2025 St Mary's Primary School Newsletter Term 1 Week 8

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.

Principal's News

Dear families,

Well done to our Year 3 and Year 5 students who complete all the NAPLAN assessments over the past week. It was the first time ever that I have experienced the media keeping it low key, and thank goodness for that! Thank you to Fiona Holland for the organisation and creating a calm environment where our children could be their best.

Special thanks to the Parent’s Club for organising a very warm and welcoming ‘Meet and Greet event at “The Local’ on Friday night. It was great to see families of St Mary’s enjoying themselves in the company of others. The school and school community is so grateful for the hard work that our Parent’s Club members continually do to support our children and school. If you are new to St Mary’s I encourage you to join our Parent’s Club and become part of our vibrant school community.

Thank you to McPherson’s Store in Brim for supporting our Parent’s Club in the purchase of the school’s new cricket gear. (See kids in action below).

Just a quick reminder that the first School Advisory Council (SAC) meeting for the year will be at 4:00 pm this afternoon.

This Thursday at 9:00am the Yr 1/ 2 Wheat Class will lead Assembly in the Library. Families are warmly invited to attend all our Assemblies and various events held throughout the year.

Reading Helpers: Now that we have settled into the school year and school routines, we are seeking Reading Helpers. If available, could you please see your child's classroom teacher to listen to children reading in the classroom first thing in the morning. Please note parents, grandparents and carers will need a WWC check and to sign a Child Safe document in the office before commencing. 

Please read Information from Meg Werner regarding St Mary's Track and Field Athletics further down in this week’s newsletter. Your help and support needed and will be very much appreciated. 

Thank you for entrusting us with the education and well-being of your children.

Our St Mary’s newsletter will be published on Tuesday each fortnight.

Key Dates

The Season of Lent

The Season of Lent Lent is a 40-day period of reflection, prayer, and preparation leading up to Easter. It is a time for Christians to deepen their faith through acts of fasting, prayer, and giving to others. Lent reminds us to pause, reflect, and grow spiritually, following the example of Jesus’ time in the desert. Many choose to give something up or take on a new positive habit as a way to refocus on what truly matters. As we journey through Lent, let’s take time to show kindness, gratitude, and compassion in our daily lives.

How will you make this season meaningful?

St Mary's Track and Field Athletics

With the Swimming Sports behind us, it is now time to turn our attention to the School Athletics Sports. The Field Events will be held on Tuesday 1st, April and the Track Events Wednesday 2nd, April. 

This year will see both days run slightly differently, with 800m and the 1500m for the senior students being run on the Tuesday morning before the Field events. In the afternoon, students aged 9 -12 will be divided into their age groups to participate in discus, shot-put, triple jump, long jump and high jump. The junior students (5-8yro) will participate in the long jump and modified shot-put.  

The Track Events will commence on Wednesday morning at 9:00am. The Junior School will compete in a number of minor games, whilst the senior students will run the 200m. From then on, all students will participate in the sprints, hurdles and relays. A programme will be available closer to the day, via Facebook. It is wonderful that the students can participate in the hurdles again in 2025. This was made possible by the purchase of new regulation hurdles, kindly donated by our wonderful Parent’s Club. 

Thank you to the parents/carers who have kindly offered to assist in the running of the School Sports. If you know that your child is going to be away on either of the days could you please let the school know immediately. 

Meg Werner

New Cricket Gear

We are ecstatic and super grateful that St Mary’s Parents Club have provided us with new Cricket equipment!

On February 18th Huddy and Lachie requested to have a new Cricket set on behalf of St Mary’s school kids. Our wishes came true on St Patrick's Day, the day of luck, how about that!

The 1st set and 2nd set were identical to each other. They both included 1 pair of gloves, 1 pair of Cricket Pads, 1 cricket bat and a storage bag for all the gear.

The bonus of the bats are they are made of wood and so are the stumps. The stumps are retractable and have a metal base.

We will get many years of enjoyment from this equipment.

Thanks heaps Parent’s Club!!!

Sincerely Hudson And Lachie.

SchoolTV: Confidence & Motivation

"Respectful relationships promotes respect and gender equality and helps students learn how to build healthy relationships. It prepares students to face challenges by developing problem-solving skills and building resilience and confidence."

Dr Michael Carr-Gregg. 

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. 

We are  SunSmart

Children must leave their hats at school at the end of each day. If hats are not brought to school, children will be required to play in the shade.  Please ensure HATS CLEARLY LABELLED.

When it comes to using sun protection, temperature isn't a good guide. You can’t see or feel UV but UV is the part of the sun that can damage skin and eyes and lead to skin cancer. SunSmart advises that Victoria’s UV levels start to rise from mid-August. 

Please remind your child to wear their hat, clearly labelled with their name.

 For SunSmart information visit

 https://www.sunsmart.com.au/advice-for/schools-early-childhood

DOBCEL Strategy 2035

Please find below a letter from Catholic Education Ballarat Executive Director, Tom Sexton and DOBCEL Board Chair Terry Harney regarding the DOBCEL Strategy 2035.

This letter introduces the new strategy that all DOBCEL schools will be working through over the next ten years.

Child Safety at St Mary's

St Mary's is committed to zero tolerance of child abuse, committed to listening to and empowering children and young people and keeping children and young people safe. We are committed to being proactive in the care, wellbeing and protection of children and young people. Child Safe Standard 11 as below highlights what we as an organisation must do. regarding documentation. If you ever have any concerns, regarding the safety and wellbeing of your child please contact the Principal. Your information makes us more aware of what needs to be addressed and how we can improve. 

For more information please visit this link Child Safe Standards 

Thunderstorm Asthma

Community News

Issue Two of Book Club was sent home last week and is due on Friday 21st March.

Owning your own books is something special! I hope that you will encourage your child to order books this year. Each order helps earn free books and teaching materials for our classroom, however there is never any obligation to order. I know of no better way to encourage reading than to allow children to choose the books they want to read.