St Mary's Primary School Newsletter Term 3 Week 3

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.

Enrolment 2023 – Personalised or group Tours available anytime!

Enrolments for 2023 are open! We invite all prospective families to come to St Mary's school for a visit to see for themselves our great school and learning in action. New and existing families are invited to contact principal@smwarracknabeal.catholic.edu.au or phone 5398 2001 to arrange a personal or small group tour of our school and learn more about how St Mary's Primary school can be your first choice for your child’s primary education.

Our well-organized transition program working with Warracknabeal Memorial Kindergarten aims to ensure that your child starts their education at St Mary's Primary feeling confident and happy. For our Foundation children, we have many opportunities for your child to become familiar with their teachers, peers, and buddies.

Students enrolling in all year levels will be invited to attend the State-wide Transition Day which is usually held in early December.  This date will be confirmed closer to the time.

Welcome to Father Matthew Restall

We warmly Fr. Matthew Restall into our St Mary's Catholic Community.  Fr. Matt will be our new priest here in Warracknabeal. There will be a special mass to farewell Fr. Jim and to welcome Fr Matt. This will be held at St Mary's Catholic Church next Tuesday 2nd August at 9:00am.  All parishioners are welcome. 

Principal's Report

Welcome to Week 3. It was terrific to see a small pocket of sunshine brighten our week through these wet cold days. After having some rainy periods with limited play, the students enjoyed being outside and making the most of dry days when possible. It also meant we could have our Soccer clinic which all thoroughly enjoyed.  However, these continue to be a challenging times.  We have staff and children absent with COVID, flu and illness. We have members of our community who are experiencing bereavement and those undergoing medical treatment.  I wish all members of our community blessings, prayers, good health and safe recoveries.  It is in these times where we see the Call of Jesus. This is witnessed in the actions of our staff, students and St Mary's community coming together to support each other.  Our Catholic schools exist to continue the ministry of Jesus.  

Lord of Heaven

I rest underneath your mighty wings of love; I dwell within  your gentle heart

I know there is healing in your touch; 

Through the sufferings of Christ I can ask for restoration and trust in your goodness;

You are my Lord, my saviour, my healer and my friend;

I dwell within your gentle embrace

Amen

It may be possible there are occassions we are short staffed and unable to cover classes for a period of time.  For this to occur I would like parents to know, that in consultation with Catholic Education Ballarat, asking a class to stay home for a day or so would be taken under very careful consideration, and done in the children's best interest to keep the school open in some capacity until staff return.  Families would be provided with as much notice as possible - this would not be a day before decision.  However, it is important for families to undertand this would be last resort, as there is a limited pool of relief staff in our area, and combining classes is not always feasible. I appreciate your support and understanding in these trying times.  We look forward to having all our students and staff back at school together again, healthy and safe. 

Travel safely with God's blessings

Nerrida Holland

Principal

COVID updates and mask wearing

We are still experiencing the challenges of COVID, flu and other illness.  Please see your emails for the regular COVID updates. We still request for all those over 8 years of age, unless exempted, to wear a mask.

Fun in the sunshine

Father's Day Breakfast Friday September 2

All fathers and significant adult male family members are invited to breakfast from 8:00am on Friday September 2.  If you would like to attend, for catering purposes, please complete the google form below or email principal@smwarracknabeal.catholic.edu.au

Staff Vacancies for 2022 and 2023

As Claire Schulz will be leaving St Mary's for family leave in Term 4 and into 2023, we advertised for replacement through Catholic Education Ballarat/ Victoria and regional media. Please let your networks know we are seeking staff for 2022/2023 and casual relief teachers.

Key Dates

Curriculum

Congratulations to Fiona Holland and a very big thank you to Rotary Warracknabeal for a $1000 grant to purchase technology equipment.  Rotary are supporting the purchase of Elecfreaks Smart Home Kits for our Lentil students.  These kits will enable students to build and model smart home devices using a varitey of sensors, motors and LED lights.  Students will be able to build components of a smart home and program them using the micro bits - we look forward to seeing Lentils design and build smart fans, voice activated lights and  automatic windows and gain a deeper understanding of how technology can support sustainability. 

Book Week - Dress Up  Day and Parade 23rd August

Dont forget Book Week is during the Week 22nd-26th August.  We will be having our Book Week Parade On TUESDAY 23rd AUGUST at 9:15 am

Building Electric Circuits

Wheat students built simple electric circuits, and investigated which materials were able to allow electricity to pass through.  They also learnt the terms CONDUCTOR and INSULATOR.  Chickpea students built their own battery powered windmills!

CEP Performance "Aladdin

CEP (Country Education Partnership) Performance "Aladdin" from Alpha Shows

• Wednesday, 10th August at 10.30 am
• Horsham Town Hall
• Depart St Mary's Primary School  at 9.15 am
• Return to school  12.45 pm
• Travel by Bus
• Permission Forms on Operoo

For more information and preview go to https://www.alphashows.com.au/schedule/aladdin/

Soccer Clinics

Thank you to Jason and the Positive Start Program supported by the Department of Education and Training Victoria for free our soccer clinic this week.  Jason will return on Tuesday 19th August for our next session. (Click on the photos to enlarge)

School TV - Happiness and Gratitude

This week teachers engaged with another reLATE module on Positive Education through the McKillop Insitute.  The program uses evidence -based practrices and frameworks from the field of positive psychology.  Our teachers do fabulous work in building well-being and positve emotion into their lessons - well-being is not a stand-alone to the academic curriculum.

Happiness and gratitude have been studied in positive psychology for many years and researchers have found that gratitude is always strongly associated with greater happiness.  Please take time to visit this link and video clips to learn more from specialists in child psychology, well-being and resilience.

https://smwarracknabeal.catholic.schooltv.me/newsletter/happiness-gratitude

Child Safety

Child safety and wellbeing at St Mary's Primary School: information for families and the school community

The Victorian Government has announced new  Child Safe Standards to further strengthen child safety across organisations, including schools. The new standards recognise the critical importance of families and the broader school community in maintaining and promoting child safety and wellbeing.

Our child safety policies and procedures are continually reviewed to ensure they meet the requirements of the new standards. These will be available on our new website. Further updated information will be added in due course.

We are committed to continuous improvement in our approach to child safety and wellbeing and welcome feedback from families and members of our school community on ways we can further strengthen our child safety policies, procedures, and practices.

If you have any suggestions, comments, or questions, please contact Nerrida Holland via email principal@smwarracknabeal.catholic.edu.au or by phoning the school.

Diocesan Bulletin

Please find below the link for the July 2022 edition of “Our Diocesan Community”

https://www.ballarat.catholic.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/ODC-July-2022-web.pdf.

Australian Parents Council Newsletter

Please see the link below for information for parents

NCCD Information

Parish Bulletin