Dear Parents and Carers,

This week we extend a warm welcome to 6 guests who will lead St Mary’s through the Registration and School Improvement process. Brenda Foley, Brad Gaynor, Margaret Pollard, Lee Herden, Patrick Ellis and Rachel Smith will join us from Catholic Education Canberra & Goulburn. As the name suggests, there will be a check of compliance requirements, however the major focus of the visit will be to assist in future directions to enhance school improvement. Students will engage with their lessons as normal and panel members will work with all staff at different times from Tuesday, Wedneday and Thursday to experience the school and provide future recommendations.

This Wednesday marks the day that students will wear full winter uniform. Long pants or tartan skirts will replace shorts and skorts. The change also includes wearing our ties, which are available at the school office if your child requires a new one.

Over the next two weeks we will be inviting students, teachers and parents to provide feedback on their experience of our school using an online survey. The surveys are an important part of our whole school evaluation and planning process.
 
We would like to invite you to complete the Tell Them From Me (TTFM) Partners in Learning survey. As we value the role of parents and carers within our school community we would greatly appreciate your feedback. The information you provide will be used to maintain our commitment to working together in partnership to further improve student learning and wellbeing at St Mary's.
 
The survey is anonymous and will take approximately 20 minutes to complete. The survey will close on Friday 10th June. You are able to access the parent survey on your computer or mobile device by using the URL:  http://tellthemfromme.com/smwms

God Bless,

Phil Nielsen

The Feast of the Ascension:

Living the Gospel – Proclaim Good News

Francis of Assisi is credited with saying, ‘Preach the gospel at all times and when necessary, use words!’

In every interaction we have we say so much about who we are, what we think of the other person and what we believe – even without opening our mouth.

Our actions and attitudes proclaim our beliefs more powerfully than our words ever do. If we claim to be concerned about justice and yet behave unjustly then it is our actions, not our words, that will be heard!

When we are called to ‘proclaim the Good News’ we are called to do this first and foremost in action.

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

• School Athletics Carnival - All Years -  There are a number of outstanding permission notes in all classes.  Please complete the online permission form in Compass for your children, it is available on the home screen when you open Compass.

Riley Greenwood

who celebrates his birthday next week.

We hope you enjoy your special day.

   

A reminder that winter uniforms and ties need to be worn from Wednesday the 1st of June.

Students also need to move from shorts/skorts to long pants or tartan skirts and tights.

Ties and skirts are available from the school office for the price of $16 and $40.

Hats are now worn all year round. 

Please ensure all items are marked with students names.

 

Arrangements for St Mary's athletics carnival on Wednesday the 8th of June 2021

Students in Kinder and Year 1 will have recess at school at 11am and then walk to McAlister Oval to participate in races and games.  Students are able to be picked up from the ground but those who are not being picked up by parents at the ground will be escorted back to St Mary's in time for the afternoon bell and buses.

Students from Year 2 to Year 6 have advised the school they will either get off buses at the public school stop (there will be a teacher on duty there), be dropped at the Oval by parents or come to school as normal and walk to the Oval accompanied by a teacher.  The afternoon dismissal will work in reverse with students not going home with parents being accompanied to the public school bus stop or back to St Mary's after the carnival. 

Children should wear house coloured t-shirs and their sports clothes.

Thank you to those parents who have indicated they are able to assist on the day in the field.

Champion trophies and ribbons will be presented to students at assembly on Friday 10th of June.

1500m Event

   

Canteen Ordering

Don't forget to order a book as part of our fundraiser to support Catholic schools in the Lismore diocese.

Simply order a book for the fundraiser as part of your Scholastic Book Club order and let your class teacher or the office know which book/s is for donation. When the orders arrive we will compile the donations and organise shipping to Lismore to restore books in their school libraries.

Your child's name will be recorded on a donation sticker on the inside book cover.

Purchasing books via Scholastic as part of this fundraiser also generates points that will be used by the class teachers to buy class books.

Your support is appreciated.

Award Winners

Our award winners were presented in their classroom this week after the Simultaneous Story Time.

  

  

  

National Sorry Day

Our students walked to McCann Park to participate in the Bland Shire Sorry Day.  Sorry Day raises awareness of the history of our Aboriginal and Torres Straight Islander people.

Our students gave a wonderful perfomance of "The Voice".  The students then listened to Dreamtime stories, watched a smoking ceremony and finally enjoyed a sausage sizzle.

St Mary's finished the day with Taylor Hampton, of Birrang Cultural Connections, who was a past staff member of the school.  Taylor shared his knowledge of Indigenous people and culture with our students.

National Simultaneous Story Time and Book Fair

Another successful St Mary's Book Fair was held on Friday.  Parents joined with their children for a shared reading of Family Tree by Josh Pyke and then browsed the books in the hall.  The Book Fair sold over $2800 worth of books.

Thanks to the support of our students and parents, each class teacher was able to choose $100 worth of books for their classroom library and $200 worth of books was donated to the Lismore Diocese Flood Appeal that we are collecting here at the office.

Thanks to Mrs Neilsen and Mrs Parker for helping to set up the Book Fair and to Mrs Ramsay for helping with the book sales.

Mrs Daniher runs a Book Fair raffle for each class and the winners get to choose a $10 book from the selection on sale.  The lucky winners were:

Maisie Maslin, Blair Bales, Audrey Pritchard, Ted Glasgow, Jess Hardie and Hunter Ferguson.

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

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