Newsletter W3 T2

Dear Parents and Carers

Happy Mother’s Day to all of our wonderful and dedicated mums, grandmas and assorted ‘stand in’ mums, I hope you had a wonderful day off and that your children took the opportunity to pay back a little of what they receive from these special people in their lives. I hope the special gifts that the children made for you at school arrived safe and sound. It was a little bit like Santa’s workshop at St Mary’s last week with lots of generous hands pitching in to make sure that every mum received a handmade gift.

Some of the many helping hands preparing Mother’s day gifts.

On Friday we celebrated Mother’s Day at St Mary’s with a beautiful liturgy to celebrate our mums and the special place they have in our lives. Year One did a wonderful job presenting ‘My Mum’ by Anthony Browne and reverently leading the school in prayer. Our mums then got to enjoy a delicious morning tea, whilst their children shopped for gifts at the P and F Mother’s day stall. A big thanks to our P and F for organising the stall and for our fantastic student sales representatives.

Last week we had many reasons to celebrate in our school. Firstly our Cross Country Team travelled to Willandra Cross Country Track for the Diocesan Cross Country Championships. We sent a team of 24 students and parent helpers up to Willandra, the team winning the Small School Championship for the first time in many years. Mr Kinch took the team and was thrilled with the team spirit which all of our competitors showed to each other and the competing schools. Congratulations to all of our team and a particular congratulations to Eden and Audrey Sakora who managed to place 4th and 5th in their events to move through to the next level of competition.

This week our Year 3 and 5 students will be sitting NAPLAN, starting tomorrow with a Writing paper for Year 3 and an online Writing task for Year 5. These classes will complete a NAPLAN task each day, finishing with Mathematics on Friday. Please make sure your child is feeling calm and eats a good breakfast before sitting NAPLAN. With the tasks online this year, we are hoping the results will be reported back to parents more quickly than previously. A big thanks to Mrs Gabrielle Peters who has organised NAPLAN at a school level and will ensure all teachers and students are supported in each of the tasks.

I have been asked to stand in as Acting Principal at St Michael’s in Nowra for the past two days and I thank Mr Gary Norris for supporting staff in my absence. Gary was a previous Principal at St Mary’s and many other Catholic Schools with a wealth of experience, he is a happy presence among the students and staff.

Included in this newsletter is an invitation to all of our Yr 4,5,6 parents to attend a ‘Your Choicez’ seminar at St John the Evangelist High School on Wednesday 22nd May. The presentation is based around educating parents to support their children through developing positive attitudes to relationships and sexuality. I have personally attended this seminar several times at St John’s and would highly recommend it. In this age of the internet and social media it is so important that parents know the importance of developing open, trusting and honest communication with their children as soon as possible, so that you can face the challenges together.

It has been a wonderful transition as our students move into their winter uniforms this term. Just a reminder that all students should be wearing their winter uniforms by this week. Please ensure your children wear the correct shoes - all black polishable laceup shoes (Black sole)  and label all clothing clearly so that jumpers and jackets are not lost. Correct uniform supports every child in feeling pride in our school and fosters a sense of belonging to our school community.

Have a great week.

Yours in partnership,

Mrs Laurinda Nelson

Principal