Welcome Back!

It is wonderful to be back, in a modified way, after a restful break and I look forward to seeing everyone's smiling faces back in our classrooms at some point this term.

This term our focus is solely on teaching and learning, with the following extra-curriculum events placed on hold or cancelled due to social distancing regulations.

• Northern Region Cross Country 
• Catholic Schools Week 
• Mothers Day Mass 
• NAPLAN 
• Athletics Carnival (this may occur during the term if possible)
• The School Explorers Program  - This will run over eight weeks in Term 3
• Archdiocesan Cross Country

Our Showcase of Learning Assemblies may occur if social distancing regulations are lifted by the end of term.

We have made the hard decision to cancel our Grandparents Day celebrations for this year. The special day was to occur early in Term 3, however, we can not guarantee that it would be safe for us to have so many visitors in the school. We would like to ensure we keep our grandparents as safe as possible. 

Our Three-Way Interviews have been rescheduled for Monday 15 and Tuesday 16 June, Week 8 of term. The format of these meetings will be dependant upon regulations. We will provide you with more information about how these will run closer to the date. 

Monday 11 May - Week 3

As you are aware there is much discussion about the Term 2 arrangements for schooling in NSW. 

Firstly, I would like to explain that St Mary's is part of the Catholic Schools NSW system. As such, the discussions taking place in the media, around the NSW Premier’s announcement about a return to schooling using a rostered system from 11 May, relates specifically to NSW Public Schools and is system based. Catholic Schools NSW are able to determine their own arrangements and this may be informed by community statistics and confidence. 

It is our goal to resume onsite face-to-face classes for all students as soon as we can, however how and when this will occur will be determined early next week, in consultation with Catholic Education Canberra/Goulburn. As soon as this has been decided it will be communicated with you.

Onsite schooling has commenced this week with children of essential workers, or for those who need to send their children to school. So far this week we have had an average daily attendance rate of 38%. If you are unsure as to whether or not to send your child/ren to school please do not hesitate to call. We just ask that you give us two school days' notice of your intention for your child to return so that we can put the appropriate staffing measures in place.

The current health advice, provided by the Commonwealth and State Government Health Departments, is that schools are safe places to be. At St Mary's we are fortunate to have large grounds and learning spaces. We have been encouraging our students to distance, as much as possible and practicable. We will also continue with our additional hand-sanitising, washing and cleaning regimes.

Students exhibiting cold and flu symptoms, or temperatures above 37.5C are not to attend school. We have ordered some infrared 'no-touch' forehead thermometers and will begin the practice of checking student and staff temperatures upon arrival at school.

This week I have been very impressed with the effort adults entering our school grounds have put into maintaining social distancing regulations. We ask that this vigilance continues and that parents only come up into the office area and classrooms for important matters, for the time being.

Congratulations to our families who have managed to download and log into MS Teams. This will be the place for communication between students and teachers and will provide safe access to Google Classroom and other online resources. Staff are aiming to provide a blend of written and digital tasks. Print materials for Week 2 can be collected from the Old Hall after 2.30pm on Friday or at any time on Monday. 

Once again, thank you for your patience with the current situation and constant changes. Please be assumed our top priorities remain student and staff safety along with the provision of quality, equitable education. 

ANZAC Day

ANZAC Day 2020 will be one that will stick in our minds forever. Many families commemorated this special day by standing at their front gates at dawn and by creating wreaths and poppies. 

This week the students will be learning more about the ANZAC day tradition through their learning activities.

Uniform Matters

In Term 2 we transition into our winter uniform. We allow two weeks at the beginning of the term for students to still wear their summer uniform if the weather is warm. Please be aware that if your child chooses to wear their summer uniform it must be the complete uniform, not parts of both.  

In preparation for the cooler months, you might like to order our school coat, which is a warm bottle-green parka style coat, from our Uniform Shop. No other coats will be permitted, however, bottle green gloves and beanies may be purchased elsewhere. 

Some other reminders about our school uniform- hair accessories must be in the school colours only, earrings must be sleepers and studs and no nail polish is to be worn to school.

Student Pick Up

The street directly out the front of St Mary’s is a Bus Zone from 8.30am-9.30am and 3.00pm-4.00pm. Please be aware that occasionally parents dropping their children off in the mornings in this bus zone have been fined by the police.

