Dear Parents and Carers,

First of all I would like to thank our community for the tremendous job you have done following our Covid-19 restrictions this year. I would especially like to thank the parents of the 5/6 cohort for supporting our request to have our 5/6 students wear a mask while inside. Interestingly we did not have another reported case of Covid-19 during last week’s face mask wearing procedure.

As the NSW Premier announced there have been significant changes in restrictions taking effect today. Most of these were communicated in the letter on Friday, however there are additional changes that have become apparent.

Drop-off and Pick-up

Parents are now permitted to enter the school grounds to drop-off and pick-up children. This will be a significant change to our current procedure.

• Church car park - parents are now asked to walk into the laneway area near the basketball courts and infants playground to pick-up students in the afternoon.
• Church Street – parents are now asked to walk onto the netball and basketball courts to pick up students in the afternoon.

The students will stay on the lawn area with the teacher on afternoon duty until visual contact is made with the parent or guardian that is picking up the student.

Parents are still required to maintain social distancing practices while on school grounds.

Friday Award Assembly

Parents are permitted to come to school and attend the Friday morning assembly.  The assembly will begin at 8.55am and be held outside on the new concrete area.

Parents will receive a SMS when their child is receiving an award as normal.

We will continue to stream the assembly via teams for those parents that can’t make it to school.

Opening school mass and class masses

Planning will begin for our opening school mass. Parents will be invited to attend and more details will follow in the coming week. Parents are permitted to attend class masses, please see the Class Mass section for dates.

It is exciting to invite parents back into the school, it has been far too long.

Obviously we know that restrictions can change in an instant and we will continue to apply a risk adverse approach when planning whole school functions. Early detection and reporting of COVID-19 cases will be important moving forward, so please use the Rapid Antigen Tests when any symptoms appear.

If you have any questions relating to testing or the changes outlined in the last week, please don’t hesitate to ask.

Take care,

Phil Nielsen

PANCAKES FOR SALE TOMORROW -  TUESDAY 1st MARCH

Shrove Tuesday falls on the Tuesday before the beginning of Lent – a period of around six weeks leading up to Easter.

During Lent, we give up luxuries to remember when Jesus went into the desert for 40 days to fast and pray.

This Shrove Tuesday, 1^st March, Mrs Cuthbertson will be making and selling pancakes that will be available for students at recess. They will be for sale for 50 cents each (CASH ONLY) with butter, jam, and maple syrup available as toppings. All money raised will go towards our Schools Project Compassion fundraising.

Mrs Emma McRae our counsellor will be visiting St Mary's this week on Monday the 28th February.

Emma will be holding her counselling sessions face to face while maintaining the appropriate social distancing protocols.

Please follow this link for detailed information on the service provided to our families by Catholic Care.

If you would like to make a confidential appointment for your child please contact the school office if your child is already registered.  If you wish to register your child to see the counsellor please contact Mr Nielsen first and then an complete online form at this link:

Catholic Care - Counselling Referral Form

Happy Birthday to

Alexandra Patton and Harry Carne

who celebrate their birthdays this week.

St Mary's has student records for every child that are first included on our database when your child in enrolled.

These records do not change unless parents advise us and include details such as mobile numbers, street addresses, email addresses, employer information and emergency contact details.

The emergency contact details we store are the name and phone number of the person the school should contact when the primary contacts (parent/s) are not available.  It is important this information is correct.

Do you need to change your Emergency Contact details?

Please call or email the school at office.smwms@cg.catholic.edu.au if you would like to check or change any of the information listed above.

Award Winners

Our award winners this week.

Western Region Swimming

Some pictures taken at the swimming carnival in Cootamundra last Thursday.

The following events are in the caldendar in the next few weeks.

To see the school's full calender check out the SZApp or our website.