St Mary's Newsletter

We accept apologies and give others the opportunity to do the right thing and to have another chance. 

In Sunday’s Gospel, John the Baptist preaches about getting ready for the arrival of the Messiah.  In the frantic pace of Christmas preparations, it is easy to forget the one for whom the season exists – Jesus!  ‘Maranatha’ means ‘Come Lord Jesus’.  When the pace gets out of control, this simple word whispered on a deep breath can be a reminder that Jesus is the one for whom we long.

Our School Concert on Wednesday evening was a fantastic way to finish off a great year as we all took a trip down memory lane on a movie night!  The students were, as always, engaged and enthusiastic as they show cased their talents for their family and friends.  I have received a lot of positive feedback about this year's concert - it is always lovely to have the hard work of our staff and students affirmed.

Congratulations to St Mary’s School Head Girl and Head Boy for 2022 Ellie Atkinson and Brock Barnett.  I am sure that they will make exemplar leaders for our student body.

The following Year Six Awards were presented to the following students:

Christian Values Award – Ava Downsborough 

Leadership Award – Olivia Geier 

Academic Award – Abigail Smith 

STEM Award:  Olumiji Onikola

The Mary McKillop Award is donated by the P&F and acknowledges a child in each year level who lives out the school values. This person is someone who their teacher has identified as living out our school motto by “Doing Ordinary Things Extraordinarily Well.”  The Mary MacKillop Award recipients for 2021 are: 

At the senior concert, we acknowledged Mrs Louise Discenza for completing 25 years of service at St Mary’s School.  Louise always lives out the school values and does ‘ordinary things extraordinarily well’.  This is an amazing achievement – congratulations Louise!

On Monday we held both the Kindy and Pre-Kindy Orientation for 2022.  Thank you to Mrs Bec Millar for her hard work and efforts in preparing both presentations. We currently have vacancies in both Pre-Kindy and Kindy next year – if you have friends or family who are yet to enrol their children in either a three or four year old program, please direct them to the Office for further information. 

The St Mary’s School students were asked to design a picture which will go on the Parish Christmas Mass invitations.  The children all took great care and Fr Andrew found it difficult to narrow them down to five.  Congratulations to Sana (PP), Emily S (Year Two), Angelica (Year Four), Charlie K (Year Five) and Ava (Year Six) whose design will be on the front of the invitations that will go out to families on the parish register.

We welcome Bailey Smith (Health and PE), Keely Lowe (Year Two) and Milla McFarlane (Year 4/5) to our school community.  They are all Merredin College students who will be completing work experience at our school.

Semester Two reports and Kindy portfolios will be sent home on Wednesday, 9th December.  I have had the pleasure of reading through them and all parents should be proud of not only all the progress that has made been made but also the way in which the children conduct themselves as learners and people.

On Wednesday, 8 December at 5.30pm we will be celebrating the Graduation of our Year Six class in the Church.  All are welcome to join us as we celebrate and farewell these students from our community.

Our Farewell Assembly will take place on Friday, 10 December at 8.50am in the Undercover Area and be followed by our Thank You Morning Tea in the Hall.  Families and staff leaving St Mary’s School (including Year Six) will be officially farewelled at this Assembly.  All are welcome to attend.

The flooring has gone into the Specialist Room this week.  The next step is for the carpentry to go in before the finishing touches are made.  The room will be ready for everyone to use at the start of next year – Mrs McCormack is very excited to be returning to her newly renovated classroom!

The Uniform Shop will be open Tuesday morning from 8.30 to 9.10am. This is a great opportunity to try on uniforms ready for next year, or you can place an order online through the QuickCliQ website.

There is a large selection of second hand uniforms available and selling for just $5 a piece, along with a box of 'free' items.

Lost Property: There is a collection of lost property that needs to find its home. This is can be found outside the student toilets.

Please see attached the 2022 Fee Structure which was shared at the ACM.

Please see attached the 2022 Staffing which was shared at the ACM.

