Dear Parents and Carers,

Thank you to all parents, grandparents and friends who joined us last week for our Opening Mass. It was a lovely start to officially open our school year and we especially appreciate our REC Ms Anne Saunderson for her care in preparing students for readings and helping them to make connections to the theme of regrowth.

Our Yr 6 Leaders led the student body capably throughout Mass and I know this will be an important year for them as they seize leadership opportunites. The Yr 6 specific roles are:

·        Jade  -  Environment Leader

·        Caleb  -  Sport Leader

·        Catriona  -  Media Leader

·        Isabelle  -  Hospitality Leader

Our swimming carnival and now the Western Region Swimming Carnival have been completed. Our St Mary’s Swimming Team competed proudly and thank you to all parents who assisted with transport and Ms Crozier who supervised on the day in Harden. Our teardrop banner was used for the first time at the carnival. It looks great!

We are going to take the opportunity of good weather and head back to the Batlow Pool this Friday. All K-6 can participate in novelty events as Hume and Hovell battle it out to win the House Trophy. Please see the note for permission attached in this newsletter.

On another note, Ms Kaye Lowe returns to us this week on Wednesday and Thursday to provide professional development to our teachers in Literacy. She will work with students alongside teachers. As an LNAP school, we are in the last year of a five year programme to support improved student learning outcomes. LNAP stands for Literacy and Numeracy Action Plan. If you see Kaye around, please feel free to say hello. She enjoys connecting to parents too.

Finally, our new cement area is nearing completion. It has been a journey with bushfires, heatwaves and heavy rainfall, but the last pour should be tomorrow. This has been an initiative between the St Mary’s Parish, the school, and our Community Council. Unfortunately, we did not win the grant to assist in building a ball wall near the front gate. This was announced in early December last year. Despite that set back we will still work towards improving the facilities for our students at St Mary’s.

 Have a lovely week everyone.

 Kind Regards

 Jannine