Week 4, Term 3 2023 - 1st August 2023
From our Principal - Mr Wes Rose
Staff News
This Friday we farewell Ms Yrad Loban, who has been our Indigenous Teacher Assistant for the past couple of years. It has been an absolute pleasure to have Yrad on staff; she has been a great support to all students both indigenous and non-indigenous. On behalf of St Mary’s , I wish Yrad all the best on the safe delivery of her baby and I am sure we will see her in the future.
It is my pleasure to welcome our new Indigenous Teacher assistant, Mr Andrew Doyle. Andrew is a past student of St Mary’s and joins us following Ms Loban’s departure. Andrew is heavily involved in many facets of indigenous culture, including sport, dancing and artwork. He brings this knowledge and wisdom to share with our community. Welcome, Andrew!
Quote of the Week
"Learning is a treasure that will follow its owner everywhere.”
- Chinese Proverb
St Mary's Art Show - Tuesday 29th August
The annual St Mary's Art Show is back for 2023 showcasing artwork from students Prep to Year 6 following their lessons with our resident artist, the talented Ms Maria Lenz.
The entry fee is a gold coin donation (to purchase your child(s) artwork).
There will also be art displays from our photography club, teachers and parents.
Live music, a bar and food will take place on the green. Bento boxes are available to pre-order from www.quickcliq.com.au, enter the date 29/08/2023 for the item to be available.
This event is always a highlight of the St Mary’s calendar and we look forward to seeing everyone from the St Mary’s community on the evening.
If any parents would like to volunteer on the night, please contact the school office.
Book Fair Volunteers Needed!
Book Week Parade - Save the Date!
Book Week will officially run from 19th-25th August 2023.
St Mary’s will be holding its annual Book Week Parade during this week on Tuesday 22nd August. This year’s theme is 'READ, GROW, INSPIRE'
Students are encouraged to start thinking about their favourite book characters and how a creative costume might come to life for this celebration.
Sacramental Program 2023
A reminder to all parents that our second workshop is this Thursday, 3rd August at 3:15pm.
Catholic Education Week Wrap-Up
Thank you to students, parents and staff for a great week spent celebrating Catholic Education Week.
Our week began with Children's Liturgy followed by a disco on Saturday and our year 6 students visiting residents of Good Shepherd Lodge on Monday.
On Tuesday, our year 2 classes led the school in a beautiful Prayer Celebration. We also held our first 'Open Classroom' event where every class welcomed parents and friends in to see the learning that is taking place. This was followed by lunch with those who were able to join us. The rain kept us undercover, but it was lovely to share this time together. In the afternoon, St Mary’s teachers were involved in various community ministries, including visiting Good Shepherd Lodge, cleaning St Mary's Church or giving blood.
On Thursday, Year 1 presented their St Patrick's reading buddies with cards and ‘Thank You’ biscuits as an 'Act of Kindness'. Thursday at second break, saw our teachers take the victory in our Year 6 Girls Netball team v St Mary's Teachers team netball match. Well done to everyone who participated, it was an exciting game to watch.
Friday at assembly, Mrs Christine Burchill who retired from St Mary's in 2022, was presented with her nomination for the Spirit of Catholic Education Award. Chris has been involved in many activities over 40 years in our Parish. She was also a dedicated teacher and a genuinely caring person who spread Jesus’ word through service and humility.
We also presented the Disco proceeds to Sr Denise to use in her Mercy Works. The Sisters of Mercy are the founders of our school and we are indebted to them for their many years of service to education.
Mackay Maths Competition
Congratulations to the two St Mary’s teams who participated in last weeks Mackay Primary Schools Mathematics Challenge. Our teams didn’t place this year but the knowledge, team work and problem-solving skills demonstrated by these students certainly impressed their supervising teachers. Thank you to St Joseph’s for hosting this excellent event. We look forward to next year!
