Good luck!

We wish Mrs Ashlee Picker the best of luck as she leaves us tomorrow to commence her maternity leave. We hope she enjoys this special time with her family. We look forward to hearing the news of the safe arrival of Baby Picker in mid to late March.

Parents & Friends

Thank you to all the parents who came along to the P & F AGM and General Meeting on Tuesday night. Once again a strong P & F Executive team has been formed. We also have generous volunteers to oversee the Tuckshop, Cattle Fund and class fundraising events for 2019.

Congratulations to Daniel Walsh who has taken on the position of President and Craig Croker, Rechell Naughton and Catherine Culley who will support him in their role as Vice Presidents. We also welcome back Allison Hewitt who has taken on the position of Treasurer and Mellissa Haynes who has accepted the role of Secretary. Our sub-committee coordinators include James McCormack- Cattle Committee and Daria Lawson- Tuckshop. Once again we thank Katherine Fraser, outgoing Tuckshop Coordinator, for her commitment to the role over the past three years.

Our Class event coordinators are as follows;

Kindergarten - Angela Cuskelly

Year 1 - Rechell Naughton

Year 2 - Cassie Rowe

Year 3 - Daria Lawson

Year 4 - Catherine Culley/ Craig Croker/ Daniel Walsh/ Marty Reynolds

Year 5 - Jackie Blowes

Year 6 - Position to be filled 

At this meeting, most classes were allocated a fundraising event for the year. (See P & F News in this Newsletter.)  You will receive information about your class event, from the coordinator, as the year progresses.

Thank you to all our parents for your consistent support of St Mary’s P & F events.

School Fees

The school accounts have been sent out this week. Each term, after this one, the invoices will be emailed out. If you would prefer a print copy please let Belinda know.

The Tuition Fee for St Mary’s is set annually by the Catholic Education Commission. This non-negotiable fee is paid by the school to the Catholic Education Office each term.

The School Board sets levies for Building, Utilities and Maintenance, Resources and Technology as part of the process of forming the annual school budget.

The Resource Levy covers all stationery, text materials, classroom paper, art and craft materials and sundry items purchased for the children and the classes. The Utilities Levy covers the costs associated with the general running of the school itself. These include cleaning, gas and electricity, upkeep of the yards and gardens, phone, mowing, waste disposal etc.

The payment of your account within the allocated time is greatly appreciated. Payment can be made in full or via regular direct deposits. Please see Belinda for assistance with this.

If, at any time, you are having difficulty paying your school account, please make an appointment to see me.

Northern Region Swimming Carnival

Last Friday our Representative Swim Team travelled to Queanbeyan. The day was warm and busy with all students actively involved in races and supporting each other.

There were some wonderful results with six students selected as members of the Northern Region Team to compete at the Archdiocesan Carnival in Narooma.

Congratulations to;

Lachlan Kilborn – 50m Freestyle

Amelia O’Brien – 50m Freestyle

Bridie Croker- 50m Breaststroke

William Heffernan – 50m Breaststroke

Isabelle Galland – 50m Freestyle

Lachlan Nagle – 50m Breaststroke

Thank you to the parent group who travelled over and supported the team. Special thank you to our timekeeping team, Sally Galland, Kayla Gann, Tash McCormack, Fred Bensley, Yvette Parsons, Elise Croker and Kath Nagle, who kindly managed our duty for the day.

Please send in any yellow swimming caps that may have mistakenly made their way home!

Online Registration link - https://www.sport.cg.catholic.edu.au/nominations

Primary Representative Sport – Canberra/Goulburn Archdiocese

This year there is a new format for registration of students at Diocesan and Archdiocesan level and for individual nominations for Sports, eg. Hockey, Cricket etc.

The website is up and running and all trial nominations for Archdiocese Representative sports trial must be completed by the parents/carers by the due date advertised on the website. I would suggest that you nominate for the sports your child intends to trial for in 2019 as soon as possible.

www.sport.cg.catholic.edu.au

Cricket Skills

Our students thoroughly enjoyed their first skills session with Gary and Josh last Friday.

Students took part in drills aimed at catching, passing, throwing and spatial awareness.

Images below are from the K/1/2 and the 5/6 session.

We have received information about a study involving an app developed to assist children with speech sound difficulties in rural Australia. 

Spy Bananas is a fun interactive game that has been developed by speech pathology researchers from Charles Sturt University to assist children in rural Australia who have difficulties with their speech sounds and are aged between four and a half and twelve years of age.

