We have reached the midway point of term 1 and the school is really starting to feel like its old self again. Our students are thoroughly enjoying the freedom of playing in any part of the playground with students from other cohorts.

The St Mary’s kinder buddy program has begun, with Year 6 and Kinder students having lunch together and playing games outside. We had our first weekly award assembly with parents in attendance for 2022. It has almost been a year since we could last do this and it was just wonderful to have our students celebrate their achievements with their parents on the grounds. As a school we are extremely excited to continue the wonderful connection we have had with our parent community.

The school has received additional Rapid Antigen Tests to be distributed to students and staff. Each student will receive 8 tests early next week. Two of these tests will be the nasal swab that has been distributed before and 6 will be a mouth swab test. These test are to be used for symptomatic testing to be used at your discretion such as when your child is symptomatic or when exposure may have occurred.

Please find an exciting addition to the newsletter.  This week we have introduced a staff profile page where our teachers and support staff will answer a series of questions to give you an insight on who they really are.

We are looking forward to another busy 5 weeks of the term aim to finish strong before the Easter Break.

Regards

Phil Nielsen

We are excited to welcome parents and carers back into our school and class masses.

 

Opening School Mass

Wednesday 30th March

12 pm  

We are celebrating our whole school Opening Mass on Wednesday the 30th of March 2022 at 12pm. Our Year 6 leaders will be inducted at this mass.

If you are a Year 6 parent and you will not have a family member attending the mass, could you please let the school know so a staff member can be with your child during the badge ceremony.

All students attend this Mass and parents and carers are warmly invited to attend.

Happy Birthday to

Ella Patton

who celebrates her birthday this week.

    

CARITAS PROJECT COMPASSION 2022

Project Compassion fundraising has been a foundation of Social Justice awareness in the archdiocese for many years.  Project Compassion is run by Caritas Australia and is the single largest fundraising initiative of Caritas and is their largest source of income.

At St Mary’s we are promoting the theme, For All Future Generations.  Your children will learn about who Project Compassion is for, why we are fundraising and how their giving can help.

As Pope Francis said, “The future does have a name… and its name is hope.”

Some ways that you and your family could make a difference could be:

-          Giving up weekly canteen money;

-          Going without takeaway during Lent;

-          Giving the loose change found around the home; and

-          Giving pocket money.

Together we have the power to build a movement and create lasting change for our global community. We can help break the cycle of poverty and injustice by taking the next steps from charity to justice – For All Future Generations.

Some families would have received a Project Compassion box but we are still waiting on more.  However we have boxes in each classroom and we encourage your children to make a difference and fill their class box.

Each week of Lent, we will share the story of another person who always goes further. These stories show how Caritas Australia’s training, development and support have improved their way of life.

Anatercia, a 12-year-old girl living in southern Mozambique, was struggling to cope with adult responsibilities after her father passed away.

With Caritas support, she participated in training and gained access to psychosocial supports. Now, her quality of life has improved and she can focus on doing well at school.

Now, Anatercia can easily access clean drinking water, community members are able to grow healthy crops all year round, and there is enough nutritious food to eat. Anatercia feels better supported by her community, has more time to study and do her homework, and hopes to fulfil her dream of becoming a nurse.

Our school cross country will be held on Thursday 31st of March.

Students in Years 2 to 6 will compete at the West Wyalong Showground.  Please note students who are 7 this year cannot progress to the Western Region carnival.

Kinder and Year 1 will participate in cross country games at Perseverance Oval.

All students must have a permission note to attend, please click on the link below to complete the form.  Forms due Wednesday 24th of March.

Cross Country Permission Note 2022

If you need to get a message to your child please contact the school office and the message will be delivered at the time that best suits the students learning.

Please remind your children not to contact you via their iPad or mobile device while at school.  It they require any assistance students should speak first to their teacher who will ensure their parent is contacted if necessary.

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

Bellarwi CWA Scholarship

The Pettit family applied for and received a Bellarwi CWA Scholarshiop this year.  Billy Pettit is pictured with Mr Nielsen receiving his scholarship certificate.

Healthy Harold

Healthy Harold came to St Mary’s last Tuesday and Wednesday but in a different way – virtually!

Due to covid restrictions each class participated in an interactive and very engaging session with Sam and Healthy Harold via zoom in their classrooms. Some of the learnings included ‘Relate, respect and connect’ and how to be ‘Cyberwise’. Thank you to the Life Education Unit  for their continuing partnership with St Mary’s.

Ash Wednesday Mass

Last minute changes to COVID regulations meant our Ash Wednesday Mass had to go ahead without our school community involvement.  The liturgy was held in the church due to bad weather and was our first trip to the church this year.

Shrove Tuesday

A big Thank you to Mrs Cuthbertson our Religious Education Coordinator who spent hours cooking a huge batch of pancakes for our students to buy on 'Shrove Tuesday'. They were extremely delicious and the $93.00 raised goes to the Catholic organisation 'Caritas' who are running their annual Project Compassion fundraiser during Lent.

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.