Newsletter - Friday, 31st October, 2025

Prayer

From the Principals

Dear Families,

Congratulations to the Ferguson family on the arrival of their beautiful baby boy, Clancy Hayden born on 23rd October, weighing 4.3 kg.  We are thrilled for them and wish their family every joy as they welcome their newest little member.

We are also reaching out to our school community for support.  One of our families has recently experienced some misfortune and lost several essential items.  If anyone has a spare car seat or carrier in good condition that they are no longer using, please contact the school office.  Your generosity would be greatly appreciated.

With summer sports in full swing, a reminder to families that we ask students to use the zebra crossing when needing to cross Lake Street.  Lots of cars and small children don't tend to mix well and we want to encourage safe road habits.  We would appreciate it if parents could support our safety expectations and encourage students to use the zebra crossing.

Looking forward to next week we have: A pupil free day on Monday, Melbourne Cup Day holiday on Tuesday, Mission Fair Day and Pet Blessing on Wednesday, F-2 excursion and sleepover Thursday and our talent show on Friday. 

Kind regards, 

- Gorgia + Sherryn

Mission Day & The Blessing of the Pets

On Wednesday, the 5th of November, we will be celebrating our Mission Day with a range of activities. 

9:00-10:00am: We will be hosting a Pet Blessing, where we invite pets to school.  We will have a parade for the pets as well as provide an opportunity to show off any special talents your pet may have.  We will follow this with a pet blessing.  We ask that any pets attending are restrained appropriately and are only brought in if they are considered safe around other animals and children.  In the past, students have also brought in their pet's collars or beloved toys in their pets place to be blessed. 

10:00-11:00am: Students will say goodbye to their pets and return to classrooms to participate in an activity celebrating our patron Saint, St. Malachy. 

11:30-1:30am: Students will be conducting and participating in Mission Day activities.  Students may bring in some coins to donate to the cause and participate in these games.  They will not need more than $5 and can give their money to a teacher at the beginning of the day for safe keeping.  Lunch order forms have also been sent home if students wish to purchase their lunch for the day. Students will return to their classrooms for the last hour of the school day. 

Around the rooms

P.E. 

The students are now playing a cricket game with their grade levels, using the skills they have explored and applying them in a real match.  They are working together as a team and strategising how they can win.  The Year 5/6 students also had the opportunity to experience baseball, allowing them to compare the two sports and recognise similarities and differences in rules, techniques and teamwork.

Science

In Science, the Foundation to Year 2 students explored about living and non-living things.  They enjoyed going outside to observe the world around them and investigate how living things breathe, grow, and change.
The Year 3/4 students explored the structure of living things and discovered that humans are “copycats”!  They understand how many of our inventions are inspired by nature for example, airplanes are designed based on how birds move and fly.  Meanwhile, the Year 5/6 students focused on the classification of living things.  They explored how scientists group animals based on shared characteristics and made exciting discoveries such as the fact that whales are not fish, but mammals!

Religion

Foundation to Year 2 students learnt about the birth of Jesus through Sacred Storytelling.  The children listened carefully as they heard the story of how Jesus was born in Bethlehem and how the wise men followed the shining star to bring their gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.  They reflected on the joy and meaning of Jesus’ birth and were asked, “If you were given the chance to give something to Jesus, what would it be?”

In Year 3/4, students explored the Parable of the Prodigal Son.  They listened to the story of a son who left his home but was lovingly welcomed back by his father after making poor choices.  The students reflected on the themes of forgiveness, reconciliation and unconditional love that Jesus shared through this parable.  The students had a choice to make a letter to the father, younger son or the older son expressing their thoughts and feelings from that character’s perspective.

Wellbeing from Carine

St. Malachy’s might be a primary school and the Social Media Delay legislation starting on December 10 might not have any impact on our student cohort, but it is important to have the most up to date information in order to have open and meaningful discussions with, and provide safety to, our children (or even their siblings in high school).  The following is a post written by Paul Litherland and re-shared by APACS (Australian Psychologists and Counsellors in Schools).  It’s a bit long, but worth the read.

Also, please read page 5-7 of the parent guide that he provided in the link at the bottom.  It deals with the risks of children who will attempt to get around the law in order to keep their accounts or remain on social media using a VPN, adult account or an overseas account.  This can be risky, as they will no longer have protection or moderation options which would have been available to them on certain apps, such as parental controls, content filtering and advertising restrictions.

SchoolTV has lots of resources on social media use too, follow this link: https://smedenhope.catholic.schooltv.me/newsletter/social-media-and-digital-reputation

Please contact Carine if you need more information

“With the Social Media Delay legislation starting on December 10, there will be a great deal of apprehension and uncertainty about how it will play out.

