Term 1 Week 8 Newsletter 2024
Important Dates
Mar 18 | P & F Meeting - 6pm - ALL WELCOME! |
| Mar 19 | Easter Raffle Casual Clothes Day - Easter Egg Donations |
| Mar 22 | Palm Sunday Liturgy - 12.30pm (presented by Kindergarten) |
Mar 25 | PUPIL FREE DAY |
Mar 26 | Easter Raffle draw |
Mar 26 | Parent Teacher Interviews |
Mar 27 | Holy Thursday Liturgy - 12.30pm (presented by Year 6) School Hall |
Mar 28 | Stations of the Cross - 11.30am (presented by Year 3) School Hall |
Vision Statement:
St. Mary's Primary strives to be a welcoming Christ-centred learning community that promotes a quality holistic education and trusting relationships in a caring and supportive environment.
Acknowledgment of Country: We acknowledge the traditional custodians of this land, the Wiradjuri people, who, long before us, lived, loved, educated and raised their children on this site. We pay our respects to elders past and present, and we recognise the young people who are our future. We acknowledge all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families in our community. We respect their deep physical and spiritual connections to the country through their stories traditions and living cultures.
Character Virtue: C U R I O S I T Y
Curiosity means wanting to learn and discover new things, which makes us smarter and more interesting. While curiosity about other people's business (e.g. gossip) can get us into trouble, curiosity about topics and how things work can help us grow. Curiosity also allows us to look at the world with wonder and ask questions as an observer of God's creation.
Curiosity is:
* Being an active learner
* Questioning to find answers
* Enthusiasm for exploration
From the Principal
Mr Luke Wilson
Principal
Dear Parents,
Welcome to Week 8.
Thanks to our Year 3 and Year 5 teachers for preparing our Year 3 and 5 students for last week’s NAPLAN. Thanks also to Mr Keady and Mrs Sutcliffe for working as NAPLAN Coordinators and helping ensure a smooth three days of testing. A reminder tomorrow is a casual clothes day to encourage all families to send in their Easter donations for our raffle.
We have a P & F Meeting in the library at 6pm tonight. All are welcome.
Parent-Teacher Interviews - Parent-teacher interviews for all classes other than 1G and 5G commence today.
* Kindergarten, Year 1 and Year 2 teachers will conduct two-way parent-teacher interviews.
* Years 3 to Year 6 will conduct three-way student-parent-teacher interviews.
The interviews are also offered Tuesday, 26th March. Bookings will be open tomorrow for next Tuesday’s interviews.
These interviews are an excellent opportunity to chat with your child’s teacher, learn about your child's progress in the first eight weeks of the year, and share any concerns or questions.
Mobile Phones - If a student brings a mobile phone to school, it must be left in the school office when they arrive and collected at the end of the day when they leave school. The phone must be labelled clearly with the student’s name. Students are not permitted to have a mobile phone in their possession during the school day. Students who are found to be using their phones on our school grounds will have their phones taken from them. The phone will then be kept in the School Office until parents come into school to collect it.
Enrolments for Kindergarten 2025 are open - Parents wishing to enrol their child are asked to contact the school to receive a copy of St. Mary’s Enrolment Policy and current Enrolment Application Form. Forms can also be accessed via our school website. A copy of your Child’s Birth Certificate, Baptismal Certificate, Immunisation Record, and any other supporting documentation will be required to process
your enrolment application. Enrolment interviews for all new families
will commence on Monday, 13th May.
It would be helpful if any of our 2025 Kindergarten sibling enrolments could be sent in the next few weeks. This will help us clarify how many places we’ll have available for our new families in 2025.
Pupil Free Day - MONDAY, 25th MARCH - St. Mary’s staff will focus on our school's response to the changes to the Mathematics K to 6 Curriculum.
School Fees - Term 1
Friendly Reminder - Term 1 School Fees were due last Friday, 15th March.
Sport
Primary: Thursday, 4th April
Infants: Tuesday, 9th April
Kinder and Year 1 will do their runs with their Years 5 and 6 buddies.
The 9-year-olds and under and 10-year-olds will run 2 kilometres, and the 11- and 12-year-olds will run 3 kilometres. All children will walk the course in the morning and run in age-group races throughout the day. The first four runners across the line will be selected for the school Cross-Country Team.
Religious Education
Mr Tim Keady
RE Coordinator
Dear Parents,
Meet4Mass - Each year, primary schools in Dubbo organise Meet4Mass. This is an opportunity for families and students to come together to celebrate the Eucharist at a Sunday morning Mass. This term, St. Laurence's, St. Pius X and St. Mary's are combined. Year 6 classes from these schools will have their Meet4Mass on Sunday, 24th March at 9am (Palm Sunday), whilst K-5 from each school will combine on Sunday, 7th April at 9am. We would love to see you there.
Gospel Focus: From Death to Life (John 12:20-33) Choose to give to others.
EASTER LITURGIES
We invite our families and community to come along to one of our Holy Week Liturgies.
