Dear Parents/Carers,

Welcome to Week 6. Last week saw St Mary’s at its finest as we celebrated the official opening of our refurbished classrooms. The lovely ceremony was attended by many special guests including Ross Fox, Director of Catholic Education Canberra Goulburn, the Hon. Stephen Lawrence MLC and local member for Cootamundra, MP Steph Cooke. The school looked fabulous and the ceremony was a lovely celebration of our great school. We also received a special thank you for such a ‘moving’ ceremony from Dr Patrick McArdle the Archbishop’s representative. Thanks again must go to Katrina McGrath and Nickey Harland for their help in organising such a beautiful celebration.

It has come to our attention that some students are regularly arriving at school as early as 8:15am. Some are being dropped off by parents while some are walking or arriving on scooters or bicycles. Supervision of students begins at 8:30am. While teachers are present at school before 8:30am, they are preparing for the day and are not supervising students. We have a duty of care to provide supervision within designated hours, which are from 8:30am until 3:40pm. If there are extenuating circumstances and a student needs to arrive early or be collected later, prior arrangements must be made with the school." Parents could you please ensure that your child/ren are not on the school grounds before 8:30am.

A number of students have been coming to the staffroom at lunchtime with noodles from home for staff to pour boiling water in. This cannot happen unless arrangements have been made with your teacher. This is a safety issue as we cannot have students on the playground with boiling water. Many thanks for your co-operation. 

Next week will see our Year 3 and 5 students complete the NAPLAN tests. The window for the completion of the tests will begin on Wednesday the 13^th of March and conclude on the 25^th of March. NAPLAN is just one part of our school’s assessment program. The tests assess literacy and numeracy skills that your child is already learning at school.

In preparation for NAPLAN, our school will undertake activities to help students become familiar with the format and functionality of the online tests. These activities are not an assessment of student ability and will not be marked.

The public demonstration site (https://www.nap.edu.au/online-assessment/public-demonstration-site) is available to see the types of questions, tools and functions used in the NAPLAN tests. 

Further information about NAPLAN is available on the NESA website (https://educationstandards.nsw.edu.au/wps/portal/nesa/k-10/understanding-the-curriculum/naplan/parent-information). 

If you have any questions about NAPLAN, please contact your child’s teacher. If you have made appointments for your son or daughter during any of these testing times and these cannot be re-arranged, please contact your classroom teacher or myself as soon as possible, to let them know. 

A reminder that if a student is absent due to illness, they will be required to make up the test they missed before they can sit any future ones as ACARA stipulates the testing sequence. I will be managing the make-up testing schedule and will communicate with those students when the make-ups will take place.  We encourage you to help your child(ren) to stay calm and remind them that NAPLAN is just a snapshot of their learning and only ONE measure of their achievement. Please refer to the attached advice regarding children’s wellbeing during NAPLAN. Please note that your child’s iPad needs to come to school each day fully charged. If your child is using their own Bluetooth headphones or keyboard it too must be fully charged.

This week will be my first week as Acting Principal of St Mary’s. The majority of the week will be spent with other principals across the diocese in Bowral at the annual principal’s retreat. It will be Katrina McGrath’s final week as she kindly offered to stay and help out the school during my absence. We are currently advertising for an Acting Assistant Principal. We look forward to making an announcement soon. Please remember my door is always open.

Damian Collins

Acting Principal

How to Pray the Seven Sorrows Rosary

First Sorrow

      Happy Birthday to

Halle Judd

who celebrates her birthday during this week.

We hope you enjoy your special day.

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
Monday 4th March	CG Swimming Championships	Boorowa
Tuesday 5th March	Author Visit - Dub Leffler	At School
Monday 18th March	Zoomobile	At School
Friday 29th March	Good Friday
Monday 1st April	Easter Monday
Friday 5th April	Cross Country
Tuesday 9th April	ACT Brumbies 10's Gala Day	Grenfell
Friday 12th April	Last Day of Term 1!	At School

   

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, 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 2024 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 give permission for your child/ren on Compass.

The handbook states the following:

"For health and safety reasons hair is to be worn tied back if shoulder length, this applies to both boys and girls."

"Hair adornments must in a colour scheme that matches the uniform and be kept to the minimum."

Please help St Mary's remain a school to be proud of by ensuring your children are clean and tidy in our school uniform.