Dear Parents and Carers,

I would like to welcome our continuing families to another exciting school year and extend a special welcome to our new families for 2021. This year we invite the Brose, Crerar, Fair, O’Meley, Patton, Pursehouse, Pike, Hardie and Wilson families into the school. I sincerely hope your experience with the school is positive and your students are engaged with their learning.

2021 already feels different to last year and with the contact tracing system NSW has developed, I feel extremely confident that we will be free to engage in usual school activities as years past. It was just wonderful to have our parents back at St Mary's swimming carnival and we look forward to more parent participation as the year rolls on.

It is also with great joy that I welcome 22 new students to our school.

• In Kinder Kind we have Poppi Barber, Clancy Blampied, Annabelle Brose, Harry Carne, Harrison Chantrill, Alex Crerar, Mae Dean, Indi Fair, Meila Fair, Lola Glasgow, Charlie Hague, Louis Morton, Ciara O’Meley, Ella Patton, Charlotte Pursehouse, Reuben Ridley , Lanie Sams, Adaline Stephens, Ivy Wilson.
• In Year 3/4 Trust we have Jasper Campbell-Pike
• In Year 3/4 Peace we have Jess Hardie
• In Year 5/6 Hope we have Hannah Campbell-Pike

I look forward to getting to know you all and finding out about your story.

2021 also sees two new teachers join our staff. I would like to offer my support to Mrs Rebecca McPake (Year 1 Joy teacher) and Miss Chloe Beach (Year 5/6 Faith teacher) and warmly welcome them to St Mary’s.

For those that are new to our community, I have been teaching in Catholic schools since 1999. St Mary’s is the third school that I have taught in, having previous experiences at Our Lady of the Sacred Heart Merbein for 1 year and St Mary’s Toukley for 7 years. I am passionate about developing the whole child and helping them to grow to the best version of themselves and about Catholic Education and the dimension Christ brings to all of us. I am passionate about supporting my staff and giving each one the resources they need to thrive in their positions and about working with the parent and wider community to promote a healthy connection with the school and the students that fill our classrooms every day.

I would like to offer an invitation to our entire school community to contact the school for any reason, either positive or negative. I am open to constructive feedback and no issue is too big or too small for the school to be contacted about. I am looking forward to collaborating with the entire School community.

Kind Regards,

Phil Nielsen

Principal

What are Virtues?

Kindness

We would like a lot of people who helped at our swimming carnival on Thursday night, without your help our carnival could not go ahead:

• Thank you to the parents who helped on Tuesday for the medley - Wendy Connellan, Myfi Kellahan, Amanda Gaynor, Neil Cuthbertson, Andrew Connellan and Mel Westaway.
• Thank you to the parents who helped with the novelty events on Thursday night, we appreciate you had to get in the pool with the children and it wasn't the best weather! Leah Blampied, Dan Hague, Rachel Murrells, Tiarna Fair, Kevin Carne, Gina Morton, Kellie Brose and Ben Sams.
• Thank you to the parents who helped with the timing and other roles during the carnival - Amanda Gaynor, Ann-Maree Crouch, Kate Dean, Myfi Kellahan, Diana Carne, Kath Englert, Christina Harper, Anna Bell, Sarah Curry, Linda Thomas, Meg Hardie.
• Thank you to the parents who helped with the 100m on Monday - Brodie Greenwood, Amanda Gaynor, Myfi Kellahan, Andrew Connellan, Wendy Connellan and Tiarna Fair.
• A special thank you to Lucy Block at the pool, Angus Westaway for doing the stroke judging, our P&F who provided the lovely BBQ and staff who gave up their own time to help and support our students.

The following students have been chosen to read at the Year 1 and Year 2 Mass at 12.30pm on Wednesday the 10th of February.  If your child is not available please contact Mrs Haworth or the school office so a replacement can be arranged.

First Reading - Will McDonell and Ted Glasgow

Response - Jimmy Curry, Riley Greenwood and Molly Gaynor

Prayers of the Faithfull - Archie Maslin, Harriet Bell, Pippa Cuthbertson, George Weir and Emily McCoullough.

