Mel Maria Catholic Primary School

Dear Parents

There have been so many opportunities to celebrate learning at Mel Maria this term. Term Four has many traditions to help us celebrate the joy of being members of Mel Maria, community and to enjoy all aspects of community life.

The Pope emphasises that education is a deeply human endeavour, not a cold, technical one. He asks that educators awaken the "smiles in the depths of their students' souls" and remember that "the very joy of the educational process is a profoundly human engagement".

Our Year Six students presented their final assembly this week, and on our Early Childhood Campus, our Pre-Primary students are preparing our Christmas Nativity to be celebrated towards the end of term.

All classes are in preparation for our market stalls at Carols Night and are looking forward to selling their wares to family and friends.

The Festival of the Boot will be celebrated on each campus over the coming weeks. Students taking on staff in a social game of soccer is highly anticipated fun in the midst of final assessments and rounding off a year of exciting learning.

Catholic Education is a proud promoter of lifelong learning. Our Principal, Mr Paul Hille

is continuing this tradition by participating in the Senior Leaders Renewal Leave this past month by travelling through Italy and Spain in this Year of Jubilee for our church. Mr Hille has participated in an audience with His Holiness Pope Leo XIV and offered Mass and prayers for our Mel Maria community. We look forward to hearing about his adventures and learning on his return next week.

The final meeting of our Parents and Friends Committee for the year was held this week. This dedicated group is another great example of how communities such as ours thrive and grow. Our School Advisory Council will meet next week.

I would like to congratulate and thank our P&F Executive Team and all class reps who have contributed to building community life at Mel Maria throughout the year by communicating with parents, contributing to community events, and supporting our teachers and students with fundraising for resources that support high-quality learning opportunities for our students.

Our School Annual Community Meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, 25 November at 3.30pm at our Early Childhood Campus.

We encourage you to come along and to nominate for the positions that will become vacant on the Parents and Friends Committee and the School Advisory Council for 2026. Nomination forms will be sent out via Seesaw.

Enjoy the rest of the term as we continue to celebrate learning each day.

Ros Nichols

Acting Principal

#MakingADifferenceEveryday

Social media age restrictions: Get-ready guide for parents and carers

The eSafety Commissioner has created a guide for parents to help under-16s prepare for the social media age restrictions and stay connected with the people and things they enjoy.

From 10 December 2025, many social media platforms won’t be allowed to let Australians under 16 create or keep an account. This is to protect them from design features that encourage them to spend too much time online and over-expose them to content that can harm their health and wellbeing.

This 8-step guide will help you support under-16s to get ready – including finding other ways they can stay connected, express themselves, find out about things and have fun. The guide covers the following:

Understand what’s changing and why
Start the chat
Help them map their digital world
Encourage them to keep connecting with friends
Explorer safer ways they can belong to communities
Help them save their digital memories
Start reducing your social media use together
Know where to find support

Click on the link below for more information

https://www.esafety.gov.au/parents/social-media-age-restrictions/get-ready-guide

Webinars explaining the restrictions for parents and carers are available on the eSafety website from the 14 November.

https://www.esafety.gov.au/parents/webinars

Prayer for the Week

Heavenly Father,

in this month of November,

we remember with love all our departed brothers and sisters.

You are the God of mercy and compassion;

we entrust to You the souls of all who have gone before us,

especially those who have no one to pray for them.

Grant them, O Lord, eternal rest and let perpetual light shine upon them.

May they rest in peace and share in the joy of Your presence forever.

Strengthen our faith in Your promise of resurrection,

that we may live each day in hope and charity,

mindful that our true home is in Heaven.

Through the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary,

St. Joseph, and all the saints,

may we grow in holiness and love,

until the day we are reunited with our loved ones

in Your everlasting glory.

We ask this through Christ our Lord.

Amen.

It’s been a busy start to Term Four down in Pre-Primary, with many special events such as our first Athletics Carnival, Grandparents Day, Loud Sock Day, and the D.I.S.C.O!

The Pre-Primary children eagerly boarded the bus to Len Shearer Oval, proudly representing their factions with bright smiles and fun accessories. They showed fantastic sportsmanship and bravery under the warm sun, participating enthusiastically in all events. Congratulations to Mercy for taking the win in the overall Pre-Primary events, and to Frayne for winning the overall Athletics Carnival from Pre-Primary to Year Six!

We also celebrated Loud Sock Day, raising funds to support children with hearing loss through Telethon Speech and Hearing. It was a bright and cheerful day filled with colour, laughter, and the wackiest, most wonderful socks you’ve ever seen!

Grandparents; Day was another heartwarming celebration, with the Pater Noster Church filled to the brim as we honoured the special role grandparents play in our lives. The children sang a beautiful blessing song that brought many happy tears, before welcoming their grandparents back into the classrooms to proudly share their learning and creations.

The D.I.S.C.O was an absolute hit, marking the first time our Pre-Primary children joined in the fun! They arrived sparkling in their brightest, most dazzling outfits, ready to hit the dance floor. With big smiles and even bigger moves, they danced the night away and had the time of their lives.

We’re now turning our attention to the most anticipated event of the year — The Nativity Assembly! Our Pre-Primary children are full of excitement as they begin preparing for this wonderful celebration.

What a enjoyable and busy time we’ve had in Year One! We’ve planted our own garden, caring for tiny seeds and watching them grow. Loud Sock Day filled our room with colour and laughter, and Grandparents Day warmed our hearts with proud smiles and songs. Deacon John shared stories about Baptism, inspiring thoughtful questions. We ran, threw, and cheered at the Sports Carnival, showing great teamwork and spirit. And, of course, we danced the night away at the School Disco! It’s been a wonderful term of learning, friendship, and fun — we’re so proud of our amazing Year One stars!

