Friday 29th August 2025 ~ Issue 26

Child Safety Statement

School Values

Treat others the way you would like to be treated.

Respect Our School - Hormati Sekolah Kita

Do Your Best - Lakukan Yang Terbaik

Help Others to Succeed - Bantu Teman Untuk Berhasil

Important Dates

TERM 3

Sunday 31st August - Sacrament of First Eucharist

Friday 5th September - Father's Day celebration at school (and Footy Colours!) 1.20pm

Monday 8th September - Learning Showcase and Learning Conversations

Tuesday 9th September - Gr 3/4 Hooptime

Friday 12th September - Gr 5/6 Hooptime

Friday 12th September - Assembly

Wednesday 17th September - St Mary's School Concert at Hamilton PAC 

Thursday 18th September - Last day of Term 3 - 3.15pm finish

TERM 4

Monday 6th October - First day of Term 4

Thursday 16th October - Catholic Social Teaching Day - details to come

Friday 17th October - Mission Day - details to come

Tuesday 4th November - Melbourne Cup Holiday

PUPIL FREE DAYS IN 2025

Friday 19th September - Structured Literacy

ADVANCE NOTICE

Wednesday 17th December - Last day of the school year for students

From the Principal

Dear Families,

Our 3/4s have enjoyed a most wonderful two days at the Outside Inn for camp. While the weather has not been ideal, the students, staff and parents managed beautifully. We are so grateful for the time our staff and parents give so that our children can have this amazing experience.

On Friday 5th September we will be hosting our dads and special friends for our Father's Day/Footy Colours celebration. Our guests are asked to join us at 1.20pm for lunch with your children followed by some fun during lunch time. We can't wait to see you all!

Car parking and drop off/pick up at school is one of our biggest challenges at the moment and I feel your pain! We all know that we are extremely light on for space, a problem we are working towards fixing. In the meantime, we need to work together in a patient and sensible manner to ensure the safety of our children. As a school, we are hoping to have some new signs put up in the coming weeks to assist with traffic flow and we are just waiting on some fine weather to get some new lines painted which will also help families in knowing where to drive. There are a few things families could do that would also really help, such as making sure your child gets out/in the car on the left hand side of your vehicle and NOT on the right in the path of traffic, making sure your child can get out of the car with their bag without the driver having to get out too and treating the drop off/pick up like a conveyor belt, where you follow the car in front instead of pulling in and out of the line. I understand that everyone is busy but having a child injured or worse would be a tragedy none of us would get over. Let's work together to keep all precious little ones safe!

Have a wonderful weekend, shared with those you love,

Terrielynn

Prayer of Peace

“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid.” 

John 14:27

God of Comfort and Peace,
We hold in our prayers and hearts the police officers who were shot in Porepunkah, the student killed in the bus crash near Geelong and the two students killed in the Catholic Church in Minneapolis.

We pray for their families, colleagues, and all who carry the weight of this tragedy.
Inspired by St. Francis of Assisi, help us bring healing where there is injury,
courage where there is fear,
and compassion where there is sorrow.

We give thanks for all who serve to protect and care for others, especially first responders.
May their commitment and service remind us of the sacredness of life
and our shared responsibility to create everlasting peace.

Situations such as this can lead us to feeling we can’t do very much to help those who are suffering or to change what has taken place. In our own lives and contexts though, we can do something very powerful. We can create peace and love.

God of Hope, help us grow Your peace.
Where violence breaks lives, help us sow seeds of healing.
Where division grows, help us plant unity.
Where despair lingers, help us awaken hope.

Let the transformative power of peace and love begin with us,
And may it flow outward from us to all creation,

Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord, and may perpetual light shine upon them. May they rest in peace.

Amen.

Catholic School Culture

MASS TIMES – 2025                                                 

Hamilton: Saturday 6pm and Sunday 10.30am                                  

Dunkeld: Sunday 8.30am                  

Glenthompson:  Sunday 8.30am

Penshurst: Sunday 8.30am

Welcome!

It is with great excitement that we welcome Cara Hadden to our staff. Cara will replace Renee Perriman in the Prep area on Tuesday afternoons and Thursday and Friday. We are so pleased to have her join our team!

Sacramental Program

This Sunday we celebrate the Sacrament of First Eucharist with our sacramental candidates. This is a wonderful ceremony for the children and their families and everyone is welcome to attend Mass at 10.30am. 

Learning and Teaching

School Wide Positive Behaviours

School Wide Positive Behaviour Support is:  A multi-tiered framework for establishing the social culture and behavioural supports needed for a school to achieve behavioural and academic outcomes for all students.

For the next two weeks at St Mary’s, we are working with our students on the following:

RESPECT - acknowledge people when they talk to you

SAFETY - use words to sort out issues

RESPONSIBILITY - own your choices

Learning Showcase & Learning Conversations

On Monday the 8th September at 2:30pm you are invited  to attend our Learning Showcase. This was something we started last year as a way for our families to pop in and see their child in their learning space. You are welcome to come in to your child's homeroom, any time between 2:30 until the end of the day, to celebrate the learning that your child has been doing here at school.  Straight after our Learning Showcase, we will be offering optional Learning Conversations with homeroom teachers.  These will be 10 minutes long and the booking form is available on PAM. A reminder that these are optional.  If you will be attending a PSG meeting later in the term, you don't need to book a Learning Conversation.  Thank you.

