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Dear Parents, Carers, Boys and Girls,
I hope all of you enjoyed your extra day off last weekend and that you had a great time with your family or friends, whether it was in beautiful Moruya or somewhere else.
Stage 3 Camp
This week our Stage 3 students and their teachers packed their bags and headed off to Berry Sport and Recreation Centre. The camp is located in Berry, just over a two-hour bus ride away. The diverse range of facilities and activities offered by the camp provide a jam packed 3 days of exciting adventures! The students have been involved in activities such as bike riding, paddling in canoes and cooking damper over a fire. The photos of the activities posted on our Facebook page certainly show how much fun they have had together. The teacher’s have said that the behaviour of the students while at camp has been outstanding. I’m sure over the weekend their parents will be regaled with many great tales of their experiences and the activities!
I’d like to thank our teachers Mrs Grant, Mrs White, Mrs Afflick, Mrs Kenny, Mr Campbell and Mr Bateman who have given up their own time and rearranged their family commitments for our students to have such a worthwhile experience. Without this extra effort and dedication from the staff, these types of events cannot happen.
Feast of the Sacred Heart
In the Catholic Church the month of June is dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. This great feast in the Church is always celebrated on the octave day of Corpus Christi, the feast which celebrates the Body and Blood of Christ. Corpus Christi falls on the Thursday after Trinity Sunday which means the feast of the Sacred Heart falls nineteen days after Pentecost Sunday.
Devotion to Jesus’ Sacred Heart is perhaps the most popular in the Church today and it had its beginnings in 17th century France. In 1672, Christ appeared to a French Visitation nun, St. Margaret Mary Alacoque. Over a series of visits, Our Lord revealed to St. Margaret Mary the importance of devotion to His Sacred Heart. He asked that His heart, wounded on the cross and continually wounded by ingratitude of men for his sacrifice for them, be venerated and adored as an embodiment of His Divine mercy and love. Jesus especially asked that all people go to Confession and receive Holy Communion often. He also requested that the Church observe a feast day specifically for the purpose of reparation. In 1856, the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart was officially added to the liturgical calendar.
This feast is an opportunity to remember in a special way those who suffer because of lack of food, clothing or shelter. Mrs Afflick has organised ways for our community to bring gifts of food and clothing to be shared among these people. Please see Religious Education News.
Deacon Eden Langlands has spent the final year on his journey to priesthood in the St Bernard’s Parish, Batemans Bay. Next Friday on the 24th June, the Feast of the Sacred Heart, Deacon Eden will be ordained to the priesthood at the Cathedral in Canberra at 5pm. We congratulate Deacon Eden on this very special occasion and look forward to him celebrating Mass with us here in Moruya in the near future.
We pray for Father Eden, Archbishop Prowse and for all priests, that they are faithful servants in the mission of God; that their hearts and minds are one with Christ and so bring His love to the ends of the earth.
Gracious and loving God, we thank you for the gift of our priests.
Through them, we experience your presence in the sacraments.
Help our priests to be strong in their vocation.
Set their souls on fire with love for your people.
Grant them the wisdom, understanding, and strength they need to follow in the footsteps of Jesus.
Inspire them with the vision of your Kingdom.
Give them the words they need to spread the Gospel.
Allow them to experience joy in their ministry.
Help them to become instruments of your divine grace.
We ask this through Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns as our Eternal Priest.
Amen.
Student Reports
At this time of the year, teachers are finalising students' assessments and Semester One reports. I frequently hear them talking and discussing work covered, results gained and effort applied to decide on a final grade. Reporting is not an easy process, and there is much time, thought, and deliberation put into the final result. It becomes an even more difficult task when teachers must teach all day and then work on their reports after school and at weekends.
I thank all staff for their commitment to ensuring that students' reports are a true and accurate reflection of their progress. We congratulate students on their hard work and to all parents on the support of their child, as individuals.
The semester reports provide a grade for learning in each Key Curriculum Area, Engagement with Learning statements, and a General Comment. Please note this is a ‘progress report’ of your child’s learning journey and reflects the effort and commitment they have to their school work. Parents are encouraged to discuss all aspects of the report with their child. It is very important to recognise your child’s success and progress in all areas of development.
Semester One reports will be available to you through Compass on Friday 24 June. If any parent requires a hard copy of the report, please email the front office.
