St Mary's Newsletter

Term 3 - Week 2 (31st July, 2026)

Dear St Mary's School Community,

Focus Value: : Faith

We believe in God and in each other.

Planning for 2027

As we begin planning for 2027, if your circumstances are changing and your child will no longer be attending St Mary's School, please let the Administration Office know as soon as possible.

You can contact us by:

Email: admin@stmarysmerredin.wa.edu.au

Phone: (08) 9041 1907

Thank you for helping us with our planning and enrolment preparations for 2027.

Australian Government Census

The Australian Government Department of Education (the department) would like to advise all staff, parents, guardians and students (where applicable) that it will collect certain information about your school, its staff and student body as part of the non-government schools census collection (the census) and special circumstance applications. The Census will take place next Friday the 7th of August. Please read the attached document for more information. 
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Performing Arts

Week Three  is going to be an exciting week for many of the students at St Mary’s School. Mrs Silver and her band of helpers have all been been working extremely hard to prepare the children for the Performing Arts Festival at the Perth Convention and Exhibition Centre on Wednesday 5th August. A big  thank you to Mrs Silver and all the Staff involved and my best wishes to the students. I know you will have a fabulous experience, and the school will be very proud of you.

REA Assessment

The students in Years 3 & 5 will be sitting the Religious Education Assessment on Tuesday 4th August. This is a very important assessment for Catholic Schools.  It is an Online Assessment and all Year Three and Five students in Catholic Schools across Western Australia are sitting the test next week.

Year Six Excursion

Tuesday 4th August will also see the children in Year Six attending a Wellbeing and Resiliency Forum. This has been facilitated by Holyoake and the children will be joined by other Year Six students from schools in the region.

 

New Fence

The new fence at the front of the school looks great. Thank you to Ben Jardine and his team of workers for completing it in time for the Centenary Celebrations. The school is very grateful to Colgar Renewables for the financial assistance grant which enabled this work to be done.

Parish Centenary

The Parish is celebrating 100 years of being an active faith community in Merredin on the weekend of the 1st & 2nd August. Please save the date in your calendar to support this important milestone. As part of the celebration, the school classrooms will be open for the community to visit on Saturday 3-5pm and on Sunday 9-10am. There will be a photo display in the Hall and some light refreshment on Saturday afternoon. Please take the time to visit the school, look at the photos and maybe have a little walk down memory lane.


What a lovely time I have had at St Mary’s School in Merredin. You are very fortunate to have such a beautiful school, with such dedicated Staff  for your children to attend. Mr Hamersley will be back at school on Monday. I’m sure he will have lots of stories to tell.

A big thank you to the St Mary’s Community for being so welcoming during my short stay.

 

Farewell and God Bless

Elizabeth Browner

(Short Term Principal)


Special Events

Pre-Primary’s 100 Days of School Celebrations

We had the best day celebrating our 100th Day of School, with a day packed full of 100-themed activities! We made "100-year-old me" collages, created colourful gumball machine artworks, and enjoyed making and decorating delicious biscuits covered in 100s and 1000s.

 It is always such a fun-filled day for our Pre-Primary kids as they celebrate reaching an exciting milestone, and they looked great doing it too! 😊

Class News

Year One

What a great beginning to Term 3! Even though we have had some sickness, we have all come back ready to go. The first week saw us having fun catching up on all the adventures our friends enjoyed during the holidays, witnessing some amazing acts of kindness and friendship towards each other, and being introduced to this term's learning focus across all subject areas.

This term is a busy one for Year 1/2, with the presentation of Mass in Week 3 and our assembly in Week 5. Mixed in with that are the 100-year celebration of the church, the Performing Arts students travelling to Perth in the middle of Week 3, and training for the Athletics Carnival—all alongside the awesome learning ahead of us.

It will certainly be another busy term, but the Year 1/2 team is ready for it!

