St Mary's Primary School Newsletter Term 4 Week 6

Acknowledgement of Country

St Mary’s Primary School respectfully acknowledges the Traditional Owners of the
Wimmera Mallee area, the Wotjobaluk, Jaadwa, Jadawadjali, Wergaia and Jupagalk
peoples, and pays respect to the ongoing living cultures of First Peoples.

As partners in Catholic Education and open to God’s presence, we pursue the fullness of life for all.  St Mary's Catholic Primary School  is committed to the safety and well-being of all students.

Key Dates

Principal's Report

Dear Parents and Families,

Friday 11th November is Remembrance Day. It is a day for remembering the many young people who died during war, while protecting Australia. Today we recognised this significant day with a short ceremony held at our flagpoles. Thank you Mrs. Letts and staff for your organisation of this.

God of love and liberty, we bring our thanks this day for the peace and security we enjoy,
which was won for us through the courage and devotion of those who gave their lives in time
of war. We pray that their labour and sacrifice may not be in vain, but that their spirit may
live on in us and in generations to come.

I was priveledged to accompany Eljah and Finn in representing St Mary's at the Cenotaph outside the Warracknabeal Post Office. We joined other schools and community groups in the Warracknabeal community to remember those who have sacrificed so much for us. 

As the term continues, teachers are busily engaged in creating your child’s report, being mindful of ensuring that it is an accurate record of achievement during the semester. These take time and much thought in order to represent your child well. I thank all the teachers for the effort and time which they put into these documents. Teachers have also been involved in the testing of literacy and numeracy skills to update data we have on your child’s learning journey.  

We still have lots of terrific activities to look forward to this term, including the Science Dome experience next week, basketball clinics and even a circus workshop!

With the warmer weather starting to appear and with the chance of our reptile friends becoming more active, children have been reminded to not be playing towards the longer grass and bushes to the sides of the oval, and to always ask an adult to collect play equipment if it lands in a grassy area.   Please remind your child of the play areas near the oval for the rest of this term. 

Travel safely with God's blessings,

Nerrida

Student Absence from School

A reminder that it is a legal requirement for parents to explain absences from school. Please remember to log on to PAM and state if sickness, doctor’s appointment or family reasons. Alternatively you can email or phone the school prior to 9:30 am on the day of absence, otherwise an absence SMS will be generated. If there is a scheduled absence please advise us in advance. 

Family holidays - if there are planned holidays during school term time, parents are to notify Nerrida at principal@smwarracknabeal.catholic.edu.au. 

Everyday Counts

Going to school every day is the single most important part of your child’s education.
Students learn new things at school every day– missing school puts them behind.

Grade 5 Kinder visits

This week, under the guidance of Mrs Kemp and Bron, our Grade 5's visited Warracknabeal Memorial Kindergarten to meet the children who will be joining our Foundation grade in Chickpeas next year.  The Grade 5 students will soon be paired up with the new students as their buddies for 2023. 

Garaduation Mass, Stomp and Basket Tea

Our school’s Grade 6 Graduation Mass, which is also our End of Year Mass, will be held on Thursday 15th Decemebr at 5:30pm. It is expected all our families will attend this special celebration to give thanks for our school year and farewell our Grade 6 students. Fr Matt Restall will be celebrating Mass with us. Families, friends and parishioners are warmly invited to this special celebration. Students will sit together as a school.  Our new Foundation students and families are also warmly invited to attend this special event.

After the Mass, we will return to school for the students to present their STOMP dances to their families, which will go for 20 mins or so. Afterwards will be the opportunity for a basket tea if families wish to bring tea along to stay and share hospitality with others.  

Pleae enure your child has eaten afternoon tea/a light snack before Mass at 5:30pm, otherwise they won't have tea until about 7pm.   If your child and family are unable to attend the evening of the Dec 15th, please notify Nerrida.
Thank you. 

Student Wellbeing

There’s a perception in our society that perfectionism is a good thing, likened to ‘being perfect..’ That it’s something we should strive for, yet the reality is quite different. Perfectionism leads us to place unreasonably and often unrealistically high expectations on ourselves. So much so, we frequently wind up feeling like failures, consumed by frustration and self-blame. This can be very unsettling to witness in our kids and it can be hard for us to know how best to help. It can start when our children are very young and grow with them in intensity.
We need to challenge their thinking and self-talk by using empathetic comments like "I can see you're angry/upsetbecause you want this to be perfect". Then have your child reflect on these questions:
"What's the worst thing that could happen?"
"What's a more positive way to think about this?"
"What part of my problem could I solve now?"
Being open with our children when we make mistakes and talking about how we learn from them is a simple way to comfort your child's unrealistic self-expectations.
In the attached video Dr Kayleen Henderson offers some tips to help our children break the unhealthy habit of perfectionism.

Child Safe Standards - A Summary

Prelude to Christmas

This previously held annual event will return this year, at the Uniting Church on Sunday 27th November, at 6:30pm.  This is a wonderful ecumenical event where community members from the various churches in Warracknabeal can celebrate together the advent season and love of Christ, through scripture readings and performances.  All children are expected to attend with all families are warmly invited. Students will practice at the church leading up to the event, with days and times yet to be confirmed. There will be Operoos sent out for permission for the children to walk to and from the Church for these practices. 

Songs have been chosen and students will start learning and practicing these over the coming weeks.  The songs are Christmas Star and Christ the King.  At the end of the newsletter are links to You Tube clips for the songs and copies of the words. Please practice these with your children! (Sing out loud and sing it proud!).  We want the students to learn the words by heart and your help  is greatly appreciated.

Free Triple P Parenting Program

The Australian Government has funded Triple P – the Positive Parenting Program to roll out the Parenting Education and Support Program (PESP). Under the initiative, Triple P online programs will be freely available for families across Australia with children aged 0-11 years.

Triple P is an Australian, evidence-based parenting program. Developed at the University of Queensland and backed by more than 40 years of ongoing research, Triple P gives practical evidence-based strategies to help families approach the challenges of parenthood in a positive way. It’s backed by research and proven by parents.  

More information is in the link below

Our Diocesan Community

Please see the link below for the October edition of the "Our Diocesan Community Magazine".  Included is the article of Eilish Flagg before she headed to Rome.

Community News

Uniting Wimmera Summer Camp 2023

Uniting Wimmera have been hard at work organising what will be their third Summer Camp at Roses Gap and are now ready to start taking expressions of interest from students to become Campers.

Please see the flyers below. Closure date for the Expressions of Interest is December 2^nd

Facilitators of the campare also seeking enthusiastic community members that would be interested in volunteering their time to be Camp Leaders, and help us give children a memorable experience they can tell their peers about once the new school year begins. 

All relevant information about being either a Camper or Camp Leader is provided on both flyers, as well as contact information should you parents/carers have any queries.

Seussical The Musical

Do you like Green Eggs and Ham?! 
Then maybe you’ll enjoy auditioning for Horsham Arts Council’s…
SEUSSICAL THE MUSICAL!

Check out the YouTube video and Google Drive link below for all the information you need on auditioning for HAC’s May 2023 show.

Could you be our Horton the Elephant?  Or maybe you’re more of a Cat In the Hat!  What about our Gertrude McFuzz, or Mayzie LaBird?  We can’t wait to see what talent awaits us in the Wimmera! 

We can’t wait to see who joins us on our trip to the crazy world of Seuss…ANYTHING’S POSSIBLE! 

https://drive.google.com/.../1v62Snw3UYoGt3RmHOBafby7ywzJ...

Songs for Prelude to Christmas Sun Nov 27

Parish Bulletin