Palm Sunday Liturgy (Kindergarten) - Friday, 22nd March at 12.30pm
Holy Thursday Liturgy (Year 6) - Wednesday, 27th March at 12.30pm in the School Hall
Stations of the Cross (Year 3)- Thursday, 28th March at 11.30am in the School Hall
ST. BRIGID'S PARISH - MASS TIMES:
St Brigid's: Saturday - 6pm, Sunday - 9am and Sunday - 6pm
St. Laurence's Church: Sunday - 7.30am
Wellbeing
Mrs Sue Nuttall
Wellbeing Leader
Gratitude, Empathy and Mindfulness (GEM) can help us feel happier, notice the positives and cope better in challenging times. Practicing GEM can be as simple as weaving it into our daily chats, whether during car rides home, in the kitchen or around the dinner table.
Here are three prompts to get you started:
Awards
STUDENT OF THE WEEK:
| Donny Larkin - 2B For his positive, enthusiastic approach to learning. |
Thomas Jones - 2G |
Lexi O'Connor - 3G |
HOUSE AWARDS:
Congratulations to the following students for gaining 10 points for
their Sports House for exemplary behaviour:
| LA SALLE: | LENNON: | McAULEY: | MOORE: |
| Beau Winters - KB | Scarlett Long - KB | Ollie Single - KB | Donny Larkin -2B |
| Nestor Crasto - 2B | Kala Squires - 2B | Elias-Ali Ley - KB | Ned Parkes -2B |
| Ibrahim Khalid - 2B | Jaxon Long - 2B | Taejin Morris - 2B | Imogen Smith -2B |
| Owen Fitzgerald - 2B | Thomas Conte - 2G | Maggie Cook - 2B | Jack Peterson -2G |
| Cooper Lew - 2B | Jett Tobin - 2G | Amity Smith - 2B | Harry O'Donoghue - 2G |
| Charlotte Gilmour -KG | Charlie Butcher -KG | Jimmy Job - KG | Evie Pratten - KG |
| Logan Nichols - 2G | Zoey Jones - 3B | Tommy Bashford - KG | Grace Taylor - KG |
| Kieran Dixon - 2G | Clancy Moore -3B | Tex Simpson -2G | |
| Parkah Bond - 2G | Max Robinson - 3B | Ainsley Hartas - 2G | |
| Emmett Giddings - 3B | Ollie Winterton - 5B | Hudson Green - 3B | |
| Maggie Elliott - 5B | |||
| Leo O'Connor - 5B |
P&F News
P&F Meeting:
TONIGHT in the School Library
We encourage new members to come and join our P&F.
Thank you to our P&F Committee:
President - Ilka Grattan
Vice President - Shelley McGhee
Secretary - Amy Whiteley
Community News
BIRTHDAYS:
Celebrating their birthday this week are:
George Knight, Roy Larkin, Ellie Good, Liza O'Sullivan,
Eli Willocks, Jake Jones, Lewy O'Connor, Hallie Herbert,
Bridie Herbert, Camille Chikari, Mrs Amanda Isbester
and Mr Luke Wilson. We hope you enjoy your birthday!
The new Active and Creative Kids voucher is now available, helping to make activities more affordable for eligible NSW families.
Parents, guardians and carers of eligible school-aged children will be able to use two $50 vouchers per calendar year.
About the new program
- Vouchers are available to those receiving Family Tax Benefit Part A, or Family Tax Benefit Part B, or both.
- Vouchers can be downloaded as a QR code and used toward either an eligible physical or creative activity.
- The $50 vouchers will be issued in school Term 1 and school Term 3.
- Vouchers must be redeemed before their expiry date.
For more information, visit Active and Creative Kids.
Attendance
The importance of regular school attendance - The effective monitoring and promotion of regular student attendance is a legal requirement for our school. More importantly, it is a fundamental issue to student well-being and has proven implications for student academic progress and achievement.
Based upon research, the NSW Education Standards Authority has determined that primary students with attendance rates below 90% are at risk of ongoing impacts on their learning. Research shows that poor school attendance is associated with:
* lower academic achievement, including literacy and numeracy
* early school leaving
* leaving school with fewer qualifications
* reduced opportunities for students to learn and access educational resources, further
limiting achievement
* further absenteeism in higher year levels
We will be monitoring student attendance throughout the year. You can expect to be contacted by your child’s teacher if a pattern of non-attendance, regular late arrivals or unexplained absences occurs.
PARTIAL ABSENCES:
Parents must attend the school office to use the Compass Kiosk to complete a PARENT DROP-OFF or PARENT PICK-UP if arriving late or leaving early.
FULL DAY ABSENCES:
A Note should be submitted via Compass for a FULL DAY absence from school.
Reminder: Parents to submit an attendance note within 7 days of absence. Thank you.
Canteen
Canteen Roster
TUES Mar 19 | Michelle Brown |
WED Mar 20 | Alli Sykes, Amanda Cook and Cara Grey |
THURS Mar 21 | Ash Bower, Tara Taylor and Claire Curtin |
FRI Mar 22 | Jenna Cooper and Lisa Cowden |
MON Mar 25 | Zoe Madgwick |
Student News
YEAR 4
Year 4 have been learning about 'Vincent Van Gogh' in Visual Arts this term. They have produced their own version of his sunflower painting, irises and starry night painting. They have used different techniques and materials to create their masterpieces.
