These will be held in the school library on:

• Monday 12 November at 7pm
• Thursday 15 November at 12.30pm

God of love and liberty, we bring our thanks this day for the peace and security we enjoy, which was won for us through the courage and devotion of those who gave their lives in time of war.

We pray that their labour and sacrifice may not be in vain, but that their spirit may live on in us and in generations to come.

That the liberty, truth and justice which they sought to preserve may be seen and known in all the nations upon earth.

This we pray in the name of the one who gave his life for the sake of the world, Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen

This year Remembrance Day falls on Sunday the 11th November.

Any students who wish to take part in the ceremony on Sunday are asked to meet at the Cenotaph prior to 11am.  It would be appreciated if the students could wear their school uniform however their attendance is what we are valuing.

A wreath will be laid on behalf of our school community.

Due Monday - Lessons are free.

The children have not received a paper permission form so if you are having trouble using this link please contact the school office.  You will need to do an electronic form for each of your children.

Swimming Excursion Permission Note

The program will run over seven days, from Thursday 15 November to Friday 23 November.  The program will offer the following skill levels:

WATER LEARNER	Water Learner encourages children to become independent in the water. We introduce the fundamentals of water safety and continue to develop water confidence. The core focus is to get the child to stay afloat and start achieving short distances of propulsion.
WATER BASIC	This level introduces swimming skills. At this level, children will learn kicking, breathing, streamline, body position and arm rotation, the core swimming skills needed to ensure your child has the correct techniques for their on-going development.
WATER SKILLS	Children are now displaying correct freestyle techniques. We start to advance the distances of swimming to 15 metres. Backstroke is also introduced along with more advanced skills and drills to refine the child’s stroke and to continue water confidence.
JUNIOR MINI	Junior Mini is re-enforcing the core swimming skills over a longer distances of 25m. Butterfly, breastroke and diving are now incorporated. Junior Mini is the first level of our squad training and fun and fitness are other key elements that are promoted.
MINI SQUAD	Mini Squad focuses on fine tuning all four strokes along with further development of dives, introduction of turns, starts and finishes. It will help children transition to and understand competitive swimming. There is also a concentration on developing fitness and fun.

The students will be placed in groups depending on their level of ability as advised by parents, and in consultation with Angus.  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.

   

SWIMMING ARRANGEMENTS—WEEKS 5 and 6

Thursday 15 November to Friday 23 November

Students will leave the school in the morning to walk to the pool.  Fruit break and recess will be coordinated to ensure all students have their break.

Students from Years K, 1 and 2 must have their recess with them each day as it eaten at the pool.

PLEASE ENSURE YOUR CHILD HAS THE FOLLOWING ITEMS:

Sunscreen, swimmers, swim shirt if they require one, towel, plastic bag to put wet belongings in, drink bottle, goggles( if they require them).

These items should be brought to school every day, regardless of the weather. If wet weather does occur, a decision on whether swimming goes ahead will be made on a daily basis.

OTHER IMPORTANT INFORMATION:

• SWIMMERS—Please do NOT send your child to school in their swimmers. For health and comfort reasons these should be packed and the students will get changed at the swimming pool.
• SUNSCREEN– Students are encouraged to apply sunscreen before coming to school and to bring it to school with them.  There will be sunscreen available at the pool for those who forget to bring their own.

Mrs Emma McRae our counsellor will be visiting our school next week on Tuesday 13th October.

 If you would like to make a confidential appointment for your child please contact the office.

Happy Birthday to

Alan McCoullough, Tommy Anderson and Tyler Wilson

who celebrate their birthdays next week.

We hope you enjoy your special day.

2018 has been another big year in chess for St Mary’s and the annual St Mary’s Chess Competition was hotly contested, with 26 students from Year 1 to Year 6 entering the event.

