Newsletter Term 2 - 2nd May 2024

Welcome back to all families to what is shaping up to be a busy Term 2 already. It is such a joy to see so many happy faces return to school and the excitement students display when they greet their friends and teachers of a morning. The students have settled in beautifully to their classes. As I walk around the classrooms it is so lovely to see the children so engaged in their learning.

Teachers have prepared Term 2 Key Learning Area overviews to share with parents and carers. These are and overview of what each grade is learning in each subject, homework expectations and other information regarding your child's learning in Term 2. These will be emailed to parents and carers early next week.

I would like to extend a big thank you to Mr Meyers and our Year 6 leaders who prepared a very moving ANZAC Day liturgy paying respects to the service men who fought in WWI.

Walk to School Safely Day

As part of the PDHPE curriculum the school covers Road Safety. To mark National Road Safety Week from the 6-10 of May, the students are invited to walk to school on Thursday the 9th May. 

For the walk, families will meet at Robertson Park at 7.45am and walk down Byng street to school. Mrs Crum and Mrs Cranney are looking forward to walking with you!

There is an invitation and permission slip on compass for any families interested in participating in the walk. Please fill in the permission slip for your child to attend. Every child must be accompanied by a parent or grandparent/carer. We look forward to having families join us on our walk to school.

Welcome back! 

Welcome back to Term 2. This term we will be celebrating numerous liturgies and Masses together. 

As we continue through the Easter season, we have glorious hope in Christ through the power of His resurrection. We are offered a joyous message that He is not dead, He is risen. What a strength to know that because of His resurrection, God has promised us the power of eternal life too and it doesn’t start when we die. It started the moment we placed our faith in Jesus.

Project Compassion 

As a school community we have raised a total of $684.25. Thank you for your support and generosity, this will be forwarded to Caritas Australia. 

ANZAC Day Liturgy

This week we acknowledged our ANZACS and all those who have fought, continue to fight and have died in conflicts around the world. Our Year 6 leaders lead our service with reverence and pride. 

Catholic Schools Week

Next week, all schools within the diocese celebrate Catholic Schools Week. The theme this year is “Experience the Spirit of Community”. This is quite fitting for the wonderful community that St Mary’s is. At St Mary’s, students will participate in a number of in class activities which will end with our Mother’s Day liturgy. 

Mother’s Day Liturgy 

Year 1 will be leading our Mother’s Day liturgy next Friday the 10th. The liturgy will take place promptly in the hall at 12:30pm. All are welcome to attend. 

First Reconciliation and First Holy Communion

This term students in Year 3 who have been Baptised Catholic will celebrate the sacrament of First Reconciliation and First Holy Communion. Information in regard to these sacraments has been sent out via Compass. Students will celebrate these sacraments over a number of weekends in June. For more information please contact the Sacramental Coordinator Liss Ryan at the Parish Office. 

First Holy Communion dates 

Saturday 1/6/24 5pm at St Mary’s Church

Sunday 2/6/24 8:30am at St Joseph’s Church

Sunday 2/6/24 10am at St Mary’s Church

Saturday 8/6/24 5pm at St Mary’s Church

Sunday 9/6/24 8:30am at St Joseph’s Church

Sunday 9/6/24 10am at St Mary’s Church

Saturday 15/6/24 5pm at St Mary’s Church

Sunday 16/6/24 8:30am at St Joseph’s Church

Sunday 16/6/24 10am at St Mary’s Church

Parish Grade Masses 

Parish Masses occur on Tuesdays at 9:30am. The following classes will attend Mass on the following days.  

Week 3- Year 6 (14/5)

Week 6- Year 5 (4/5)

Week 8- Year 4 (18/6)

Week 10- Year 3 (2/7)

Wishing you a wonderful term. 

Mr Joshua Meyers

Acting Religious Education Coordinator 

Get Set to Learn - Sensory Motor Program - Kindergarten

At St Mary's, we understand how important it is to build strong foundations for learning. During Term 1, our Kindergarten students participated in the sensory motor program provided by Seed Paediatric Services. The program focuses on building foundations in sensory and motor development, which facilitates higher levels of cognitive and fine motor skills which are required for academic learning.

The program involved a sequence of activities designed to enhance postural stability, motor planning, coordination and fine motor control of the hands and eyes. The activties provided opportunities for students to challenge their balance, crawl against resistance, push, pull, lift, and carry heavy and large objects. All these sensory motor development skills relate to and contribute to important learning processes such as attention, memory, self-regulation and overall academic achievement throughout childhood. Most importantly, the children were encouraged to play and have fun so they were motivated to move their body in new ways.

The weekly program was developed by Occupational Therapists at Seed Paediatric Services and was conducted by OT Assistant, Rachael Curran. We would like to thank the team from Seed and Bella Hanna, who volunteered her time for the term to assist.

