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Welcome back to Term 3. Staff and students have returned to school well rested and ready for another big term at St Mary’s. The students have approached their learning with enthusiasm and have been very busy with extracurricular activities; Athletics, Public Speaking, Musical practices and 100 Days of Kindergarten celebrations.
New Families
Late last term and early this term, we welcomed some new students and their families to St Mary’s. The students in Kindergarten, Year 1, Year 4, Year 5 and Year 6 were especially excited to welcome Lucy, Patience, Adwik, Reyansh, Jace, Beau & Maeve into their classes.
We know that you will enjoy being part of our wonderful school community.
NAIDOC Week Mass and Awards
Last Friday, St Bernard’s Batemans Bay hosted the 2024 NAIDOC Mass and Awards Ceremony for our regional schools. Our Indigenous students and families and our Year 6 Class joined in with students from St Bernard’s, Carroll College, St Patrick’s Bega and Lumen Christi Catholic College Pambula for this very special occasion.
During NAIDOC Week each year, Catholic Education awards members of its community for their exceptional contributions to Aboriginal education, in whatever area they work or learn. Nominations from school principals and teachers are considered by the Aboriginal Education team at Catholic Education. This year we were thrilled to see that five of our Stage 2 students were recognised for their extraordinary efforts at St Mary’s. Congratulations to the following students and their families:
Emerson D - Culture and Identity Award
Jake F - Deadly Encouragement Award
Delilah S - Academic Achievement Award
Maya C - Sports Award
Indie C - Deadly Encouragement Award
This year we chose to take our Year 6 students with us for this special occasion. We were very proud of their exceptional manners and behaviour during Mass and Lunch. I received several compliments about our students' excellent behaviour.
Catching up with Mr Lowe cooking sausages for everyone was a special bonus for those children who remember him. Mr Lowe was principal at St Mary’s when our Year 6 students were in Kinder!
Stage 3 Structure
With the information we had available to us at the time, we initially made the decision to split the Stage 3 cohort into three smaller Home classes with Mr Harpley (Year 6), Ms Lock (Year 5/6) and Mr Campbell and Mrs Afflick (Year 5).
Earlier this year, several of our Year 5 students left St Mary’s and a similar number of Year 6 students enrolled with us. Last term, the Stage 3 teachers and the Leadership Team discussed the situation and decided it was best for all that we place the 21 Year 5 students together in one Year 5 class with Mr Campbell and Mrs Afflick and have two Year 6 classes for the rest of the Year. It has proved to be very successful and the students and staff are very happy.
Kindergarten 100 Days of School Celebration
On Tuesday this week, we seemed to have a lot of very old, grey and wrinkly people at St Mary's. It was odd that they looked old, but they were very little and they certainly weren't quiet or SLOW! The 100 Days of Kindergarten Celebration was a special day for everyone including Mrs Schofield. Check out our Facebook Page for more photos.
School Fees
Term 3 school fees were sent home this week. Most families find making regular payments the best way to manage them.
We understand that the last few years have impacted many of our families and we do not wish to add any additional stress upon you in regards to school fees. We offer School Fees Remissions for our families experiencing financial difficulties. It is important however, that parents make early contact with Mrs Hazell or me personally so we can assist you with the remission application. This is a highly confidential process.
Term 3 events and COMPASS calendar
Term 3 is always busy; NAIDOC activities, Musical Practices, Southern Region Public Speaking, Southern Region Athletics, Archdiocesan Athletics, Whole School Assemblies, Book Week, Science Week, Fathers Day and The Sacrament of First Eucharist.
Please closely monitor our parent calendar. If you have any difficulty accessing it, please contact the Front Office.
Please note that the last day of Term 3 for students is Thursday 26 September. Friday 27 September is a pupil free day for professional learning for staff.
Kindergarten 2025 Orientation and Little Investigators Playgroup
Dates have been set for 2025 Kindergarten Orientation sessions - Thursday November 14 and Thursday November 28. Invitations will be sent to families who have enrolled their children at St Mary’s next year.
I highly encourage parents to bring their children 0-5 years to our Little Investigators Playgroup each Wednesday in the PAC. Please let others know that it is free and open to all local families.
Family engagement with faith
Catholic Education has developed a resource for families to assist them in engaging their children in their faith. Parents and grandparents may like to use some of these activities to support them at home.
Family engagement with faith: Family Engagement with Faith.pdf
“I think this is truly the most wonderful experience we can have: to belong to a people walking, journeying through history together with our Lord, who walks among us! We are not alone; we do not walk alone. We are part of the one flock of Christ that walks together.” Pope Francis
God’s blessings on you and your families
Mrs Noeleen O'neill
Principal
Welcome Back to Term 3
A very warm welcome back to all our St Mary's families for Term 3. Thank you for sending your children dressed so beautifully in their correct full winter school uniform. Our focus for this term is on students wearing correct school uniform with pride.
