St Mary's Newsletter

In Sunday’s Gospel, Jesus uses the symbol of water to explain how important he was; when we drink ordinary water, soon we are thirsty again.  But Jesus gives us more than ordinary water; he refreshes us spiritually, offering us eternal life.

Children’s Liturgy will take place at the 10.30am Mass on Sunday.  Mrs Jefferys and Miss Kinsella will be leading this.  All families are welcome to attend.

On Tuesday, the Catholic Church celebrates the life of St Patrick.  St Patrick introduced Christianity in Ireland. His feast day is celebrated on the anniversary of his death in 17AD.

On Thursday, we celebrate the Feast Day of St Joseph who was the father of Jesus on earth.  St Joseph is important to our school community as not only was our school founded by the Sisters of St Joseph of the Sacred Heart but it was also called St Joseph’s originally.  The Year 4/5 class will lead us with Mass in the Church at 9.00am.  All are welcome to attend.

On Wednesday, 18th March we will be holding a whole school fundraiser for Project Compassion.  For a gold coin donation the children can wear their sports colours (football, netball, soccer, rugby, etc) to school.

Parent Teacher Interviews begin on Monday and will take place over the next three weeks.  This is an important opportunity for families to meet with their child’s class teacher to discuss how they have settled into their new class and also to set learning goals for them.  Mrs Riethmuller will send home information about booking interview times.

Our next P & F meeting will be held in the Library at 7.30pm on Monday evening.  We had a great turn out for our first meeting, hopefully we can match and/or better it!  All are welcome to come along.

Harmony Week takes place from 15 to 21 March.  Harmony Week is an Australian Government initiative held each year, promoting the benefits of cultural diversity in Australia. The message of Harmony celebrations is ‘Everyone Belongs’.  Each class will be completing an activity for Harmony Week.

God Bless and have a lovely weekend with your families,

Ms Adriana Coniglio

Principal

Mrs Pauline Riethmuller

Assistant Principal

In Year Three we have been learning about the Church community and the different ways we can participate in the church community. We are very lucky to be part of the St Mary’s Parish and have brainstormed all the ways that we can contribute and help in our church.   

Chloe: I think the church community is good because it helps us to learn about God and we are part of God’s family.

Xavier: I like being in the church community. It is kind because no one does silly things. It helps people to be healthy and make sure they are not lonely.

Jack: I like being in the church community because I can help with the collection and the offertory. It feels nice to be a part of the church community.

This term in Year One, we have been working hard on our Literacy skills. We have been playing lots of Literacy games to help develop our spelling, reading and writing skills. We have been listening carefully to the sounds in words so we can write and spell them correctly. 

In Mathematics, we have been learning about Place Value and Counting. We have also been looking at 2D and 3D shapes and how to read calendars.

It has been a busy start to Year One and we are so excited for what the rest of the term will bring.

Mrs O'Malley and Mrs Grant

It has been so exciting having Music in our new classroom for the start of 2020 and having all our instruments out on display has been excellent for our learning!

This semester we are focusing on our Music Ideas and Skills. This basically means we are learning about the different components of Music such as rhythm, form, dynamics, tempo etc. As well as this we learn about instruments, Instruments families and how to be a good audience member.

Our annual visit from Musica Viva will go ahead in Term Three and we will welcome ‘Timmy and the Breakfast Band’. Leading up to this we have been learning about instruments and how music can impact our emotions.

What else have we been leaning about in the past five weeks?

It has been wonderful getting to know all our Pre-Primarys. We have had such a wonderful time learning some new songs and dances. They have impressed me so much with how quickly they have picked them up. I’m sure all the parents have heard a few of the tunes at home!

We have started to learn some rhythm patterns such as TI-TI-TA and TA-TA-TI-TI-TA. The songs we have been learning have linked in with these patterns- we even had a look at a famous TI-TI-TA song- "We Will Rock You" by Queen!

Year Two

We have been revisiting the rhythm patterns and have been learning to read and play short rhythms. We even chosen our own rhythm patterns to create our own songs and performed them for the class using untuned percussion instruments.

Year Three

So far we have revisited our rhythm patterns and are currently learning about grouping our rhythms into groups of four. We have done this through a few dances and songs.

Year Four and Five

We have taken a trip to Jamaica this term- learning all about Reggae! As well as classic reggae artists, we have looked at some newer reggae styles and discussed its origins. We have learned some reggae style rhythms, instruments and even had a go at writing our own verses and performing them to the class!

Year Five and Six

We have looked at Latin styles of music this term and what rhythms and instruments encapsulates that style. We’ve had a look and listened to Latin artists of the past and some new Latin songs too. We are currently attempting to write and perform our own verse of a Latin style song.

Pre-Primary:    Logan Sharp

Year One:    Layla Jacobson

Year Two:    Michayla Maiolo

Year Three:     Xavier Amm

Year Four/Five:    Isabella Stones

Year Five/Six:    Casey Alvaro

Pre-Primary:    Layla Gregory

Year One:       Emmett Bennett

Year Two:    Caitlin Carlson

Year Three:    Chloe Bartlett

Year Four/Five:    Brock Barnett

Year Five/Six:    Darci Jefferys

On Thursday 5th March, we held out annual Faction Swimming Carnival at the Merredin Pool.

The weather was amazing and the students were pumped. This year we added the Kindy to Year Two students at the beginning of the carnival where they participated in a Water Play Day. Everyone had a great time and we had lots of parents come to watch.

At ten o’clock we began the Faction Carnival and the students worked hard to compete in their races.

Results are as follows: 

Year 3 Champion Boy: Mitchell O’Neill

Year 3 Runner Up Champion Boy: Koby Sayers

Year 3 Champion Girl: Camee Roberts

Year 3 Runner Up Champion Girl: Chloe Bartlett & Marissa Oakley

Year 4 Champion Boy: Brock Barnett

Year 4 Runner Up Champion Boy: Charlie Growden

Year 4 Champion Girl: Skye Wilson

Year 4 Runner Up Champion Girl: Isabella Stones 

Year 5 Champion Boy: Tyler Geier

Year 5 Runner Up Champion Boy: Lachlan Cooper 

Year 5 Champion Girl: Abigail Smith 

Year 5 Runner Up Champion Girl: Lilly Townrow 

Year 6 Champion Boy:  Jacob Barnett

Year 6 Runner Up Champion Boy: Reef Salkeld

Year 6 Champion Girl: Shelby Roberts

Year 6 Runner Up Champion Girl: Lily Brooker

St Mary's school is extremely blessed to have Sam Macdonald who comes in to provide Flute, Guitar and Piano lessons to the students. Sam is here on a Tuesday and Wednesday. If you would like your child to learn any of these instruments please contact Sam on 0401 259 181 or macdonsp@yahoo.com.au.

Colour blindness means that a person cannot distinguish some colours or see the colours differently to other people. Very few people who are colour blind are ‘blind’ to all colours. Commonly, the colours seen differently are greens, yellows, oranges and reds.

An information leaflet on colour blindness will be distributed to all year Pre-primary students in term one. Please take the time to read the pamphlet.

For more information and see the Colour Blind Awareness and Support Group on http://www.members.optusnet.com.au/~doverton/ If you have any concerns, colour vision testing can be performed by some general practitioners, eye specialists or optometrists. You can also contact your local Community Health Nurse, Dianne Rogers, on 0417 657 978.