St Mary's Newsletter

We tell the truth and act honestly.

The students and teachers have been practising furiously for the Christmas concert under the careful guidance of Mrs Dolton and it looks like another entertaining concert is headed our way. The concert will take on a similar format to last years concert, with just one session, beginning at 5.30pm. More details will come out on Audiri on Monday.

It’s a busy time of the year and the teachers are also preparing their Reports. We have been spending time in our staff meetings analysing student data in the important areas of Maths and Literacy and we were reminded yesterday at how well the St Mary’s students are developing in these key areas. Congratulations must be extended to you as parents on the central role you play in your child’s educational life and of the skill and hard work displayed by all the class teachers here at St Mary’s.

Today saw our Year Three students take part in their Reconciliation retreat with those making their Reconciliation at Mass this Sunday. Thank you to Ms Ariti and Mrs Riethmuller for their continued work in preparing the students and to Father Philip for his continued guidance.

Don’t forget our AGM at 7pm this Monday. Thank you to those wonderful parents who have volunteered on our CSAC and P&F over past years and who are stepping down because their scheduled time is at an end on their respective committee. And thank you to those parents who have agreed to replace them. There are still spots available, so if you are keen to jump on to either committee, please let the Office know. Thank you once again to our P&F who will provide some drinks and nibbles Monday night to keep us fuelled while we listen to some not too long reports!!

Please be advised that Monday was the final Canteen Day for 2024.

We extend our thanks to Hayley and her team at Wild Poppy's Cafe for the wonderful service that has been provided our students; we know it's been especially difficult managing the Cafe as well as the Canteen leading up to the busy Christmas period. 

Any outstanding lunch orders will be carried across to 2025.

The Kindy/Pre-Preprimary area is about to receive a lovely new addition thanks to a Schools Upgrade Fund Grant. I picked up this new Funky Monkey play equipment on Monday and we hope to have it installed and ready to go as soon as possible for all our little people to enjoy!! We are looking for a group of volunteers to help assemble the play equipment, if you would like to be part of this group please let myself or the front office know so we can get it assembled and ready for the students to enjoy. 

This weeks "New Family of the Week" feature takes us all the way down to our beautiful Kindy classroom where we meet the Doble family. Sophia and her family joined us back in June and Mrs Davis said that Sophia has settled in beautifully. When Sophia is at Kindy her favourite thing to do is to make potions in the mud kitchen.

God Bless

Mr Hamersley

Wow, we are already at the end of Week 6, Term 4! We can’t believe the end of the year is so close! We have been busy in Year 4/5 this term, starting off with the T20 Cricket Carnival which saw St Mary’s showing lots of sportsmanship and teamwork!   It was a beautiful sunny day to take away 2 wins! (Miss Della Bosca was very happy with this!)

In Maths we have been learning about Area and Perimeter and the formulas used to find out the area and perimeter of shapes and relating them to real life scenarios like farming and paddocks!

In Writing, we have been focussing information reports. We created information reports on a chosen Marine Life Animal and have discovered some very interesting facts!

The Year Fives have been working hard on their leadership speeches and will present them next week, they have all done a great job and we can’t wait to hear them!

A highlight of this term would be attending the CORE Challenge at Merredin College, see below the write ups from our two St Mary’s Teams!

As we come to the last few weeks of the end of year, we are busy preparing for our Christmas Concert performances and finalising all the wonderful things we have been learning! I am sure everyone is looking forward to a well-earned summer break! 

#CORE Challenge - Written by the Year Fives.

Edna May

On Tuesday the 22nd of October, the year fives went to the #CORE Challenge at Merredin College. The year nines that were teaching us were Temily and Sarah. They helped us give the tape out to the students and everyone was working quickly by banging posts in and putting tarps on. In our team we had Emily, Mia, Celia, Thomas, Treigh, Lucas, Van, Clancy, Layla, Andrew and Nate. We had to build a mini highway to pull a basket along.  We had to make gold in the basket through the shaft then we got a hammer and a chisel to break the gold and get the marbles. Then we put them on a slide to wash the marbles off we worked together to move the basket on the highway. We then had to create mine shafts and build a mine shaft, so we used tarp for the sides and used hammers to push the wood in the ground. We had lunch than we did a race. For the race we tied a rope to some fake gold and whoever pulled it in the fastest, wins.

Our team won by half a point and beat the other St Mary’s team. Our team name was Edna May and it was really fun! We learned how to use our initiative and teamwork, we also learned how to build mine shafts. We helped others, shared jobs, we had trust in our team, faith and responsibility.

Tapia Gold Nuggets

We learnt to work as team, share and be competitive. We built a mine shaft and did lots of fun challenges. In the 1st challenge we had to transport gold from the mineshaft. Our team built a mine highway to transport gold and get marbles and clean them, we used vinegar to clean the gold. Our whole team raised $4,000 of gold in 10 minutes.

Leadership, teamwork and comprising about how to do stuff. We had to fix problems because we had not enough materials. We learnt how to make stuff that we didn’t know. We learnt how to use different materials.         

Now a lot of us understand how life works in the mines and in real life. We will use these skills of how to build houses and highways. Our group learnt how to be efficient and how to do stuff by our self.

The best part was when we built the mine shaft at the start. We had to put up tarps and wood poles into the ground. Then for the challenge we had to put gold on a trolley, attached it to a rope and then have a race who could take it off the fastest.

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.

Start your new year with an exciting experience at WAAPA. Come along this January for a fun-packed program where you'll meet new people, sharpen your skills, and get plenty of performance opportunities. WAAPA’s Summer School offers a wide variety of performing arts courses tailored for secondary school students. Whether you're going into Year 7 or Year 12, there's something for every aspiring artist—classes in Acting for Stage, Dance, Acting for Camera, Jazz Music, and Music Theatre. Our expert instructors welcome students of all skill levels and experiences. For more details on the courses available, visit Summer School 2025 or reach out to Gabrielle Metcalf at explore.waapa@ecu.edu.au or call 9370 6775.

The Shire of Merredin Australia day nominations are now open.

The awards seek to recognise outstanding individuals and organisations that have made significant contributions to their local communities during the past year, or those who have given exceptional service over a sustained period. These contributions can take many forms, including but not limited to education, health, fundraising, voluntary services, business, employment, sport, arts, environment, social inclusion, or any other area that contributes to the betterment of the community.

There are four award categories: 1. Community Citizen of the Year (for individuals over 16 years) 2. Young Community Citizen of the Year (for individuals aged 16-30 years) 3. Senior Community Citizen of the Year (for individuals aged 65 years or over) 4. Active Citizenship Award (for community groups or events).

We strongly encourage individuals and groups from diverse backgrounds to consider submitting a nomination.

Merredin: Saturday 6.30pm & Sunday 10.30am

Kellerberrin: Sunday 8.00am

Open Wednesday 8.30am-9.10am

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