At St Mary's we take great care wearing the correct school uniform, this signifies who we are and promotes a sense of community and inclusivity. Parents and community members often comment on how well St Mary's students wear their school uniform. If your child cannot wear full school uniform for a particular reason please inform your child's teacher. Please make sure your child's clothing is labelled with their name, we find many jackets and jumpers without names and it is then difficult to return the items to their owners.
NAIDOC Week
This week we have been celebrating NAIDOC Week. NAIDOC Week gives First Nations people and non-Indigenous people the opportunity to celebrate and connect with community and country. And it’s a chance for everyone, not just First Nations people, to celebrate all aspects of First Nations’ histories and cultures.The theme in 2024 is Keep the Fire Burning! Blak, Loud and Proud. This recognises the enduring legacy of our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Not only have they preserved their culture, but they continue to ignite passion in others by sharing their practices and teaching us about their histories.
At St Mary’s, throughout the year, our students are continually exploring the cultures, languages, lifestyles and identity of Aboriginal peoples as part of the units of work we study. During NAIDOC Week, we have a particular focus on Aboriginal culture, and this past week our students have engaged in various activities that honoured and explored Indigenous culture and traditions. We have witnessed our Aboriginal students proudly sharing their culture and traditions with their peers through story, music, art and dance. They certainly have embodied the theme of Keep the Fire Burning.
Let’s ensure our flame is both warm to those we interact with and serves as a light showing others where the love of God is to be found (Matthew 5:16).
NAPLAN
All parents of children in Year 3 and Year 5 should have received paper copies of The National Assessment Program- Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) results. These were sent home from school last Friday. This assessment was held early in Term One 2024 in March.
The report includes:
- an achievement scale showing your child's results for each assessment area
- a national average marker for each assessment area, indicating the average performance achieved by the national cohort of students in Year 3
- tables which provide additional information on your child's performance and a description of the skills and understanding assessed.
The assessment provides a snapshot of your child's achievement at a point in time. The information in this report should be considered together with school based assessments and reports.
Book Week / Parade Friday 23 August 2024
The theme for Children's Book Week this year is READING IS MAGIC. The Reading is Magic theme celebrates the reading of stories and their amazing power to transport minds.
The Children's Book Council of Australia (CBCA) event concludes with winners announced during the official book week of 17-23 August.
The feature artist of this year’s poster is Jess Racklyeft. She is a Melbourne based author and illustrator of several picture books and board books and has won several awards, including a CBCA Award.
You can learn more about this artwork and the theme in the video below. Jess talks about the reasons behind the design choices in the video.
Book Parade
On Friday, 23 August we will be holding our Book Parade. Students will be invited to conjure a magic array of costumes and celebrate their favourite literary characters. This is always a spellbinding event for the kids and costumes in previous years have been quite ‘magical’. So put your thinking caps on and start preparing now.
The book parade is scheduled for 9.00am-10.00am Friday 23 August. We look forward to sharing our literary and magical costumes with you on this day.
God bless and take care
Mrs Sue Heffernan
Assistant Principal
Sacrament of First Eucharist
On Tuesday evening we hosted our Parish Sacramental Program Parent meeting in the Sacred Heart Church for families in Year 4 who have been baptised to have the opportunity to receive the sacrament of First Eucharist. Please see below for some important dates for this sacrament. We look forward to supporting these students and their families in coming weeks. If you were interested and unable to attend, please contact Carla Durnan and we can discuss how your child can participate in this special Sacrament.
NAIDOC Mass
On Friday our Year 6 students and Aboriginal students across the school attended a special NAIDOC Mass for our Southern Regional schools at St Bernard’s Parish Batemans Bay to launch the beginning of our NAIDOC school celebrations. The Mass was attended by members of Catholic Education Canberra Goulburn, Dr Michael Holland, students, staff, parents and family members from our region. 2024 NAIDOC awards were presented to thirteen Aboriginal students and educators by CE representatives Mr Dominic Braybon and Mr Rowan Dollar. The Mass musicians were our Sacred Heart Parish musicians and students. Five students from St Mary’s received an award at the Mass:
Christian Meditation
At St Mary’s we prioritise Christian meditation as a form of prayer reflection in classrooms. As part of our NAIDOC celebrations we have included ‘Dadirri’ a form of Aboriginal meditative prayer. All classes across the school have participated in this over the course of the week as part of our regular Christian meditation opportunities.
