Term One Dates

CogLearn Professional Development

Yesterday the staff and students had the opportunity to work with Libby Gorrie, a coach from COGLearn. Libby brings with her a wealth of teaching experience with delivering explicit instruction programs such as Spelling Mastery and Connecting Math Concepts. She is currently working with Mastery Schools Australia.

Libby visited our Year One to Year Five classrooms to work with our teachers and to model a Connecting Math Concepts lesson. Libby examined our classroom structures and worked on our delivery, pace and fluency. Libby was very complimentary of the strategies we currently have in place.

I would like to congratulate the staff at St Mary's for always striving to learn new things and improve their practice. 

Thank you!

On behalf of St Mary's Primary School, I would like to thank the St Mary's P & F Association for providing the funds to purchase twenty new touchscreen Chromebooks for our Year Five class.

Year Five and Mrs Walsh, are thrilled with their new learning tools and are already putting them to good use. 

Three-Way Conversations and Interim Reports

It was lovely to see many of our parents and carers at the Three-Way (parent or carer/student/teacher) Conversations this week. I know the students relished the opportunity to share their learning spaces, goals and achievements with you.

At the end of Term Two, you will receive your child's Academic Report and Evidence of Learning Folder. This report will also include Engagement with Learning indicators, similar to those used on the Interim Report. This will allow you to gauge your child's social development and engagement with learning.

If you were unable to attend the Three-Way Conversations, your child's Interim Report will be sent home with your child or mailed to you.

 

School Cross Country Carnival

Our Cross Country Carnival will be held TOMORROW Friday 18 March at the Crookwell Showground.

Students will have morning tea at school prior to leaving and then walk with their teachers and support staff to the Showground. The first race will commence at 11.00am, with the last event starting at approximately 12.05pm. Students will then walk back to school for lunch, so will only need to carry a drink bottle to the showground. There will be no Tuckshop available on that day.

All students participate in our Cross Country Carnival, competing over the following distances:

5/6/7 Years - 600m

8 Years - 1km 

9/10 Years - 2km 

11/12 Years - 3km

An AMENDED program of events is available in our School Sports section of this newsletter.

The Northern Region Carnival will be held on Friday 29 April (Week One) for students in the 9-12 Years age groups only.  Students in the 8 Years category wishing to qualify for Northern Region will need to compete in the 9 Years event tomorrow. Please notify Mrs Rachael Croker if you intend for your child to do this.

Tour De Cure

Tomorrow the Tour De Cure Signature crew will ride through Crookwell to raise vital funds to support the doctors and scientists who have dedicated their lives to uncovering a cure for cancer. The funds raised support the researchers, surgeons and clinicians who dedicate their lives to finding a cure. 

The tour occurs over nine days and the participants travel from Geelong to Canberra, covering a total of 1355km from 10-20 March.

It is hoped that the cyclists will ride past St Mary's and we will line our students up to cheer them on.

If you would like to send in a donation for this course it will be given to Kent Bestwick from Bathurst, one of the cyclists, to help him achieve his fundraising goal. Please send donations marked in an envelope or zip lock bag prior to, or on, Friday 18 March.

For further information visit our School Sports section in the newsletter. 

Introducing Mrs Nicola Spackman

Burrendong Dam was built on the Macquarie River, flooding the land my family farmed, hence my family moved to a small country town and started a business. Life growing up in a small town meant lots of adventures, travel, lots of community functions and lots of sport. I loved camping, playing cards, water-skiing, playing basketball, netball, football and tennis. Life in Crookwell, a small rural town, reminds me of my early years growing up.

Dad is 91, living in Dubbo with my sister. My sister and brothers have homes on the Sunshine Coast. When retirement finally comes for me, I will look forward to holidays with them all! My brother is part owner of a pub in Tasmania and in the coming weeks, I am excited to have the opportunity to take a small amount of Long Service Leave, driving my 91-year-old father to visit him.

Travelling, like teaching and family, are my passions!

When younger, I was lucky enough to be selected as an AFS exchange student, spending a year in the USA, beginning a lifetime love of travelling and developing a strong bond with my host family. I returned overseas 6 years later, travelling the world, visiting amazing places & meeting the most wonderful people. Again in 2016, I was able to travel to the UK and Europe visiting & travelling with family members to see my daughter, who was living in London. One of my sons spent 2018 living in London, providing me with another excuse to travel with my youngest son.

Passionate about teaching, my teaching career began at St Raphael’s in Cowra. Following three happy years in Cowra, I travelled overseas again for a year.

Returning to Australia in my 20’s, having exhausted my money supply, I accepted a teaching position in Dubbo. Dubbo was followed by a teaching stint in Sydney. Meeting Gerald, we commenced our married life in the central west, in Parkes. Andrew and Michael were both born while living in Parkes. I continued teaching at Red Bend Catholic College in Forbes and teaching at both the Catholic and state schools in Parkes.

We moved to Crookwell in 1995, buying into a local business, allowing Gerald to move home and we welcomed Emily, Luke and  Sam into our family. Our 5 children completed their early school years at St Mary’s, followed by high school at Trinity and although scattered around Australia remain the centre of my universe. I am grateful to both school communities for the well-rounded education they provided and  I am immensely proud of all of my children. 

