Dear Parents and Carers,

Thank you to all parents, grandparents and friends who joined us last week for our Opening Mass. It was a lovely start to officially open our school year and we especially appreciate our REC Ms Anne Saunderson for her care in preparing students for readings and helping them to make connections to the theme of regrowth.

Our Yr 6 Leaders led the student body capably throughout Mass and I know this will be an important year for them as they seize leadership opportunites. The Yr 6 specific roles are:

·        Jade  -  Environment Leader

·        Caleb  -  Sport Leader

·        Catriona  -  Media Leader

·        Isabelle  -  Hospitality Leader

Our swimming carnival and now the Western Region Swimming Carnival have been completed. Our St Mary’s Swimming Team competed proudly and thank you to all parents who assisted with transport and Ms Crozier who supervised on the day in Harden. Our teardrop banner was used for the first time at the carnival. It looks great!

We are going to take the opportunity of good weather and head back to the Batlow Pool this Friday. All K-6 can participate in novelty events as Hume and Hovell battle it out to win the House Trophy. Please see the note for permission attached in this newsletter.

On another note, Ms Kaye Lowe returns to us this week on Wednesday and Thursday to provide professional development to our teachers in Literacy. She will work with students alongside teachers. As an LNAP school, we are in the last year of a five year programme to support improved student learning outcomes. LNAP stands for Literacy and Numeracy Action Plan. If you see Kaye around, please feel free to say hello. She enjoys connecting to parents too.

Finally, our new cement area is nearing completion. It has been a journey with bushfires, heatwaves and heavy rainfall, but the last pour should be tomorrow. This has been an initiative between the St Mary’s Parish, the school, and our Community Council. Unfortunately, we did not win the grant to assist in building a ball wall near the front gate. This was announced in early December last year. Despite that set back we will still work towards improving the facilities for our students at St Mary’s.

 Have a lovely week everyone.

 Kind Regards

 Jannine

Our Opening School Mass last Thursday was a wonderful celebration.  Thank you to parents, grandparents and friends of St. Mary's for coming along and celebrating with us.

The significance of the children processing in to Mass with the potted plants was a reflection on the words of Mrs. Richards welcome.

'...may this Batlow community feel the love and comfort from the St. Mary's community as you continue to battle, rise and rebuild.'

Next Tuesday 25th February is Shrove (pancake) Tuesday.  The children will be having pancakes at recess at no cost.  

Ash Wednesday is the next day 26th February.  This is the beginning of the season of Lent in the Catholic church.  We will be celebrating the Mass at 12:00 noon with the Year 5 children as our leaders. 

Have a wonderful week.

Anne Saunderson - Religious Education Coordinator

What a beautiful Opening Mass last Thursday. Year 6 received their leaders badges and Kindergarten were officially welcomed to the school. A beautiful morning tea followed.

Network Access Student Agreement and Ipad Agreement 2020 sheets went home with each student today. Please read carefully, sign and return to school.

Parents are notified that the first two days of Term 2 will be staff development days/pupil free days. Monday 27 and Tuesday 28 April.

The next Staff Development day will be the first day of Term Three. There will be no Staff Development day in Term 4.

Three Way Interviews will be available in Week 5 on Tuesday and Wednesday afternoon. Please select a timeslot for this ‘meet and greet’ opportunity on the schoolszine app. All students are with a new teacher this year and so the three way conversation is an important step for every student to have their parent and their teacher together to share their new school year happenings. Student goals can be set together to start learning targets for the term and into the rest of 2020.

Please follow the link below to book your time.

https://stmarysbatlow.schoolzineplus.com/view-session/6

It is part of the school uniform to wear plain BLACK SHOES (no white on joggers) to school on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays. 

We appreciate your support in this matter.

If you want to get in contact with your child's teacher, please email directly to the teacher.

amy.buckmaster@cg.catholic.edu.au

mercedes.brown@cg.catholic.edu.au

maddison.crozier@cg.catholic.edu.au

Birthday wishes this week go to Catriona who turns 11 on 20th February and to Calee Bree who turns 8 on the 23rd.

2020 Champions and Runners-Up

Junior Boys – Tied Ethan and Dylan

Junior Girls- Champion Jasmine, Runner Up Amara

Intermediate Boys-Champion Ryley, Runner Up Liam

Intermediate Girls Champion Catriona, Runner Up Annabelle

Senior Boys Champion Caleb

Western Region Swim Team

Student of the Week - Week 3

Next Tuesday our radio announcers are: JADE & LIAM W

Tune in to FM 96.3 at 1.45pm to hear what is happening at St Mary's.

The PATON family will be this week's cake raffle family.

Tickets are sold for 20c each on FRIDAY.

This week's home cooks are the

SKERRY & BROWN families

Cooking is sold for 50c per item on Friday.

Student absences-notes are required for any student absences. Parents may use the SCHOOLZINE app to do this. 

WEDNESDAY 26th FEBRUARY - ASH WEDNESDAY MASS 12PM

SUNDAY 1st MARCH - CHILDRENS MASS 

WEDNESDAY 25th MARCH - SCHOOL PHOTOS

SATURDAY 28th MARCH - BATLOW SHOW

THURSDAY 9th APRIL - TERM 1 ENDS 

TERM 2 PUPIL FREE DAYS - MON 27th & TUES 28th APRIL

TERM 2 BEGINS - WEDNESDAY 29th APRIL

Thank you to NSW Rugby League who donated footballs to our school. Lynda Voltz Member for Auburn and the Shadow Minister for Police and Counter Terrorism and the Shadow Minister for Sport and Recreation presented the balls to students on Wednesday.

'NRL Road to Regions' program which sees NRL and NRLW players, as well as former stars, embark on a series of visits throughout remote and regional Australia.

The visit to Batlow last week provided an opportunity for students to meet some of the stars of the game before the 2020 season commences. 

Players participated in a lesson with students, focusing on respectful relationships.

The Batlow Show is on Saturday 28 March. What a town and what a committee! This year we have a good reason to celebrate being a community after the bushfires. Our school will be putting in our school display once again. We hope you get a chance to get there and look at our students’ work.

We have been invited to man the ‘back gate’ at the show from 7 to 4pm by the Batlow Show Committee. The school receives a small donation from the Show Society for our support. Please let us know if you're available for an hour or so through the schoolszine email ‘Batlow Show Back Gate Support’ or follow the link below.

https://stmarysbatlow.schoolzineplus.com/form/40

A huge thank you to the staff from the Catholic Education Office in Canberra who donated sets of Lego to the students of St Mary's.