Dear Members of our Community of Faith,

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Welcome to Week 2! It has been another busy week of learning here at SMMC and it is great to see the students all settling into their routines and working hard.

Next Tuesday we will hold our annual swimming carnival at the Jindera Pool. The Gold team of St John Bosco and Green team of St Francis of Assisi will battle it out for the first sporting honours of 2018. Students are asked to be at the pool ready to start by 9:30am. Bus travellers are able to get off at Jindera Public School and walk up to the pool. Please do not come to SMMC as staff members will head straight to the pool in the morning.

The Kinder students will not be attending the swimming carnival, but will have a normal day at school. Please ensure they are dropped off at school as normal (or on the bus) where Miss MacLean and Mr Griffin will meet them. They will be Kings and Queens of the school for a day! I might even give them the key to my office. Yr.1/2s will come and race in their events and possibly return to school afterwards – we’ll play this by ear.

Students will be able to earn points through their events, but points will also be given for the teams if they are displaying exemplary team spirit throughout the day. I have been most impressed at the level of support and encouragement our students give to one another regardless of ability and I look forward to seeing this great culture continue pool side next Tuesday.

Next Monday 12th February we will be holding information sessions for Primary Classes and Yr.7/8. I am inviting all SMMC parents to a gathering in the hall at 3:30pm. A cup of tea or coffee will be made available and at 3:45pm I will give a short address to outline some of the aspects we will be focussing on at SMMC this year. This is a great opportunity to touch base as we set off on another year of working together. From 4-4:30pm the K-6 Classes will run concurrent information sessions in separate classrooms. Obviously you will not be able to attend all of these, so classroom teachers will be available in their classrooms for a short time from 4:30pm if you’d like to touch base with other teachers. Obviously you are more than welcome to touch base with teachers any time throughout the year. At 5:00pm we will hold an information session for Yr.7/8 in the Hall. Looking forward to seeing you there!

Lent begins next Wednesday. Fr Heffernan encouraged us at Wednesday morning Mass to begin thinking about some sacrifices we will make during the Lenten period. There will be a Mass at 12 noon at St Mary’s Jindera which you are all very welcome to attend. Every Friday in Lent we will pray the Stations of the Cross in the Church beginning at 3pm which you are also welcome to come to.

Coming up in Week 4 the secondary students will be participating in retreat days with Verbum Dei Missionaries. The Yr.7/8/9 students will have their retreat on Monday 19th and Tuesday 20th Feb, with our Yr.10,11,12s on Wednesday 21st and Thursday 22nd Feb. Verbum Dei means Word of God and the students are blessed to have this opportunity to reflect on God’s Word. New Bibles have been purchased to help facilitate these retreat days and will be a wonderful resource in our classrooms.

Our first P&F Meeting for 2018 will be held next Thursday 15th February. We will meet in the hall beginning at 7:00pm.

The stump holes have been dug and footings poured in readiness for the existing portables to be relocated during the end of Term 1 break. These will be relocated to behind the Church and used for their existing purpose until the new buildings are constructed. The students have enjoyed seeing these works take place. Once the portables are moved we are hoping that construction of the 4 new classrooms, admin block and science lab can begin. It is exciting to have these developments happening.

I hope you can come along this Sunday to our beginning of year BBQ. Please reply to Fiona so we can purchase enough meat to feed everyone. Please bring a salad, simple dessert and your own drinks.

God Bless, Luke Burton (Principal)