Dear families,

Last  weekend, fourteen of our students received the sacrament of First Holy Communion, a significant milestone in their faith journey. This sacred occasion not only marks a deeper relationship with Jesus Christ but also allows our students to fully participate in the life of the Church. Throughout the preparation period, all students in the grade 3-4 classes have engaged in learning about the importance of the Eucharist and the steps leading to this holy sacrament. They have explored the teachings of Jesus and the value of community and fellowship that the sacrament represents. We invite our school community to join us in prayer as we celebrate this important event in the lives of our students. May their hearts be filled with joy and grace as they continue on their journey of faith.

On Monday last week, the school was closed for a professional learning day for staff. Days such as these are crucial to the continued improvement of the school and allowing us to continue to provide the best learning environment for the students in our school. Throughout the year we also have the school closed for three Time in Lieu (TIL) school closure days. These days are to make up for time that staff work outside of their contracted hours as per the 2022 DOSCEL Schools Industrial Agreement. We aim to fit any school closures at times that are the least inconvenient to families such as the beginning and end of the year but having some fall throughout the year is unavoidable. I really appreciate parents' understanding and flexibility for these days to occur. The process for our school closure days is something that is overseen by the DOSCEL as well as something that we review each year. If you have any questions about school closures, please reach out to me.

Lastly, I would like to wish all mothers a wonderful Mother’s Day on Sunday. The children in our school are so blessed to have such caring and loving mothers in their lives helping them to grow into amazing people. I hope you all have a fantastic and relaxing day on Sunday.

Kind regards,

Julian

Congratulations and well done to all students who were nominated this fortnight for their wonderful choices in the classroom or on the playground.  This is a fortnightly award and all nominted children should be very proud of themselves.  

Congratulations to the following students who were drawn out of a box of nominees for this fortnights Positive Behaviour Awards.  St Mary's have introduced this reward system to acknowledge the wonderful behaviour of students who regonise our school values of Respect, Act and Learn.

4/4/2025

Jas Stockdale

Ava Sebire

Addie Walker 

2/5/2025

Willow Peel

Teddy Bristow

Arki Elston

4th April ~ Jacinta Schoenmaekers

Jacinta competed in the Junior CFA State Championships in Moornapa against teams from all over the state for the first time.

Jacinta was part of the Maffra Fire Brigade team in under 14's and placed 2nd in the 2 Y coupling 4 competitors and received a silver medal.

Jacinta was nervous but is now excited to keep working towards nex years State Championships.

Well Done Jacinta!!

To celebrate student's achievements, we will be presenting children with Star Of The Week awards.  This is a self nominated award of something a student is proud of.  It could be something academic, sports related, or a personal achievement. Have you learnt to ride a bike?  Won 1st place in a dance competition?  Read a book by yourself?  Anything that makes you proud!

Forms can be found on the link below.

What a parade!  Thank you to parents, families and children for creating and parading such wonderful and colorful bonnets for this years' parade.  The annual Easter bonnet parade is always a highlight and something we all look forward to.

Congratulations to the following winners of our annual P&F Easter raffle;

Laura Paravinic

Jackie Trewhella

Jack Goddard

Conni Bates

August Blackford

Lucy Foat

Luca Lopardi

Elsie Cameron

Kellie Little

Narelle Clancy

Zoe Hunt

Anastasia Dwyer

Rosie Sloan

What a fantastic service we had commemorating ANZAC Day at school. Our school leaders did an amazing job running our service and the students displayed all our school values throughout, respectfully participating in and listening to all the speakers.
A special thank you to RSL Maffra president, Richard Kors and Commanding Officer Marcus Watson from the Sale RAAF who gave up their time to contribute and speak at our service. Their input and time was greatly appreciated by all of our school community.

Thank you to those students who were able to represent St Mary's Maffra at the 11am service held on ANZAC Day.  Together, they walked down the main street, beginning at the post office and joined the wider community at the cenotaph near the library.  

A huge congratulations to everyone who took part in last weeks House School Cross Country! It was absolutely incredible to see so many smiling faces and unstoppable energy.

A huge thank you to all our volunteers—events like this wouldn’t run so smoothly without your support.

Congratulations to Curran House coming in 1st, Mackillop in 2nd and Corbett in 3rd.

Thank you to those who were able to come along and support our fantastic St Mary students!

YOU'RE INVITED - Connected Parenting Webinar by Lael Stone, facilitated by The Resilience Project.

WHEN: MONDAY 12th May, 6:30pm - 7:45pm - online

Grounded in the latest research, this 75-minute workshop provides parents and carers with practical strategies to raise resilient children. Author, TEDx speaker, counsellor and parenting educator, Lael Stone, will
discuss how to:

* Build stronger connections with your children.
* Support them through challenging and frustrating situations.
* Create a culture of cooperation in simple ways.
* Manage your own triggers as a parent.
* Understand and support big emotions in a way that helps children become emotionally resilient.

REGISTER HERE:
https://forms.theresilienceproject.com.au/single-event-confirmation/?event_id=419124#gf_72

* if this link does not work please send me an email and I will send the link directly to you.
cwilson@stmmaffra.catholic.edu.au

Please see the attached flyer for more information.

I strongly encourage all parents to take advantage of this amazing opportunity!

Thanks
Charmaine

We love to celebrate our mother's and mother figures at St Mary's. Today we celebrated this, starting with our special mass that our 1/2 students have been busy preparing and practicing for.  Mothers were then able to enjoy a coffee and wonder through our classrooms to see the wonderful work children have been doing.

St Mary's wish all mothers, grandmothers and significant others a very happy Mother's Day this Sunday.  We hope you have a day filled with lots of love, laughs and wonderful memories.

TERM 2

MAY

JUNE

JULY

**  Please go to our school website for the full year of calendar dates.

WEEKEND MASSES

Heyfield:

Saturday    6:00pm

Maffra:

Sunday    9:00am 

Cowwarr:

1st and 3rd Sunday   11:00am

Newry:

2nd and 4th Sunday  11:00am

Dargo:

5th Sunday   12:00noon

WEEKDAY MASSES

Heyfield:

Tuesday      9:30am

Maffra:

Wednesday, Friday & Saturday  9:30am

Thursday     5:30pm