St Mary's War Memorial School West Wyalong eNewsletter

Dear Parents and Carers,

It was just wonderful to see our 2023 kinder students again on Friday for their orientation day, the last for 2022. It has been a fantastic four weeks with our new students and they have adapted to St Mary’s life very quickly. Mrs Turner has done an amazing job organising many fun and exciting activities for the students to participate in.

Some of the highlights of the orientation were the school tour, Piggy & Elephant book study, board games with Year 3/4, creating friendship bracelets and playing sport with Year 5/6 and to top off the experience was the award presented at last weeks assembly.

I look forward to next year when the group officially comes to St Mary’s. I thank Mrs Turner for her tremendous organisation and the rest of the school for welcoming the new students into our school.

Regards,

Mr Nielsen

On Friday 5/6 students gathered at the S & C Club to pause to remember all of those who have died in the fight for the freedom we live in today.

We Pray

Almighty and eternal God, from whose love in Christ we cannot be parted, either by death or life: hear our prayers and thanksgivings for all whom we remember this day; fulfil in them the purpose of your love; and bring us all, with them, to your eternal joy; through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen.

The recipients of our Whatever You Do, Do Well awards for Week 6 were:

Halle Lashbrook	River Greenwood	Harry Carne
Harrison Chantrill	Blair Bales	Adaline Stephens
Abraham Yako	Hugh Ridley	Molly Gaynor
Montana Crouch	Edward Tulloch	Marley Loudon
William Stokes	Nate Sams	Toby Nielsen
	Fredrik Bell

Results from the English ICAS assessment have been received and the following students were awarded special certificates:

CREDIT:

Georgina Patton, Amelia-Rose Blampied

MERIT:

Jessica Hardie

Results from the Spelling Bee ICAS assessment have been received and the following students were awarded special certificates:

CREDIT:

Georgina Patton

Results from the Writing ICAS assessment have been received and the following students were awarded special certificates:

CREDIT:

Amelia-Rose Blampied, Alexandra Patton, Eleanor Ramsay

Goldenfields Water Competition

Our students participaged in the Goldenfields Water National Water Week poster design competition. This competition encourages students to get involved and understand the importance of water within our local community and the world.

Kinder to Year 2

1^st place – Emily McCoullough

2^nd place – Archie Maslin

Year 5/6

1^st place – Bella Alchin, Year 6

2^nd place – Hannah McDonnell, Year 5

Emily and Bella have each won themselves a $50 Booktopia gift card and Archie and Hannah have won a $20 Booktopia gift card.

Goldenfields Water also announced that St Mary’s was the lucky winner, drawn from all school's who participated, of a $250 Booktopia voucher for our library.

Year 5 School Captain Speeches and Voting @ 9.10am	Tuesday 6 December St Mary's School Hall
Matinee Performance @ 11.30am	Thursday 8 December West Wyalong S&C Club
Speech Night and Performance @ 6pm	Thursday 8 December West Wyalong S&C Club
Reports go home to parents	Monday 12 December
Year 6 Graduation Dinner	Wednesday 14 December West Wyalong Sports Club 6.00pm
Year 6 Graduation Mass	Thursday 15 December St Mary's Church at midday
Final School Day	Friday 16th of December
First Day of School for all students in 2023 This includes our new KINDER, who will then have the next four Wednesday's off.	Wednesday 1st February

If your child is holding a perpetual trophy from last year, could this please be returned to the school office.

Planning is underway for St Mary’s Intensive Swimming Program. All students are encouraged to participate in this program. Swimming is very much a part of the Australian lifestyle and a high level of swimming ability and knowledge and skill in water safety is not only highly desirable but could be life saving.

The program will run over five days, from Monday the 21st of November to Friday the 25th of November. The program will be implemented by qualified instructors employed by the L&R Group from the Holland Park Swim Centre to meet the needs of the K - 6 PDHPE syllabus. Class teachers will attend to supervise.

The primary aim is to develop each child’s swimming ability. The program will offer the following skill levels:

*HARP SEALS*	This level is for beginners. Children who have little to no swimming ability and/or experiences.
*LEOPARD SEALS*	This level is for children who can propel themselves through the water independently but have yet to develop correct freestyle swimming.
*WEDDELL SEALS*	This level is for children who can swim independently for 15m-25m who need stroke development.
*GREY SEALS*	This is our school squad level and is for swimmers who can swim 50m freestyle. Other strokes will be developed.

The students will be placed in groups depending on their level of ability as advised by parents. Students will be assessed on the first day to make sure they are in the correct group.

Students not attending the program will be supervised at school and set appropriate literacy learning activities.

