Dear Parents and Carers

As we enter into the final week of Term 1 we begin to prepare for Holy Week within the school community. This is traditionally the week leading up to Easter. This year Easter will fall in the middle weekend of the holidays so as a school we will be commemorating the events of Holy Week each morning with a small liturgy in the Hall. This morning at 9:10 am, Year 1 and 2 have lead the liturgy of Palm Sunday, the welcoming of Jesus into Jerusalem the crowds celebrated the arrival Jesus and waved palms in his honour. This begins Jesus’ journey towards The Last Supper on Holy Thursday, Crucifixion on Good Friday and finally the joy of the Resurrection on Easter Sunday. It is these events that define the person of Jesus and show us the ultimate example of love and forgiveness. Please feel free to join us this week in the hall at 9:10 for the Holy Week commemoration.

On Tuesday we will be holding an Open Day at St Mary’s. We welcome our new and existing families to come and visit our school seeing all the wonderful things we have to celebrate as a community. We will begin with our Holy Week Liturgy in the hall at 9:10am. Then at 9:30am, you are welcome to Open Classrooms and finally an address and questions in the school hall. Thanks to the P and F for providing Morning tea on the day and our year 6 leaders who will be showing new families around our school.

Since our last newsletter we have had our school Cross Country, which was a wonderful event in glorious sunshine. It was very impressive to see the effort and perseverance that every student put into their event.

There was also lots of parents present to enjoy the races and the fantastic cheering from all the colour house teams. During the cross country our new play equipment also arrived on the truck so thank you to our parents who were on hand to unload 600kgs of beautiful equipment ready to be installed very soon. A big thanks also to Mrs Gabby Peters for her fantastic co-ordination of the event and to Mr Brent Harding for stepping in at the last minu7te to run the event.

During the holidays we will be marking two very significant community and religious events; Good Friday, Blessing of The Fleet and ANZAC Day. We are asking for any students available to support the school presentations on Good Friday and

ANZAC Day, a note has gone home and we would love our school to be well represented by as many students as possible ‘giving back’ through service to our community. Please try to ensure that you try as families to observe Holy Week and the Easter season by attending Parish services. (Details are in the Newsletter)

Finally, I would like to thank the school community for their enormous welcome to Mrs Valentini and I this year. We are blessed to have become a part of such a caring community, the students of St Mary’s personify the Christian values of ‘caring for the other’. This means that the students treat each other as members of a family, they care for each other and support each other. We have been so heartened by the strong enthusiasm and dedication of our P and F under the President Jodie Lee’s guidance seeing the introduction of Breaky Club and Soul Food this term, both wonderful community building opportunities. The school community is also so fortunate to have such dedicated staff from the Office, to classroom support and teachers, everyone at St Mary’s works as a team with our students at the centre.

I would like to wish everyone a holy and happy Easter, may all of our families be safe and enjoy the company of each other over the holiday period. We look forward to seeing everyone back in Term 2.

Yours in partnership

Laurinda Nelson

SPB4L Celebration Corner

Class Merit Awards Week, presented at Assembly on Friday afternoons

Year 1 – Henry K, Ila H

Year 2 – Andie M, Samuel S

Year 3 –Uma D, Matt R

Year 4  - Audrey S, Ben W

Year 5 – Toby K, Kylah L

Year 6 – Liam U, Lachlan P

Shining Star

Arlo D Max.C, Ross K, Finn B

Super Star Awards for Week,

We care for Ourselves

Ila H, Arabella B, Milla G, Georgia K, Georgie D, Isabella L, Lucas B, Summer G, Kristian P                       

We Care For Others         

Max C, Peyton MJ, Ivy-Jean WC, Tehya G, Darasimi O, Rosie H, Rylan B, Jack C

We Care For Our Learning

Parker Mj, Henry K, Ceon R, Liam R, Charli P, Alexa R, Rosie H, Meka C,Lewis F. Keiley P

We Care For Our School

Louis R, Alexa R, Tex L, Darsimi O, Finn B, Kristian P

The Stations of the Cross Friday 19th April and ANZAC March 25th April will be on during the school holidays. Whilst we understand it is not always possible to attend during the holidays, these signifacant religious and community events help to teach our children the importance of making a contribution to society.

The Stations of the Cross: Good Friday 19th April at 10.00am Milton Church Grounds. Each year students from St Mary's take roles of Jesus and his followers as well as the crowd of onlooker. Students will be able to borrow costumes on the day to wear. 