Concert

We are getting very excited here - our concert is approaching fast!  All homerooms have been working hard on their items and we are very excited to see it all coming together. Homeroom teachers will be in contact with any costume requirements, etc, so keep an eye on your Seesaw messages!

Our concert will be held on Wednesday 17th September at HPAC (Hamilton Performing Arts Centre).  We have two shows - our matinee at 11am and our evening performance at 7pm.  Tickets are on sale NOW! Tickets have almost sold out for the evening performance, but there are still plenty of tickets available for the matinee.  Click on this link here to purchase your tickets. Please remember that you do not have to buy a ticket for your child/ren if they are performing. They will remain with their homeroom teacher for the whole show. No tickets will be sold at school - they are only available via this link. Tickets are $10 each.  If you have a child under 2, who can sit on your lap and does not require a seat, you do not have to purchase a ticket for them.

We are aware that we will have many family and friends who will want to come along and support our concert.  However, to ensure that everyone has the chance to attend the concert, we have capped the tickets at 5 per family. This is across both shows, not 5 per show!  This is to make sure that everyone can come along.  If there are unsold tickets closer to the concert, we will let you know. We thank you for your understanding with this.

Sports Catch Up

ALASKA IS AN AUSTRALIAN CHAMPION!

Congratulations Alaska B on winning the Australian Junior Road Race Walking Championships!! 

Last Saturday, Alaska competed in the Australian Junior Cross Country Championships, where she finished 32nd overall and was the 7th Victorian to cross the line. A very impressive result! Alaska was also in the Australian Cross Country Mixed Relay Championships. Alaska’s team finished 7th in the Under 12s, another terrific result!

Then on Sunday Alaska competed in her most anticipated event, the Road Walking Championships. Alaska is an absolute natural at this sport and has dominated this event throughout the year at lead up State Championships. She continued her strong performance, finishing 1st in a blistering speedy time of 10:05. Alaska is the fastest Under 12 female race walker in our country - what an incredible achievement! 

Alaska is a humble, hardworking athlete and we couldn’t be more proud of her. You are a champion inside and out in all that you do Alaska, well done

Netball Victoria School Championships

We have been invited to participate in the Netball Victoria School Championships Finals. These will be held on Tuesday 9 September at the State Netball Centre, Parkville.

HoopTime

The Hamilton District Hooptime will take place in Week Eight. The Grade 3/4s will take the courts on Tuesday 9th September and the Grade 5/6s on Friday 12th September. We have 47 students interested from each department, which will see us have 6 teams ranging from All Stars, Future Stars and Rookies. All teams will be coached by a member of staff. However, we will need some families to assist with scoring. If you are interested in scoring at HoopTime please let me know via SeeSaw or email. A note was sent home with participating students last week. 

Dates for your Diary

TERM THREE

September 

Tuesday 9th September - Grade 3/4 Hooptime @ Hamilton

Tuesday 9th September - Netball Victoria School Championships @ Parkville

Thursday 11th September - WHP Table Tennis (round robin format, no progression to state)

Friday 12th September - Grade 5/6 Hooptime @ Hamilton 

TBC Primary Golf

Elise Gordon

egordon@smhamilton.catholic.edu.au 

Wellbeing

 Child Safety - Webinar with Michael Carr-Gregg and Susan McLean

On Wednesday 3rd September, thanks to SchoolTV, our families have the opportunity to attend a free webinar with two of Australia's leading experts in the area of online safety, Michael Carr-Gregg and Susan McLean. This session will provide invaluable insights into the new social media regulations, digital footprint and reputation, screen time and brain development and parental controls.  Please scan the QR code on the flyer below or click the link here to register.

Tania Stevens

Leadership and Stewardship

Kitchen Garden

The aromas coming from our Kitchen/Garden kitchen today were amazing!  With the wintery weather upon us, our students, under the careful supervision of the wonderful Lyn and Judy, made green pasta, chicken pies and scones with homemade jam and cream - delicious! A number of the students agreed that cooking was more fun than maths (little did they know they were still doing maths!) We look forward tro seeing what delights will be whipped up next week.

Catherine Egan

Community Engagement

St Mary's Christmas Parade

This year our annual Christmas Parade will be held on Friday 5th December.

We have been thinking of what we can do for our raffle - perhaps something big?

We are also looking for lolly donations to make lolly bags to sell at the parade. If you are able to donate, can they please be pre wrapped like chuppa chupps, or lollies in little bags.

If you have any ideas please let us know.

Later in the year we will ask for helpers to assist the coordinators in the above roles and keen bakers to make gourmet gifts to sell (Christmas cakes, biscuits, rum balls etc) at our Gourmet gift stall.

If you have any questions regarding the Christmas Parade please contact Shannon at school.🎄

Assembly

Our next assembly will be on Friday 12th September at 2.55pm.

THE HAMILTON AND ALEXANDRA COLLEGE

is pleased to invite prospective families to our upcoming Open Morning.

This event offers families the opportunity to explore the broad academic, co-curricular and pastoral programs available at College.

For Year 5 and 6 families considering secondary options, the Open Morning to discover firsthand our nurturing environment, academically driven curriculum.

This is a great opportunity for families to meet the Principal, Dr Michael Horne,

and join a student-led tour to see the school in action and received insight into our personalised transition pathways,

supportive boarding environment, and future-focused curriculum that prepares students for a confident future.

Open Morning Details:
 Thursday 14 August     9.30 am     Senior School, 1 Chaucer Street, Hamilton