Welcome to Week Six!

Last week our staff looked at some of the Catholic saints as part of our twilight staff meeting prayer. It is worth noting that many of these people of faith are not acknowledged and revered today because of their standing in society at the time. More so, because they were everyday people doing extraordinary things - some dedicating their entire lives to the service of others. We certainly don’t have to do extraordinary things or aspire to be acknowledged or revered by others, but there is an opportunity in using these people as inspiration to ‘be kind’, to look for the ‘person in need’ and to be ‘of service to others’. I will talk more to this in the coming weeks!

Welcome Mrs Dumbrell

We are very excited to welcome Mrs Dumbrell to St Mary’s. As previously mentioned, Mrs Dumbrell brings a wealth of teaching and learning experience that our school will greatly benefit from and I am very appreciative of the considerable amount of time spent in completing a handover with Miss Buckmaster.

Athletics Carnival

As mentioned last week, our school Athletics Carnival will be held at Memorial Park on Wednesday 12th June. Information and permission has been sent home via Compass. Could families please fill out the link (click here) to inform staff if they are able to assist on this day. This will mainly involve timing races and lining kids up in finishing order.

Unexplained Absences

Thank you to the families that are using our Compass portal to inform the school of their child’s absence. If you are unable to do this, it would be greatly appreciated if a phone call to the school office could be made. As part of our governance and compliance, it is important that we are tracking these absences. Families may receive a Compass notification requesting that these absences be explained so that our school can fulfil its duties in this space.

Reports

St Mary’s will send reports home on Monday 1st July. In the days following this, we will offer parent teacher conferences. As is always the case, the intention is that many successes and challenges for students is to communicate this throughout the year, not just at reporting times. If you would like to speak with your child’s teacher (at any time of the year), don’t hesitate to reach out.

Enjoy the remainder of the week,

Ryan

I would like to take this opportunity to introduce myself and say a warm hello to you all. I am very much looking forward to working with all of the wonderful children of St Mary’s and getting to know their families. To give you a little detail about me, I have been teaching at McAuley Catholic College in Tumut for the past 22 years. I have also fulfilled various executive positions in that time. I have always been involved in Catholic education.  I attended  Catholic schooling in the Wagga Wagga Diocese from kindergarten through to Year 12 and I loved my experiences of Catholic Education.

Next week we will once again be conducting our Warm Winter Wooly appeal supporting Saint Vincent De Paul. Next Thursday students are invited to wear their favourite beanies and gloves and to bring a gold coin donation. We will be having some hot chocolate for all the students. If you would like to donate any blankets, or warm winter clothes in good used condition a basket will be in the front office for next week. Thank you.

A prayer from St. Vincent De Paul

“Open my eyes that I may see the deepest needs of men, women and children

Move my hands that they may feed the hungry;

Touch my heart that it may bring warmth to the despairing;

Teach me the generosity that welcomes strangers;

Let me share my possessions with people in need;

Give me the care that strengthens the sick;

Help me share in the quest to set prisoners free;

In sharing our anxieties and our love,

Our poverty and our prosperity;

We partake of your divine presence. Amen.”

Jeanette Dumbrell - REC

Last week Mrs Hughes introduced year 3/4 to Sora, an ebook app.

Students had a great time exploring the app!