2025 St Mary's Primary School Newsletter Term 3 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.

Principal's News

Dear families,

A great deal of fun and rich learning continued to take place at St Mary’s last week as we embraced Science Week and ‘No Way’ to Bullying Day. A big thank you to the staff for making these eventful days and weeks so memorable for our children. (Special Edition below).

On Wednesday some of our students will be participating in the WWSSA Athletics  Program. If you can help in any capacity please repond to the St Mary's Facebook Page. Big thank you to Mrs Werner for the endless amount of time she spends to make sports events like this run smoothly for our kids and families.

Today we came together to celebrate ‘Book Week’ with students and staff having fun by dressing up and on being on parade (Special Edition below).

The theme for Children's Book Week 2025 is "Book an Adventure". This theme encourages children to explore new worlds and possibilities through the magic of books and storytelling. It's a celebration of the adventurous spirit of reading and a reminder of the exciting journeys that await within the pages of a book. We are also excited to have children’s author and a former local, Jodi Toering, visit St Mary’s. Jodi will , over three separate sessions,  engage classes in the art of story writing.  She is the author of a number of children’s books including Her first picture book manuscript, Mallee Sky, that made the Notable list for the Children’s Book Council of Australia in 2020.

Last Friday, some principals including myself, were invited to tour the near complete refurbishment of St Brigid’s Horsham. Gerard Raven (St Brigid’s principal), officially announced that from the beginning of next year, a bus will be provided for children seeking transport, to and from Warracknabeal to St Brigid's Horsham. This will offer families in Warracknabeal an opportunity to continue with a Catholic Education in the secondary school sector. Understandably, this is not a new concept as Nhill and Murtoa already provide this type of transport service for students and their families.  🚌

Last week, all families received an invitation to participate in the Insight SRC Parent Survey. This annual survey is conducted on behalf of our school and the Diocese of Ballarat Catholic Education Limited (DOBCEL). It provides valuable insight into how students experience school—gathered through the perspectives of staff, students, and parents. Last Thursday, DOBCEL announced that the survey time will be  extended for another week. Thank you to families that have completed the survey and we encourage  as many families as we can to complete this survey by this Friday.

We encourage families to regularly take a look at our St Mary’s FB Page. Schools and family life in general are very busy places.  Often reminders or events and activities are posted.

Continue reading for Special Editions and Flyers for some big events

                                   Julie

Key Dates

School Promotional Video

Science Week🔬& No Bullying Week

Planes, Microscopes and Friendship Bracelets –

What a Week at St. Mary’s Primary School Warracknabeal. 

St. Mary’s Primary School has been buzzing with excitement as students enjoyed two special events — Science Week and No Bullying Week.

Science Week is a national celebration of science, technology, engineering, and maths. It’s a chance for students to get hands-on and curious about the world around them. At St. Mary’s, the week took flight (literally!) as students designed and tested paper planes, explored the microscopic world through iPads and microscopes and tested out magnets and magnetic surfaces. The activities sparked creativity, problem-solving, and plenty of laughter.

No Bullying Week encourages students to build a safe and respectful school environment. The theme this year — Be Kind, Be Bold, Speak Up — inspired important conversations about friendship and standing up for others. Students read The Playground is Like the Jungle, a story about navigating tricky social situations, and then made colourful friendship bracelets and necklaces to wear as daily reminders to choose kindness.

By the end of the week, St. Mary’s was full of flying planes, bright jewellery, and, most importantly, a whole lot of teamwork and smiles.

Clare Letts

PS: SchoolTv Special Edition below

Science week

Bullying - No way day

Book Week Celebration

Today we had a Book Week celebration. All of the students and teachers dressed up as book characters and did a parade around the basketball court. This year the theme for the teachers costume was Emergency, Emergency. After the parade, the students were put into groups and we went into different classrooms to do our book week activities. We made a garden based on the book, “The Garden of Broken Things”  and a clicker bug from the book, “One Little Dung Beetle.  We had lots of fun doing the activities.

Heidi

Book Week Celebrations

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SPECIAL REPORT: Sibling Relationships

“Bullying is defined as an ongoing and deliberate misuse of power in relationships through repeated verbal, physical and or social behaviour that intends to cause physical social and or psychological harm.”

Dr Michael Carr-Gregg: Child and Adolescent Psychologist

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. 

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, 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 Events