Week 2, Term 1 2023 - 18th July 2023

Reflection - Week 2

This morning some of our school leaders and Too Deadly Mob attended the Mackay Catholic School NAIDOC Mass. The Mass was a beautiful representation of this year’s theme “For our Elders” as students and Yuwi Traditional Owner, Aunty Veronica Ah Wang welcomed the congregation and delivered the scripture readings. We are very appreciative of all of the work Mrs Karlie Tatchell has done to prepare the NAIDOC Mass.

This year's NAIDOC theme is an opportunity for all Australian schools to ensure our young people are learning from our Elders' knowledge and perspectives, and that these continue to be passed down through generations for millennia to come.

National NAIDOC Week celebrations are held across Australia in the first week of July each year (Sunday to Sunday), to celebrate and recognise the history, culture and achievements of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. NAIDOC Week is an opportunity for all Australians to learn about  First Nations cultures and histories and participate in celebrations of the oldest, continuous living cultures on earth. 

Terri Leotta
Assistant Principal: Religious Education

From our Principal - Mr Wes Rose

Parent Engagement – Special Dates Term 3

Maintaining a cohesive home and school partnership is a key focus at St Mary’s school.  One way to assist families to engage in the life of their child’s education is to advise of some important events planned for this term.  I ask you to pencil these dates below into your calendar if you are available to attend. 

Challenge Cup Wrap Up
Congratulations to the students who participated in the Challenge Cup competition in Yeppoon last Wed-Fri.  Challenge Cup is always a great carnival and our students represented their school with pride and determination.  I always ponder who has more fun at this carnival…the students or their parents!

In the overall standings, St Mary’s finished in second place across all Catholic Schools in our Diocese, a tremendous effort considering other schools have many more students than us. I thank Phil Clancy, Belinda Battaia, Rob Townsend and Belinda van Lint for attending the carnival with our students; their expert care and tutelage for our students was appreciated. 

More details and photos are available in a separate newsletter article below. 

It's Showtime for Rock, Pop Mime!
Congratulations to the St Mary’s Rock, Pop, Mime team who placed second in the Mackay competition over the weekend!  Our ‘minions’ did a wonderful job in their performance, which was creative, original and very funny!  A special mention to Mrs Wood, Miss Ebony Walker and Miss Ally Luhrmann who prepared our group, you all did an amazing job!  To check out school’s performance, visit the youtube link. https://www.youtube.com/live/cdqhh8atnYk?feature=share&t=4507

Prep 2024 Interviews
Over the coming weeks, we will be conducting interviews for the 2024 Prep year.  You may see some new families around the school, please make them feel welcome.

Parent/Teacher Interviews – Week 2
As advised previously, Semester 1 student report cards are now available via parent lounge.  Following the release of these reports, all parents are invited to make a time to meet with their child’s teacher to discuss progress and areas for improvement.  If you have not yet booked an interview, please make contact with your child’s teacher.

Uniform Reminders
With the cold weather upon us, it is timely to remind parent and students of the uniform expectations at St Mary’s.  A reminder to all families of our uniform guidelines.  Some important areas to note include;

• Students are to wear plain black footwear (formal shoes or joggers). Please note that appropriate footwear can be purchased from many retailers in Mackay, including Athletes Foot and Intersport.
• Navy jumper with school badge on left side. Navy stockings or tracksuit pants.
• No coloured nail polish or acrylic nails.
• Boys hair styles. Be neat in appearance and not falling into eyes or past the collar. Hair may not be dyed or worn in a style that is extreme or inappropriate for school (e.g. no tracks, rat’s tails, mo-hawks, top knots, hair no shorter than gauge 2 or undercuts that have a large variance between length).
• Boys: No earrings or body piercings.
• Girls hair styles. Be neat in appearance and not falling into eyes. Girls with shoulder or longer length hair must have it tied back. Hair may not be dyed or worn in a style that is extreme or inappropriate for school. Hair accessories should be minimal and must be in colours of navy, blue or white.

Quote of the Week

From the Office - Finance Department

Dear Parents

Please note that school fees were issued on the 14th July 2023 and are due for payment on Friday, 28th July 2023.

Thank you to all those parents who have paid fees or entered into a payment plan to pay off their fees over the course of 2023.

If your fees are yet to be paid and you would like to enter into a payment arrangement (either weekly, fortnightly or monthly) please contact me as soon as possible to arrange this.

You are most welcome to call into the office, email smm_finance@rok.catholic.edu.au or phone on 4951 1743 to arrange this.

If you have any questions in relation to school fees, please don't hesitate to contact me.

Kathy Parrish
Finance Officer

Parent Lounge Access

It is very important that every parent has access to the Parent Lounge, this is where you can find:

• Report cards;
• Accept Events invitations (excursions etc.); and
• Book parent teacher interviews.

Report cards were released at the end of last semester, and we are currently taking bookings for parent teacher interviews which will end this week.

If you are having trouble accessing the Parent Lounge through the app, please try either through our website or clicking the following link:

• https://310smm.rok.catholic.edu.au/parentlounge/login.cfm?reason=user

If you are having any issues, please don’t hesitate to contact the school office for a password reset, or come into the office with your phone and we are happy to assist you.