I have said on numerous occasions that one's ability in chess is not always dictated by age, and 2018 was a great example of this.  The competition saw two Year 2 students, three Year 3 students, one Year 4 student and two Year 6 students progress to the quarter-finals, with two of the students being unseeded competitors in the tournament.

The semi-final games saw Ned Brown matched up against Alex Murdoch and Ted Curry matched up against Charlie Murdoch.  With the possibility of a showdown between brother's in the final, the tension of the competition rose to new levels.  Both pairings were extremely close contests with each match being replayed due to a stalemate outcome.  Ironically, the player who had the advantage in the first match was outplayed by their opponent in the second match. It was Charlie that found his feet in the second match to win by "Queen with protection" in the first final. Unfortunately the fairy tale final match between the brothers was not to transpire with Ned settling his nerves in the second match of the second final to win by "electric fences".

With 24 competitors in the audience, the tournament was down to the final two, Ned from Year 4 and Charlie from Year 3.  The game progressed steadily with both players making cautious and calculated moves.  The crowd, watching by video link in the library, were waiting with great anticipation and it was Ned that was to make the first mistake.  The crowd saw Ned’s situation, however Charlie had missed his chance, moving his knight rather than his queen.  Ned was quick to pounce and take full advantage of his opponent's missed opportunity.  He took Charlie's queen and then proceeded to make positive moves, a highlight being a king and rook forking move.

Ned eventually positioned himself for another "electric fences" finishing move and was crowned St Mary’s Chess Champion of 2018.  Charlie’s runner up effort was a great result and both boys will be in the position to duplicate their performance in years to come.

Last Wednesday, 29 slightly excited but mostly tired students and 4 brave adults took to the road for the beginning of the Year 5/6 biannual Canberra excursion.  After a shaky start with the bus we arrived safely at our first destination, Parliament House.  Students were given a tour and were particularly captivated by the impressive lego model of the grounds.  The tour was topped off with a parliamentary role-play with Prime Minister, Sonny, and leader of the opposition, Emily, leading their respective parties over the proposal of a new law.

Next the group made their way to Questacon, where students were able to experience many weird and interesting scientific activities and challenges with a highlight definitely being the free fall.  After checking into their cabins and setting a world record for fast eating, the tour had one final destination that evening.  We arrived at Black Mountain Tower to see the amazing view of Canberra and watch as the sun set over the horizon.

Day two began with a delicious cooked breakfast and a visit to Cockington Green Gardens where students enjoyed a train ride around the sites before exploring the gardens up close.  After a quick break for morning tea students were once again on the bus, this time headed to the Australian War Memorial Museum.  This part of the tour was certainly a highlight for many, especially experiencing the light and sound shows and visiting the Hall of Memory where the Unknown Australian Soldier is interred.  Students were also entertained by the Discovery Zone, where they could dress up and explore many of the military resources used in war times.

The next stop was the Australian Institute of Sport. The group was given a guided tour by a paralympian beginning with a session in the sport zone where students (and Mr Nielsen) could throw, shoot, row, ride, climb, kick and sled to their hearts content. Students were then taken around the facilities and were lucky enough to see some gymnasts practicing their floor routines and were astounded at the height of the Australian volleyball team.  After once again devouring dinner in record time, students had some leisure time where they could enjoy the facilities of the Alivio Tourist Park before their final trip for the day, the National Dinosaur Museum.  The museum was filled with amazing artefacts from millions of years ago as well as eerily lifelike displays.

Day three began with another delicious breakfast before packing up rooms and heading to St Christopher’s Cathedral in Manuka.  The group was lucky enough to have Paddy McGrath, the head of Religious Education in our Archdiocese, to give the tour.  The beauty of the Cathedral was a sight to see and hearing about the history of the Archdiocese was also awe-inspiring.  The group then headed across the path to the new CE office buildings.  The tour began with a blessing from Archbishop Prowse (from his 3^rd floor office balcony) and continued into the CEO offices.  Phil Pettit, our Archdiocesan data guru took over as tour guide and showed the group the numerous places where our teachers go for further training and learning.

