/ SMOC /
News ~ 2017
Volume 1
Number 6
Thursday, 16th March, 2017

“News, Views and Important Information from St Mary of the Cross,

Saltwater Coast, Point Cook”

Dear St Mary of the Cross Families,

REMINDER

NO SCHOOL ON MONDAY!

The school is closed for a curriculum day.

It has been a busy four day week this week, with so much learning happening at St Mary of the Cross.

On Tuesday evening we had the launch of our Prep 2018 Enrolment program. Over 400 people attended, and most of these were new families to our schools, as our siblings’ families were not required to attend.

On Wednesday, our year four and five students attended a Healing mass at Queen of Peace church. They then hosted morning tea for all the elderly and sick parishioners. I would like to take this opportunity o congratulate the students who attended, they were wonderful ambassadors for our school, and a great credit to their families.

Today (Friday) is St Patrick’s day, and our year six students are representing our school at a special mass for Schools at St Patrick’s Cathedral in Melbourne, The students travelled into Melbourne by train to attend this event.

A special Thank You to Edie and her team at OSH Club, our Outside School Hours Care program. With the traffic chaos in Point Cook yesterday, Edie and her team were here until 9.00pm with children whose parents could not get to school to pick them up.

As a parent, you should all take comfort in the fact that we have such dedicated and caring people watching over our children after school has finished.

Behaviour Choices

During the week all children were introduced to our new behavior choices protocol which the staff have been developing for some weeks.

We want the children to learn that there are consequences for all of our choices, good and bad.

Our strategy relies on heavily praising and rewarding children for the good choices they make, rather than focusing on the poor choices (bad choices).

Our strategy provides for ‘no cost’ rewards, such as free time (5 mins) or iPad time (5 mins) etcwhen children have filled their star chart. Rewards may also be offered to homerooms and communities for great behavior and good school rule following.

The ‘Bad choices’ portion of the chart relates to the consequences for the children making bad choices. In providing positive feedback to children who are making good choices, we believe this will reduce the incidence of bad choice making.

We ask that you talk to your children about this protocol and reinforce our message that it pays to follow the rules.

School Closure Day - Monday

On Monday, staff will be working with staff form Google Education on their IT skills. This training course will eventually lead to all of our staff becoming Google Accredited Educators.

Last Day

Next Thursday will be Kate’s last day at St Mary of the Cross. As I advised earlier, Kate and her family are relocating to Buderim on the Sunshine Coast.

Last Day of Term One

Please note that on Friday, 31st march (Last day of term one) we will be finishing at 3.15pm.

First Aid Training

Staff will be undertaking a level two First Aid course on the first Monday of the school holidays.

(Monday, 3rd April).

WE still have some places available if any parents would like to complete the course with us.

Unfortunately we cannot provide child minding during this time.

If you are interested, please contact Kirsty for further details (cost etc)

Still Need a Painter

If you are able to help out with painting our container, please let Leon know.

Fun Run Committee

If you are able to assist on the committee for organising our Fun Run, please contact Leon ()

We need more people to assist us!

Budding Chefs

Last Friday, the Principals form the other four parish schools and Fr John had their monthly meeting at St Mary of the Cross.

Meetings always commence at 12.00pm, so lunch is an important part of our meeting. Last week our year four students catered for the meeting.

Under the watchful direction of Gina, the students presented ‘Trio of Dips’ with flat bread and tortilla chips, Tomato and Basil soup, CousCous salad, Sweet potato and feta tarts, Frittata and cheese and fruit platter to finish.

Congratulations to our bidding chefs – amazing job! Lots of great feedback from our guests.

Newsletter item for Kitchen - week 7

We have had a wonderful week in the kitchen exploring and sharing someIrish cultural food. Students have made an array of foods including Irish sodabread, spinach pie, shamrock skewers with a spinach and yoghurt dippingsauce, green pesto pasta, sausages and rice, green leafy salads and a varietyof green drinks. The highlight item on our menu this week was the ‘Shamrock

Spuds’! SMOC staff had the opportunity to order a Shamrock Spud lunchorder this week and our students prepared and delivered their order, the

money raised will go towards Project Compassion. Thank you to all theparents that gave their time to join us in the kitchen this week. We reallyappreciate your support and encouragement of the Kitchen program.

Next week we will be exploring a Cultural Infusion to supplement andcelebrate Harmony Day occurring on Tuesday week 8. We are aiming to

encourage the students understanding of cultures across Australia.

If you would be interested in coming and sharing one of your Cultural disheswith us in the kitchen please contact Gina .

Coming up this Week:

Monday / 20/03 / Staff PD Day – School Closed
Tuesday / 21/03
Wednesday / 22/03 / Board of Management meeting (6.00)
Thursday / 23/03
Friday / 24/03 / P&F Coffee morning
Monday / 27/03
Tuesday / 28/03
Wednesday / 29/03
Thursday / 30/03 / Kate’s final day
Friday / 31/03 / Last day of Term One
3.15 pm finish

Consequences of Our Choices

Exit / > Collected by a member of Leadership
> Exited from the community
> Expected to make up lost learning
> Family possibly contacted / Exit
Time Out / We will remind you:
> “You need to move to another area and think about your choices”
> “You will need to meet me at recess/lunch to discuss your choices and make up your learning time”
“You will need to make up for missed learning” / Time Out
Time In / We will remind you:
> “You need to sit here and think about your choices”
> “You will need to meet me at recess/lunch to discuss your choices”
“You will need to make up for missed learning” / Time In
Warning / We will remind you:
> “This is a warning that you are not following our rules”
> “Now is the time to make better choices”
“You need to stop and think about your choices and start making good choices.” / Warning

Bad Choices

Good Choices

Individual / Homegroup / Community
Stars / Stars / Stars
Stars Charts / Stars Charts / Stars Charts
Rewards / Rewards / Rewards