Sacramental Program

Catholic Education Week

The Catholic Education Week 2023 theme is " Communities of Faith, Hope and Love".  

Celebrated annually in week 3 of term 3, Catholic Education Week is an opportunity for all 309 Catholic schools in Queensland to celebrate and promote their distinctive mission and ethos. Catholic education strives to make a difference in the lives of those in our schools and in the wider community by challenging young people to live out the message of Jesus and to reach their full potential as compassionate, contributing, life-giving members of society. 

We will celebrate the week through these following activities, liturgies and events:

Youth Mass & Children's Liturgy

PLEASE JOIN US!

This Saturday 22nd July, will be the Sacrament of Communion Enrolment Mass, 5pm at St Mary's Church. St Mary's School will also join with St Patrick's College (Mercy Campus) to celebrate our Youth Mass with Children's Liturgy.

Mass will be followed by a pizza outside the church. Everyone is most welcome to attend.

We look forward to seeing you there. 

Mrs Terri Leotta
Assistant Principal: Religious Education

Curriculum News

Whitsunday Voices Youth Literature Festival 2023

Last Thursday, our grade 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 students attended The Whitsunday Voices Youth Literature Festival, hosted by Whitsunday Anglican College.

The students were treated to sessions by popular authors Mick Elliot, Matt Stanton, Katrina Nannestad and the unforgettable Shake & Stir theatrical group.  

The festival is always a highlight for our students and this year certainly didn’t disappoint.  Many students were instantly inspired to write and read just like their favourite authors.  We thank Whitsunday Anglican College organisers for hosting this event each year and we look forward to another stellar line up in 2024.

Mackay Maths Competition 

This Friday we have two hardworking mathematics teams competing in the annual Mackay Maths Competition hosted by St Joseph’s Catholic Primary School.  All the best to our two teams consisting of the following students:

Team 1
Jessica Sibley
Cooper Christie
Travis Deguara
Ryder Reynolds
Nikol Sutherland

Team 2
Archer Chamberlain
Ryan Phelan
Cruz Patroni
Zander Otto
Aston Mills

Thank you to Mrs Motteram for preparing the students and to Mrs Gordon for accompanying the students.  We look forward to hearing about your results next week. 

Belinda Battaia
Assistant Principal: Curriculum

Library Help

Premier's Reading Challenge Update

READ, READ, READ!

The 2023 Premier’s Reading Challenge kicked off last month.  The challenge is not a competition but aims to improve literacy and encourage children to read widely for pleasure and learning.

St Mary’s we are well into our reading challenge and our top two classes are 2L and 4C, congratulations!

It’s not too late to add to our totals.  Entries close on 25^th August so get reading and help your class win the top prize.  

Class totals are listed below:

Belinda Battaia
Assistant Principal: Curriculum

Challenge Cup Wrap-Up

Rugby League

Last Wednesday, our St Mary’s Battlers set off on the highway southbound for Yeppoon on the Capricorn Coast.  The boots were packed, the jerseys were washed and the parents were as excited as the players!

After two days of tough rugby league, the players had secured their spot at second place in their pool.  A playoff for the shield was imminent. 

They came up against a strong St Peter’s side in the semi-final fighting to progress through to the grand final of the shield.  However, St Patrick’s Emerald were too strong in the end and we came away with sixth place overall.  To single any one player out for their effort would be to sell the whole team short, as it was an outstanding team effort to progress through our pool as strongly as we did, playing with a level of sportsmanship and support for team mates that made all of the St Mary’s community proud. 

Thank you to all staff and parents who made the trip such a memorable one - we will hold a special assembly this Friday to thank our staff, helpers and players.  

Belinda Battaia

Netball

Our Year 6 netballers represented St Mary’s at the Challenge Cup Carnival in Yeppoon. The girls had two wins and a draw on the first day and were undefeated in their four games on the second. These outstanding results meant that they won their pool and would now contest three other pool winners to take out the prestigious netball Cup.

The girls had a strong win in the Cup semi-final against St Joey’s Park Avenue, progressing through to the Cup final against St Benedict’s, Yeppoon. Unfortunately it wasn’t our day and we were defeated to take 2nd position overall. The girls were gracious in defeat and extremely happy to have made it so far in the competition.

The girls were excellent representatives of our school, displaying determination, positivity and 'never give up' attitudes. 

Special thanks to Janine Wood for her umpiring expertise and to our support crew of parents and grandparents who encouraged from the sidelines and assisted with scoring. 

Belinda van Lint 

100 Days of Year 1

Last Friday our Year 1's celebrated ‘100 Days of School’, almost unrecognisable in their olden day costumes. They had an amazing day doing activities that revolved around the number ‘100’.

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Second Hand Uniforms For Sale

We have an abundance of pre-loved uniforms in stock in the School Office.

We are asking for a gold coin donation for uniforms, with the exception of jumpers which are $5.

Please note we do not have unlimited stock and not all sizes and uniform types are available-first in best dressed. 

All proceeds will go to Caritas.

Student of the Week

Week 1, Term 3 Student Award Winners

Census Collection Notice for Parents/Guardians

Please find below a letter from the Australian Government regarding the 2023 Census Privacy Collection Notice.

Please click on the link below for further information.

Community News