Week 2, Term 1 2025 - 4th February 2025

APRE's Reflection - Week 2

Welcome back to 2025. It’s lovely to see lots of smiling faces around the school ready to begin the new year.

Every 25 years, the Church holds a special celebration called a Jubilee Year. In 2025 for the Year of Jubilee, Pope Francis has chosen the theme “Pilgrims of Hope”.

Throughout history, God’s followers would have a year that was especially dedicated to God that was a time of forgiveness and rest: Farmers would leave their fields to rest and this rest gave them time to focus on relationships with God and other people.

The Jubilee Year is a time to reset and get back on track, all together, as one big Church family around the world. We are invited to take the time to develop our relationship with God, each other and the world around us. We are reminded to walk with Jesus every day.

At St Mary's, we will be deepening our knowledge and understanding of Jubilee as the year progresses. As a school, we will be completing activities linked to the Jubilee Year and praying for HOPE throughout the year.

I would like to share Pope Francis's prayer for the Jubilee year with you:

We look forward to sharing this Jubilee Year of Hope with our students and families.

Belinda van Lint
Assistant Principal - Religious Education

From our Principal | Mr Wes Rose

Leadership Badge Ceremony
Our 2025 Year 6 student leaders received their badges at last week’s ceremony.  On behalf of the school community, I congratulate these students and know they will do a marvellous job leading our school.

New School Counsellor
This week we welcome our new school counsellor, Mrs Deborah Quinn, to St Mary’s School.  Deb has a degree in Psychology, and brings a warm, compassionate disposition to her role.  Deb will be at St Mary’s each Mon, Tue and Wed, and will be available to meet with students and parents where needed.  Parents, if you think your child would benefit from meeting with Deb, please contact the school office to collect a referral form.

Year 5/6 Parent Meeting: 5pm 11^th February
The school leadership team warmly invites all parents of Year 5/6 students to attend the parent meeting next Tue from 5pm in the Hall.  The purpose of this session is to connect with parents in our upper years and ensure that open lines of communication are formed at the beginning of a school year.  The session will be an excellent opportunity for parents to learn more about a variety of important topics including:

• Year 5 and 6 camps
• Inclusive curriculum support
• Social media and technology use
• Assessments
• Wellbeing and access to the school counsellor
• The role of leaders in our school

We look forward to seeing parents next Tue at 5pm.

P&F AGM and 1^st General Meeting: 6pm 11^th February
St Mary’s values the strong partnership between home and school.  This partnership has a host of benefits, positively impacting outcomes for all students. The St Mary’s P&F warmly invite all parents to attend the AGM/GM next Tuesday 11^th Feb from 6pm-7pm in the staffroom.  This meeting is a chance to review 2024, discuss goals and plan for some great activities for the year ahead.

Uniform Guidelines
A reminder to all families of our uniform guidelines.  Some important areas to note include;

• Fingernails. No coloured nail polish or acrylic nails.
• Boys earrings. Boys are asked to take out their earring, or alternatively wear a clear ‘invisible’ stud to school.
• Boys Hair. Be neat in appearance and not falling into eyes. Hair past the collar must be tied back.  Hair may not be dyed or worn in a style that is extreme or inappropriate for school (i.e. no tracks, rat’s tails, mo-hawks, mullets or undercuts that have a large variance between length).
• Girls Hair. 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.

Our students demonstrate pride in St Mary’s school by the way they wear their uniform correctly.  An infringement letter will be sent home to notify parents of any areas that need to be addressed.   If you have any queries about this, please do not hesitate to contact the school office.

Afternoon Pick Up Procedures

• All students in Prep are to be collected from their prep classroom by a parent or guardian.
• For all other students, the car park works effectively when everybody follows the procedures. 
• Please allow others to come out of car parks. Drive slowly through the car park, especially when merging in front of the parking bays. 
• Cars should drive from MacDonald St. into Morley St. and turn right into the school car park. 
• Everyone must turn right into the car park in the afternoon and turn left when exiting. (In the afternoon those that turn left into the car park are pushing in and this upsets others!)
• If everyone is considerate it will be safe and fair for all users. I encourage parents who are not Prep parents to actively use our drive through pick-up protocol. 
• We have two staff members supervising this area. Parents are asked to drive on and line up if their child is not ready.  This avoids any unnecessary delays.
• Please ensure your name is displayed on your sun visor as this will speed up the process. 
• In the afternoon, please turn left when leaving MacDonald Street as this speeds up the line-up. 
• Please do not encourage children to wait outside of the school or church where they are not directly supervised.  We have had some unpleasant situations in the past when children have been told to wait outside the school by parents. It is simply not worth the risk!  

