Week 3, Term 2 2022 - 3rd May 2022
Principal's News
St Mary’s is blessed to have a very supportive parent body. And, while the numbers of parents attending the P&F meetings each term are not massive, we do see widespread parent support for various events and festivities throughout the school year.
As you would be aware, over the past 18 months the P&F’s main fundraising goal was the newly constructed ‘Ninja-style’ playground for our senior students. This was a substantial project and I know that our students absolutely love this new play space.
Therefore, the P&F invites all families along to the official opening of this playground, to be held next Monday, 9th May at 5:30pm in the basketball court area. BBQ and drinks provided. It would be great to see you all there. Please RSVP via this link for catering purposes.
From our Principal - Mr Wes Rose
Satisfaction Survey
Every 2-3 years, the Catholic Education: Diocese of Rockhampton conducts satisfaction surveys for schools. These surveys form part of our school improvement data and assist us to officially ‘check in’ with our stakeholders to monitor how things are going. St Mary’s survey will be open from 16th - 27th May. All parents, staff and Year 4-6 students will be sent a link to the survey, and I invite everyone to submit a response. Please check your email inbox from the 16th May.
Staff News
Last Thursday all staff attended a personal development session led by Rowena Hardy from Minds Aligned. Rowena is a psychologist who focused on wellbeing and behaviour, ‘above and below the line’ behaviour and encouraged personal ownership of wellbeing. Many staff have commented positively about this session and I thank Rowena for working with our staff.
- This Tuesday-Thursday, Mrs Leotta (APRE) and Miss Azzopardi (Yr 2 teacher and our religious advocate) will attend the Catholic Identity conference in Rockhampton.
- This week, Miss Loban is away completing her teaching practicum at St Joseph’s.
- Mrs Houston, our librarian, is on Long Service Leave this week.
- Mrs Battaia (APC) will attend the regional Curriculum meeting this Friday.
Baby News
Congratulations to the Egbo Family who welcomed a baby boy during the Easter holidays. Baby Michael is a brother to Alex (Prep C).
Health News from our Diocese
We wish to advise you that during the past week, we have been notified of positive cases of COVID-19 in our school community. St Mary’s regularly consults with the Catholic Education Office and relevant authorities and continues to follow the advice of Queensland Health regarding cleaning requirements. Queensland Health has advised that no quarantine of students or staff is required as a result of school based contact. As COVID-19 remains active in our community we ask you to continue to monitor your child’s/children’s health and if they develop any flu-like symptoms:
- Keep your child/children at home
- Seek a PCR or Rapid Antigen test where it is recommended and notify the school of positive results.
- Follow the advice of Queensland Health.
With the recent change in close contact rules, please see the relevant information below from QLD Health.
- For a child to be able to attend school they must not have COVID-19.
- If a household member has COVID-19, a student can attend school if they have no COVID-19 symptoms. Please advise the school if your child is a close contact.
- The child must test negative every second day for a week from the day of becoming a close contact (day 0, 2, 4 and 6). A self-test using a RAT kit will be allowed, testing does not need to occur at a testing clinic.
As we continue to navigate the pandemic, please remind your child to:
- maintain good hand hygiene at all times
- cover coughs and sneezes with a tissue or the inside of their elbow and dispose of tissues in the bin immediately.
- practice social distancing from others where possible
We will continue to work closely with health authorities to keep our school community informed of any developments and advice. Thank you once again for your ongoing support.
Lunch Containers – Please Name!
Each week, we find as many as 20 unnamed containers that have been left at school. The photo below is from just last week! Despite our lost property box being the place to collect lost items, many of these containers never get collected. I ask all parents to please assist us to reduce this costly waste by clearly naming each lunchbox/container that comes to school.
Quote of the Week
"Strength does not come from physical capacity; it comes from indomitable will."
-Gandhi
From our APC - Mrs Belinda Battaia
NCCD -Nationally Consistent Collection of Data
Under the Disability Discrimination Act 1992 (DDA) and the Disability Standards for Education 2005, Australian students with a disability must be able to access and participate in education on the same basis as their peers. To ensure this, necessary adjustments are made to ensure students with a disability are able to access an education based on the professional judgement of teachers, in consultation with the student and/or their parents, guardians or carers.
