Principals Message
Dear families,
I hope that you all had a wonderful two weeks with the children home over the holidays. I took my family to Melbourne for a few days and we rocked out to the Wiggles at the Palais (a blast from the past but an amazing venue to see Dorothy, Wags and the crew)
Shearing for Kids with Cancer (Shearing Day)
On Friday, we are really excited to be attending the morning session of the Shearing for Kids with Cancer (Shearing Day). The day is raising funds for such an amazing cause and we are very proud to be representing our school on the day. Please, if you have not already done so, can you send in the $10 donation that will be donated to the cause and will also grant the students access to the jumping castle and face-painting.
NAIDOC Week celebrations
As NAIDOC week was during the holidays, we have planned a day (following the shearing day) whereby we will celebrate and acknowledge our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander history and culture. We have planned some exciting activities and experiences that our students will be immersed in.
Courage and Crowns
As you will have seen, on Monday week we welcome Megan Simpson of Courage and Crowns into our school. Megan will work with the Year 4-6 female students and their teachers during the day and then again with the students and a significant female in their life. Many of our female staff are also choosing to attend as they see the immense benefit in developing an understanding, acknowledgement and celebration of self-love, great choices, coping with and working with strong emotions and creating a healthy relationship with self and others.
Please, if you have not already, can you register your participation at https://courageandcrowns.com/signup
Saint Mary of the Cross MacKillop Feast Day
Thursday 8 August is Saint Mary of the Cross MacKillop Feast Day. As a school, we will celebrate the day at St Joseph’s Nagambie as per our tradition. We will begin with a Mass and then the students will rotate among various activities. This day will complement student learning from last term’s whole school excursion to the Mary MacKillop Centre. We thank Maree and the staff at St Joseph’s for their planning and hospitality.
Why Worry Wally incursion
On Friday, we welcomed Rick and Andy into the school to work with our students on worries, what they are and how we can work through them. Rick is the author of the book, ‘Why Worry Wally’. The students were all very engaged and walked away with many strategies to enable them to navigate worries or concerns.
Enrolments/Transitions Days
This is the point of the year where we begin to plan for 2025. I am currently looking at staffing, enrolments and budgeting for 2025 and beyond. I invite all families who have, or know of anyone who has, children who might look to St Mary’s for their education to collect an enrolment pack. If you have any questions or would like a tour of the school, please do not hesitate to contact our office.
We have also booked in our transition days for the remainder of the year to ensure that we are able to hit the ground running with our 2025 enrolments.
Dates are as follows:
Term 3
*Friday 30th August: ‘Come and Try’ morning: 8:50am - 11:35am
Term 4 - Transition dates
*Friday 11th October: 8:50am - 11:35am (Information session)
Friday 25th October: 8:50am - 11:35am
Friday 8th November: 8:50am - 11:35am
Friday 22nd November: 8:50am - 11:35am
Friday 6th December: 8:50am - 11:35am
Tuesday 10th December: State-wide Transition Day - 8:50am - 1:35pm
*Families asked to remain on site
Pupil Free Days
Our remaining pupil free days for the year are as follows:
Mon 5 August - Catholic Identity Professional Learning for staff
Mon 4 November - Report writing day
Fri 29 November - 2025 Planning day
Fri 20 December - 2025 Planning and student handover
Basketball court update
Last week, I accepted a quote to have our basketball court resurfaced and improved. The works will take place over the summer holidays. I have been working with the year 3-6 students in designing the space and am incredibly excited for the design that we will be putting forward.
Thank you everyone and please do not hesitate to contact me should you have any questions or concerns.
Vin Ryan
Principal