Please support us to ensure the safety of your children. For those families using the drive through for the first time, please contact the office for your laminated name card.

Rumble’s Quest
This week, your students in Years 1-6 received a paper letter outlining Rumble’s Quest, a wellbeing measurement tool we used in 2024 and will once again use this year.  I ask that all families read through this letter.  If you would not like your child to participate, please complete and return the non-consent form.  A reminder that if you consent to your child participating in Rumble’s Quest, you do not need to send the form back.

School Closure – 4^th February
As you are aware, the South Mackay area was significantly impacted by localised flooding overnight and this morning.  Several local streets were quite impacted and posed hazardous driving conditions.  In consultation with our Diocesan Director, the decision was made to close St Mary's School for the day.  Please note that the Mercy Campus next door was also closed.

Thankfully, no classrooms have been impacted and we aim to resume operations tomorrow, 5^th Feb.  Further updates will be communicated via the school FB page and via email.  I thank all families for their understanding and flexibility with this matter. 

Quote of the Week

Tuckshop News

We are pleased to announce that our school tuckshop opens this week. 

Tuckshop days will be each Wednesday-Friday, for 1^st break orders only.  Orders will be via QuickCliq with the updated menu available on the Quickcliq app/website. Please note: daily order cut off is 8am (no orders to be accepted after cut-off).  Due to current weather conditions all products may not be available. 

Yasmin Gillis is our Tuckshop Convenor, and assisting her is Mrs Julie Powell.  We are sure the ladies will do a great job in our tuckshop.

From the Office - School Fees

Dear Families,

Please note that School fees were emailed today. If you haven’t received your email, please don’t hesitate to contact me at smm_finance@rok.catholic.edu.au or phone 4951 1743.

If paying in full, school fees are due on the 18^th February 2025.

If you have a payment plan in place, thank you for setting it up.

If you would like a payment plan, please review the 2025 Schedule of Fees below, to work out your repayment amount. Please organise with your financial institution to set up a direct debit or Bpay (details are on your statement).

If you would like me to work out your repayment schedule, please email me at smm_finance@rok.catholic.edu.au with your preference of weekly, fortnightly or monthly and the commencement date (must be before 18/2/25).

St Mary's Wellbeing Day

Opening School Mass Invitation

Parent Teacher Interviews

Bookings for next week's Parent Teacher Interviews are NOW OPEN through the Parent Orbit App.

Classes will have their interviews after school from Monday 10^th to Friday 14th February. There will be 10 minute time intervals. Parents are invited to talk to their child’s classroom teacher about their child.  This will allow teachers to be fully informed about each child’s needs and strengths. If more time is needed, this can be arranged during the interview.  

If you have any questions, please contact the school office.

School Photos - Wednesday 12th February

This year’s school photos are booked for next Wednesday 12^th February.  Students are to wear their formal school uniform on this day (Preps to wear their prep uniform).  Photo order packs were sent home with students last week.

Sport News

Cross Country Training
Due to the current weather conditions, this week's cross country training before school will be cancelled. Training will resume next week weather dependant. Notices will be posted on our school Facebook page.

MDSS & Southern Suburbs

The following sports are now taking applications.  If your child plays at rep level, please contact the office for paperwork.

MDSS Squash Trials 10-12 years
MDSS AFL Trials 10-12 years
MDSS Hockey Trials 10-12 years

Southern Suburbs Netball – trials to go through to southern suburbs will be held tomorrow (Wednesday), 8am on the St Mary’s Basketball courts.

Southern Suburbs Basketball – trials to go through to southern suburbs will be held lunchtime early next week on the St Mary’s Basketball courts.  We will confirm through Facebook shortly.

Student of the Week

Week 1, Term 1 Student Award Winners

Community News