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Dear Parents,
As part of Federal Government requirements all schools are required to gather data on parent perceptions about the school their child attends. Our system uses a survey called ‘Tell Them From Me’.
This survey gathers information on the following areas:
- The religious life and identity of the school
- Communication with parents
- Whether St Mary’s is a welcoming and inclusive school
- The quality of the learning taking place at school
- Parental support for learning at home
- Parent participation in the life of the school
- Whether the school supports positive behaviours
- Whether students feel safe at school.
Parents will receive a notification giving them a link to the survey next week. Surveys close at 4.30pm on Friday 9th May. Surveys take approximately 20 minutes to complete. I ask all families to take the time to complete the survey.
Staff and students from Years Three to Year Six also have the opportunity to participate in surveys specifically designed for them.
Parent-Teacher Meetings
A reminder to parents that parent-teacher interviews will be taking place this Wednesday. A link to the booking sheet was sent out on Compass. Bookings will close on Tuesday.
Athletics Carnival
On Monday all students will be participating in our annual athletics carnival. Details about the day have been sent home on Compass. The focus of the day is on doing your best, supporting your classmates and having fun. I hope it will be fine weather and we look forward to seeing many parents turn up.
Big Sing
On Wednesday Mrs Presser and I will be taking students to participate in the choral festival ‘Big Sing’ in Canberra. We were due to attend last year, however Covid forced its cancellation. I am sure they will have a wonderful day.
GOSPEL: John 14:15-21
If you love me you will keep my commandments. I shall ask the Father, and he will give you another Paraclete to be with you forever, the Spirit of truth whom the world can never accept since it neither sees nor knows him; but you know him, because he is with you, he is in you. I shall not leave you orphans; I shall come to you. In a short time the world will no longer see me; but you will see that I live and you also will live. On that day you will know that I am in my Father and you in me and I in you. Whoever holds to my commandments and keeps them is the one who loves me; and whoever loves me will be loved by my Father, and I shall love him and reveal myself to him.'
REFLECTION
A husband would always tell his wife that he loves her, his show of love does not end by his vocal profession. He follows it up by actual acts of love, say for example by helping her with household chores and by being faithful to their Marriage vows.
As the husband continues to do these noble acts their love and marriage would surely flourish. And it would perpetually be blessed by the guidance of the Holy Spirit.
In this gospel, Jesus promised the disciples an advocate who would always be there for them; to help and guide them. But for the advocate to be with them, the disciples must show their love for God by propagating His teachings and by living HIS commandments. Therefore there is no fulfilment of the promise of the advocate without the disciples’ obedience and actual acts of love.
It’s very easy for us to profess that we love Jesus, but do we really love Jesus? For example we say we love Jesus yet we betray the sanctity of the sacrament of marriage. Or we choose to turn a blind eye to someone in need of our help. Where is then the concrete action of our love for God?
For our love for Jesus to grow and bear fruit we have to nurture it with actual acts of love. We therefore have to be faithful to our Matrimonial vows, we have to share Jesus and we have to become a living Jesus for others so that through us they will know Jesus.
As we do these noble acts we allow the Holy Spirit to come to us and we allow it to move freely within us. We therefore do good all the time and this we do not do by our singular actions. We do this because the Holy Spirit is prompting us to do it.
Do you want to feel the living presence of the Holy Spirit within you? – Marino J. Dasmarinas
FIRST EUCHARIST SACRAMENTAL PARENT MEETING
On Tuesday 23rd May, we will be holding our sacramental meeting for all students who are making their First Eucharist this year. The meeting will commence at 6pm and will go for approximately 30 minutes. Attendance is compulsory. A reminder that part of your commitment, you have agreed to attend three weekend masses as part of your preparation. Please remember to get your sheets signed. The sacrament of First Eucharist will be celebrated on Saturday 10th June at 6pm and Sunday 11th June at 10am. You will be asked to select a date at the parent meeting.
MASSES AND PRAYER SERVICES
On Tuesday, Year 3 will celebrate Our Lady Help of Christians with a prayer service at 8:50am in the school hall. On Friday at 9:30am, Year 1 and 2 will celebrate a mass with Fr Jiss in the Prayer Room. We would like to extend a warm welcome to all members of our school community to join us for these celebrations.
God Bless,
Warren Ziebowski
(Religious Education Coordinator)
We're out of Office Monday 22/5/23 Due to the ATHLETICS CARNIVAL
Please call 0403 302 937 for urgent messages
Athletics Carnival Reminders
Our Athletics Carnival for students in Year K to 6 will be held on Monday 22nd May at Gus Smith Oval.
Students in Year 3 to 6 will compete in running events – 800m, 200m and 100m age races. They will also participate in Long Jump, Shot Put and Discus. For the 100m, the students compete in the age they are turning this year. In all other running and track events they will compete as Juniors (8,9 & 10 years) Intermediate (11 years) and Senior (12/13 years)
Students in Year K to 2 will be bussed to the oval in the morning and will have an opportunity to cheer for their Primary friends and then participate in fun-based events including running, shot put, discus and hurdles. At the completion of their events, they will return to school.
Arrival/Departure
Children in Years 3 to 6 may be dropped at the oval from 8:30am. Students who arrive at school by bus will be dropped down to Gus Smith after arriving at school. Students will need to have their name checked off by their class teacher on arrival. This is a legal requirement for our class rolls. Buses will return those students who are not collected from the carnival to school in time for afternoon buses. Students departing from the oval at the conclusion of the carnival will need a note to be given to their class teacher.
