Term 2, Week 3 Friday 16th May, 2025

Dear Families

I hope that all of our Mums and special women in our lives enjoyed their Mother’s Day. It was wonderful to see so many of our Reception Mums here last Friday engaging in a special activity and afternoon with their children. 🌷Thank you for coming along.

This week we have celebrated Catholic Education Week and World Education Support Staff Day.

Catholic Education Week – Shine With Open Hearts
In 2025, Catholic Education South Australia (CESA) celebrates 180 years of Catholic Education in South Australia, coinciding with the Jubilee Year. Inspired by CESA’s mission to nurture thriving people and capable learners in the world God desires the theme ‘Shine with open hearts’ was chosen.

This year’s theme invited us to shine a light on the high-quality teaching and learning that takes place every day at St Margaret Mary’s school, a place where our children are encouraged to shine, live, and lead with open hearts. You may have seen photos that we shared on Facebook this week of acts of kindness, respect, service, learning, or leadership.

World Education Support Staff Day – May 16
As we celebrate the many milestones in Catholic Education this year, we also take a moment to recognise the vital contributions of our education support staff on World Education Support Staff Day. We are thankful for the dedication and hard work of all our support staff. From providing classroom and preschool learning and wellbeing support, essential tech support, managing school finances, first aid, and administrative support to maintaining our library and ensuring our facilities run smoothly, these team members are an important part of our school community. On this special day, we urge everyone to say a heartfelt thank you to all support staff across our schools. Your work is seen, valued, and deeply appreciated.

Carpark and Road Restrictions
Many thanks to our families who continue to show patience and kindness, as well as safe driving around our school while we undergo the redevelopment of the carpark on Eldon Street. Please remember to leave an extra 5 or 10 minutes for drop off or pick up, walk an extra street, and follow all road rules. We all have busy lives, and no member of our school community is more important than any other – we all have a part to play in the safety of our children and community.

Many thanks for your on-going support.
Belinda

Dear Families,

I hope all our mums enjoyed their special day on Sunday!

Preservice Teachers
We are very fortunate to have two Preservice Teachers from UniSA learning alongside our staff and working with our students over the next few weeks. Olivia Reardon and Meg Rowe are both in their third year of a Bachelor of Education degree and are placed with classes 5/6SC and 5/6CH. We are pleased to support our Preservice Teachers by offering valuable opportunities to learn from our dedicated educators, as well as from the children and families within our wonderful SMMS community. We wish Olivia and Meg all the best during their time at SMMS and thank Sarah, Charlotte and the students for warmly welcoming and supporting these future teachers.

⚽️🏃‍♂️Soccer Season Kick-Off ⚽️🏃‍♂️
Our St Margaret Mary’s soccer teams played their first game last Saturday, and it was fantastic to see the excitement from our students as they took to the field for the start of the season. We have nine teams this year, ranging from Under 6s to our Senior team.

A big thank you to our parent volunteers who are generously coaching and supporting our players. We couldn’t offer these wonderful experiences without you. Wishing all our teams a fun season ahead!

❄️🧤 Buddy Blanket Initiative – Recycling for a Purpose ❄️🧤
Thank you for your generous chip packet donations — our collection box is quickly filling up! I look forward to delivering the collected packets to Life FM towards the end of May.

Please continue to drop your clean chip packets into the collection box located in the front office by Thursday 30 May – every packet counts!

Dear Parents and Caregivers, 
This is a significant time for the Church. At school, our classes reflected on the passing of Pope Francis. Cardinals gathered in Vatican City to engage in a process of discernment (conclave), resulting in the emergence of Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost OSA and a new Papacy as Pope Leo XIV. In a recent letter, Archbishop O’Regan said, “He will be a shepherd who walks before us, and with us, helping us to bring the joy of the gospel to all people, especially those at the margins of our society.”

Recent Gatherings
On Tuesday 13 May, our three Year 5/6 classes gathered at a parish Mass in St Margaret Mary’s Church to celebrate the Memorial of Our Lady of Fatima. Then later in the week, on Thursday 15 May, our three Reception classes also gathered for a Liturgy of the Word in St Margaret Mary’s Church.

We were fortunate to have Fr Olek as our celebrant for both gatherings. Fr Olek, spoke to the children about the Season of Easter and that Jesus is always with us. Our student shared with Fr Olek that they know Jesus is with us through the Holy Spirit, in our hearts, in the Church, in our school and in our families. Thank you to our teachers for their support in preparing our young people and for all our readers and PowerPoint operators. We look forward to many more celebrations of the Word and Eucharist with Fr Olek and Monsignor Minh Tam.

Sacramental Program
It was wonderful to see all our families at the Confirmation Information Meeting last Wednesday 7 May at Whitefriars School. The children received a Confirmation booklet and many families selected a Confirmation ceremony date. There will be a follow up rehearsal for Confirmation next term, and I will provide further details in upcoming newsletters.

Later this term, on Wednesday 18 June, there will also be a First Holy Communion Information Meeting from 7:00pm at Whitefriars School, 45 Beaufort Street, Woodville Park. Please note that this meeting will again be held in the Caritas Building.

If you have any questions, please email the parish Sacramental Coordinator Kirsty Power sacramental.coordinator@croydonparkparish.com.au

Term 2 Friday Gatherings

Term 2 Masses and Liturgies of the Word

Have a good weekend everyone.
Matthew Harrison

On Tuesday, Y6 students prepared vegetables for potato and leek soup as part of Journey to Emmaus. The soup will be shared with people experiencing homelessness or struggling with the cost of living at the moment in Adelaide CBD.

Sarah Carritt
Year 5/6 teacher
 

Lunch club yoga continues this term. We are learning more poses and really becoming aware of our breath.

Lunch Club Yoga is on Mondays at first play in the hall and a booking sheet is now located in the Music space.

Namaste
Mrs Armiento 

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