St Mary's Catholic Primary School, Toukley eNewsletter

Principal's Update

Semester 1 School Reports were sent home last Friday. This week, teachers will hold meetings with parents to discuss your child's effort and learning. As a courtesy, please call the office to notify the teacher if you are now unable to make your scheduled time.

I would like to take a moment to thank our wonderful teachers for their tremendous efforts; assessing and then completing reports for an entire class is a huge job, followed by a full week of parent meetings before and after school. Our dedicated teachers work tirelessly - please thank them for what they do.

Time Capsule

The 25 year old school time capsule is set to be opened TOMORROW! At 1.50pm tomorrow, we will be opening up the time capsule as a whole school. What treasures will be inside?! Parents are welcome to join us for this special occasion. Later in the year, we will create and seal our own capsule, to be opened in many years time.

Athletics Carnival

Next Wednesday 28th we will be holding our Athletics Carnival. Children should wear sports uniform and a t-shirt of their colour house. It is a compulsory day for all students to attend. The day will be held at Mingara. Unfortunately, due to the nature of our carnival, parents are encouraged to attend and watch, however must do so by remaining on the perimeter of the track, not inside the field. A schedule of event times (approximate only) is towards the end of today's newsletter, please check this to know when your child might particiapte in their running events.

Next Tuesday 27th our fun relay events will be held at school on our oval from 2.00pm-3.00pm. Students should also wear their sports uniform with their colour house shirt. These are not competitive events; they will be held on Tuesday as we are not able to fit them into our scheduled day at Mingara anymore.

Staff Development Day/Last Day of Term 2

Our last day for students this term is Thursday 29th June. On Friday 30th June our staff will attend a system-wide Staff Development Day, alongside our colleagues in other Broken Bay Diocese schools. School returns on Monday July 17th.

Footy Shirt Day

Next Thursday 29th June (and our last day of Term 2) we will be holding a 'Footy Shirt Day'. Children are asked to wear a footy shirt (any code) with 'mufti' clothes and bring a gold coin, to be donated to support Mary Mac's Place, Woy Woy.

NAIDOC Week

Next week we will be holding a NAIDOC Week Liturgy at 1.50pm on Monday 26th June in our Quad area. Parents are welcome to join us.

At 9.15am next Tuesday 27th June, our children will once again participate in a traditional Smoking Ceremony. This will run until approximately 10.00am and parents are welcome to join us. Depending on the weather, this will be held on the oval or in the Quad.

Term 3 Calendar

Towards the end of this newsletter is our Term 3 Calendar. Please note, events can change days or times, or additional events included. Please always monitor our newsletter and Compass for accurate information.

Carpark

There are a number of cars that are moving much faster than the 10km/h speed limit in our carpark. There have continued to be unsafe practices, including speeding through the pedestrian crossings (remember that there are two), dropping of children by pulling into the bus zone and also dropping children off near the oval gates and then performing a U-turn or reversing unsafely. I have at least two near misses now being reported to the school office each week by concerned parents.

Please, slow down. Only drop off your children when you are safely parked in a carspace and don't park in the bus bay. Thank you.

Lost Property

There is a huge amount of lost property currently sitting unclaimed. Most do not have names. They include jumpers, hats and lunchboxes.

Playgroup Week 9

Last Wednesday, everyone in Year 6 woke up in pitch black. We got dressed. We ate breakfast. We got our bags ready, and we headed to school to get onto the bus for Canberra!

When we arrived at Canberra, the first place we went to was the National Capital Exhibition. There, we learnt about how Canberra began, and grew to be what it is today. Next we headed to the Australian Electoral Commission. That is the place that we learnt about voting. In one of the rooms, there were some super cool holograms. The next place we went to was Old Parliament House. When we got there, we got to sit in the real seats in the Senate! After this, we went back to our motel, and found out who was in our rooms. That night was very fun! For dinner, we had taco raps, nachos, and really good chips. After dinner, we went to the Australian Institute of Sports. Our tour guide there was 7 feet tall! He even had to bend down to get through the door. The activities at the AIS were great fun.

One the second day, the first thing we did was go to New Parliament House. When we were there, we went into the Senate and the House of Representatives. We also did a small roleplay. I got to be Prime Minister, Tayla G was the Speaker, Marcus was the bell ringer, and Ben was the Opposition Leader. After that, we went to GeoScience, where the workers record all of the earthquakes around Australia. We even got to stomp, jump and bang on the floor to try and make our own earthquake. Then, we headed to the National Gallery of Australia, and looked at some cool paintings. There was one that appeared black at first, but when you looked at it closer, it was actually different shades. A little bit later, we went back to our motel, had dinner (fish and chips) and travelled to Questacon. It was extremely fun, and we went on the free fall! It is a steep slide, where you hold onto a metal bar, let go, fall through the air for a split second, then slide down. It was an outstanding second day!

