St Mary's Primary School Newsletter Term 4 Week 10

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

Welcome to Term 4 Week 10

This Sunday is the third day of Advent. 

On Monday at school we will light two purple candles, and also the rose or pink candle on our Advent wreath which represents Joy. Together we will celebrate a short Advent reflection in the library after lunch.  Students will lead us through the refelection and prayers, which will include:

Lord God, may we, your people, who look forward to the birthday of Christ experience the joy of salvation and celebrate that feast with love and thanksgiving.

We ask this through Christ our Lord, Amen

This week we welcomed our Executive Director Tom Sexton to our school, who was taken on a tour by our Grade 5 students Colby, Olivia, Campbell and Mia.  We also had all our Grade 5 students proudly present their leadership speeches in preparation for voting for the School Captains and leaders for 2023.  Everyone has been incredibly busy this week. In classes students are finalising their Christmas preparations, there is some fabulous artwork currently underway.  There have been practices for STOMP and the Graduation Mass, including lots of singing. Today we had our Pool Party, and everyone had a great day. Thank you Parent Club for our sausage sizzle, it was gratefully appreciated.  Today we also farewelled Ms. Zoe Muir, Pre-Service Teacher from ACU, who has been with us for the past four weeks, working in Lentils with Clare Letts.  Thank you Zoe for your contributions, and we know you will have a very successful teaching career ahead of you. Thank you also Clare for being Zoe's supervisor and providing her with such a valuable teaching placement.  

Next week we head into our final week for 2023, with the Transition Day Tuesday 13/12, Graduation dinner on Wed 14/12 and the Graduation Mass, STOMP and Basket Tea on Thurs 15/12.  The last day for students is 16/12, finishing at 3:15 pm as per normal time.  Whilst a busy and challenging time, we have so much to look forward to and be grateful for.  May the next week bring us amazing experiences to remember for a long time to come. 

Travel safely with God's blessings,

Nerrida

Student Leadership

Congratulations to each Grade 5 student for their preparation for their student leadership speeches held on Wednesday. Each of you should be very proud. Thank you to the families who were able to attend. A very special thank you to Clare Letts and Bron in preparing the children for this occasion. Voting is now being finalised and our student leaders for 2023 will be announced after the Advent Reflection on Monday 12th December. Formal induction of the leaders will occur early in Term 1 2023, when the new leaders will be presented with their badges.  Parents will be notified and invited to this event next year. 

Pool Party today - fun in the sun! (Sunsmart of course)

What a terrific day was had by all at the pool today.  The students behaved magificently and throughly enjoyed themselves.  Every student had a dip and many didn't mind the cooler water and stayed in the water for the entire time (including Ms Flagg!).  Thank you Narelle Drage, Sarah Spicer and Parent Club for organising our free sausage sizzle lunch. There were many hungry students after the swimming activities and all food was gobbled up pretty swiftly!   Thank you Warracknabeal Pool and Bronte for looking after us. On heading back to school students and staff enjoyed a Zooper Dooper and some chill time before the end of school.  There's lots of photos here!

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It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas....

Barley students enjoyed combining their maths skills with their creative cooking abilities, designing gingerbread prisms and then filling them with lollies and covering with icing. Students then also had to identify the number of faces, vertices and apex of their prism. Maths has never been so tasty this year!

Transition Day Tuesday 13th December

On Tuesday 13th December there will be the Foundation Transition day from 9-1:45pm.

Also on this day, from 9-11, there will be a whole school transition in the morning, for Chickpeas, Wheat, Barley and Lentils for 2023. Staffing for these classes will be announced on this day. 

Our current Grade 6's are still to come to school on Tuesday 13th December.  In the morning while the rest of the school is undertaking transition activities, Ms Holland and Ms. Flagg will meet with the Grade 6's to become familiar with the new Child Safety Standards and to seek their input into creating student friendly standards for our school. They will also have the opportunity to download their school work on to a USB stick to keep.  Normal classes will resume after recess. 

Graduation 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 December at 5:30pm. Please have your child at the Church by 5:15 pm. It is expected all our families will attend this special celebration to give thanks for our school year and farewell our Grade 6 students.  It is especially important all our Foundation students also attend, as they are the Grade 6 buddies and will be part of the Mass proceedings.  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 run for approximately 20 mins. Afterwards will be the opportunity for a basket tea if families wish to bring tea along to stay and share hospitality with others.  

Please ensure your child has eaten afternoon tea/a light snack before Mass at 5:30pm, otherwise they won't have tea until about 7pm. 

For our planning organisation, if your child and family are unable to attend the evening of December 15th, please notify Nerrida.   Thank you. 

Code Red Day - Now Catastrophic

Catastrophic Fire Rating Days
In September 2022, Australia introduced a new fire danger forecasting system, the Australian Fire Danger Rating System (AFDRS). A nationally consistent system will more accurately predict fire danger and produce clear, simple messages for communities. Victoria has been using a 6‐tier system for fire danger ratings, from ‘Low’ or ‘Moderate’ to ‘Code Red’. The AFDRS will replace the
Victorian system this year and uses 4 tiers of fire danger, from ‘Moderate’ to ‘Catastrophic’
In response to the updated state Victorian Fire Risk register, St Mary’s is rated CAT 4. This means that our school must close on days forecast as ‘Catastrophic’, by the Bureau of Meteorology within our designated fire district. The decision to close will be confirmed by the Emergency Management Commissioner no later than 1.00 pm the day prior to the closure. Once we have received confirmation of the closure we will contact you through SMS, our Facebook page and email before the end of the school day to confirm this. 

School TV - Bullying

This month on School TV - Bullying

Bullying is an ongoing or repeated misuse of power in relationships, with the intention to cause deliberate psychological harm. Bullying behaviours can be verbal, physical or social. It can happen in person or online, via various digital platforms and devices and it can be obvious or hidden. Bullying in any form or for any reason can have immediate, medium and long-term effects on those involved, including bystanders.

Despite the efforts made to reduce bullying behaviours, the research tells us that one in four students still report being bullied every few weeks. However, not all negative behaviour should be considered bullying. The key difference is that bullying does not stop on its own. It’s important young people learn how to identify behaviours that are rude, behaviours that are mean, and behaviours that are related to bullying.

Often the reasons for bullying can be complex. Some young people do it to get approval from others, some do it to regain control, whilst others may do it because it makes them feel safe. Supporting young people as they work through their emotions will help them unpack the motivation and reason behind the behaviour.

In this edition of SchoolTV, caregivers can better understand why some young people engage in bullying behaviours and what to do to support a child experiencing it. We hope you take time to reflect on the information offered in this month’s edition, and we always welcome your feedback.

If you do have any concerns about the wellbeing of your child, please contact the school for further information or seek medical or professional help.

Below is the link to this month's edition. 

Child Safe Standards - A Summary

Community News

Parish Bulletin