In the last week, all teachers at St Mary’s have met with Mrs Dalglish to finalise plans for students on the NCCD. This collaborative process will be finalised in the next few weeks when teachers will invite parents to meet in person or via email or phone to discuss the suggested adjustments and goals for each student. By highlighting the individual needs of each student on the NCCD, our school can focus on the level of educational support provided to the individual, to ensure the highest level of success.
Mrs Belinda Battaia
Assistant Principal: Curriculum
Mother's Day Stall
Year 6 Family Social
Sunday 15th May we are bringing back a bit of Mrs Kerrisk's 'Move it or Loose it' magic with a ride to the harbour with the kids. We'll depart from Iluka Park from 3pm on the bike trail.
All families and family members welcome. If parents don't have bikes, feel free to drop your child off with their bike and we'll hook you up with a parent who is riding to look out for your child - we will see you at the Harbour.
If you don't have a bike for your child and you're unable to borrow one, let us know and we'll see how we can help.
If you prefer to just attend the BBQ - scavenger hunt - mingle - at the Snoopy Park, that is also fine - be at the Harbour from 3.45pm.
Prizes for the scavenger hunt. Feel free to bring any park friendly activities to do like footballs etc.
$5 per family; or $2 per person
6M RSVP to Claire 0458 213 523 and 6B RSVP to Narelle 0438 206 940 by Friday 13th May.
Student of the Week
Week 2, Term 2 Student Award Winners
| PC | Edie | For the amazing detail you put into your journal writing this week, well done! |
| PP | Remi | For being a great listener during carpet sessions. Thank you for putting your hand up to answer questions and share your ideas with the class. Keep it up Remi! |
| PP | Cara | For wonderful work and during our sounds learning time. You remember all of our chants and actions and are great at helping us sound out words. Thank you Cara! |
| 1B | Hudson | For your brilliant participation in all tasks and your diligence in the classroom this week was outstanding! Super effort Hudson! |
| 1L | Kheiruz | For your wonderful work ethic and behaviour. You are always a terrific example in our classroom! |
| 1L | Hunter | For a wonderful start to Term 2! You are awesome! |
| 2A | Bethany | For always concentrating and taking pride in the presentation of all your work. |
| 2B | Saylah | For always displaying the virtues of kindness and friendliness. Thank you for being such a Happy Chappy in our classroom! |
| 3B | Olivia | For the wonderful improvements you've made in maths when converting analogue time to digital time. Super Effort! |
| 3B | Eirian | For the amazingly creative ideas and excitement you bring to our narrative discussions. Your imagination inspires us. |
| 3M | Lexie | For the effort and focus you displayed during our persuasive writing task this week. You used your time effectively and produced an excellent persuasive text. |
| 3M | Isla | For the grit you have displayed during our JEMM sessions this week. You persevered and were able to understand that question which kept tricking you up. |
| 4C | Xander | For excellent participation in whole class spelling lessons and an amazing effort to write unknown words. |
| 4K | Brinda | For your accurate representation of multiplication facts. You are a super star at showing repeated addition and arrays to the corelating facts. Well done! |
| 4K | Hannah | For always being organised and on task. You are such a positive model-model for your classmates, keep it up! |
| 5L | Emelia | For all the effort you’ve put into completing written work and for the courage you’ve shown when asking questions this week. You should be very proud of your efforts. Keep up the great effort! |
| 5L | Sibella | For working very hard to catch up on assessments from last term. It's been great to see your committment and dedication to do your very best. Well done! You're a champion! |
| 5R | Jessica | For your enthusiastic participation in RTI sessions. You are trying so hard and your contributions are appreciated. |
| 5R | Tavonga | For working respectively and cooperatively with your partner when completing group work tasks. |
| 6M | Addison | For your positive energy that you bring to the classroom every day. You brighten up everyone's day Addy! |
| 6M | Sonny | For showing true leadership, patience and understanding in your role as MJR leader. |
| 6V | Kaya | For showing care and concern for classmates. Thank you Kaya! |
| 6V | Lucy | For taking care to present your work neatly. Keep up the great work Lucy! |
Community New
Emergency Appeal for Ukraine
The Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need is conducting an emergency appeal to support the Church in Ukraine. Funds are being sent to clergy and religious who are on the ground assisting the people. Please visit www.aidtochurch.org/ukraine or phone 1800 101 201.