Term 3 Key Dates

I would like to welcome everyone back to Term 3. I hope you have managed to stay warm and enjoy some relaxing time with your family over the break. 

We have opened this term commencing with full-time on-campus learning, following the restrictions and guidelines below.

The following applies to all NSW Catholic schools in the Archdiocese:

• All staff and students are expected to be at school unless they are sick or have even the mildest of COVID-19 symptoms or have a medical exemption.
• Wearing masks is recommended in all indoor settings for all staff in primary and secondary schools.
• If parents/carers, children or school staff have visited the Greater Sydney area, or other identified hot spots, they must get tested and follow the applicable advice. Please check the NSW Health Guidelines for further information. https://www.nsw.gov.au/covid-19/nsw-covid-19-case-locations-map 
• Overnight excursions, camps, international excursions, visits to aged care facilities, and community events within school hours are not permitted.
• Staff and visitors should keep 1.5 metres apart from each other wherever possible unless they are from the same family group.

Parent/Carer Guidelines

Parents/carers are to:

• remain outside of school grounds where practical and maintain physical distance. (Thank you for your vigilance with this so far)
• follow mask-wearing requirements
• use the school’s mandatory QR code when entering the school (for important matters only). Please also remember to sign in following the standard visitor process.
• refrain from attending school assemblies and events.

Visitor Guidelines

Visitors are:

• restricted to visits for essential purposes only. 

Local Implications

• At this stage, the scheduled School Explorers Program, due to commence on 13 August can go ahead, with optional parent attendance.   
• Reading and Intervention Program volunteers are unable to commence until further notice.
• Tuckshop can still commence on 26 July, with our volunteers wearing masks.
• Our Year 6 School Camp will be rescheduled. As soon as we receive information about the new date we will send this home to our Year 6 families. 
• Other postponements include the Dental Clinic, School Photos, Book Fair and the NAIDOC Mass. New dates will be distributed soon. 

Please be assured our top priority is the safety of our students, staff and families. I thank you for your continued support and for the way you have commenced this term with care.

I would like to remind our parents and carers to continue your open communication with our teachers and staff. It is much easier to discuss and resolve issues when they arise rather than to wait for things to snowball. Please feel free to call or send emails, as required.

I would like to wish everyone a productive term full of learning and development.

Welcome back!

I would like to welcome Xavier Stallard and his family, Jen, Chris, Nicholas and Ellie back to the St Mary's School Community. We hope that you settle back in quickly and smoothly. It is lovely to see Xavier's smiling face around the school again!

Staff Professional Development

On Monday we shared a day with our Northern Region School colleagues and Fr Richard Leonard, via Zoom.

Fr Richard is a Jesuit priest with a long list of achievements. He has degrees in Arts and Education, as well as a Master’s degree in Theology. Fr Richard did graduate studies at the London Film School and has a PhD from the University of Melbourne. He directs the Australian Catholic Office for Film & Broadcasting, is an Honorary Fellow of the Australian Catholic University; has been a visiting scholar within the School of Theatre, Film & Television at UCLA and a Visiting Professor at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome. He has served on juries at the Cannes, Venice, Berlin, Warsaw, Hong Kong, Montreal, Brisbane and Melbourne International Film Festivals and he has lectured on faith and culture all over the world. Fr Richard has been published in America Magazine, Eureka Street, US Catholics, is a regular columnist with The London Tablet and is a regular guest on ABC Radio. He is the author of ten books, among the titles include Where the Hell is God? and What does it all mean? A guide to being more faithful, hopeful and loving. 

Fr Richard led an engaging day with 160 staff members on Jesus, Choosing and Mission. He connected our mission as teachers in a Catholic school with the challenges of living in society today, in the light of Ignatian spirituality. It was a thoroughly interesting, entertaining and thought-provoking day. 

Counsellor Visits

Our CatholicCare provider, Sharyn Lynch, will continue at St Mary's each Monday this term.

Counselling sessions are a wonderful chance for you or your child/ren to be able to discuss concerns or worries and to gain strategies to assist with the management of these.

If you would like to make an appointment please use the referral portal via https://catholiccare.force.com/housing/s/school-referral-form

If restrictions allow, on Monday 9 August at 3.15pm, Sharyn will be running a parent workshop on Emotional Regulation. All parents are welcome to attend. Care will be provided for your children for the duration of the session. 

