St Mary's War Memorial School West Wyalong eNewsletter

Dear Parents,

I know you are probably keeping a watchful eye on the COVID-19 situation in Victoria and NSW. The Victorian education system has moved to remote learning from Wednesday this week and I’m sure you have heard of the other restrictions imposed on the state. The situation in NSW appears to be on a knifes edge, with community transition rates not getting worse but not improving either.

Catholic Education Canberra/Goulburn have developed a document called COVID-19 Roadmap to Easing of Restrictions for Schools. The document has 3 stages to a full return to normal school activities. We are currently operating under Stage 2 of the document and have been in this space since week 5 last term. There has been no indication that we will move to more or less restrictions in the coming weeks so we will continue to operate in our current state.

The restrictions put onto the church have changed slightly and we are pleased to announce that we can now hold class masses. Parents, grandparents and carers are welcome to attend as long as the total number of people remains under 100 and social distancing protocols are adhered to. Unfortunately at this time the 100 limit still restricts us from whole school masses.

Due to the current holding pattern we are in with COVID-19 restrictions we have regrettably been forced to change the 5/6 excursion to Canberra to a different location. We are currently exploring different possibilities including Borambola in Wagga and The Taronga Zoo in Dubbo. We will exhaust every possible option to ensure our current Year 6 students are given an opportunity to experience an excursion of some description. We will communicate any progress we have as soon as it comes to hand.

The renovations hit a few snags (as you get with any renovation) over the last 6 weeks, however it is now full steam ahead. We have a three week window beginning Week 8, 7 September, where we expect to have the toilets and downstairs classrooms ready to use. The new toilet block is beginning to take shape with only a few more things to be complete inside. The downstairs space is waiting for the final windows and doors to be installed and then the full fit out can begin. Please find some pictures later in the newsletter.

Our P&F have organised a cookie dough fundraiser as their first major fundraiser for this year. Information is found in the P&F article later in this newsletter. We encourage you to support the fundraising efforts if you can.

I express my thanks to all members of our wonderful school community for your continued support through these challenging times with both the COVID-19 restrictions and the building works.

Mr Phillip Nielsen

Principal

On Thursday evening a group of Year 5/6 students and their parents met in the Parish Centre with Father Dominic, Mrs McGee and Mrs Cuthbertson to begin their preparation for Confirmation.

Confirmation is the final initiation sacrament into the Catholic Church. This is a significant event in the faith journey of our students.

We congratulate the students for getting to this stage of their journey and pray for them during this time of preparation.

Feast Day of St. Mary MacKillop

St Mary MacKillop was the first Australian beatified by the church and the first Australian to be recognized as one of its saints.

St Mary MacKillop had a saying: ‘Never see a need without doing something about it’.

On August 8th we honour St Mary MacKillop who embodied characteristics that typify the best of the Australian spirit. There is that sense of "going in to bat" for the battlers of life, to give a helping hand to the needy irrespective of colour, culture or creed and a sense of a "fair go for everyone".

A prayer to St Mary MacKillop

Mary, your dream in life was to live your love for God in a real way.

Help us to bring God’s love alive in our daily lives.

Amen

The recipients of our Whatever You Do, Do Well awards this week:

Seaton Crouch	Oliver Cumming	Maxwell Cuthbertson
Ava McClintock	Hannah McDonell	Cooper Miles
Harry Morton	Claudia Murdoch	Marcus Miles
Billy Pettit	Ricky Smith

Due to current health precautions students will be presented with their awards during an online assembly at 9.05am in individual classrooms.

Parents who wish to watch the assembly are able to login to Microsoft Teams on their own device using their child's login.

Sunday 30 August @ 11 am

Sacrament of Confirmation Commitment Mass

St Mary's Church

Wednesday 2 September @ 9 am

Confirmation Retreat Day

St Mary's School

Sunday 13 September @ 11 am

Sacrament of Confirmation Mass

St Mary's Church

Please note that there will be the usual 9.30am Parish Mass on Sunday 30 August and Sunday 13 September to adher to the COVID-19 restrictions.

