2024 St Mary's Primary School Newsletter Term 4 Week 5

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 Families and Friends of St Mary's Community, 

On Monday 28 October, new principal Julie Leonard visited the school to meet the staff and students. Julie is very much looking forward to joining St Mary's in 2025 and says "Thankyou" to everyone for her warm welcome.  Julie will be back on Monday 9th and Tuesday 10th December for further handover and also be present for the transition sessions to meet the 2025 new families and students. Julie is still seeking rental accomodation in Warracknabeal so if you know of any possibilities please email Nerrida. 

We still have a very busy term ahead of us, especially preparing for transitions days, end of year celebrations and student leadership for 2025.  Please see further information in the newsletter for more details.

On Monday, we will pause to observe Remembrance Day, a time to reflect with gratitude and reverence for the courage and sacrifice of those who have served and continue to serve our country. It is an opportunity for us as a school community to honor the lives lost in conflict and to recognise the impact of war on individuals, families, and communities.

I wish everyone a lovely weekend, taking a moment to remember, reflect, and be thankful for the freedoms we enjoy today, while also contemplating the responsibility we have to build a future of peace and understanding.

Travel safely with God's blessings,

Nerrida

School Advisory Council and Parent Club Executive.

We held our Parent Club AGM and final SAC meeting on Wednesday 30 October. 

Parent Club - Congratulations to office bearers for the Parent Club executive for 2025.  President - Jess Boyd, Vice President Hanna Morcom, Secretary - Rachel Phillips and Treasurer - Abby Stephan. And a tremendous thank you to all parents who actively involve themselves in the fundraising and student activities at the school.

School Advisory Council - with our new Principal Julie Leonard starting next year and some SAC members not continuing in 2025, this is a wonderful opportunity for new members to join SAC. Thank you to SAC Chair James Gregson and this year's members Courtney Williams, Will Hewitt, Sally Anderson, Dale Stephan, Jess Lang, Jess Boyd and Paula Winsall for your commitment and attendance at meetings through 2024. The role of the School Advisory Council is to support the overall governance of DOBCEL and give consideration to and advice on important school matters to support the principal and the strategic interest of the school. Please contact Nerrida if you would like to be considered as a SAC member for 2025 for Julie's awareness. New families are especially welcomed. The SAC composition and nomination of the SAC Chair will be finalised in early 2025 under Julie's leadership. 

Mission Day fundraising

Thank you famlies for your generosity for Mission Day - the school raised $305. This money can make an incredible difference to the lives of tens of thousands of children and their communities to continue to support vulnerable children with their health and wellbeing needs.

F-2 went to the Zoo!

The Foundation, Grade 1 and Grade 2 students had a terrific time at the Halls Gap Zoo on Thursday 7 November.  Thank you to Claire, Louise, Victoria, Cath, Deb and Bec as the staff attending. Students listened to a reptile talk, some even patted a snake! Then they walked around the zoo seeing the animals, played on the playground and enjoyed an icypole - and the rain held off until the end of the day! It was a great adventure!

What is happening in Technology!

Each class is working hard on a variety of topics in Technology. To introduce bugs and their habitats in Wheat, Jeanie Clark, from the Wimmera CMA”s River Detectives program, came to St Mary's to run a session looking at waterbugs. After introducing waterlife to the children, which included plant life around the creek, the students investigated what different bugs looked like under the microscope. Bloodworms, boatman, backswimmers and dragonfly nymphs were looked at closely by everyone. To conclude the class, Jeanie led the students through a food chain activity where students looked at what insects and bugs eat - finding that many of the bigger insects we investigated eat the smaller insects we looked at. We have started to follow this up in class with the students choosing a hexbug and investigating it's habitat, what they eat and whether they are a pest or not. 

Students in Chickpeas have been investigating how to program Beebots. They had great fun coding their Beebots to draw a picture. Students in Canola are working hard to build their Lego robots using the EV3 mindstorm kits. Some are up to programming their robots which is proving challenging for some.

I'm looking forward to continuing to see what the students create in Technology throughout the semester.

(Fiona Holland, Technology Teacher)

We are a BARR school (Bushfire at Risk)

Pleae read the communication below. As a Bushfire at Risk school, on days there is a Catastrophic fire danger forcasted in our district, the school will close. Other educational providers in our area will also close, and there will be no school byses running. We need to receive notification from the Department if Education and also DOBCEL in order to close. The school will always endeavour to notify families as soon as practical. We did have two Catastrophic school closure days earlier this year. 