Parent Teacher Meetings
Parent teacher meetings will be held in Week 10 on Tuesday 28 June and Wednesday 29 June. This is an official meeting time set aside for you to discuss your child’s progress with the class teacher. At this meeting the teacher will also explain your child's half yearly report and how the grades are determined based on work samples and assessments. The meetings will be 10-15 mins in duration.
Bookings for meeting times can be made through the online Compass portal next week. Information on how to book an appointment on Compass can be found here:
Of course, parents are always welcome to make an appointment at any time throughout the year to meet with the class teacher/s, just as teachers can contact parents to organise meetings. If you are unable to attend a meeting during Week 10 and would like to discuss your child’s progress, please contact your child’s teacher to arrange another suitable time to meet.
The booking portal on Compass will close on Monday 27 June.
NCCD Collection of Data Information for Parents
All schools across Australia are required to participate annually in the Nationally Consistent Collection of Data on School Students with Disability (NCCD).
Today an important document was loaded onto Compass about the process. Please take the time to read the document as it contains important information about data collection.
Below you will also find some infographics about the NCCD.
St Mary’s Athletics Carnival
The St Mary’s Athletics Carnival is scheduled to be held on Tuesday 21 June at Gundary Oval, Moruya. This is dependent on the weather and the grounds being open. Mrs Grant will be sending out more information about the events being held throughout this day.
Gurubangamba Mentoring Program
Next week our Stage 3 Aboriginal students will attend the second day of the Gurubangamba mentoring program. The theme of the day is ‘resilience’ and their Carroll College mentors have prepared a range of activities with this theme in mind.
Carroll College Variety Night
Next Wednesday evening, 22 June, our school choir led by Mrs Croese will be performing at the Carroll College Variety Night. The Variety Concert will commence at 6.00pm with a light supper available for purchase from 5.15pm. There is no cost for entry. All families are invited to attend and be entertained by the students from our K-12 pathway schools
God bless and take care,
Sue Heffernan
Assistant Principal
Dear Parents and Carers,
This week we commenced the St Vincent de Paul Winter Appeal, with each class collecting donations of canned foods such as baked beans, spaghetti and soups. These items will be collected in classrooms until the end of the term when we will give these to the volunteers at St Vincent de Paul to be shared among the homeless and vulnerable during these cold winter months. It was shocking to read the number of homeless people in Australia is currently in excess of 116,000 and of those, around 28,000 are under the age of 18. It has been wonderful to see the desire in students to want to do what they can to help those less fortunate than themselves. If you have any spare or unused blankets at home, we will also be collecting and donating those to the blanket drive. These can be sent in to school any time before the end of term. We thank you for your generosity and for helping to build this giving attitude in your children.
Stage 3 Mass
On Thursday last week, Year 5 and 6 students attended Mass with Fr Rex Curry. It was great to be able to return to the church for a class Mass with the students and we thank Fr Rex for taking the time to celebrate Mass for us. He involved the students in the readings and interacted with them, making comparisons during his Homily between the pieces of a soccer ball and the different phases of their lives. It made for a very positive and uplifting experience for the children.
Year 6 Confirmation Retreat Day
Last Friday the Year 6 students travelled to Carroll College to take part in a Faith Formation Retreat with Year 6 students from St Bernard’s. We enjoyed a wonderful day of spirituality and activities, led by the very capable Year 10 Youth Ministry students. The boys and girls painted banners, created prayer rocks and learned all about the modern day saint Carlo Acutis. Deacon Eden joined us throughout the day and prayed a special blessing over the boys and girls. Students were treated to a hot dog and ice block for lunch and one of the highlights of the day was definitely the Carroll College canteen! We thank Mrs Barling, Mrs Lyttle and all of the Year 10 Youth Ministry students for a wonderful day of learning and fun.
Sacrament of Confirmation
Many of the students in Year 6 will celebrate the Sacrament of Confirmation on Sunday 24th July at 10am. All our families and friends are warmly invited to attend this Mass in support of these students as they take this very special step in their faith journey.
Mrs Jess Afflick
Religious Education Coordinator
This award is an acknowledgment that students have been
outstanding and have gone above and beyond in the
classroom and on the playground!
