St Mary's Newsletter

Term 3 - Week 4 (9th August, 2024)

Dear St Mary's School Community,

Focus Value: Responsibility

We have a duty to be accountable to ourselves and to others.

Apex Park - Danjoo Waabininy Boodja Opening

Beautiful rain made the start of the day quite tricky, but our students, teachers and parent helpers braved the challenging conditions and walked to the new Park opening. After a wet start the children managed to indulge in a long-awaited play on the new playground and a sausage sizzle lunch, courtesy of the Shire of Merredin. We were lucky to have a nice bus trip back to school and arrived back at lunchtime. We would like to thank our brave parent helpers who survived rain, new equipment and some long speeches but all agreed the morning was a great success.

SAC Meeting

Our wonderful, committed SAC parent reps will meet on Monday night at 7.00pm in the school Library.

 

Feast of Mary MacKillop Mass

Special thanks to Father Philip for leading us in our Feast Day Mass. The Year One/Two class students read beautifully. Special thanks to Mrs Grant and Mrs Riethmuller for preparing the children. I’d also like to thank Ms Ferraro for guiding our new batch of altar servers, they are doing a fine job on the altar!

Family Friday

It was great to see extended family members at our Term Three Family Friday event. It’s always special to welcome new and old acquaintances back to St Mary’s. The classroom's were very busy this morning with lots of fun activities for everyone to join in on!

Sunday Mass

Our Year Three/Four class are reading at our Sunday Mass this weekend which will begin at 10.30am. All are welcome to attend.

Thursday 15th August Mass

Next Thursday the Year Five/Six class will be leading us at The Feast of the Assumption School Mass.

NAPLAN

Year Three and Five Parents will receive the 2024 NAPLAN results today via the students. In the coming weeks I will present a report on how the students of St Mary’s fared in the test; but I am happy to say we saw improvement in several areas and still remain above like CEWA schools across all subjects, bar one.

Assembly

The Pre-Primary class will perform at the whole school assembly next Friday the 16th of August. All are welcome to attend what will be a very entertaining morning.

Why did the old man fall down the well?

He couldn’t see that well.

God Bless.

Mr H.


Class News

Year One/Two

Year One and Two have been busy getting back into routine after the holidays.  We have been able to use the new P and F purchases to do our Maths learning, with the number board and also using the place value materials.  Coming back from the holidays always includes a lot of sharing about the interesting and exciting adventures that were experienced while we were away.  The class wrote some awesome recounts of their holidays. We spent weeks getting ready for our Mary Mackillop Mass in week 4 by practicing our readings and all our hard work paid off as we did a fantastic job!!

Other News & Important Dates

Book week 2024: 17th-23rd August

On Wednesday, Week 6, 21st August, we will hold our annual Book Week multi-age activity day.   Students from Kindy to Year 6 will rotate through 5 activities during the day. 

At 8:50 we will hold our costume parade, then at 9:10 students will be placed into their groups, ready for their first activity. 

Students have free dress for the day.  Some dress up ideas for the day are: 

  • Classic book characters 

  • Mary Poppins 

  • Magic School Bus Characters 

  • Favourite Author 

  • Alice in Wonderland 

  • The Wizard of Oz 

St Mary's P&F Colour Run

Below is all of the information you need regarding the Colour Run for 2024. Your child/ren were given this information on Monday the 5th of August with an attached brochure, make sure you check their school bags!!

2024 Premier's Reading Challenge.

"The Premier’s Reading Challenge runs from the 6th of May to the 6th of September and the idea is that you try to read as many books as you can. It’s a competition right across the state and there’s some great prizes – including a Nintendo Switch. So, everyone get on board with the Premier’s Reading Challenge for 2024. Get to your books!"

Hon. Roger Cook MLA, Premier of Western Australia 

About the challenge

The Premier’s Reading Challenge is a literacy engagement program established in 2022 to: 

  • encourage students to read more books
  • enjoy reading
  • improve literacy levels.

The mission is for students in kindergarten to Year 10 to read 12 books over 4 months from 6 May to 6 September. That’s right—just 12, students can read:

  • books
  • short stories
  • graphic novels
  • eBooks
  • talking books
  • audiobooks
  • poems
  • anything that sparks their interest and gets them reading.

Whether they’re a curious kindergartener or a high-schooler, there is something of interest for readers at any and every level.

Adventures await. Books take us to places we only dream about and even further. Where else can we experience a mutiny on a pirate ship or jump on a time-traveling bicycle.

Students will expand their vocabulary, learn new facts, and impress their friends with fancy new words that they have learned.

At the end of the challenge, students who complete it will receive a special certificate signed by the Premier. They can hang it proudly on their bedroom wall; it’s like winning a gold medal in reading!

Get your students ready to explore, grab their reading lights and bookmarks and set sail on their next reading adventure.

The next great story is only one page turn away.

Benefits of the challenge

The challenge will:

  • raise the profile of reading and literacy in schools
  • give students a focus for their reading
  • encourage students to enjoy reading and read more books
  • encourage students to participate by being challenged
  • offer incentives and prizes for readers
  • build self-esteem, pride, school unity and a sense of achievement among students
  • increase the involvement of parents in their child’s reading
  • increase the number of library books borrowed
  • contribute to increased literacy levels.

How to register

Go to:

https://www.premiersreadingchallenge.wa.edu.au/

and click on the "SIGN IN" button to create an account.


Viterra & St Mary’s Primary School Merredin P&F

Viterra and the St. Mary’s Primary School Merredin P & F have agreed to a sponsorship program for the coming season and into the future. The Viterra Sponsorship Program commenced in 2010 as a way of helping WA grain growing communities. Since its inception, Viterra has donated over $1 million to WA grain growing sporting clubs & community groups. Viterra is very proud of what the program has achieved over this period. We are very pleased to be able to contribute to WA grain growing communities that support us, knowing that our sponsorship goes some way towards the viability of rural WA clubs and their communities – it also gives growers a sense that they too have assisted with their club’s finances. We appreciate any support you can offer Viterra by spreading the word amongst your members and the community.

Here is how it works:

Viterra will donate $0.20 per tonne to the St Mary’s Primary School Merredin P & F for every tonne of grain delivered against contracts sold to Viterra.

At the time of contracting, the grower or their consultant MUST identify that they wish the contract to be a part of the sponsorship agreement with the St Mary’s Primary School Merredin P & F. Every 12 months we will forward your club the funds accumulated against the contracts covered by the agreement.

For contract pricing of any grain, or if you wish to subscribe to the Viterra ‘sms’ or ‘email’ pricing service, contact Rob Haddrill, Tim Giumelli or Matt Stenhouse in the Viterra WA office.

1300 453 626

Rob Haddrill 0407 191 633

Tim Giumelli 0427 017 047

Matt Stenhouse 0419 040 786

Containers for Change

St Mary's School is part of the "Containers for Change" program. Please see the poster below for all the details. If you require a green bag to collect your cans, these are available from Mrs Riethmuller at the school.

Community Notices

Merredin College Fete Colouring Competition

Merredin College are holding a school fete on Saturday 7th September. 

Click on the "Download" button below to download your copy of the Colouring Competition.

It is open to everyone and anyone, with some great prizes to win! 

Entries are to be dropped off to the Merredin College Primary Office by Wednesday 21st August. 

Download

St Mary's Parish Merredin- Mass Times

Merredin: Saturday 6.30pm & Sunday 10.30am

Kellerberrin: Sunday 8.00am

St Mary's P&F Uniform Shop

Open Wednesday 8.30am-9.10am

Online Orders: www.quickcliq.com.au