Newsletter Term 1 6th February 2025

Safer Internet Day 

Safer Internet Day on 11th February is a global day of action dedicated to raising awareness of online safety. It is also an opportunity for staff and parents to engage in meaningful conversations with children about safe and positive online interactions with others. Students in Years 3-6 will participate in webinars educating students how to stay safe online.  

Year 3 & 4 students will participate in a live Virtual Classroom webinar to help them navigate online friendships, develop skills like respect and responsibility and learn how to get help and support.

By the end of the learning, students will be able to:

• recognise and understand the online skills of respect, responsibility, trusting your feelings and speaking up
• use strategies to address harmful situations online
• identify the qualities of a trusted adult and how to access support pathway
  

Year 5 & 6 students will participate in a live webinar to help them investigate and understand fake information and fake friendships online.

By the end of the learning, students will be able to:

• use critical literacy skills to challenge fake information such as misinformation and disinformation
• identify fake online identities such as impersonator and catfishing accounts
• use strategies to address harmful or dangerous situations online
• identify a variety of support pathways. 

Great resources for parents and carers include conversation starters for parents and examples of how to create a family tech agreement for children from ages 5. Click on the link below to access parent resources

https://www.esafety.gov.au/parents/resources/family-tech-agreement

St Mary's School Counsellor

Our school counsellor Mrs Nicole Chambers is employed by Centacare and is available at St Mary's on Monday, Tuesday and every second Wednesday. Nicole has been working at St Mary's since 2020 and has a wealth of knowledge and experience. If you would like to access this counselling service for your child throughout the year please contact your class teacher to discuss this. The class teacher will arrange for our Learning Support team and counsellor to make contact with parents.

Attendance

Schools in partnerships with parents are responsible for promoting the regular attendance of students. While parents are legally responsible for the regular attendance of their children, school monitor regular attendance daily including part and whole day absences, as a consequence of their duty of care and legislative requirements. 

If your child is sick a compass alert will be sent to your email.  Parents or carers are required to explain the absences of their children from school promptly. An explanation for absence must be provided to the school within 7 calendar days of the first day of any period of absence. When a school becomes concerned about a student's attendance, staff must address the student's learning and support needs with their parents or carers. Above a 90% attendance rate is legally required at all times. Please contact the school if you have any concerns about your child's absences, we are here to work with you and support your child to achieve the best possible outcome.

Welcome to the 2025 school year! I am thrilled to introduce myself as the Religious Education Coordinator at St Mary’s. I am excited to embark on this new journey with you and your children. It is an honour to support the spiritual growth and development of our students and community.

This year is especially meaningful as we celebrate the Year of Jubilee for the Catholic Church. Pope Francis has called this Jubilee Year ‘Pilgrims of Hope’, inviting us to renew our hope in the love God has for each of us, no matter who we are. In the Old Testament, the Jubilee Year occurred every fifty years and was a time of renewal and celebration. Debts were forgiven, people were given rest, and the land itself was allowed to rejuvenate by not planting crops. Today, we celebrate a Jubilee every twenty-five years, and it is a time of forgiveness, mercy, and renewal. We reset and strengthen our relationships with God, each other, and all of creation.  

The 2nd February was the Presentation of the Lord Jesus in the Temple, forty days after he was born. During the mass on Sunday candles that will be used for prayer throughout the year are blessed. We are reminded that through this mass that Jesus is the light, leading us. 

Opening School Mass 

On Tuesday 11th  February we invite you to join us in our Opening School Mass at 9:30am. During this mass we will be badging the Student Leaders for 2025 as well as the Student Representative Council (SRC) students for Term 1.

CURRICULUM REVIEW

At the end of this term, St Mary's Catholic Primary School will undertake our 5-year school review. In terms of curriculum, the purpose of the review is to confirm alignment between NESA syllabuses and the school’s curriculum documents, including the scope and sequences, teaching programs and assessment plans. The staff will be working on collating documents and continuing our work in providing quality, robust learning and teaching programs and assessment tasks.

