2025 Term 4 Week 4

Principal

Dear Parents, Guardians and Community,

I know many of our families take advantage of the Melbourne Cup Public Holiday to turn this weekend into a mini-break—a good time to refresh and get ready for the Christmas season. As a reminder, there will be no school on Monday or Tuesday next week. Speaking of Christmas, we have much excitement tomorrow! The Melbourne Archdiocesan Catholic Schools (MACS) media team will be at school to take photos for a Christmas promotion. A number of students will be featured, so we ask that they come dressed in casual, Christmas-themed clothes if possible. The shots are meant to show a family at Christmas, so most scenes will not feature our school specifically, apart from a craft activity shot. These images will be part of a large MACS Christmas promotion on major billboards around Melbourne, including the ones above Young & Jackson's opposite Federation Square.

Student Spotlight: Hockey Success! 🏅 Congratulations to Oscar in Year 5 who represented Australia last week at the One Hockey International Tournament in Newcastle. Playing in one of two Australian teams, his team achieved a magnificent second place in the tournament, competing against international teams from Thailand, Sweden, and other countries. Well done, Oscar!

Building works update.

🚧 It's been a busy week! Following the recent storms, we experienced some flooding that unfortunately affected Room 4 (1 Blue) and the Dance Room. Both rooms are currently out of action to dry out. 1 Blue will be temporarily relocated to the Italian room while we await repair plans from our insurance contractor, which includes the removal of the saturated carpet. In addition, we dealt with roof tiles that were blown off in the wind storm the previous week. This has now been repaired, and we are in discussions with our insurance provider regarding the claim. Finally, work on our school facade is progressing with the council on planning permits and restorative plans. We do not have a set start date yet but are still aiming for the Christmas break for these works to be completed.

Farewell and Best Wishes Following a magnificent Italian Day, we want to wish Mrs. Edmunds all the best as she begins her maternity leave for the birth of her baby. We will certainly miss her smiling face and look forward to welcoming her back in the future!

St Mary of the Cross: Pray for us.

Anthony

Parent Education

Italian Day

Thanks To Will in Year 6 who sent his drone up and took this shot from Italian Day

Religious Education

St Mary’s Faith News

 School and Parish Connections

Gospel: Matthew 5: 1-12

Rejoice and be glad, for your reward will be great in heaven

Seeing the crowds, Jesus went up the hill. There he sat down and was joined by his disciples. Then he began to speak. This is what he taught them:

‘How happy are the poor in spirit:

theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Happy the gentle:

they shall have the earth for their heritage.

Happy those who mourn:

they shall be comforted.

Happy those who hunger and thirst for what is right:

they shall be satisfied.

Happy the merciful:

they shall have mercy shown them.

Happy the pure in heart:

they shall see God.

Happy the peacemakers:

they shall be called sons of God.

Happy those who are persecuted in the cause of right:

theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

‘Happy are you when people abuse you and persecute you and speak all kinds of calumny against you on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward will be great in heaven.’

School Leaders Visit to the ASRC

Last Friday, our Charism Team and School Leaders visited the Asylum Seekers Resource Centre (ASRC) in Footscray to learn more about the vital support it provides to people seeking asylum in Melbourne. The visit also gave students the opportunity to see firsthand how our August donations to the Way of the West program are used to make a positive difference in the lives of others.

The Charism Team will share their reflections and experiences at our school assembly on Friday, 31 October. We look forward to hearing what they discovered and how we can continue to live out the Mary MacKillop values of compassion and service.

New Front Office Display

Crosses from Around the World

The Cross display is starting to take form - Thank you to everyone who has donated a cross

We have had a few more crosses added to our collection that is taking shape above the staff room doors in the office area. Thank you to everyone who is donating a cross.

As part of our recent staff Reflection Day, we were inspired by the idea of creating a new display in our front office – a collection of crosses from around the world. This will be a whole school initiative, and we warmly invite our families and staff to take part.

If you have a cross from your travels – whether from overseas or within Australia – that you would like to donate, we would be honoured to include it. The crosses will be thoughtfully displayed on the wall beneath the mounted monitor in the front office.

Thank you for helping us bring this idea to life.

Wednesday Morning Masses

There will be no Wednesday Masses during the month of November

As part of our ongoing commitment to nurturing the spiritual life of our students, each class will continue to attend the Wednesday morning Parish Mass at 9:15am.

The response from teachers has been positive. The children have been able to connect with Parishioners and pay attention to prayers and rituals that they have been taught in class.