Opening School Mass

Tuesday the 23rd February 2021

12 pm

We are celebrating our whole school Opening Mass on Tuesday 23^rd February, 2021 at 12pm. Our Year 6 leaders will be inducted at this mass.

If you are a Year 6 parent and you will not have a family member attending the mass, could you please let the school know so a staff member can be with your child during the badge ceremony.

A reminder to all parents entering the church to comply with Covid regulations by scanning the QR codes on your way into the church.

All students attend this Mass and parents and carers are warmly invited to attend.

We welcome our new Kinder students for 2021

Back (L-R): Indi Fair, Charlotte Pursehouse, Ella Patton, Lanie Sams, Poppi Barber, Mae Dean, Adaline Stephens, Ciara O'Meley, Lola Glasgow, Annabelle Brose, Meila Fair, Ivy Wilson.

Front (L-R): Harrison Chantrill, Louis Morton, Clancy Blampied, Harry Carne, Alex Crerar, Charlie Hague, Reuben Ridley.

Congratulations to our new House Captains

MacKillop - Indi Loudon

Tenison-Woods - Layla Player

McAuley - Ted Curry

  

Canberra Goulburn Representative Basketball  

Congratulations to Bella Alchin, Asha McDonell, Bobby Bryant, Toby Nielsen, Amelia Alchin, Bodhi Cattle and Nixon Loudon who travelled to Canberra on Friday to trial for the Canberra Goulburn representative basketball team.

Our students must have made a fantastic impression on the selectors as all three girls and three of the boys qualified to trial for the MacKillop teams on Friday the 26th of February.

Well done to all of you for some great sportsmanship on Friday.

Happy Birthday to

Toby Nielsen, Jess Hardie, Hannah Campbell-Pike, Ted Glasgow and Ruby Glasgow

who celebrated their birthdays last week or in the coming week.

• Medical Form (orange) - All Years - Please complete and return the form to the school office.  A new form is required for each student every year.  If you indicate your child has asthma, even if seasonal, and action plan from your doctor is required to be held at the school office along with a puffer and spacer labelled with your child's name.

Library Timetable 2021

   

Sport Days 2021

Our school counsellor, Mrs Emma McRae, will be visiting our school every Wednesday for 2021.

Please follow this link for detailed information on the service provided to our families by Catholic Care.

If you would like to make a confidential appointment for your child please contact the school office or you can complete an online form at this link:

Catholic Care - Counselling Referral Form

This information can also be found on our school website and the SZApp and includes a link to the referral form.

The 2021 pupil free days for the rest of the year are:

TERM 2: Monday 19th April

TERM 3: Monday 12th of July

TERM 4: Tuesday 5th October (Monday is a public holiday)

Interviews for all Year 1 to Year 6 students will be held next week on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday afternoons from 3.30pm in your child's classroom.

These interviews are held in Term 1 to enable parents to speak about their child's strengths and where they might require some help.

The booking form link will be sent on Thursday afternoon to parents via text to their mobile phone number.  If you do not recieve this text please contact the office so we can check our contact information. 

You will need to be registered to our SZ App to be able to book an appointment, the same email you input when you created a login to our SZ App is used to book an appointment.

Mr Nielsen sent a welcome email to all parents during the first week of the new school year, in this email Phil provided an update of our COVID-19 restrictions at the school.

Please see below for a reminder of this information.

• If you are returning from holidays and you have been in a current hotspot, we have been advised that you need to isolate for 14 days. Hotspots are changing regularly, so please check the NSW Health website for up to date locations (they are identified as specific locations, restaurants, shopping centres ect.…)
• We can now welcome parents onto school grounds for events and for drop off and pick up. You are also welcome to attend carnivals.
  • Social distancing and sanitising is still essential.
  • If you need to be on school grounds for more than the time it takes to drop off and pick up, please sign into the front office.
  • We can now welcome you back to assemblies, which will be held in the Church at 2.15pm. Please sign in using the QR code that will be made available.

Our school backpacks will be available in Week 3.

Sorry for any inconvenience this may cause.

   

At times during the school year your child/ren will participate in off premises cultural and sporting learning activities within walking distance of the school.

For example Book Week at the Bland Shire Library, performances at the S&C Club, training at the stadium or Perseverance Oval.

