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Today and yesterday St Mary's held a Cultural School Camp for Years 3-6 Students at Valla Beach resort. It was a full 2 days for students doing fun activities such as beach worming, paddle boarding, yabbi pumping and group cultural learnings.

Kincoppal will be holding a school holiday camp at St Mary's Primary School these school holidays. 

If you have family visiting we may have extra spaces for them to come along too. Give us a call for availability.

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On Thursday the 31st our students had Dad's, Pop's, Uncles and special people in their lives come to St Mary's for a Fathers Day Breakfast - egg & bacon rolls. 

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Australian Teacher Aide Appreciation Week 2023 was 28th August - 1st September. It is held every year on the last week of August, and it's a great opportunity to thank our teacher aides for everything that they do!

Teacher aides work really hard all year round, and Teacher Aide Appreciation Week is here to show appreciation for them and all the hard work they do.

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Our Teachers Aides/Indigenous Education Workers and support staff:

Back Row- (L to R) Uncle Cameron Blair, Bonnie Collison, Uncle Dean Buchanan, Aunty George Smart, Uncle Jason Jarrett, Aunty Brenda Buchanan, Meg Laverty & Eden Kenny

Front Row- Taylah Martin, Carlie Fitzgerald & Leia Duncan

Absent: Aunty Clarice Greenup, Uncle Mark Smith, Brooke Lonergan & Bonni Sambrook.

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Indigenous Literacy Day is an opportunity to share and learn about the diversity of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples’ stories, cultures and languages through books and literacy.
On Wednesday the 6th September our Stage 3 Students visited Giiguy Preschool in Nambucca Heads to celerate Indigenous Literacy Day. Our St Mary's students played games and read books with the Preschoolers and shared afternoon tea.
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Our 2/3 class having a class photo. Such lovely smiling faces

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Students from Stages 2 and 3 particpated in a Touch Football Gala Day in Macksville on the 13th of September. The competition was tough as our teams played against Tallowood, St Pat's and St Joseph's. Both teams did very well and improved with every game. Some amazing tries were scored and the kids had a great time, especially at the end of the day when the canteen started giving away free drinks, hotdogs and fruit, a welcome reward for a tired group of players.

DATE DAY EVENT
17/09/2023 Sunday Holy Communion & Reconcilliation @9.30am Bowraville
20/09/2023 Wednesday Greg Inglis NRL 7's @Coffs Harbour (Stage 2 & 3)
21/09/2023 Thursday Book Week Dress up: Parade & Morning Tea @10.45am
21/09/2023 Thursday MacBeth Performance @Bowraville Theatre (Stage 3)
21/09/2023 Thursday Kinder Transition 10am - 11am
22/09/2023 Friday LAST DAY TERM 3
25/09/2023 Monday Kincoppal Holiday Program: Monday 25th September - Thursday 28th September
10/10/2023 Tuesday FIRST DAY TERM 4
12/10/2023 Thursday Kinder Transition 10am - 11am
16/10/2023 Monday School Camp Bonville (Stage 3) Monday 16th September & Tuesday 17th September
19/10/2023 Thursday Kinder Transition 10am - 11am
26/10/2023 Thursday Kinder Transition 10am - 11am
27/10/2023 Friday Whole School Mass for Month of Rosary @St Patrick's

Giinagay!


What a busy term we have had! I always feel so blessed when I walk into the school gates of our beautiful little school. Our students show such resilience and determination, and our staff show so much care and dedication.


When I reflect on the events of this term, I can see so many positive changes for our school such as the establishment of the Farm, the beautiful Yarning Circle, and the final touches on our new playground. I can also see the work of Lyn Sharatt alive in each classroom with students and teachers discussing learning intentions, success criteria, and their learning goals. Our students are so engaged in their learning and it is such a joy to see.

As always, our students have proudly represented us when out in community. Touch Football was a success this week, and some of our students from Years 3-6 will be representing our school in NRL next Wednesday. Our Cultural Camp this Thursday and Friday displayed how connected to country our students are, and how important it is to be out in nature. Staff and students were so excited to share their recounts and stories from camp.


We have been so blessed to welcome so many lovely new students to our school this term, and today three of our future kindergarten students began their transition to school. They will visit us four more times throughout the rest of the year and we look forward to welcoming them back next week.


During the holidays, staff and students from Kincoppal- Rosebay school of the Sacred Heart in Sydney, and staff and volunteers from our school and community will be running a school holiday program for our students here at school. This will be operating from Monday the 25 th of September until Thursday the 28 th of September. Students can arrive at school from 8:30am and be collected at 3pm on those days. There is no cost for this program and some of the activities included are cupcake decorating, making lava lamps, and visiting the Big Banana. We would love to see as many students there as possible! We thank Kincoppal for their time and organisation into putting this wonderful experience together.


We hope that everyone has a safe and happy holiday and we look forward to seeing our students back at school on Tuesday the 10 th of October. 

Amy Chapman

Acting Assistant Principal

On Wednesday 6th September some of our Stage 2 & 3 attended Toormina Public School for a Chess Competition.
St Mary's were the overall winners with 28 points with Toormina not far behind on 25 points. 
The individual winners for each category were all Toormina students, however Martin came 2nd overall with Rowan making the final in the advanced category. Reyon came second in the intermediate with Lily and Shyliqua making the final. Troy came second in the rookie category. 
I was so proud of all our students. Their sportsmanship and focus were incredible!
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On Friday 8th our 5/6 Students were back to fundraising for School Camp. They set up a cake stall out the front of Bowraville IGA and sold cakes and slices. Students made the slices and cakes at school before packing them up in single packaging with ingredient labels and taking them down to the stall. 
Students sold ALL of the cakes and slices within 2 hours!
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They also have a 100 Club running. There were some numbers that weren't taken when the Cake Stall was closed. If you are interested in buying a ticket available numbers are: 41, 57, 80, 81, 88 & 97. Tickets are $2 each, please call the school if interested on 02 6564 7369 or drop into the school office to purchase a number.

K/1 spent some time in our school canteen making playdough creations, we saw creations from Faces to Worms. 

In Science with Miss Rachael K/1 students talked about buildings and what makes them stable. They then made some structures using matchsticks and blu tack, making them stable enough to hold a matchbox car.

On the 30th Of August our teachers and students welcomed a special guest to our school, Dr. Lyn Sharratt from Canada is a highly accomplished practitioner, researcher, author, and presenter in the teaching realm.

Lyn spent time talking to our Teaching Staff and Students. Lyn visited each classroom along with Principal's from St Patrick's- Macksville, Mt St John's- Dorrigo, St mary's- Bellingen and CSO staff. They spoke to students about their learning goals. Lyn also spoke to Teacher's about their learning journey through Lyn's work.

On Thursday 31st August our stage 3 students held a fundraiser car wash. Our dedicated students washed a large number of cars throughout the afternoon. Some students washed while others held signs up for passing motorists to pull in for a car wash. We are very proud of our students raising money to help fund their school camp.

In the Stage 3 classroom students have been learning about persuasive writing. There has been discussion within the school about active play in the mornings and 5/6 students were asked to use persuasive language to create and write about their position on active play. Students were shown examples and then created their own writing pieces by writing it by hand first then typing into a google document.

Students completed some colourful sand art. Lance, Mia, Djanaambi & Violet showing us some creations their class have made.

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It's been a busy week in the Stage 2 classroom where students have had reading group tasks, puzzle time, Drum it up program, collaborative writing tasks, problem solving as a class and building maths puzzles.