ANZAC March:Thursday 25th April students to wear summer uniforms and meet at cnr Princes Highway & Church Street Milton at 10.15am before marching to the Cenotaph at the northern end of town. Parents of younger children are welcome to meet us before students sit for the cermony and collect their child/ren or after the cermony staff will wait with students to be collected.  Please ensure staff are aware you have collected your child/ren.

Each morning at 9.10am classes will hold a Liturgy for Holy Week.
Tuesday - Kindergarten "Washing of the Feet"

Wednesday - Year 3 "The Last Supper"

Thursday - Year 5 "The Garden of Gethsemane" 

Friday - Year 6 "The Crucifixion/Stations of the Cross"

Today Year 1 and Year 2 "Palm Sunday"

Student Absences  - The preferred method of notifying the school office of student absences is via Compass.  Parents are now able to log in and input absences directly into Compass, rather than a paper note or phone call etc.

- The P&F will be hosting morning tea for the parent open day at school on Tuesday morning the 9th of April. If you would like to bake something or help serve tea, please stop by. We would love the help.

- Easter Egg donations for the annual Easter Egg raffle due to the Office by Tuesday the 9th of April. If you can assist putting together raffle prizes, please meet Justine and Mary at the canteen on Wednesday morning after school drop off

- Make sure you have your Easter Egg raffle tickets back by Thursday the 11th of April for the Raffle draw on Friday.

- Breakfast Canteen every Tuesday from 8.30am - 9.00am. Please bring along a gold coin donation. If you would like to volunteer to help on the canteen one Tuesday morning a month, please contact Jodie Lee

- Soul Food is up and running seamlessly - if you would like to join our ‘Soul Food’ team, helping those in our school community at their time in need, please contact Kate Kinch

- Mothers Day stall will be on Friday the 10th of May. If you are available to volunteer on the stall, please contact Jodie Lee

Last day of Term 1

Students are making their own hat creations at school this year

Our final assembly for Term 1 will be on Friday 12th April, followed by the Easter Hat Parade (all hats to be made in class)

2.20pm   Assembly
2.40pm   Easter Hat Parade
3.00pm   Easter Egg Raffle

All welcome, hope to see you there

Year 4 girls are holding a cake sale on this Thursday 11th April. 

Where: Canteen

Time: 1st and 2nd break

How Much: $1 per cake

Proceeds: To Caritas

Students can wear summer uniform on their return to school in Term 2 if we have unseasonably warmer weather for the first 2 weeks.

Uniform Shop will be open 2.40pm - 3.20pm

Girls Winter Uniform

Tunic - $62

Navy Long Pant - $32

White Blouse $27

Tartan Tie - $20

Navy School Jumper - $40

Navy School Parker - $45 (can be worn all school days)

Navy Stockings or White Socks

Black Polishable Shoe

Red Hair Accessories (bows, clips, scrunchies )

Note - Red Tab Tie no longer available Tartan tie to be worn instead.

Boys Winter Uniform

Navy Long Pants (Double Knee) - $32

Blue Long Sleeve Shirt - $27

Tartan Tie - $20

Navy School Jumper - $40

Navy School Parker - $45 (can be worn all school days)

Navy Socks

Black Polishable Shoes

Winter Sports Uniform Unisex - Wednesday and Friday

Sports Polo Shirt - $27

Navy School Sport Shorts _ $27

Navy School Track Pant - $36

Red Polar Fleece Jumper - $30 (only to be worn on sport days)

Navy School  Parker - $45 (can be worn all school days)

White Socks

Joggers

Many thanks to the Levesque and Sinclair families for helping Mrs Johnston make more Boomerang Libaray Bags for our Library. This will mean students will beable to borrow books and a bag to put them in.

Class Borrowing Days at Library ( If students could please bring Library Bag and Return Borrowed Books )

Monday - Kinder

Tuesday - Year 5

Wednesday - Year 2 & Year 1

Friday - Year 4, Year 6 & Year 3

The Library is now open on Monday .Tuesday and Friday at second break for quite play, reading, chess and borrowing of library books.

If anyone has any lego they don't want any more and would love to donate the lego to be used at Library.

The library also would like some large ice cream containers.

Thank you,   Mrs Hamilton.

Students has been busy with many activites over the past weeks, cross counrty, IT learning, cultural group.

Eliza S, Sia K, Jacob Mc, Hamish K, Samuel A, Max C, Charli P, Georgia K, Kristian P, Teyha G

School Banking is on Thursdays