Term 1 Week 9 2024

Dear Families,

What a busy few weeks we have had at St Mary's! There is always something happening that brings joy to our days, and I am forever grateful for the staff of St Mary's and the energy, patience and expertise they bring to work every day. 

Open Afternoon

Next Wednesday at 2pm we will have our school open afternoon. This is an opporunity to welcome all families and friends of St Mary's to our school for a look at our learning spaces. We will be walking around our beautiful little school, and also blessing and smoking our new Yarning Circle. Please put the word out in community, as we would love to meet some of our potential families and students for 2025. 

This afternoon is part of an early Catholic Schools Week celebration, and I look forward to seeing our families and community on Wednesday afternoon. 

Macksville Show

This year the Macksville Show will be on the 13th & 14th of April. We came away with the red ribbon (second place!), last year in the shows school display pavilion, so we are looking to take out the blue this year! Thank you to Miss Alice, Miss Maureen, Uncle Mark & Mr Richard who have been working with the students to create our St Mary's masterpiece for 2024.

ANZAC Day Ceremony

This year, our ANZAC day Ceremony and march will fall on the second week of the holidays. It is always wonderful to see how many St Mary's students turn up for the march, and it would be wonderful to have this happen again. We will gather at the Ex-Servicesmans club at 9.45am, to prepare for the march at 10am. 

As we head into the last two weeks of School for Term 1, I want to thank our families for their ongoing support. When our children are tired (and they are tired!), please continue to discuss with your child the expected St Mary's behaviours of being a safe, respectful learner. We need to continue the good work we have been doing with our children around behaviour expectations and what it looks like when we all walk through the gates of St Mary's. 

Wishing all of our families a restful Easter break,

Nadine 

Congratulations to our Week 9 Award Winners

5/6: Shyliqua Chapman, Archie Duncan & Alexis Jarrett

4: Bretsen Ballangarry, Anna Lavery & Sofia Brunno

Learning Club: Reyon Duckett-Jarrett & Mason Jarrett

2/3: Aliyana Buchanan & Vanessa Brunno

K/1: Cohen Wilson, Roman Jarrett & Tarryl Gordon

On Thursday the 21st March Learning Club & 5/6 Students attended Bowraville Community Preschool to celebrate Harmony Day and the opening of the Preschool's new Yarning Circle.

The opening ceremony was performed by Uncle Roy Ballangarry and Smoking & Sprinkling by Uncle Mark & Aunty Brenda. BCS, Tallowood, St Mary's and Bowraville Preschool students were present for the opening.

Our students proudly sung Gumbaynggirr Songs in front of everyone there.

In the K/1 Maths sessions students have been working on their Maths through different Math mediums.

Liam, Carmella & Jai are playing a Maths game on the school iPad called '1 Minute Maths' this game aims at using individual one-minute tasks that focus on adding and subtracting – and on ‘Subitising’, the skill of instantly recognising the number of items in a group without counting.

Children can choose any topic they want to try. They then answer a unique series of questions (so it’s a different set of questions every time). If they’re struggling with a question, a ‘Hint’ button will give a helpful clue by showing the question in a different but familiar way.

William, Kelaari & Romi have been learning Maths by playing maths games with Miss Kathryn using an abacus. Miss Kathryn asks a maths question and the students show their answer using the abacus in front of them.

Norah, Cohen & Mia are playing a Math ladder game with Miss Eden. They roll a dice and use the counter to move along the Maths ladder using Addition & Subtraction.

Our students in K-4 have started using a new maths program called Optimaths.

Optimaths is a program tailored for students from Kindergarten to Year 4. Each activity targets a specific learning intention through a maximum of 25 tasks designed to promote progressive mathematisation. Each task is designed to take 15 - 20 minutes to complete with 95% success required for mastery.

Maths in the 2/3 class consists of Rotational Maths Groups. Students will rotate between using Optimaths, Explicit teaching (one on one with Miss Tanya) and worksheets with Miss Bonnie.

In Maths for Year 4 students are learning measurement through different forms. Tayven was creating playdough 'worms' and measuring their length.

Sofia and Aaliyah were drawing floormaps. Lilly and Anna were rolling dice and adding numbers together and recording their length on a piece of paper.

In Learning club Mason, Jayden & Reyon have been creating Art Masterpieces out of clay. They created animals of their choice.

Also in 5/6 students have been creating Terrariums for Science with the focus being on condensation. Students placed rocks, dirt, ferns and succulents inside their Terrarium. 

We are now using Online Enrolments. Enrolments can be done via our website bwpplism.catholic.edu.au/enrolment or by searching St Mary's Bowraville in Google, then clicking the 'ENROLMENT' tab.

From here you have the option of clicking 'New Families' or 'Existing Families'. For exisitng families the process is easier as we have your information already. The following page is what you see if you click 'Existing Families'. You will be required to log in via Compass. You will also be asked for the new students details along with updating your information if needed.

We encourage our families to use this process, however if you need help please come in and see us at school to help you through the process.

Today our Students went down to the township of Bowraville to showcase their Easter Hats in the Easter Parade. We certainly had some great Easter Hats to show the community.

This week we have had some of our families for our Aboriginal students visit to write Deadly Cultural Learning Plans (DCLP) for their child. We appreciate all your help in having your child's Cultural goals met in School.

Our Lunch Clubs are still running. Students can pick on the day if they want to participate in the club on the day.

On Friday the 8th of March Sonny & Harry travelled to Grafton to compete in the Diocese Soccer trials. Unfortunately neither made it through to Polding but they were up against some tough competition. Congratulations to both students for making it to Diocese level.