Please ensure you have downloaded the SIMON everywhere app to receive the first notification of a sudden school closure through PAM, as this is the official school emergency notification platform.

Then emails will be sent to families, followed by a Facebook update. 

Local Excursion Permission for 2024

St Mary’s Primary School is required to seek approval from parents/carers when excursions are conducted. A new permission form will be sent to families through PAM. This Local Excursion Permission Form covers a range of local activities.

By consenting to this form, this will cover students for the rest of 2024 walking to and from St Mary's Church, to ANZAC Park, to town and also to Warracknabeal Education Precinct.  This will also mean parents/carers will not need to give permission separately for each of these local activities. Parents will always be informed of upcoming excursions and when children will not be on site. 

For activities that have an ‘adventure’ component, such as swimming and sporting activities parent/carer approval will be required for that specific activity. For activities outside the local area, specific approval will also be necessary, as will activities involving an overnight stay. In respect of all activities, parents/carers will be informed through PAM (Parent Access Module) via the SIMON platform.

Please note: DOBCEL does not provide personal accident insurance or ambulance cover for students. Parents and carers of students, who do not have student accident insurance/ambulance cover, are responsible for paying the cost of medical treatment for injured student.

A new form will be sent to families at the beginning of 2025 to cover permission for all local excursions for next year. 

Remembrance Day Monday November 11

On Monday 11 November at 11:00am, all Year 6 students will attend the memorial service at the Cenotaph outside the Warracknabeal post office.  We will assemble there from from 10:30am.  Students will walk to town with staff leaving at 10:15 am.  Would all Year 6 students please wear their proper summer uniform and Grade 6 jumpers - please ensure your child is wearing black shoes, correct socks and no black basketball shorts.  This is one of the final times this year our Year 6 students will be together publicly to represent the school. 

Students remaining at school will attend a liturgy at 11:00am at our flagpoles to reflect and remember this important occasion. 

School Closure Days for 2025

Please see previous newsletters for details and note the following dates for your planning:

Thursday 13 February

Tuesday 22 April, Wednesday 23 April, Thursday 24 April  (Note Mon 21 and Fri 25 are also public holidays - so a three week break for Term 1 holidays)

Fri 19th September (last day of Term 3)     

Transition Days

Families with students beginning at St Mary's in 2025, your child will soon receive a letter inviting them to the Foundation transition days for 2025. The dates and times are in the key dates calendar at the beginning of the newsletter and also as below:

Tuesday 26 November Foundation Transition Day     9:00-11:00 am

Tuesday 3 December Foundation Transition Day 2     9:00 -11:45 am (students stay for recess and end of eating time)

Tuesday 10 December statewide transition Day - whole school transition from 9-11 am, 2025 Foundation students at St Mary's until 1:45pm, for 2024 Grade 6 students there are no classes at St Mary's this day, until 11:45am.  

Class Assemblies Term 4

Assembly Time Table for Term 4 - all 9:00am

Student Leadership Speeches and Elections

Our current Year 5 students have been busy preparing their speeches for student leadership for 2025.  Students have been spoken to on the importance of the role, and that it is not a popularity contest. Students were also spoken to about how each year the number of Year 6 students including the number of boys and girls in Year 6 changes. The student leadership team is chosen by staff and students to reflect this.

Students will present their speeches to the school on Wednesday 20 November at 9:00am at the stage area.  Parents are welcome to attend. Nomination and voting procedures will occur over the following days, with the 2025 student leadership team announced at the Chickpeas Assembly on Wednesday November 27 (note change of date for Chickpea Assembly)

Year 6 jumpers for 2025

Students are finalising their design and these shall be ready soon to order.

Thunderstorm Asthma

End of Year Celebrations

We now have all our end of year dates confirmed:

Wednesday 11 December  Year 6 Graduation Dinner at the Creekside Hotel

Thursday 12 December  Canola Assembly

Tuesday 17 December   End of Year Graduation Mass 5:30pm St Mary's Church.

Wednesday 18 December   Students' last day, End of year pool party 10am -1pm at Warracknabeal Memorial Pool; BBQ lunch suppled by parent club

Fee Statements due now.

Families, please be aware all fees need to be finalised by today November 8. Camp and excursion payments should already be paid prior to this date. If you are experiencing difficulties paying your fees please contact Nerrida.  For direct debit and payment plan availability, please contact Paula at the office. 

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