13th October 2022
Principal News
Welcome to the last term of 2022! We have many exciting events to share with our school community this term so be sure to mark your calendars or print the updated school calendar that was emailed last week (also attached to this newsletter edition). These events are all very important in the life of the school this term, however we must not lose sight of the need to continue to work towards academic improvement. This is a timely opportunity to remember the importance of being at school every day. Regular absence from school, except for genuine illness, places our students at risk of falling behind in their schoolwork, missing out on new concepts, impacts upon friendships and reduces the child’s resilience for an appropriate work ethic. Daily curriculum content is important and there is a need for students to attend regularly to ensure their completion and comprehension of all concepts taught each day. We ask for strong parental commitment in relation to school attendance.
Dress and Appearance
Students have been reminded of our school expectations in relation to uniform and appearance at St Mary’s School. 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. Please ensure that your child has tidy hair that is also combed/brushed daily. Girls are required to have their hair pulled back with natural-coloured (or navy) hair ties/scrunchies and boys to have tidy hair cuts (no mullets or mohawks).
School Hats
Students require a navy school hat each day. If you require a new school hat, please contact our uniform coordinator, Melissa Jones 0427 547 101 to arrange a new hat. St Mary’s hats are $15 each.
Staff announcements
We welcomed Mrs Leah Thomas to our school staff last week. Mrs T is teaching Health and Physical Education on Tuesdays and Wednesdays this term. A letter announcing Mrs T’s appointment was emailed to all families on Tuesday last week.
At the end of this term, we will farewell three of our classroom teachers. Miss Kate Box is transferring to St Mary’s School in Warwick, Miss Molly Brooker is relocating to St Joseph’s School, Southern Cross WA and Miss Courtney Hudson will return to Toowoomba to complete her studies. We will officially farewell and recognise their commitment to St Mary’s School at the awards evening later this term.
Next year, we will welcome Ms Amy Halliday, Mrs Bernice McPhee and Miss Katherine Spalding to our teaching team. All teachers performed exceptionally well in their interviews last month and came highly recommended by their referees. Whilst there have been some discussions of 2023 year level preferences, there will not be a decision of teachers and year levels at this stage in the year. We will communicate more information regarding 2023 classes with our school community towards the end of Term 4.
Student Leadership 2022
On Monday, I met with the Year 5 students to discuss the criteria for their leadership speeches as they look to become school leaders in 2023. I explained to the students that the speeches are an important part of the selection process, however they have been developing a resume for quite some time. This resume can be seen in how they conduct themselves in and out of school. This term, the students will participate in a leadership program that begins in week 3. They are required to attend all sessions with Miss Morrison and myself with the conclusion of the program consisting of speeches and a voting process. The 2023 Student Leaders will be announced at the End of Year Liturgy on 1st December.
Term 4 Swimming
Swimming notes with all details of our swimming block (5 weeks) were sent home on Monday this week. Mrs T and Mick Winton will instruct during these swimming lessons. Swimming is compulsory and forms part of the assessment for HPE this term. Please consider coming along for your child’s lesson, if possible, even if only as a supervisor or a dresser after the lesson.
Mini Mary’s for 2023 Prep Students
On Thursday there will be much excitement coming from the Prep classroom as our pre-prep transition program, ‘Mini Mary’s’, commences. The pre-prep children and their families will be provided with opportunities to become familiar with the prep classroom and school surroundings. The program runs for the next three weeks on Thursday mornings from 9:00 – 10:30am with Miss Hunt and Mrs Couch. A parent information session will be held in the library this Thursday 13th October commencing at 9:15am. All 2023 Prep parents are encouraged to attend this informative session.
Twilight Swimming Carnival
Once again this year, we are holding our annual swimming carnival as a twilight event. This will be held on Friday, 25th November. On this day students are to be collected from school at 12:00noon to meet back at the pool at 3:30pm for a 4:00pm start. The carnival is scheduled to finish at 7:00pm. This twilight event allows us to escape the heat of the day and is a great opportunity for the whole family to come along. Dinner will be available to purchase at this event. This will be co-ordinated by the P & F and parent volunteers.
2023 Enrolment and Class Planning
I am currently making class arrangements for 2023 and if you know that you will not be returning to St Mary’s in 2023, it would be much appreciated if you could please let me know, as the number of class teachers and the year level class model is directly linked to the number of students in the school. As mentioned earlier, the class structure and teaching staff will be announced, once finalised, closer to the end of term.
