Our Explicit Improvement Agenda

Student Voice and Agency

Planning for improved student learning

2022 Peace Message

In his message to build lasting peace, Pope Francis identified three ways to nurture peace in our world - through education, employment and dialogue between generations.  In the past week, our world has witnessed Russian troops invading Ukraine, where many people are being killed or displaced from their homes and country.  We pray for the end to this dispute and for lasting peace between these two countries.

Prayers for Australians impacted by floods

Our thoughts and prayers are will all families who have lost loved ones or have been impacted by the devastating floods and unprecedented weather event in Queensland and New South Wales over the past few days.  We hope the outpouring of love and support to those suffering helps to bring comfort in the days ahead. 

Celebrations of Learning

We have a bumper edition newsletter this week with samples of student learning in our specialist lessons - Discovery Centre, Japanese, Physical Education and Visual Arts, as well as our Garden Club, Senior Prayer Cloths and information about our Junior Synthetic Phonics Program - Little Learners Love Literacy.  We love to celebrate and share our students’ learning and look forward to publishing samples of student work in our newsletter each week.

UPCOMING SCHOOL CLOSURE DAYS  

Student Learning Conversations (Parent Teacher Interviews)

Our Student Learning Conversations will be held in March in the Allen Hall with both face to face (fully vaccinated parents) and phone interviews on offer.  The 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

An email from PAM, with information on how to book your Student Learning Conversation, will be sent home to parents today. You will find the 'Parent Teacher Interviews' tab just above the absence notification.  If you have read the instructions carefully and are still having problems, please email frontdesk@marymacnarre.catholic.edu.au for further assistance in booking your interview time.

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

Information on NAPLAN is attached below:  If you have any questions, or concerns, regarding NAPLAN, please contact your child’s class teacher.

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.  Children must be accompanied by their parent.

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

Narre Warren North Road Duplication Works

Information on the Narre Warren North Road Duplication Works will be published in the newsletter to keep parents and our school community up to date on road closures and/or detours when the works move closer to the intersection of Narre Warren North Road and Ernst Wanke Road.  More information to come over the coming weeks.

IMPORTANT REMINDER - SACRAMENT OF FIRST RECONCILIATION PARENT AND CHILD WORKSHOPS 

Parent/s and their child must attend one of the following workshops. Attendance at one of these workshops is a mandatory requirement as part of the preparation to receive the Sacrament.     

 Wednesday    9th March     2022      5:00PM  OR   7:00PM       

Thursday      10th March    2022      5:00PM  OR   7:00PM 

Yesterday Ash Wednesday marked the beginning of the season of Lent which also marks the beginning of the annual Caritas Australia Project Compassion Appeal. Donations to Project Compassion allows Caritas Australia, the Catholic Agency for International Aid and Development, to work with local communities around the world to end poverty, promote justice and uphold dignity.

The theme of Project Compassion 2022 is ‘For All Future Generations’ and reminds us that the good that we do today will extend and impact the lives of generations to come. It invites us to make the world a better place by working together now and finding long-term solutions to global issues.  We encourage you to put your compassion into action this Lent through your prayer, fasting and almsgiving by supporting Project Compassion. Each classroom has  a Project Compassion box for donations or you can donate online via the Caritas Australia website at: lent.caritas.org.au

We began our annual Lenten Project Compassion journey during our Eucharistic celebration yeaterday, by learning about Anatercia, a 12-year-old girl living in a small village in southern Mozambique. She began to take on more and more adult responsibilities as her mother has chronic health issues. She did most of the household chores and had to travel up to five hours every day to collect clean water. Water scarcity also meant that harvests were poor and there was never enough to eat.

With your support, Caritas Australia’s local partner, Caritas Regional Chokwe, was able to help Anatercia’s family to irrigate their farm to improve their food security. They also improved water access for households in the village, delivered sustainable farming training, and provided Anatercia with essential school supplies.

Anatercia’s health, education and quality of life have improved, along with the outlook of her whole community for all future generations.

Please support Project Compassion: lent.caritas.org.au

 First Sunday of Lent, Sunday, March 6, 2022

On the first Sunday of Lent, we hear about how Jesus was tempted by the devil in the desert. In each of the temptations described, Jesus was faced with the choice of spending his time and energy on activities that would lead him away from God. During Lent we can think more carefully about how we spend our time. We might choose to spend more time and energy on activities that lead us to God. Jesus' response to the devil's temptations reminds us that God is to take priority in our lives. Our Lenten practices prepare us to choose God above everything else in our lives.

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:

eSafety: Term 1 webinars for parents and carers

eSafety's parent guide to cyberbullying and online drama (March)

For parents and carers of young people aged 11 to 18 years old 

This webinar will equip parents and carers with the tools to support young people to have safe and respectful online relationships. It will cover starting conversations with young people about online friendships, understanding rights and laws that govern social media use and what to do if a child is involved in a cyberbullying incident. Sign up for one of three sessions that run throughout March.  Register here

OLHC Parish

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 IAjin 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 below to download the weekly newsletter:

Parish-Bulletin

2022 Fee Accounts

Fee account reminders will be emailed to all families by the end of the week.  Term 1 fees are due for payment by 7th March 2022 unless you have other arrangements in place eg Direct Debit.

If you have a current direct debit or Centrepay arrangement with the school, please ensure you check your statement carefully and contact the school if you have any concerns. Any void payments should be rectified ASAP.

Families who have applied for CSEF funding will receive a revised fee account by 15th March with all rebates included. 

