Dear families,

The last couple of weeks have seen us settle into the school year with learning and teaching taking top priority.   Our classes are all following the MACS ‘Vision for Instruction’ in ensuring we are being explicit in our instruction and ensuring our students receive the very best.  We remain committed to making the learning visible for our learners.  Linked is the MACS ‘Vision for Instruction’ for parents so you can align the vision with our practices here at MQH.

Last week we gathered as a school for Ash Wednesday Mass.  It was so  lovely to see our students gather in faith, it was equally beautiful to welcome many of our families to the Mass.  We thank Father Dishan for always making these special Masses meaningful and relatable to our children. 

Dear families,

The start to our school year has been a really smooth and beautiful one.  The children are settled into the routines of the day and our learning and teaching programs are a buzz with questions, curiosity and challenge. 

In the coming weeks we will enter the season of Lent, a time when we  remember the love of God that is poured out through His son Christ Jesus.  It is a time for self reflection and to seek forgiveness for the wrongs we have done.

“Heavenly Father, I’m truly sorry for the moments today where I missed the mark. I ask for your forgiveness and the strength to better follow Your call tomorrow. Amen.”

The past weeks have seen us gather together at our Welcoming Mass.  This was a beautiful celebration of our growing community.  It was a special time to gather in prayer and acknowledge that it takes many parts to make a school successful and we are all contributors to that success.  The children’s reverence and prayerful approach to Mass was beautiful to witness.

Today’s newsletter has a section on the importance of Cyber safety.  Please ensure, as parents, you are monitoring your children’s online behavior including what  they are watching. Viewing anything over PG is not recommended or primary aged children.  We are currently actively stopping games on the yard related to Squid Games and the like – this is inappropriate for 5-12 year olds.

Dear families,

Last week we welcomed many of the year 1-6 children for their initial testing for 2025.  It was so wonderful to make those connections before school starts today.  

The Preps had a wonderful start on Friday, lots of laughs, smiles and very few tears.  

This year the Church celebrates the Jubilee year.  This takes place every 25 years in our Catholic Church.  This year Pope Francis has called us to be Pilgrims of Hope.  We are all on a journey, as such we are all pilgrims. We journey towards Jesus with hope and love in our hearts.  This Jubilee Prayer will be taught to the children throughout the school year.

The Jubilee Prayer

Father in heaven,

may the faith you have given us

in your son, Jesus Christ, our brother,

and the flame of charity enkindled

in our hearts by the Holy Spirit,

reawaken in us the blessed hope

for the coming of your Kingdom.

May your grace transform us

into tireless cultivators of the seeds of the Gospel.

May those seeds transform from within both humanity and the whole cosmos

in the sure expectation

of a new heaven and a new earth,

when, with the powers of Evil vanquished,

your glory will shine eternally.

May the grace of the Jubilee

reawaken in us, Pilgrims of Hope,

a yearning for the treasures of heaven.

May that same grace spread

the joy and peace of our Redeemer

throughout the earth.

To you our God, eternally blessed,

be glory and praise for ever.

Amen

Dear Mary Queen of Heaven Families,

Welcome to the school year of 2025. We are so delighted to be welcoming 74 prep students and their families to Mary Queen of Heaven.  We sincerely hope you feel the warm welcome of our school community as you begin your time with us. Today’s newsletter is designed to remind our current families and introduce our new families to our systems and processes and to share general information with you all.  As always, please reach out if you have questions or queries. 

Dear Families,

As we enter the Season of Advent, as a school community we will be focusing on ‘Looking Back, Looking Forward and Looking Around’ as we look, we seek to find Jesus.  Jesus is with us every day in every way, but in our busyness sometimes we forget to look for and acknowledge his presence.  This season of Advent, let’s try and slow down so that our looking for Jesus moments can indeed be intentional.

Families are invited to attend the sacred space each morning to compose a prayer and add to our Advent tree.  Families are also invited to join us on a Monday morning at 8:50 for a prayer service during Advent.

Advent taking action Christmas Appeal – Helping Hands

Christmas is a time for giving and what better way than to partner with one of the most generous organisations in our Community – Helping Hands Mission.  

Helping Hands Mission our local not-for-profit charity organisation, with five Op Shops across Melbourne’s north west suburbs. They rely on the sales in their stores to fund our Emergency and Material Programs. Helping Hands Mission accepts financial, material and food pantry donations.

This Christmas, our schools ‘Taking Action’ linked to our RE Units is to gather Christmas treats to give to the needy this Christmas.  Beginning this week we invite families, extended family, friends – the whole community to drop items into our school office.  On Tuesday 10th December our school leaders will deliver our goods to Helping Hands to be distributed out into the community.  Items we are seeking for donation:

Chocolates

Lollies

Candy Canes

Biscuits

Gingerbread/Shortbread

Christmas Bon-Bons

Christmas Puddings

Custard

Lets all get behind this initiative and model to our children the real meaning of Christmas.

Come, Lord Jesus,

You who took time to notice lilies bobbing,

Birds soaring, and bread rising,

Come and slow me down.

You who took time to dine with acquaintances,

Go fishing with your apostles,

And barbecue breakfast on the beach for your friends,

Come and slow me down.

You who took time to play with children,

Listen to people’s stories,

And share their joys and sorrows,

Come and slow me down.

When my mind is crammed with plans,

When my “to-do” list is pages long,

When I feel carried away by conflicting concerns,

Come and slow me down.

Give me the grace to stop and to be—

With you, with others,

With my own hopes, fears, questions, and dreams.

