General Information 

Creative Arts Night 

!! Creative Arts Evening Expressions of Interest for Solo Performances !!

This year, we are trialling the recommencement of solo performances of students who are actively involved in paid tuition for music, dance or drama outside of school hours. 

We are seeking for expressions of interest from any student in Years 5/6 who have participated in paid tuition classes for music, drama or dance and have participated at Eisteddfod competitions in 2023 for their specific art form. Students must provide evidence of participation at Eisteddfods and will be required to perform one item for a duration of 1 minute. All equipment must be supplied and transported to the Creative Arts Evening and our rehearsals by the student and their families. 

If your child is interested in performing a solo item in the Creative Arts Evening this year and they meet the requirements above, please contact Mrs Nugent by 31st October. 

Following the 2023 Creative Arts Evening, we will be evaluating the success of the solo performance inclusions to see if we extend our invitation to more students in the following years.

School Advisory Council Nominations (AGM)

Dear all valued School Advisory Council Members,

Please note that on Tuesday 24th October 2023 at 5:30pm, all current and prospective SAC members are required to attend a meeting at St Mary of the Angels School regarding the purpose and role of the School Advisory Council according to the Armidale Catholic Schools Board SAC Constitution.

The meeting will be run by Catherine Ible, the Parent Engagement Officer for the Catholic Schools Office Armidale.

We look forward to seeing you all there.

Kind regards

Zoe Nugent

Author Visit - Cameron Stelzer.

Kindergarten - Our students were so inspired by the writing workshop that they participated in with Cameron. He encouraged them to be creative with their writing ideas and to take risks with their writing. Kindergarten had loved reading about Cameron's picture book series called 'The Stroogle' prior to attending his workshop and they were enthralled by his illustration of the Stroogle which is now a big feature in our class display. Our students were so excited to illustrate their own Stroogle characters in the workshop which were totally awesome!

Written by Year 1/2 Students - Last Wednesday 11th October, our Year 1/2 class met an author from a book series we have been reading in class. We have been learning about his books ‘SOS series - School of Scallywags’. 

In class we have read nearly 6 of this series. During literacy sessions we are writing stories using the characters. 

So we were thrilled when we were invited to meet Dr. Cameron Stelzer, who is the author and the illustrator of this exciting series. In the session, Dr Cameron showed us how he uses maps to tell a story. We learnt that when it comes to making maps we don't have to use straight lines. We can use wobbly lines to add character and interest. We were given the opportunity to create our own maps. It helped us to use our imagination to make up our own lands. Dr Cameron also taught us how to write a story using pictures and symbols. It was very clever and fun. 

We also did a customised drawing of a character. We combined two characters ‘Mice Cream’ and ‘Horace the Pie-rat’ into one drawing.  Dr Cameron also asked for our opinion of a new character flag that he is designing. Majority of us voted for the Tasmanian Tie-gerrrr. It was very fun getting to meet Dr Cameron and we are enjoying reading the next 4 books remaining in the SOS series. 

Year 5/6 explored the use of the 5 senses and how they can be used to create suspenseful and intriguing paragraphs. Cameron showed us a range of pictures from angry grannies to bushfires and robot armies and then we had to use a picture as inspiration to write using the 5 senses strategy to create our own suspenseful paragraphs.  It was wonderful to see all students fully embrace this strategy and create some excellent writing samples. To finish off our session, 5/6 were treated to a draw-along session and created a Pie-Rat Dog with Cameron. It was a great morning and we look forward to using what we have learned from Cameron to enhance our writing skills.

BOOK FAIR 

WOW!!!  What an incredible week for our 2023 Scholastic Book Fair! Our goal was set at $1000 and by day 2 we were well over the halfway mark in sales and by Thursday we had reached out set goal. This is such great news for our school as we will be able to use sales points to purchase more books for the library. A massive thank you goes out for all of the support in a time where purse strings are be stretched to capacity. 

The students have had a great deal of fun attempting the quizzes and guessing competition with 3 x $20 Book Fair gift vouchers being handed out to the winners! 

Our colouring competition will be awarded on Monday, with prizes handed out to the winners of each year level. 

Regards Karen.

Grandparents morning

Transition to School 2024

SAVE THE DATE - St Mary of the Angels Presentation Night. Please note that FULL SCHOOL UNIFORM IS REQUIRED.

Please read over this information regarding 2024 school travel.

Keep connected with what is happening at school through Compass & the Newsletter

Please make sure you are connected to COMPASS and receive the newsletter.

All families need to have login credentials to the COMPASS portal. Regular information comes from this site to families. Each parent is given a login. If you have lost your login details or are having difficulty logging in please call the School Office for assistance.

It is also really important to read the newsletter fortnightly. 

Library Borrowing Days:

Please encourage all children to return and borrow each week. Pack their book the night before and they will never forget.

YOUTH VOICE IN SCHOOLS

The 2023 NSW Youth Advisory Council (YAC) are passionate about ensuring young people have a say when it comes to their education, and they want to hear from students about how schools can best listen to students. If you are interested please scan the barcode on the attached image and complete the survey.

School Fees

Thank you to our School community for your continuing payments of school fees.  With many families in difficult times, we are very fortunate that everyone makes the greatest effort to pay school fees which supports the education of all students.  Thank you.

I also ask parents to ensure their fees are up to date.  School fees are a crucial economic requirement to ensure all our students can access the curriculum and be provided with improved educational outcomes.  Money collected from school fees is directed towards the children of today.  Any family requiring assistance with school fees is encouraged to contact the school office. 

Techone - Options for paying 

As we have now fully transitioned to the new finance system Techone, their are new ways in which you can make payments to the school, this includes Bpay, CompassPay and EFTPOS. You can make payments for School Fees and Events via the Compass App.  Please contact the School if you require assistance with the Compass App.