The first candle, the prophet’s candle, was lit yesterday marking the beginning of the Advent. This candle of hope symbolises promises delivered through the prophets from God as well as the hope we have in Christ.

Matthew 24:42-44

“Therefore, keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come.  But understand this: If the owner of the house had known at what time of night the thief was coming, he would have kept watch and would not have let his house be broken into.  So, you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him.”

We pray,

God of Hope, we seek you. During this holy season of Advent, help us to see you in all whom we encounter. God of Hope, we seek you.

Amen

Colour Run - Special Thank You

 

On Friday Matt Wallis from Cargill Australia presented the school with a $5000 cheque to support our Colour Run.

  

This donation was organised by one of our families, The Bells, particulary Anna who is obviously a very good negotiator!  We cannot thank her or Cargill too much for this amazing, generous donation.

  

  

St Mary's would like to say goodbye to the Speedy family who have moved to Tamworth to be closer to their families. We would like thank Mrs Speedy for her contribution as a staff member to our school.

  

We hope you have a wonderful time in your new town and school, you will be dearly missed by all of us at St Mary's.

  

   

  

We would like to thank the LRG Group at Holland Park Pool and their knowledgable instructors for the fabulous intensive swimming program our children attended last week. Our students all improved their water skills and enjoyed the daily trip to the pool.

  

  

  

To Sharn Ferguson who spent the past week on work experience in various classes.  We hope she enjoyed her time here.

Dear Parents

As we approach the end of the 2022 school year, it is time to focus on plans for continuing to provide quality education and a happy and nurturing learning environment for 2023.  I am very pleased to announce that our staffing allocation for 2023 will allow us to continue to operate seven class groups. St Mary’s will also maintain the level of learning support our school provides.

As you can see below our student enrolment numbers are not consistent across stage 3 (Year 5 and Year 6) and I believe there are still advantages of having staged classes in the older years.

Educationally, the combined classes will be just as effective as stand alone classes as the NSW syllabus is organised in Stages: Years 3 and 4 are Stage Two and Years 5 and 6 are Stage Three.

In organising the Year 5 and 6 class groups the focus will be centred on creating a positive learning environment for all students.  The classes will be of mixed academic ability and attention will also be given to placing students with peers that they work and cooperate best with.  If families have two siblings in the same stage group they will be placed in separate classes, however if parents would like siblings together that can be arranged.

In years 5 to 6 the school will continue the process implemented last year. This Wednesday 30 November, students will be given the opportunity to nominate, through secret ballot, 4 students who they consider would be positive class mates for 2023.  The peers the student nominates can come from their year group or the year group they will be partnered with.  The school will ensure that at least one of these students will be in the same class.  I encourage all parents to discuss this process with their children and to emphasise the importance of a class peer who will be a positive influence on your child’s learning.

I invite any parent who has concerns about the placement of their child in a particular class to contact myself by this Friday 1 December. All requested will be considered and provisions made where possible. Please ensure all requests are communicate by this Friday, as once classes are published in week 10, it will be extremely unlikely that students will be moved between classes.

Mr Nielsen

The Year 5 students who nominated for School Captain will speak to their peers this week.

A vote is held and the successful students will then speak to the whole school, and invited parents, in the school hall on Tuesday the 6th of December at 9.10am.

We will communicate the names of these students in next weeks newsletter.

Teachers and students from Years 2 to 5 will then vote for our 2023 School Captains.  The votes are weighted evenly between teachers and students.

Circus Splendida is a show filled with colour, humour, energy and a great story. It features clowns, jugglers, hula hoop performers, the tiny tumblers and lots more! It revolves around one night in the life of a circus troupe that is competing for the opportunity to go on a fantastic world tour.

All of the various acts in the circus troupe try their best to present a fabulous performance but fall just short of the mark. To the surprise of everyone it's the bumbling quartet of clowns who emerge as the unlikely heroes of the show and along the way provide lots of laughter. 

Play Cast List

Myra	Alexandra Patton
Ringmaster	Hugo Harper
Benny	Nixon Loudon
Clowns	Clown 1. Eleanor Ramsay Clown 2. Will Stokes  Clown 3. Zack Gaynor Clown 4. Elizabeth Sturgess
Lola	Harper McDonell
Mrs Clancy	Catherine Curry

Costume Guide

Our teachers have sent the class costume guide via SeeSaw.  The school is supplying parts of each costume, the guide below is a general indication of what parents need to organise.  Please speak to your child's teacher if you are not sure.

Students with main parts in the play have already organised costumes with Mrs Harland.

Would you like to have the opportunity to be actively involved in decisions that directly affect the educational environment at our school?

In 2023, St Mary’s will officially amalgamate the School Board and Parents and Friends Association into one committee called the Community Council.

The Community Council will meet approximately 6 times over the school year to discuss school events and procedures and to form and hear back from sub committees. Some key responsibilities of the committee includes:

• Supporting the development of the Catholic identity, ethos and mission of the school.
• Generate ideas for fundraising and managing these iniatives.
• Supporting the school with capital and maintenance programs.
• Approving school uniform items decided at school level.
• Promoting the school in the local community.
• Provide input on parent priorities and suggest ideas about Catholic schooling.
• Forming and monitoring sub-committees to support the school.

St Mary’s is actively seeking volunteers from our parent community to become involved with our Community Council. The Annual General Meeting will be held on Wednesday 7 December in the Side Room of the Royal Hotel. Proceedings will begin at 6pm and all members of our school community are invited to come. Nominations and voting will occur during the meeting and those that are not seeking an executive role will have the opportunity to become part of sub-committees that will be formed early next year to achieve specific goals for the school.

Our Community Counceil have made a decision to employ a paid Canteen Manager for 2023 onward.

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

Details of the role are in the document below.

Written expressions of interest can be emailed to phillip.nielsen@cg.catholic.edu.au before Friday the 9th of December.

      Happy Birthday to

Evie Cuthbertson, Finn Brown, Cate Curry and Leo Stephens

who celebrate their birthdays next week.

We hope you enjoy your special day.

Students are reminded that there will be no more library book borrowing.

All books should be returned to the library by Friday 9 December.

The following students will have a part in the Mass:

Our school will perform two songs at the West Wyalong Carols by Candlelight on Sunday 11th of December.

If your child would like to participate in our school performance please meet at Barnardo Park at 7pm.  We are usually one of the first schools to perform.

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.