Dear Parents and Carers,

Last week we celebrated our achievements in our annual swimming carnival. The weather was superb and the program ran smoothly. Thank you to the students who participated with good spirit and friendly competition. Hovell was the successful house on the day, just edging out Hume on this occasion. Thank you also to all the parents who helped with the many jobs and enjoyed the day. A special mention must go to St Mary's staff, Batlow Swimming Pool staff and the swimming club who looked after our safety and helped us out with equipment. Students who gained selection into the St Mary's Swimming Team now proceed to the Western Region level to be held in Tumut this Friday. We wish them good luck in their respective events.

Tonight, Tuesday 12 February, we will be holding our 2019 Parent Information evening. This is scheduled every year and it is an opportunity for parents to meet new, and not new, teachers. I will start the evening in the Library and then parents can  visit their child's/children's classroom to meet casually with teachers. Teachers will be distributing information in these sessions.

Coming up this Thursday 14 February is the Opening School Mass. This Mass gathers us as a community before God as we ask for guidance and a blessing for our new school year.  Our Year Six leaders will be inducted into their leadership roles for 2019 and Kindergarten students will be given a special welcome. All parents and friends are warmly welcome. Please join us for morning tea following Mass.

On a final note I would like to welcome Poppy Rose Garner into our St Mary's community. Sarah and Aidan's newest bundle of joy decided to arrive early last Saturday morning and from all reports, is doing well.  We look forward to Poppy's first visit to school later this term.

St Mary's Parent Information evening is tonight in the School Library. Mrs Richards will give a brief overview of what is happening at St Mary's in 2019, and then parents/carers can visit their child's classroom and meet their teachers for 2019.

2019 Opening School Mass will be held THIS Thursday February 14th at 10am. School Leaders will be given their Leadership roles and presented with their badges and Kindergarten will be presented with their Welcome Certificates.

There will be morning tea after the Mass.  All Welcome.

Morning Drop off

Please be advised that this year we are kicking into our learning quickly at 9:00am and so we are no longer having morning assemblies. Students need to be at school by 9:00am for roll call and then Maths lessons will begin. Students arriving after 9:00am need to be signed in by parents/carers. Thank you for your assistance in this matter.

 Student Pick up arrangements for 2019

Could parents please advise us of students pick up arrangement for home time if they differ over the week. We need to know what days students are being picked up by Claire or if they go on the bus. If your child goes home every day by bus then we already have that information. If your child goes home everyday with Claire we already know that information too. Staff need to know the arrangements for students who vary with the pick up arrangements eg. Every Tuesday Sally goes home on the bus. Please let us know by sending an email to the school office email by the end of this week. 

We can collate that information and make sure all staff are aware of routine pickups over a normal week.

K/1 -  Marlie for displaying a high level of problem solving skills.

Phillip for being a wonderful team member and showing great listening skills.

2/3/4 - Thomas for excellent participation in our swimming carnival.

Hunter for excellent effort in draft writing.

5/6 - Catriona for excellent work on equivalent fractions in mathematics.

Term 1 School Fees were sent out by email today. If you did not receive yours please check your junk mail. If you still did not receive your statement please call the school office and you will be issued with a hard copy. Also please find attached a copy of St Mary's School Fee Policy.

This week our home cooks are the TAINIO & WOODLAND families.

Cooking is sold for 50c per item each Friday.

The KING family are on cake raffle this week.

Tickets are sold each Friday for 20c each.

Our radio announcers next Tuesday 19th will be Sebastian & Liam P.

Tune in to FM96.3 each Tuesday to hear the exciting things happening at St Mary's.

We wish Jade a happy birthday for the 16th of February when she turns 10.

SAVE THE DATE

School Photos 2019.

Wednesday 27th March.

MONDAY is school banking day each week.

Some exciting changes are taking place for the Archdiocese of Canberra and Goulburn Sport in 2019. After a great response to setting up the Face Book page and Team App we also now have our own Website!

It has all of the information that you require to keep up to date with everything that is happening in sport including links to other relevant websites.

We have additionally moved to an online Expression of Interest for nominations for the students to trial for Archdiocese of Canberra and Goulburn Representative teams.

Go to www.sport.cg.catholic.edu.au and check it out.

Congratulatiions to Liam W, Nadamary, Caleb, Ethan, Daniel, William, Annabelle, Annie, Catriona and Ryley who will represent St Mary's at the Western Region Swimming Carnivial held in Tumut on Friday.

We congratulate Daniel who tried out in the cricket trials last week in Gundagai.

Daniel was one of eleven year 5/6 students chosen from thirty students to represent the Diocese of Canberra Goulburn at Mackillop in Wagga. Well done Daniel!

Please remember the school uniform policy - Shoulder length hair must be tied up and NO finger nail polish. Thank you for your support with this policy.

At Cancer Council NSW we’re passionate about helping families eat more healthily.

 To help you provide healthy eating information in the classroom and to parents and wider school community, Cancer Council NSW has a fantastic website: healthylunchbox.com.au.

On the website parents will find snack ideas, sandwich alternatives, recipes, tips and easy healthy swaps for those common lunch box items that are not the best for our kids. Parents can also get their kids involved in choosing lunch box foods they will actually eat and enjoy using the interactivehealthy lunch box builder.

 Whip up a recipe from our website and encourage your colleagues, friends and family to visit the site for healthy lunch and meal inspiration!

 What’s New

Since we launched the website last year we have some exciting new features, content and recipes.

• Recipes – we regularly add new seasonal recipes for snacks, sandwich alternatives and sandwich filling ideas, find them here.
• Healthy lunch box examples – each term we add a new packed healthy lunch box examples,find them here.
• Lunch Box Builder – parents can plan a healthy lunch box with their children using the new builder items.
• Videos – some of our recipes now feature short videos showing the simple steps to creating the meal.
• Search – you can now search for recipes by name or ingredients and quickly find the information and tips you are looking for.
• Print recipes – it’s now easier to print recipes for safe keeping.
• Share recipes – on Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest.

We hope you find this resource useful. For any feedback or for more information on the Healthy Lunch Box Website please contact nutrition@nswcc.org.au

 If you would like to know more about what Cancer Council is doing in your region please contactinfo.southwest@nswcc.org.au or 6937 2600.