26th May 2022
Principal News
After many short weeks and a jam-packed Week 5, we’ve now crossed the halfway mark of Term 2! I hope everyone enjoyed the Charleville Show and managed to check out the entries in the schoolwork pavilion. 2022 Show Results were published in last fortnight’s newsletter. Well done St Mary’s students.
National Simultaneous Storytime
Yesterday, our students took part in the national initiative to promote reading. Each class enjoyed the chosen book ‘Family Tree’. Thanks to our teacher librarian, Michelle Sheehan, who coordinated the event and our teachers for their efforts in ensuring this was organised and enjoyed by all students.
Year Six Fundraising
Our Year 6 students are off to the Sunshine Coast for their camp next term. The students and parents of Year 6 will coordinate some fundraising events in the coming weeks. Please look out for our chocolate drive and footy doubles that the students will be selling. If you have any fundraising ideas or can support with fundraising, please let the Year 6 students and parents know.
Semester One Report Card – ‘Celebration and Reflection’
Assessment and Reporting for Semester One is currently being completed and teachers are in the process of recording results to communicate and report to parents. Just a reminder that teachers and parents must work together to encourage students to continue to be motivated to always be the best that they can be. When you receive your child’s report at the conclusion of this term, please take some time to reflect on their progress with them. This is about celebrating their successes and communicating expectations for personal growth. It is important that we do not compare our students to another student or siblings, rather, acknowledge their personal growth in their own learning journey.
Dress and Appearance
The school uniform is important to us and there is a need for it to be worn well. It is a symbol of who we are as a school and of the values we hold dear. For students, we ask that they respect the uniform, wear it correctly and with pride. We ask for the cooperation of all families in this endeavour.
Now the cooler weather is upon us, a timely reminder that ONLY plain navy blue track pants and jumpers are accepted for the St Mary’s uniform. The St Mary’s school jacket is also available for purchase from the uniform shop.
School Fee Options
There are a number of options for paying your school fees:
- Direct Debit a set amount (weekly, fortnightly or monthly)
- Pay in full by credit card, NetBank transfer, EFTPOS or cash each term
- Please make an appointment with the Principal if you need to discuss any concerns regarding finances.
Unpaid fees impact significantly on our school finances. Thank-you to those parents who endeavour to always settle their accounts promptly. This is greatly appreciated.
A reminder to families that Term 2 school fees were due for payment yesterday, 25th May 2022.
Building Community Partnerships
Special mention to CWAASICH staff members Joelene Russell and Greg Suhan, who deliver the breakfast and lunchtime programs in our school. Thank you for your ongoing support this year. We welcome Mrs Joelene Russell each day this fortnight as she helps our students who wish to enter the Reconciliation Week poster competition. See the fun in the photos below.
A shout out to Guyahny Rynne and her team of helpers from CACH in Cunnamulla. Guyahny (Deadly Choices) has been delivering the Good Quick Tukka and Indigenous Games programs to our whole school each fortnight. The student reviews tell us that this has been a very successful and enjoyable initiative.
I like that they let you cook and be healthy. It’s fun! – Betty
I like it, mostly for the fruit kebabs! – Iris
I think it’s good because they teach you how the aboriginal people survived years ago and how to stay healthy so we can live a happy life. – Kahli
It’s awesome! I like cooking and it’s fun. – Nicholas
The Deadly Choices program has been exciting and fun. I really like playing the game Jump Pin Pin. – Grace
Big thumbs up! I LOVE IT because we get to make kebabs and wraps! – William
I think it’s really fun because the food is yummy and games are fun. I like to be active and it’s great. – Kai
Year 1 – Dodge pin-pin is a fun game. I like being in teams and versing each other. I like gory (hunting). The colouring. I like the game where we pretend that we are hunting.
I have loved deadly choices! I really like playing the game fish tag because I have to keep jumping over the balls. – Hugh
Fanfare Music Festival – Roma
Congratulations to our strings students who competed at the fanfare festival in Roma this week. The strings band was adjudicated based on their years of experience as a band and were awarded gold for their category! Well done! A huge thanks to Mr Mulhall for coordinating this for our students and appreciation goes out to our parents for taking their children to this event.
Have a wonderful fortnight.
Cheers,
Katrina
APRE News
Sacramental Program
Please continue to pray for our students in Year Four who are working towards making their first Holy Communion on Saturday, June 11, 6pm at Parish Mass. We would love to see you there to support them as they take this important step in their faith journey.