On the final day, we woke up early, packed our bags, and headed to the War Memorial. At the memorial, there were some amazing dioramas, with very detailed models of soldiers fighting. The last thing that we did was go to Mount Ainslie. It was so freezing there that our hands were numb! After that we hopped on the bus to Maccas. At Maccas, we ordered our food, and then, for the last time, got on the bus back home. On the bus ride back, we just talked about our trip. In one of the rooms, the toilet was not working, but thanks to Mrs Walker’s amazing plumbing ability, she was the one who had to pour water into the toilet. In a different room, there was an ant infestation. Also in another room, the kids found a mouldy muffin. Yum… Thank you Mrs Walker, Miss Dawson, Mrs Sellars, Wayne, Phil and the parent helpers for taking all of us on this amazing trip!

The Australian Government recognises the importance of all young Australians being able to visit the national capital as part of their Civics and Citizenship education. To assist families in meeting the cost of the excursion the Australian Government is contributing funding of $30 per student under the Parliament and Civics Education Rebate program towards those costs. We would like to thank the Australian Government for this donation. We recognise that our trip to Canberra happened on the Ngunnawal people’s land, and we know that they are the traditional custodians of the land.

REC

Parish Art Prize

Congratulations to the following students who have received first prize or highly commended in our Parish's Art Competition. The students needed to create an artwork around Mary for the upcoming Feast Day.

1st Place Years 5 and 6 - Chloe S

1st Place Years 3 and 4 - Yenna W

1st Place Infants - Isabella W

Highly Commended - Mia N, Aria C and Ara W

Sacred Heart Mass

Thank you to our Kinder students who led our Sacred Heart Mass on Friday. They did an amazing job! We were also overwhelemed by all the parents who joined us to celebrate this mass. We know our Kinder students loved having you attend. Thank you to our Kindergarten teachers for preparing our Kinders!

Last weekend many students from Years 4-6 made their First Eucharist. Thank you to Laurie our Parish Sacramental Coordinator and the volunteers for preparing our students so well and planning our celebration.

Next Thursday, 29th June Kinder Green and Kinder Gold will be sharing their learning in Religious Education. This will begin at 1.50pm in the quadrangle. If you are not busy we would love you to join us.

Grandparents Day - Term 3 Week 2

More details to follow, but please save the date below!

Grandparent_s_Day_Invitation_4_.pdf

The Wyong Catholic Parish is seeking to recruit a permanent part-time Parish Secretary, working 3 days per week. There is a preference for Wednesdays and Fridays to be two of the working days with flexibility on remaining days in relation to hours worked. This role plays an important part in the Parish team, providing support for Parish communications, administration, financial processes, Parish property, compliance and Diocesan support. The ideal candidate will have a comprehensive knowledge of office administration processes and procedures and a sound understanding of Microsoft Office Suite, MYOB, bookkeeping or accounting practices. As you will often be the first point of contact for our parish, well-developed communication and interpersonal skills are crucial. If you have high developed administration skills coupled with well-developed relational and rapport building skills and this role interests you, please email a brief cover letter and CV to wyongparish@bbcatholic.org.au

Applications close Wednesday, 12 July 2023.

The Diocese of Broken Bay is committed to and promotes a culture of safety and care for all people, especially for children and others in the community who are vulnerable. Our Diocese has no tolerance to Child Abuse and is committed to ensuring our staff and volunteers understand the joint responsibility to safeguard all those within our community. The successful applicant must have the right to work in Australia and will be required to undertake pre-screening which may include a National Police History Check and/or Working With Children Check.

Merit and Star Awards

ICAS Assessments

We are delighted to inform you that our school will again be participating in the ICAS competitions later this year. ICAS is an online academic competition that is designed to assess students' higher order thinking and problem solving skills in English, Mathematics, Science, Writing, Spelling Bee and Digital Technologies.

A Compass message will come out to all families with students in Years 2-6 this week. There will be a parent code and a link allowing you to purchase tests that you would like your child/ren to sit. This is not compulsory and is aimed at our more capable students. You may choose to do all the tests, a couple of them or none at all. The tests range in price from $19.25 to $23.65.

The tests will not be held in class time. They will be held before school in the library. Students will be asked to be at school by 8am on the testing days. Ms Gray will administer the assessments. The ICAS tests will take place in Term 3 from Week 4 till Week 7. Specific days will be given in the Compass message.

PE News

Polding Cross Country - Leo C and Flynn B travelled out to the National Equestrian Centre at Western Sydney to compete in the Polding Cross Country Championships. This is where the Catholic Schools came together to compete to choose a team to compete in the NSW All Schools Competition at Eastern Creek. As you can imagine the competition at this level is extremely tough, both boys gave it their very best and we are so proud of the level of competition they have achieved. Leo - 36th/40 Broken Bay 8/9 boys team - 1st in Team Point Score. Flynn - 10th/40 Broken Bay 10 boys team - 2nd in Team Point Score.

Well done Leo and Flynn, St Mary's is impressed with your runnng ability!!!