Term 1, Week 9 Friday 31st March 2023

Child Safety
Child safety is everyone’s responsibility.  Pick up time (3.00-3.10pm) is very busy around the school.  PLEASE obey all traffic directions and parking restrictions.  They are there to keep your child safe. 

1. Always use the crossing (adults included!)
2. Do NOT queue over the roundabout
3. Do NOT drive over the solid white lines (on the wrong side of the road!!), especially near the crossings just to save a couple of minutes – this is illegal and extremely unsafe.

We consistently report drivers driving illegally around our school to SAPOL.  There will be a strong police presence and you will be fined if you do not follow the rules.

I encourage you to park in the surrounding streets and walk to pick up your child/ren.  Or, wait until 3.10pm to come through the pick up zones.  Children will be supervised until 3.20pm.

Staffing Update
Alicia Boylan has been offered the position of Head of Personalised Learning at St Andrews School.  She will finish her role as Assistant Principal of St Margaret Mary’s School at the end of this term.  Alicia has been an integral part of our school and preschool for 14 years and during that time has held many roles, most recently Alicia has taken a lead role in Preschool, Early Years and Inclusive Education.  I would like to personally thank Alicia for her dedication to all our children and families at St Margaret Mary’s School and Preschool.  We will be sad to farewell Alicia but wish her all the best in her new adventure.

 An Acting Assistant Principal is currently being finalised.

Growing Your Child’s Literacy (Reception-Year 2)
A reminder about the parent sessions to be held on Wednesday 5^th April, at either 9am or 6pm.  Please see your child’s SeeSaw for more information and to indicate which session you will be attending.

We are really looking forward to a great day on Friday for our Sports Day!  Thank you to Ms Brown and Mr Graham for all their work in preparing the students and the behind-the-scenes work for the day.

Thank you for your continuing support.

Kelly Campbell

Snapchat and social media use by children

It has come to our attention that a number of students across Years 3-6 are using Snapchat. There have been incidents of name calling and inappropriate language reported to us, that are happening out of school hours on the Snapchat app and other forms of social media.

What parents need to know about Snapchat.

• Snapchat is a social media app designed for youth aged from 13 years old and up.
• Children do not have access to Snapchat at school.
• The school discourages all children from using Snapchat and other forms of social media.
• Children are setting up ‘chat’ groups to talk to each other via video and messaging, outside of school.
• The children are reporting the use of inappropriate language and name calling amongst the chat group.
• Snapchat has a ‘Family Centre’ on their website that can help parents to understand how to monitor the use of Snapchat.

https://values.snap.com/en-GB/safety/family-center

DO YOU KNOW WHAT YOUR CHILD IS DOING ON SOCIAL MEDIA?

Snapchat is not the only social media app that the children are using. This is the second issue that the school has dealt with in the last three weeks. These issues are all occurring outside of school, but affecting the children’s behaviour at school.

Please monitor what your child is doing on social media!

Sports Day

We are all very excited about Sports Day this week! The children are busy learning their team chants and we encourage them to practise these at home as well.

All students from Reception to Year 6 will be travelling by bus to Bridgestone Stadium. Preschool children will be attending with their parents. Hot drinks will be available for adults to purchase at the venue.

We encourage everyone to get involved, to wear team colours, cheer loud, be good sports and have fun! It looks like we will have a great day for it!!

Preschool News

The Preschool staff have very busy preparing for an Assessment and Rating visit from the Education Standards Board. This is a regular visit (ideally every 3-4 years) by the ESB to the Preschool.

The Assessors will spend Thursday March 30 in the Preschool and will return on Monday April 3 to talk to Mrs Iovino, Mrs Campbell and myself.

The is a wonderful opportunity for our Preschool staff to reflect on the teaching and learning that occurs in the Preschool, and to make changes in a process of continuous improvement.

We look forward to sharing the ESB feedback with you.

If you have not had the opportunity to complete the Preschool Survey, please do so. It will take 1 minute to complete. We are looking for your feedback on the hours and days that we offer Preschool.

Please click on the link to complete the survey.

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/G7CQWZW

Easter Raffle

A big thank you to everyone who has already made some donations to our Easter Raffle for this year. We are still accepting donations, if you have time to get something while you are at the shops this weekend.

We also have more raffle ticket books to sell. If you would like to buy/sell more tickets, please see Mrs Blazely and she will give you some more ticket books.

Thank you again for your generosity!

Dear Parents and Caregivers,

On Monday 27 March, the students were invited to wear casual clothing to raise awareness and if possible, raise donations for Project Compassion.  It was great to see so many students were able to find accessories and clothing items at home that highlighted the liturgical colour purple. Collectively, our St Margaret Mary’s community was able to raise over $500.00.

Thank you to our students and families for your enormous generosity! If you still have a Project Compassion Box containing donations at home, we will continue to collect the boxes until the end of the term.

Project Compassion Fundraiser
Throughout the day, our Year 3 to Year 6 Student Leadership Team, did an amazing job of coordinating an opportunity for each class to contribute donations to our display.  This years Project Compassion theme is ‘for all future generations.’

We began by inviting classes, one at a time, to share our Lenten focus of ‘almsgiving’ in prayer.  We discussed a Project Compassion story in Nepal, where Caritas Australia helped a student and her school, create a positive change ‘for all future students.’ www.caritas.org.au/project-compassion/laxmi-story/

With big hearts, filled with love, we joined together in solidarity with schools all over Australia to fundraise for Caritas Australia and to support their good work in communities around the world. Each class respectfully contributed their donations throughout the day and we have started displaying some photos of our experiences above the main entry on the upper level.

Holy Week and Easter Community Prayers
From Monday 3 April to Wednesday 5 April and Tuesday 11 April we will be offering Community Prayers each morning from 8:45am. Each day, our student led prayers, will follow a theme based on Matthew’s Gospel. We encourage all parents who are able, to join us throughout the week.

Have a good weekend everyone.

Best of luck to our swim team competing at SA Aquatic & Leisure Centre today.  Results and more photos will be published in our next newsletter.