Your ongoing support of our school is greatly appreciated and should you know of friends, relatives or work colleagues who are considering schooling options for 2023, I ask you to encourage them to consider St Mary’s School. Should you or they require any further information regarding enrolment at St Mary’s, please don’t hesitate to contact me. I am always happy to meet with people to talk about what St Mary’s has to offer. At any stage, prospective families are more than welcome to come along, tour the school and see firsthand the calm classroom environments conducive to learning.
Have a fabulous fortnight!
Cheers,
Katrina
Reminder
If you or your child's contact details have changed recently- please don't forget to contact the school to update the details.
School Fees
Term 4 school fee invoices were emailed to parents this morning, Wednesday 12 October. Please contact the school office if you haven't received your account.
When paying your school fees - Please quote your personal CHA(number) as your reference.
Bank Details
Account Name - St Mary's Primary School Charleville
BSB - 064 786
Account No - 100025079
APRE News
Farewell for Fr Warren
By now, you may have heard Fr Warren has accepted a position as Parish Priest in 2023 at Allora and Clifton parishes. He will depart Charleville November 7th. Fr Warren has requested we farewell him by inviting all St Mary’s families to attend Parish Mass on Saturday, November 5th at 6pm. Our students will assist Fr Warren at mass that night. We’d love to see as many families as possible to say thank you and farewell to Fr Warren for his support of our school and students over the last three years. Fr Warren has requested families bring a plate to share supper after mass. Please consider coming along to say thank you for Father Warren.
Welcome back Fr Peter
We are delighted to welcome Fr Peter Doohan back to St Mary’s. Fr Peter will return in November. Watch this space for news of a welcome back gathering.
Prayer Assemblies and Parish Mass Term 4
Please see below our timetable for Prayer Assemblies and students leading Mass. We are so fortunate to have such a supportive community who make the effort to attend our masses and assemblies. Thank you and we’d love to see you this term!
Term 4 Prayer Assemblies and School Masses
WEEK / DATE / TIME | CLASS | EVENT |
Week 2 14/10/22 11:05am | 1 | Prayer Assembly - PAH |
Week 3 21/10/22 | FETE | |
Week 4 28/10/22 | Normal Assembly – no Prayer Assembly | |
Week 5 4/11/22 5/11/22 6pm | 4 -6 | Normal Assembly Parish Mass – Student lead – Farewell Fr Warren |
Week 6 11/11/22 11:05am | 2 | Prayer Assembly - PAH |
Week 7 18/11/22 11:05am | 3 | Prayer Assembly - PAH |
Week 8 22/11/22 – Church 5:30pm 25/11/22 – 11:05am | 6 Prep | Graduation Liturgy and Dinner Prayer Assembly – Nativity Play |
Week 9 1/12/22 – Church 9am | Whole school | End of Year Liturgy – 2023 Captains announced |
Year 5 Leadership Retreat
On Monday, 31 October our Yr 5 cohort will head to Graham Andrews Park for a Leadership Retreat. Focus of the retreat will be ‘Servant Leadership – we lead by serving others’. APREs across the diocese were in-serviced in leading retreats for students in August at our annual APRE retreat. I am excited to work with our students in this area and hope the retreat provides our future leaders with the opportunity to reflect on the year ahead and encourage them in their faith journey. The retreat will begin at 9:00am and conclude just before second break, at 1:00pm, with a liturgy. Students will be bused to and from the park in the school bus.
Wishing you a blessed two weeks,
Kirsty Lines
APRE
Curriculum News
Greetings Families,
And here we are at Term 4. And what a jam-packed term it is.
Last term I invited families to share their ideas about how they counted collections at home. One of the most fascinating things I learnt about counting is that the last number we say in a collection tells us how many items there are altogether. I know it makes sense and seems simple, however when I was a young teacher, I only knew this implicitly, not explicitly. Please see below some ideas to practise counting at home.
“Whenever we went shopping, I would always get the kids to help by getting a certain number of fruits or vegies. It always provided a good conversation starter if we got home and were short some apples or oranges.”