Other News & Important Dates

Take A Guess Fundraiser

Wow, Mrs Mac must be making it too easy, because once again we have a winner!! Congratulations to Georgia Caldwell who correctly guessed the 18 squishies in the jar today. She got to take home a giant bag of lollipops!! Thank you to everyone that came and had a guess, we raised another $19.50 for Telethon this week!!!  

Footy Tipping Round 20 Update

Congratulations to our very own Year 6 student River O'Meagher for winning this week with a perfect score of 9/9. And it was a bonus round so she snags $100 thanks to Nextra Merredin and Merredin Refrigeration and Airconditioning! Make sure your mum doesn't try and keep it River! 

Footy Tipping Sponsors

Pre-Kindy Enrolments for 2027

It's hard to believe that it's that time of the year already, but we are starting to prepare for our 2027 intakes. If you haven't already done so, please contact the office to collect an enrolment pack and complete an enrolment enquiry form. We will be conducting our Pre-Kindy interviews later this term, so if you would like your child on our list for next year, please contact us ASAP as places are filling fast!!

Churches Fraternal Food Drive

The weather is getting colder and our regular Foodbank supply for the Merredin Churches Fraternal is no longer available. We invite school families to make a food donation to assist those in need. Donations could include: canned food (ham/meat, vegetables, fruit, soup), pea / bean mixes, lollies, biscuits, rice, sugar, flour, tea, coffee, milo, noodles, UHT milk, long life custard, fruit juice, cool drinks, cordial, packet food such as jelly, tea, coffee, milo, pasta, sauces, cereal, gravy, etc....please make sure items you are donating have not expired. Items can be placed in the basket that is located in the School Library. Thank you for your support, it is very much appreciated as Father Philip continues this important outreach program for our Parish. 

Volunteers Needed - Expressions of Interest

Have you got a few hours to spare. The Activities Coordinator at Mooditj Mia/Berringa Frail Aged Care Facility at the Merredin Hospital is looking for volunteers to spend some time with the residents, listening to their stories, reading, playing cards, doing some crafts etc. If you are interested, could you give your name to Fr Philip please so it can be given to the coordinator. 

Call for donations

I've started collecting items to send to the beautiful people in Tanzania with the help of the Retuno E Maa Foundation I will send a sea container when I have enough items to send. If you have anything you would like to donate that would be amazing. Second hand or new, everything can be used.

Some items that will be loved are:

  • Clothes in good condition (no underwear except bras)
  • Socks matching with no holes
  • Linen
  • Shoes in good condition
  • School supplies
  • Bikes & scooters in any form as they can be fixed
  • Balls - netball, soccer, football, basketball, tennis
  • Bread & Cake tins
  • Craft items like wool, crochet & knitting needles, beads, sewing supplies


Items can be dropped off to Cockies Ag

Jasmin 0427823357

Cockies Ag

Mitchell Street

Merredin

Community Notices

Merredin College - Year 7 Enrolments 2027

Are you planning for your child to attend Merredin College in 2027??

Please ENROL NOW!!

Applications can be found on our website

For further queries you can call administration on (08) 9041 7520 or at Merredin.College@education.wa.edu.au

Saver Plus Referral Form

Good morning,

We have received valuable feedback from the community suggesting that a referral form would help connect parents and carers with the Saver Plus program more easily.

In response, we’re pleased to introduce a new Referral Form, designed to simplify the process of getting in touch with us.

If you need anything else, please don’t hesitate to reach out.

Families can still enquire directly by calling our free number 1300 610 355

Kind Regards

Cim Rodgers (she/her) Community Liaison, Saver Plus

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St Mary's Parish Merredin- Mass Times

Merredin: Saturday 6.30pm & Sunday 10.30am

Kellerberrin: Sunday 8.00am

Please visit our website https://merredincatholicparish.org/

St Mary's P&F Uniform Shop

Open Wednesday 8.30am-9.10am

Online Orders: www.quickcliq.com.au