Term 4 Week 3 2023

Giinagay Families,

    Welcome to Term 4. We have such a fabulous term ahead here at St Mary's with many sporting, educational and faith opportunities.

  As it is World Teacher's Day today, I would like to acknowledge all of our amazing St Mary's staff and the incredible work that they do each and every day. From the moment our children arrive at St Mary's, our staff are so dedicated to each and every need of the children here. 

  I would like to inform our parent community that Mr Troy Pascoe will be taking long service leave next week until Week 7. We wish him and his family a wonderful holiday. During his absence Mrs Rachel Gadsby & Mrs Sam Kennedy will be taking the 2/3 class. 

 This week we had the privilege of welcoming The Diocese of Lismore Board to our school. The feedback I have received since this day has been nothing but positive, with many comments around how much our school has improved and continued to thrive. It is wonderful for the Board to see how much our amazing little school can achieve. 

Many Catholic schools in the Diocese of Lismore are currently impacted by smoke haze due to bushfire events. Bushfires can result in a large amount of smoke particles in the air even when fires may be many kilometres away. Please monitor your child for any potential health implications.
Signs and symptoms students may experience include runny nose, itchy or burning eyes, headaches, coughing, throat irritation, and shortness of breath. For families of students with Asthma, respiratory illness or heart conditions, please be reminded to consider your child's current health condition, ensure they carry relieving medication with them.

Please contact the school if you have any concerns about your child being at school.
Communicating with your child during this time is important. Discussing being prepared for natural hazards, such as bushfires, is not harmful to your child, but avoiding conversations can leave them to worry on their own.
Emerging Minds provides the following tips:
● Your child may have already been exposed to media coverage or heard conversations about the bushfires. Finding out what they already know will help you to address their specific worries and concerns.
● Tell your child that disasters can happen and if all members of the family know what to do, it will help everyone keep safe. It’s important for adults to stay calm and speak with confidence when discussing the family emergency plan. This will help to reduce your child’s worries.
● Allow your child to ask any questions or make any comments they may have about disaster preparedness. This will help you to understand what needs clarification and dispel any misconceptions they may have.
● Assure your child that with preparedness, things will be less scary and a lot safer.
Involving your child in the planning can make your child feel more able to deal with a bushfire threat and feel safe and secure in knowing that you have a plan. Your child will know that even if they are affected by a disaster, you and your family will use your resources to work together. For information on how to make a Bushfire Family Plan go to NSW Rural Fire Service.

Looking forward to a wonderful term ahead with you all.

Nadine 

On Monday the 23rd October, Learning Club visited the Frank Partridge Military Museum in Bowraville to learn about all the Australian Services and pay respect to all the Anzacs who have served Australia.

Each student has learning goals and our Year 4 students are working hard to hit their goals. This week Year 4 has been working hard on spelling, differentiated maths tasks which includes fun tasks such as card stacking.

Years 5/6 and Learning Club have been exploring energy this term with Mr Richard Fisher. They have been constructing a balloon powered car and making an electrical circuit to power a bulb and a buzzer. Exploring energy in all it's forms in our lives.

St Mary's has been running a Kindergarten Transition Program for our 2024 Kindergarten students. This program ran for 5 weeks where our transition children played games, made arts & crafts, read books and ate snacks with our current students. It has been lovely to see our 2024 kindergarten students getting ready to come to 'big school' next year. 

On the last transition session they had a teddy bears picnic where the children had their own teddy to share the picnic with. Unfortunately the weather didn't allow for the picnic to be outside as planned but everyone had a good time eating teddy biscuits they decorated themselves and reading the teddy bears picnic book.

If you know of any children interested in attending St Mary's next year please contact our school office on 02 6564 7369 for more information on Enrolment.

All of our students have been given the opportunity to attend a 4 week swimming program at the Macksville Aquatic Centre in the 50m pool 'big pool'. Students are placed into groups and lessons are given by a swimming instructer. No matter the weather conditions students have been eager to get in the water for their lessons.

During the first week of school holidays we had secondary students from Kincoppal Rose Bay visit St Mary's. They ran a school holiday program for four days for our St Mary's students. Some of the activities students participated in were fun hands on science activities, dance, games, painting, arts & crafts, language with Uncle Ricky and a fun day at the Big Banana Coffs Harbour where students rode down the big slide and played mini golf.

Each student was allocated a Kincoppal 'buddy'. By the end of the of the holiday program our students had made strong bonds with their Sydney buddies 

On Wednesday the 18th October, Danny from NSW rugby and John from the Bowraville Goanna's Rugby Club set up a rugby skills training session for our Year 5/6 students (Stage 3) on our oval. Rugby NSW is hoping that these sessions encourage our young players to try out Rugby as a sport. 

Danny along with the Goanna's Rugby Club are running training sessions on a Wednesday afternoon at 4pm at Hennessey tape Oval, Bowraville for the Rubgy 7's competition. If your child is interested in being involved in Rugby Union contact John Latham on 0493 815 066 or Laura Graham on 0422 448 730.

On Wednesday 20th September, our stage 2 & 3 students attended the Greg Inglis Legend's 7s at the Geoff King Motor's Oval, Coffs Harbour.

Meet Goggles and Honey our new school rabbits! We love spending time with our new school rabbits. They visit us every morning and are waiting for our students when they come through the gate. They live in their new little house in our farm.

On Monday the 16th and Tuesday 17th October our Year 5/6 students attended the Coffs Coast Adventure Centre with Year 4 students from St Patrick's Macksville.

For the 2 days students spent at camp they were fun filled with activities such as canoeing, abseiling, Z-Ball down a hill, giant swing and a commando course.