To participate in this study, you will require your child to use the app on a tablet for four weeks and to complete a questionnaire and interview to give feedback. Please see the information about how to register on the flyer below. 

Speech Sound Difficulties Study

Your School Counselling Service:

Hello, my name is Kate and I am your school counsellor. I will be at St Mary’s 3 days a term. The consultations for the rest of this term are: Thursday March the 14 and Thursday March the 28.  

I work for CatholicCare in Canberra, in the Student and Family Counselling Unit, and we provide short term counselling for many of Canberra and the surrounding region’s Catholic and independent schools.

We see children with difficulties which are just part of normal growing up, as well as issues of concern for either the school, or the family, or the child themselves. It doesn’t have to be a big problem. It can be better to get help sooner rather than later.

Typical concerns can be fears, anger, relationships with peers, grief, family relationships and family difficulties including parental separation, stress, or anything that is perceived to affect student’s learning or their general well-being.

You can refer your child for counselling by filling in a referral form available from your class teacher or through the front office.

If you would like to talk to me, please feel welcome to contact me directly through the school when I am attending.  

I look forward to working with your child and wish you all a happy safe and peaceful year.

The following school policy has been recently reviewed. It is attached for your information.

Advertising and Sponsorship Guidelines 

Rationale

Advertising and sponsorship arrangements at St Mary’s Primary School is to benefit students and must be consistent with Gospel values and the purpose and goals of the school and Catholic Schools system.

St Mary’s Primary School Primary School has devised a policy to guide the decision making regarding sponsorship and advertising.

Aim

The Advertising and Sponsorship Policy aims to encourage community partnerships, make available other opportunities to support children’s education and obtain funding from varied sources to enhance the learning opportunities of our students.

Implementation and Procedures

Distribution of Advertising Materials

Advertising material will be distributed, free of charge if it is from an organisation which is non-profit and the activity directly relates to children. For example, if it is educational, sporting or enhances the lives of children.

All flyers or advertising material must not be printed by the school.  Advertising material will not be distributed by the school for profit-making even if the activity directly relates to children. A flier may be displayed on a noticeboard or other medium with the Principal’s discretion.  The Schools agreement to distribute advertising information does not in any way imply that it is preferred over other similar products or services and takes no responsibility for the quality of the product or the service.

Advertising on the School Website or Newsletter

Advertising on the school website or newsletter is permitted, with approval from the Principal, from an organisation which is non-profit and the activity directly relates to children. For example, if it is educational, sporting or enhances the lives of children.

St Mary’s school families with businesses have the opportunity to advertise their business through a business directory linked to the school website or newsletter. Information about their business such as the service they provide, work hours and contact numbers are to be provided to the Office Manager.

Sponsorship

The school is permitted to seek sponsorship for special projects to support their programs, as needs arise. For example, the school may approach a bakery for bread for a sausage sizzle or a hardware store for craft activities. Sponsorship may be sought for prizes for School or P&F Events. Any sponsorship offered for P&F events is approved by the Principal in conjunction with the P&F executive committee. This sponsorship is acknowledged in the newsletter under a description of the project, however, there will be no advertising permitted for ‘for-profit’ businesses at the event.

Reece's Racing!

On Sunday 20^th January 2019, Reece Allport and family competed in the 4^th Annual Monaro Billy Kart Derby. For the second year competing in Cooma, Reece yet again had the fastest kart at a speed of around 42 km/h. After 4 runs his fastest time was 16.039 seconds to complete the downhill run where last year, he won with a time of 17 seconds.

Reece has also competed at the Classic Yass Billy Kart Derby over the last two years where he won his age group in 2017 and came third in the Opens in 2018. He withdrew from his age group allowing his sister to compete.

Well done Reece!

Class Awards

Schedule of Events

Thank you to everyone who attended this week's P & F meeting. The following schedule of events was set for the term.

Other possible activity: Mother's Day Raffle 

Crookwell Rugby Day BBQ

Our second P & F event is providing the BBQ for the Crookwell Rugby Day on Saturday 30 March. This will involve serving drinks, snacks and barbeque hot food. There is a full afternoon of football with many former wallaby players in attendance. This is a Year 4 fundraising event, however further support from all our families will be required and appreciated. A letter will go home soon.

Tuckshop Roster

Friday 22 February - Jo Grove, Katherine Fraser and Angela Cuskelly

Monday 25 February - Allison Hewitt, Jackie Blowes and Mandy Kemp

A full roster can be found in the Forms and Documents section on the digital newsletter.

Daniel Walsh 

P&F President