St Mary's War Memorial School West Wyalong eNewsletter

Dear Parents,

It was wonderful to see a great group of parents come to school and help Kinder give Mrs Meincke a fitting farewell to 17 plus tremendous years at St Mary’s. The guard of honour formed by the whole school was a great opportunity for all the community of the school to say their goodbyes.

Both Kindergarten and Year 4 have had a very positive start to the adjustments that have been made. Thankfully the High Impact Teaching Practices programs that we have implemented will ensure a consistent approach to learning. Both classes will continue the fantastic learning that has already taken place so far this year. A huge thank you to Mrs Cuthbertson and Mrs Nielsen for making the adjustment from their original positions.

The contract situation for the new Year 4 teacher is progressing well and an announcement will be coming in the next few days.

Student Reports

Catholic Education Canberra-Goulburn (CECG) has communicated to schools regarding reporting to parents/guardians. CE has advised schools that general comments will not be required on Semester 1, 2023 reports, but to prioritise Parent/Teacher Conferences for every family. These meetings provide an opportunity to discuss your child’s progress, their strengths, challenges and future areas of focus. A Semester Report will still be sent home as in previous Semesters providing A-E grading and attendance information.

CECG has advised schools that Semester 2, 2023 reports will require a general comment for all children. This general comment will provide a summative comment for the year, areas of achievement and areas to focus on for the following year. A-E grading and attendance information will remain as normal.

We would encourage all parents/guardians to engage regularly with their child/ren’s learning, connecting with their class teacher/s regularly to discuss learning progress.

Regards,

Phil Nielsen

St Mary's community surveys opened on the 22nd of May and will close on Friday the 9th of June. We are inviting students (Year 4-6), 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.

PARENT SURVEY

We would like to invite you as parents/carers 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 War Memorial School.

The survey is anonymous and will take approximately 20 minutes to complete. You are able to access the parent survey on your computer or mobile device by using the URL below:

St Mary's School Survey Link 2023

STUDENT SURVEY

During the next three weeks, students in years 4, 5 and 6 will be given the opportunity and time to participate in this survey during regular school hours.

Students’ names cannot be linked to their responses which allows it to be completely anonymous. Results will show all student scores combined together – it is not possible to single out individual students in the results.

The survey takes approximately 15-20 minutes to complete. The survey measures include such topics as emotional and social well-being, physical health, and behaviours and attitudes linked to student success. The survey also allows students to give their thoughts and feedback in open-ended question responses.

Participation in the survey is entirely voluntary. Your child will not take part if either you or your child do not wish to.

If you do not want your child to take part in the survey, please contact the office.

If you would like more information, please contact Mr Nielsen.

This week we are still reflecting on the virtue of honour, so I thought it fitting to tie in yesterday's Gospel Reading called, The Great Commision.

Matthew 28:16-20

Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely, I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

Here we see and hear Jesus calling us all to be witnesses, to go forth and spread the Good News. This means we become Christ like and live through our actions rather than our words, this being poignant in the saying, actions speak louder than words. We are called by Christ to be missionaries, to aid those who need care and love both physically and spiritually.

Wednesday 31 May @ midday	Year 1/2 class Mass
Wednesday 7 June @ midday	Kinder, Year 5/6 class Mass
Wednesday 14 June @ midday	Year 3/4 class Mass

We are welcoming new enrolments for the 2024 school year.

Please enrol online before the 4th of August, however late enrolments are always accepted, at our website with the link below - https://smwms.nsw.edu.au/enrolment

If you require further information please call the school office.

Mrs Sarah Nielsen will join the infants department as our new Kinder Kind teacher.

Sarah brings with her many years experience teaching kindergarten children and we are very excited about the remainder of 2023. The students would be familiar with Mrs Nielsen with her work in Year 4. She is very enthusiastic and looks forward to getting to know the students.

Kindergarten parents are invited to meet Mrs Nielsen and get to know her during the open classroom component of the Book Fair celebrations.

Date and Day	Teacher on Leave or PD	Class	Relief
No staff absences this week.

