Term 2 Week 1

Walk to School Day On Friday, May 10th, we invite all students and families to participate in Walk to School Day! This is a wonderful opportunity to promote physical activity, reduce traffic congestion, and enjoy the fresh air as we walk together to school. Let's embrace a healthy lifestyle and make this day memorable by walking as a community.

Mother's Day Breakfast On the same day, Friday, May 10th, we will also be hosting our annual Mother's Day Breakfast. Join us in celebrating the incredible mothers, grandmothers, and mother figures in our lives. It's a time to show appreciation, share delicious food, and create lasting memories together. We look forward to welcoming all families to this special event.

We encourage all students and families to mark their calendars and join us for these meaningful events. Let's make May 10th a day filled with joy, appreciation, and community spirit.

We have all made a happy start back to school this term. On Monday we enjoyed a craft afternoon, continuing to celebrate the Easter Season by making butterflies and egg window art. A big thank you to Lizzy, John and Mrs Burchett who helped us have such an enjoyable start to the term.

Drew Lane Concert

On Friday 10th May, Australian religious songwriter and singer, Drew Lane, will be visiting our school to share his songs with our children.

Drew’s songs, such as “We Are One”, “God Is Everywhere”, “The Stone’s Been Rolled Away” and “I Like The Way God Made Me” are used in classrooms and liturgies around Australia, New Zealand, and the world.

The concert will take place in our Media and Performing Arts Rooms at 2:15pm. We look forward to seeing you there. All welcome!

Year 3/4

Maths Trail - The Grade 3-6s are completing a Maths Trail to explore different ways how maths can be used outside of the classroom. Over the next 4 weeks, they will be planning a trail for a group to follow around Castlemaine township to solve their maths questions.

This week we went out exploring for things that involved maths around Castlemaine in groups of 8.

Chess -

Grades 3-6s are involved in chess once a fortnight with Harry. Our class explored what the value of each of the chess pieces was and had to aim for a score of 30 when playing and collecting the opponents pieces.

Have a lovely weekend!

Bridget

Year 2/3

In grade 2/3 this term, along with the changing Autumn leaves we have been looking for signs of new life, as we celebrate the message of Easter. The students have been very happy to see their friends and keen to share about their holidays.

For inquiry we are discovering the early history of Castlemaine. It is wonderful hearing the connections that the children have with our local area.

Wellbeing

Hi St Mary’s,

Welcome back to Term 2. I hope everyone had a good break and got to enjoy some great weather.

On Wednesday 8th May, St Mary’s have Helen Smith from Dhelkaya Health coming in to present a program to class groups called Making Friends With Worry. There will also be a parent information session that will be held in the Library. It will begin at 9.00am and conclude at 9.30am and I’m thinking that we should fire up the coffee machine afterwards for a catch up and a debrief. It would be great to see as many parents and carers as possible. This will really help to create some shared understandings and common language both at home and at school.

Information from Dhelkaya Health:

Making Friends with Worry:

Parent/Carer information sessions

Making friends with Worry is a program from Dhelkaya Community Health to help students understand worry and ways to manage this tricky feeling. The program is delivered to all classes from prep to grade 6 each year. This year we are also offering a half hour info session for parents and carers. The information session will share the key concepts in the student program and explore ways families can support kids to manage worry well.

Worry is a normal response to life challenges, and kids can develop skills for life.

The program is presented by Bron Grieve (Community Health Nurse) and Helen Smith (Children’s Counsellor). We’d love to see you there!

On another note, I had one response to the following information from last Term and I thought it might be worth putting it out there again as many people are firing up their chainsaws at the moment and may be able to assist!

I have a request from our community for some donations. We are looking to restock our nature play sensory area down near the rotunda. We used to have about 30 bush poles and over time they have disappeared. We have some permanent structures that allow the students to build cubby type structures. So, if you have two or three metre straightish sticks/poles of about 50 - 100 mm diameter could you please drop them off sometime or let me know and I could pick them up? That would allow another option for our students both in class time and at recess and lunch.

Any Lego donations would also be appreciated for our lunchtime Wellbeing space.

Don’t forget our weekly Friday morning coffee catch ups for parents and carers. It was great to have a chat with some parents this morning. If you have any Wellbeing concerns, please contact me by email: mark.osullivan@smcastlemaine.catholic.edu.au or phone the school.

Regards,

Mark O’Sullivan

Upcoming Events:

Don't forget to mark your calendars for the upcoming events on the Calendar.

As always, we encourage parents and guardians to stay updated with school news and events by regularly checking Seesaw and following us on social media.

Thank you to everyone for your continued support and involvement in our vibrant school community!

Warm regards,

John

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