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Kinder B |
For her amazing work on learning tricky words and sounding out. |
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1 Blue |
For working hard to do his personal best and independently complete tasks. Well done Benjamin! |
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1/2 Maroon |
For his great work in maths counting backwards. |
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2 Blue |
For his excellent use of descriptive language including similes in his narrative writing. |
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3 Blue |
Consistently demonstrating a positive attitude towards her learning. |
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3 Blue |
A great effort with his spelling assessments. |
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4 Blue |
For persevering with challenging division problems and being able to explain your hard thinking. |
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4 Maroon |
For sharing your knowledge about how and why the Earth’s surface has changed and what impact this has on our environment. |
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5 Maroon |
For creating an informative travel brochure convincing people why California is an ideal destination to travel to. |
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6 Blue |
For working hard during reading sessions and to improve her spelling. Well done Brooke. |
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6 Maroon |
For consistently demonstrating a persevering attitude towards all learning activities. |
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Principal |
For her commitment to always doing her best and working towards achieving her learning goals. |
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Pastoral |
Always volunteering to help with Library activities. |
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Literacy |
For his excellent effort with segmentation of three and four letter words. |
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Kinder B |
For always following our school rule 'I am doing my best!' |
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1 Blue |
Doing a fantastic job of re-reading his sentences to stay on track and check for errors. |
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1/2 Maroon |
For being gentle and kind with our class pet Roxy. |
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2 Blue |
For focused effort to do his personal best across all learning areas. |
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3 Blue |
For a great job with skip counting. |
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4 Blue |
For your fantastic sizzling start when writing about why we should ban single use plastics. |
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4 Maroon |
For your outstanding efforts when working on the division of 3 digit numbers with remainders. |
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5 Maroon |
For excellent teamwork and cooperative skills during the ‘cookout’ activity at camp. |
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6 Blue |
Her excellent leadership skills and showing initiative during raft building at camp. |
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6 Maroon |
For demonstrating outstanding leadership and support to her peers during raft building. |
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Principals |
For showing kindness and respect to all children at our school. |
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Pastoral |
For demonstrating respect and a cheerful attitude to his peers. |
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Literacy |
For an enthusiastic approach to her literacy work. |
English
This term we have been focusing on informative texts, learning about formal documents like reports and news articles as well as using information to persuade. We have put into practice the ideology of “little and often”, working on sizzling starts to hook our readers as well as correct sentence structure and punctuation to lend credibility to our writing. In spelling, we continue to focus on specific rules that will help us spell unfamiliar words in our writing. We have been creating an informative travel poster designed to give travellers valuable information and encouragement to travel to a special destination. Creative skills learned in narrative writing as well as persuasive devices were used in combination with careful research to create their posters. We won’t be surprised to see a number of families jet setting off around the globe in the near future!
Maths
In Year 5, we have adapted exceptionally well to the Maths Pathway program and it is very encouraging to see so much excitement around the prospect of maths lessons. We have worked very hard over the last two months on settling into a rhythm and this is reflected by very pleasing data. Over the last two learning cycles we have averaged 101% and 98% growth respectively. The fact that we can learn at our own pace and have multiple opportunities to demonstrate understanding and receive feedback is proving very valuable. We are confident of seeing even more pleasing growth in the second half of the year with targeted mini-lessons and whole group rich learning tasks.
Religion
In Religion we have been looking at our own personal beliefs and how they align with the christian beliefs we practise every day at St Mary’s. We have made connections with the bible and the concept of faith as the driving force behind our beliefs. We made a very welcome visit to church to support the Year 6 students as they prepare to welcome the Holy Spirit through confirmation. Mass with Father Rex Curry was sincerely appreciated and enjoyed by all of the students in Stage 3. The mass was interactive, fun and welcoming with a pleasing level of engagement and respect - demonstrating the level of maturity we are coming to expect from Year 5. Students wrote their own reconciliation prayers during Reconciliation Week.
Jaxon E - Dear God, We say sorry for the wrong things we have done. Please forgive us. We have to move forward together and make sure this never happens again. We need to have empathy and imagine what it is like. Help us not to just move forward, but to move forward in the footsteps of Jesus. Dear God, please hear my prayer. Amen.
Meeka C - Dear God, Please take care of the first owners of our nation. Please let us move forward together. It’s time we say sorry, it is time to apologise and it’s time to move forward together as one loving, caring nation. Amen
Asher B - I acknowledge all of the stolen generation and their ancestors and their children. I hope that nothing as vile as stealing children from their families happens again. I wish for the day that racism will stop.