Sport News
Last Thursday and Friday 17 St Mary’s students competed in the MDSS Athletics Carnival at the ARC. All students put their very best efforts forward and are to be commended for their results in wet and windy conditions. Congratulations to the following students who will go onto the Capricornia trials as representatives of the Mackay District team later in August:
- Jaylah Breayley (shotput)
- Harper Standish (1500m, long jump)
- Rylie Hanson (800m, 1500m)
- Ava Callinan (high jump)
- Madison Malagueno (100m, 200m, 800m, 1500m)
- Oliver Standish (high jump, long jump)
Simone Sibley
HPE Teacher
School Fees Scam
Keeping our students and families safe is of great importance to Catholic Education-Diocese of Rockhampton (CEDR), and this extends to our families and their finances. We have become aware of several scam scenarios impacting schools in recent days, to include:
- Parents being contacted directly from a person/group purporting to be the school or fee collection agency, offering a discount on school fees if paid immediately. Credit card and invoice details are requested, and a series of deductions and refunds to fraudulent accounts occurs.
- Scammer obtaining card number from the dark web, scammer Bpay’s school an odd amount, then claims a refund from the school to a fraudulent bank account.
The following steps are recommended to avoid such scenarios occurring:
1. Do not give bank account, credit card, Bpay details or invoice details to anyone over the telephone or email. Contact the school directly to verify advice.
2. If an unknown amount appears in your bank account, refer the payer back to their own bank to lodge a formal trace and recall of funds. Do not refund. This is the only secure way of confirming the ownership of any payment made, and guaranteed return of a payment back to the account it came from.
Student of the Week
Week 3, Term 3 Student Award Winners
| Prep P | Henry | For wonderful work with your writing. You are working hard to sound out words and write sentences, remembering full stops and finger spaces. Your handwriting is getting so neat! Keep up the great work Henry! |
| Prep P | Lucy | For your focus and concentration during our reading sessions. You work hard to follow along with the teacher, look for heart words and sound out tricky words when you are reading. Thank you Lucy and keep up the great work! |
| Prep R | Isabella | For the effort you have been putting into your independent writing. I love the way you are sounding out the words and using finger spaces. Well done! |
| Prep R | Nina | For always trying hard to do your best in everything. Thank you for always listening and completing your work so diligently. Keep up the fantastic work! |
| 1B | Alexander | For your outstanding behaviour in class this week. You have been so attentive, you have finished work on time and your manners have been superb. Well done! |
| 1B | Raine | It's terrific to hear your responses to questions in our class discussions this week. You have participated so beautifully. Super effort Raine! |
| 1K | Remi | For drawing and composing a thorough mind map about Australian possums. Amazing accomplishment! |
| 2A | Year 2A Class | For your reverent participation and for confidently leading the school in our liturgy for Catholic Education Week. Well done! |
| 2L | Year 2L Class | Year 2L your participation, focus and beautiful reverence, truly shined through during the liturgy for Catholic Education Week. Your teacher is so very proud of every single one of you! Well done! |
| 3B | Charlie | For putting your very best into listening to the instructions and applying the strategies in maths this week. Your diligence paid off. Well done Charlie! |
| 3P | Makinlee | For showing improvements in subtracting with zero when trading. Well done Makinlee! |
| 4A | Charlotte | For approaching everyday with enthusiasm, cheerfulness and a willingness to always do your best. Great work Charlotte! |
| 4A | Raj | For the amazing effort you put into your spelling week in and week out. The results are outstanding. Congratulation Raj! |
| 4C | Audrey | For your commitment to completing all class activities and your enthusiastic approach to whole class discussions. Keep up the great work! |
| 5SA | Isabelle | For your enthusiastic approach to information report writing, you followed the structure well and applied all feedback. I really enjoyed your sea spider writing, it was very informative! Well done! |
| 5T | Charlie | For the positive attitude and persistence you have showed in Mathematics this week. You are working hard to overcome challenges to deepen your understanding. I am very impressed Charlie! |
| 5T | Annaliese | For consistently applying 100% effort into all tasks you complete. You never gave up this week to deepen your understanding of fractions when it got challenging. Well done! |
| 6M | Emelia | For working so well in maths this week and conquering those cartesian planes. Keep it up Emelia! |
| 6M | Cooper | For being such a competent and confident problem solver. You were a wonderful asset to the St Mary's Mathematics Challenge team. |
| 6V | Will | For becoming more involved in class discussions and completing your class work in the required time frame. Keep trying hard Will! |
| 6V | Louis | For demonstrating excellent maths problem-solving skills in RTI this week and displaying confidence when explaining how you solved each problem. Well done Louis! |