Sally Curran (Primary Coordinator)

UPSTAGE - Performing Arts

Upstage is a non-for-profit organisation that is dedicated to providing opportunities in the arts for young people from regional communities in Australia. Our students spent half a day singing, dancing and acting with industry professionals. The children were able to experience all three aspects of the performing arts, led by experts in their field. This incursion enriched our Creative Arts learning and teaching program which covers Music, Drama and Visual Arts.  It was wonderful to see how engaged the children were and to see the joy on their faces!  What some of the students had to say....

"It was great because it got everyone invloved."   

"We loved learning to sing, dance and act!"  "It was spaghettily amazing!" 

"Acting was really, really good and I enjoyed it the most." 

"It was so fun! We got to experience different things like singing, drama and dance." 

Sally Curran (Primary Coordinator)

ANZAC Day March 2024

We had a wonderful turn out for the Anzac March last Thursday. Our students represented our community with such pride.

On behalf of St Mary's, our school captains, Elwyn and Braxton, laid a wreath at the Cenotaph during the Anzac ceremony in Robertson Park after the March. 

Thanks to Mr Meyers for preparing a beautiful Anzac Liturgy, led by our student leadership team. Our school joined together in prayer on Tuesday to give thanks and remember.  Lest we forget.

2024 CaFE Grade Reps

Kinder: Alicia Holmes, Stacey Tracey (Kinder Orientation Night, Set up Kinder FB group)

Yr 1: Olivia Day-Gorham, Amy Hinchcliff (Kinder Welcome Morning Tea)

Yr 2: Renee Davis, Alicia Holmes (Mother’s Day gifts)

Yr 3: Mel Balchin, Olivia Day-Gorham (Mother's Day breakfast)

Yr 4: Jess McGrath and Katrina Holway (Father's Day gifts)

Yr 5: Kym Flitcroft, Kellie Pickering (Father's Day breakfast)

Yr 6: Kate Pulbrook, Sharon Collins (Easter Egg raffle and eggs. Organise Yr 6 2024 end of year event)

Year 1 Excursion to Miss Traill’s House 

Year 1 went on a fun excursion to Miss Traill’s House in Bathurst, on Thursday 4th April. We were all very excited to see a double-decker bus roll up to our school to transport us. Such excitement!!! When we arrived we were greeted by people dressed in old fashioned clothing. We then went inside the house to see what an old kitchen looks like - with no fridge. We sat in the sitting room with olden-day toys and played jacks. The school room was very interesting. We completed writing with quills and ink bottles and the bedroom had a cupboard where you go to the toilet!! Outside the house, Year 1 enjoyed playing games from the past like Skittles, croquet, hopscotch, and marbles. We also got to enjoy sack races and hula hooping but the best part was dressing up in olden day clothes and dancing around the maypole.

Year 1 had an amazing day. They learned heaps from first-hand experience of the past and we all agreed it is much better in the present than the past.

P.S. Our excursion guides said we were the best-behaved school that has ever visited Miss Traill’s House. 

Well done Year 1!! 

3 Orange Class News

We had a busy and fun-filled term last term. Some of the highlights were -

Learning about Solids, Liquids, and Gases (Toby)

Brain breaks (Nate)

Fun maths games (Kael)

Painting a beach scene and thongs (Lachlan)

The excellent swimming carnival (Aquinah)

The exciting but hard high jump (Jacob)

Naplan which was fun and challenging (Isaac)

Competitive Athletics Carnival (Andrea)

Making bug hotels (Oscar)

Reading “Fantastic Mr Fox” (Reuben)

Essential Assessment tasks (Rihanna)

Tessellating pictures (Roza)

Playing Red Letter in PE (Scarlett)

Showing different strategies in Maths (Max)

Writing Narratives and Procedures (Nicholas)

Borrowing exciting books from the Library (Molly)

Here are some of the photos of the Bug Hotels being made. We wrote a procedure and then made them.

Bathurst Diocesan Community Sport

Dear Parents,

Keep up to date with sporting events and achievements across the Bathurst Diocese. Search CEBD community sport or use the following link. 

https://sites.google.com/bth.catholic.edu.au/cedbsportcommunity/

St Marys is a Nut and Egg Free school 

Please do not put these in your child's lunch box as we have children at our school with severe reactions to these items.

 Children with Communication devices such as Phones and Watches must be handed to the school office in the Morning before class and collected at the end of the day.

Please support your child to meet this school requirement.

If you need to contact your child during school hours please call the school office.

St Mary's Uniform Shop

is run by  Parent Volunteers and is open from 9:00 am Friday Mornings. 

If you have put your order through Flexi schools it will be packed the following Friday and sent home with your child.