2023 St Mary's Primary Term 4 Newsletter Week 8

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

Dear Families and Friends of St Mary's Primary School,

Our recent highlight was the Grade 5 Leadership speeches held Wednesday 23 November. Although students were a little nervous, they are to be congratulated for their confident and articulate presentations outlining their hopes and dreams for our school in 2024. What impressed me most was their positive outlook and growth mindset. All students clearly showed a desire to be a School Captain/Leader for 2024. We are very lucky to have a group of students so dedicated to their school with willingness to be a school representative and role model for others. We wish them all the very best of luck as voting takes place across the school next week.  Our School Captains and House Captains will be announced before the end of the year, to be formally inducted and presented with their badges at the Opening School Liturgy in 2024. 

As this is such a very busy time, there will be a newsletter out each week until the end of the year, to showcase our end of year activities and celebrations with reminders to keep you up to date wiith all that is happening. 

We continue to keep in our prayers those that are suffering in our world.  We are a lucky country indeed. We live in a nation that is free of deadly conflict and has stable government and for that we should be grateful and also guard closely. Elsewhere in the world people are not so fortunate.  

An excerpt from the Prayer for Peace from Pope Francis:

Now, Lord, come to our aid! Grant us peace, teach us peace; guide our steps in the way of peace. Open our eyes and our hearts, and give us the courage to say: “Never again war!”; “With war everything is lost”. Instill in our hearts the courage to take concrete steps to achieve peace.

Travel safely with God's blessings,

Nerrida 

Principal    (principal@smwarracknabeal.catholic.edu.au)

Grade 5 students presenting their speeches

Remembrance Day

On Friday 10 November, St Mary's students gathered at the flagpoles for a short ceremony and reflection for Remebrance Day the following day. Thank you Mrs Letts and staff for coordinating this for our school. On Saturday November 11, Colby, Evan, Bianca, Chloe and Miki were wonderful St Mary's representatives at the Remembrance Day wreath laying ceremony held at the Cenotaph in front of the Warracknabeal Post Office.  It was great to see Tarsh in her Guide uniform as well as a community representative. Thank you students for being there and also families for coordinating your child's attendance amongst family and sporting engagements on a Saturday to represent the school.

Barley Assembly

Thank you Barley and Mrs. Letts for your thoughtful and reflective assembly in appreciation of our local police in recognition of the service they provide to our community.  Please see the Family Facebook page for the video of the assembly, kindly filmed by Sarah-Jayne. 

Class Award Winners

Transition - Forward to Foundation

In the lead-up to the State-wide Orientation Day on Tuesday 12^th December, St Mary's invites the kinder children who are already enrolled or who intend to enrol for 2024 to attend transition days. The purpose of transition days is to let the children become familiar with school routines and expectations including- getting to and from school, playing and learning with other children, meeting staff and becoming familiar with the school buildings and grounds.

Our school day begins at 9.00am. The morning session has a fruit break at 10.00am and concludes at 11.00am. Children then play before eating their morning tea together. The middle session begins at 11.30am and concludes at 1.00pm. Children then play and eat their lunch at 1:30pm. School finishes at 3:15pm.

Transition Dates

• Tuesday, 28^th November, 9:00am - 11:00am
• Tuesday, 5^th December, 9:00am - 12:00pm
• Tuesday, 12^th December, 9:00am - 1:45pm (State-wide Orientation Day)

(Parents on Tuesday December 12  - please meet with Louise Kemp in the Chickpea classroom at 1:00 where Louise will share with you further information to assist with your child's transition. At 1:30pm, while your child eats lunch with their buddies, parents are welcome to a cuppa and light refreshments in the staffroom)

 What to Bring

• Fruit snack, morning tea, water bottle
• Sun Hat
• Lunch (on 12/12)

We will display samples of the school uniform on 28^th November in the front office for parents to view. Clothing can be purchased at the front office. We also have some good quality second hand uniform to purchase with a donation.

Please refer to information that has been sent home with siblings or posted home. We look forward to meeting you and welcoming your child to the St Mary's school community. It is an exciting and important time for families, so we will do our best to ensure both parents and students make the transition smoothly. If you have any questions please ring Paula in the General Office on 5398 2001 or email principal@smwarracknabeal.catholic.edu.au.

Sacramental Program 2024

This year St Paul VI Parish completed its first Sacramental Program involving over 50 children and their families. The program has been engaging and enjoyable, as well as educational and inspiring. Parents and their children re-discovered the richness of our faith, responding with their lives to the words of Jesus “ask, and it will be given to you, seek, and you will find, knock, and it will be opened to you.” (Mt. 7:7)

Parents are the first teachers of the faith to their children. The fruit of parents playing an active part in helping their child prepare for the Sacraments this year has been evident, and therefore the Parish based Sacramental program will run according to this model in 2024 also.

For those families who have a child in Year 4 and above who has not received the Sacrament Reconciliation or Holy Communion, or for children in Year 6 and above who have not received the Sacra-ment of Confirmation – please feel welcome to the information session at Warracknabeal: Tuesday 5 Dec 3.30pm (in church)

Two week Intensive Swimming Program

Starting next Monday 27th November, over the next two weeks, each Monday, Wednesday and Friday, all students will be involved in an intensive swimming program. This is to build their water safety confidence and swimming capabilities in readiness for their time in the water over the warm summer ahead of us. Thank you Jess Boyd, Sally Anderson, Bec Lewis, Sarah-Jayne Holland, Renae Clyne, Deb Templeton and Paula Winsall for your time throughout these sessions to enable this program to happen. This is the first time this type of swimming program has run at the end of the school year and it will have a different empahsis to the water familiarisation program that is provided at the beginning of the school year. Thank you to Jess and Bec who have spent an incredible amout of time in creating this program for the children. 

