SUPPORT NEEDED FOR CHRISTMAS HAMPERS

Each year, I am truly inspired by the incredible generosity of our school families, who never fail to step up when we call for donations.

Thanks to your support of the Christmas Appeal last year, our Bentleigh Vinnies volunteers were able to assemble nearly 60 hampers. These were distributed to families in need, helping them create a joyful Christmas celebration during challenging times.

This year, as we continue to face difficulties that affect many within our own community, I encourage you to consider adding just one extra item to your shopping list to contribute to these hampers.

Michelle Gibson has included a flyer in the Community Engagement section of this Newsletter outlining the items most needed. Additionally, if your children have any toys they have outgrown, these would be greatly appreciated to bring smiles to children who might otherwise go without this Christmas.

Thank you in advance for your kindness and generosity in supporting those who need it most. Together, we can make a real difference.

STAFF CHANGES 2025

Two teachers have requested and been granted Leave for the 2025 school year.

Mandi Mackey (Currently Year Four Classroom Teacher) will be taking leave to travel  in 2025. We wish Mandi and her family safe journeys and look forward to her return in 2026.

Mia Hunt (currently Year One Classroom Teacher) has been granted leave to pursue study and to explore options outside Primary school teaching. We look forward to hearing what 2025 brings for Mia.

SCHOOL NURSE 2025

We will be employing a School Nurse to work at St Peter’s next year. The hours will be 22.5 hours per week, 10:30am to 3:00pm Monday to Friday commencing 27th of January 2025. If you know anyone who might be interested please share this link with them.

https://teacherson.net/vacancy/location/australia/vic/position/37-support-nurse-first-aid-officer

END OF TERM FOUR REMINDER 

The last compulsory day for students this term will be Friday, 13th December. On this day we will celebrate our end of year school Mass at 10:00am and our final assembly will be at 2:30pm with school finishing at 3:20pm. 

Monday, 16th and Tuesday, 17th December are optional days. On these days students will attend if it is your wish as parents and guardians. On these days students are required to wear school uniform and will participate in activities within their levels. School will finish at 3:20pm on both of these days.

Today you will receive an Operoo form asking you to indicate whether your children will or will not be at school on the optional days of the 16th and 17th of December. Please complete this by the end of this week, Friday, 29th November.

THANKYOU 

I would like to thank the families who have been so respectful of the opening of the gates on Centre Road in the afternoon. By not arriving before 3:00pm you are keeping our school and wider community safe.

CLASSES 2025 

Organisation of classes at St Peter's follows these steps.

1. Students name 5 fellow students that they believe they will work well with. They are promised one of these students.
2. Teachers then create classes for next year taking into consideration

• Separations recommended by previous teachers
• Separations recommended by current teachers
• Balance of boys and girls
• Balance of academic abilities with particular focus on spread of children with specific learning needs
• Balance of different personalities
• Students choices

3. Once these classes are created  they are checked by our Learning Diversity Leader, our Literacy Leader,  Numeracy Leader and our Teaching and Learning Leader against the data they have on the students to ensure academic balance.

4. A couple of sessions are held in these groups for teachers to evaluate them as a learning group.

5. The completed lists are provided to me with information that identifies previous class experiences. In this step I consider the following.

• If I have moved a teacher from a lower grade into a higher grade how many children in each class would repeat that teacher if they were in that teacher's class.
• Over a students time in primary school balancing out shared classes and full time class teachers
• I aim to have as many students as possible experience a male teacher in their time in primary school. As students head into senior grades the created class with the largest number of children who haven't had a male teacher are likely to have a male teacher.

As you can see this is a long detailed process that begins at the start of Term Four. The process does not have a place for parents to request specific teachers or for parents to request changes once classes are decided. 

I hope this gives background for the long and detailed process we follow at St Peter’s.

Our commitment is to put students in the best learning environment possible. While friendships are relevant they are the final consideration when creating classes. Ultimately parents choose St Peter’s because they believe in all  we provide and that our commitment to our students will always be our focus.

CAROLS -  WEDNESDAY, 4th DECEMBER 

All Gates will open at 5:30pm and the carols will commence at 6:30pm.  As students are in attendance it is an alcohol free event. I also ask that no food is consumed on Casey and that if you are having a picnic or eating beforehand you use areas other than Casey. 

The order of performance is :

Foundation: Away in a Manger and Santa Wear Your Shorts

Years 1 & 2: Santa Claus is Coming and Little Drummer Boy 

Years 3 & 4: Jingle Bell Rock and Joy to the World

Years 5 & 6: Go Tell it on the Mountain and We Wish You a Merry Christmas

Presentations

Christmas Choir: Do you Hear What I Hear and 12 Days of Christmas 

Gates Close at 8:00pm

NEW CLASS DAY

On Monday, 9th December our current students in Foundation to Year Five will spend an hour with their 2025 class teacher. This coincides with the Parents and Friends Sausage Sizzle and Casual Clothes Day.  As we will have a number of students from other schools visiting EVERYONE is free to wear casual clothes so no one stands out as being new. 