CLASS MASS	DATE
5/6 Faith	Wednesday 12 August 12.30pm
5/6 Hope	Wednesday 26 August 12.30pm
3/4 Trust	Wednesday 9 September 12.30pm
3/4 Peace	Wednesday 23 September 12.30pm
3/4 Mercy	Wednesday 4 November 12.30pm
1/2 Joy	Thursday 12 November 12.30pm
Kinder	Wednesday 18 November 12.30pm

As with limitations on gatherings at the moment, numbers are limited to 100 people in the Church. We invite parents, grandparents and carers to attend these Masses while observing any guidelines currently in place.

We ask for donations of tissues at the start of each year for your child's classroom.

However we are running very short of tissues this term and would appreciate the donation of extra boxes to your child's class.

Thank you.

An annual satisfaction survey of parents, students and staff will be conducted on behalf of all Catholic schools in the Diocese this term. The surveys are designed to gather feedback from parents, staff and students about our school and will be used to inform school improvement. Responses are confidential and individuals cannot be identified.

The surveys will be launched via email on Friday 7 August 2020 using the email addresses supplied to the school. If you do not receive an email with a link to the survey, you can access and complete the survey at the below link.

St Mary's School Survey 2020

If you do not receive the email please contact the school office so we can update your email address on the school system.

Date	Teacher on Leave or PD	Class	Relief
Thursday 6 August	Mrs McGee	5/6 Faith	Mrs C O'Brien
Friday 7 August	Ms Parker	3/4 Peace	Mrs Reichstien
Mr Nielsen will be on leave on Friday and Monday. Mrs Scott will be in the office if you need to contact the school during this time.

Happy Birthday to

Jogele-An Dignan, Caitlin Parker and Hamish Braunberger

who celebrate their birthdays next week.

We hope you enjoy your special day.

Even though we are under COVID-19 restrictions we can still accept birthday cakes for your child's celebration in their classroom.

HOWEVER these must be cupcakes or a cake that has already been cut into individual slices for each child, current restrictions advise we cannot accept a whole uncut cake.

Thank you for your understanding.

Canteen Will Remain Open

We are very grateful to Lisa Sturgess, our P&F President, who generously agreed to keep on with the organisation and stocking of the canteen while we continue our search for a new canteen manager.

Canteen Roster

Monday 10 August	Wednesday 12 August	Friday 14 August
Gina Morton Baking: Gina Morton	Susie Crawford Baking: Emily Watts	Kristen Northfield & Kate Maslin Baking: Erin Pettit
Monday 17 August	Wednesday 19 August	Friday 21 August
Christina Harper Baking: Christina Harper	Vicki Glasgow Baking: Allirah Stewart	Lauren McDonell & Salina Byrne Baking: Lauren McDonell

Cookie Dough Fundraiser

The P&F are holding a Billy G’s Gourmet Cookie Dough drive as a fundraiser this term. This is our first large fundraiser since the start of the year and we are looking forward to your support.

Billy G’s is an Australian family owned and operated business. There are ten delicious flavours including a cheese flavoured Doggie Dough for your special furry family members! The delicious cookie dough is only available through fundraising and is not sold in stores, so stock up!

There are two ways to order the delicious cookies, filling in a paper order form or setting up an online account.

We will send home a paper order form to all families today or early next week. This form has instructions on how order either with the form and cash or online, which is easily done by creating your own online fundraising page that can also be forwarded to your friends and family.

1. ORDER ON THE PAPER FORM SENT HOME

Look through the order form and choose your selection of delicious cookies,
Ask your family and friends if they want to be included on your order and add them to the form,
Send the completed form and cash payment to the school office.

2. Order Online

Creating a fundraising page is easy as 1,2,3.

Head to www.cookiedough.com.au to create your Online Fundraising Page by clicking the “Register Now” button and fill in your information as a parent/guardian.
Choose our school which is listed as St Marys War Memorial School.
Choose your child’s prize goals and create their avatar!
Share your child’s online fundraising page with your family and friends via the “Share” section so they can start buying some Cookie Dough as well, How Easy!

There are great features in the online portal like creating your own avatar, selecting your prize goal and entering your cash sales.

Win a Dream Holiday worth $10,000! Create an Online Fundraising Page at www.cookiedough.com.au, sell or purchase one tub or more of Billy G’s Gourmet Cookie Dough and you will automatically go into the draw to win a $10,000 Dream Holiday.

Final Online and Cash Orders Due Monday 24 August.

Online Prize Ordering Closes on Thursday 28 August.

Delivery Date to be confirmed, but early September.