Fiona Holland and myself will shuttling the students to and from the pool in a self-hired bus. Please check PAM and complete for permission.  Let's hope the weather is kind for us!

2024 Beginning of year arrangements and School Closure Dates

For your planning for 2024, our school closure dates have been allocated in consultation with Catholic Education Ballarat staff and external providers for staff professional development. The first school closure day for 2024 will be Tuesday 30 January.  This means all students, including Foundation, will have their first day of school on Wednesday 31 January. Foundation students will then have each Wednesday as a school free rest day from 7th February until 6th March inclusive. 

Our school closure dates for 2024  are:

Tuesday  30th January  (details as above)   Family Engagement in Learning

Friday 8th March (Friday before the Labour Day Long Weekend)  Learner Agency and Data Analysis

Tuesday 11 June (Tuesday after King Birthday Long Weekend)   Catholic Culture and Identity

Monday 15th July (first day of Term 3)  Wellbeing and School Wide Positive Behaviour

These professional development days for staff align with our school Annual Action plan for 2024

Little Angler Kits

Parents of our Year 5 students can call in to the school office to collect your child’s kit. Students are not to open the kits until they are safely at home with a parent or carer.

The Victorian Government is investing $1.5 million from the Recreational Fishing Licence Trust Fund to provide up to 95,000 Little Angler Kits to primary school aged children (Year 5) in Victoria.

The free kits provide a wonderful school holiday activity for children with their families and help ease the cost of living, providing a fun activity close to home.

Year 5 students at all Victorian schools, including ours, will be offered the opportunity to receive a FREE Little Angler Kit. Year 5 students have been selected based on the Victorian Curriculum focus, movement and motor development, and safety considerations.

The program is entirely voluntary. Schools were provided with the option to opt out of the program. Our school has opted to stay in the program so that parents can decide whether they want their child(ren) to receive a free fishing kit.

Parents of Year 5 students can advise the school if they do not wish their child(ren) to participate for any reason whatsoever. We support parents in making decisions that align with their family values and beliefs.

The roll out of kits will occur through the second half of 2023 (16 October - 4 December) so that all participating children will have a kit in time for the summer school holidays.

The kits include a rod, reel with line, tackle tray, some tackle and information on how to use them to catch a fish. Please note that the tackle tray includes fishing hooks. The tackle tray will be wrapped in cardboard and placed inside a pocket inside the fishing kit bag, which will be sealed with a cable tie to discourage students from opening their kits until they are with a parent or carer.

Parents of our Year 5 students can call in to the school office to collect your child’s kit. Students are not to open the kits until they are safely at home with a parent or carer.

The Victorian Fisheries Authority will create a Little Angler hub on their website, which will be live when the kits start being distributed. It will have useful information, instructional videos and online resources about where and how to fish linking to existing resources from Fishcare and new resources to be produced just for the Little Angler Kits program.

This initiative aims to grow recreational fishing participation in Victoria by actively encouraging primary school aged children to learn how to fish, as well as learning more about marine life and the natural environment.

Prelude to Christmas - Sunday 3rd Dec 6:00pm at the Lutheran Church

Students have been practicing the songs at school and we will be heading to the Lutheran Church for rehearsals next week.  Please see PAM notification for permission.  We will go by bus to and from the Church for these practices. The students and staff have worked very hard for this event!

Please note this is a whole school event and all students are expected to attend.  Families must contact Nerrida if their children will not be at the event on Sunday - staff are putting a lot of time and effort in organising and rehearsing not only the songs but also the children's seating and placement on stage. We would appreciate to know if students will be not attending. 

The event starts at 6:00pm - please be at the Church by 5:50pm. Students are to wear full summer uniform. As this a formal school event, held in Church, please no tinsel/ coloured ribbons or Christmas decorations to be worn - school uniform hair attire only. Simple earrings eg gold/silver studs or sleepers as per uniform requirements. 

The children will present two songs, and this year our Grade 6 students will also be saying a prayer in between the readings and carols. 

The songs the children are singing are "Christmas Is The Time" and "Walk to Bethlehem".  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.

School Fees 2023 due and Levies 2024

Families please finalise 2023 school accounts by November 30. Statements have been emailed.

School fees for 2024 are:

Family fee $895  per family

Capital fee $90 per family

Student fee $180 per student

Technology levy $100 per student

If you have concerns regarding fees and fee payments, or wish to have a confidential discussion regarding how you can best contribute to your child's fees, please call the school or contact Nerrida at principal@smwarracknabeal.catholic.edu.au

Upcoming dates

Monday, Wednesday,  Friday for next two weeks swimming - 27/11, 29/11, 1/12, 4/12, 6/12, 8/12

Thursday December 7: Graduation Dinner at the Creekside Hotel 6:00pm

Wednesday December 13: Graduation Mass 5:30pm (with presentation of the Shine Award and farewells to families and staff leaving St Mary's.)

Thursday December 14: Santa visiting by helicopter ANZAC park from 10:30am

Friday December 15:  Students last Day   St Mary's students Pool Party and BBQ lunch by SVDP

Community News

Australia Day Awards Information and Nominations

Maths Online - Offer for Parents

Prelude to Christmas Songs