Liturgy for St Mary of the Cross; Mary MacKillop
On Monday 5 August at 1pm, Year 4 students are leading the school in a special liturgy for the Feast of St Mary of the Cross, Mary MacKillop; Australia’s first saint. The students have been researching facts about her life and why she has become a role model for prioritising education and sharing her passion for education in rural areas. You are more than welcome to join us for this liturgy in the Performing Arts Centre if you are available.
Prayers
This week let us keep Mrs Megan Grant and her family in our prayers as her father is unwell, so close to the passing of her mum.
God, Bring this family peace.
Provide them with your comfort.
Let them know you tenderly care for each and every one of them
Amen
Grace and blessings on your path.
Mrs Carla Durnan
Religious Education Coordinator (Acting)
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 doing her best in all aspects of learning - what a fantastic start to the term! |
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Kinder B |
For making an enthusiastic and settled start at his new school - welcome Jace! |
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1 Blue |
Demonstrating your outstanding knowledge and expertise of our new class pets, Doria and Leafy, our spiny leaf insects! You are a true nature warrior! |
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2 Blue |
His outstanding participation and enthusiasm in our CMC and Spelling Mastery sessions, consistently achieving excellent results. Super effort! |
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3 Blue |
Welcome back Ned! We are thoroughly enjoying hearing about your big adventures in the Kimberley region. We are so pleased to have you back. |
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3/4 Maroon |
For your engagement and participation in Maths CMC lessons - showing great questioning and thinking skills. Well done Elsie! |
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4Blue |
For his great enthusiasm in joining in all activities in his first week at St Mary’s. Welcome! |
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5 Blue |
For his great focus in Reading Mastery sessions. |
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6 Maroon |
For being dedicated to your learning and being a positive role model at St Mary’s. Wonderful effort! |
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6 Blue |
For her wonderful effort and creativity in following instructions and designing fabulous wings for her water bottle rocket in STEM |
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Kinder B |
Taking on feedback to improve his writing - you are an amazing learner Jai! |
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Kinder B |
For demonstrating fantastic growth in reading confidence and ability. |
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1 Blue |
Demonstrating your incredible artistic talent during our NAIDOC art lesson! Well Done! |
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2 Blue |
Embracing our first dance lesson for ‘Mary Poppins’ displaying excellent listening and skilful moves. Well done! |
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3 Blue |
For your impressive start to term 3: being ready to start work and focus during all class learning activities. What a way to begin the term. Keep it up Ryan! |
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3/4 Maroon |
For the wonderful delivery of your speech on ‘Australian Stories” and for engaging and hooking your audience. Well done! |
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4 Blue |
For her excellent leadership during dance sessions with Hayley for Mary Poppins the Musical |
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5 Blue |
For your excellent teaching and sharing their knowledge of dance from Yuin country with our Kinder, Year One and Year 2 classes. We can’t wait for more sessions! |
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6 Maroon |
For making a positive start at St Mary’s. Welcome, Welcome, Welcome! |
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6 Blue |
For consistently being on task and ready to learn. Lila takes on feedback and strives to improve her knowledge and skills. |
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NAIDOC |
For your excellent teaching and sharing their knowledge of dance from Yuin country with our Kinder, Year One and Year 2 classes. We can’t wait for more sessions! |
It’s been a very busy start to the term for Year 6 Blue. The students are now busy with their daily learning and are making very pleasing progress. They are looking forward to the school musical and all the other exciting learning opportunities on offer throughout the term.
“ I had lots of fun teaching the little kids in Year 1 & 2 about traditional indigenous dancing. I got to teach them the Black Duck Dance” Makaya TK
Religion
We have begun working through a unit titled “Pioneering Christians”. Throughout this unit the students will learn about the significance and the wisdom of / writings of the Saints, including St Mary of the Cross MacKillop, for communities of believers. They will Locate and record information about the contribution of pioneering Christians (laity, clergy, religious) in Australia (c.1850 CE – c. 1900 CE) to the preservation of faith and the shaping of particular communities, including Indigenous communities.
Year 6 had the opportunity to attend the NAIDOC Mass at St Bernards in Week 1. It was a great opportunity to come together with the other South Coast schools to celebrate Mass and acknowledge some of the Indigenous students across the region.
“I loved doing my Confirmation because I want to learn more about God” Benji P
“I enjoyed doing our saints projects and I learned a lot about St Joseph” Kade C
“We just started our new novel ‘Once’ and just finished the first chapter and I’m excited!” Elyse B
English
We have been working in both our Spelling Mastery and Reading Mastery groups to hone our skills to improve our reading and writing skills. In class we are reading the novel ‘Once’ as our class novel. We have been using this as a springboard for our writing and research. Once is a 2005 children's novel by Australian author Morris Gleitzman. Set in 1942, it is about a Jewish boy named Felix who lives in Poland and is on a quest to find his book-keeper parents after he sees Nazis burning the books from a Catholic orphanage in which had stayed for 3 years and 8 months.
