Term 2 Week 6 2024

Hello families of St Mary's,

   I hope you are all staying warm as we head into the Winter months here in Bowraville. A few updates from me for the Week 6 Newsletter. 

Child Protection Policy

As part of our commitment to ensuring a safe learning environment for all children, please see our Child Protection Policy & Procedures on our web page here.

Under our Child Safeguarding statement, all staff are committed to working towards keeping our children safe at all times. It is important that parents are aware of our processes should you need to raise a concern at a school level.

Green Zone for parents

To ensure that we are keeping all of our children safe and following Child Safeguarding protocols, can I please ask all families to report to the Office to drop off/sign out your children.

Parents are only permitted in the COLA area and front office during school hours unless there is a particular event occurring in our classrooms. This is known as our school Green Zone. Aunty George and Leia will call to classrooms, to inform particular students that they need to be collected. 

Thank you for your cooperation with this matter and ensuring we are keeping our school compliant with Child Safe standards. 

Baptism

I have had a number of families inquire about having their child or children undertake the Sacrament of Baptism. This is really exciting. For all enquiries, please contact the Nambucca Valley Parish on 6568 1107. Parents will need to attend a meeting with Fr Peter, prior to getting their child Baptised.

Barrmarrrany Girrwaa - Family group

A very big thank you to all the families that attended our first Barrmarany Girrwaa meeting last week. We had such an amazing turn up. When we asked our families, what values were important to them, these were some of your ideas:

• Life skills

• Happiness - Social and emotional well-being

• Friendship

• Confidence

• Involvement

• Resilience

• Self-worth, and 

• Respect

Thank you to all of our families for contributing to this important conversation.

Reports

Reports for Semester 1 will go live on Compass on Friday the 28th of June. Our reporting templates have once again changed to be in alignment with System recommendations. Parents will have an opportunity to meet with your child's teacher on Wednesday the 26th of June for an update on your child's progress and learning. 

Staff Leave

This is just an update for our families, Miss Amy Chapman will be taking leave for weeks 8,9 & 10 this term, and I will be on leave, Term 3 - Weeks 1,2 & 3. Please contact Amy should you require anything during this time.

Thank you, 

Nadine 

Our Year 5/6 students lead Prayer Service this morning for The Sacred Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

Congratulations to our Week 6 Award Winners:

K/1: Liam, Romi & William

2/3: Brad, Sage, Zarli & Djanaambi

4:    Ochre, Regent & Lilly

LC:  Thomas

5/6: Lleyton, Shyliqua & Emily

Students re-telling and acting out 'The Hungry Caterpillar' story using a story map with Miss Jody.

Kinder are learning to create a repeating pattern. They started with creating a repeating pattern using two colours or items and then they have progressed to a three part pattern.  

Year 1 are learning the foundations of multiplication by making arrays, groups of and learning to skip and count in 2s, 5s and 10s.

Students also use their whiteboard to practice writing words as shown by William below.

Students in the Year 2/3 class had music lessons with Miss Maureen. They have been learning about the value of musical notes such as crotchets, minims, semi bredes and quavers. They also learnt how to draw the trebble clef and create their own music.

Students used the keyboard and percussion instruments such as the triangle, bells and clap sticks.

Students were all displaying good sportsmanship. They all had a positive attitude, they were respecting each other and shouting out praise to encourage one and another. They were all cheering Carter on saying "Good Shot Carter!"

Learning Club have been learning new Indigenous music and songs

St Mary's is still running "Lunch Club' for our students. This gives students the opportunity to do something different each day. This week in gardening club they planted seedlings.

Thankyou to all of our Family, Community & Stage 3 Students that attended our Barrmarrany Girrwaa community meeting on Wednesday evening on the 22nd May. It was wonderful to hear from our families and students as to what is important to them and their families in a school. We now have some very helpful feedback to work with moving forward.

Students and Staff recognised National Sorry Day (26th of May) through a beautiful gathering of our school community.

National Sorry Day provides an opportunity for us as a society to acknowledge historical wrongs committed against Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples through forced removal and to recognise the intergenerational trauma and ongoing impact these policies have had.

On Wednesday 22nd May Students from Years 3 - 6 travelled with Mr Pascoe, Uncle Harry & Uncle Jase to Coffs Harbour to compete in a soccer gala day. There was some wins and losses but the students kept up their great sportsmanship during the day.

Through Compass you can submit an attendance note. This can be submitted in advance. Once a note is submitted the class teacher can see this note on the roll and will be aware of why the student is absent.

How to add an attendance note:

On the main dashboard select the student you wish to submit the attendance note for.

Each week some of our students go to Bowraville Preschool for 'Mary's Mornings' where they spend time with the preschoolers reading books.

On Thursday 30th May St Mary's staff attended a mandated spirituality day at JPC in Coffs Harbour called Proclaim. The Proclaim days welcomed in total 2,800 staff members, including educators, administrators, and clergy staff from the Lismore Diocese. We explored the Mission flowing out of Hope for the Church and the World along with 'enabling our students to experience the fullness of life,'. Hearing from guest speakers Maeve Heaney and Roby Curtis from Emanuel City Mission along with entertainment from 'Proclaim Lismore Wildfire'.