St Mary's Newsletter

Sunday’s Gospel tells us how the disciples came back rejoicing from spreading Jesus’ word, for they had been able to do great things in Jesus’ name.  When we work for Christ, he gives us power and grace to do his will.

NAIDOC Week begins on Sunday, 7 July. The theme this year is Voice. Treaty. Truth. NAIDOC Week is a time for Aboriginal people to come together in different ways to connect to culture and country. NAIDOC Week is also an opportunity for non-Aboriginal Australians to grow their cultural awareness, knowledge and skills, by participating in Aboriginal community events in a respectful way. 

NAIDOC Week begins with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Sunday.  This year’s theme is “Peace to this house and all who dwell within” People are called to reflect and make time to look for inner peace in their busy lives and celebrate with families, friends and the wider community God’s message and peace for all.

For STAFF this includes but is not limited to:

Ensure acceptable behaviour within the public community that follows the Catholic ethos

Law abiding – keeping Principal informed of any changes

Social media interaction and presence

Ensure Code of Conduct is signed 

For PARENTS this includes but is not limited to:

Social media interaction and presence – do not mention St Mary’s School, teachers, other parents or students in posts

Ensure Code of Conduct is signed/sighted 

For STUDENTS this includes but is not limited to:

Social media interaction and presence – do not mention St Mary’s School, teachers, other parents or students in posts

Ensure acceptable behaviour within the public community that follows the Catholic ethos (when in uniform) 

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

Social media interaction and presence – do not mention St Mary’s School, teachers, other parents or students in posts

Congratulations to the Year Three to Six students who participated in the Winter Carnival against Merredin College on Wednesday.  Thank you to Mrs Criddle for helping to coordinate the carnival and to all the parents and teachers who helped with coaching and umpiring.  The students showed great sportsmanship and participated with enthusiasm.  The beautiful weather was an added bonus! 

Thank you to Year Three and Miss Walsh for presenting the story of “Il Pappagallo” at today’s assembly, in Italian.  This was a great way to show case to the school what the children are learning as part of their Italian program.  The pronunciation of the children was most impressive and made me think I was in Italy!

Mrs Riethmuller:  Mrs Riethmuller will be returning to St Mary’s at the beginning of Term Three (earlier than expected) as the principal at St Joseph’s had a fall prior to going on her leave and consequently has been on sick leave during this time – she will be returning to St Joseph’s for the start of Term Three.

Year One and Year Two:  The process for employing a Year One and Year Two teacher for Semester Two is complete.  We welcome to St Mary’s School Ms Natalia Dotsyak (Year One) and Miss Grace Sossiev (Year Two) who will begin at the start of Term Three.  Both teachers visited St Mary's this week to do handover and meet the staff and children.  I am sure that they will be made to feel very welcome at St Mary's School.

We farewell Mrs Craine and wish her and her family all the very best as they move to Perth.  If you were at assembly this morning you would have heard all the wonderful accolades heaped on her – Mrs Craine will be sorely missed by everyone but goes onto the next chapter of her life with all our blessings!

A reminder that Term Three begins on Tuesday, 23 July for all students (Kindy to Year Six).  Monday is a Pupil Free Day and staff will be engaged in Protective Behaviours PD with Andrea Musulin.

It is hard to believe another term is over!  I am always grateful for leading such a beautiful community as St Mary’s School but even more so at the end of this very busy term.  I would like to thank Mrs Grant, Millington and Mrs Criddle who took on extra roles and responsibilities this term and to all the staff who accommodated those changes in their days!  To Mrs Jenny Maloney who has come in three days a week to listen to reading and do spelling in Year One your commitment to this was much appreciated by the children and Mrs Millington – thank you!  To all the staff, thanks again for another great term – your passion for the students in our school and hard work and commitment never seeks to amaze me.  To all the parents thank you for all you do for our school and for your support of it.  Finally, to the students, the reason we are all here – thank you for being the wonderful little people you all are!  

I wish all families a very happy holidays – keep warm, keep safe and enjoy the your time together as a family.  I look forward to seeing you all in Term Three.

God Bless 

Ms Adriana Coniglio

Principal

Mrs Hannah Herbert 

Religious Education Coordinator 

Please see below the Tuckshop Menu and Roster for Term Three.  Thank you for all parents/care givers that have volunteered to help in our Canteen.

Please note that the first Tuckshop for Term Three with be Friday 26th July (Week One).

Please place orders to your child's classroom teacher on Wednesday 24th July. 

Term Two has been an exciting term for Year Six in Religion. We have learnt about the special Gifts and Fruits of the Holy Spirit and researched saints in preparation for the Sacrament of Confirmation. We all enjoyed our Confirmation retreat and congratulate Mia Barnett, Laura Casella, Ellie Criddle, Makayla Geier, Baillie Dean, Vincent McCormack, Olumide Onikola, Casey Alvaro and Jacob Barnett on their special day. We are now learning all about making choices and gathering relevant information in order to make a good decision. Coming to understand important choices are greater than just ourselves and that seeking guidance in knowing right from wrong is important.

This term in Year Two, we have been investigating the format used in Fairytales and Fractured Fairytales.  We can identify the problem and solutions and we have also been working on ensuring our orientation grabs the readers attention.   

In Mathematics, we have been working on the connection between multiple addition of the same number to multiplication.  We know how to skip count in twos, fives and tens and have started working with arrays. We also have been learning about fractions and have moved on from halves into thirds and quarters.  Finally, we have been also looking at the transformation of shapes and learning to identify flipped and rotated shapes and also how to slide a shape.  We have discussed the meaning of symmetrical and not only created our own symmetrical bugs for Art but we have also created a poster explaining this using Microsoft Word.

We have been very busy this term, looking at how we can code, using robotic devices and using our problem-solving skills and working in a group to answer questions posed.

Pre Primary – have started to look at symbols and codes and how we can program a Bee Bot to move. 

Year One – are beginning to use a variety of symbols to represent a range of sequences using a number of apps. 

Year Two – have been busily working on how to create different scenes and code characters and objects to move. 

Year Three – are becoming familiar with following instructions to code the Lego We DO 2.

They have been able construct a number of different robots and are able to do it very quickly!  

Year Four – have been working on driving and coding the Sphero’s to follow a pathway.

Year Five – are becoming very adept at coding and problem solving to create a code for their Sphero’s to follow.

Year Six – have been busy designing, constructing and will be presenting to the Collgar Windfarm as to how we can make Merredin more sustainable and inviting for families.

Deanne Poole visited our school on Thursday.  She will be spent her time visiting classrooms to show them the Makey Makey and Micro Bits devices. 

On Friday, 14 June we took our squad of eighteen runners to Bruce Rock for the annual Combined School Cross Country Carnival. The students ran beautifully and behaved impeccably. Congratulations to everyone for trying their hardest and to Mrs McDonald, Mrs Cooper and Miss Coniglio for accompanying the students on the day. 

We had two place getters for the day;

Charlie Atkinson 2nd place BOYS 10YRS & Under 1.5km

Jacob Barnett 3rd place BOYS 11 YRS & Under 2km

Well done everyone. 

Congratulations to the following students who have passed their music exams;

PIANO PREP TEST -  Arabella Sutherland, Abigail Smith and Joshua Ruiz.

GUITAR PREP TEST - Joshua Smith.

PIANO GRADE ONE - Abigail Smith

Sam Macdonald