Term 3 Week 6 2025

Dear Families,

In Week 4, our school gathered to celebrate the Feast of the Assumption of Mary with a beautiful liturgy led by Miss Alice and our Stage 3 students. The Assumption is a special feast day in our Catholic tradition, reminding us of Mary’s faith, courage and trust in God. It was inspiring to see our students take part so reverently, and I thank our staff who joined us in prayer. Moments like these strengthen our shared faith and remind us of the central role Mary plays in our lives as Catholics.

As a school, we have also continued to focus on our core values of Respect and Resilience. Respect has been evident in the way students are speaking kindly to one another, showing care for their learning spaces, and listening to teachers and adults in our school. Resilience has shone through in the way many children have persevered in their learning, even when challenges arise. These values are not only words on a wall—they are lived each day by our students, and I am so proud of the way they are becoming embedded in our school culture.

I would also like to share some personal news with our community. At the end of this school year, I will conclude my time at St Mary’s. From 2026, I have been appointed to the position of Principal at Mary Help of Christians, Sawtell. While I am excited for this new chapter, it is with a deep sense of gratitude and emotion that I prepare to farewell St Mary’s at the end of the year. It has been a privilege to walk alongside our wonderful students, dedicated staff, and supportive families over these past 6 years. We still have much to achieve together in the remainder of 2025, and I look forward to continuing our journey as a school community.

Looking ahead, we warmly invite all our dads, grandfathers, and father figures to join us for our Father’s Day Breakfast next Friday, 5th September. This is always a special event for our school and a wonderful opportunity to celebrate the important role our fathers and carers play in the lives of our children. We hope to see many of you there.

Thank you for your ongoing support, encouragement and partnership.

Warm regards,
Nadine Slingsby
Principal

Book Week is a nationwide celebration organized by the Children's Book Council of Australia (CBCA) to promote children's literature and a love of reading. This year marks the 80th anniversary of the event. During Book Week, schools, libraries, and communities across the country host events like book parades and reading challenges, encouraging children to explore new stories and dress up as their favorite characters. The 'Book an Adventure' theme, illustrated by artist Jess McGeachin, invites children to discover new worlds through the books they read. The CBCA also announces its Book of the Year Awards during this time, highlighting outstanding Australian children's books.

This year our staff and students did a wonderful job with their costumes. It was a great morning on Friday 22nd August where students joined in our book week parade.

A big thankyou to Miss Jody for organising our book week activities and to all of our teaching staff for your help.

Once again St Mary's partnered with Scholastic to bring our Book Fair to life. The Library was set up for our Book Fair which ran every afternoon for the whole week from 18th August - 22nd August. Scholastic books were displayed and offered for sale. It was lovely to see our families come and pick books with students to purchase and take home.

The school receives a percentage of the sales as "Scholastic Dollars" which will be used to purchase more books for our school library. $1,100 of book sales was reached during this week.

A big thankyou to our families for being apart of our book fair as well as our staff for running the Book Fair and to Miss Jody for organising it all.

Below is the class schedule for borrowing books

Congratulaions to our Week 6 Award Winners

Our indigneous students and AEW's have been busy working on their deadly cultural learning plans. The activities include cooking with Uncle Jason, learning about their totem animal with Aunty Brenda and creating and decorating clapsticks with Uncle Mark .

Class 1/2 students made bread in religion. In the context of a religion class, the parable of bread yeast and rising is a powerful metaphor for how yeast rises up like god.

3/4 students have been busy with science experiments and number fluency

Our 5/6 class have started fundraising for their school camp. On Friday 15th August students set up a stall in front of the Bowraville IGA and sold cakes and slices they had made in the days before.

Stage 3 students went to St Pat's for a Digital Technologies Day.

We welcome our two new baby calves. They are yet to be named with a voting sheet hanging up in the school for students to add to. 

Some of our students finish their last game of soccet for the season this weekend. They are in all different age groups with Macksville soccer club. Well done on your season of soccer Jacob, Tayven, Harry, Joe, Jai, Lexi, Buddy, Josiah and Roman.

If any families would like to share their child's achievements outside of school please send details to: bwpp@lism.catholic.edu.au and we'll try to include them in our next newsletter.