START TO 2025 SCHOOL YEAR

The first day for all pupils starting at St Peter’s will be Thursday, 30th January.

If you're looking for a place to go on the holidays well I have the place for you! MONOPOLY DREAMS is the best for carnival games, getting the deeds to famous places in Australia, dodging lasers to grab a diamond, watching a 4D movie and grabbing money in a fan room(I went with St. Peter’s).

We were led to the laser maze first by our amazing tour guide Jerry. It was very cool. The room was dark and there were lasers everywhere.To start you would press a green button, then crawl through the lasers and press the yellow button at the end then crawl back and press the red button at the start again.

Then we when to the electricity company and the water works. At the electricity company the power in the city went down and we had to restart it.

Carnival was pretty fun. There were 2 games: roll the ball, bean bag toss and the photo booth and I got the deed to Sydney Opera House.

Then we looked at all of the versions of Monopoly and we got to wear cool hats and cloaks.

Then we all went over to the ca$h grab. It was really fun! Everyone liked it. I currently have $700. Dom in 5HG has the most with 1,350 monopoly money.

Then we went… HEY I WAS FRAMED I WAS FRAMED! That was what they all say. Well then we were in jail and it was ok there as we got to unlock codes and put on costumes.

The 4D movie was ok. But I wish it was longer.

But in the end MONOPOLY DREAMS is an AMAZING VERY GOOD PLACE TO GO.

By Jobe Wilson 5PC

If you are a monopoly lover, you should definitely go and visit Monopoly Dreams at Melbourne Central. This place is filled with carnival games, trying to catch monopoly money, photo booths and even a 3D movie that sprays you with water! If I were you I would recommend going to this place if you have the chance to, and I promise you will have an absolute blast!

On Wednesday the 20th of November, the Year 5s went to Monopoly Dreams for an excursion. When we got there, we were greeted by kind staff who showed us the way to the big room where all of us would be sitting. They then explained all of the rules we had to follow in order to have a fun and amazing time at Monopoly Dreams!

All of the classes then set off into groups and went to their first activities. My class's first activity was the Laser Maze, and if I tell you that it was amazing, that is such an understatement. You had to click a green button in order to start, you then had to crawl through all of the lasers, click a yellow button, and then crawl back and click a red button in order to finish, all in a time limit of 60 seconds!

Our next activity was the electricity company and waterworks. The electricity company was a room where you had to tap your hand really really fast in order for the full bar to light up. There was also a different one where you had to use your feet and you had to run fast instead, but for some reason none of them worked for me.

Waterworks was fun though. You had this big screen in front of you and on the screen there would be broken pipes and the pipes you need to fix it would be falling down the screen. You had to quickly drag them in place in order to fix the pipes and I loved it!

Our next activity was the carnival games ansd these kept me entertained the whole time! There was around 3 games and a photobooth. One of the three games was a game where you had to roll a ball and land it exactly on to an orange circle without it falling into a hole and this was very hard.

The next game was where you had to throw bean bags and land them on 3 circles but they would get further and further away each time. They even had springs on the bottom of the circles so it would be harder to land all of the beanbags on top of them.

The last game was where you had to put a bouncy ball onto a platform and in order to move the ball, you had to spin a wheel and land it into a box. This game was very hard and I didn't complete it once!

Our next activity was looking at all of the history of Monopoly, and as a history lover, I loved this! Learning about history just is very interesting to me and I find it cool to learn about how things evolved over time. While we were looking at each of the monopoly games over the years, I couldn't believe the ones that were there. They had a disney princess, stranger things, dinosaur and many more other ones that I cant remember!

After history we went to go watch a 3d movie that moves you around in your seats and even sprays you with air and water! Something was going on with the 3d glasses so it was a shame that we couldn't use them but we still had a an amazing time getting squirted with water and our seats moving around!

Our next activity was the money grab and this personally was my favourite! You were put in a clear box and there was money scattered all over the ground. The box would then fill up with air causing all of the money to fly around and the aim of the game was for you to catch as much money as you could, but you couldn't pick it up off of the ground and you couldn't use your clothing to help you grab money and that included, holding out your shirt or stuffing the money in your pockets. Afterwards we even got to keep the money and I got $190!

We still had some time left, so we went back to the laser maze again and we had a blast!

After that, we still had time so we went back to the money grab but we didn’t get to keep the money we got that time.

Overall, I had such an amazing experience at Monopoly Dreams and definitely plan to go again since they gave us free tickets, so that next time we go, we can go for free!

We thanked all of the staff for having us and giving us an amazing experience overall!!

By Mya Thorpe 5PC

On Wednesday the Year 5s went to the heart of the city to visit Monopoly Dreams. It took an hour to get there but it was worth it because the experience was so much fun and we would highly recommend it if you want a fun day out with the family. 

The Year 5s had to go through a series of tasks that were related to how to save money and spending it. When we walked in we saw a shiny silver helicopter that we took a photo at. 

There were so many different activities that we did like Money Grab, a 4D Movie, Crack the Code in Jail, Lazer Maze, Water Works, Carnival and ect. The 4D movie is a really cool experience because your chair moves in sync with the movie and sprays water on your face like when you spray a cat for being naughty and wind blows behind your head, you wear 3D glasses and it feels like you're in the movie.

