) and Sam (Mrs Knight’s husband) - it was fantastic to have the support of our dads for the cooking of our bacon and egg rolls.  Also a very thank you to our staff for their tireless work to ensure our mums felt very special and loved.  

Celebrations of Learning

Congratulations to our Senior students on participating in the Winter Lightning Premiership yesterday.  Our students are to be commended on their sportspersonship and the way they respectfully engaged in the competition.  Thank you to Mr Tim, our Senior Teachers and ESO Support Staff for their efforts to ensure all students had an amazing day.  Next week we have a number of students participating in District Cross Country.  More information on this event will be included in Mr Tim’s section of the newsletter.

Student feedback

Each week as a school community, we stop to reflect on the amazing things our students are collectively doing in their classroom and on the playground.  Here is this week’s feedback . . .

One morning last week I had the pleasure of visiting 3-CN. It was amazing to see so many learning qualities automatically taking place. Students were experts in creating valid success criteria to support their learning, and utilised these to work independently. Thanks 3-CN - it was fantastic to see! From Mrs Lane

At dismissal time, a huge number of students can be seen walking to their pick-up areas. These students are fantastic role models for others. Their choices improves our safety practices and fosters a peaceful environment at our school. Congratulations to the students who consistently model excellent behaviour.

Increased sickness in our Community and critical Teacher shortage

Unfortunately we have had a number of staff and students away sick and there seems to be a spike in the past few weeks of a range of illnesses.  If your child is sick and/or suffering from fever or an upset stomach, please keep them home to minimise any spread of infection or virus.  The Health Department also cautioned of increased COVID-19 cases in our area and we ask families to ensure they are putting into place measures to minimise contact/spread of the virus. 

As you are aware from media reports there is a significant teacher shortage across all schools in our State.  When our teachers are sick they are replaced with Casual Relief Teachers from Teacher agencies.  In the event that the Teacher Agencies are unable to fill the vacancy every attempt is made to ensure classes are not displanned into other grades/levels.  

A big thank you to our staff for their adaptability and flexibility and for our specialist teachers for being so accommodating in stepping into classes for the day, our ESO staff for working extra hours/days to support students and our part-time teaching staff for working extra days.  Where possible, we strive to ensure our students have familiar teachers. A big thank you to Lize Privitera for her expert organisation in the busyness of our school days most of which is done at 6.30 am in the morning and late into the evenings. Thank you also, to our parent community for their understanding in these very trying times of increased illnesses and significant teacher shortage.

School Advisory Committee (SAC) Meeting

Next Tuesday 21 May at 7.00 pm we will be holding our second SAC meeting for the 2024 school year.  The SAC comprises of nominated parent representatives and provides an opportunity for school staff and parents to work in partnership, share and discuss the many events happening in the life of our school.  Thank you to Lize Privitera (Deputy Principal) and Helen Fourna (Staff Representative) for their contributions to our SAC meetings and to our parent representatives Danielle (Imogen and Jenson’s mum), Stephanie (Charlotte and Amelie’s mum), Marina (Ava and Matteo’s mum), Louise (Emma’s mum) and Yogesh (Maya’s dad) for giving of their time, talents, insights and for working in partnership with us.

We appreciate the support of everyone who visited the Mother's Day Stall, especially the students who bought beautiful gifts for their mothers or caregivers. Fantastic work by our Student Leaders who ran our stalls.  thank you to those families wh $347.75 in contributions were made to Catholic Care Appeal. Thank you!

Catholic Education Week commences tomorrow!

Our school, along with the 45 Catholic schools in the Diocese of Sale, will celebrate Catholic Education Week from 17 May to 24 May.

This year's theme, A New Dialogue of Love, Hope and Joy is inspired by the Scripture passage ‘See, I am Making All Things New’, Revelation 21:5.

The Diocese of Sale Catholic Education Ltd (DOSCEL) has produced two videos for schools to share which are included further down in today's newsletter.

