Every Week 

Monday 3-6 Group C Sports Uniform

Tuesday 3-6 Group A Sports Uniform

Tuesday Canteen

Tuesday Japanese with Janine - @ 2.00pm K-2 even weeks, Yr 3-6 odd weeks, @ 2.30pm Yr 3-6 even weeks, K-2 odd weeks 

Wednesday 3-6 Group B Sports Uniform

Wednesday K-2 Sports Uniform

Thursday Canteen

Friday K-6 Sports Uniform

Friday Piano with Victoria

Week 4

Kinder enrolment meetings continue

Laudato Si Week

Monday 20th Walk Safely to School Day

Tuesday 21st - Media and Communications Team @ St Mary’s

Tuesday 21st - Diocesan Cross Country

Wednesday 22nd - Simultaneous Storytime

Wednesday 22nd - Book Swap @ Recess

Thursday 23rd - K-2 Excursion to Coffs Harbour Library

Thursday 23rd - Tell Them From Me survey closes

Thursday 23rd - Missions Assistants here

Friday 24th - Coffee and Connect @ 9.00am - all welcome

Friday 24th - 2.45pm Mini Vinnies Commissioning @ assembly 

Sunday 26th - National Sorry Day

Sunday 26th - Uluru Statement from the Heart

Sunday 26th - World Communications Day

Week 5

Kinder enrolment meetings continue

National Reconciliation Week

Wednesday 29th - Walk for Reconciliation @ Park

Thursday 30th - Staff Development Day PROCLAIM Pupil Free Day

Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful. And kindle in them the fire of your love. Send forth your Spirit and they shall be created.

This year the theme of Laudato Si’ Week centres around ‘seeds of hope’. We are called to consider how we can plant and nurture seeds to be the hope that the world needs.

The Laudato Si is a letter from Pope Francis to everyone on the planet urging all of us to protect the earth; our common home. The earth is God's gift to us, full of beauty and wonder, where the fruits of the earth belong to everyone.

Dear Lord, we ask that you hear our prayer of gratitude and thanks as we continue planting seeds of hope in our world. This week reminds us of the all the beauty and wonder in the world that you created and reminds us how we can plant and nurture the hope that the world needs.

Things that we can do to care for our common home:

• Love one another
• Share
• Open our hearts to all
• Welcome others
• Care for our environment
• Use our bins properly and pick up our rubbish
• Show love, care and respect for nature and the animals
• Protect our animals and endangered species and look after their homes
• Live in harmony with all
• Be inclusive of all.

 Let us be seeds of hope in our lives and our world. 

Amen. 

• We were very fortunate to have the Ten:Ten team at St Mary’s for two days last week. The team includes the Proclaim Lismore Wildfire Band and a number of Youth Ministers. It was a fun and interactive opportunity for students to celebrate life with their peers, build connections and encounter Jesus through singing, dancing, games, talks, activities, prayer and small group discussions.

Last Tuesday, 18 lucky St Mary’s students spent the morning with Uncle Troy from Bularri Muurlay Nyanggan Aboriginal Corporation (BMNAC), participating in a dance and culture workshop. “Bularri Muurlay Nyanggan” translates to “Two Path Strong” in the Gumbaynggirr language and sets the goal of the corporation; to ensure that the Aboriginal community, in particular youth, are “two path strong” – strong in culture and strong in education.

Uncle Troy wove these two aspects together in a fun and engaging way for our Aboriginal students and their friends. Thank you to Miss Hunter for organising this experience for our students. Some student reflections:

“I liked the crow (the waaka) and the emu searching for food” Banjo

“My favourite was the kangaroo eating and laying down. And practicing the words in Gumbayngirr.” Yahmarii

“I loved the emu dance” Goldie

“I learned how to do Aboriginal dance and say some words in  Gumbaynggirr language” Willow

“I liked doing the kangaroo dance.” Pearl

Hi, 

This is just an update on how Jesse Clack from St Mary’s Bellingen, played whilst representing Your school and community as part of the Polding Tennis Team at the NSWPSSA Tennis Championships held in Newcastle during week 3 term 2. 

Jesse is to be commended for the fantastic way that he played tennis, singles and doubles and the excellent sportsmanship he showed whilst playing his tennis as part of the Polding Tennis Team at the Championships. 