We're back for another budding year!

Exciting news! Gardening Club has resumed for 2025, and we can’t wait to dig into another fantastic season of growing, learning, and sharing. 

We have begun the year with a bountiful harvest! Our dedicated and budding young gardeners picked an abundance of fresh produce, including squash, miniature pumpkins, a multitude of beans, vibrant red, yellow, and purple tomatoes. The children had a wonderful time gathering the vegetables and learning about the joy of growing their own food.

One of the most fulfilling parts of our harvest was being able to donate the fresh vegetables to our local Food Care. Through this, our students are living out their faith through stewardship of the land. They have learned the importance of sharing and helping those in need while experiencing the joy of giving back to the community.

As we embark on another year of gardening, we have exciting plans, new planting projects, and more opportunities for hands-on learning.

Let’s make 2025 another year full of growth, discovery, and fun in the garden!

Week 1 Term 1 2025 

Term 1 is jam-packed with sporting opportunities for students across Kindergarten to Year six. We know lots of students are excited to participate in these sporting opportunities. Our new Year 6 house captains are ready to lead and support their houses at the carnivals. The new house captains for 2025 are: 

Our first event is the Swimming Carnival, which will be next Wednesday, February 12th. Thank you to everyone who completed the forms online through Compass. 

For students attending the carnival please make sure to pack plenty of water, food, sunscreen and a hat. Students are to wear their sports uniform to and from the carnival. There will be no canteen available at the pool. Teachers will be reminding students throughout the days of the five principles of sun safety: Slip, Slop ,Slap, Seek, Slide.

Students who are non-competitive in Year 1 and 2 will participate in some novelty activities, both in the pool and out.

We are looking forward to a great day at the pool. 

Clara Carruthers 

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/

SEVERE REACTIONS TO ‘NUTS’ & ‘EGGS’
As some of our students have a ‘nut’ and/or ‘egg’ allergy, we ask that nuts, nut
products and eggs NOT be packed as part of school snacks and lunches.
Sometimes even contact with nuts or eggs can trigger the severe reaction. This
severe allergy is called ANAPHYLAXIS and can be life-threatening.
Please, NO eggs, peanut butter, Nutella, nut products, etc.

(Check those labels to see that products do not contain nuts.)

SPB4L 

Every week, as a school, we focus on an area of our SPB4L. This stands for School-wide Positive Behaviours For Learning. Each day, the teachers introduce, or revise with the students the focus for behaviour expectations. This week, our focus is:

WE WILL USE KIND WORDS

When we use kind words, we are being respectful.

What does this look like, sound like, feel like?

"Thank you!"   "I'm glad we're friends."   "Please."   "May I please..."   "Are you ok?"   "I'm sorry." "You're welcome."   "Can I help you?"   "Would you like to play?"   "We can take turns."   "Excuse me." "Well done." 

Medication at School-  Parental  Advice

If your child requires medication that needs to be administered during school hours, please bring the medication to the school office, where it is stored safely. This includes asthma inhalers.

Medication must be authorised by a Medical practitioner with a letter 

Students can come to the office at an arranged time to have the medication administered by trained First Aid Officers.

The office does not have Panadol, unless parents supply and complete a form for their child only.

Thank you 

Children with communication devices such as iPhones and Smart Watches must be handed to the school office in the morning before class and collected at the end of the day. This includes any device capable of taking photos.

Please support your child to meet this school requirement.

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

PLEASE DO NOT PARK  in the  Bowling Alley car park

the bowling alley car park is for their patrons so please park elsewhere when dropping or picking up your children.

The PCYC has many parks that can be used for dropping off and picking up

St Mary's Uniform Shop

is run by  Parent Volunteers and is open from 8:45 am for an hour on  Friday Mornings. 

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

Dear Parents & Carers

Please label students' clothing , so we can return them from lost property with ease.

Clothes that don't have names will be returned to the clothing pool, if not collected by the end of term.

Thank you