St Mary's Primary School Newsletter Term 2 Week 9

Acknowledgement of Country

St Mary’s Primary School respectfully acknowledges the Traditional Owners of the
Wotjobaluk Nation, the Wotjobaluk, Jaadwa, Jadawadjali, Wergaia and Jupagalk
peoples, and recognises their continuing connection to land, waters and culture. We pay our respect to the ongoing living cultures of First Nation Peoples of the Wimmera Mallee area. 

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 2 Week 9

Dear Families and Friends, Staff and Students of St Mary's,

On Tuesday 20th June, Mrs. Louise Kemp and myself were privileged to attend the Rite of Reconciliation for three of our students embarking on their sacramental journey. Congratulations to Heidi, Colby and Campbell in undertaking this sacrament. The Rite of Reconciliation, also known as the Sacrament of Penance or Confession, holds great importance in the Catholic faith as it brings about forgiveness, spiritual healing, personal growth and and reconciliation with others. During the service Fr. Matt Restall shared the Parable of the Prodigal Son from Luke  15:11-32. Fr Matt revisited with those present the connection with the Sacrament that through forgiveness and reconciliation we can all restore our relationship with God, deepen our faith and find inner peace. 

So as another busy term finally comes to conclusion, I am sure we are all looking forward to a restful break! We have had Lightning Premierships in Nhill and then a terrific last day of term reflecting and appreciating the great work of St Vincent de Paul in our community. Thank you to Warracknabeal members of St Vincent de Paul for providing our delicious BBQ lunch. Our day was then topped off by fun hip hop dance sessions with Justin Seidel from Ministry of Dance.  We are very grateful to Yarriambiack Shire for funding Justin's visit, the students throughly enjoyed his activities. A great way to end the term.

May you all keep well and have a restful break and I am looking forward to seeing you all again for Term 3. Remember the first day of term July 10 is a student-free day, with students returning on Tuesday July 11

Travel safely with God's blessings,

Nerrida

End of Semester Reports and Parent Teacher Interviews

Reports were released last Wednesday 21st June through PAM. Please check you have accessed and viewed these. If you are having difficulties viewing your child's reports please email Nerrida.

Parent teacher interviews will be held in Week 2 of Term 3 on Tuesday July 18 and Thursday July 20 from 3:30-5:30 pm.  Bookings for these will be released through PAM during the holidays.   

Lightning Premierships in Nhill

On Thursday 15th June Barley and Lentils students travelled to Nhill to participate in the Lightning Premierships for the first time in three years! Thank you to staff Andy, Bron, Clare, Alyssa and parents Sarah and Emma for helping out for the day

Our Football, Netball team and T-ball team participants had a great time, with amazing efforts of leadership, persistence and  teamwork.  Well done everyone! It was a cold but fun day!

Chickpea Assembly

Thank you to all the families who attended Chickpeas assembly last week.

This term Chickpeas have learnt about God’s Creation in Religion. We all wrote prayers thanking God for the things we love most about our world. In Maths we have been learning Addition and Subtraction strategies. One of these is Friends of Ten - numbers that add to 10. We have also learnt that we can use our knowledge of Friends of Ten to work out subtraction sums.

In Literacy we have consolidated our knowledge of common sounds and started learning alternate ways of writing some of these sounds. We have focussed on spelling and writing three and four letter words. As well we have had a strong focus on learning our Tricky Words - high frequency words that are often difficult to sound out but which we need to know because they are used so often in our language.

In Inquiry we have been looking at how to care for our planet. We have learnt that growing our own food is good for the environment and completed an experiment growing Snowpea seeds. We wrote reports on what happened to seeds that had no water, seeds that grew in the dark and seeds that grew with light and water.

The next assembly is Lentils next term on Thursday 27 July. Also at this assembly we will present the Cross Country perpetual cup, place getter ribbons and House aggregate ribbons.

St Vincent de Paul Liturgy, BBQ lunch and Free Style Ministry Dance

Ministry of Dance Chickpeas and Wheat - click on the photos!

Barley

Lentils

School Advisory Council and Camp Costs 2023

On Tuesday 13th July we held our School Advisory Council meeting. We welcomed new members - Manique Cox, Mark and Courtney Williams and James Gregson.  James has kindly stepped forward to be our School Advisory Chair. Other SAC members include Narelle Drage, Jess Boyd, Dale Stephan and Ali Perris.  As always,  we are grateful to Paula Winsell giving her time to take the minutes for our meetings.  I look forward to working with our SAC and appreciate their time in volunteering to be involved in this role. 

The  main topic for discussion was the overall increase to the cost of camps and the impact this will have on families and the school. We are all aware of the increase in cost of living, which has flowed through to increases in fuel costs for buses, and accommodation, food and administration costs for camps. Changes to the teacher work place agreement has also had a significant impact to the cost of camps.

