Dear Parents and Carers 

Finally an official welcome back to everyone. It has been wonderful to have our community back together, we are looking forward to welcoming our parents back on site in the near future. Revised COVID restrictions are attached to this newsletter. Recently the staff have working on developing our school’s Vision and Mission statements, which are collaboratively developed and express our community’s 'Vision' of the environment that we are creating at St Mary’s and the Mission, the way we intend to make this a reality. As part of this process, we have identified the values that we believe are inherent in the way every person is treated within our school community. It will be no surprise to hear that some of the standout values identified include:

Compassion, Dignity, Creativity, Inclusion, Joy ,Community. 

These are some of the values that guide our direction and decision making in our very special community of St Mary’s School. We look forward to sharing our draft Vision and Mission with you shortly. This week our school website has had a relaunch with lots of beautiful photos and up to date information regarding our school. If you have not had a look already here is the link, you may recognise some lovely faces! St Mary's Star of the Sea School Website. 

Our P & F is such a vital organisation within our school, and behaind the events and fundraising there is a band of devoted community minded individuals. For over five years, our P and F has been lead with enormous enthusiasm and dedication by Jodie Lee as President. Jodie has been integral in community building and creating a sense of belonging and joy in our school, Jodie has recently made the decision to step down as president. She is completing her final Prac placement to qualify as a teacher, therefore has moved her focus to launching a new career path. We thank Jodie for her incredible service to our our community, Anneliese Robinson will step in as our President until our AGM early next year. There will be a P & F meeting this Monday night at 5:30pm at the school it would be lovely to welcome you!  

Tomorrow we will be hosting STEM Day (Science Technology Engineering Maths), Katy Reid has been leading this curriculum area in our school with great expertise and passion. Tomorrow will be lots of fun and great learning including rocket making, drone flying and design and make tasks. Also look out on facebook for the astounding Watermelon Challenge that took place last week, it was an explosive finish! 

As Term Four rushes quickly to a close there are many events and activities that occur and even more after our extended period of remote learning. We have our wonderful Year 6 group preparing to transition to High School and our lovely preschoolers getting ready to start their St Mary’s school journey through Kindergarten orientation. It is a time of great excitement for many but it can also be also be a time of anxiety as children step into the new and unknown. We are here to support students and parents through this important part of their journey, let us know if we can help in any way. 

I look forward to seeing many of you at parent pickup in the afternoons, enjoy your week as this beautiful part of the world opens up to our wider community again. 

Yours in partnership

Laurinda Nelson

Dear Parents and Carers

I am pleased to inform you that we have received updated advice regarding an easing of COVID-19 restrictions in schools from next week (Week 6, Term 4). 

From Monday 8 November 2021, all NSW schools will operate at updated Level 3 settings for the rest of Term 4, with more activities allowed in a COVID-safe manner. 

The information in this letter is a summary of the key changes. A document containing the detailed Level 3 restrictions will be shared with you as soon as it is made available to us.

Key changes from 8 November 2021 (Week 6, Term 4)

From this Monday 8 November 2021, until the end of Term 4 2021, the following activities will be allowed in a COVID-safe manner:

Actions we can all take to keep our students, staff and school community safe

By continuing to support each other and following the required COVID-safe measures, we can prioritise student and staff wellness and minimise disruption to student learning.

Further updates

As mentioned above, this letter provides a summary of key changes. Updated Level 3 restrictions with full details will be shared with you as soon as it is available to us.

The changes outlined in this letter will apply for the remainder of Term 4, 2021. We can look forward to more freedoms when schools return in 2022. These will be communicated as soon as details are available.

As always, we will continue to provide updates to keep you informed. If you would like to raise any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact the school.

Sincerely,

Family Mass for Reconciliation Candidates

Hopefully you received an email from Anne Foster, our Parish Sacramental coordinator this week with an update on reconciliation.

This Sunday afternoon November 7, we will acknowledge our Reconciliation candidates at the 5pm Family Mass.

Due to COVID restrictions we will need to hold this Mass at our Holy Family Church in Ulladulla. Although we are restricted to 2 people per family- the candidate and one other, this is a very important part of the preparation process. Please remember to RSVP to Anne to allow for a fast check in process. (fosterja@outlook.com or 0402 904 188) Please arrive in plenty of time to avoid crowding at the church door. Please bring your completed booklet 'Preparing to Make Peace' and we will make reference to it during the Mass.

If your child would feel comfortable reading during the mass, please email me ASAP so I can prepare them this week.

If you have any questions please don't hesitate to contact me.

Sacrament of First Reconciliation: Friday, 12 November, 6.00pm, Holy Family Church, Ulladulla

Due to Covid restrictions, numbers will be limited to candidate, accompanied by two others, and you are asked pre-register to Anne Foster (fosterja@outlook.com or 0402 904 188)

Please arrive in plenty of time to avoid crowding at the church door.

We have had some enquiries re dress code for 12 November.  There are no special requirements – just as if going out for dinner or for a party.

Thank you for your patience with the very different way we have had to approach preparation for and arrangements for this Sacrament over the past two years.

Holy Communion

Your child has now received their booklet for the preparation process. Please take the time to work through this with your child to prepare them for the sacrament. As the current COVID restrictions are changing we will be in touch with you once the plan is finalised.

St Mary’s Feast Day

We are celebrating St Mary’s feast day on Friday 12 November. We will be celebrating Grandparents day as well.

We will hold an assembly at 9:30am via Zoom where we will be acknowledging the significant role Grandparents play in the lives of our students. Please email photos or videos of your child with their grandparent to Mrs Peters or the office so we can put together an iMovie of thanks. Your child might like to finish the following sentences:

• I love my Nan/Pop because…
• My Grandma/Grandpa is special to me because…
• Something my Nonna/Nonno has taught me is…

email  ATT Mrs Peters - info@sosmdow.catholic.edu.au

We will be holding a complimentary sausage sizzle for lunch and ice block to celebrate our wonderful school. If your child needs more for lunch than one sausage sandwich, please pack additional food. If you would not like your child/ren to participate in the sausage sizzle/iceblock, please let the office know.

Year 6 will be hosting a cake stall from second break so students are encouraged to bring in $2 to purchase a cake.

Gabrielle Peters

We celebrated all our wonderful teachers several weeks ago treating them to a lovely lunch for World Teachers Day.   On Friday we acknowledged our Assistant Principal, Mrs Valentini and all that she does for our school with a lovely morning tea.

St Mary’s Star of the Sea Catholic Primary School Uniform Purchases

https://www.lowes.com.au/schools-online/st-mary-s-star-of-the-sea-milton

Lowes have now taken over the sale of our St Mary’s Uniforms, please use the link above to purchase uniforms.   This link can also be found on the school website.

There are boys summer and winter uniforms still available through school, while stock lasts.

Year 5 have settled nicely into their work, this week they have been looking at 3D shapes in Maths

Year 6 carried out an experiment with Mrs Reid on Friday, to see how many elastic bands it would take for a watermelon to implode.