Dear Parents and Carers,

Welcome back to the final term of 2022. The students have settled back into their learning and involvement in school activities. Everyone is very excited about our upcoming musical Peter Pan. Our wonderful production team is hard at work and the students are shining on the stage. I would like to thank parents for their support of the musical; organising their children's costumes, assisting with backdrops etc.  Yesterday’s outing to see Chitty Chitty Bang Bang at St Bernards helped our students understand how individual class segments come together in a whole school musical. 

Jeff Prow’s Farewell
Last weekend many of Jeff's family, friends and colleagues came together to celebrate his extraordinary career.  It was a wonderful evening, made even more special with the surprise arrival of his very first principal. Mr Prow has certainly left his mark on many children throughout his incredible career. We all know that the last 19 years at St Marys were his favourite years! As Jeff said on the night, he simply loved coming to work everyday. Farewell and thank you to a truly great primary school teacher! 

Staffing Update 
It is with mixed emotions that I share the news that Mrs Jacquie Stephen is leaving us to move to Queensland next year. I am very excited for Jacquie and her family and the next stage of her career, but extremely disappointed that we are losing such a great teacher. 

Jacquie has spent the last two years on Kinder and shown us what a brilliant early years’ educator she is. Together with Genevieve Schofield, Jacquie was instrumental in introducing K-1 Investigations into our classrooms. I wouldn't be surprised if we see Jacquie arrive one day with some of her new colleagues, to see our Investigations in action. 

It is very exciting that Mrs Jess Afflick is having another baby early next year. Jess will be on Parental Leave for the 2023 school year. The REC position is currently being advertised.

Mrs Claire Bateman-Burrows has recently tendered her resignation from St Marys. Claire has been on leave from St Mary’s for the past two years. Claire is retiring after many years teaching in the Archdiocese, at St Bernards for many years and more recently at St Marys. Congratulations Claire on such a long and successful career. 

Following a system-wide recruitment process, I am thrilled to announce that both  Mrs Georgia Veneris and Mr James Campbell have been appointed to St Marys in 2023. As Georgia is about to have her first baby, she will be on Parental Leave for part of 2023. James will be working full time with us.  

After a very long career as a teacher at St Marys, Mrs Marg Croese has decided to take Long Service Leave in 2023. Marg has worked this year as our part time Pastoral teacher. We are very grateful for Marg’s support and thank her for always placing St Mary’s School at the heart of the parish. We wish Marg a very special and relaxing year ahead.  

Parents on site
I would like parents to know that they are always welcome at school. Now that all restrictions have been lifted, parents are definitely able to bring their children into the school grounds and pick them up in the afternoon. For ease and safety, we will continue with our two pick up zones, but parents are always welcome to come up to the COLA and classroom area. Please remember that teachers will be on duty so may not be able to talk with you on some days.

For the safety of our children, the bus drivers and the other children on the buses, it is essential that our parents do not come and go out of the Bus Gates. You can come into the school from any other direction, but the bus area is far too dangerous. Please support us with this. It is very hard for staff to have to approach parents about this. 

Kindergarten 2023 Orientations 
Our Kindergarten Orientations have been set for Wednesday, November 9 and Wednesday, November 23. If you know of anyone considering enrolling their children at St Marys next year, please let them know of these dates. Only students enrolled for Kinder are able to attend the Orientation mornings. Information will be set home shortly. 

Enrolments 2023
We are currently finalising the class structure for next year. If you know of any prospective parents, please let them know that we need to finalise enrolments so we can make the best decisions around classes for 2023. Thank you for your ongoing support in promoting St Marys.

Sick children
There is a lot of illness around. Many of our students and staff have been sick with respiratory illnesses, vomiting and conjunctivitis. Parents are asked to keep their sick children home and not send them back too soon. We no longer have COVID regulations to follow but we use common sense when it comes to calling parents in to collect children. 

Canteen
Thank you to those parents who have volunteered to help Hayley out in the canteen. The canteen has been a huge success and I thank Hayley for all of her hard work in trying to make it the best canteen around.

Unfortunately, the canteen will be closed on Friday October 28.

Footy Colours Day
Next Thursday, 27 October we will be having a special Footy Colours Day to raise funds to support one of our ex-students who is currently unwell. I thank Mrs Grant and the year 6 students for organising the day to support the Woodford family.  Please send in a couple of gold coins with your children.

Community Council
Last night the Community Council held its' Annual Open meeting and social drinks for parents to come along and learn about the Council. It was wonderful to have several new parents join us.

The Community Council is busily organising a Jar Fundraiser and catering for the musical. Parents will be asked to support these activities which raise funds that are donated to the school to be spent on the childrens’ education. If you are interested in joining this wonderful team of parents please contact the Chair, Mary Dullard on Mary.Dullard@originenergy.com.au.  