The final stop of the excursion was Old Parliament House and a one and a half hour session from the Australian Electoral Commission.  The hologram video display was a sight to see and our students may have even learnt a few things from the experience.  The tour finished with a voting process that replicates our parliamentary voting elections.  After three days of action packed activities it was time for the group to board the bus and head home.

The excursion was a huge success with all the students being extremely well behaved and respectful at each tour location.  A huge thank you to Russell Edwards who came along as our parent representative and helped Mr Nielsen on the boys side of the accommodation and tour groups.

It appears the popularity of basketball is still strong in our school, with St Mary’s entering 7 teams in the 2018 CPS Basketball Challenge.

In the junior division (yrs 3 & 4) the school entered 1 girls team and 3 boys teams.  In the senior division (yrs 5 & 6) 1 girls team and 2 boys teams were entered.

In preparation for the event 6 weeks were dedicated to training and with monetary assistance from the P&F, we were able to train in the newly refurbished West Wyalong Stadium.

When October 26 finally rolled around the St Mary’s teams were well rehearsed, outfitted and ready for the competition to begin.  Each team played three games on the Saturday and the results from these games would seed the teams for Sunday’s knockout component of the competition.

Both St Mary’s Senior boys teams won 2 of their three games, the Senior girls battled hard but didn’t quite record a win as did the Junior boys Blue and Gold teams.  The Junior Boys Red performed extremely well winning all three games and the Junior girls team recorded 2 wins for the day.  The teams were placed in the following divisions:

• Senior Boys Green – Division 3
• Senior Boys Black – Division 4
• Senior Girls Pink – Division 5
• Junior Boys Blue – Division 5
• Junior Boys Gold – Division 5
• Junior Boys Red – Division 1
• Junior Girls Purple – Division 2

During Saturday night’s coaches, managers and parents debrief, all were reasonably happy with their teams seeding and buoyant with Sunday’s prospects.  Sunday’s first round saw closely contested encounters, but unfortunately most of our St Mary’s teams came close but couldn’t quite record the win.

The two teams that did get through the first round were our Junior Boys Red and Junior Girls Purple.  The Girls played flawless basketball in the opening game winning comfortably.  The second game was a different story.  Locked 9-9 at half time, the girls strengthened their defence and put enough points on the board to record the win.  Although the final wasn’t their biggest winning margin, it was certainly their most impressive performance of the tournament not allowing the opposition a single basket in the game.  A huge congratulations goes to our Junior Girls team who were crowned division 2 champions.

St Mary’s Junior Boy’s Red also had a very comfortable win in their first game on Sunday.  The win set up a much-anticipated encounter with the competition heavy weights Albury in the semi-finals.  The game was an epic battle with both teams scoring frequent baskets while also playing staunch defence.  Albury had a small advantage at the break, however our Junior Boys came out with intent in the second half after an inspiring half time speech by Coach Kelly.  The boys quickly got the game back on equal terms and from there the teams traded blows right to the final siren.  It was Albury who happened to have a 2 point lead when the bell sounded which meant our boys finished 3^rd overall in the Junior Boys section of the competition.  This is an outstanding result considering there were 38 teams entered in the competition.  Well done boys and Coach Kelly.

A huge thank you must go to out coaches and managers who donated their time to train and prepare our teams for the event.  A special thank you to Pete Kelly who generously took on the role as coach of the Junior Boys Red side.

Our Year 4 students with Father Emil attended Mass with the Waratah Village residents on Thursday.

Play Cast List for Year 4 - 6

Please click on the link below to see the cast list, parts and costume requirements.

Cast List and Costume Guide Years 4-6

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

If you are interested in serving on the school board or you wish to nominate someone please indicate your willingness by completing the online form in the link below.

School Board Nomination Form

  Closing date is 22 November

Canteen Roster