2025 St Mary's Primary School Newsletter Term 3 Week 9

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,

As Term 3 comes to a close this Thursday at 3:15pm. I'd like to thank the students, staff and families of St Mary's, for a busy yet fantastic Term 3. There were many exciting events and some challenges that we managed to celebrate or navigate our way through. The staff will be attending a professional development day on Friday before they begin a well deserved holiday break.

Parents' Club meeting tonight 7pm at St. Mary's School in the Meeting Room.

Funeral Assistance Required - As many families would be aware Maureen Lardner passed away last week. Maureen was known to many in our school and parish community as well as being a leader in Girl Guides and a staunch Warrack Eagles supporter. The St. Mary's Ladies Club have asked for our assistance with catering for the funeral on Monday at 11am. If you are able to make sandwhiches or toasties it would be greatly appreciated - they are able to be dropped into the Anglican Parish Centre anytime after 10am. They also require assistance with hosting the luncheon afterwards so if you have a spare hour or so from 12pm onwards it would also be appreciated.

We have been granted an additional School Closure Day for ongoing professional development for all staff on Monday the 10th November.  

Congratulations to our students that competed in the Divisional Athletics last week in Stawell. (Special edition) 

• School closure Day Friday 19th September (Staff Literacy PD in Horsham)
• Student’s last day Thursday 18th September

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.

Wishing you all a relaxing holiday as we look forward to a busy and exciting Term 4.

Students will begin Term 4 wearing their correct summer uniform and being Sun Smart with hats and sunscreen.

If you are planning a holiday away from home, travel safely

Continue reading for Special Editions (particularly from the kids) and some Flyers

 Julie Leonard

Key Dates

School Promotional Video

Gaga Pit Official Opening

We were so excited to host two very important people for the opening of the Gaga Pit. Ben Bentley and Tom Sexton (Director of Catholic Education Ballarat) to the official opening of the Gaga Pit. 

Ben and Tom arrived at recess just in time to see kids playing and having lots of fun in the Gaga Pit. Caleb showed and talked about the Gaga Pit that he, his dad and sister had worked on to lay the foundations over many weekends.

After recess some Year 6 leaders, Harlow, Caleb and myself (Heidi) shared morning tea with Ben and Tom. 

In the staff room Ben shared many stories about his life and his wife Joan. Ben and Joan have done many things throughout their life to help the community and children. Ben said that himself and Joan just love making kids happy. Thank you Ben and Joan Bentley for your generosity and making us happy kids At St Marys.

Heidi Anderson

AFL Footy Colours Day

It was great to see a range of colours, guernseys and sporting attire on display as we celebrated Footy Colours Day last Friday. Everyone had a lot of fun practicing their ball skills and participating in the AFL Clinic.Kids wore jumpers from lots of different AFL teams and we took lots of photos but the one I love the most is the Carlton Blues photo. What a great day for St Mary's!

Maddi Mc

Divisional Athletics

Last week eight of St Mary’s  students attended Stawell for the  Divisional Athletics Congratulations to Harlow, Ryan, Indi, Oaklee, Ollie George and Ollie Werner. All the kids were great participants and represented St Mary's very well.  Special congratulations to Oaklee (shotput) and Ollie Gorge (8oom), and myself who came 1st in the 1500, will be continuing to Regionals at Ballarat in October.

Miki Spicer

Father’s & Special Friends Day

On Friday the 5th of September St Mary’s celebrated our Fathers and Special Friends Day at 8:15am in the morning.

 We had fresh, hot and delicious croissants made especially for the fathers and special friends and they were made by the St Mary’s staff.

We all had so much fun because we could eat a delicious breakfast whilst playing games like footy and downball with the dads and special friends.

Another great thing was the Dad’s and Special friends got to have a catch up and a chat. After breakfast some of our fathers, grandfathers and special friends came into the classrooms to get hands on with the activities!

Big shoutout to the St Mary’s staff for preparing this excellent day that will be cherished forever big thanks from 

Hudson and Caleb 👍

Eagles Netball

A sporting congratulations to Harlow and Indi for receiving awards from the Warrack Eagles FNC.

Harlow was proud to receive the U13 Runners Up Best and Fairest &

Indi received the Coaches Award for the U/ 14’s Girls Football.

                                               Well done girls- What a great sporting year you've had!

SPECIAL REPORT: Parenting STYLES

"Most of us parent on the basis of a mixture of our upbringing, lived experience and external advice from other sources, which can be quite contradictory or confusing. When it comes to parenting, there's no magic bullet."

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. 

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