Term 2 - Week 5, 2021

Principal's Message

Dear Parents,

On Monday, we held a special assembly to award Ryleigh, Ava, and Zoe their leadership badges. These students have worked very hard within our school to serve our community and lead by example. I commend our student leaders on this achievement and look forward to working with them in their leadership roles.

We drew our Stage 3 fundraising raffle at Monday's assembly. I'd like to thank all the businesses that supported this raffle. We were able to raise money to assist families to pay for the costs of the Canberra camp. I would also like to acknowledge and thank Mrs Beaumont for organising the raffle too.

Finally, next week I'll be travelling with our Stage 3 students to Sydney and Canberra. We will join St Mary's, Bellingen students early Monday morning to travel to Taronga Zoo. On Tuesday, we head to Canberra for a variety of educational visits including Parliament House. We head back home on Friday. Ms Kermode will be in charge of the school in my absence. Please direct any inquiries you may have directly to her. I'm hoping to have many great photos to share in our newsletter next week. 

Regards,

Nathan Trezise

Principal  

Canberra Camp Final Reminders

Our trip to Canberra is now only days away. Children are to gather at St Mary’s Bellingen on Monday at 7:45 am. The bus will be loaded and we will depart around 8 am. Below are a few reminders for students, these items are essential for the week:

• School uniform is required to visit Parliament House (winter uniform options should be packed too e.g. track pants and jackets).
• Pack school hat (students can bring another hat too).
• Pack a drink bottle.
• A sleeping bag and pillow are required for Taronga Zoo.
• Bring Recess and Lunch on Monday.
• Bring a contribution to shared morning/ afternoon tea that can be eaten later in the week. 

Art Enrichment With David Ogg

On Thursday, May 20th, some of our students participated in an Art Enrichment Workshop facilitated by David Ogg. The Art Matters Visual Arts Enrichment Workshops are aimed to enthuse students and staff, build character, creativity and develop an appreciation of existing art capabilities. The Workshop built competent skills in staff and students alike and has helped with enriching the Visual Arts experience as well as modelling the integration of Scripture through the Visual Arts.

Scripture via stories was embedded in the Workshop to help in the Making of Jesus Real. Our students engaged remarkably with the content of the day and produced some exceptional pieces of work as you can see in the gallery below. Thank you to David for his incredible work on the day and a huge congratulations to our students for their engagement, participation, and creations on the day. 

Aleasa Kermode
Assistant Principal

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Weekly Awards

This week's class awards went to:

Ryan Beaumont - for writing a great beginning to his story about an octopus.

Hunter Gibson - for participating enthusiastically in English and sharing his knowledge about octopuses.

Ethan MacDonell - for the huge effort you put into writing today. Keep it up!

Amelia Braaksma - for the huge effort you put in to writing. You show so much enthusiasm during writingsessions - keep it up.

Evelyn Beaumont - for creating an exciting Science experiment to demonstrate your understanding of liquids, solids and gases.

Cash Gibson - or creating an exciting Science experiment to demonstrate your understanding of liquids, solids and gases.

NAIDOC 2021 Colouring In Competition

Hayley and Salena have designed a great picture for you to colour in.

There are some really cool prizes from the NAIDOC merchandise catalogue, like beanies and balls and watches.

Can you please return your completed colouring-ins to Cathy in the office by Friday of Week 7. That is Friday the 4th of June. We will be asking Uncle Mark to help judge the competition when he comes to visit in Week 8.

Please put your name and age on the back!

EMU Homework Video Tutorials

Each week, students are encouraged to play some mathematics games at home to help support their learning at school. Our classroom teachers take students through the homework tasks and to assist families to play at home, we are including a video tutorial in the newsletter. 

Kindergarten - EMU Homework  (see video below)

Quick as a Flash
Randomly show cards with dots arranged in structured patterns. Tell me how many dots you see as ‘quick as a flash’. What do you notice about the arrangement of dots? Close your eyes and imagine the dots. Imagine one more or one less dot? How many now? Prove it
Imagine how many more dots would you need for the next ten? Prove it.