Class church visits
This term, Year 3 and Year 1 have made visits to the church to discover the different symbols of liturgy and for Year 1 in particular, baptism. Please see photos of the Year 3 church visit below. We are so fortunate to have our parish church so close to the school and available to us for these lessons.
National Sorry Day and Reconciliation Week.
Thursday, May 26 is the commemoration of the Australian Government’s apology to First Nations peoples. National Reconciliation week begins a day later, on May 27. The theme of the week this year is ‘Be Brave, Make Change’. Our students will participate in lessons around these dates.
This Reconciliation Church prayer was written by a small group of Aboriginal Elder women and Reconciliation Church staff members in 2014
Prayer for Reconciliation
God of all creation, as we journey together in this Great Southern Land, we pray for healing, forgiveness, and unity, creating a path of good will, with justice and compassion.
Jesus, through the power of your love, you have given us the courage, wisdom, and strength to share our gifts and talents in humility.
In peace and understanding we reconcile with each other.
Creator Spirit, we come together in prayer and thanksgiving for the many blessings we have received. Allow your Spirit to wash over us and give us strength to walk together as one.
AMEN
APRE Network Day
On Tuesday, May 31st I will attend the TCSO APRE network day. This day will centre around formation of staff and all the latest news around the RE curriculum. I look forward to sharing any new information with you all in our next newsletter.
Wishing you a blessed and peaceful fortnight,
Kirsty Lines
APRE
Library News
We not only love stories in Prep we also love our rhymes!
Five Little Firecrackers, is a new rhyme we learnt during Show Week.
The Year Ones have been busy writing, testing, and debugging algorithms for the Bee Bots.
Book Club due Thursday 9th June
HPE News
Hi and welcome to week six newsletter edition. All classes in both PE and Health have been concentrating on working together with their peers. It has been so rewarding to see students speak words of encouragement, work together to problem solve and use language to assist them in finding out information about their classmates.
Please enjoy some photos below.
Please remember if you have any concerns about your child in PE or Health, please feel free to contact me via Class Dojo or Email susan.mcinnes@twb.catholic.edu.au
Yours in PE and Health
Ms Mac.
Prep News
The last two weeks have been filled with jammed packed learning and fun filled adventures. We had our first ever prayer assembly on 20th May where we explored the story about ‘10 Lepers’. All students gave it a go, and did a fabulous job. Our message is to ‘have an attitude of gratitude.’ I wonder if you can apply this message to your everyday life.
On Friday we had Bravehearts come to our school to take students on a safety adventure. During this experience students met Ditto the lion cub and heard about the rules of protecting our bodies. We sang some songs and enjoyed learning what we need to do if we feel unsafe.
Thanks,
Imogen
Year 1 News
Over the past two weeks Grade One have been focusing on a range of different activities.
We have been looking at how we can change the ending to different Pig the Pug books. How we can recognise and react to big problems and little problems.
Students have also been exploring a range of different ways addition and subtraction problems can be demonstrated.
Last week we had a visit from Ditto the Lion and Brave Hearts. They spoke about personal safety and recognising good feelings and unsafe feelings.
This week we have Under 8’s Day, which we are all very excited about.
Year 2 News
Welcome to week 6!
We have been working super hard again in year 2, for free dress as our class reward last week!
We have been loving Deadly Choices on Thursdays, learning all about making healthy choices and learning new Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander games.
We have just finished our money unit in math and will now learn all about reading time to quarter-to and reading calendars.
Year 3 News
Year three has been getting hands-on with science! We have been learning about the stats of matter. We discovered that when you mix corn flour and water together the mixture changes from solid to liquid depending on what we did to it. When we poked it slowly it was liquid and when we poked it fast it was solid. We found out that this is called a non-Newtonian fluid.
We have also visited St. Mary’s Church with Mrs Lines as part of our religion unit. We are learning about Sacraments and what they mean for us.
Year 4/5 News
Year 5/6 News
May Birthdays
Izak Young, James Pezet, Ruby Russell, Maddison Sainty, Georgia Itzstein, Kahli Wilson, Oliver Taylor, Jack Lehmann, Miss Box, Miss Hudson, Mr Whatling, Mrs Alexander, Miss Fisher, Mrs Murray.