Canberra Goulburn Rugby Union Trials

Canberra produced a beautiful sunny day last Monday the 15th of May for four St Mary's students who travelled to trial for the Canberra Goulburn Rugby Union team.

Freddie Bell, Chloe Morton, Jimmy Dean and Alan McCoullough all made the trek to Canberra to show their skills to the rugby union selectors.

Jimmy, who had a concussion last week, could not participate in the tackling but attended the trials for special selection consideration due to his previous efforts.

Freddie, Chloe and Alan had some great games, showed some fabulous sportsmanship and were chosen for the possibles and probables games. What a great achievement!

After the final selections were made, Jimmy Dean was selected for the Canberra Goulburn team, well done Jimmy.

Canberra Goulburn Cross Country

Another day and another wonderful experience in Canberra this time for our cross country qualifiers. On Friday the 19th of May Max Cuthbertson, James Dean and Alexandra Patton were in Canberra for the Canberra Goulburn cross country.

It was a splendid day with the sun shining and our students rose to the occassion and produced some wonderful running. All three qualified for the Canberra Goulburn team to run in Sydney on the 13th of June.

Congratulations to Lexi (4th), Max (5th) and Jimmy (6th).

Well done!

Sport Day for Year 5 and 6 will change to Thursday this week only. This is because students will be attending the Bland Shire's recognition of National Sorry Day on Friday and is it important the students can continue to train for the Mortimer Shield.

Mrs Emma McRae our counsellor will be visiting our school every Monday this term.

For a new referral please complete the School Referral Form.

For students already seeing Emma she schedules sessions as necessary. If you would like Emma to see your child on a particular day please contact the office.

St Mary's will be holding our annual Book Fair and Book Parade on Wednesday the 24th of May.

The Book Parade will begin at 9.45am, followed by open classrooms and the Book Fair. All parents and friends are invited to come to St Mary's at 9:45am and join in on our celebration of reading and books.

Our school athletics carnival for Kinder to Year 6 will be held on Tuesday the 6th of June.

Date	Tuesday the 6th of June
Venue	McAlister Oval, Park Street, West Wyalong
Time	9.10am
Transport	Students in Year 2 to Year 6 need to indicate how they will be getting to and from McAlister Oval. Staff will be present at the public school bus stop for children alighting there. Students in Kinder and Year 1 will leave the school at 11.30 and walk to the oval. Once finished they will return to school before the school bell. These students may also leave the oval with their parents once they advise their teacher.
1500m race	The 1500m race is not compulsory and students will need to nominate for this race. PLEASE CALL THE SCHOOL TO NOMINATE YOUR CHILD. his race will be run on Monday afternoon the 5th of June. All other events will be run at the carnival.
Please bring	Food and drink as required. The Community Council will be operating a canteen and ordering is open.
Clothing	Sport uniform with a house coloured T-shirt allowed
Staff Attending	All class teachers

Please complete the COMPASS event form for your children.

ATHLETICS CARNIVAL - CANTEEN VOLUTEERS

We still require volunteers to help with the Athletics Carnival on Tuesday 6 June for the following:

Make meat & salad rolls – (to be made the morning of at the oval in the canteen before 10:30)

BBQ cooking and making of Bacon & egg rolls (1hr shifts starting from 8am – 10am)

Canteen (1hr shifts starting from 9am – 2pm)

Or if none of the above suits but you still would like to help, you're more than welcome to run items down to the oval the day before and assist in the pack up after the carnival.

Please comment on the Facebook post or contact Bridget on 0404 633 688 to volunteer.

CARNIVAL MENU AND INFORMATION

There will be an option to pre order some lunch, drink & snack items through the Qrk! App as well as the option to purchase on the day with cash or Eftpos limited hot and cold food options as well as drinks and snacks. The BBQ will be going from 8am so that everyone setting up won’t go hungry!

Qrk! will open for ordering on Monday 29 May and close at midnight on Monday 5 June.

Wednesday 31st of May from 7pm to 8pm

West Wyalong S&C Club

A parent session on social media use by children, hosted by Safe on Social.

All parents of local schools are welcome to attend.