In jail we had to crack a three digit code and once you got it you could get out of jail. There was also a jail fashion show where you could dress up like a prisoner and take a mugshot.

After all classes had finished the activities we came together to have lunch. The last thing we did before we headed back to school was plan a party for the Monopoly staff. We each had a budget of five hundred dollars that we needed to spend on specific categories to make the party, well a party! Some groups managed to keep within the budget and some went way over. Altogether it was a really fun way to learn about money.

We thank the staff at Monopoly Dreams for letting us go there and being so kind. We also thank Tom Siegert and Kirsty Lentine for coming along to the excursion with us. 

By Alexandra and Sophie 5AC

Monopoly Dreams, the new exciting event in Melbourne Central. It is a Monopoly themed place filled with exciting games to do with your family and friends. There are places to dress up and take photos. The board comes to life in this venue.

The tour in the place started when we played Money Grab. You had 20 seconds to grab money as it flew around a small glass room, it was all Monopoly money though. You could play it by yourself or with a partner, it was one of the best activities there. 

Jail Break was the second activity, you would go into a jail cell and try and solve a code to break out. Many people can play this game and everyone  found it thrilling and exciting.

Once you escaped you had to steal Mr Monopoly’s big and expensive diamond, dodge the bright red lasers and press the yellow button and dodge the lasers and press the red button. It was the best activity yet, everyone found it the best!

Water works, fix the pipes so that the water doesn’t gush out and spill. Once you fix the pipes money flies down on the screen and you have to click it.

4D movies  are super cool in my opinion, the air that gushes out, the water that sprays and the flashing lights are just breathtaking, literally. I loved it so much, definitely the highlight of the excursion.

I recommend this to board game lovers, especially Monopoly lovers. Everyone loved the excursion and had the best time ever! Everyone in Year Five loved our excursion and we would all love to go again.

By Aarav K 5AC

In the meantime keep Active by Walking, Riding or Scootering to school whenever you can!!

Don't forget to have your cards clipped whenever you walk, ride or scooter to school and return your completed cards to the office to receive a new one.

NEXT P&F MEETING - TODAY - MONDAY, 25th NOVEMBER 7PM

We look forward to seeing all our existing and new P&F members at our meeting on TONIGHT at 7pm. Join us for the latest news from our Principal and discussions about our upcoming events. All parents are welcome !

Rebecca and Natasha 

P&F Leadership Team 

Mango Fundraiser Drive  

Our delicious mangoes are scheduled to arrive soon! We will notify you regarding pick up days and times shortly. 

A huge thank you to Rahul Dudeja who once again expertly led and organised the Mango Fundraiser. A reminder that all proceeds from the 2024 Mango drive will go towards funding the St Peter's STEM program, enhancing students' experiences in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.

Get excited... the St Peter's Colour Fun Run is nearly here!!

1.45pm we kick off the Colour Run on school grounds. All parents are welcome to attend. 

Children are reminded to bring a white or light coloured t-shirt. Parents are reminded to bring a towel for your car trip home!

We look forward to an extremely fun and very colourful afternoon!!

Don't forget your gold coin donation.

Christmas Carols  – Week 9 –  Wednesday, 4th December - From 5.30pm - Gates close at 8.00pm  

Sausage Sizzle / Casual Day  - Week 10 - Monday, 9th December 

We will be holding our last Sausage Sizzle for the year on Monday 9th December. Wear some festive clothes and get into the Christmas spirit.

Please note No Late Orders will be Accepted.

• Not baptised at all
• Baptised in another Christian tradition
• Have one Catholic parent
• Have another Catholic person in their lives who has witnessed good Christianity

It would be assumed that the child’s parents are supportive of his/her desire to become a Catholic.

The children travelling the RCIC journey take a similar path to the adults, but with their own catechist.  They join the adults for the key liturgical moments, such as:

• Rite of Acceptance (when they are introduced formally to the parish family during a weekend parish Mass)
• Rite of Election (when they are formally presented to the Archbishop in the Cathedral on the 1^st Sunday of Lent)
• Scrutinies (3^rd, 4^th and 5^th Sunday of Lent in preparation for their initiation at Easter)

For more information please contact

Donrita Reefman

Pastoral Coordinator

PacHolyTrinityParish@cam.org.au

Get ready to kick off the holiday season with family and friends at Glen Eira’s Carols in the Park! Hosted by the hilarious Colin Lane, this festive celebration features an incredible lineup of performers including:

 Lucy Durack
 Rudolph’s Christmas Celebration Show
 Shauntai
 The Australian Girls Choir
 The Glen Eira Band

Starting at 4.00pm, there’ll be roving entertainment, Christmas crafts, face painting, and a special visit from Santa.

Food trucks will be available, or feel free to bring your own picnic and enjoy the festivities.

️Saturday, 14th December, 4pm – 8pm
Bentleigh Hodgson Reserve, Higgins Road, Bentleigh
No bookings required – just bring your holiday cheer!