We recommend that in the afternoons if you have come to collect your children by car that you walk with your child to the crossing on Wade Street to cross safely out of the Bus Zone. 

Enrolling Now

Please spread the word about our School Tours. If you know someone that is interested in learning more about St Mary's or who has a child ready to start Kindergarten in 2021, we welcome their visit. Social distancing regulations will be put in place for our tours.

Enrolments can now be placed online. Go to https://enrolments.stmarysc.nsw.edu.au/enrol/ to enrol now.

Enrolments packs are available from our School Office or can be downloaded from our website http://www.stmarysc.nsw.edu.au/enrolment.html

The School Explorers Program

Next term our preschool friends will be visiting each Friday afternoon to participate in The School Explorers, our school readiness program.

Attached below is the amended program dates, please share this around!

This year Year Six are proposing a Mystery Mother's Day Present!

We would appreciate your support for Year Six and their Graduation Fundraiser by buying a Mystery Mother's Day Gift. All we ask is for $5.00 and we will package up a present for you to give to your mum on Sunday 10 May.

Payment can be sent to the Front Office or made via Qkr. Orders will be ready for collection from Wednesday 6 May.

As part of my role as Child Safe Advocate, I have become familiar with the NSW Child Safe Standards. These standards were developed by the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse based on their findings and research. The standards aim to help organisations that provide services and facilities for children to promote child safety and minimise risk of harm to children. In my role, I have looked into and conducted an audit on our policies and procedures here at St Mary's for Standard 1 and Standard 6.  With our current situation of Remote Learning and an added dependence on Internet communication and research, I would like to assure our school community of our efforts to ensure your children are safe when working online either through MS Teams or Google Classroom

The Royal Commission recommended the following 10 standards:

Standard 1: Child safety is embedded in institutional leadership, governance and culture
Standard 2: Children participate in decisions affecting them and are taken seriously
Standard 3: Families and communities are informed and involved
Standard 4: Equity is upheld and diverse needs are taken into account
Standard 5: People working with children are suitable and supported
Standard 6: Processes to respond to complaints of child sexual abuse are child focused
Standard 7: Staff are equipped with the knowledge, skills and awareness to keep children safe through continual education and training
Standard 8: Physical and online environments minimise the opportunity for abuse to occur
Standard 9: Implementation of the Child Safe Standards is continuously reviewed and improved
Standard 10: Policies and procedures document how the institution is child safe.

You can find out more about the child safe standards on the Royal Commission’s website.

Below is a resource NSW Office of the Children's Guardian has put together for online learning that lines up with Standard 8.

Maths Game of the Week

Kinder, Years 1, 2 or 3

Friends of 10

How to:

Take 4 cards from the deck

Turn them over

If you can make a total of 10 collect them and put to the side. Leave the cards in, that you did not use. Replace the used cards from the deck.

If you cannot make 10, choose one card to replace. Put it at the bottom of the deck and choose a new card from the top.

Play until you can no longer make 10. Player 2 has a turn.

The winner is the person with the most cards in their saved pile at the end of the game.

Years 4, 5 & 6

Target Number Skill: Addition, Subtraction, Multiplication and Division

How To:

• Pick a random number in the thousands (or hundreds) and write it on a page.
• Tell your children it is their TARGET NUMBER.
• Use 36 cards: 1 (Ace) to 9 Cards drawn

   One child picks 5 cards from the deck, next game the other child gets a turn

• Students use any of the five numbers with any math operation, or a combination of operations (addition, subtraction, multiplication, division) to write an equation with an answer that is as close to the target number as possible. They can combine any of the 5 cards to make 1, 2 or 3 digit numbers in their equation
• The closest child wins!

For Example:

Target number is 5000

Player 1: Draws out 5,5,9,4,7 so she/he makes 55 x 94 - 7 = 5163

Player 2: Makes                                                 975 x 5 + 4 = 4879

So Player 2 wins!

Your Words Matter- We are all Teachers

Latest Rep Sport Trial Update

CSNSW are planning to suspend all student registrations on their website until further notice.

Registration levies will be refunded to parents and they are looking at the most efficient way of doing this (hopefully within the next few weeks).