“Once the kids were a little bit older, like 7, we often asked them to set the table. Then we asked questions like how many forks, knives, spoons, and plates. We also started to get them to calculate how many things altogether and talked about how they calculated it. Sometimes we wrote it down, but not all the time.”
“We played a lot of darts – a great way to use maths and also have fun with sharp objects.”
“When we were kids, we had a bucket of coloured pegs. Sometimes, if they got tipped out, Mum would get us to sort them out and work out how many of each colour there were and how many altogether.”
“Sometimes, instead of stories or songs, we would just practise counting. We started with ones, then moved on to twos, threes, fives, and tens.”
“Counting and numbers are everywhere! Even when you can’t see them – timing the kids to do things and getting them to time us was always a lot of fun.”
Thank you to the brains trust – our school community for sharing your ideas with us! We would love to hear about what you do at your home or if you have had a go at one of these counting activities.
Finally, before I go, I just have to give the Fete a plug. We have had so many wonderful families put their hands up to help. Thank you kindly for sharing your time with us. If you would like to help and are not sure where to start, send me an email or contact one of our stall coordinators.
Have a great fortnight counting!
Vanessa Alexander
Middle Leader: Curriculum
Library News
Welcome back to Term 4 and a BUMPER Issue of Book Club!
Book Club is now open with 40 bumper pages of amazing books to help kids to love reading, including:
- Christmas and Holiday Gift Ideas
- The Best Books of 2022
- Big Savings on Packs
- $6 and Under Books, $3 Value Books, and much more!
Have even MORE fun exploring this issue of Book Club!
Mixed in with all the terrific titles are 12 mice looking for new books and reading adventures. Ask students to spot all 12 mice and try to work out which book these mice come from. Hint—A book by Tim Minchin.
Orders due 20th October
To provide a diverse range of books to our students we are also offering a brand new book club, Bilby’s Book Club.
There will be 4 issues per year with catalogues sent home once a term.
Congratulations to our teachers and students for so eagerly participating in the
Premier's Reading Challenge.
We had close to 100% participation and were therefore entered into the draw, and our school won a $300 book voucher.
YEAH!!!!
Week 4 Week 4 Week 4
If you can please assist, select a timeslot on the roster.
Roster available from Week 3 at the office.
HPE News
Learning Support News
Welcome back to a jam-packed term 4! I will be on campus during Weeks 2, 5 and 8 this term and look forward to visiting each classroom to see the wonderful progress each student is making. I’m always happy to meet with parents throughout the term. Please feel free to send me an email so we can arrange a time to meet while I’m on campus: belinda.phillips@twb.catholic.edu.au.
This week, while I am visiting, we will also have Carrie Morton (School Inclusion Coach: Toowoomba Catholic Schools) joining us for two days. We will be working with teachers to focus on inclusive education and personalised learning for students in their classrooms.
During week 3 this term, I will be participating in the final workshop for the Learning Support Micro-credential course which Toowoomba Catholic Schools have offered to its teachers through Griffith University. This has been a valuable learning experience in areas including Evidenced-based instructional practices; Collaboration and the role of the Learning Support Teacher; Inclusion and differentiation with diverse classrooms; Response to Intervention and adjustments; and Impact on Practice. It has been hugely beneficial as I put these concepts into practice as Learning Support Teacher.
My Auslan sign for this newsletter is rain: there’s been so much of it around lately!
Hands start in front of the face, palms facing out. Bend wrists so the palms are now facing down. Repeat the action several times.
The Arts News
Prep News
Welcome back to term 4! Only 8 weeks to go.
To start the term, we received an award for the best borrowing class for term 3. This is a fabulous award to receive, and all students should be very proud of this achievement.
This term we have a lot of things happening with curriculum and other exciting events. With this being said it is important that we allow our students to take time to rest and recharge when it is possible. Remembering rest can be a range of different things, going for a walk, having a bath, getting a special afternoon treat and watching a movie just to name a few.
Please take a moment to have a look at all things happening curriculum wise in the classroom. I am very excited to see students produce their English assessments.
Some key events this term -
- St Mary’s Fete – week 3 (Friday 21st October)
- Swimming lesson start week 3
- Prayer Assembly – week 8 (Friday 25th November)
- Swimming Carnival – week 8 (Friday 25th November)
- Melbourne Cup ½ Day – week 5 (Tuesday 1st November)
Kindest regards,
Imogen Hunt
Year 1 News
Welcome to Term 4!! As this year has gone by so quickly and I’m sure the rest of the term will go by even faster, I invite you all to take a moment to look at how far each year one student has come in the last three terms. Whether it is in behaviour, learning, maturity, or confidence I am so excited to spend the next 8 weeks finalising our learning and preparing for year two.
