Term 2 Week 9 2024

Giinagay families,

It is hard to believe that this is the final newsletter for Term 2 - half the year has sped by!

School Reports

This week I have had the privilege of reading 51 student reports. I am always so happy to read about the learning, growth and learning opportunities that our students have access to each and every day. I also want to thank the Teachers and our amazing support staff who work so hard everyday to ensure the learning and well being needs of all of our students are met. I hope each family enjoys reading about your child's learning progress this semester as much as I have.

NAIDOC

Our 2024 NAIDOC week celebrations will commence next week (Week 10). The theme this year being "Keep the Fire Burning! Black, Loud and Proud". The symbolism of the fire represents the enduring strength and vitality of Indigenous cultures, passed down through generations despite the challenges faced. When I think about our St Mary's community, it really is an honour to learn and work alongside the strong and open Indigenous staff we have on our team. The unity that our school community shows and shares with each other is also a testament to our Indigenous staff, children and families. Please join us next week for our NAIDOC Mass (Wednesday) or Bush Tucker Day (Thursday) as we celebrate this week and our amazing community. 

Leave

Just a reminder that I will be on leave the first 3 weeks of Term 3, please direct all phone calls to Miss Amy at the school on 65647369. I will be out of range most of that time so if I am not responding to emails, that is why!

Nadine 

St Mary's is now open for 2025 enrolments. If you have children starting school next year or know of anyone wanting to enrol their child please ask them to get in touch with us.

K/1:  Cohen, Josiah & Mia

2/3:  Peyton, Oakley, Djanaambi & Bradley 

4:     Tallulah, Natasha, Aaliyah & Anna  

L/C:  Mason & Jayden

5/6:  Adrian, Archie, Sonny & Lleyton 

In the middle session on Tuesday our K/1's had many different tasks to complete. Students sat in groups to complete their tasks.

Group 1 with Mr Troy's help Liam, William, Romi & Jai colour coded words on their worksheet, for example the word 'said' had to be coloured Yellow, then the next word which was 'the' was coloured red.

Group 2 were practicing writing with Miss Eden. Cohen and Norah were tracing the word, writing the word and writing the word in a sentence.

Group 3, Roman and Carmella were using a spelling app with Aunty clarice

Group 4 were reading with Miss Simone. Mia, Kelaari, Josiah & Cohen were taking turns in reading the story and making sure they were keeping up with eachother.

K/1 have been learning about Mass in Maths by ordering objects from lightest to heaviest, and comparing the weight of objects using a pan balance.

In InitiaLit with Miss Bonnie students are learning words ending in "tion" and how it sounds/pronounced like "shen".

Here's a sneak peek of our Year 4 Students creating their artworks for the upcoming Phoenix Art Exhibition that runs from the 5th - 19th July.

Year 4 Students have been working in groups on persuasive writing using creative starters to convince their teacher that 'dogs are better than cats' and why 'students should not have homework'. 

In Learning Club our students have been performing dance with Mr Richard. Jayden is performing a Bangarra Dance in this photo.

On Thursday 20th Stage 3 Students walked down to Shelly Park in Bowraville to test the quality of Bowraville's river water with Oz Green. Student's collected water and tested it with expert Sue Lennox & Elizabeth. 

They tested Oxygen levels, Faecal Coliform and contamination. They also spoke about river health and erosion.

Next Term our Students will be part of a leadership day where they will report their findings to the Community.

In health 5/6 worked together to create a rap song about how bullying is not ok

Every Friday students complete spelling and hand writing tasks. They are also learning how to write Poetry.

Our Students have art works on display in the upcoming Exhibition at Phoenix Gallery between the 5th - 19th July.

On Monday 24th June our Stage 3 students travelled to Bishop Druitt College in Coffs Harbour to participate in a Chess Tournament. St Mary's sent 3 teams that consisted of 4 players in each team. We had and advanced team, intermediate team and rookie team. Our students all played fair and showed great qualities in sportsmanship, mindset and attitude.

Our advanced team was coming equal first with St Augustine's when our students left BDC for the day. Unfortunately due to travel our students could not stay until the end of the tournament. 

On Wednesday 12th June 2 of our students, Shyliqua and Harry joined the St Pat's Rugby team to compete at Leisure Park in Coffs Harbour. St Mary's Casino was the winning team of the day.

Please see the letter attached around how Disability information is used and how to obtain more information about this data collection for parents.