The NSWPSSA and NSWCHSSA announced that due to the COVID-19 outbreak and ‘social distancing strategy’ all of their programs for Term 2 are now cancelled.

This includes:

• 5 – 7 May 2020 NSWPSSA Boys Basketball Championships – Terrigal
• 5 – 8 May 2020 NSWPSSA Tennis Championships – Broadmeadow
• 19– 21 May 2020 NSWPSSA Girls Football Championships – Rooty Hill
• 19 – 21 May 2020 NSWPSSA Boys AFL Championships – Byron Bay
• 26 – 28 May 2020 NSWPSSA Boys Football Championships – Griffith
• 26– 28 May 2020 NSWPSSA Girls Hockey Championships – Unanderra
• 2 – 4 June 2020 NSWPSSA Boys Hockey Championships – Newcastle
• 16 – 18 June 2020 NSWPSSA Boys 11 years  Rugby League Championships – Kiama
• 23 – 25 June 2020 NSWPSSA Open Boys Rugby League Championships – Tamworth
• NSWPSSA Knockout Competitions

Please note these events are ‘cancelled’ contrasted to ‘suspended’ or ‘temporarily ceased’, this implies to me that they will likely not be re-scheduled.

They will update their webpage to reflect this announcement including the flow-on effect this will have on our selection trials etc.

Tuckshop

Due to the current situation, the tuckshop will remain closed until further notice.

St Mary's Church closed

St. Mary’s Church is now closed with all masses cancelled.

Fr Joshy will be doing Mass on line.  It can be accessed through our facebook page- "St. Mary’s Church Crookwell".

Masses can also be accessed through the Catholicvoice.org.au  

Maybe parents could help grandparents to access on line masses. 

All Sacraments are on hold for now.

All Baptisms are on hold for now.

If any enquiries please contact Parish office

Parish Office

For Parish and Sacramental matters please forward your enquiries to Parish Secretary, Janet Haynes or Pastoral Associate Sr Rosemary via email or call into the Parish Office at the Old Convent Building on Tuesdays or Thursdays.

Email: Crookwell@cg.org.au

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

Phone: 48321 633 

Address: 55 Wade Street (the Old Convent Building)

We need your help to name our crane at the Goulburn Base Hospital Redevelopment

Be in to win a $1000.00 sporting equipment or book voucher for your School

The Name the Crane competition is open to all local primary schools and children of primary school age or capability in the Goulburn-Mulwaree and Upper Lachlan Shire Local Government Areas (LGAs), and in the Paediatric Ward at Goulburn Base Hospital.

Entries close at 5:00pm on Friday 8 May 2020

The winning student, their teachers and up to four guests will be invited to attend a crane naming ceremony (online or at the redevelopment site). Additional prizes will be awarded for best coloured entry, extra effort, 2nd and 3rd place getters. 

The Goulburn Hospital & Health Service Redevelopment team will display some of the best entries on the Southern NSW LHD Facebook site and the Goulburn Hospital Redevelopment website:  www.goulburnredevelopment.health.nsw.gov.au

To enter:

1. Print off the entry form
2. Complete the entry form and colour it in
3. Ask you parent or legal guardian to sign your entry
4. Scan or take a photo, save and send to: SNSWLHD-GoulburnHospitalRedevelopment@health.nsw.gov.au
5. ENTRIES CLOSE 5:00PM FRIDAY 8 MAY 2020

To colour your entry electronically:

1. Download the JPEG file on the project website
2. Open with the ‘Paint’ application on your computer
3. Colour your entry
4. Save it and send with YOUR completed entry form to: SNSWLHD-GoulburnHospital-Redevelopment@health.nsw.gov.au
5. ENTRIES CLOSE 5:00PM FRIDAY 8 MAY 2020

Goulburn_Hospital_and_Health_Service_Redevelopment_Name_the_crane_entry_form.pdf

Goulburn_Hospital_and_Health_Service_Redevelopment_Name_the_crane_entry_form _pdf 180.52 KB

Questions or more information:

Any questions please don’t hesitate to contact the Goulburn Hospital and Health Service Redevelopment team: SNSWLHD-GoulburnHospital-Redevelopment@health.nsw.gov.au or check the website: http://www.goulburnredevelopment.health.nsw.gov.au/