The 2022 Term Planners will be attached to next week’s Bulletin.  A synopsis of the main dates for next year are as follows:

Term One:  Monday, 31 January to Friday, 8 April 

Term Two:  Tuesday, 26 April to Friday, 1 July

Term Three:  Monday, 18 July to Friday, 23 September

Term Four:  Monday, 10 October to Friday, 9 December

Pupil Free Days

25 March (Friday)

26 April (Tuesday)

3 June (Friday)

19 July (Monday)

26 August – Catholic Leave Day (Friday)

Sacramental Program

All Sacrament Parent and Student Session:  10 March

Sacrament Commitment Masses:  12 March at 6.30pm & 13 March at 10.30am

Confirmation:

Parent and Student Information Session:  19 May

Retreat:  9 June

Sacrament of Confirmation:  12 June

Holy Communion:

Parent and Student Information Session:  2 August

Retreat:  9 September

Sacrament of First Holy Communion:  11 September

Reconciliation:

Parent and Student Information Session:  20 October

Retreat:  18 November

Sacrament of First Reconciliation:  20 November

We offer our condolences to the family of Nessie Western who passed away during the week.  Nessie was a much-loved past staff member (receptionist) of St Mary’s School and the great grandmother of Sienna (Pre-primary) and Lola (Pre-Kindy) Anderson.  I have enjoyed hearing all the wonderful stories and memories of Nessie this week from staff who remember her fondly (from their days here as  students).  May Nessie Rest in Peace and may perpetual light shine on her.

God Bless and have a lovely weekend with your families.

Ms Adriana Coniglio

Principal

Advent is the time when we prepare to celebrate the gift of the baby Jesus. Advent wreaths are made in the shape of a circle with greenery and decorations to remind us of God's never-ending love for us. We have been celebrating by holding special Advent liturgies and the Year 3/4 class presented the liturgy for Week Three. Our final liturgy will be held on Monday, 6 December and will be presented by the Year Two class, everyone is welcome to attend.

Kind regards,

Mrs Pauline Riethmuller

Assistant Principal

In Pre-Primary Religious Education we have been exploring our unit on Advent. 

We each made an Advent Wreath and discussed the meaning of each candle and what it represents. We learnt that Advent is a time of waiting and preparing for the arrival of Baby Jesus. 

We love listening to the story of The Nativity and the wonderful news of Jesus being born on Christmas Day. 

As Pre-Kindy is coming to an end the children are all very eager about starting ‘big school’ next year. It has been fantastic watching everyone participate in the three - year old program. The children have loved getting creative, singing songs and playing in the 'big kindy yard' throughout the year. We have also made some great friendships  which we hope will carry over into Kindergarten. Over the last few weeks, we have been practicing some of the routines and transitions that we will be implementing in Kindergarten and let me say everyone has done an excellent job! 

What a term we have had in Performing Arts. It has been such a pleasure teaching Drama and seeing everyone grow in confidence. We’ve had lots of laughs performing for each other. Much of our term has been taken up rehearsing for our concert pieces, at the time of writing this we are close to performing for you, I hope you enjoyed it!

Musica Viva came for a visit and showed us some fascinating wind instruments from Persia, Estonia and Australia like the Daf  (sheep skin drum), Nay ( flute like ) and contemporary Didgeridoo (it slides!). One of the performers Mark, had made some instruments out of PVC pipes and rubber gloves!

We all had a great time creating a musical soundscape at the end using our voices, bodies and some people were lucky enough to get to use some of the home-made instruments. 

Congratulations to the following students who were awarded Values Certificates;

Honesty - We tell the truth and act truthfully.

Pre-Primary: Leo Ajaj

Year One: Norah Swarts

Year Two: Clancy Sutherland

Year Three/Four: Ruby Smith

Year Four/Five: Jasmine White

Year Six: Charlotte Criddle

Merredin: Saturday 6.30pm & Sunday 10.30am

Kellerberrin: Sunday 8.00am