Thank you to everyone that attended the open classrooms on Wednesday. I visited most classrooms during the afternoon and witnessed children proudly showing their parents some of this year’s work. I hope this enabled parents to gain a deeper understanding of what happens in their child’s classroom on a daily basis.

A belated thank you to the parents that attended our working bee. Although the turnout was very low, a great deal was achieved. Thank you for giving up a few hours on Sunday morning and thanks also go to Jamie, our groundman for his organisation and participation.

Homework Survey Summary

We recently conducted a survey of parents to gauge their thoughts on homework as we work to develop a Homework Policy for the start of the 2024 school year. Thank you to the 43 parents who took time to complete the survey.

I will reproduce the graphs that reflect the thoughts of parents across some of the main ideas on homework.

It is interesting to note that with 44 parents responding it means that each parent vote for each survey question has an approximate value of 2.27%. This means we had 23 (52.3%) parents favour homework while 21 (47.7%) did not. When responding as to whether homework should be compulsory many of those who thought we should do homework did not think it should be compulsory.

There were a number of supporting comments included in many of the responses, with parents wanting homework to be in a variety of formats. The most overwhelming response when it came to looking at what should be included in homework was reading, which is what we currently ask students to do.

This information will now be shared with the school executive and the staff before a draft policy is formulated, taken to the Community Council and then distributed to families.

Children's Health

We are seeing an increase of students who are attending school sick with many of these illnesses spreading amongst the classes. Whilst we understand these illnesses can sometimes mimic symptoms of hay fever this is often not the case. Keeping your child home if they are sick can stop the germs spreading to other children or people in the community and aids recovery.

But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees they got together and, to put him to the test, one of them put a further question, 'Master, which is the greatest commandment of the Law?' Jesus said to him, 'You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment. The second resembles it: You must love your neighbour as yourself. On these two commandments hang the whole Law, and the Prophets too.'

REFLECTION

Today the Pharisees decided to test Jesus. They had heard that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees. They gathered around Jesus, and one of the scholars of the law asked Jesus: “What is the greatest commandment in the law?” Naturally, Jesus replied: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul and mind.” Jesus affirmed that this commandment was the first and the greatest of all the commandments.

Jesus then continued and said: “The second commandment is similar: You shall love your neighbour as yourself. The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments.”

Today Jesus asks us to be wholehearted.  He hopes that we love God with our hearts and our minds!  God should be first and foremost in our lives. However, Jesus also tells us to “love our neighbour as we love ourselves.” Both commandments are challenging. However, the instruction “to love our neighbour as we love ourselves” may be more challenging than the first commandment. The second commandment often stretches us in uncomfortable ways.  We don’t always like our neighbours. Our neighbour may be an individual who has wounded us, insulted us or ignored us, and likely the emotion we experience when we encounter this individual is likely far from love.

Yet, Jesus calls us to love each and every person we encounter ­– the ones we like as well as the individuals we prefer to keep at a distance.  Today, strive to keep Jesus’ call in your mind and heart; consciously work to love each and every person you encounter, no matter how you feel about him or her. Who knows: you may encounter an individual who is consciously striving to love you! (Sr Kristine Anne Harpenau).

SUNDAY MASS

This Sunday, St Mary’s Primary School will be reading at Mass. We would love it if you would like to come along and support us. The mass will be at St Mary’s Church at 10am.

REMEMBRANCE DAY

Next Friday, November 10th, we will be commemorating Remembrance Day with a special prayer service at 11:30 am in the Hall.  We extend a warm welcome to all members of our school community to join us for this special event.

God Bless,

Warren Ziebowski

(Religious Education Coordinator)

Rugby 7s Gala Day

A fabulous day of Rugby was had by all! We had 5 teams entered with a mix of experienced players and newcomers to the game. From all reports the day was run exceptionally well by the Brumbies team and we thank them for the opportunity. Thanks also to the local Yabbies group for hosting and keeping everyone fed.

A big thank you to our teachers who attended on the day - Mrs Roberts and Mrs Anderson - we appreciate you giving up your time to do so. Thank you also to Amanda Caldwell, Ella McRae, Tammy Terry, Jose Webber & Mrs Anderson for managing our teams at short notice. We are unable to participate in these events without you and we truly appreciate your time and generosity.

Archdiocesan Cricket Trials

We wish Harry Collins good luck today as he competes for selection in the 2024 Archdiocesan Cricket Team today in Queanbeyan. We hope you have an enjoyable day!

Archdiocesan Sport for 2024  

Please note that some Archdiocesan Sporting trials for 2024 will occur this year in Term 4. These trials will be open for students who will be in Year 5 & 6 in 2024. Registrations will be via the Canberra-Goulburn Sports Webpage.

2024 Touch Football - to be held in Lyneham on Friday 24th November 2023. Registrations are open now and will close on Friday 17th November 2023.

2024 Tennis - to be held in Belconnen on Thursday 30th November, 2023. Registrations are open now and will close on Friday 24th November, 2023

2024 Basketball - to be held in Macquarie on Friday 1st December 2023. Registrations are open now and will close on Friday 24th November, 2023

2024 AFL (Boys) - to be held in Wollongong on Tuesday 20th February, 2024. Registrations are open now and will close on Thursday 30th November, 2023.

Last Saturday, St Mary's Parish held their annual Spring Fair. Students from St Mary's Primary were invited to present an item to the community and what better way to do that than to form a choir. Twenty-eight enthusiastic singers practiced daily to prepare for their moment, with a successful run-through at our Friday school assembly (just to get the nerves out).

At the fair, the students gathered on the stage in front of a large crowd and sang so clearly and enthusiastically! They performed our beautiful new school song "To Love Is To Serve", which was followed up by "Best Day Of My Life" by American Authors, the humorous "On Top Of Spaghetti" and finally "Shotgun" by George Ezra. It was wonderful to see the students getting caught up in their singing with their adorable wiggles and smiles. 

Thank you to the all the parents who brought their children along on a Saturday. Hopefully we get to do it all again next year!

We are all recovered and rested from our amazing whole school production of Animal Utopia! The students certainly put on an incredible production and we are all just so proud of them. It was so lovely to see so many families support the three performances and we were so grateful for all your lovely feedback and well wishes. We are very excited to let you all know that we have some fantastic photos available for purchase to add to your memories of this special night. We were also lucky to film both the evenings and have edited these for purchase so you can watch the performance again and again!! Or maybe you were unable to attend and now here is your chance to watch the show everyone is talking about!!!

 Photos and the video can be purchased via the secure picture link below. 

Prices are as follows: 

Digital download -  $ 6.00 copies each or $15.00 for all photos.

Photo Prints - starting at $4.00                                                               

Print Packages - $20.00 - 2x (5x7) + 1x (8x10)

Video Download - $15.00