God's blessings on your families

Noeleen O'Neill
Principal

Dear Parents, Carers, Boys and Girls,

Staff Professional Learning
On the first day of Term 4, the whole teaching team attended a professional learning day in Braidwood led by Dr Lorraine Hammond. The day focused on the explicit teaching of vocabulary and sentence level writing, building on our skills in constructing Daily Reviews. Work by Isabel Beck on vocabulary instruction and Judith Hockman’s Writing Revolution were cited significantly during the professional learning day.

Following on from this day, we welcomed Brooke Wardana from Shaping Minds to demonstrate how the high impact practices can be used in a classroom setting. Our teachers really benefited from Brooke’s dynamic delivery of the Explicit Direct Instruction lessons. Opportunities to see the teaching practice of other teachers is an effective way to build the capacity of our staff as it allows teachers to reflect on the practices that are happening in their classrooms and see practices that inspire them to improve and try new things.There is a real buzz of excitement among our teachers after these professional learning opportunities and they are working hard to implement high impact teaching that is fun, fast, and meaningful for all learners.

The conference included outstanding student cultural performances from the host diocese, a moving smoking ceremony from Darug and Gundungurra people, collaborative artworks, a variety of small group workshops and on country experiences. There were some amazing keynote speakers including Federal Minister for Indigenous Australians, Hon Linda Burney MP, 2021 Senior Australian of the Year Dr Aunty Miriam Rose Ungunmerr Baumann, Channel 9 entertainment journalist Brooke Boney and founder and CEO of ID. Know Yourself, Isaiah Dawe.

It was an opportunity to come together, to listen and engage in conversation about how we can continue to close the gap in educational outcomes for the nine and a half thousand Aboriginal students who attend Catholic schools in the state. While we have climbed mountains in understanding of First Nations people, we recognise that we are on a journey and that there is still work to do. Opportunities like this empower us to lead our schools and community towards a deeper cultural understanding and appreciation. Providing real, authentic and supported pathways for our students is pivotal to our work. It was a real privilege to be part of this conversation.

God bless and take care.

Sue Heffernan
Assistant Principal

Dear Families,

A very warm welcome to Term 4. I hope you were able to enjoy some relaxing family time together over the break and stay dry! We must be due for a run of good weather soon. I was fortunate to spend the break in Hawaii and missed all the rain. 

Gospel Reflection
Being Honest with myself and with God
In the Gospel reading this Sunday, Jesus tells the parable of the proud Pharisee who prayed from his self-importance and the tax collector who prayed humbly. In contrasting the prayer of the Pharisee with the prayer of the tax collector, Jesus teaches his disciples to pray in humility before God. Jesus again surprises his listeners by showing the tax collector as the example of faith, rather than the Pharisee. In this parable, Jesus offers the humility of the tax collector as a model for the prayer of a disciple. The parable reminds us that when we pray, we must remember our need for God in our lives. If we are too full of ourselves, there is too little room for God's grace to work in us. 

As we continue our journey through this Year of Mercy, we can draw great strength from this humble and honest tax collector. His recognition that he is a sinner is not a sign of weakness but a sign of faith and confidence in God who loves and forgives him. There is no fear or guilt in him. He comes before God freely in confidence as he presents himself to God in humility. He knows in faith that he will be received warmly and forgiven. Today we are asked to come before God with this attitude. We are asked to come to God in prayer in humility. We are invited to come before God without fear while being honest with ourselves and being honest with God. As Thomas Merton reminds us, ‘pride makes us artificial, humility makes us real.

Mr Prow’s Retirement
On Saturday night, many of the staff came together to celebrate the very inspiring career of Mr Jeff Prow. Jeff has recently retired after a commendable 43 years of teaching service. We know he is much loved by both his students and colleagues alike, and it was wonderful to recognise and celebrate such an amazing career. We heard from past students of Mr Prow’s, including some from his Year 5 class back in the early 1980’s in Cobar. By far the highlight of the night was the surprise guest - Mr Prow’s first ever principal from 1979 at St John’s in Cobar. The words of these past colleagues and students were testament to the inspiring educator Mr Prow was. We wish him all the very best as he enjoys his days of retirement.

Mission Week
Mission Week is coming up and will be taking place in Week 5. We will celebrate together with a Whole School Mass on Thursday 10 November and following Mass there will be stalls and activities held at school run by the students. We very much look forward to welcoming families and parishioners back to our Mission Week Fundraiser this year. In classes, students are beginning to look at the mission of God and what we can do in our own way to help those less fortunate. We are learning about those in other countries and the different ways they live, as well as different places in Australia. 

Carols by Candlelight
St Mary’s Choir will be performing at Carols by Candlelight on Sunday 18 December at Riverside Park in Moruya. We will begin to practice for the Carols at school in Week 3, Wednesday 26 October. We would love to have as many students as possible join us for this very special community event. 

