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Yesterday saw twenty five of our students travel to Cootamundra to compete at the Western Region Swimming Carnival. They performed extremely strongly with many outstanding individual performances which allowed St Mary’s to bring home the trophy for best performed school. Mrs Challen will give a more detailed report later in the newsletter.
Mrs Presser accompanied the students to the pool and was very positive about the behaviour and the sportsmanship of the students. She especially highlighted the contribution many of our parents made to the day, by volunteering to be timekeepers, allowing the carnival to run smoothly. This was a big effort considering the assistance many of these parents also provided at our school carnival last week. Your efforts are appreciated by both staff and students.
On Tuesday we celebrated our opening school mass which is always a wonderful way to begin the school year. It reminds us that while academic performance and extracurricular activities are wonderful and essential, at the core of what we do as a Catholic school is to proclaim the ‘Good News’. The mass also had special significance as we presented leadership badges to our student leadership team. We are sure they will continue to model our school values to the rest of the school.
Next week Year Six will be attending Narrabeen Sport and Recreation Camp from Monday to Wednesday. They will be engaging in mostly water sports with activities including canoeing, paddleboarding, sailing and raft building. Mrs Connelly, Mrs Presser and I will be accompanying them. Mrs Presser is a late call up as Mrs Eastwood is unwell. I thank Jade for stepping in at the last moment.
School Opening Mass
Thank you to all who attended mass with us on Wednesday to celebrate the beginning of our school year and our new Student Leadership team. It was a beautiful mass to begin 2024!
Project Compassion Appeal
This year’s Project Compassion Appeal theme is “For all Future Generations,” reminding us that our choices today can positively impact the lives of generations to come.
During Lent, we will share stories to highlight how Caritas Australia is working together with vulnerable communities around the world, empowering them to develop their strengths and create lasting change.
Project Compassion 2024 Primary Schools Film
Sacrament of Reconciliation
On Saturday March 9th at 4:30 pm, our Year 4 students participate in the Sacrament of Reconciliation. They have been preparing for this special day and we ask that you keep them in your prayers.
Swimming Carnival
We managed a glorious day - the rain held off thankfully - but was a little muggy for lots of us!!! We enjoyed some competitive swimming, continuous 50m & 25m relays, lots of novelties and a much needed obstacle course in the baby pool to cool off!!
A big thank you to all our parents that assisted with timekeeping on the day. We really appreciate your time to help us out. Thank you to Natalie Buck for being our head timekeeper, Pat Brodbeck - our starter, Justine Neilsen - our head judge and Samantha Brodbeck for your assistance in setting up.
Thank you also to the Young Amateur Swimming Club for the use of their Dolphin Timers - we are very grateful for your support and generosity.
Thank you to our wonderful teachers on the day - your enthusiasm and support was outstanding both at the pool and back at school. It was an amazing team effort and we are lucky to have such dedicated and generous staff here at St Mary’s!
My last thank you is for the students - you were simply the best! So much laughter and smiles. You all showed such school spirit and we are proud of you all!!
Well done to our winning house - McCarthy
Congratulations to our Age Champions:
8-10 Age Champions - Evie Brodbeck & Nate Neilsen
Runner Up: Agatha Murphy & Alex Presser
11yrs Age Champions: Kate Aston & Kynan Burgess
Runner Up: Belle Morris & Patrick O’Reilly
12/13yrs Age Champions: Chloe Buck & Sam Presser
Runner Up: Rory Brodbeck & Myami-Jein Robinson
We congratulate Chloe Buck and Evie Brodbeck on breaking some records at our school carnival!
Evie broke the 8yrs Girls 50m Free record
Chloe broke the Girls 100m Free, 12yrs Girls 50m Free, Snr Girls Back, Snr Girls Fly & 200m Girls Individual Medley records.
What a tremendous achievement - well done!!!
Western Region Swimming Carnival
A big well done to our squad of swimmers that attended at Cootamundra yesterday - what a terrific effort from all of you! We came home with the trophy once again! Lots of PB times and fantastic effort in racing.
Congratulations to the following students who came away Age Champions:
Nate Neilsen - Boys 8-10yrs Champion
Kynan Burgess - Boys 11yrs Age Champion
Chloe Buck - Girls 12/13yrs Age Champion
Sam Presser - Boys 12/13yrs Age Champion
Rory Brodbeck - Boys 12/13yrs Runner Up
Congratulations to Chloe Buck who broke 3 records yesterday including one held for 30 years! She broke the 12yrs Girls 50m Free (from 2022), Snr Girls 50m Back (from 2022) and the Snr Girls 200m Individual Medley (from 1995!!)
Amazing effort Chloe we are so proud of you!!!!!!
Thank you to our parents that helped on the day - Matt & Lou Burgess, Nat Buck, Justine Neilsen, Brett Robinson, Pat Brodbeck, Rob Presser, Liz Sheridan & Leanne Robinson.
A big thank you also to Jade Presser for attending the day and supporting the students.
We wish all our swimmers who have been selected to represent the Western Region at the upcoming Archdiocesan Swimming Carnival in Boorowa the very best of luck!
Archdiocesan Tennis
Well done to Kynan Burgess who competed at the MacKillop Tennis trials as part of the Canberra-Goulburn Archdiocesan Team on Wednesday in Sydney. It has been a big week for Kynan with sport and he was outstanding in his efforts with the racquet during a tough day of competition!!!!
Year 3 & 4 Mixed Tag Gala Day
Invitations for all students in Year 3 and 4 went out yesterday via Compass to participate in this Gala day to be held in Harden on Friday 8th March. No experience necessary - it is a non competitive day. Permissions are due by next Wednesday 28th February.
Archdiocesan Sport - Year 5 & 6 only
Rugby League & Netball - held 12th March in Lyneham. Nominations close 5th March
Football (Soccer) - 9th April in Lyneham. Nominations close 2nd April
Hockey - MacKillop Trials 10th May - registrations online by 15th March
Rugby Union - 28th May
The Community Council is aware of the busy lives all families lead in today’s world. Besides working, many families have regular commitments to organisations in the Young region, such as sporting groups, artistic and cultural organisations. These commitments on top of work and school life make it very difficult for many parents to volunteer or attend meetings on a regular basis.
To give parents a chance to participate and contribute to school activities and events we are aiming to establish several subcommittees, each with a particular focus. These subcommittees will not involve person to person meetings but will use WhatsApp to facilitate communication and information sharing among members of the group. The initial sub-committees are:
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Social committee - to build a sense of community among the parents. This group will incorporate the functions previously organised by the Men of St Mary’s and the Women of St Mary’s groups.
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Fundraising committee - to work with the school to run fundraising events to allow for the purchase of resources for the school. Last year this included catering at the soccer carnival organised by the school as well as running the highly successful pie drive.
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Facilities committee - to work with the principal to prioritise the maintenance of the school facilities as well as provide advice on the best way to approach projects.
If you can assist on any of these committees please indicate below, even if it is a one off or your wish to be informed directly of what is being planned. You are more than welcome to put your details down for several committees. The newsletter will continue to inform parents of upcoming events and will still call for volunteers for events.
To establish each committee, we ask you to supply the community council with your phone number to enable you to be contacted. ENTER YOUR DETAILS HERE
Our next community council meeting is on the 20th March and we hope to have all groups up and running this term. If any parents wish to join the community council the meetings commence at 6pm in the staff room. Feel free to come along.