If you received CSEF funding in 2021 or have a current Centrelink Concession Card and HAVE NOT returned completed CSEF & School Fees Concession Program Eligible Concession Card Holder applications to the school, please do so as a matter of importance.

Direct Debit, CSEF & School Fees Concession Program Applications can be found in PAM https://pam.marymacnarre.catholic.edu.au/WebModules/KnowledgeBanks

Foundation to Year 3

This week in Discovery Centre, Year 3 students explore their digital footprints and created word clouds. Year 2 students made an ebook about e-safety.

Years 4 to 6

Working collaboratively in shared documents has been a major focus so far this term. Students worked in groups to create ICT Agreement learning posters to be displayed in the classroom and the Discovery Centre. Students have also participated in a range of e-safety activities, which have provided lively discussions between students sharing their experiences and opinions on how and why to be safe when working online.

Hi! We are this year's Environmental Leaders - Indi and Ayda. 

We have had a great start to the year with our school garden. We have planted carrots, broccoli, lettuce, beetroot and more. We are very excited to share our vegetables with you when they are ready for harvesting.

We have also been very lucky to receive a donation from Harvey (5AB) and Fletcher’s (1ER) Nanna. She kindly donated us with some beetroot seeds and seedlings, and carrot seeds. Thank you for supporting our Garden Club.

こんにちは,

This week in Japanese, Senior students focused on the Japanese writing system. They investigated the three written languages (hiragana, katakana and kanji). They created name art using Japanese katakana characters.

Have you heard at home any interest about the Junior Level initiative Little Learners Love Literacy? This is a new program to the school where students are exposed to an explicit and sequential literacy approach for teaching children to read, write and spell with confidence. Little Learners Love Literacy is a multi-sensory and engaging program with focussed explicit lessons, games, crafts, music, puppets, drawing and much more.  Decodable Books are the ‘secret ingredient’ for success. They only use the sounds and letters children have been explicitly taught allowing them to apply their learning and build confidence. These are Australian books children LOVE to read with words they CAN read. This program also ties in perfectly with the ‘Wushka’ reading website that all students now have access to for home reading. 

The Little Learners Love literacy program focuses on:

• Phonemic awareness and phonics for spelling and reading
• Handwriting
• Reading fluency
• Vocabulary and comprehension.

We hope you have the opportunity to engage with your child at home about the program, in particular the characters we meet, songs we sing and games we play.

From the Junior Team (Foundation, Year 1 and Year 2 teachers)

This term in Physical Education, all levels have been focussing on the importance of keeping your eyes on the ball when playing ball sports. The year 4-6’s have shown a keen interest in playing tennis this term and have been playing at recess times too! Here are some photos showing the students with eyes focussed on the ball during P.E lessons. 

Stay tuned for some more exciting news in next week’s newsletter!

Senior Lightning Premiership - 16 March 2022

Permission forms have been sent home to all senior students today, via PAM, for this event.  Please ensure that you respond by the due date - 15 March 2022

Year 5 Prayer Cloths

The Year 5’s shared their prayer cloths last week at the assembly that included some thoughts and ideas behind why they chose the Mary MacKillop quote and the special images that they added. 

5-AB - In our class we chose the quote ‘Find happiness in making others happy’. This quote was said by Mary MacKillop in 1870. As a class we discussed our quote, the meaning of our quote symbolises us in harmony! In our words, growing as we learn. Our quote is in a tree. Along with our tree, we did fruits - meaning the fruits of God. Space, meaning a connection wherever we are. We want others to follow in the footsteps of Mary MacKillop showing her values! Finding happiness in making others happy is something we should all do because it is going to make our world a better and more positive place. The tree symbolises how we are all growing together in learning. We also wrote our names on each leaf, all the leaves are different colours and sizes to show that we are unique. We also let everyone use their favourite colour. We put the quote in the root of the tree because we grow with happiness and it shows we are all connected. 

5-SD - Our class quote is “Be calm and full of hope”. This quote was said by Mary MacKillop in 1871. We chose this quote because we feel that it represents our class. In our class, we all try to stay calm and we are hopeful that we are always being the best learners we can be. 

We chose the design of handprints because we are a team and we all got to participate in this together. Our hands show that we are always ready to help each other when we need it. 

To begin the year in Art, all students participated in a whole school art project where they drew their own unique portrait using one colour. As a combined piece of art it truly is a masterpiece and really showcases the talents and abilities of our students. 

Foundation - Over the last few weeks we have explored several different elements of art including line, shape, colour and pattern. The students have experimented with these to create their own drawings of interest including animals, insects, plants and people. 

Juniors - Students have been learning and using a range of different elements such as line, shape, colour to add greater detail to their drawings.This includes different lines such as wavy, zigzag and straight and geometric or organic (freeflowing) shapes to improve drawings of their choice like houses, dinosaurs and people. They have also been exploring the primary and secondary colours on the colour wheel and learning how to effectively use colour in their drawings. Using all these elements of lines and shapes they were able to incorporate patterns into their drawing create mechanicals drawing such as spaceships, robots and vehicles. 

Middles and Seniors - Students have been focusing on particular elements in art such as line, shape, colour and pattern. They have been experimenting with these elements and using them in different ways to create images. They have learnt that all pictures are made up of a series of lines and shapes and that once they are combined together in different ways, they create an image. 

They are exploring how colours combined together create many different shades and tones and how to use these in their work when creating more detailed pictures. Students are creating a final piece of work that showcase these elements of art, which can be seen by all soon.