There is still a significant lack of clarity regarding how the Social Media networks will respond to the legislation and exactly how they will implement their obligations.

I will therefore attempt to keep you as up to date as I can and inform you of any major issues I am seeing.  I start with my concerns about how Big Tech will address the age gate between 15 & 16 year olds.

Obviously artificial intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) will be able to determine the difference between a 53 year old and a 14 year old, as this is quite a wide gate.

However, when it comes to determining the difference between much smaller gates (14 to 17), I have no doubt we are going to have a huge number of problems!

If you have a 15 year old on TikTok and they look quite mature, they may well go months before being removed by the network.  They might not even be affected at all!  If you have a 20 year old, who looks quite young, they may well be identified as U16 by a network and have their account suspended or deleted.

The networks are likely to act on suspected or confirmed juvenile accounts in a few ways;

• They may simply delete an account and all data without any option for review, in which the user will lose all content and history forever.
• They may suspend the account with a request for the user to prove their age.  This will be in the way of facial recognition, a selfie image/video or other non-formal ID verification.  Depending on the success, the account will either be re-activated or deleted.  If deleted, the user will lose all data and content.
• In the case where initial proof of age cannot be confirmed via AI methods, the platform is likely to ask for formal identification, such as passport or birth certificate.  If such ID is supplied and not trusted or not provided at all, the account might be deleted with all content and history lost.
• Other results could see the user account being deactivated for a period of time until the child can prove their age or until they have actually turned 16.  After which the account may be reactivated with all data and history retained.

Over the past few weeks, I have been advising all of my school kids under the age of 16 to download their data from all the platforms as soon as they can.  Many are worried about losing all of their content, so it is important they do this before December 10.

With some of the apps, data downloads can take hours or days.  With the large number of Australian teens likely to start doing this over the coming weeks, download times are likely to blow out beyond that.

In addition to U16's downloading their data from the apps, I would strongly encourage anyone aged 16 to 24 to do the same!

So please message everyone in your family or peer groups with that advice, as there is a very real chance many of them will wake up on December 11, to find their accounts suspended.

The attached image has instructions on how to download data across most of the platforms which are required to comply with the legislation.

I have also created a Parent Social Media Delay Guide, which gives parents and guardians information on what to expect come December 10, and how they can assist their kids in dealing with the change.”

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1gaxFHxp57Pcn1XVXipWPLSQlCl_KYu9h/view

Production

Rehearsals are revving up, and costumes and props are planned and beginning to take shape.  All students in Years Foundation, One, Two, Three and Four will need to wear black long pants and black long sleeve top.  This needs to be brought from home (closer to the date but please check to ensure you have them).  We will then have costumes which these students can put on over the top making costume changes easy.  The Year 5 & 6 students will have costumes lent to them for their main roles for the night.  They will have time to change completely into this costume before the play begins.

Child safety - Sun Smart!

What's coming up

• Monday, 3rd November - PUPIL FREE DAY - staff P.D.
• Tuesday, 4th November - Melbourne Cup Day - PUPIL FREE DAY
• Wednesday, 5th November - Feast Day (pet blessing/Mission Day)
• Thursday, 6th - Friday, 7th November - F-2 Naracoorte excursion and sleepover @ school
• Friday, 7th November - Talent Show @ 2 p.m.
• Tuesday, 11th November - Remembrance Day
• Thursday, 20th November - School Production @ Apsley
• Friday, 21st November - 2026 Foundation Transition until 11 a.m. recess
• Friday, 28th November - 2026 Foundation Transition until 1.30 p.m. lunch
• Thursday, 4th December - Year 3/4 Cultural Day
• Friday, 5th December - F-2 Lake Bike Ride, 3-4 Big Bike Bonanza Ride, 5-6 T.B.C.
• Tuesday, 9th December - Statewide Transition Day
• Friday, 12th December - Year 5 Leadership Speeches
• Tuesday, 16th December - End of Year Mass @ 5 p.m.
• Wednesday, 17th December - F-2 Sports @ Apsley
• Thursday, 18th December - Last day for students
  

St. Malachy's Mass times are:
1st Sunday: 11.15 a.m.
2nd Sunday: 11.15 a.m.
3rd Sunday: 11.15 a.m.
4th Sunday: 11.15 a.m.
5th Sunday: 11.15 a.m.

St. Malachy's welcomes everyone to join us.

Halloween Disco- 31st October

Bike Education Program

Foundation transition dates