“I like doing Spelling Mastery because I learn new words nearly every day” Levi D
“ English is an important subject to me because learning English isn’t just morphographs and vowels, it’s about expressing yourself through sentences and stories and sharing your emotions with other people” Ruby H
Maths
In Maths we are enjoying working in our Connecting Maths Concepts (CMC) groups Monday - Thursday. These groups are helping to consolidate learning of key concepts with the four operations, in particular multiplication and division.
On days when CMC is not run, Year 6 has been learning about column graphs. They have investigated how to read and interpret frequency tables and column graphs.
”In Maths I love how it challenges me” Xavier L
“I struggle a bit in Maths but this year I am getting so much better” Elka H
“In Maths we have been learning how to create common denominators when working on fractions” Cooper C
Geography
This Semester Year 6 will be learning about Asia. We have started the unit by watching several short videos highlighting many of the countries of Asia and some of the landforms and interesting features.
“We have started to learn about Asia and the countries in it. I’m so excited to learn more” Lila W
Science
In the Earth and Space Science unit we are currently studying examines the composition of Earth and its atmosphere and the processes occurring within them shape Earth’s surface and its climate. The class will learn that sudden geological changes and extreme weather events can affect Earth’s surface.
“I’m looking forward to learning about earthquakes and volcanoes” Mitchell W
“At the end of last term we baked cookies in science. They were pretty good” Billy I
“It’s amazing how tectonics plates move” Jimmy H
Art
We have used our Art time well over the past fortnight. We have created optical illusion art pieces as well as lead sketches and watercolour art inspired by wattle flowers. We have also begun rehearsals for the Year 6 dance item in our upcoming school musical.
“We have been working on the musical lately and I am really looking forward to it” Sophie VW
“In art we have been learning about optical illusions and it’s so fun” Aria S
PDHPE
On Thursday afternoons Mr Paul Hill has been teaching Year 6 a personal safety unit. The students have been very engaged. They have also been playing a number of games focussed around soccer.
“I like doing soccer for sport” Ky N
“I am very excited to keep learning about safety and soccer” James D
STEM
Our current STEM group has been busy constructing their water bottle rockets. These will be tested at Carroll College in Week 4.
“It is fun creating water rockets and going to Carroll College to learn about forensic science” Spencer S
Mr Matthew Harpley
Teacher 6 Blue
Welcome to Term 3 Sport!
Southern Region Athletics Carnival
We are kicking off the term with the Southern Region Athletics Carnival in Bega next Thursday. After finalising the long jump and high jump events late last week, all students are very excited to be participating in the regional carnival alongside St Bernards Batemans Bay, St Patrick’s Bega, St Josephs Bombala, St Patricks Cooma and Lumen Christi Pambula. We know the St Mary's students will do not only themselves proud but also our school. We wish the team all the very best of luck and I look forward to sharing their results in the next newsletter.
Now that our school events are finalised, students will be presented with their ribbons in the coming weeks. Age champions and the overall winning house will also be announced. The students are very keen to hear which house was the winner this year. I know there will be lots of smiles and a few surprises….
St Mary’s Athletics Team
Olivia L, Annabel T, Rosa R, Skyla R,
James D, Bradley S, Ryan F
Maisie B, Ashley H, Bernadette S, Eve P
Calvin M, Patrick W, Arthur MF, Zane C, Tane M
Maya C, Emerson D, Milah R, Neiva P, Indi C, Aria T
Xavier E, Thomas D, Alex S, Koby D, Hugo DF, Lewis McA, Noah S
Mackenzie H, Bella S, Abbie H, Madison C, Tessa H, Elka H
Leo S, Dion P, Spencer S, Andre L, Declan T, Liam Mc, Sam W
Anikah H, Poppi E, Felicity P, Melody T, Elyse B, Lila W
Billy I, Cooper C, Roarke C, Blake R, Mitchell W, Jaykob G, Nathan W
Wishing you a wonderful week ahead.
Parents, Grandparents, Families and Community Members WE NEED YOUR HELP!
The production team are calling out for volunteers to help produce an outstanding musical. We are asking for help with prop creation, backdrop design and painting and also costume design. If you are creative or know of someone who would be willing to help please encourage them to email genevieve.schofield@cg.catholic.edu.au
Early this Term the backstage team will be in contact with you and we will organise some creative working sessions. Mary Poppins the musical is truly magical and with your help we will make it come alive!
