Well wasn’t that just supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!

And finally to all our students - boys and girls I want to thank each and every one of you for your incredible contributions to this musical. From the rehearsals to the performances, your dedication, talent, and enthusiasm have brought this production of Mary Poppins Jr to life. Whether you were on stage, helping with sets, or supporting behind the scenes, your hard work has made a lasting impact. You’ve all shown what it means to work as a team, and your commitment to giving your best has made this show truly unforgettable. We are so proud of everything you’ve accomplished, and I hope you know how much you’ve inspired and impressed everyone who has seen your performance. Thank you for bringing your energy, your creativity, and your passion to this experience—you’ve truly made it something special!

Well done Everyone!!!

We also have an elected Student Leadership Team, made up of two School Leaders and six House Leaders. In the coming weeks, our Year 5 students will be invited to nominate themselves to be on the Student Leadership Team for 2025. Following interviews with Mrs O’Neill and a nominated staff member, the students will deliver a short speech to their peers and staff on Friday November 29, time TBC. Parents are welcome to attend. Students in Years 2-5 will then vote for the students that they believe will make the best School and House Leaders for St Mary’s. House Leadership is more than sport, so please encourage your child, if they think they would like to be involved in a broad range of leadership opportunities; Social Justice, fundraising, Liturgy, hospitality, IT and Media, Sport, Public Speaking, Performing Arts, Environment and Indigenous Culture. The Year 5 teachers will support the students with the process. 

The 2025 Student Leadership Team will be announced to the community at our End of Year K-6 Awards Night on Thursday December 5.

Please keep Mrs O’Neill in your prayers as she has been very unwell. We look forward to her return in a couple of weeks once she has recovered.

God bless and take care,

Mrs Sue Heffernan
Principal (Acting)

FRIENDSHIP & RESILIENCE PROJECT
This term Year 4 students are participating in a series of workshops with Faith Costigan our school counsellor to help us identify the necessary tools to overcome challenges in positive ways. The skills learnt in this program will assist students to deal with stressful situations by normalising moments of anxiety, change and how to self-regulate our emotions when times get tough. It also helps develop self-confidence, resilience and problem solving skills.

UPCOMING PARENT INFORMATION SESSIONS ONLINE:
CYBER SAFETY 
There are two online information sessions designed to support parents of children transitioning from Year 6 to high school. The first is related to cyber safety awareness and is a webinar presented by the esafety commission, taking place online and pitched to view over a lunch break on the 12 November 12.30pm-1pm. Access the link to register here: https://register.gotowebinar.com/register/707533969409578587 

TRANSITIONING TO HIGH SCHOOL
The second parent information session is from the University of Wollongong

This webinar opportunity presented by parent & education experts, covers the topic of enhancing and supporting your child's transition to high school. Whether you're a parent or carer of a child in Year 6, or generally just interested in children's transition to high school and UOW opportunities on the horizon, this is not to be missed!

Topics explored will include;

• Adapting to change and new routines & environments
• Making new friends and maintaining old friendships
• Coping with peer pressure, risk taking
• Managing time and demands of new study and increase in expectations of high school
• Taking ‘good risks’ in learning
• UOW high school programs on the horizon
• Understanding university opportunities into the future

Monday, 11 November, 2024, 7pm-8 pm

Register: UOW Year 6 Parent & Carer Webinar Registration Link

https://future-students-events.uow.edu.au/Year6_parent_carer_Online_Webinar_24 

Blessings and Best Wishes,

Mrs Carla Durnan
Assistant Principal (Acting)

RELIGIOUS EDUCATION
In Religion this term we are investigating Who is Jesus? and what life might have been like for Jesus’ family and friends. We have explored a recreation of Nazareth Village and heard stories from the New Testament that tell about Jesus’ life as a Jew. Later this term we will identify celebrations and rituals that mark special times in the life of the church community and in the church year, and describe ways in which church members pray together during special celebrations and rituals. 

ENGLISH
A typical English Block in KIndergarten includes our Initialit Mat Lesson (explicit direct phonics instruction), targeted Reading Groups, a Reading Fluency activity and Writing. Kindergarten particularly love creating special pieces of writing for their learning portfolios. At the moment, we are writing sentences that include a noun, an adjective to describe the noun, and a verb. 

MATHEMATICS
You may have noticed that we use mini whiteboards a lot in our Maths lessons (English also). Mini whiteboards are a brilliant resource for implementing on-the-spot feedback to our students. Currently in Kindergarten maths we are building automaticity with ‘the plus 10 rule’, e.g., 54 + 10 = 64, as well as 20 + 7 = 27; 40 + 3 = 43 etc. We use a count-on strategy to determine the missing numeral in number sentences such as 25 + ⬜= 29, where the box represents ‘how many?’ We have also been reading and writing two-digit numbers. We really are very, very clever in Kindergarten!

• Plovers are also known as Masked Lapwings
• Plovers choose open spaces to lay their eggs so they can see predators coming
• Our Plovers currently have three chicks. Plover chicks are able to leave the nest and feed themselves just a few hours after hatching. Imagine if human babies did this! It is no wonder Plovers seem to be such nervous parents.
• Plovers have spurs on their wings.
• Mrs. Connaughton is really scared of Plovers (especially now that she knows about the spurs!)

As a class, we enjoyed observing the Plovers (we crept as close as we dared!), researching them, writing about them and making them out of recycled cardboard during Visual Arts.  We are happy to have the Plovers on our oval now we have learned they aren’t cranky and silly, they are just trying to be very good parents. 

“I think the Plovers are good parents because they were stopping their chicks from getting too close to us.” Finley E

“I think Plovers are good parents because they keep their babies safe.” Austin L

SCIENCE
This term we are exploring physics - How Things Move. The students have been learning about different objects and how they move because of a force. This has included identifying forces that make objects move or change direction, and describing how the size of an object affects its movement.

HISTORY
In History this term we have expanded our learning to include Different Families and Celebrations. We have been investigating the different structures of families today, families in the past and families from different places. We have also begun to explore how we commemorate past events that are important to us, as well as share experiences of family, school and community events that are celebrated. 

SWIMMING
We are really enjoying our swimming lessons at Moruya Pool. The walk to and from the pool is always an adventure as we look out for the Water Dragons sunning themselves on the riverbank. Having familiar faces teach us to swim is extra special. We are delighted to have Mrs. White, Mrs. Connaughton, Mrs. Grant and Mrs. Durnan in the water with us.

And now we are off to have a BIG rest on the weekend. It has been a HUGE week for our amazing Kindergarten bumblebees!

Mrs Genevieve Schofield
Teacher Kinder Blue

Community Council