Jesse’s efforts helped the Polding Tennis team achieve the excellent result of 6th place overall out of 13 regional teams that were participating at the PSSA Championships. Thank you Jesse for your excellent efforts and leadership whilst playing at the PSSA Championships, great work!  

Adam Foley. 

Polding Tennis Team Manager 2024. 

Assistant Principal.

St John’s Primary School Dubbo. 

Hello and welcome to this report which will reveal to you some of the amazing and wonderful achievements from the Year 5 Hub!

Some of the Year 5 cohort with their Easter nests. Their task was to design and build a nest no bigger than their two cupped hands, using recycled and/or natural materials.

In our colourful classroom, which also doubles as the Resource Room for Science, Maths, Craft and Art, you will find an industrious class of young students, whose zest for learning is strong and constant! We fit much into our daily learning lives, and often our brains are explosive with ideas, ideals, mental maths practice and eureka moments! 

In English we studied Narrative Text in Term 1, and this term, are ‘Understanding Genres’. We studied The Wild Robot as our narrative, analysing the brilliant Peter Brown’s many chapters, and learning so many new skills and concepts in the process. We are now practised at engaging the reader by interacting in 2nd Person, using noun groups to inspire the imagination, including many different (and often ingenious) literary devices, discovering an array of new and interesting verbs and adverbs, slotting in adverbial clauses to give detail and delight, building tension and drama when attempting to solve the problems of the protagonist, and finally, experimenting with different types of resolutions. 

Alongside studying these concepts in The Wild Robot, the students of Year 5 had to put their knowledge into practice by writing their own narratives based on a two minute animated video titled ‘Origins’. This clever animation follows a little robot on a journey in which he makes a discovery about his origin, and then has to make a decision about his future. The following is the narrative written by Aoife Tsang, and if you analyse her writing, you will find a wealth of features often found in the best narratives ever published!

Origins: The Story Of Henwy

                    By Aoife Tsang

As Henwy was meandering along the forest floor crunching on leaves and lost in his troubling and confusing thoughts, he  wondered where he belonged. All he knew was that he had a dirty sticker on his side and just as he realised he was not on a path any more, he saw a massive, thick, black cloud of smoke travelling at top speed above the forest. Curious to see what it was, he ran as fast as his miniscule legs could carry him to the smoke. 

As he arrived he saw a humongous train and just when he was about to leave he saw the same sticker that was on his side on the side of the train. “It might be home” he thought with a wondrous look on his face. Not knowing if it was home or not and not knowing if he should hop on, the curiousness took over him. Taking a running jump he LEAPED onto the train, successfully managing to grab on to the mysterious train. 

In about ten or fifteen minutes the train slowed to a stop, so he hopped off. As he walked around the massive, gloomy, grey, colourless (and almost empty) factory  he heard a strange GROAAAAAANing noise coming from the open gates. Not knowing what was in there Henwy stepped in and heard a strange whirring noise straight ahead of him!!! A machine was coming straight for him! The whirring blared in his ears. Henwy ran. His life was on the line. He would be dead. At least if he didn’t hide. 

Henwy was so afraid that a machine would come again, he ran into the factory as fast as his little legs could carry him. “CRUNCH” went the orange crispy leaf under the tiny robot’s foot. “What’s this…- a leaf!” he shouted in excitement. “It must have blown in from my home!” he said. His little robotic eyes were filling with tears. “Home” he said again. “Even though I was made here I belong in the forest” Henwy mumbled. “THE FOREST IS MY HOME, AND THAT’S THAT!!!” 

Henwy was so shocked by his humongous outburst that for about five seconds he forgot what he had said….. but then he remembered and stormed out of the room just to double back and take the leaf. 

He wobbled  across the long, ricketty, winding train tracks back to his home which was being made a rainbow by the sun. “I learnt that the forest is my rightful home and it always will be,” Henwy said softly as he walked into the magnificent, shining sunrise. Henwy learnt one thing that day, and it was that it doesn’t matter where you were made or where you come from, you belong anywhere in the world.

Henwy stepping on autumn leaves and lost in his troubling thoughts…

Next Term, Year 5 students will be spending 12 hours at school one day, having entered a team in the “Write a Book in a Day” Project, which raises money for Childhood Cancer research. We are all looking forward to this challenge, and our completed book will be posted on the “Write a Book in a Day” website for delivery to children in hospitals around NSW to read and enjoy. What fun!!! Stay tuned for the ways our St Mary’s Community can help.

