Parent & Community Information
P&F & School Advisory Council Meeting
Please note that the P&F meeting will be rescheduled from Wednesday the 17th of August due to a Principal Meeting being held in Moree on that day. A new date for this will be advised.
The School Advisory Council meeting will be held on Wednesday the 10th of August at 6.00pm. Please send any agenda items through to guyadmin@arm.catholic.edu.au
Global Citizenship Ambassadors Featured in Whole School Assembly
Next week, our very first whole school assembly will be held on Wednesday 3rd August. The hosts of this assembly will be the Global Citizenship Ambassadors from Year 6 including Camilla Grills, Mackenzie Ellem, Noah Brennan and Tom Graham.
In the assembly, these students will be introducing their Global Citizenship Project that they will be organising in the school during Term 3. If you would like to learn about their project and how they are trying to make our school a better place, please come along to the school assembly.
Skills Questionnaire
Our students were lucky enough to have Jon Welsh and Riley Carroll coach our rugby league team that recently travelled to Inverell to compete. On the back of that, we have designed this form for the school to learn about the outstanding skills and talents of our Parent and Carers. For the school to then possibly scaffold off these skills and encourage parent/carer engagement in the school. Please click on the link below & tell us more about you!
https://forms.gle/VsxdVZxodYHkrFFc7
2023 Student Enrolments
Please contact the office for more information regarding 2023 enrolments. Please note that transition interviews will be conducted in the second week of Term 3 between Monday the 25th July and Thursday the 28th of July. Please contact the school if you have any questions.
2023 O'Connor Catholic College Enrolments
O'Connor enrolments are open for next year. Could Year 6 Families please drop their 2023 enrolment forms to O'Connor as soon as possible.
Book Club
If you would like to purchase something from Issue 5 of Book Club, orders are now being accepted and are due by the 8th of August, 2022.
Arriving Late or Leaving School Early
A reminder, due to child safety reasons the front gates of the school are closed as close to 9.00am as office duties allow each morning. If your child arrives after these gates have been closed and need to enter school through the front office they must be accompanied and signed in by a parent/carer as they are then considered late.
School Attendance
What if my child has to stay away from school?
If your child has to be absent from school, you must inform the school and provide a reason for your child’s absence.
A small number of absences may be accepted by the principal.
For example, if your child has to
- Attend a special religious ceremony
- Is required to attend to a serious and/or urgent family situation (e.g. a funeral)
- Is too sick to go to school or has an infectious illness.
How can you provide a reason for absence?
There are a number of options available to notify the school:
- Compass
- send an email to guyadmin@arm.catholic.edu.au
OR
- call the school on 02 67791661
Contacting Your Child's Teacher
Any student/teacher correspondence needs to be sent through to our admin email which will then be forwarded to the appropriate teacher. Please call the office on 6779 1661 if you are wanting to speak directly to a teacher, this will then be forwarded to the appropriate teacher to return parent/carer calls when they are available.
Working with Children Check
As COVID restrictions start to ease we can welcome parents and carers back into our school. With that being said we need to remind you that anyone coming into the school as a volunteer for example if you are attending school excursions, helping out at sporting events (swimming carnival, athletics carnival or cross country), assisting with P&F events or anything that involves children we are required by law to have your working with children check on file. This WWCC lasts 5 years and are free to obtain under the volunteer section.
You can apply for this through the Service NSW website by clicking on this link https://www.service.nsw.gov.au/transaction/apply-working-children-checkIf you have to obtain or renew your WWCC please email this to our school admin email guyadmin@arm.catholic.edu.au along with your date of birth as we require this for the check to be verified. If we already have your current WWCC on file you do not have to resend this to the school. Please don’t hesitate to contact the school if you have any questions. Thank you!
Changes to After-school Arrangements
As parent/carers will know at St Mary of the Angels we have a permanent travel arrangements board for afterschool travel for our students. However, life happens and change is inevitable.
In order to streamline our after school processes and foster independence in our students we will now only be reading out the 'Daily Changes to Travel' for our students. This will be done in class in the afternoon at 2:30pm. We respectfully request ALL changes to student travel be to be received by the front office by 2:00pm.
As part of our change over, we suggest parents and carers to investigate the use of easy to remove/change afterschool bag tags to remind your child of their travel arrangement for that day.
Clothing Pool
The Clothing Pool is again open to parents who wish to purchase second hand uniforms. Items can be purchased via making a small donation to our school. Please see our office staff between 9am and 3pm to access the clothing pool
We are always in need of good quality school clothing. If your child can no longer fit in to their school uniforms, please consider donating them to our clothing pool.
SchoolTV
SchoolTV offers parents a fresh approach to the growing issues and pressures faced by Australian youth. SchoolTV is a unique online resource delivering powerful and credible information to empower parents with the skills to address these issues and raise happy, well and resilient kids.
SPECIAL REPORT: Sextortion - what you need to know
You may not be familiar with the term, but ‘sextortion' is a form of blackmail where someone threatens to share intimate images of you unless you give in to their demands. It has been an issue for more than a decade, with many adults falling victim to this type of online crime. More recently though, it has been reported that there has been a higher rate of adolescent males falling victim, but that is not to say that young females are not also targeted.
Across the globe, organised criminal gangs are using social media, chat apps, instant messaging platforms and online games to target and connect with their victims. Recently, there has been a 400% increase in this type of crime being reported to police in Australia alone with these figures being replicated in most western countries. Any child that uses an online account to connect on social media, chat apps, instant messaging platforms or online games needs to understand the dangers associated with engaging with random people that they don’t know personally. Therefore, it is vitally important for adult carers to be aware of this serious issue and to start having an age appropriate conversation with their young person as early as possible to help protect them from online offenders making demands.
Even though your young person’s online account may be set to private, random people can still message your child. Managing devices can be difficult especially with older teens, but it is important to weigh up the risks and dangers. Sadly, even good kids who never make a poor decision elsewhere in their life, can and do make poor choices online.This Special Report explains how your young person can fall victim to such a crime and what action to take to support them. We hope you take a moment to reflect on the information offered, and as always, we welcome your feedback.
If you do have any concerns about the wellbeing of your child, please contact the school for further information or seek medical or professional help.
Here is the link to your special report https://stmarysguyra.catholic.schooltv.me/wellbeing_news/special-report-sextortion
The Armidale Choral Society
Centacare Parenting Programs