Xavier H - Hope for the future: I hope we can give back all the land we have taken in dishonour and help maintain it. We acknowledge that we took the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples land and that we are sorry.
Science
Science in Term 2 has seen us consider our place in the solar system and push ourselves to consider the infinite vastness of the universe which has been blowing quite a few minds. We have consolidated our understanding of the planets and their relationship to each other as well as the sun’s central role in our solar system. We have also considered those lesser known aspects of the solar system that cause equal wonder, such as comets, meteorites (visible shooting stars), Oort Clouds, Asteroids and more. With such a strong focus on renewable energies, we were able to harness the sun using “solar ovens” and successfully “cook” some very tasty treats.
History
We have continued to be fascinated by the development of the Australian Colonies throughout the late 1800s to federation in 1901. In Term 2 we have focused on some of the specific influences and events that led to a huge population surge in the latter half of the 19th century. These include the gold rushes, the cessation of convict settlers, British propaganda targeting skilled workers, the construction of the overland telegraph and the Eureka Stockade. We have learned the difference between emigration and immigration, considering the “push and pull” effects of the times.
Visual Art
Year 5 completed a Dean Russo inspired artwork. He is a pop artist who uses bold, bright colours. Graffiti has a big influence on his artistic style and this is evident in his creations through a range of animals. Students chose from a number of different animals and then applied watercolour paint as a base in many different colours. Once the paint had dried, we added small patterns and shapes all over the animal using oil pastel in contrasting colours. They look very effective.
Berry Camp
Stage 3 had a wonderful time on camp this week. We participated in three fantastic activities; raft building, mountain biking and a cookout. Team building, cooperation and communication skills were evident amongst all students over the three days. As well as some night time fun, we participated in a ‘minute to win it’ games night and some tabloid games. On Friday morning we finished with a ‘Berry Challenge’. Stage 3 thoroughly enjoyed their experience. It was wonderful to see the children smiling and hear the conversations amongst the students highlighting their favourite part of their time away. We are certain that there will be some very tired children on Friday night. Thank you for a wonderful time away Stage 3! You were absolutely amazing!
Sophie Kenny, Jessica Afflick, James Campbell
Year 5 Teachers
NSWCPS Cross Country
Last Tuesday, several of our students travelled to Sydney to compete at the NSWCPS Cross Country event at Eastern Creek. This event is a culmination of runners from MacKillop and Polding areas all across NSW.
Jake P, Jaxon E, Darcy F, Mitchell W and Zac W were all outstanding representatives for St Mary’s and were placed against some of the fastest long distance runners in the state. Congratulations boys on your amazing efforts to get to this level of competition and dedication to training and practice over the last 4 weeks. A highlight for a few of the boys was meeting some of the QLD State of Origin players and coaching staff who were staying at the same hotel….. Maybe that’s why the Maroons won??.
Kezie Apps Visit
Thank you to Kezie Apps for visiting St Mary’s on Tuesday, sharing the St George Dragons ‘Best you can Be’ message. Stage 3 students practised passing and play the ball skills as well as learning about a healthy mind and body through playing sports. We wish Kezie all the best as she captains the NSW Blues Women’s Rugby League team in a few weeks time.
St Mary’s Athletics Carnival
Next Tuesday, we warmly welcome parents and families to join us at Gundary oval for our school athletics carnival (weather and grounds permitting). All information regarding the day can be found on the COMPASS portal. Students in Years 3-6 will be competing in 100m, 200m and 800m track races as well as field events of shot put and discus. (Long jump and High jump will be finalised at school over the next few weeks and into next term). The K-2 students will also be participating in races and sport games at the oval. Students may wear a shirt/jumper in their house colour and we encourage all students to participate on the day. This will be our first ‘full’ athletics carnival since 2019 and I know that there are many excited students and staff to have things back to normal. We are also excited to be welcoming back the Carroll College Sports Coaching students who will be assisting on the day with various jobs. Parents are also invited to assist with timekeeping, set up and field event duties. Please email me at the email address below if you are able to help. We are looking forward to a fantastic day.
Wishing you a wonderful week ahead.
Megan Grant
Sports Coordinator
megan.grant@cg.catholic.edu.au
