Our Explicit Improvement Agenda

Student Voice and Agency

Planning for improved student learning

Celebrations of Learning - Child Safety

This week, our Junior Students have been learning about how to stay safe when using digital technologies.  A key aspect of this learning is for students to identify trusted adults they can speak to if they are worried or have any questions relating to safety when online.  On display in our admin foyer are our cybersafety sunflowers - a bouquet of trusted people our Junior students can talk to and to stay safe.

Foundation Students

Our Foundation students will begin their full week of schooling next week (from Monday 28 February).  For the past 4 weeks, Foundation students have enjoyed ‘rest’ and ‘testing’ days each Wednesday for the month of February.  We are so proud of our Foundation students and how they have settled in so well to our school community.  They are a beautiful and joyous addition to our school and we are very fortunate to have them join us in their learning journey.  We look forward to being on their learning journey with them and watching them grow, learn and develop.

Student Learning Conversations (Parent Teacher Interviews)

Our Student Learning Conversations will be held in March with the hope that restrictions are eased and we can meet face to face.  The new dates for the Student Learning Conversations are:

Wednesday 16 March, 2022 from 3.40 to 6.20 pm

Thursday 17 March, 2022 from 3.40 to 6.20 pm

Information on how to book your Student Learning Conversation will be sent home to parents via PAM in early March.

2023 Enrolment Applications are now open!!

Enrolment applications for Foundation in 2023 are now available from the office.  Please pop into reception to collect your copy, or call the office to arrange for one to be sent home via your eldest child's the class tub.  We anticipate positions will fill quickly again this year.

Our Open Days/Evenings for 2022 have also been set.  Please share with any friends or family who may be considering enrolling their child at Mary Mac in 2023.

NAPLAN - Online

The online National Assessment Program - Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) 2022 for Year 3 and Year 5 students will be held during the test window on the following days:

Tuesday 10 May to Friday 20 May, 2022

NAPLAN assesses student knowledge and skills in Writing, Reading, Language Conventions (spelling, grammar and punctuation) and Numeracy.  The results of NAPLAN provide information on student learning for students, parents, teachers and principals.

All students are expected to participate in the online NAPLAN tests. During the test window (Tuesday 10 May to Friday 20 May), catch-up tests will be available for individual students who are absent on test days. These students may undertake catch-up tests on the days in the test week after the scheduled test, up to and including Friday 13 May, 2022 for Year 3 Writing and Friday 20 May for all other online NAPLAN areas.  Please note the Year 3 Writing test is a paper based test and the Year 5 Writing test is completed online.

Mary MacKillop students are provided with  a 1-1 Chromebook and the chromebooks will be used for NAPLAN online.  A practice session to log into NAPLAN and to test our IT environment will be held in March to ensure all students will be able to access NAPLAN online.  For more information please visit the VCAA website https://www.vcaa.vic.edu.au/assessment/f-10assessment/naplan/Pages/Index.aspx  or the National Assessment Program - NAP website https://www.nap.edu.au/  

If you have any questions, or concerns, regarding NAPLAN, please contact your child’s class teacher.

Vaccination Clinic - Narre Warren North Community

A vaccination clinic will be set up at school for students and anyone in the Narre Warren North community who would like to be vaccinated.  St. Mark’s Medical Centre will administer the COVID-19 vaccinations at school on Saturday 9 April, 2022 from 3.00 - 4.00 pm.  Bookings can be made via the link below:

https://www.hotdoc.com.au/medical-centres/cranbourne-north-VIC-3977/st-marks-medical-centre/doctors/mary-mackillop-primary-school-covid-19-vaccination

Setting up your child's PAM profile

Thank you to all those families who have set up their child's PAM profile.  If you have not done so already, please ensure that it is completed as a matter or urgency.  Please follow the instructions below:

Shrove Tuesday (1 March) is the day before Lent starts on Ash Wednesday. This year the students will be offered pre-prepared pikelets in their classrooms. Please remember to complete the PAM permission form by tomorrow at the latest. Children must have PAM permission to participate. We look forward to celebrating Shrove Tuesday together. 

Lent begins with Ash Wednesday (2 March), a day on which Catholics traditionally resist eating between meals (fasting) and avoid eating meat (abstaining). Many Catholics also attend Mass or have special prayer liturgies.

Lent is a forty-day period preparation for Easter. It reminds us of the forty-days that Jesus spent in the wilderness before he took up his ministry. During this time, he fasted and prayed. Lent is a time of self-denial and prayer for us as well. During this period, we are called to focus on becoming closer to Jesus by praying a little more, doing good deeds for others, going without something we like and giving generously to others in need. Ash Wednesday is a good time for us to think about what we can do to grow closer to Jesus over the next weeks.

DOSCEL Schools are required to follow DOSCEL permitted activities guide. Until further notice, schools are encouraged to undertake school liturgies on-line and limit attendance at liturgical celebrations. Therefore, attendance at next week’s Ash Wednesday Mass is currently limited and will be live streamed to classrooms via Google Meet. Ashes will be distributed to classes after the Rite of Blessing of Ashes.

Eighth Sunday of Ordinary Time, Cycle C

Sunday, February 27, 2022

Luke 6:39–45

Each tree is known by its yield.