School Assemblies

In a constant endeavour to gain the most amount of quality learning time out of our week, we have decided to hold our weekly whole School Assembly each Friday morning at 9.05, rather than on a Monday morning.

'Student of the Week' Teacher Awards will be presented at this assembly and these, along with our other awards, will be published the day before in our Newsletter. After the lifting of the current restrictions, parents and friends will be welcome to attend if they wish. 

This change will allow our students to get straight into learning on a Monday morning and will enable a 120-minute literacy block four days per week. 

Spelling Mastery

Next week students in Year 3 to Year 6 will commence Spelling Mastery as our whole school Spelling Program. 

Spelling Mastery is a six-level Direct Instruction series that teaches students dependable spelling skills by blending three approaches: the phonemic approach, the whole word approach and the morphemic approach. 

The whole word approach focuses on memorisation. Spelling Mastery does not use memorisation for words that contain predictable phonemic elements, but reserves memorisation for words that have irregular letter-sound relationships (i.e feud, break, gone). Prompts are used to make the initial learning easier and systematic practice is provided to facilitate retention.

The phonemic approach is used for letter-sound correspondences that are predictable. For example, the sound /ar/ is highly consistent. In about 95 percent of the words in which the sound /ar/ is said, the sound is spelt with the letters a-r. A careful analysis of phoneme-grapheme relationships was made by the authors and the generalised relationships are systematically introduced and practised.

The morphemic approach is used for combing the roots, bases, prefixes and suffixes into words. Students combine morphographs to write words and do exercises in which they indicate the morphographs in words. The use of morphographs to figure out the meaning of words gradually increases as students progress through the levels.

We have been using Spelling Mastery as an intervention program at St Mary's for a few years and have seen great improvement as a result of this program. The program also aligns with the approach used in InitaLit and Connected Math Concepts. 

The Catholic Education Office has supported our move to the Spelling Mastery program and has contributed funds for us to purchase the teacher resources required. The school will purchase the student materials.

So what will be different? Each child in Years 3-6 will participate in a direct instruction spelling group each day. A placement test will indicate which level your child requires to further develop their spelling skills. Each day your child will go to their group to participate in the lesson. They will have a Spelling Mastery student journal to work in. The lesson involves a lot of teacher and student input, recitation and repetition. 

School Photos

Please note, due to the current NSW restrictions AdvancedLife have rescheduled their visit to Monday 11 October.

Census Collection Notice

Census_Collection_Notice.pdf

Census_Collection_Notice _pdf 153.67 KB

PLEASE ensure your fees for Term 2 have been paid as soon as possible.

Term 3 fees will be distributed soon.

There are many options available for payment of your fees, please speak to Belinda.

NAIDOC WEEK 2021 – HEAL COUNTRY

St Mary’s School has been focussing on NAIDOC this week.

The acronym NAIDOC stands for National Aborigines and Islanders Day Observance Committee.

NAIDOC Week is celebrated by all Australians. It celebrates the history, culture and achievements of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. Their knowledge and complex cultural systems, created and honed over millennia, are often dismissed as primitive and irrelevant to our fast-paced world of today. This is far from true! Their continued care, love, and respect for ‘country’ is grounded in a relationship with the creator. The Spirit of God was poured out onto the original inhabitants of this great Southern Land many, many thousands of years before white settlement. God’s Spirit could be heard through the singing of the birds, the cascade of the waterfall, the rustle of the wind and, most importantly, in silence.

Miriam-Rose Ungunmerr-Baumann, a respected Ngangiwumirr Elder, explains the importance of listening and understanding the silence:

“My people today, recognise and experience in this quietness, the great Life-Giving Spirit, the Father of us all. It is easy for me to experience God’s presence. When I am out hunting, when I am in the bush, among the trees, on a hill or by a billabong; these are the times when I can simply be in God’s presence. My people have been so aware of Nature. It is natural that we will feel close to the Creator.”

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples are inextricably connected to country in Australia and its waters. This connection to country and all of God’s creation is core to their spirituality as a people.

“For us, Country is a word for all the values, places, resources, stories and cultural obligations associated with that area and its features. It describes the entirety of our ancestral domains.”                                  (Professor Mick Dodson).

