St Mary's School, Charleville eNewsletter

Principal - Ms Katrina Dunne

Welcome to our Week 10 Newsletter. As we draw close to the end of Term 1, I want to take a moment to express my sincere gratitude for your unwavering involvement and support throughout these past few months. Your partnership with us has made a difference in creating a positive and enriching learning environment for our students.

As we approach the Easter vacation, I want to extend my warmest wishes to you and your families for a happy and safe holiday season. May this time be filled with joy, peace, and cherished moments spent together.

Looking ahead to Term 2, we are excited about the opportunities and experiences awaiting our students. We eagerly anticipate welcoming everyone back refreshed and ready for another term of growth and learning.

Once again, thank you for your continued support and collaboration. Wishing you a wonderful Easter break and looking forward to seeing you all soon.

Kind regards,

Katrina Dunne

Dates to highlight on your calendar:

NOTE: please see the calendar on the Parent Portal app for up-to-date events throughout the term.

First day of Term 2	Tuesday 16^th April
Anzac Day Assembly at School	Wednesday 24^th April at 2pm
Anzac Day Public Holiday	Thursday 25^th April
Labour Day Public Holiday	Monday 6^th May
Charleville Show Holiday	Friday 17^th May
Every Friday at 11:10am	Whole School Assembly

APRE - Mrs Kirsty Lines

Sacramental Program

Many thanks to the immediate families of our Reconciliation candidates, who attended their child’s first Reconciliation on March 9. We await word from Bishop Ken’s office regarding Sacraments in Term 2 and 3.

Holy Week Celebrations

It’s so exciting to be able to explore Holy Week in Holy Week!! Every morning this week, as a whole school, we have commemorated a different Holy Week event. Please see pictures below. Thank you to Nic Chang, who played Jesus this year in our Holy Week commemorations.

Holy Week Mass Times

Everyone is welcome to join in Holy Week commemorations at St Mary’s Church this Easter. Please see Mass times below:

Holy Thursday (March 28^th) – Mass – 5:30pm in the church

Good Friday (March 29^th) – Liturgy – 3:00pm in the church

Easter Saturday Vigil Mass (March 30^th) – 6:00pm in the church

As always, I end the term by thanking you, our school community, for your support of the Religious Life of the School – by attending Masses and Prayer Assemblies, as well as Parish events – our school wouldn’t be the same if we didn’t enjoy such strong support.

Wishing you all a happy and Holy Easter.

Kirsty Lines

APRE

Curriculum - Mrs Vanessa Alexander

Hello Families,

Welcome to the final day of Term 1. I am excited for these holidays. I’m not sure how your year started out but mine has been one challenge after another, all the while trying to maintain some form of routine. Don’t get me wrong, there have been some wonderful highlights as well, but the mood or the vibe as you might call it, hasn’t been the most colourful.

The Year 3 and Year 5 students have now completed the NAPLAN testing for 2024. All students who participated tried hard and did their best work. All tests were completed online, (with the exception of the Year 3 writing test), using laptops. Thank you, students, for your positive attitudes and resilience when dealing with new and complicated technology.

As a school we have now engaged in using the PLD program to teach phonics, spelling and early decoding from Prep through to Year 6. Next term we look forward to improving our pedagogical skills in the classroom through peer observations and coaching cycles.

We hope you all had a chance to visit your child’s classroom for student led conferences. If you feel you would like to catch up with your child’s teacher to discuss your child’s learning further, please reach out to them to find a suitable time to meet. Remember, while we set these times twice a year to meet with your child and their teacher, you are able to make an appointment at any stage throughout the year.

Wishing you all a wonderful break and hoping the Easter Bilby finds you on the Sunday – a day to celebrate the risen Lord.

Vanessa Alexander

Year 3 - Miss Katherine Spalding

Can’t believe we are already at the end of the first term! The second half of this term has been busy finalising assessment, preparing for Student Led Conferences and participating in our first NAPLAN testing experience.

In week six the students presented their Prayer Assembly. We presented the story of Moses and how he shared the teachings of the 10 commandments.

A huge congratulations to the year three children who participated in all three days of NAPLAN testing. The students demonstrated persistence and excellence as they completed narrative writing, language conventions, reading and numeracy examinations.

A real highlight over the past few weeks has been time we have spent with our Prep buddies. We have been investigating the different zones of regulation and building our fine and gross motor skills.

Hope everyone has a safe holiday! Looking forward to term 2 and seeing everyone refreshed for another lovely term!

Year 4 - Ms Kerri McDougall

In science and literacy this term our class has observed the important relationship between insects and flowers. They have learnt the pollination process of a flower and how bees play an important part of this process. The students have observed ants and bees within the school grounds, drawn cross sections of flowers, labelled diagrams and completed an information report on bees.

Through small group activities the students can practice and nurture their social and emotional resilience skills and learn strategies to work in a team through turn taking, patience, problem solving and resolving conflicts, reflecting on what worked and areas for improvement.

It was such a joy to observe students collaboratively working with classmates whom they don’t often work with and see how they navigated challenges, overcame conflicts and resolved disagreements. The shrills of laughter and supporting one another through the lows has been a big focus for the class this term.

We have focussed on deepening our understanding of what the Mercy Values look like within the classroom environment and pausing to highlight when a student is demonstrating these during the school day. Students are becoming more aware of those around them and helping one another.

Year 5 - Miss Holly Price

A huge thank you to all Year 5 students for their fantastic work and dedication to their learning this term! Attached are some photos from our buddy lessons with Year 2, learning about Harmony Week and the meaning of Easter celebrations.

A mammoth effort from all St Mary’s students at our cross country and colour run.

I hope you all have a safe and wonderful Easter break. I look forward to Term 2!

Miss Holly Price.

Year 6 - Miss Taylor Morrison

How are we already at the end of Term One?! Year 6 have absolutely smashed their learning this term and have enjoyed the extra events too! Please see photos below of our super hard-working seniors who have investigated procedural texts, microorganisms, countries in Asia, fractions, the cartesian plane, integers and prophets, (just to name a few), this term!

A few weeks ago, we took part in Book Fair! Our leaders were super helpful with our prep students.

Our Year 6 leaders took part in retreat earlier in the term where they discussed servant leadership. They definitely enjoyed the chippies too!!

Last week was a big week at St Mary’s! We held our Student Led Conferences where our learners shared their celebrations from this term and their goals for the remainder of the year.

We celebrated Harmony Day! Each class shared a presentation on a country of their choice. Year 6 shared the country within Asia that they had explored for HASS this term.

Students also took part in our annual Cross Country and Colour Run! We had some incredible finish times and ended the day full of colour.

This week, we celebrate and commemorate Holy Week as a whole school. We have enjoyed refreshing our knowledge on Palm Sunday, Holy Thursday and Good Friday. Our Year 6s did a fantastic job leading!

Oh but wait, we’re not finished yet… Year 6 were lucky enough to attend the Careers Expo this week! They had an absolute ball finding out about different professions and chatting to all our guests. Thank you everyone!