The third and final section of Luke’s Sermon on the Plain begins: In next Sunday’s Gospel reading, Jesus tells three parables to teach about being his disciples, or followers. One parable is called A Tree Known by Its Fruit. Jesus is calling attention to the fact that if we focus our attention on other’s faults, we do not notice our own. He calls us to examine our conscience and act as he would have us act rather than focusing on what others are doing., 

Parent Education

How to help your child be a good friend - Good friends contribute to kids’ learning, confidence, and wellbeing. Helping kids understand what a good friend does is a proven way to encourage them to enjoy quality school friendships.  View the attached article:

Child Safety and Wellbeing

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. 870.  We embed a culture of child safety and the matter is taken very seriously.

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

Resources to support parents and carers

Creating a family tech agreement - Creating a Family Technology Agreement can help  you and  your  children decide  together  when and how  digital  technology  will  be used at home.  As a  family, brainstorm easy-to-follow  rules and display  them  where everyone  will  see  them.  Your  agreement could cover  things like:  time limits, apps  your  children are allowed  to use and online behaviour. Attached is a downloadable resource to help parents start the chat about online safety issues and strategies with your child/ren:

Our Lady Help of Christians Parish Information Mary MacKillop Primary School is one of the three Parish Primary Schools belonging to the Parish of Our Lady Help of Christians, Narre Warren within the Diocese of Sale. Fr Brendan Hogan is our Parish Priest and Fr Ajin Albarnas is our Assistant Priest. We are grateful for their ongoing prayers, involvement and support of the students, families and staff of Mary MacKillop School. 

PARISH BULLETIN Click on the link to download the weekly newsletter: Parish-Bulletin

Year One

The Year 1 students settled in very quickly to their new classes and have made a fantastic start to the school year. Over the first few weeks the Year 1’s have been sharing what they are excited for in Year 1, as well as what we can all do to make it a successful year. Together we graphed how we were feeling on our first day of school, it was clear that we had lots of very excited and happy students!

We worked as a level to develop our ‘Classroom Expectations’ so that we can all help each other to be the best learners we can be in Year 1. We are really enjoying listening to the students' Share Time as we are all getting to know a little more about each and every child as they share about themselves and their families. We have loved seeing lots of photos of our Year 1 families and the other special things students have bought along. We are looking forward to meeting and getting to know all of our families during our upcoming Student Learning Conversations.

Congratulations to all students on an amazing start to the school year, we are looking forward to spending the rest of the year with you! 

Year Two

Our Inquiry topic to start the term is Learning to Learn. Teachers are also on a learning journey to keep abreast of new initiatives and have been engaged in professional development in both Literacy and Mathematics. 

If you were to walk into the Year 2 classrooms you would notice the visual display ‘Are you ready to learn?’ Each morning and throughout the day, students are supported in identifying how they are feeling and what they need to be ready to commence learning. 

Year 2 students have been busy exploring the Mary MacKillop School Values and connecting these to our classroom expectations. They described the different behaviours that would be displayed if they are showing these throughout the school.

We have been exploring how our facial expressions and body language show our feelings, as well as building our language related to emotions. One of the learning experiences this week was completing ‘A day in the life of…’ chart, where students identified and recorded the different feelings they were experiencing throughout the day. Students were supported in reflecting on why their feelings may have changed and the appropriate strategies to express their feelings.

In Discovery Centre, Foundation and Junior students have been investigating how to stay safe online. We have explored finding apps and websites that are safe using a traffic light system. We have also focused on asking for help and how to be kind online. We made safety sunflors using our helping hands.

The Year 6’s shared their prayer cloths last week at the assembly that included some thoughts and ideas behind why they choose the Mary MacKillop quote and the special images that they added. 

6MV

6MV’s class prayer cloth quote is, “God’s love is too deep for words to express.” We chose this quote because God’s love is so deep and infinite that there is no way for us to express it with words. This quote is written by Saint Mary of the Cross Mackillop. When she says this, she is expressing how much God loves us. This is shown by all the sacrifices God makes for us. God gave us his only son so that he could die for our sins, and that is a great expression of God’s love for us. We chose this quote because it spoke to us saying that God has done so much for us, and he does it out of free will, expecting nothing back from us.

We added some personal Catholic symbols because we use symbols to express God’s love instead of words because it’s too deep to express with words. Lots of the symbols on the cloth expresses God’s love e.g. God sacrificed his son: this is represented by the Cross, Jesus became the bread and wine: this is represented by the Chalice and Host, God lights a path for us and helps us come out of our dark times: this is represented by the light of the Candle.

6PF

Our Mary Mackillop quote is “We Must Teach More By Example Than By Word.” We choose this quote because as Grade 6’s we are the leaders of our school and we aspire to be good role models for our younger peers by doing good actions so that others can do the  same. We also believe that this quote shows we shouldn't just say we can do something but that we need to take action and actually do it. 

We use this quote in our everyday lives to show our best abilities throughout our everyday lives, both at school and at home. During the time of making our fabulous prayer cloth we all thought of a symbol that represents God or Jesus in  our hearts as Jesus and God give us a light to show us the way, and to help us to follow our best actions. 

Our class strongly believes that this quote provides a great example of what Mary Mackiliop, God, Jesus and others would do in their lives, to live by example, not just by word. 

So we ask all students at Mary MacKillop, can you lead more by example than by word? 

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