PLEASE LOGON TO COMPAS TO GIVE CONSENT AND PAY FOR OUR INTENSIVE SWIMMING PROGRAM.

Happy Birthday to

Elka Cuthbertson

who celebrates her birthday next week.

We hope you enjoy your special day.

Fee statements for Term 4 have been posted.

Thank you to those families who have payment plans in place.

The school has the ability to provide school fee support for families in genuine need. School fee payment records are strictly confidential and access is restricted to office staff and the school principal. Please contact Mr Nielsen if you wish to discuss this matter or any other issue.

The Finance Department of Canberra Goulburn is slowly transitioning its current finance system to an updated system that supports Compass. This will impact those with direct debit fee payments.

St Mary's currently uses Compass for our student information, event consent and payment, school reports and absence notes.

The first step in this process is to ask all families who have direct debits setup by the school to setup their own BPAY periodic payment using their bank account. The periodic payment must be setup using BPAY.

If you have a direct debit setup you are welcome to call the school office now for help however we will call all parents impacted and discuss changing your payment. We will cancel the schools direct debit from your account once BPay is in place.

Our 2023 Kinder students will start school on Wednesday the 1st of February with all our other students. This is first day for students of all classes.

Parents of Kinder students are advised that our Kinder students will then have the next four Wednesdays off. Kinder students get very tired and this break will help them to remain keen and focused.

The Kinder days of for 2023 will be Wedneday the 8th, 15th and 22nd of February and the final rest day will be Wedneday the 1st of March.

Monday 21 November

Don't forget students will need a white shirt. This is a swimming day and the Colour Run will be held in the afternoon.

Details of what your child should wear to school will be sent this Friday.

The canteen is an integral part of the school and is utilised by every family. We are keen to find an enthusiast parent or other commmunity member to volunteer for 3 hours per week organising our canteen ordering, volunteer instructions, roster, equipment maintenance and cleaning.

Lisa Sturgess has filled the role for the last two years, doing a wonderful job, however Lisa is now working fulltime elsewhere. We thank her for her time and organisation in keeping this critical school service running so well.

Details of the role are in the document below:

Canteen Manager Volunteer

The canteen manager will be responsible for :

Ordering and organising stock,
Organising volunteer roster,
Revise the canteen menu as required and update QKR!,
Ensure canteen equipment is in good order,
Ensure canteen procedures are up to date and communicated,
Coordinating termly clean of equipment and canteen.

For more information please contact the school.

If you are interested in volunteering for this position please contact the school office, more details can be provided at this time.

Canteen Roster

Monday 14 November	Friday 18 November
Leah Blampied Baking: Leah Blampied	Meg Hardie and Lauren McDonel Baking: Both
Monday 21 November	Friday 25 November
Neil Cuthbertson Baking: Neil Cuthbertson	VOLUNTEERS REQUIRED
Monday 28 November	Friday 2 December
VOLUNTEERS REQUIRED	VOLUNTEERS REQUIRED

Award Winners

Our award winners this week.

Some lovely pictures of our winners with their families.

Remembrance Day

Our Year 5/6 students attended the Remembrance Day ceremony at the S&C Club last Friday. Our school captain Hugo, with Nell, laid a wreath to honour those who died or suffered for Australia's cause in all wars and armed conflicts.

ICAS Award Winners

A number of our students received Merit or Credit awards in the recent ICAS exams. Well done girls.

Your school aged child needs enough sleep for a whole range of health and educational benefits. Check out more on this at Raising Children

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.

Nov
21
Mon

21 Nov 2022

Event Info

Nov
21
Mon

21 Nov 2022

Event Info

Nov
21
Mon

21 Nov 2022

School Event Kinder Year 1 Year 2 Year 3 Year 4 Year 5 Year 6

Nov
21
Mon

21 Nov 2022 - 25 Nov 2022

9:30 AM to 11:30 AM

Event Info

Nov
21
Mon

21 Nov 2022 - 25 Nov 2022

9:30 AM to 11:30 AM

All students attend our intensive swimming program on the 21st Nov to the 25th Nov.

Event Info

Nov
21
Mon

21 Nov 2022 - 25 Nov 2022

9:30 AM to 11:30 AM

Kinder Year 1 Year 2 Year 3 Year 4 Year 5 Year 6

Nov
16
Wed

16 Nov 2022

Event Info

Nov
16
Wed

16 Nov 2022

If you would like to make a confidential appointment for your child please contact the school office or you can complete an online form at this link:

Catholic Care - Counselling Referral Form

Event Info

Nov
16
Wed

16 Nov 2022

School Event Kinder Year 1 Year 2 Year 3 Year 4 Year 5 Year 6