We are called as Christians to be stewards of God’s creation; Pope Francis has called us all to work together to seek greater protections for our lands, our waters, our sacred sites and our cultural heritage from exploitation, desecration, and destruction. Australia’s First Nation People - the oldest caretakers of this land - have much to teach all Australians about HEALING COUNTRY.

God of all creation,

Great Creator Spirit,

Your presence endures at the heart of our Land and creation sings your praise.

May we learn to listen and pay attention to all that creation reveals to us of You.

Help us to know that we are truly surrounded by your sacred presence…in creation and in each other.

Give us a spirit of reverence for each other and all life,

So that we may walk with gentleness and respect in all we do upon this earth.

School Sport

Friday sport for all grades K-6 will be divided into two blocks. During weeks 1-5, students will be taking part in the Yulunga Traditional Indigenous Games program provided by Sports Australia. Yulunga means playing in the language of the Kamilaroi (Gamori) people of northern-western New South Wales. 

In weeks 6-10, all grades will be focusing on touch football skills, in preparation for the Boorowa Touch football carnival for Years 2-6, early in Term 4. 

Save the Date

• Crookwell Cricket Cup (TBC)

Wednesday, August 4

Years 3-6 (Compulsory all students to attend)

• Boorowa Touch Football

Friday, October 15 

Years 2-6 (Compulsory all students to attend)

Tokyo Olympics 2021

We are on the countdown to the Tokyo 2021 Olympics, and there is a lot of excitement amongst our students. We would like to wish our own Emily Chalker, Hockeyroo, all the best in her quest to bring home the Gold. We will be watching and cheering Emily on! 

Tennis- 2021 Todd Woodbridge Cup- Hume Tennis, Yass. FINAL REMINDER

“The Todd Woodbridge Cup is a primary school competition for stage 2 (years 3 and 4) students that uses modified equipment, numeric scoring and mixed-gender teams.

The competition commences with school zone events followed by regional playoffs (term 3) and finally a state final that is held at Sydney Olympic Park each year (term 4).

The Todd Woodbridge Cup is not just about selecting the best students, but encouraging participation, providing a positive experience playing tennis, growing friendships and giving students the opportunity to represent their school in a team environment. For the majority of students, this may be their first experience representing their school.”

We are asking all interested Year 3 and Year 4 students who would like to take part in this event, to email me at rachael.croker@cg.catholic.edu.au, by Monday, July 19. Please note that we must have at LEAST 4 students to enter a school team, at this stage, we have no students expressing interest.

Archdiocese Athletics

At this stage, the Archdiocesan Athletics carnival is still going ahead on Thursday 12 August. We will keep you updated if things change.

Registrations are still open for:

GOLF - PRIMARY

https://csnsw.sport/sports/mackillop/golf

Please head to the Canberra Goulburn Sport Webpage for information regarding the trials and the link for registration.

https://www.sport.cg.catholic.edu.au/nominations

The full 2021 NSW Primary and Secondary Sports Calendar is now available. It includes dates and information or links to further information for Canberra Goulburn, MacKillop, CCC, NSW All Schools, NSWPSSA and School Sport Australia trials and Championships.

Available at: https://sport.cg.catholic.edu.au/calendar

I am wanting to create a display in the Library around the Children’s Book Week theme “Old Worlds New Worlds Other Words”. If any families have a book character costume, I am wondering if I may borrow it for the display. It would be greatly appreciated. Please send to the office or Library.

Thank you

Dorothea Hewitt

For Parish and Sacramental matters please forward your enquiries to Goulburn Parish Secretary, Sharon Cashman, via email or call into the Parish Office at the Old Convent Building on Thursdays only.

Email: Crookwell@cg.org.au

Website: http://cg.org.au/crookwell/Home.aspx 

Phone: 48321 633 

Address: 55 Wade Street (the Old Convent Building)

Altar Servers

With the easing of COVID restrictions, we can now have volunteers for altar servers during mass.

If your child would like to volunteer, please contact Sharon Cashman in the Goulburn Parish Office on 6239 9863 or goulburn@cg.org.au

St Mary's will be offering for students to participate in the ICAS assessments again this year.

Below are the subjects that will be on offer. These will be conducted online only and during class time.

If you would like your child to participate, please contact Belinda so she can send you the information needed for you to purchase the tests online.