School Photo Day ~ 26th August 2025

Our school photos are quickly approaching, with under two weeks to go. Photo envelopes have been sent home this week. Online order is available as well as cash payments. Please return ALL envelopes back to the school office so they can be passed on to the photographer on the day. If you wish for a family photo, envelopes are available at the office. Full winter uniform is required.

Book Week Celebrations- Thursday 21st August 2025

This year's Book Week theme is 'Book an Adventure'.

St Mary's Primary School will celebrate Book Week this coming Thursday, 21st August. Students are encouraged to dress up as their favourite book character and join in the celebrations and activities. Our Book Week Parade will take place at 8.50am - 9.00am. Please feel free to join us.

Following the parade, students will walk to the Inglewood Kindergarten and share their love of reading with the younger children.

Footy Tipping Competition

A reminder that payments need to be finalised before the end of the competition so prize money can be calculated. If you haven't already done so, the payment details are;

Payment can be made via direct credit.

Name: St Mary’s Parish School

BSB: 083543

A/C: 457 829 572

Ref: Your name

Sandhurst Netball Competition:

Last week we were lucky enough to send 8 of our amazing senior students into Bendigo to compete in the Sandhurst Netball Competition. We combined with students from Bridgewater Primary School and Inglewood Primary School to create our two teams. The girls had a massive day playing 7 games where they came away winning 6 and drawing 1! Whilst the boys competition was tough coming away with 1 awesome win! Congratulations to all of the students who participated in the day we have an awesome group of students who display great leadership and sportsmanship skills.

100 Days of School!

We spotted some elderly people at school last Tuesday! I cannot believe that there were some 100 year olds attending the junior room.

We were so excited to celebrate our junior students being at St Mary's Primary School for 100 days! This includes 100 days of Magnify, 100 days of laughter, 100 days of fun and 100 days of making friends.

At the start of the year the junior students brainstormed ideas of what their perfect 100 days of school celebration would look like and I think it would be fair to say that we hit the mark on that one. Our (100 year old) students were greeted into the classroom with some wonderful decorations to mark our celebrations before conducting their learning. After all our learning was completed it was party time!

Students celebrated by completing '100' focussed activities in maths including collecting groups of 10 to form 100 different items from the classroom and challenging each other in a race to 100. We coloured in our traditional 100 days of learning crown before Miss Fenwick and Miss McLean brought in their homemade cookies and cupcakes to share. To finish off our amazing afternoon we had a glow stick dance party!

Vegetable Garden and Cooking.

Every 2nd Friday a small group of students join me in the kitchen to cook fresh produce from our school garden, which is abundant with beautiful vegetables. We are currently harvesting mixed lettuce, broccoli, kohlrabi, pak choy, beetroot, kale, spinach & silverbeet.

Harvesting has been regular and students are enjoying the preparing the vegetables and cooking meals for all the students to enjoy or at least try. Last Friday we enjoyed a vegetable soup and a honey drizzled roast beetroot and pumpkin salad, which was very yummy.

Alternative Play

This week we experimented with gel plate printing, by layering different colours of acrylic paint on to a gel pad and then applying many different textures such as paper doilies, scrunched paper, leaves and netting. This is then laid onto paper and rolled with a roller.

Parents & Friends

This term, we have the following activities run by the Parents and Friends. For these activities to run, we would love some volunteers to come and help. If you are free for these dates, please call Sandra on (03) 5438 3075

Father's Day breakfast - Friday 5th September 8.15-9:00am

The importance of regular school attendance

At St Mary's, we prioritise regular school attendance. We will work with families to ensure students are in class with their peers and teachers and enjoying all the benefits that brings.

Attending school every day means experiencing what counts – the learning, friendship, fun and opportunities that can shape your child’s future.

Our target is for everyone to attend above 90% of the school days offered. We are only half way through this term, and already 66.7% of our students are well below this level.

We understand that there are times when your child will need to miss school but to ensure minimal disruption to their education, please consider scheduling family holidays or medical/dental appointments outside of school time. If your child is well enough to attend but is worried about friendships, schoolwork, please encourage them to come to school. Avoiding school can make these feelings worse and can create a negative pattern of behaviour.

If your child is having difficulty attending school, talk to their teacher or Steve O'Shannessy about getting support.

We know that parents and carers can be juggling challenges daily to get your children to school. If your child must miss school, notify us as soon as possible via PAM on call the school on 03 5438 3075 so we can work together to support them.

Remember, Every Day Counts!

NCCD Fact Sheet for Parents and Carers

PROGRAM SUPPORT GROUP MEETINGS (PSG'S)

The Term 3 PSG meetings start on Tuesday, 16th September. The meetings provide collaborative discussions between school, home and any therapeutic Allied Health supports for students with additional needs within our school. These conversations support the collaborative goals and adjustments developed between teachers and parents at the Term 2 PSG meetings to guide the learning taking place within the school setting.

We ask families who attend PSG meetings to keep Tuesday, 16th September free for a 30-minute appointment. These meetings are scheduled so teachers can be released from class duties to discuss with parents.

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