Term 3, Week 1 Friday 28th July 2023

I hope that everyone had a restful break from school over the past 2 weeks. 

We have been very excited to welcome our new Foundation and Preschool children this week.  All have settled in very well and are quickly learning routines and making new friends.  Our transition to preschool and school programs are very beneficial for children in these times of change.

We welcome all new families to our community and look forward to getting to know you better and supporting your children over the years at primary school.

Living, Leading, Learning Surveys
We are again asking for your very valued feedback as a part of our annual LLL surveys. Each year we collect feedback from all staff, students (years 2-6) and parents/caregivers in the four areas of:

1. Catholic Identity
2. Learning and Wellbeing
3. Resourcing
4. Community

All feedback is important as this guides our future directions and improvement strategies for St Margaret Mary’s School. Please take 5 minutes to complete the survey – a letter will be sent home this week.

Adopt-a-Verge
You may have noticed some planting and landscaping on the Tungara St/Torrens Rd corner.  This year we have been fortunate to receive a Green Adelaide Grant to ‘Adopt-a-Verge’.  This is a project to improve the shared spaces in our community, with an emphasis on native planting and educating the community about sustainability and the environment.  Thank you to parents who have volunteered to help and we look forward to our students also being involved in the planting.

A huge thank you to Sharyn and Ody Gromitsaris for leading this project in our community.

Parent Volunteers
This term we have a number of events that require parent volunteers.  If you’d like to become a volunteer, you do not need to be available all the time, you can choose the events you’d like to help with.  However, you do need to be a registered volunteer with the school.  It is an easy process but can take a few weeks to process.  So, please see Angela for the paperwork if you are interested.

Here are just some of the volunteering opportunities coming up this term:

• School Disco
• Mid-Autumn Festival
• Father’s Day Stall

Hats!
ALL students are required to wear a school hat, commencing Week 2.  School hats are available from the uniform shop and are a compulsory item of our school uniform.

The following information comes from our Skin Protection Policy:

St. Margaret Mary’s School will ensure staff and students use a combination of sun protection strategies every day from 1^st August to 30^th April and at any other times when the UV level is 3 and above. Staff and students are encouraged to check the daily sun protection times via the SunSmart app, www.myuv.com.au or  www.bom.gov.au/sa/uv.

Sun protection strategies implemented from 1^st August to 30^th April, and when the UV level is 3 and above, will include the following:

• Students, staff and volunteers will be expected, and visitors to our school will be actively encouraged, to wear a sun safe hat whenever they are involved in outside activities

• All students are required to wear the school uniform hat, which is a broad brimmed hat giving good cover to the face, ears and neck. Students not wearing the school uniform sun safe hat will be expected to play in the shade.

• Students who do not wear the school uniform hat during sport lessons and/or outdoor activities will be required to sit in a shaded area. 

Thank you.

Kind regards,

Kelly Campbell

Dear Parents and Caregivers,

Welcome back for Term 3. This Term we welcome our newest students, and elect new class representatives for the Early Years and Primary Years Student Leadership Team. In the coming weeks, we celebrate the Feast of St Mary of the Cross MacKillop on 8 August and invite donations of long shelf life foods to assist Croydon Park Parish in supporting of the Vinnies Winter Appeal.

Staff Formation Day
On Monday 24 July, our staff gathered at the Bethany Centre within the Mary MacKillop Precinct at Kensington.  Formation is Christ-centred and ‘of the heart.’ It is intentional, reflective and an ongoing process towards continued growth. To support staff in this process, Ms Braidwood, Ms Verbi, Ms Rivera and I prepared three sessions. Each session was intended to help us reflect on ways we could connect our school values in the context of our St Margaret Mary’s history, Josephite story or the Catholic Tradition. We tested our collective knowledge in a quiz of the school history, walked a trail of significant sights in our Josephite Story and discerned creative ways to connect our values and the Catholic Tradition throughout the school. A huge thank you to all who helped to prepare the day and we look forward to sharing our ongoing discernment and reflections with you all.

