Hold on to your hats! 

Welcome back for the final term of 2024. I hope you all enjoyed some dedicated family time over the holiday break.

We have an action-packed term planned, so please keep a close eye on the calendar and newsletter for information, dates and updates.

A reminder that School Hats are a compulsory element of the Summer Uniform. The new girl's summer shirts have been delayed but should be here within the week.

Congratulations

Our school community welcomes another member of the Chapple family! Piper-Lee (K) along with Tahnee, Jono and Isla were blessed with a healthy baby girl to add to their family. Elsie Mae was born on Thursday 10 October and is the fifth grandchild for Mrs Romer.

Kindergarten/Year One Showcase

Congratulations to our Kinder and Year One students and their wonderful teachers for a fantastic Showcase to finish off Term Three. We hope you enjoyed it as much as they enjoyed presenting it to you.

#ST MARY'S REPRESENTS

MACKILLOP GOLF

Congratulations to Jaydan Costello and Henry Galland who competed at the NSWPSSA State Golf Carnival last term at Hunter Valley Golf Course. They represented their school and Dioceses with pride and are to be commended on their sportsmanship and commitment to their sport.

From Tuesday 17 to Thursday 19 September 2024, the MacKillop Golf Team travelled to Hunter Valley Golf Course to compete in the NSW PSSA State Championships. 

The event is scored over 2 rounds of golf for individuals (Gross and Nett) and for teams (Gross and Nett, top 3 boy scores and top girl score), as well as beginning with an Ambrose Competition on Day 1. The MacKillop team finished in 2nd place in the Stroke Event out of 9 teams which was a great effort given the quality of teams participating. Well done MacKillop, this was a great team effort with contributions from all team members!

Special mention to Jaydan who was selected in the NSWPSSA Golf Team to represent at the School Sport Australia Championships in November.

INTERSCHOOL EQUESTRIAN

During the school holidays, four students from St Mary's competed at the Berry lnterschool Equestrian Championships.

Grace and Joe McCormack, along with Sophie and Tommy Culley, competed for three full days, participating in show jumping, dressage, sporting, and flatwork.

At the end of the very long weekend, the kids came away with a swag of ribbons and rosettes.

 Grace was crowned primary school sporting champion, while Tommy received reserve primary sporting champion.

Tommy was awarded champion overall for year 2 and Grace was reserve champion for year 5.

Joe was brilliant in the sporting, with numerous first places and fourth places in Showjumping, which he had never competed in before.

Sophie gained a number of ribbons in the sporting and second places in her show jumping rounds.

Overall, the kids had an amazing time and made St Mary's and their parents very proud when they won overall Primary School  Champions, which was no mean feat for four kids with 180 students participating over the weekend.

CONGRATULATIONS and well done.

MACKILLOP CRICKET

Year Six student, Henry Galland, is in Armidale this week competing as the Captain of the Mackiilop Cricket Team at the NSWPSSA Cricket Championships. Results to date are positive with wins and Henry posting 62 runs in their first game against North West, Mackillop bowling Hunter out for 36 yesterday and posting 8/125 today against Riverina. Impressive results !

Updated results will be communicated upon completion of the NSWPSSA event.

Upcoming Events

Boorowa Touch Football and Netball Carnival

The Boorowa Touch Football and Netball Carnival, for ALL students in Years 2 - 6, will be held on Friday 25 October. Please see this newsletter's School Sports section for the latest news and details. The COMPASS EVENT must be completed by all parents.

Grandparents Day

On Friday, 15 November, we invite our parents, carers, grandparents and special friends to St Mary's to share our Grandparents Day. The day will commence with Mass at 9.30am. Following Mass, our visitors are invited to visit with their grandchildren in their classrooms, see their wonderful work and participate in some fun class activities. Following that we will move to the MP Hall for morning tea. After morning tea, our students will perform their amazing skipping skills to music. This will be presented on the Basketball Court at the Bottom Playground. Seating and shade will be provided and we are sure you will be blown away by the skill and expertise of our skipping students!

Also, St Mary's is renowned for its incredible morning tea spreads; let us not disappoint this year. We ask families to donate a plate of food to share on this special day. Our Year 6 families, coordinated by Rechell and Reane, are asked to support with the setting up and serving of morning tea.

Please mark this date on your calendar.

Absences

CE has brought to attention the emerging absenteeism increase across the Canberra-Goulburn schools, particularly since COVID-19.

St Mary's absenteeism rates are the highest they have ever been. We realise this is partly due to parents' vigilance with keeping sick children home (thank you); however, it is also related to additional days off for family travel and long weekends. 

The following information outlines the absenteeism categories and our current rates across each grade for Term 3. The CECG attendance target is 90%.

CROOKWELL - St Mary's Primary School

Year Level	% of Absentees	% of Partial Attendance	% of Attended
Kindergarten	9.40%	0.30%	90.30%
Year  1	11.50%	0.90%	87.60%
Year  2	11.80%	0.80%	87.50%
Year  3	11.80%	0.60%	87.60%
Year  4	12.30%	0.80%	86.80%
Year  5	10.90%	0.60%	88.60%
Year  6	13.10%	0.70%	86.20%
School average			87.80%

 

The other noteworthy fact is that 17% of student absences for the year remain unexplained. This equals to 365 separate unexplained absences in total!