Wish for Peace

“Encourage one another;

Build one another up.

Be at peace among yourselves…

Always seek to do good to one another…

Rejoice always,

Pray constantly,

Give thanks in all circumstances;

For this is God’s will in Christ Jesus for you.”

1 Thess 5:11, 13, 15-18

Mrs Jess Afflick
Religious Education Coordinator

Archdiocesan Public Speaking
Next Wednesday 26 October the following students will represent St Mary’s in the virtual Archdiocesan Public Speaking Competition.

Year 3 - Tessa H
Year 4 - Lila W
Year 5 - Grace R

The girls have been practising and are ready to deliver another high quality presentation. We wish them every success in the competition.

ICAS results 2022
Nearly all ICAS results for 2022 have been returned to the school. The ICAS Mathematics certificates have been delayed, as soon as these have been received, students who participated in the ICAS competition this year will receive their certificates.

Justin Bateman
Coordinator

Wow, our last term in Kindergarten. The boys and girls have learned so much throughout the year, made heaps of friends and know where everything is and who everyone is now.

We’ve been performing random acts of kindness every day. Kindergarten children have been saying “hello” to kids and teachers from other classes, picking up messes they didn’t make, writing notes and paying each other compliments. They love sharing the reactions they get.

In English, we have learned so many tricky words, digraphs and single sounds. The boys and girls love opportunities to write. We have learned to include a noun and a verb in our simple sentences as well as a Capital letter and punctuation. 

In Maths, we’ve been working on adding on to ten. The boys and girls loved challenging themselves by creating longer addition sums adding multiples of ten.

We love to dance! We were inspired by two class mates holiday to Hawaii, during our weekly dance lesson we practised the hula, it had a lot more dance steps then we first thought.

Mrs Jacqui Stephen
Kindergarten teacher

The Community Council is planning a fundraiser to be held at the upcoming Peter Pan Musical and we need your help!

The Fundraiser we’ve planned is a Jar Tombola, which works as below:

Simply fill an empty jam jar with lollies, biscuits, small toys, pencils, anything you have that you think someone else would appreciate – see examples in the picture above.

Each family can then donate their jar by dropping into the St Mary’s office (or alternatively send in with students) in the period commencing the week prior to the Musical.

Community Council will be selling tickets ($5 per jar) at the evening performances – you simply buy a ticket, you will be given a number that corresponds to one of the jars, and you then collect your prize!

As always, thank you for your support.
Community Council

The production team are excited to announce after months of rehearsals it’s SHOWTIME! 

This term St Mary’s School presents, Peter Pan, a story of friendship, adventure and magic. We are so excited to share with the school community a production that involves every child, singing, acting and dancing, sharing our love of the Performing Arts! 

We will present the show over three performances:

Tuesday 15 November 6:30pm 

Wednesday 16 November 12pm Matinee 

Wednesday 16 November 6:30pm 

TICKETS
Tickets will go on sale on Monday 24 October at 9am via QKR (listed under School events) at a cost of $5 each. Please select carefully the date you wish to attend on the QKR menu.

If your child is a current St Mary’s student they do not require a ticket. The matinee performance is a great opportunity to bring along younger siblings or friends, as it is appropriate for younger aged children. 

Please be advised that the shows will have allocated seating. Purchases will be made on QKR, and your tickets will be sent home from school with your child in an envelope. These will be labelled with your allocated row and seat number for ease on arrival. Please bring these to the performances. 

We encourage you to jump onto QKR and purchase your tickets first thing Monday morning to secure the best seats in the house! Many thanks to Mrs Hazell and Mrs Smith who will be supporting the production team with ticket sales. 

VIP GUESTS
We are excited to announce that the cast members from 2021, who have left St Mary’s for their high school journey will be joining us as special guests for the Wednesday evening performance. These children worked diligently last year in their chosen roles and unfortunately were not able to perform due to lockdown restrictions. We therefore are very much looking forward to them attending so that we can acknowledge their dedication and commitment.

COMMUNITY COUNCIL
We are excited to announce that the Community Council will be selling light refreshments during the intermission on both night performances.

PARENT VOLUNTEERS 
Over the past few months we are so very grateful to the many parents who have been helping behind the scenes painting, sewing and building props. 

As the performances draw closer we are looking for parent volunteers to assist with makeup for the cast members. If you are available could you please contact Jessica, jessica.white@cg.catholic.edu.au 

More information will follow in the coming weeks. Please keep an eye on Compass for all correspondence. 

Regards, 
Production Team 

CANTEEN UPDATE

Please note the canteen will be closed next week, Friday, 28 October.

Please do not place lunch orders next week. Apologies for any inconvenience.

Hayley Van Weerdenburg
Canteen Manager