Liturgies and Masses
In Term 3, Foundation to Year 2 classes will gather to celebrate a Liturgy of the Word. Year 3/4 and Year 5/6 classes will lead parishioners in a parish Mass. All Liturgies of the Word and Masses will be held in St Margaret Mary’s Church.

You are most welcome to join us for these celebrations.

Sacramental Program
This Term, we keep Anisha, Xavier, Kayleen, Rosalie, Aria, Javier, Cameron, Jayne-Louiz and Abrihet in our prayers as they prepare for the Sacraments of Confirmation and First Holy Communion. Next Wednesday, 2 August the is a First Holy Communion Information Meeting at the Mary MacKillop Centre at Whitefriars School from 7:00pm. We ask those parents attending, to bring the children who are receiving the Sacrament of First Holy Communion to the meeting as well. On Friday 4 August, our nine Confirmation and First Holy Communion candidates will travel by bus to and from St Patricks School at Mansfield Park for a student workshop. The bus will pick up candidates from 9:15 and we will return to school on time at 2:45pm.

If you have any questions please send an email  to matthew.harrison@smms.catholic.edu.au or contact the parish office directly on 8346 0944.

Have a good weekend everyone.
Matthew Harrison

Welcome to Term 3. I hope you enjoyed the holiday break.

This week we have welcomed our new Foundation class and new children in Preschool. We have also had a number of students join our school community in different year levels.

Welcome everyone; we look forward to being a part of your learning journey.

STAFF NEWS
Welcome to the following staff:

Ms Ann Lang. Ann returns to SMMS after taking some leave and is teaching the new Foundation class.

Mrs Katherine McCullough. Katherine is our new Library ESO, who will work in our library and with students on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.

Ms Simone Donohoe. Simone is a new ESO, who will be working mainly with our Early Years teachers and students. Simone will work on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.

UNIFORM
The correct school uniform is required for all students, from Foundation to Year 6. If you need any school uniform items, please come in and see Rosie in the Uniform Shop (located next to our Year 1 classrooms) on Tuesdays 2:30-3:30pm and Fridays 8:30-10:00am. School hats and school beanies are also available.

WATER ONLY
Just a reminder that children should only be bringing water to school. No soft drink, juice or flavoured milks; these are high in sugar and do not help the children to concentrate during the day. We appreciate your help with this.

MID-AUTUMN FESTIVAL
We will be celebrating the Mid-Autumn Festival on Friday 22 September. More information will be sent out to families soon. We hope that you will be able to join us for this very special festival.

Have a great weekend and all the best for the week ahead.

Belinda Elliott
Assistant Principal

Looking forward to a productive and exciting term of Italian learning.

This term students will be immersed in activities to encourage using more spoken Italian.

Learning topics this term will be;  family, favourite foods, numbers and alphabet, and the solar system.

We will have Carrousel Theatre visit us for an incursion in Week 3.  They will be preforming “ Aladdin’s Magic Lamp “ – this is a bilingual puppet show. We are excited about this and are looking forward to the show.  More exciting news and a first-time experience for our community…… we may be lucky enough to have a language assistant working and supporting during Italian lessons for the rest of the year .  The Italian assistants are directly from Italy and support in the classroom in many ways.  This incentive is funded by the Italian Embassy and the South Australian Italian Association. It is a pilot project, and I am very grateful that our school has been considered as a potential candidate.

Gina Armiento 
Italian Teacher                        

Lucky Book Club Issue 5 is out now.

Due date for orders is Wednesday 9^th August.

ALL orders done online via Book Club LOOP.

Find out how on Page 31 of your magazine (payments will not be accepted at school).

This event is an amazing opportunity for kids of all ages to experience Science and STEM in a hands-on way and is the biggest event of its kind in Australia!

St Margaret Mary's School students are offered a 10% discount with this special discount code - SMMS

Instructions to obtain your tickets:

Please follow the ticket link: bit.ly/ScienceAlive2023

When prompted, enter your code in the promo code box near the top of the page and click Add+

Select the tickets you require and follow the rest of the prompts on the site to receive your discount.

Terms and Conditions apply*

Should you have any questions, or need assistance redeeming your code, please contact the Science Alive! team via email enquiries@sciencealive.net.au or phone 08 8242 8400.