Students in Years K to 2 will arrive at school as normal and depart school as normal.
Lunch/Recess for K to 6
There is no set time for lunch or recess and students are encouraged to eat when they get a break. There will be no lunch orders from school available as a sausage sizzle meal deal and a small canteen will be in operation at Gus Smith Oval. Please ensure they have plenty of extra food and drink for the day.
Uniform
All students are to wear their sports uniform or their sports colours. There will be points awarded to houses for students who come dressed up!
Event Timing
Unfortunately, we cannot give specific times for track and field events; however, we will begin with the 800m races at around 9.15am then on to the 100m races. We hope to then have our K to 2 fun races which will then be followed by the 200m races. We will start with juniors moving up to seniors for each race. Field events will begin at the start of the day and will operate on rotation.
Helpers
We would really love some volunteers on the day! Unfortunately we are unable to secure any timing gates this year so will need timekeepers on our lanes – if you are able to help out could you please email me the times you would be available at leonne.challen@cg.catholic.edu.au
We look forward to a fantastic day! Please email me with any questions.
Soccer Carnival
What an amazing day we had both weather wise and all things soccer related! From all accounts the students had a fantastic time and it was a tremendous chance to come together as a community. A big thank you to our participating schools - St Joseph’s Boorowa, Trinity Catholic School Harden & Young North Public School.
Thank you also to Paul Cameron for his assistance with the draw and organisation of the grounds, Brendan Croese and Hennessy Catholic College for the lend of their amazing and talented students for the day, our Community Council for their hard work with providing a much needed canteen to nourish everyone and Mr Peter Hughes for providing such a top quality sausage sizzle.
Special thanks to Donna Dal Molin and the amazing staff at St Mary’s for stepping in and running the whole show when I became ill. I am truly grateful for their support and they did an outstanding job! We look forward to our carnival continuing to grow in success in 2024.
Archdiocesan Cross Country
We wish Agatha Murphy, Indianna Brown, Annabel Bailey, Sarah Webber, Mercadez Cartwright & Carter James all the best today as they represent the Western Region at the Archdiocesan Cross Country Carnival today at Stromlo. We look forward to sharing their results with you when available!!
Mortimer Legends Day - Year 5 & 6
We look forward to participating in this event on Wednesday 31st May at Keith Cullen Oval. We have entered one boys team and three girls teams in Division A and one boys team in Division B. The NRL have made some changes to the format of the day which is outlined by the NRL below:
In 2023, NRL Game Development will be altering the on-field team numbers for the Mortimer Legends Tackle Division in line with the rest of the state. Each match in the Mortimer Legends gala day will feature seven players on field per team, played over a field 68m long x 30m wide (where possible). The need to play 13 a side in this division is now void due to the PSSA Classic Shield being played as stand-alone events in Term 1 and Catholic Diocese Sport removing the under 12’s ICPSC Challenge from their calendar in 2023.
These changes will allow us to better utilise the greenspace available at our local facilities and as a result, allow more teams to enter and therefore more opportunity for Students to play Rugby League. Our number one focus has and always will be providing Students a fun, safe environment to experience our game – many of which are first time participants. We hope these changes encourage Schools to continue to enter multiple teams in this event and allow us to offer divisions for both experienced and inexperienced teams.
Further to the changes above, the NRL has continued to work towards development competitions in local community RL from ages 12 and below. In supporting this, matches played within the Mortimer Legends will remain competitive however, scores will not be kept.
We encourage Students to give their absolute best. As we have done in previous year the Best & Fairest of each team will be rewarded whilst the Rick Keast Medal for best on ground in both Tackle & Tag divisions will be handed out at each Mortimer Legends Gala Day location in 2023.
We thank you for your continued support and look forward to seeing your School in 2023
Further information including draws and team lists will be sent out via Compass shortly. We still need at least 2 players on our Division B team so please email me if your child would like to play.
Rugby Union Trials
Congratulations Jesse Gault who was selected in the Archdiocesan Rugby Union Team this week. Jesse and the team will play at the MacKillop Trials in Forbes on Sunday 25th and Monday 26th June. Well done on this amazing achievement and we look forward to hearing about your experience!! Go Jesse!!
Hello All,
We’ve made it to another weekend! You may have noticed that the Canteen Menu has been slightly reduced on Fridays. In order for me to have the full menu available it is essential that I have volunteers in the canteen on Fridays.
Thank you to those who have been consistently helping and those that have already signed up for upcoming canteen duty. If you would like to sign up please follow the link below to the Zelos app which will allow you to easily assign yourself to a task. There is always a pot of coffee on and some home baked treats for your service ?
https://app.getzelos.com/i/nxRsgjaJ
As you know there is no canteen on Monday and I will be up at the Athletics Carnival with a variety of snacks and drinks on offer in addition to the sausage sizzle, so a little pocket change for the kids will be put to good use. There will be extra sausages for sale on the day if parents wish to purchase them for $3.
Flexischools will be open till Sunday 8pm if you still need to order your childs Meal Deal for Monday.
I also wanted to let you know that I now have on offer Hot Chocolate and Hot Strawberry Nesquick for $2.00 and an extra 50 cents will get you a giant marshmallow to go with it.
I will add it to Flexischools shortly so you can order for your children to go with their lunch, a little something warming to go with the cooler weather.
Thank you,
Jen Harden