Andrew is an auto-electrician & has his own Machine Maintenance business in Goulburn, Michael is an engineer in Sydney working on the facade of a number of well-known constructions. Emily is currently completing her PhD while working for Melbourne University and Stanford University on a research project on Autism. Luke is in his final year at Brisbane University studying engineering and has commenced a cadetship with a company in Brisbane. Sam is enjoying a building apprenticeship with a local family here in Crookwell and is a great asset to us on the farm. We love having him at home.

I commenced teaching at St Mary’s in 1998 and during this time I have taught part-time and full-time in a number of different positions. Learning and classroom support became an area of interest and specialisation as our community became more inclusive, accepting and understanding of the additional needs of others. I love my job and I absolutely love working with your children… those needing support and those needing enrichment. As teachers, we become very attached to your children and miss them when they go. We are very lucky at St Mary’s to have very dedicated and experienced teachers working hard to provide the best care and education for your children.

I have the best job in the world!

Tour de Cure Signature Cycling Tour 2022

Tour de Cure has one mission, to cure cancer and change lives while doing this. They do this through their inspirational events where they raise funds to support the researchers, surgeons and clinicians who dedicate their lives to finding a cure for cancer

The 2022 tour is the Surf Coast to Capital tour starting from Geelong, travelling to Canberra, a mammoth effort. In previous years, the Tour team would visit local schools and deliver an educational program, however COVID has restricted this in 2022.

Crookwell is very lucky to have the Tour de Cure teams stopping for lunch on Friday 18 March. We have been able to work with the team to arrange them to do a cycle past the school before they leave town, so our school and community can show our appreciation for the amazing work they do and cheer them on for their final 2 days of cycling.

We encourage students to bring along a coin donation on Friday 18 March, and we will present this to the group as they cycle by.

Special mention is that Mark Beretta from Sunrise, Channel 7 will be a part of this group.

For any further information, please contact Mrs Rachael Croker at rachael.croker@cg.catholic.edu.au 

Save The Date

Mackillop Swimming Championships

Next Tuesday Harry Price (Yr 6) will be a Multi Class member of the Canberra/Goulburn Swim Team and will be competing against other Archdiocese teams at SOPAC (Sydney Olympic Park Aquatic Centre). Harry will be swimming in the 50m Freestyle and 50m Backstroke. As previously mentioned, this is a huge accomplishment and we wish you the best of luck Harry. Show them just how wonderful and determined you are!!!

Stay tuned for his results.   

Canberra/Goulburn Rep Sport Trials  

Mackillop Soccer - Congratulations to Ava Nicholson who has progressed on to the Mackillop Soccer trial. Both she and Saxon attended the first trial on Monday in Canberra. Saxon was named in the possible/probables game but narrowly missed selection as a goalie. Ava played all day as a striker and was selected to trial again in Goulburn on 27th May for a position in the Mackillop team.

Congratulations Ava and Saxon....

The focus for all classes this week was the National Day of Action against Bullying and Violence on Friday 18 March 2022.

The National Day of Action against Bullying and Violence is important in our school, and we say ‘Bullying. No Way!’

The NDA is an opportunity for our school to deliver the powerful message that bullying is never ok. At school we encourage students to join the conversation to find positive solutions for bullying prevention.

Our 2022 theme offers an opportunity to learn about kindness and demonstrate kind behaviours. Kindness plays an important role in bullying prevention.

Crookwell Community Fun Run

Tuckshop 

Volunteers needed!

Tuckshop is a great way to get involved and contribute to St Mary’s and we are always in need of volunteers.

Once a term would be great – twice a term terrific! Mondays or Fridays – whichever suits you best.

Let us know if you would like to team up with someone in particular and we will put ‘newbies’ on with someone experienced.

Fridays are in particular need of volunteers as we really need 3 people to get the orders out on time. In the future, if we are unable to have 3 people on Fridays, we will be forced to cancel tuckshop for that day.

If you have any questions we are happy to help.

If you cannot do your date, please organise your replacement yourself and advise Belinda of the update to ensure we have a correct copy of the roster. 

Class Awards:

The Student of the Week Award recipients this week are..

Kindergarten: Claudia Hills, Flynn Pascoe and Sasha Wicks

Year 1- Fraser McIntosh and Jack Strode

Year 2- Flynn Doran, Georgia Proudman and Jobe Seaman

Year 3- Imogen Hewitt and Ruby Pappalardo

Year 4- Sienna Gann and Hayden Tarlinton

Year 5- Angus Foley and Lara McCulloch

Year 6- Saxon Greewood, Marli Selmes and Kaylee Skinner

Japanese Award:

The class of the week is: Kindergarten

School Spirit Award:

Tahlia Anderson, Briana Blowes, Caitlyn Hogan and Amelia O'Brien for care and understanding of the new Kindergarten students

Imogen Hewitt  for showing kindess and being inclusive

Ruby Pappalardo for demonstrating care for our environment

2022 Sacramental Dates

Sacramental Program dates

Parish Office

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. Sharon is available in Crookwell on the 1st and 3rd Thursday of the month from 11.30am-3.30pm

Email: Crookwell@cg.org.au

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

Phone: 48321 633 

Address: 55 Wade Street (the Old Convent Building)