Term 3, Week 7 Friday 8th September 2023

Learning Conversations
Our Parent/Teacher Learning conversations will be held next week, Monday 11^th September – Friday 15^th September.  You will have received information about how to book a time (contact the office if you are unsure).  Please ensure you have made a booking to meet with your child’s teacher.  A strong partnership between school and home is very important for your child’s wellbeing and learning.  These conversations give parents/carers a chance to discuss learning progress and for teachers to share celebrations of learning and areas for future focus or intervention. 

Camp
Earlier this week I was fortunate to be able to attend the 3-day Year 5/6 Camp at Wellington.  Camps are a fantastic opportunity for students to learn new skills, work in teams with a variety of students, and have lots of fun!  Everyone challenged themselves and stepped a little out of their comfort zones.  We are proud of them all for giving things a go. 

I want to thank our amazing staff for their hard work leading up to the camp and during the time of the camp.

Greig Graham, Lucy Centofanti, Joseph Fuda, Bethany Newhouse, Sandra Shephard, Celeste Brown, Pennie Blazely and Matthew Harrison.

Tournament of Minds Challenge
As a part of our Gifted and Talented Program we have 7 year 5/6s competing at Adelaide High School on Sunday in the Tournament of Minds Challenge.  They have been working on a prepared challenge over the past 6 weeks.  They will also participate in a spontaneous challenge.  They have prepared the script and challenge on their own with no adult help, Mr Parker has only been able to guide them on techniques that might be useful.

We are proud of this team, taking on the Challenge and stepping out of their comfort zone!

Good luck Nancy, Alexis, Adam, Joshua, Markus, Yukti and Edmund.

Thank you for your continued support,
Kelly Campbell

Dear Parents and Caregivers,

The recent St Vincent de Paul Winter Appeal call for donations of cereal, pasta and long life milk, was well supported by the donations of many of our families and staff. Since our last newsletter, we have helped to restock the Croydon Park Vinnies shelves with packets of cereal and pasta and containers of long-life milk. Within a month, we have been able to provide the Croydon Park Vinnies group with 18 packets of cereal, 30 packets of pasta, 15 long life milks and additional cans of soup. All donations received in our Term 3 appeal, are now ready to be distributed to families in need.

Community Garden Beds
On Thursday 31 August, our Semester 2 Year 5/6 Student Leadership Team representatives were instrumental in supporting Helen Psaila to finish off the planting of our three garden beds. Helen showed our Year 5/6 leaders how to prepare the soil, compost, fertiliser and mulch to plant carrots, lettuce, spinach, marigolds and lavender. Our Year 5/6 leaders were then able to become planting buddies assisting our Reception and Year 1 student representatives to do the same. All our leaders will share the responsibility of monitoring the weather and when needed watering the plants each week.

Liturgies and Masses
On Monday 28 August, our Year 2 students celebrated their Term 3 Liturgy of the Word in St Margaret Mary’s Church. The theme of the liturgy was ‘Being kind and including others.’ A special thank you to Ms Byrne and Ms Watson as well as our Year 5/6 PowerPoint operators Vy and Jasmine for their ongoing support in preparing for and leading the liturgy. The details for our upcoming Year 3/4 and Year 5/6 parish Masses have been listed below and as always families are most welcome to join us for these parish celebrations:

Sacramental Rehearsal and Ceremony Dates:
Congratulations to Rose, Anisha, Kayleen, Cameron, Jayne Louiz, Abrihet, Xavier, Rosalie, Aria and Javier, who were Confirmed by Archbishop Patrick O’Reagan as part of the recent Croydon Park Parish sacramental ceremonies. The dates for upcoming Masses where Sacramental students will receive their First Holy Communion are as follows:

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

Dear Parents/Caregivers

School events are a fantastic way for us to come together as a community and celebrate the students, their learning, and their talents. The Book Week Parade and School Disco were both great examples of how talented we are at St Margaret Mary’s! The costumes were fantastic, and the dance moves were even better! Thank you to our Library ESO Katherine McCullough, the Book Week Committee and to all of the staff who supported both the Book Week Parade and School Disco.

We have another important event coming up, the Mid-Autumn Festival. The Mid-Autumn Festival is on Friday 22 September. A letter was recently sent home to all families about this special celebration. Please remember to return the slip at the bottom of the letter indicating if you will be joining us, if you are able to volunteer and please bring any cash donations to the front office. We will gather in the Parish Hall at 11:30am for special dances and presentations from the students, and then lunch will be served on the courts (weather permitting) from around 12:45pm. There will be no lunch orders on this day.

Students are invited to dress in cultural clothing or Autumn colours. It is such a fun day and always one of the highlights of our school year, so please join us! More details will be shared and reminders will be sent to all families via Seesaw.

Thank you for your on-going support.

Belinda Elliott

The PRE-LOVED BOOK SALE during Week 5 was a great success. Thank you to everyone who bought a book and helped raise $35.50.

The proceeds went towards buying pasta, long-life milk and cereal for the St. Vincent de Paul Winter Appeal.

Lucky Book Club Issue 6 is out now.

Due date for orders is 12^th September.

ALL orders done online via Book Club LOOP.

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