St Mary's War Memorial School West Wyalong eNewsletter

Dear Parents/Carers,

Welcome to Week 3. We have a massive week ahead of us with the school’s ‘Getting to Know You’ interviews, the postponed Swimming Carnival and the Opening School Mass.

Next Tuesday, the 25^th of February, will be the Community Council Annual General Meeting and Open Meeting. The main objective of this meeting will be to elect a new Chair to the Community Council and to give members of our school community the opportunity to voice any issues or concerns you might have. If you have an item for the agenda, it must be sent to damian.collins@cg.catholic.edu.au prior to the meeting.

A reminder of the change of date for our Opening Mass which will be held this Thursday. All are invited to attend. Our Year 6 leaders will receive their badges at the Mass.

The postponed swimming carnival will be held this evening at Holland Park pool with infants beginning at 5pm and the primary carnival beginning at 5:30pm. If you had booked a ‘Getting to Know You’ interview with your child’s teacher on this night they have been cancelled, please rebook another time on Compass. Apologies for any inconvenience.

As mentioned above, we will hold our ‘Getting to know you’ parent teacher interviews on Wednesday and Thursday. They will be 10 minutes, providing you the opportunity to talk to your child’s teacher about how we can support your child and for you, as a parent, to give invaluable insight into your child’s needs.

Next week will see our Numeracy Intervention and Support program begin after its success in 2024. Our teachers and Learning Support have been busy assessing where your child’s knowledge is at and you will be notified if your child will be included in this program.

Thanks to Andrew Connellan and Brad Glasgow for their time installing our new water bubbler. I’m sure it will be well looked after and used frequently.

The Woolworths Minecraft Cubeez seem to be the latest craze at the moment and have caused a few issues on the playground. We have invested a lot of money for things for the students to do at recess and lunch. Could we please request that children leave them at home.

If you haven't got around to updating your child's details for 2025 on QKR could you please do so ASAP.

Remember my door is always open.

Principal

Damian Collins

The focus this week at St Mary’s is Appreciation. Appreciation is when we are grateful for God’s many blessings around us. It means seeing the good in both people and things and showing our thanks in many ways.

Please join us for our Opening School Mass on Thursday. Our Year 6 leaders will receive their badges at this Mass.

After our opening Mass we will provide you with information about when your child’s class Mass will occur.

World Day of Prayer 2025

Cook Islands

‘I made you wonderful’

St Mary’s Parish will hold World Prayer Day in the church on Friday 7^th March at 10am. St Mary’s students will be singing all of the music for this wonderful prayer event. All families are invited to attend.

Attendances

1. From the homepage of your Compass App, click on the blue plus Shortcuts button on the bottom taskbar.

2. Click on 'Submit Attendance Note'

3. If you have more than one child, select the child the attendance note is for

Select the reason
Enter a brief discription of the absence
Select the start and finish date and time
Click the 'Save' button

*Where possible, attendance notes should be entered prior to the absence occuring.

Week 2 Award Winners

Tomas Haworth	Ayla Stacey	Isla Currie
Bailey Walsh	Bowie Loudon	Bronte Whittaker
Anderson Blampied	Maisie Maslin	Alex Crerar
Aris K C	Cailah Semi	Ricky Smith
	Ted Glasgow

Happy Birthday to

Marcus Murrells, Cooper Miles & Amity Speedy

who celebrate their birthdays during this week.

We hope you enjoy your special day.

Well Done!

Well done to Will McDonell and George Weir who were selected today at the CECG/Wollongong AFL Trials. The boys will now go on to participate in the NSW MacKillop Trials to be staged at Wagga on Tuesday 25th March 2025.

The whole school is extremely proud of the boys!

Mid Western Primary School 10's Gala Day

West Wyalong Rugby Union Grounds on Wednesday 2nd April 2025.

Teams will be made this coming Thursday and a Compass Event will be sent out in the near future.

We will be needing team coaches/Managers for the day for the teams. If any parents would like to volunteer their time it would be much appreciated.

No transport is provided, parents must transport their own child.

Canberra Goulburn Archdiocese Trials

If your Year 5/6 child has the ability to compete at a representative level in the following sports - Cricket, Basketball, Tennis, Netball, Rugby League, Football (Soccer), Hockey, Softball, Touch Football and Rugby Union - you are able to nominate them for the Archdiocesan trials.

Please note that the Archdicocesan representative sport trials are highly competitve and there is an expectation that children nominating for these trials have extensive experience in the sport and currently compete at a high level.

If you would like to nominate your child to trial for a sport please go to https://csnsw.sport

Primary_All_Schools_Girls_12_Years_and_Under_Australian_Football_Trials_2025_Page_1.jpg

We are still looking for volunteers to be safety swimmers with the infants tonight!