** Please check your child's status by logging onto the parent portal, looking at the "Attendance" tab, and updating any explained dates **

An automatic email will be sent to parents at 10am each day if your child is marked absent without an explanation, asking for the notification to be completed by logging onto the parent portal. This is an easy process once you get the hang of it. Let's work together to improve our statistics this term. 

Catholic Education Canberra Goulburn has asked each school to aim to achieve a rating of 90% this term; let's see if we can blitz that! 

If you have any questions, don't hesitate to contact the Office.

If you make contact with the teacher directly about your child's absence, please include Belinda in the Office as she is the one who enters the information into Compass.

Operation Christmas Child

This year every class has one box to fill. In order to have boxes packed and ready for collection to be sent overseas, items for Operation Christmas Child can kindly be sent to school asap as they will be collected on Friday 1 November.

Below are ideas for items that can be donated.

Important TERM FOUR dates to note:

Friday 25 Oct - Boorowa Touch Football/Netball Carnival

Wednesday 30 - Thursday 31 Oct - Yr 5 Astronomy/Ag Excursion

Tuesday 5 - Friday 8 Nov - Year Six Camp

Friday 15 Nov - Grandparents Day

Monday 2 Dec - Kindergarten 2025 Orientation Day

Thursday 12 Dec - Leadership 2025 Mass

Thursday 12 Dec - St Mary's Carols evening

Monday 16 Dec -  Year Six Graduation

Wednesday 18 Dec - Year Six final Assembly

___________________________________________________

2025 Term Dates

Included below are the dates for our 2025 School year. 

TERM 1,2025 (31 Jan - 11 Apr)

Friday 31 Jan - CECG system-wide pupil-free day

Monday 3 Feb - NSW pupil-free day

Friday 11 April - CECG system-wide pupil-free day

TERM 2, 2025 (28 Apr - 4 Jul)

Monday 28 Apr - CECG system-wide pupil-free day

Friday 4 July - CECG system-wide pupil-free day

TERM 3, 2025 (21 Jul - 26 Sep)

Monday 21 July - CECG system-wide pupil-free day

Friday 26 Sep - CECG system-wide pupil-free day

TERM 4, 2025 (13 Oct - 19 Dec)

Monday 13 Oct - CECG system-wide pupil-free day

Friday 19 Dec - CECG system-wide pupil-free day

A kind reminder for those who do not have a current periodical payment in place for your school fees, to please pay your balance as soon as possible.

The Term 4 fees will be distributed by Head Office in the coming weeks.

If you would like to check your current balance, you can do this via the Compass app. Select "More" on the bottom right of the screen, and in the bottom centre you will find the tab "School Fees".  Here you can see your current balance and you are also able to check out your debit/credit history.

If you have any questions regarding your school fee account, please do not hesitate to contact the School Office.

Addition to the Girls' Uniform

We have an exciting addition to the girls' summer uniform choices, with the addition of a white short sleeve shirt to be worn with bottle green shorts, and white socks.

There will be limited numbers available to start with so we do not have to carry too much excess stock. If you are interested in purchasing, please put the order through on Qkr. Shorts can be distributed straight away, however there will be a delay with the shirts as they are currently in production. Apologies for the inconvenience.

Further information about the St Mary's Uniform Policy, can be found here: 

Uniform Policy

New Prices

To assist families where we can, we have not increased our uniform prices for around 7 years and have mostly absorbed any increases. Unfortunately, the time has come for us to increase the prices slightly to ensure we cover costs. This will be reflected on Qkr next time you visit. 

Thank you for your understanding of this.

Lost items, second-hand items and a reminder to name 

A kind reminder to please check the uniform items that come home with your child each day. Occasionally items get taken off and accidentally picked up and taken home to another family. We have a few students who are missing jumpers which are named. If you can please check and return anything that has come home accidentally.

Our lost property pile has grown into a mountain again, so please feel free to come and check for any missing items.

The second-hand items are also full to the brim. Remember these items are all FREE! So why not drop in and browse through these.

Boorowa Touch and Netball Carnival

Please ensure you have completed the Compass Event consent by tomorrow. If you require bus transport, please email Belinda so it can be added straight away.

Below is basic information.  ** More will be added to the Compass Event next week, so please keep an eye on the resources section for maps, canteen prices, draws, etc **

• FRIDAY 25th OCTOBER 2024
• BOOROWA SHOWGROUND
• THE FIRST GAMES COMMENCE 9.00 AM SHARP. Note: all games are 20 minutes in duration - continuous (one game finishes and the next starts)

It is advised that all teams be at the grounds by 8.30 am - this is due to the enormous amount of traffic.

• Mobile phone reception may be limited due to the large usage
• CASH - EFTPOS is available but may limited
• In the event of bad weather, the following radio stations: 2LF Young, 2WG Wagga Wagga, ABC Radio Canberra 666/Orange 549 will be notified.

