Newsletter - 23rd November 2023
Principal Report
Dear parents and carers,
We don't have to been overly attentive to the news cycle to know the terrible state of conflict in the Gaza region, as well as the ongoing war in Ukraine. Sometimes we can feel so far removed from the impact of all of this suffering, wrapped up in the relative safety of our corner of the world. For any of you who have family that are being impacted by conflict in these or other areas, I hope that your loved ones are safe.
On Sunday, the Feast of Christ the King, our Parish is focused on raising money for Aid to the Church in Need charity, an organisation that supports refugees fleeing war and conflict. The fundraiser will be via a barbeque, in which your purchases of lunch will support this charity. The barbeque follows the 10:00am mass and procession, and will be held in the grounds of St Mary's. I encourage you to contribute if you can, perhaps stopping by for lunch if that is all you can manage at this busy time of year.
Primary Playground Equipment
After a thorough WHS assessment, it has been decided to take down the present equipment on the primary playground and replace it with new. I am in the process of getting some quotes for this and once I have an idea how much is reasonable to ask CEDB to provide, we will seek the students opinions on the type of equipment they would like. If any of you have any expertise in this area or contacts to business that supply and install playground equipment, we would love to hear from you. We are always keen to support local business wherever we can.
Whilst we were getting the primary playground equipment looked at we also assessed the present infants' playground. We have been assured that the infants' equipment meets all current safety standards, although I would imagine that in the next few years we would probably like to update this playground as well. We are always seeking ways to ensure that your child's experience of learning and school life at St Mary's is as rewarding and positive as possible.
In next fortnight's edition of the newsletter I hope to be in a position to announce staffing for 2024. I am currently managing some last minute changes as is usually the case at this time of year. Our wonderful staff are super busy with end of semester reporting and these will be available on Compass on Friday 8 December.
Please spare a thought for our Year 5 students who are in the thick of the leadership process for Year 6. It can be an anxious time for them.
Wishing you a wonderful weekend when it arrives. Hold your loved ones close in gratitude for the peaceful society in which we live.
Gayle Stratton
Religious Education
Prayer
Thirty Third Sunday in Ordinary Time
A reading from the holy Gospel according to Matthew
Because you have been faithful over a few things, enter into the joy of the Lord.
Jesus spoke this parable to his disciples: ‘The kingdom of heaven is like a man on his way abroad who summoned his servants and entrusted his property to them. To one he gave five talents, to another two, to a third one; each in proportion to his ability. Then he set out. Now a long time after, the master of those servants came back and went through his accounts with them. The man who had received the five talents came forward bringing five more. “Sir”, he said “you entrusted me with five talents; here are five more that I have made.” His master said to him, “Well done, good and faithful servant; you have shown you can be faithful in small things, I will trust you with greater; come and join in your master’s happiness.”’
RE News
Year 6 farewell mass will take place on Monday 11th December at 5.45pm at St Mary's Church. Year 6 students are to wear full school uniform.
St Mary's Primary School will celebrate our end of year mass on Tuesday 12th December at 9.30am in St Mary's Church. All parents and friends are warmly welcome.
Christian Leadership Awards
Laith Al Haboubi
Cooper Morrison
Evan Nithin
Arya Patel
Oscar Paine
Riya Shibu
Melaleuca Pickering Reeve
Eloise Quinn
Pippa Frecklington
Reni Morrish
Mila Wright
Levi Trembath
Isobella Buni
Raelene Robin
Ammar Shaikh
Ashleen Varipano
Iza Joseph
Andrea Jose
In recognition of " Community and Common Good"
Thomas King
Lucy Zarella
In recognition of "Positive View of Life"
Class News
It was a great day for garden club . The children all raced over to see if our chickens had laid any eggs, then it was gloves on and straight into gardening. Mr. Benton was busy planting cuttings from our mint tree into smaller pots for the children to take home. While Mrs.Burges was planting beautiful flowers to give the garden some colour. With lots of little helpers Mr. Downey went digging for potatoes and showed all the children the purple cauliflower we currently have growing. We then fed our friendly worms the food scraps from all the green bins in the classrooms. The rest of the time was spent watering the rest of our fruit and vegetables ready for our garden clubbers next week.
Dance concert
St Mary’s students presented their dance concert to our parent community this week. We have been fortunate enough to have Maddie and Clare from Dance Fuse teach grade from Kindy to Year 6 a dance in term 4. Dance is part of our Creative Arts curriculum. The students have absolutely loved participating in dance lessons each week.
My New Gallery
Library News
I would like to recognise the ongoing commitment
the Year Five library monitors have made to the
lunchtime library this year. They have generously given
their time to assist with infants and primary activities.
They have learned all aspects of running our library and are experts at shelving books correctly.
Thank you
Mrs Anne Fredericksen
Sports
SPORTS UNIFORM Term 4 (any changes to the uniform days will be sent out in compass)
Kindergarten - Monday & Friday
Year One - Monday
Year Two - Monday
Year Three - Monday
Year Four - Monday
Year Five - Monday
Year Six - Monday & Friday (Burrendong excursion)
PSSA Athletics Results…
We are delighted to share some exciting news from last month's PSSA Athletics Championships.
Wade finished in 27th place in the state in the 11-year boys high jump; Bonnie was placed 4th in the state in the 11-year girls high jump event (narrowly missing out on the PSSA team selection); Elwyn finished 20th in the state in her 200m event and Mackenzie finished 9th in the state in long jump, 4th for discus, 11th for shot put and 18th in the state in the 100m multiclass. We congratulate these talented students on these amazing achievements!
CEDB Sport Websites: Community Site (has reports from events) for parents, families & teachers:
https://sites.google.com/bth.catholic.edu.au/cedbsportcommunity/home
Canteen News
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Curriculum
Student Wellbeing
School Wide Positive Behaviour for Learning (SPB4L)-SCHOOL UNIVERSALS
As learners at St Mary's we are expected to:
BE SAFE BE RESPECTFUL BE RESPONSIBLE
The aim of SPB4L at St Mary's, is to actively teach and model positive behavioral expectations through consistent, reasonable, and proactive strategies that will foster positive relationships with students, staff, and parents.
BE SAFE ❖ We will keep our hands and feet to ourselves ❖ We will follow the rules of the game
BE RESPECTFUL ❖ We will use kind words ❖ We will follow the teacher directions
BE RESPONSIBLE ❖ We will include others and play fairly ❖ We will engage in our learning
Parent Information
Community News
Surf lifesaving visit
On Wednesday, Years 5 and 6 had a visit from a family of surf lifesavers. They showed all the students how to stay safe around water throughout the summer. Students saw how to identify rips, call for help and experience how they could be rescued. They filmed the students during our lessons and the film will eventually be posted to the Surf Life Saving website.
