News from around the school
New - Subway Orders Day Change
Due to the Pupil Free Day Friday 9th June, Subway orders for next week will be delivered Thursday 8th June.
Please have orders in class tubs Wednesday 7th June.
Reminder - St Mary's 2024 Enrolments are Open
2024 Enrolments are now open. Please pass this information on to families with 2024 Prep students.
If families were unable to attend our open day and require any information or an enrolment pack, please contact he school office on 58252858.
New - Sorry Day around the classrooms
After our whole school liturgy for Sorry Day, the children spent time in their classrooms creating a prayer cloth that they will use this week as part of their daily prayer circle.
Other classes, listened to stories of stolen children such as Archie Roach’s story Took the Children Away and Respect by Aunty Fay Muir and Sue Lawson.
1/2 classes reflected on the symbol of a hand for Sorry Day. They created a wind sock to respond to all those children who were taken from their families.
Preps making their prayer cloth for National Sorry Day.
New - Sorry Day Commemorative Service in Shepparton
On Friday our FIRE Carriers, Mr Butts and Mrs Dyke went to the Commemorative Service in Shepparton for Sorry Day.
The service began with a didgeridoo music, an Acknowledgement to Country in language, a Smoking Ceremony and a welcome from the Reconciliation Action Group from Uncle Bobbie and Diedre Richardson.
The guest speaker was Darrell Sloan. He shared his story of being taken from his family at the age of 2 and a half. He and his brothers were all charged with vagrancy and put into a state run home in Ballarat for orphans or children who were made wards of the state.
His recollections from a young age were sad to hear. Such as being put into a large cot, in a room of over 40 other toddlers and only 2 staff members. He said he learnt early on to not cry or call out because there was no point. Nobody was coming to comfort him. His other brothers were put into other homes along the same street, depending on their age.
Darrell then shared what life was like when he and his brothers were finally allowed to return to thier mother. His home was routinely inspected by Welfare and they had to move around a lot. In total, Darrell went to 17 schools until he left in what we now know as Year 10. He shared a story of always thinking that shoes should hurt. Over the years he had always had second hand shoes. It wasn’t until he was a young adult that he realized for all those years he had been wearing shoes that were too small for him.
Darrell and his wife now foster and care for young children. He was proud to say that each and every one of the children who had stayed with them, was safe, warm and well fed each night.
His story was very touching and some of our FIRE Carriers have shared their thoughts about the day.
Zach Hardisty-
This man was arrested at the age of 2 and taken to an orphanage.
There was a smoking ceremony as well and everybody was very respectful.
Even Kim O'Keefe was there. We also did two minutes of silence.
Louise Garcia-
There was a lady named Aunty Fay, she died this year. To pay respect to her we did a minute of silence for her. Someone called Kyle played the Didgeridoo while we had the minute of silence. Aunty Fay was important to the Rumbalara Community.
Savannah Hooker- We got to see the Yorta Yorta flag, the Australian flag and the Torres strait islander flag. And we also got to walk through the smoking ceremony. We also watched and listened to a person play the didgeridoo. It was also really cold so that wasn’t really fun.
And there were lots of high schools speaking.
Noah Woods -
There were a lot of school students talking about Sorry Day.
There was a smoking ceremony and lots of people walked through.
There was a man that went to an orphanage and ate bread with cigarette ashes and beer on it.
Jess Newson -
I liked how there were some aboriginal people brave enough to come up and share their story with us. There were representatives from some high schools who got to share a bit about Sorry day and Reconciliation with us. At school, we decorated hands and when we got to Shepparton we put them in the ground, by the flags.
New - Prep Learning Experiences
This week Preps have had a lot of fun exploring our focus fairy tale of the week Goldilocks and the 3 bears.
We have been writing about our characters using colourful semantics. Exploring science and technology by making beds for them, predicting what happens to gummy bears when we put them into warm water, vinegar and cold water, we made fuzzy bears and cooked porridge.
Last week our Prep students learnt about The Gingerbread Man. They decorated Gingerbread cookies, made a cage to catch a Gingerbread man, made a bridge out of Lego to help the gingerbread man over the water and learnt all about what happens when you put a Gingerbread man in water. The kids loved it!
New - Grade 3/4 Learning Walk
The theme for this year’s National Reconciliation Week is, ‘Be A Voice For Generations’. To recognise individuals in our community who have in the past been a ‘voice for generations’, the Year 3/4 students went on a guided walk around Shepparton to view the Aboriginal Street Art Project murals.
A big thank you to Michael Chisholm from Catholic Education Sandhurst for being our guide and teaching us all about these amazing and inspiring people. Thank you also to the parents who accompanied us - we are sure everyone learnt so much from Michael.
New - 5/6 Division Sport Day
The Grade 5/6 students recently represented St Mary’s at division sport!
We had teams play netball, football, tee-ball and soccer! All students represented the school with pride, and did a terrific job!
Well done to Ms Carroll’s netball team who made it through to the grand final! A super effort by everyone!
New - Art Work
Our Artwork that Kimberly Watkins has been working on with our Indigenous
students continues to take shape. Yr 1/2 students added the ceramic long neck turtles
that were made at Kaiela Arts a few years ago.
New - 5/6 Festival of the Sacred
All term our Grade 5/6 students have been practising their singing and dancing in readiness for this amazing celebration!
Everyone is most welcome to attend - see the flier below for booking information.
New - Reconciliation
A very prayerful and reverent time for the children who celebrated the Sacrament of First Reconciliation last night at St. Mary's Church!
REMINDER - Scholastic Book Fair
We will be running our annual Book Fair again this year.
It will be heldon Tuesday 6th June in the Marian Centre.
Watch this space for further information.
REMINDER - Notre Dame College 2024 Enrolments
Please see the following Flyer with Notre Dame College2024 enrolment dates.
NDC Application - Important Date
- 2024 Enrolments close - 3pm Friday 19 May 2023
URGENT - Help St Mary's Bingo Committee
Our Parish has been running Bingo on a Saturday evening for close to 45 years. Over this time the school has received monetary donations of approx $12,000 per year, for support in achieving and maintaining larger projects around the school. just recently new airconditioning in the Marian Centre.
In raising this money, the small Bingo Committee, needs some support from our school families to volunteer and assist on the Bingo roster once or twice over an 8 week period .
The tasks that we require help in are -
- Ticket Selling - 6.30pm - 9.30pm - 3 hours
- Canteen - 6.30pm - 9.00pm - 2.5hours
- Caller - 7.30pm - 10.00pm - 2.5 hours. This is now done by 'auto call'
- Floor Walker - 7.30pm - 10.00pm - 2.5 hours. This is checking the winners ticket and calling back the ticket number
Bingo is held in the Marian Centre Saturday evenings for people in our community and volunteers will help other people from the committee, parish or the school. This is a great way to meet new people and help raise funds for our school and parish.
We thank all our families who are already helping, this is very much appreciated and we look forward to meeting new helpers for 2023.
Please contact any of the following to help out on the roster.
Tom Dumaresq - 58254836
Emma DiFede - 0416857026
Bev Ryan - 58252597
Maree Williams - 58252584
School Office - 58252858
Thank you for your consideration in supporting our school and our Parish.
Bingo Committee
We have a facebook page. If you haven't checked it out or are not following the page the link is listed below.
Our Facebook page and our fortnightly newsletter are two of our main sources for communicating information to our families.