Justice and Service at St Mary's

Our school values for this term are JUSTICE and SERVICE, and they remind us that we are called to be…

• JESUS’ FEET – walking with others in the spirit of JUSTICE
• JESUS’ HANDS – offering SERVICE to others

World Mission Month- October

All human beings are made in God’s image and are PRECIOUS and deserving of a ‘FULL’ life. Jesus said, “I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” (John 10:10).

But we do not live in a just world in which ALL have life to the full.

Life these days is very busy for most families – work, family, and all the responsibilities that come with these. It can be a huge effort to juggle everything on our plates let alone think about those in our world who are unable to lead full lives.

This is why the Catholic Church has set aside the month of October as Mission Month, a time to focus our thoughts on our global brothers and sisters who, through no fault of their own, are living in poverty, sickness, or fear.

St Mary’s students will be learning about the importance of working for justice and serving others.  They will discover how, as part of the Church, they can engage in her mission to bring about a JUST world; and how they can serve others through their prayers and actions (including helping without being asked, standing up for justice in the classroom and playground, praying the Rosary and Angelus, fundraising, Mission Day, and Mini Vinnies Christmas appeal)

Operation Christmas Child Shoebox

One project that we are asking for family support is Operation Christmas Child. Each class has a shoebox that will be filled with goodies donated by students, then sent to children overseas as a Christmas gift box to bring some joy to those less fortunate. Your child’s class teacher should have shared with students and families the gender and age of the student they are filling their box for. We thank you in advance for supporting this project.

St Mary's Mission Day

This will be held on Friday 22nd November (WEEK 6). Stay tuned to hear more. Please clean out your cupboards and send items in for our hugely popular White Elephant Stall.

Marian Procession- Urgent Help Required

As per the previous email communication, we have been invited to participate in the Marian Procession on Sunday 27 October at the Cathedral in Goulburn. St Mary’s will be part of the procession, with a small part outside of the Cathedral at 11am, 12 students are required for this. Following this, there will be lunch and a band provided for students at 12pm, and then mass at 2pm. At this stage, we have 3 students who have indicated they are able to support this. It would be fantastic to have as many Year 4, 5 and 6 students attend as possible, showcasing their leadership. If your child is able to attend, can you please email Rachael Croker ASAP.

Advice for Parents & Carers regarding Personalised Plans

INTRODUCTION 

Personalised Plans are used by teachers to support and record adjustments provided to students so that all students have the opportunity to access and participate in learning on the same basis as their peers. The Personalised Planning tool, through Catholic Schools NSW NETiD, is used by all CECG schools as the basis for individual planning for students who require adjustments to support their learning. The Personalised Planning tool is integral to the work of our schools in supporting and making adjustments for students. 

In 2022 a review of the CSNSW Personalised Planning process was undertaken by Dr David Evans. If you would like to read more about the scope of the project, please follow this link: David Evans review of Personalised Plans 

REDEVELOPMENT OF PERSONALISED PLAN FORMAT 

During 2022 and 2023 development of a new and modern plan was undertaken by CSNSW to ensure a planning tool that aligns with evidence-based approaches to personalised planning for students. The redevelopment process included extensive consultation and testing with key stakeholders including parents and teachers. The plan now better aligns with the personalised learning process and Nationally Consistent Collection of Data (NCCD) processes.  

In August 2024, CSNSW launched the redeveloped Personalised Planning tool that includes the following enhancements: 

• Less duplication of information
• Elimination of clunky user issues 
• Simplicity of design and functionality
• Options for reporting to parents.

WHAT DOES THIS MEAN FOR PARENTS AND CARERS? 

While the change in format is welcome, it will require significant time and expertise from Classroom Support Teachers, Inclusive Education Coordinators and teachers in updating existing Personalised Plans. During Term 4, teachers will commence the process of updating all Personalised Plans to the redeveloped format. For some schools, the updating may need to carry over to the start of 2025, due to the number of Personalised Plans. This may mean that your child’s Personalised Plan may not be sent home in Term 4. Please note that your child’s Personalised Plan will be updated as soon as practicable. 

If you have any questions, please contact your child’s teacher. 

Book club has been distributed and is due by 24 October.

Please order by LOOP only.

Weeks 1  Awards 

Awards will be presented at the assembly on Monday 21 October at 9:05am.

K - Noah Wilson

1 - Piper Ragen

2 - Elaine Hannan, Flynn Pascoe, Adrian, Khloe, Bailey Reeves 

3 - Digby Price, Jack Strode

4 - Flynn Doran, Georgia Proudman

5 - Logan Anderson, Ruby Pappalardo, A'dee Reynolds

6 - Charlotte Crobie, Sophie Kilborn, Leo Knight

Uniform Appreciation Awards:

Congratulations to the following students for wearing their St Mary's uniform correctly and with pride:

Lincoln Cummins, Andy Storrier, Camac Wilson

For Parish and Sacramental matters please forward your enquiries to Goulburn Parish Secretary, Heather Moss. Heather works Tuesday to Friday 9am to 1pm in Goulburn.

Email: Crookwell@cg.org.au

Website: http://cg.org.au/crookwell/Home.aspx 

Phone: 0403 631 797 

Address: 55 Wade Street (the Old Convent Building)