This is the first newsletter for Term 2 and a long one. I need to give a big thankyou first.

Thank you

 I want to thank all the students and parents who attended the Anzac Day march to the cenotaph in Batlow 25 April. It was a beautiful ceremony and a wonderful opportunity for our students to represent St Mary's in such an important national event. Our Project Compassion raffle, at the end of last term raised a whopping $385. This is amazing! Thank you for purchasing tickets and for all the donations from Yr 6 families and teachers. A final thank you to the parents who helped transport out students to Cross Country in Gundagai last Friday. Ms Collins and Ms Brown congratulated all students on their participation and enthusiasm. It was unseasonably hot day in the end but all students ran the whole distance and finished their event proudly. No students placed for the next level however, Jack Shang went very close.

Daily Review

We welcomed Dr Michael Roberts from Brisbane yesterday and teachers from St Joseph's Adelong and St Patrick's Gundagai. Mr Roberts conducted demonstrations in the lesson delivery of Daily Review: a new initiative to support student learning and retention of concepts. It was valuable professional development right here with our students. 

Catholic Schools' Week 

This week is Catholic Schools Week. Our enrolment period officially opens for 2023 across the Canberra Goulburn Archdiocese. More information of special events will be communicated to prospective new enrolments over the term. Catholic Schools Week is also an opportunity to celebrate what Catholic schools offer our students and families-places where we belong, believe and become. We will be showcasing our school and inviting parents to a special assembly Friday 20 May and would like any grandparents to come along as well at 1:45pm. Please save the date and share with grandparents as this will be our first big event for a very long time. We hope to see many of you there.

Working Bee

We are still proceeding with our Working Bee Saturday 14 May. More hands make light work and we'll put on a barbecue and provide you a free sausage sandwich. Jobs that need doing are: taking out the old furniture from under the school and carrying to the gate to give away, erecting a garden shed on our new cement slab, moving some agapanthus on levelling ground, filling new garden beds with soil. If you can help with any of the following jobs please let us know.

Athletics Carnival Monday 9 May

The carnival scheduled for this Thursday has been changed to next Monday 9th.   Events will start at 12pm at the Batlow Showground. Parents are welcome to come along to cheer on their child/ren and help time keep with teachers, if possible. All parents should have received the notification of the event in Compass and have all details about what children will need to bring.

NAPLAN

The National Assessment Programme for Literacy and Numeracy commences next Tuesday 10 May for students in Year 3 and Year 5 and is open for ten days. NAPLAN is not about passing or failing but about assessing learning progress. Students in Year 3 and Year 5 are expected to be at school every day unless ill. At St Mary's, we were extremely proud of student progress last year and look forward to improved results again this year. Although the benefits and concerns surrounding NAPLAN are debated in the media, especially at this time of the year, I believe it is important to have some form of national data collection process and at this time it is NAPLAN. NAPLAN, though,  is only one form of assessment that we do at school. 

Other assessments we conduct are:

Maths assessments (fortnightly), reading conferences (weekly), spelling progress monitoring in InitiaLit and Spelling Mastery programmes (weekly) and also large scale assessments at the end of the year called PAT tests in Reading, Maths and Spelling. Writing samples are also collected each term across the school for analysis. When all the data is combined it gives teachers a substantial amount of information of student progress on which report grades A-E are made. We do this twice a year at the end of each semester. 

Have a lovely week everyone.

Jannine

Following Easter, we gathered on ANZAC day to remember the brave men and women and recognise those currently serving. It was humbling to see so many of our students attend to represent St Mary’s and pay their respects.

In spirit of the Anzacs we pray

Gracious and loving God, the cross of Christ is the sign of your desire for justice and peace for all. Open our minds to your vision as we remember all who suffered through Australia and New Zealand’s involvement in wars, conflicts and peacekeeping operations. Grant all service persons who sacrificed health and life for the good of all, the gift of your deep peace. May we who inherit the freedom for which they fought become instruments of your peace in our homes, workplaces and world. We ask this prayer through Christ our Lord. Amen    

Amy Buckmaster - Religious Education Coordinator