Dear families,

A warm welcome back to all members of the St Mary’s community. I truly hope that everyone enjoyed a great holiday with their families and are excited for Term 4. There are lots of exciting things happening in our school this term and there is still plenty of learning to do for our students. We especially welcome back Mrs Kathy MacLean from her holiday in Term 3 and Mrs Lyndall Holmes from her university placement at the end of Term 3. Our students are all very excited to have you both back.

Next Saturday the 15th of October we are holding a working bee at school to help to tidy up the school grounds. Any community members that are available to help that day would be very much appreciated. If any volunteers are able to bring shovels, rakes, brooms, wheelbarrows, pressure washers etc, it will be of great assistance on the day. 

Coming up in November, we will begin our transition days for our 2023 foundation students. I have really enjoyed meeting our new foundations in our enrolment meetings and we are all very excited to welcome our new students. It is an exciting time for the school as we are moving to two straight foundation classes next year due to 30 new enrolments! This speaks wonders for our school and really highlights the great learning community that we have.

Our school is lucky to have Andrew Peevy teaching tennis on Mondays to F-2 in week 1 & 2 and 3-6 in weeks 3 & 4. Andrew has a lot of experience teaching tennis to children and has  a really positive and energetic way of engaging students in his lessons. Thank you to Mrs Bec Stobie for organising the tennis lessons for our school. 

Please remember that my door is always open to parents to discuss anything concerning your child, their learning or their safety. My aim is to provide the best possible Catholic education in a safe environment for every child in our school and to do this in partnership with our families. Please have a great weekend.

Kind regards,

Julian Blackford

Congratulations and well done to all students who were nominated this fortnight for their wonderful choices in the classroom or on the playground.  This is a weekly award and all nominted children should be very proud of themselves.  

Congratulations to the following students who were drawn out of a box of nominees for this fortnights Positive Behaviour Awards.  St Mary's have introduced this reward system to acknowledge the wonderful behaviour of students who regonise our school values of Respect, Act and Learn.

16/9/2022

Riley Gallatly

Frankie Forsyth

Alice Bagguley

7/10/2022

Owen Crutchfield

Roy Wilkinson

Alby Bramich

16th September ~ Luke Vardy

Congratulations to Luke who is extending his learning.  Luke is of German heritage and is currently being tutored to learn German.  Luke is using his initiative and motivation to learn a second language.  He wrote 3 sentences in German and has also read his first book in German.  Luke has shown great dedication and perserverance to expand his German lanuage skills.  

Well done Luke!!

7th October ~ Thomas Arnold

Congratulations to Thomas who has shown great adaptation when he moved to Victoria earlier this year.  He has been extremely flexible in developing new friendships within the school and in the wider community.  Thomas is very proud of his strength to build new connections.  He has shown remarkable resilience to make such a move.

Well done Thomas!!

To celebrate student's achievements, we will be presenting children with Star Of The Week awards.  This is a self nominated award of something a student is proud of.  It could be something academic, sports related, or a personal achievement. Have you learnt to ride a bike?  Won 1st place in a dance competition?  Read a book by yourself?  Anything that makes you proud!

Forms can be found on the link below.

What a fun way to enjoy our last day of term 3!!  Our day began with our traditional Footy Colours parade on the basketball court.  Followed by fun activities including a sprint race, longest kick of the footy and a colouring competition.

Thank you to Parer Painting who generously donated hot dogs and rolls for all children to enjoy at lunch time.

It has been a busy first week back at St Mary’s. On Monday our Foundation and Grade 1/2 students all participated in a tennis clinic at the Maffra Tennis Club. Students participated in a variety of activities and had a fantastic time. Next Monday Foundation and Grade 1/2 students will attend another tennis clinic. Then in week 3 and 4 students in Grade 3-6 will participate in tennis clinics. 

On Monday we had 20 students represent our school at the Wellington Athletics Carnival in Sale. All students displayed outstanding effort in their events and represented the school to a high standard. Big thanks to Miss Halley for her wonderful assistance on the day.  A huge thank you to Kelly Murphy, Rach Burns and Kane Watson who volunteered their time to assist on the day. Congratulations to Ella Higgins, Louis Wilkinson and Ada Phillips who have qualified to attend the Gippsland Regional Athletics next week. We wish you all the best with your events. 

Book club was sent home with children today.  

MAFFRA SHOW OCT 22^ND 2022

PRIMARY SCHOOL COOKING PIZZA MAKING COMPETITION

TIME:    10:45     Registration

 11         Start. 

LOCATION: New DOME Food and Wine Court

WHAT TO BRING: All pizza toppings that you would like to put on your pizza

WINNER: $40 1^st place, $20 2^nd place and $10 3^rd place awarded to student

 The Primary School’s name on the trophy to place in their cabinet.    

Enquiries: Connie Dwyer 0428 038 077

Please Note *Free Show Entry for Children *Free Competition Entry

Uniting are very excited to announce a brand new program for parents/carers of 2-12 year olds, which can be done live online or in person!

In a world where children face greater mental health risks than ever before “No Scaredy Cats” will teach parents how to directly support their children to deal with anxiety, manage stress, get problems in perspective, and become more emotionally resilient.

Please see attached flier for booking details and help spread the word about this fantastic free program.

WEEKEND MASSES

Heyfield:

Saturday    6:00pm

Maffra:

Sunday    9:00am 

Cowwarr:

1st and 3rd Sunday   11:00am

Newry:

2nd and 4th Sunday  11:00am

Dargo:

5th Sunday   12:00noon

WEEKDAY MASSES

Heyfield:

Tuesday      9:30am

Maffra:

Wednesday   9:30am

Thursday      9:30am

Friday          9:30am

Saturday      9:30am

Monday 31st October - Pupil free day

Tuesday 1st November - Public Holiday (Melbourne Cup)

TERM 4 - Monday 3rd October - Tuesday 20th December