As part of St Mary's "duty of care" responsibility, risk assessment documents must be submitted to Catholic Education Office Canberra Goulburn for these events.  As most of these excursions are low key, for a short duration and do not require monetary payment, parents are notified of the actual date, time and event via the newsletter.

This permission note covers your child/ren attending these events for the 2021 school  year.

If at any time you do not wish your child to attend an event off premises, after specific notification, please contact the school.

Please click on this link Local Excursions (Walking) - Permission Note 2021 to complete the note.

There is parking in the church carpark and on Church Street for dropping off children.

We still have restrictions in place and parents are only allowed into the school grounds for as long as it takes to drop or collect your child.  If you need to be in the school for another reason please come to the school office, which is still located at the back of the main building.

School Banking encourages kids to save a little money each week (any amount) into their Youthsaver account, helping them learn about the value of money and develop a good saving habit. Three out of four parents of School Bankers agree it’s helped teach their child an important life skill and given them a head start in life with understanding money.

  

Please open an Youthsaver account for your child at the Commonwealth Bank and get a yellow deposit book.

Books should be brought to the school office on a Thursday morning.

An information brochure from the Commonwealth Bank will be sent home for parents of Kinder children.  If your child is in another class and you would like a brochure please contact the office.  

Issue 1 of Scholastic Book Club will close on Thursday the 11th of February.

It is best to use the LOOP order system but if you need to pay by cash or cheque then the forms need to be sent to the office.

  

Canteen Menu

The Friday lunch menu has been modified to make it easier for our volunteers when bagging up the lunches.  Hopefully we will be able to get more volunteers on a Friday!

  

Canteen Roster

Monday 8 February	Wednesday 10 February	Friday 12 February
Gina Morton Baking: Gina Morton	Carlie Byrnes Baking: Carlie Byrnes	Lauren McDonell & Tiarna Fair Baking: Lauren McDonell
Monday 15 February	Wednesday 17 February	Wednesday 19 February
Linda Thomas & Meg Hardie Baking: Linda Thomas	VACANT - VOLUNTEERS REQUIRED	VACANT - VOLUNTEERS REQUIRED Baking: Brodie Greenwood

 

When you send in your child's lunch order please ensure the class name is included as shown below.  If you have more than one child you can put the money in one bag and just indicate on the other bags which bag the money is in.

The lunch bags will remain until the canteen starts using QKR! ordering.

Please see below for the general information for next year.  Please note the change of time for our lunch break.

     

All students K-6 require the following items for school, clearly labeled:

art smock, box tissues

Students in Years 1-6 require the following:

Scissors, glue sticks, erasers, pencil sharpeners, black lead pencils (HB), plastic ruler (narrow), coloured pencils and/or textas

Students in Years 5 & 6 only—biros – blue and red

Students in Kinder, Years 1 & 2 require a Library Bag.

Kindergarten students are provided with all  stationery requirements by the school

Back packs are available from the school office at a cost of $50, however these will not be available till Week 4.

  FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL

We took some lovely photos of our students on Day 1.

Everyone looking happy and ready to enjoy the new school year.

SWIMMING CARNIVAL

Our swimming carnival was held last Thursday night and we managed to complete all of the events except the 100m freestyle.  Then the storm started!

MATHS LEARNING

Over the last two years we have had MATHS as a focus. Our staff have attended various PD facilitated by Leonie Anstey who have been working on building their teaching capacity in Maths teaching and improving student outcomes.

After reviewing the current practices in place for Maths, the staff decided that student outcomes in Maths will continue to improve if students were taught in class groups not stages. Therefore, Maths Kinder to Year 6 will now be taught in class groups not stage groups. 

We had planned to have Leonie work with Parents, students and staff last year but COVID changed that. Hence, we have booked Leonie for two days on 19th & 20th April. Leonie will also facilitate a parent meeting on the evening of 19th April. We will let you know more details as the time draws nearer. Please put this date aside and we look forward to seeing you all there.

Kinder - Mrs Meincke

1  -         Mrs McPake

2 -          Mrs Parker

3 -          Mrs Nielsen

4 -          Mrs Harland

5 -          Miss Beach

6-           Mrs Cuthbertson

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

To see the school's full calender check out the SZApp or our website.