It’s important that the online safety messages continue outside of the school gates, so educating the community of parents and carers is vital. This session will provide information for parents and carers on current social media challenges and will have them leave feeling educated and empowered. There will be a lot of practical information that can be immediately apply to the home.

Canteen Roster

Monday 22 May	Friday 26 May
Bridget Lashbrook Baking: Bridget Lashbrook	Lauren McDonell & Carlie Iverach Baking: Carlie Iverach & Anna Player
Monday 29 May	Friday 2 June
Kate Dean Baking: Kate Dean	Bridget Lashbrook LUNCH SPECIAL - TBA
Monday 5 June	Friday 9 June
Kate Maslin Baking: Kate Maslin	Gina Morton 1 VOLUNTEER REQUIRED Baking: Both

St Mary's Kinder class farewelled Mrs Meincke on Friday afternoon with lots of fun and laughter.

Wagga Theatre Excursion - Year 3 to 6

On Friday the 19th of May our year 3 to 6 students attended a live performance of 'The Twits' at the Wagga Civic Theatre.

Roald Dahl’s gruesome twosome were highly entertaining and the show was full of colour and catchy music. With trickery and wickedly-funny pranks, the play showed how we can overcome our differences and achieve common goals by being kind to one another.

After enjoying the show our students enjoyed lunch and a play at the park.

A great day out for everyone!

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

The Compass Calendar is updated to show Mass times, sporting events, important events.

The SZAPP calendar is no longer updated, please do not refer to this calendar for important dates.

Day	Event	Location
Monday 22 May	School Counsellor Visit	At School
Wednesday 24 May	Book Parade and Book Fair @9.45am	At School
Thursday 25 May	The Super Science Circus Show - all students	At School
Friday 26 May	Reconciliation Week - Year 3-6 to walk to Bernardo Park for Bland Shire celebrations	Bernardo Park
Sunday 28 May	Eucharist Commitment Mass @ 9.30am	St Mary's Church
Monday 29 May	School Counsellor Visit	At School
Monday 29 May	Reconciliation Week - Kinder to Year 2 will take a bus to TAFE West Wyalong to attend a book reading & boomerang session with Taylor Hampton @10am	TAFE West Wyalong
Wednesday 31 May	Class Mass Year 1/2 @ midday	St Mary's Church
	Mortimer Shield Year 5/6 @ Young	Young NSW
	Safe on Social - Parent Information Session at 7pm	S&C Club
Thursday 1 June	Eucharist Retreat Day	At School
Sunday 4 June	First Eucharist at 9.30am	St Mary's Church
Monday 5 June	School Counsellor Visit	At School
Tuesday 6 June	School Athletics Carnival	McAllister Oval
Wednesday 7 June	Class Mass Kinder and Year 5/6	St Mary's Church
Monday 12 June	Kings Birthday Holiday
Tuesday 13 June	MacKillop Cross Country (for athletes who qualify)	Horsley Park
Wednesday 14 June	Class Mass Year 3 and 4	St Mary's Church
Friday 16 June	Western Region Athletics	Tumut
Monday 19 June	School Counsellor Visit	At School
Tuesday 20 June	PSSA NSW Rugby League (for athletes who qualify) - 3 days to Thursday 22nd June	Wagga Wagga
Wednesday 21 June	Lake Cowal Excursion for Kinder to Year 2	Lake Cowal
Sunday 25 and Monday 26 June	MacKillop Rugby (for athletes that qualify)	Forbes
Monday 26 June	School Counsellor Visit	At School
Monday 26 June	St Mary's Kinder 2024 Information Session and Tour @ 9.30am	At School
Friday 30 June	Last Day of Term 2

PARENT SURVEY

STUDENT SURVEY

Date and Day

Teacher on Leave or PD

Class

Relief

Canberra Goulburn Rugby Union Trials

Canberra Goulburn Cross Country

Please complete the COMPASS event form for your children.

ATHLETICS CARNIVAL - CANTEEN VOLUTEERS

CARNIVAL MENU AND INFORMATION

Wednesday 31st of May from 7pm to 8pm

Canteen Roster

Wagga Theatre Excursion - Year 3 to 6