Come and slow me down.

Help me to bear you slowly but surely into the world,

A world languishing and lovely,

Dark and delightful, sinful and saintly.

Come and slow me down.

Remind me each day that the race is not always to the swift; that there is more to life than increasing its speed. 

Come and slow me down.

Through all of the external noise this festive season, let my heart and mind be still, calmy anticipating the joy and hope of Christmas Day.

Come and slow me down.

Dear Families,

Today we welcomed our incoming Preps for 2025 for their first transition day.  It was a wonderful day filled with curiosity, smiles and giggles.  A smooth morning that gave our little learners and their families a taste of life at Mary Queen of Heaven.  Today we gathered in prayer for our new little preppies;

Heavenly Father, 

We give you our hopes, worries and fears as our little child starts school. We pray that you will fill their hearts with excitement and calm their worries with your love. 

Please go before them, help them make friends, enjoy their learning and build relationships with their teachers. May we learn to entrust them each day into your care, and as we do may they grow in confidence and independence. 

Father, may joy abound in their hearts as they enter this new exciting season of their lives. 

In Jesus’ name. 

Amen

IMPORTANT MESSAGE

School finishes at 1 pm Thursday 14th November and re-opens at 2:30 for the art show.  Please be at school to collect children no later than 1pm

Dear Lord,

We ask that you be present in this space.

Lord, as we prepare for the coming of a new term make us ready, attentive and available to hear you.

Thank You for the gift of being able to rise each day with the assurance that You walk through it with us.

Thank You for the gifts of creativity and uniqueness, and the energy to put them to good use.

May all that we are today, all that we try to do today, may all our encounters, reflections, even the frustrations and failings all be place in your hands.

May the work we do and the way we do it, bring new hope, new life, and courage to all we come in contact with this term. We thank you, Lord.

We make this prayer through Christ Our Lord, Amen.

Dear Families,

Welcome to term 4.  We have so many exciting events planned for term 4 – some to celebrate our learning, some community events and some events in readiness to welcome our preps for 2025.

Fri 25th October – Personal Safety Day – Wear a splash of Red

Mon 28th Oct- Fri 1st Nov– Family Learning Walks (please book in advance)

Thurs 14th November – Art Show

Sat 16th November- Parish Fete

Wed 11th December- Christmas Carols

October is the Month of the Rosary.  We will be taking time this term to teach the children how to pray the Rosary.  Each class will also be creating their own Rosary Beads for our prayer spaces.  Below is a graphic that explains how to pray the Rosary. It would be lovely if you could spend some time in your homes dedicating time to this prayer. The Rosary Project is a great resource that you may like to explore: The Rosary Project .

Dear Families,

In recent weeks our year 6 children celebrated the sacrament of Confirmation.   A celebration that reminded us of the power of the Holy Spirit and how we can allow it to work through us.  It was an honor and privilege to take our candidates though the learning about The Holy Spirit and see them Confirmed.  Many thanks to Rachel and Pauline who prepared our children and their families so thoroughly and ensured the sacrament was a beautiful celebration.

“If you love me, keep my commands.  And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever—  the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you.  I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.  Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live.  On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you.  Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me. The one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love them and show myself to them.”   –John 14:15-21

Dear families,

Today we celebrate the  Feast of The Assumption. The feast of Mary’s Assumption is a preview of what our lives will be. At the end of her earthly life, Mary was assumed, or taken up, into heaven body and soul. She did not have to wait for the end of the world, as we do. God granted her this special privilege because of her sinlessness and her fullness of grace.

May we turn to Mary as a guide and beacon who shows us how to live a life of love, courage, respect and humility.

Mary, Queen of Heaven, Pray for us.

God chose Mary to be the mother of his son, Jesus. Mary was always ready and willing to do whatever God wanted. Because she was so special she was taken up body and soul to be with Jesus in heaven – this is what ‘Assumption’ means. What qualities of Mary would we like to grow in our lives?

In recent weeks we celebrated Grandparents day.  It was so wonderful to see so many Grandparents take part in activities and engage with their grandchildren.  It was our pleasure to host this special day and witness the love between the generations.  The children absolutely loved this special time, thank you to all of those who were able to join us.  

This beautiful image was captured on the day and used by MACS to commemorate Grandparents Day.

Last Monday our school closure day provided an opportunity for our staff to unpack the MACS 2030 Vision for Instruction.  Our staff will work towards the goals set out in this document to ensure we are  offering high impact teaching strategies and high levels of engagements in every aspect of our teaching and learning.  Following an audit on Monday, it was pleasing to know we have many rich and rigorous practices emerging, consolidating and embedded happening across the school.  We will do our best to share these with you via our newsletter and socials.

Dear families,

Welcome to Term 3.  We trust that you have had a restful school holiday break.  The children have rested well and are ready for an action packed Term 3.  We are so delighted to be hosting many community based events in Term 3, where families and extended community can come into our beautiful school and celebrate in all of our learning.  Please keep a close eye on our social media platforms and Audiri for more information.  Our school calendar is always live on the homepage of our school website.

As we reflect on the legacy of Saints Anne and Joachim, let us also reflect on the vital role played by all grandparents in completing the loving family unit and nurturing the faith of future generations. Grandparents can take a vital part in the training of their grandchildren, teaching them to love the ways of the Lord and honour his commandments. It was Saints Anne and Joachim who cultivated in the young Mary a love for God, preparing her for her role in the story of divine redemption.

From Pope Francis:

We look forward to welcoming many grandparents to our Grandparent Day celebration tomorrow.