The SAC members were presented with the costings for camps for 2023, and reviewed possibilities on how to keep costs down for families and to the school. The feedback to me from SAC was for the 3 night/4 day camp for Lentils and 3 day/2 night camp for Barley to remain as is, if possible, with both parents and the school to contribute to the increase in costs. 

As such, the 4 day camp to Robe from 17th - 20th October for 2023 will cost approximately $910 per student.  This year, Lentil parents will be asked to contribute $400 per student. 

The 3 day camp for Barley to Lady Nortcote from 25th - 27th October for 2023 will cost approximately $575 per student. This year, Barley parents will be asked to contribute $330 per student.  

Please note camp costs are always dependent on student numbers.  Families who are health care card holders will also receive additional funding towards camp for their children, so their contribution cost will be less.  Camp costs are added onto students' fees. 

Whilst the camp costs to families has increased from those last year, there has been a significant increase to the school to provide these opportunities for your children. We want to continue these valuable experiences and milestones for our St. Mary's students. Families who believe they will struggle to meet this financial commitment are invited to meet with Nerrida to discuss. 

(Please note, staff are also currently investigating a day trip for our F-2 students)

St Mary's Student Council - St Mary's Beanies are on their way!

Over 20 students from Barley and Lentils nominated to be involved in the St Mary's Student School Council, and the first group has already met to finalise the St Mary's school beanie. With robust disussion on pom poms, font colour and style, stripes or no stripes, students collaboratively decided on a design. This has been now been passed onto Geoffreys with delivery expected early next term.  The cost for the beanies will be finalised soon and will be approximately $20 each. (My suggestion for the Geelong Cats beanie to be the school beanie was not overly supported!)

Fr Matt's visit

It is always lovely to have Fr. Matt Restall visit our school. Fr. Matt takes a sincere interest in the learning that is happening in our classrooms and also the hobbies and interests the students have outside of school. Fr Matt spent some time with Wheaties in their drama role role play, and bought all the teddies from their cafes and shops, only then to re-sell them at a profit!  

Gift bags for Yarriambiack Lodge

Thank you Barley class for your beautiful cards and letters prepared for the residents at Yarriambiack Lodge. I am sure this will bring a cheer to those reading your thoughtful words.  Thank you Mrs Letts, for coordinating this charitable gesture. 

WWSSA Sports ANZAC Park

Thursday 17th August is the WWSSA  sports carnival held at ANZAC park.  This year is St. Mary's turn to run the canteen. Please note this day in your calendars as many volunteers and also food donations will be sought.  There will be further information from Parent Club early next term. 

Teacher Professional Development - Learner Agency Monday July 10

A reminder the first day of next term, Term 3 Monday July 10 is a school closure day for teacher professional development - Learner Agency.

Each school closure day for staff professional development is a valuable investment in our own continuous growth and development, so thank you families for your organisation around work, arranging of childcare and other responsibilities for the school closure day.

Please note, there is a change to our final school closure date.  Previously this was set for Wednesday 30th August. This date is now cancelled and our last school closure for teacher professional development will be Friday 15th September, which is the last day of Term 3. The focus on this day will be Parent Engagement in Learning. Therefore the first day (July 10) and last day (Sep 15) of Term 3 are now school closure days. Hopefully these closure days resting either side of school holiday times will make it easier for family arrangements. 

Parent Club news - Pie Drive

Thank you to everyone who has supported the pie drive. Delivery of the pies will be next term on Friday, 21st July.

Thank you from Parent Club

Wellbeing

At the end of the term there are many activities the students have been involved in throughout the last few weeks. As parents we are always searching for questions to have better conversations with our children and engage with them about their schoool life. Below is this post from the TheCalmClassrooom, “Stop asking your kids how their day was” where Katie Plunkett recommends that we ask SOCK questions that are Specific, Open-Ended, Creative, and Kid-friendly. Whilst from a site in the United States, you may find many of these questions helpful as we head into the school holidays to find ways to connect and understand the young people in our lives. 

Parent Club Fundraiser- Wonder White Recycling Program

Recycle, earn and play. A fun, easy way to fundraise. White, wholemeal, low GI, wraps all of the above. Collect Wonder white bread bags and send them into the school in the specially marked box. The more bread bags we can collect, the more reward points we can earn, therefore the more sports equipment we can collect for the school.  (Emma Mansfield)

Community News

Seussical the Musical Art Display

The Horsham Regional Art Gallery are excited to be showcasing a range of set and costume pieces from Horsham Arts Council’s recent hit production of Seussical the Musical!

 Our local artist’s extraordinary talent will be on display from Saturday 27 May through to Sunday 25 June, open daily from 10am to 4pm.  Students will be able to see how the creative journey began, and take a close look at the detail in the costumes and set pieces that took hundreds of hours to create… including one of the GIANT books! For more information, go to https://www.horshamtownhall.com.au/hthevent/seussical-the-musical-community-gallery-exhibition/