What a busy and exciting term it has been in Year Three! We have been working hard, learning new skills, and sharing many special experiences together.

Last week we were delighted to welcome our grandparents to school for Grandparents Day. It was such a joy to show them our classroom, share some of our learning, and listen to their stories about what school was like when they were children. We were fascinated to hear how different things were back then. No iPads, no smartboards, and definitely no online learning! It was a wonderful opportunity to celebrate the special role our grandparents play in our lives.

In Digital Technologies, we have been learning how to code the spheros to follow Mary’s journey to Bethlehem. We used algorithms and coding commands to make our Spheros travel along the path Mary and Joseph might have taken. This helped us combine our Religious Education learning with our growing digital skills, and we had so much fun testing and refining our programs.

A special highlight of this year has been completing our Sacrament of Reconciliation. This was a meaningful milestone in our faith journey, and we took time to reflect on forgiveness, kindness, and making good choices. We are now using everything we have learnt to prepare a very special assembly to share with the whole school in two weeks time. We can’t wait to perform and show everyone what a wonderful group of learners we have in Year Three!

Year Four commenced the term with an enriching excursion to the Fremantle Literature Centre. During the visit, students engaged with authors, illustrators, and a string quartet who presented the story Stick Man. The musical accompaniment enhanced the experience, bringing the story to life through music. This experience inspired students to extend their creativity through their own imaginative writing.

Back in the classroom, students embarked on an exciting Robotics unit in Technologies. With the support of Mr P, they have been developing their coding and problem-solving skills through a series of hands-on activities using programmable robots.

In addition, we also celebrated Grandparents' Day with a morning of shared learning, games, and creative experiences. The morning provided a wonderful opportunity for students to connect with their grandparents and create lasting memories. It has truly been a joyful period of learning, collaboration, and discovery.

Mel Maria SEEDS TOM STEM team wins the SYDNEY TOM INTERNATIONAL FINALS

Edith Cowan University (ECU) hosted the State Tournament of Mind State competition on 20th September. More than 180 students competed and Mel Maria were selected as the WA representative team for STEM primary.

This win saw them compete for Western Australia at the Tournament of Mind International finals in Sydney on the 29 October to the 2 November. Mel Maria was awarded first place as the overall winners in the international TOM primary STEM category.

The International finals competition took place at the prestigious University of NSW. Students competed against all the Australian States and overseas teams in the discipline of STEM. They were required to complete an unseen lock in challenge in three hours and then perform their solution to a panel of interstate judges. This year’s task asked students to use laser pointer technologies to set up a working model for a coding system that sends messages via light. They needed to contextualise its use, create a coding system, and set up an intercepting point that redirected the light source once the message had been sent. Using the design process model students presented a highly engaging scenario highlighting and explaining their working model of a light maze, the STEM principles involved alongside a chart featuring the diagrammatical model detailing its science and mathematical understandings.

TOM is designed to develop vital skills such as time management, innovation, and teamwork by engaging students in solving complex problems within a competitive environment. Working collaboratively, participants address open-ended challenges across four key areas — The Arts, STEM, Language Literature, and Social Sciences — fostering creativity, critical thinking, and interdisciplinary learning. This year over 10,000 students took part in the Tournament of Minds competition.

Through the TOM program, students apply their knowledge in practical contexts, gaining real-world experience that helps them expand their understanding and build essential skills for the future workforce. The TIF 2025 theme, Innovate & Inspire, captured the essence of what Tournament of Minds is all about. At its heart is the Spirit of TOM, embracing creativity, collaboration, and resilience. It’s about transforming challenges into opportunities and turning imagination into impact. In this space, innovation is celebrated, and inspiration is contagious. We are proud that Mel Maria has been seen as a leading presence in this competition.

Mel Maria students from Year 2 - Year 6 participate in weekly math problem solving sessions through a range of national programs. We would like to congratulate Joachim Yeow and Joseph Xu who scored in the top 25% of Australia in the APSMO Math Olympiad Competition. Joachim was the highest scorer and received a medal for his outstanding achievement and passion for math and problem solving.

Our esteemed writer Gianluca Colalillo has been awarded a ‘Highly Commended’ in the middle primary category of the Craig Silvey Award where there were over 1200 entries across the state. Gianluca a WOW SEEDS student made the top 8 in this highly prized competition with his piece “The Failure Hunt”. His original prose was deeply philosophical, demonstrated a strong use of sophisticated language choices and came to a highly creative end. We congratulate him on his dedication to the written word and this outstanding achievement.

7 Ways to Teach Your Child About Kindness

We all want to make the world a better place. Raising kind children is part of it but kindness for children doesn’t always happen by accident.

We have to intentionally raise our children to be kind, and practice kind behaviour daily. Studies show that kindness makes children happier, reduces stress, and improves self-esteem.

Evidence shows that many children are inclined to be helpful and altruistic. However, there is much we can do to both teach and reinforce this behaviour. Reinforcing and modelling this aspect of social emotional development is key.

Here are 7 ways to encourage kindness in your child, and to help them understand what really matters.

1. Model kindness.

2. Practice perspective taking.

3. Teach self-compassion.

4. Use mindful speech.

5. Instill good manners.

6. Help others.

7. Notice the effects of kindness.

For the full article click on the below link:

https://thoughtfulparent.com/kindness-for-kids.html

Reference

Webb, A. (2020, Jun 24). 7 Ways to Teach Your Child About Kindness. https://thoughtfulparent.com/kindness-for-kids.html