Our school will also hold a number of activities including:

• Members of staff will be attending a Leadership Eucharist and Awards ceremony tomorrow.
• A whole School Mass will be celebrated on Thursday 23rd May 2024 9.00am in the Allen Hall. All parents, families and friends are invited to attend – look for your invitation. It has been sent home today.
• Student Led Fundraisers – Thursday 23rd May - bring your coins to support the stalls! View the attached poster of the stalls. Students across F- Year 6 will have the opportunity to visit the fundraiser stall at the following times -
• • F - Year 2:    1.40 pm -1.55 pm
  • Years 3 & 4:  2.00 pm - 2.15 pm
  • Years 5 & 6:  2.15 pm - 2.30 pm
• Student Fundraisers

  Student Fundraisers 2.33 MB
• Open Classrooms - Also parents and friends can visit classrooms in the afternoon when their child’s class returns from the fundraiser.
• Cookie Treat -  these special cookies from Phil’s Bakery Berwick are going home tomorrow to all students with permission, to kick start CEW
• Take a look at the special DOSCEL Posters
• Photos of our students and learning will be on display in the Parish Church narthex
• Our school Faith Leaders will be speaking at the 9.00am Sunday Parish Mass this weekend
• Staff from the 3 Parish Schools will be gathering to share liturgy and prayer together after school next Wednesday
• This week's MMPS News featured the messages commemorating Our Lady Help of Christians Feast Day. These messages recognizing and honouring the feast day on the 24th May will be forwarded to the parish.

Caritas Australia’s 60th Anniversary

60 Faces: Portraits of Compassion in Action - limited-edition commemoration book.

To mark the 60th anniversary of Caritas Australia, we have a limited-edition commemoration book. Each page of this book features carefully selected photographs showcasing the incredible individuals whose lives have been transformed by the international and Australian programs that you help support.  

You can purchase the book at: www.caritas.org.au/60-faces

Caritas Australia would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your ongoing support over the last 60 years!

Pentecost Sunday, Cycle B

Sunday, May 19, 2024

John 20:19-23
Jesus appears to his disciples and gives them the gift of the Holy Spirit.

The season of Easter concludes with next Sunday’s celebration, the feast of Pentecost. On Pentecost we celebrate the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the apostles gathered in the upper room in Jerusalem; this event marks the beginning of the Church. The story of Pentecost is found in the Acts of the Apostles, the first reading. The account in Sunday’s Gospel, John 20:19-23, also recounts how Jesus gave the gift of the Holy Spirit to his disciples. Jesus gave the disciples the gift of the Holy Spirit to help them spread his message of peace and forgiveness.

Read the Parish Bulletin for the latest news – click on the link- https://olhc.org.au/parish-bulletin/

DIRECTOR'S VIDEO

WE LOVE OUR CATHOLIC SCHOOLS BECAUSE.....

The Year 1’s have been busy learning lots of strategies to help them solve addition problems in Maths. We have learnt:

• Count On
• Think Big, Count Small
• Numberlines
• Doubles
• Near Doubles 
• Jump Strategy 
• Friends of 10
• Turn Around Facts

Ask your child at home and we are sure they will be able to teach you all of these strategies!

The Year 1’s have also learnt how to solve worded problems applying these strategies and drawing a visual representation to demonstrate the problem. Wait until you see how good their work is when you receive their portfolios! 

The next topic we are learning about is subtraction. We encourage you to ask your children at home about the strategies they are learning and to practice simple subtraction problems at home to consolidate their learning. 

In assembly last week, class 6JK presented their Prayer Cloth to the school. The students explained the purpose of each element that is on their Prayer Cloth and why it is so important to them. Well done to all the students who represented themselves as well as the class.

This is 6-JKs prayer cloth. Our quote is "We must teach more by example than by word ". We chose this quote because as year 6 role models we find it important to actually act instead of talking. This quote was written by Mary Mackillop in 1867.

Our Symbol in the middle is the Holy Trinity. This represents the Holy Trinity of Christianity, that God is made of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. The whole class voted on this as we thought it was very inspiring as every student of 6JK is equal and united as one.

All the handprints on the cloth are from every student in our class. We all got to choose where and what colour we put. We did this because we thought it represented us all really well.

The aboriginal border around shows our gratitude for the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders and how they owned and created the land before us.

Written by: Lauren, Alrya and Layla

In assembly last week, class F-LL presented their Prayer Cloth to the school. Here is what students shared:

Archer: On our cloth, we remember the Aboriginal people. 

Zac P: We put a cross to remember Jesus. 

Mason: We thank God for the flowers. 

Tiago: Mary MacKillop says Find happiness in making others happy. 

Julia: We can make others happy by smiling and being kind. 

Yenny: We can make others happy by sharing and thinking of others. 

Miley: We can make others happy by donating and helping people. We think of all these things during prayer. 

Well done to the students who presented on behalf of F-LL, which was in front of a large crowd. Despite being nervous, all students did a fantastic job - Thanks for showing courage!

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