Our swimming carnival will run after school on Tuesday, 18th of February. The evening starts at 5pm with novelty events for Kinder and Year 1. Years 2-6 will begin at 5:30pm with the formal races of the carnival.

Due to low numbers for the 100m Freestyle and the IM, these events will be run on the night. The IM will be swam first with the 100m Freestyle later in the night.

KINDER, YEAR 1 & YEAR 2 STUDENTS WHO DO NOT SWIM

Kinder and Year 1 students participate in novelty games. We will require 8 safety swimmers for the infants events, these events cannot run without parent helpers, please volunteer by calling or emailing the school.

Year 2 students who are still 7 in 2025 can only swim 25 metre races.

YEAR 2 TO 6 STUDENTS

All other students must have the Compass Permission Form completed before tonight.

Please note - all students and teachers who do not have a season pass are covered for admission. Family members who do NOT have a season pass will be charged an admission fee.

Below is a copy of the menu provided at the pool on our carnival night.

Kinder Rest Day and Best Start Interview

Parents of Kinder students are reminded that they still have 2 Rest Days - Wednesday 19th and 26th of February.

Our Kinder students get very tired and this break will help them to remain keen and focused.

Mrs Turner will be holding the Best Start Interviews on these days.

The Life Education Van will be visiting St Mary’s School Monday 3rd, Tuesday 4th & Wednesday 5th March.

It is expected that all students participate in this program as the content is linked to the school curriculum.

The cost per child is $13 and this should be paid via Compass.

A Compass event will be sent out in the next few days.

Student and Family Counselling

The Student and Family Counsellor works with students, families, and school staff to build safety, recovery, relationships, and resilience for a child / young person’s social, emotional, and educational wellbeing. To do this, the Student and Family Counsellor can provide support though:

Individual one-on-one counselling with children at school
Supporting families with referrals to external supports where required
Facilitating therapeutic/psychoeducational groups for student cohorts
Facilitating psychoeducational groups for parents/carers
Providing professional development for school staff

Student and Family Counsellors are often the first port of call for students and families that are struggling, some of the areas where the Student and Family Counsellor can help are:

Anxiety
Social skills
Emotions
Healthy relationships
Divorce/Separation
Behavioural issues
Worry
Coping skills

Our Student and Family Counsellor Bio

My name is Natalie, and I have been part of the Marymead CatholicCare Student and Family Counselling team since 2024, and I currently support 3 regional schools as a student and family counsellor.

I have a bachelor’s degree in psychology and a master’s in counselling. I am passionate about supporting children and families and prior to my current role as student and family counsellor I worked in Family Preservation. This gave me a keen insight into the importance of early intervention and working wholistically with a child’s support network.

If you would like further information, feel free to touch base with any questions or concerns relating to the counselling service at your school. You can contact me by calling St Mary on Tuesdays or you can email anytime at natalie.cowled@mccg.org.au

I look forward to working with you and your school throughout 2025!

Need support?

If you believe your child may benefit from counselling and would like to make a referral, you can do so by following the link below:

https://catholiccare.force.com/housing/s/school-referral-form

Date and Day	Teacher on Leave or PD	Class	Relief
Wednesday 19th February	Mrs Harland	n/a	n/a

The following events are in the calendar in the next few weeks.

The Compass Calendar is updated to show Mass times, sporting events, important events.

Day	Event	Location
Tuesday 18th February	St Mary's Swimming Carnival	At Holland park Pool
Wednesday 19th February	Kinder Rest Day
Thursday 20th February	Opening School Mass @ 12pm	At St Mary's Church
Monday 24th February	Western Region Swimming For athletes who qualified only.	Tumut
Tuesday 25th February	Community Council AGM @ 7pm	At School
Wednesday 26th February	Kinder Rest Day
Monday 3rd - Wednesday 5th March	Life Education Van - Healthy Harold	At School
Wednesday 12th - Monday 24th March	NAPLAN	At School
Wednesday 2nd April	Mid Western Primary School Rugby Union 10's Gala Day	West Wyalong Rugby Union Grounds
Friday 4th April	St Mary's Cross Country	- Infants at School - Primary at Showgrounds
Tuesday 8th April	St Anne's Taster Day	At St Anne's, Temora
Thursday 10th April	Last Day of Term 1
Friday 11th April	Staff Development Day - Pupil Free Day

Student Residential Address Collection

The Australian Government Department of Eduaction (DoE) will collect student residential addresses for all non-goverment schools in February/March 2025. The purpose of this collection is to help in calculating the needs-based funding arrangements for non-government schools.

Please note that student names will be 'de-indentified'.

An email has been sent out with all the information.

Term Roster

If you would like to help in the canteen in Term 1 please contact our canteen manager Casey Judd at casey.judd@cg.catholic.edu.au or on Facebook.

If any volunteers are unable to fill their shift please contact Casey on 0400 472 921.

Canteen Menu

Date and Day

Teacher on Leave or PD

Class

Relief