To kick off our Mystery Readers this week, we had the pleasure of listening to Mrs T and Mrs Dunne read. Year One is very excited to see who else might be coming in or skyping in to read this term.
This term we will be focusing on the Mercy Value of Excellence. During a whole class discussion last week, the students came up with a fabulous definition of what excellence means to them ‘It’s not about being the best, it’s about doing your best’.
In English this term we will be focusing on procedural texts and how each step must start with a verb. We will be discussing different types of texts and how we can identify some characteristic features and elements in stories.
We will be consolidating our learning in math this term through a range of hands-on activities and investigations.
Students will have their prayer assembly with year 5/6 this Friday to celebrate Mary.
There are lots of upcoming events this term so please ensure you are checking dojo updates for save the dates:
- Swimming starts Tuesday week 3
- 21st October- St Mary’s Fete
- 28th October - St Mary’s Got Talent
- 1st November - Melbourne Cup half day
- 14th November - Awards Night
- I am away 3rd-7th November
- 25th November - Swimming carnival
- 1st December - last day and end of year liturgy
Please see the photos below from last term's trip to the COSMOS Centre.
Year 2 News
Below are photos of some of our wonderful year 2 students at the CWA Teddy Bear Picnic in the Park, last term. All students had a wonderful day playing games, getting faces painted and enjoying a sausage sizzle.
Term outline below.
- Religion: excellence unit.
- English: information reports.
- Math: mapping, measurement, chance and probability and time.
- HASS: history – important places.
- Science: forces – push and pull.
We will also be needing some shoe boxes to use for our design and technology unit this term. If you have any spare at home, they would be greatly appreciated in year 2!
Thanks.
Year 3 News
We have had a great start to the term with students showing enthusiasm and excellence as we jump back into learning for term 4!
What is Year 3 learning in Term 4?
- English: Information reports
- Math: Angles, chance and data
- Religion: Excellence and the cultural context of the Gospels
- Science: Physical science- Where does heat come from and how does it move?
- HASS: History- How the community has changed and different celebrations
- Technology: Food and fibre production
- Arts: Dance
- P.E: Swimming
Year 4/5 News
Year 5/6 News
Welcome back everyone to our final term of 2022.
What a fun-filled term four we have in store! From the St Mary’s Fete to the Year 6 Graduation Liturgy and Dinner, keep your calendars close, you don’t want to miss out!
We absolutely loved getting back into library borrowing last week. Look how immersed into our books we were! We can’t wait for Mrs Sheehan to be back this week.
We had some happy students receive Student of the Week last Friday and with how we are working at the moment, it is so incredibly hard to choose! Remember, everyone is welcome at assembly each week so don’t forget to stop by and join us!
This term in science we will be investigating electricity and as you can see in these photos, we are loving it already!
In English this term, we are exploring the choices that authors make when composing and constructing texts and choosing or creating illustrations and illustrators. There will then be opportunities for students to further explore language features and poetic devices through the creation of poems!
In Math, we are all about fractions and decimals! 5/6 have grown so much in their computation skills and I am so proud of how far they have come.
For HASS, we are going to investigate civics and citizenship - looking at a range of Australian government concepts involving democratic systems, roles and responsibilities of government and the process of making laws.
We have been learning all about our Mercy Value – Excellence in Religion. Soon we will look at the Church's liturgical year and the celebration of Eucharist. We are also engaging in some reflective prayer journaling.
TECH! We are going to examine how a digital system works, showing inputs, how data is processed and the output, and examine Bluetooth enabled devices and how they operate for a particular purpose.
Looking forward to a fabulous Term 4!
Warm regards,
Miss Morrison and the 5/6 Crew
Tuckshop News
Below is the updated Tuckshop menu for Term 4.
Parents & Friends Association
October Birthdays
Anika Hayes, John Bryant, Laura Dare, Addison Itzstein, Alyssa Heinemann, Mackenzie Finall, Mrs Sue Williams
Happy birthday to all students and staff who celebrate their birthday in October