St Mary's Newsletter

In Sunday’s Gospel, Jesus says:  My sheep listen to my voice.  I know them and they follow me.  I give them life forever and they will never be lost.”  The image of God as shepherd was a powerful one for the Jewish people.  The shepherd in Jesus’ time knew each sheep and when the sheep needed to be moved, he would lead them from in front and they would follow.  The shepherd would even sleep with them to protect them during the night.

It was lovely to have so many mums, grandmothers and other significant ladies in the St Mary's community joining us for Mass and Morning Tea this morning.  This was our way of wishing you all a very Happy Mothers Day for Sunday!  We hope that you all have a lovely day with your families and loved ones and get spoilt as you deserve!

Congratulations go to Casey Alvaro, Jacob Barnett, Baillie Dean and Laura Casella who have completed their altar serving training.  They were all presented with a certificate at Monday’s assembly.

NAPLAN will take place next week for all students in Years Three and Five. This year, for the first time, NAPLAN testing will be conducted online for all tests except the Year Three Writing task. Whilst the NAPLAN supplies us with important data it is one test on one day of your child’s year at school. It needs to be viewed in this context and not become a source of stress or anxiety for students. Teachers work to keep the week as normal as possible. 

NAPLAN tests will take place on the following days:

Tuesday, 14 May:  Writing and Reading

Wednesday, 15 May:  Language Conventions

Thursday, 16 May:  Numeracy

Friday, 17 May:  Catch-Up (if required)

The following link: http://nap.edu.au/online-assessment/FAQs provides answers to any  questions you may have about NAPLAN Online. 

The Year Three class are participating in the Sci-tech school weather watch program this term. The students will be required to record the minimum and maximum temperature each Tuesday, as well as the total rainfall for the last 24 hours. They then submit the results that are read out of GWN News on a Tuesday night. Please tune in to see the St Mary’s School weather report.  Some weeks you might even be lucky enough to see photos of our students on the news as well!!

I have begun interviews for Kindy and Pre-Kindy in 2020.  We have a small number of vacancies for our Pre-Kindy Program on Mondays.  If you have a child who has turned three or will be turning three throughout the year and would like them to attend St Mary’s Pre-Kindy please contact the office for further information.  If you have friends or family who are wanting to enrol their child into the Pre-Kindy program or Kindy at St Mary’s please advise them to contact the office – the best advertising for our school is word of mouth.

The return of the St Mary’s School canteen has certainly been met positively by everyone.  Mrs Demarte is doing a great job ensuring our children are well-fed!  To ensure the smooth running of the canteen, we are using a ticket system for drinks and ice-creams.  In their lunch order bags, the children (Year One to Year Six) will have tickets that correspond to the drink/icecream they have ordered.  These are to be taken to the canteen so that drinks/icecreams can be redeemed.  Please remind your children to check their lunch bag for tickets before throwing them in the bin.   Mrs Demarte has asked me to remind you that all lunch orders are due in by Friday afternoons for the following Monday.  Lunch orders are made daily using fresh ingredients.  To ensure that there is no wastage it helps if Mrs Demarte knows how much of everything is required, in advance.  So that all the children receive the lunch order they would like - please ensure that lunch orders are sent to school by Friday.  If your child puts in a late lunch order (on Monday morning) – they will receive food but it may not be what they ordered.

The St Mary’s school uniform allows our students to clearly show that they belong to this wonderful community.  It is important that students wear the correct uniform at all times.  Please see below for winter uniform requirements.  The uniform shop is open Tuesday's 8.30 am - 9.10 am and 2.50 pm - 3.15 pm should you need to purchase any items of clothes for winter.  The correct requirements for winter uniform are below.

The Lost Property tub near the Library is getting rather full.  Please ask your children to check it for any lost property or alternatively, you might like to have a look when you are next at school.  Please label all uniform items clearly so that in the event that they are lost or misplaced they can be returned.

Conduct Statement Six: You treat personal information about members of the school community as private an confidential.  

  For STAFF this includes but is not limited to: 

  Having signed parent permission to speak to health professionals  

  Having locked cabinets in classrooms and in the Principals office with confidential 

  information  

  Recording parent conversations in SEQTA  

  Following the privacy policy  

For PARENTS this includes but is not limited to: 

  Parent helpers not sharing information about what they see/hear in the classroom and/or   

  while at school. 

  Being informed about significant decisions about their child  

For STUDENTS this includes but is not limited to: 

  Not sharing passwords/login details with other students 

For VISITORS/VOLUNTEERS this includes but is not limited to: 

  Helpers not sharing information about what they see/hear in the classroom and/or while

  at school. 

God Bless and have a lovely weekend with your families.

Ms Adriana Coniglio

Principal

Mrs Hannah Herbert 

Religious Education Coordinator 

Please see below the Tuckshop Menu and Roster for Term Two.  As you can see, we are still in need of addition  volunteers to fill our roster.  If you are able to help please drop in and see Damiana next term or contact the office

Kate Growden from Year One has done a fantastic job on writing her own morning and evening prayer.

Now that it’s Term Two, we have well and truly settled into life as Year Six students and all that is required of us. We are trying hard to keep up with our all responsibilities and jobs and expanding our minds at the same time. Camp was a great experience at the end of last term and is one that we won’t forget. We have started to prepare for our Confirmation during Religion and we’re looking forward to our retreat and the Sacrament of Confirmation in June. This term we are learning about the dangers of medicines, smoking, alcohol and caffeine which can all affect the body through the central nervous system. Fascinating stuff! Next week we are looking forward to the Skills for Life incursion where we are shown how to save a life using first aid – so have no fear, one of us will save you! (If you trust us...)  

PP:                            Layla Jacobson                  

Year One:                Caitlin Carlson          

Year Two:                Camee Roberts               

Year Three:             Elsie Swarts 

Year Four:               Amelia Hanson

Year Five:                Lani Dickinson

Year Six:                  Makayla Geier

Bookclub brochures went home this week.  Orders are need to be placed online by today -Friday - 10th May.  Don’t forget that every order earns 20% back in rewards for our school!