Term 3 Week 6 2023
Giinagay Families,
Welcome to another wonderful newsletter keeping you up to date with our learning, wellbeing, sporting and cultural events at St Mary's.
Learning
The staff and students have been busy unpacking their Learning Intentions and co-constructing Success Criteria in writing. Please help us by asking your children 'What are you learning about in writing?". Students also have individual writing goals that they should be able to share with you about what they are working on next.
Parent Forum
I would really like for parents to be able to share with me some ideas to revamp our parent forum. We were meeting once a term at 5pm, and I know that this worked for some and not for others. Please email or call with any ideas you may have to create a time and space that works for you. Parent input is so vital in our small school community.
We now have a beautiful yarning space completed for our families and parents to gather. We will be asking our community to put the final finishes on this space. A big thank you to Dan Argent and his little helper Freddie for creating this beautiful space for our school.
Date Changes
Due to a really busy few weeks at St Mary's, we made the decision to move Bookweek back for 2023. This will be celebrated on the 21st of September, in the last week of school. So start getting those costumes ready!
We have also pushed back our Car wash to the 31st of August - more information to come!
Gratitude
St Mary's is very grateful for some surprise donations of late. A big thank you to our surprise donor of a brand new BBQ, as well as a class set of laptops that are being used by our 2/3 students. We are very grateful!
Looking forward to catching up with all of our beautiful families soon at the many upcoming events at St Mary's.
Nadine
| DATE | DAY | EVENT |
| 29/08/2023 | Tuesday | School Photo's |
| 31/08/2023 | Thursday | Father's Day Breakfast 8am - 9am |
| 31/08/2023 | Thursday | St Mary's Car Wash: Fundraiser for 5/6 camp |
| 31/08/2023 | Thursday | Year 7 Transition Bowraville Central School @9am: Whole Day of activities |
| 01/09/2023 | Friday | NO STUDENTS AT SCHOOL THIS DAY: Whole school Staff Professional Development Day |
| 04/09/2023 | Monday | Dental Forms due |
| 06/09/2023 | Wednesday | CHESS day @Toormina Public School: Stage 2 & 3 |
| 07/09/2023 | Thursday | Indigenous Literacy Day |
| 08/09/2023 | Friday | St Mary's Cake Stall: Fundraiser for 5/6 camp |
| 12/09/2023 | Tuesday | Confirmation Retreat |
| 13/09/2023 | Wednesday | Touch Competition @Macksville: Years 3/4 & 5/6 |
| 14/09/2023 | Thursday | Cultural Camp @Valla: Years 3/4/5 & 6 |
| 14/09/2023 | Thursday | Kinder Transition: 1st Session |
| 17/09/2023 | Sunday | Holy Communion |
| 20/09/2023 | Wednesday | Greg Inglis NRL 7's Competition @Coffs Harbour: Stage 2 & 3 |
| 21/09/2023 | Thursday | Book Week Celebrations |
| 21/09/2023 | Thursday | Kinder Transition: 2nd Session |
| 22/09/2023 | Friday | LAST DAY OF SCHOOL TERM 3 |
| 22/09/2023 | Friday | St Mary's Raffle: Fundraiser for 5/6 camp |
On Wednesday 16th August students dressed in Green & Gold or in their favourite soccer attire in support for the Australian Matilda's soccer team who were playing England for a spot in the semi final that night.
Students completed some colourful sand art. Lance, Mia, Djanaambi & Violet showing us some creations their class have made.
Our K-3 Students use an interactive reading program called Reading Eggs. The program is designed by teachers which includes reading games and actvities to support and increase students reading skills. The reading programs within the Reading Eggs App are different for each age group.
Learning club students Jayden, Mason and Kobi are in the process of making a scarecrow for our School Farm. Students will also be entering the Scarecrow in a Bunnings Scarecrow competition. We wish our students luck!
It's been a busy week in the Stage 2 classroom where students have had reading group tasks, puzzle time, Drum it up program, collaborative writing tasks, problem solving as a class and building maths puzzles.
In the Stage 3 classroom students have been learning about persuasive writing. There has been discussion within the school about active play in the mornings and 5/6 students were asked to use persuasive language to create and write about their position on active play. Students were shown examples and then created their own writing pieces by writing it by hand first then typing into a google document.
K/1: William Lindsay, Djanaambi Chapman & Norah Duncan
2/3: Bradley Walker, William Taylor & Sofia Brunno
Learning Club: Mason Jarrett
4: Adrian Jarrett, Alexis Jarrett & Ariana Jarrett
5/6: Shyliqua Chapman & Archie Duncan
Harry, Jesse and Virginia organised a fun filled afternoon of activities for our Early Stage 1 and Stage 1 Students.
Tennis Club happens every Friday afternoon for some of our students. Tennis is a great sport for teaching co-operative play as well as increasing hand-eye co-ordination along with getting students to use their strategic thinking.
Fire safety education for children is the first line of defence against misuse of fire and fire fatalities and injuries. Prevention through education is the single most modifiable strategy that fire services can implement to reduce the risk of fire to children.
FRNSW offers fire safety education programs to:
- improve children’s fire safety knowledge and skills
- facilitate the transfer of knowledge and skill into children’s families, households, and communities
- reduce the risk children will play with fire or be harmed by fire, and
- enhance children’s recognition of, and trust in, firefighters.
When you walk in the front gate you will notice some changes to the facade. The staircase has some colourful indigenous artworks by Aunty Brenda which then leads to the school cross positioned on the cola wall. The school cross has been painted by Denise Buchanan (Aunty Yarna). The beautiful design includes the brolga - Gawnggan from the dreamtime story in the centre. Gawnggan is surrounded by significant details of the dreamtime story, which includes the evening star, sun, water holes, red ochre and the sea totem.
After designing the chicken coop students were happy to see their design transform into an actual chicken coop! Dan Argent and his helper Freddie built the chicken coop and delivered it to school.