We continue to warmly invite parents, grandparents and carers to join their child’s class at the Wednesday Masses, when they are rostered to attend.

You may receive an email invitation or a paper invitation, so please check emails, children’s reading folders or take heed of your child’s verbal invitation.

This is a beautiful opportunity to come together in prayer and strengthen our connection as a school and parish community.

We encourage you to check when your child’s class will be attending the Wednesday Mass.

We look forward to welcoming you to this special part of our faith life.

During this Mass you are welcome to sit with your child, but we ask that you join us as a class - so please come along and sit with us at Mass.

After the Parishioners have received Communion, Younger students in years Prep to Year 3 will be invited to receive a blessing from Fr Greg. Everyone is welcome for a blessing. Those wishing to receive a blessing should approach Fr Greg with hands crossed over their chest.

Christian Leadership Awards

The Charism of Mary MacKillop Award

At St Mary’s, it has been a long-standing tradition to present two students from each class with the ‘Christian Leadership Award’ at the end of the year.

This year, we are excited to announce a change to the name and focus of this award. It will now be known as the ‘Charism of Mary MacKillop Award’.

While the spirit of the award remains grounded in the values of Saint Mary of the Cross MacKillop, each year level will now focus on a specific quote and value that reflects a particular quality of Mary MacKillop’s charism. This change allows our students to connect more deeply with her example and live out her message in age-appropriate and meaningful ways.

Please keep reading the newsletter for further updates about this award. Once finalised, the quotes and focus for each year level will be shared for our community to read in an upcoming edition.

Term 4 Masses

Sports Update

Regional Athletics

Congratulations to Will Trethowan and Eloise Pante who competed at the Western Regional Athletics Carnival last week. Will ran in the 800m, finishing sixth and Eloise competed in the 200m, finishing fourth. It was an amazing effort by both of our budding young athletes to make it to this level and they should be extremely proud of their achievements. Congratulations to both! 

District Lacrosse

This Thursday, 41 of our 5/6 students will be competing at the District Lacrosse, to be held at JP Lynch Reserve in Altona North. Our students have been practicing this term in PE class, as well as training on Fridays with the help of the Williamstown Lacrosse Club and Williamstown Women's Lacrosse Club. Good luck to all our students competing on the day. 

Winter Interschool Sports Tops

Now that our Interschool Sports have concluded for the year, please kindly ensure that any St Mary's tops are returned to school, washed and folded. Thank you for your consideration. 

A Midsummer Night's Dream

~ A Midsummer Night’s Dream ~

The 5/6‘s are going to perform Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream! This play is full of fun, fairies, magic, and love mix-ups. Starring Puck's tricks, a donkey-headed actor, 4 lovers, and plenty of laughter. This amazing play is going to be performed in the St Mary’s Hall.

 Prep - Year 2 performance - Friday Nov 14

12:40pm - 1:40pm

 Parent night - Wednesday Nov 19th

6:00pm - 7:00pm

Year 3 - 6 performance - Thursday Nov 20th

   12.40pm - 1.40pm

Please fill out the Google Form to indicate if you will be joining us on parent night and how many people will be attending.

Click here for the Google Form

We hope you can come enjoy our Shakespeare play, all are welcome!

Colour Explosion Jogathon

Colour Explosion Jogathon – 3 weeks to go

There are three weeks to go until the Colour Explosion Jogathon, one of the student’s favourite days on the school calendar. This year, it will be held on Thursday 13 November, on Robertson Reserve.

Thank you to those families and students who have already got their fundraising underway. To date we’ve had 30 students create their profile page and begin fundraising, thank you! Setting up your online profile is easy, simply head to www.myprofilepage.com.au and search for “St Mary’s School (Williamstown)”. Remember to share links with grandparents, family and friends.

To create some friendly competition, the class that fundraises the most money will win “slime time”. The winning class will get to slime their classmates and play with slime during the Jogathon. So far, Year 1 Yellow (with Ms Alves and Ms Gunn) is in the lead.

We’d encourage you to come down and watch the kids as they run around the course, getting covered in non-toxic biodegradable colour powder from head to toe. Like last year, we’ll split the jogathon into two sessions:

• 12.10pm – 12.50pm – Prep, Grade 1 - 2
• 1.00pm – 1.40pm – Grade 3 – 6

We’re now looking for volunteers to help the P&F run this event. If you can spare an hour or two on Thursday 13 November please sign-up at this link – it’s a fantastic day for both students and parents. 

We appreciate your support.

P&F Coordinating Group 

Emmanuel College