Cheers to all, 

Kath Derrin and Charlene Richardson

Free courses for families with children 12 years and younger.

Check out the options available on the following website;

https://www.triplep-parenting.net.au/au/triple-p/ 

Our school is moving from paper-based enrolment applications to online enrolments using Compass.  As an existing user of Compass, you will find a new tile in the Compass app called Family and Enrolments, found under the “More” icon in the Compass app or under the Cog icon in your preferred browser.  As a parent, you can update your contact details at any time. We strongly encourage you to log in to confirm your details. 

Applications for 2025 can now be completed online.  See our website for more details on how to enrol and where to get assistance if you need it; https://www.stmarysbellingen.nsw.edu.au/enrolling-at-st-mary-s 

Dates for Kindergarten 2025 enrolments are as follows

Information session: Tuesday, 7th May.

Enrolment Period Opens: Monday, 29th April.

Starting Date for Interviews: Monday, 6th May.

Proposed Date for First Round Offers: Monday, 24th June.

Proposed Date for Second Round Offers: Monday, 5th August.

If you know of anyone in the community who is looking at enrolling their child for Kindergarten 2025, please direct them to the website or encourage them to make contact with the school as soon as possible.

Attendance - 

Please reach out if your family is experiencing difficulties regarding attendance.  We will be working with families and children who have attendance rates that fall into the Complex (Less than 70%) and Chronic (Less than 80%) ranges.  We have started to send out emails to advise if this is you.  Remember we are here to help and support where possible.

Here is a strategy to start with your child and look at positive and negative events in your child’s life as well as looking forward to what they want in the future.

https://intranet.lism.catholic.edu.au/mission/pastoral-care/student-participation/school-avoidance

Yesterday St Mary’s held our Walk Safely to School Day. We had a ‘walking bus’ which began in the car park at Lavender’s Bridge and we collected walkers at various meeting points along the way. This important day is a great opportunity to walk to school safely together and have conversations about road safety. We concluded the morning with a healthy breakfast at school.

Premiers Reading Challenge Update

Updated Book Lists can be found here

Digital library including decodable readers and quality texts 

Week 2 

Kinder - Lily Hogarth & Asha Beddows 

Year 2 - Tully de Jong & Phoenix Jones

Year 4 - Lenny Shenfield

Year 5 - Ishani Hannah & Seanna Condon

Year 6 - Elliot Nolan

PBS - "I do my best".

Kinder - Tara McRae & Kohan Phoenix

Year 2 - Gabby Carlon

Year 3 - Eloise Harper

Year 4 - Vida Wamara

Year 5 - Solomon Day

Year 6 - Lyla Bertram

Good Samaritan - Safiah Andrews & Jack Barne

Week 3

Kinder - Lily Hogarth & Jed Ravell

Year 1 - Maddi Moodie & Marigold James

Year 2 - Jed Bridger & Oscar Wynter

Year 3 - Oscar Wooldridge & Phineas Boshier

Year 4 - Aaliyah Gale

Year 6 - Bryce Tyrrell

PBS - "I can play and learn in the right place".

Kinder - Safiah Andrews & Logan Piper

Year 1 - Henry Dean

Year 2 - Jude Farrugia

Year 3 - Willow Clack

Year 4 - Charlotte Carlon

Year 6 - Isla-Rose McLennan

Good Samaritan - Bodhi McRae

Cultural Award - Harrison Piper

Happy Birthday  to Cooper Nichols 21/05, Lily Hogarth 22/05, Phoebe Mallo 23/05, Oscar Wooldridge 23/05, Miley Waugh 31/05 and Oscar Reibelt 03/06.

Help us to make swimming lessons as affordable as possible. Help out with the June Market Day fundraiser on Saturday June 15th. An hour of your time is all it takes.  Please contact the office or one of our P&F members to put your name down on a time slot, line up the kids and some friends to be on at the same time. Or we can match you up with other awesome St Mary’s families!

Come along and meet some other families.  Everyone is welcome.

Piano = Victoria Christie 6655 8782

Brass/Piano = Kate Butcher 0419 789 078

Guitar = Katie Crane 0431 151 987