Stage 1 - EMU Homework (see video below)

Golden Beans Combinations (10-20)

Take a handful of two-sided counters. Gently toss counters onto the table, predicting how many will land yellow side up. Check the prediction. Predict how many beans landed red side up. Check the prediction. Record the combination for the target number. Toss the counters several more times to explore other combinations. Challenge: How many possible combinations are there? How would you know if you had found them all?

Stage 2 - EMU Homework (see video below)

Make the largest number!

For this activity you will need:

• A Marker

• The Template (Given out in class)

• Playing Cards or Number Cards

• Two Players

Five cards are selected randomly from a set of 0-9 digit cards (Or playing cards). After each card is selected, each player writes the numeral in one of the boxes on the template. The aim of the game is to make the largest 4-digit number possible. You can choose to discard only ONE card and put it to the right and can only use each number card once!

To add a challenge to this, make the 4-digit number and then imagine the number is 4 times as many! eg. 3043 x 4 = 12 172

Stage 3 - EMU Homework (see video below)

The aim is to develop multiplication strategies. Use 6-sided dice and select any 2 digit number. Roll the six-sided dice and multiply your 2 digit number. Make sure you partition the 2 digit number. For example 5 x 36. I would break down the 36 into 30  and  6.

Then I would go:

5 x 30 = 150

5 x 6 = 30   

130 + 30 = 180.

You can get your child to practise multiplying a 1 digit by a 3 digit number. Ensuring you partition the three-digit number into hundreds, tens and ones.

Parish Sacrament of Confirmation Program 2021

This year, the Confirmation preparation program will be parish-based and run over ten weeks  (excluding school holidays) in the parish centre meeting room in Bellingen. 

A child is eligible for the sacrament of Confirmation if they are baptised Catholic, between the  ages of 8 and 15 years, and should be attending Sunday (or Saturday night) Mass every week. Enrolment and Parental Authority forms are available from the parish office and must be  collected before the day of the Parent Meeting. To obtain the forms you will need to bring with you your child’s baptism certificate (no photocopies) plus proof of ID (e.g. photo driver’s license) for all legal  guardians of your child. 

The completed enrolment form (and Parental Authority form) is to be brought to the Parent  Meeting at the Parish Centre Meeting Room on Wednesday 26th May at 7pm. Your child’s enrolment will take place at that meeting. Enrolment forms will not be available at the Parent Meeting. For more information, please contact the Parish Office on 6655 1448. 

The Sacrament of Confirmation will be celebrated by Bishop Gregory on 9th August 2021. 

Parent Assembly Recruitment

Library Day - Wednesday

Library day for all students is Wednesday - please make sure your child brings in his or her cloth library bag on this day. Each student may borrow four books per week. 

School Uniform Items Available

We have a stock of school uniform items available for purchase from the front office. We accept cash, cheque or bank transfer. Uniform prices are as follows:

School hats - $15

School shirts - $25

Skorts - $20

Shorts - $20

Rain jackets - $50

We also have some items available to buy from our 2nd-hand uniform pool.

Canteen

Thank you to Anna Guest & Emma Francis, who were our canteen volunteers today. If anyone is available to volunteer in our canteen one or more Fridays per term, please contact our canteen co-ordinator Alicia on 0488 280683. If we have no volunteers available we will have to cancel canteen for that week.

A reminder to place your canteen order before Thursday night each week.

Please note - if you top up your canteen account via bank transfer, the funds will take a week to clear so you will not be able to order canteen immediately. 

Please send your lunch wallets into school and we will keep them here.

Animal Husbandry Course

U3A are conducting courses, organised by Nick Wright, in animal husbandry.  Chris Shirley has given two on cattle and horses, mostly on their digestive systems and far too technical for most children.  But with Monica’s two on dogs and cats I hope we can them more accessible for children.

 Friday 4.00pm to 5.00pm at Hickory House, admission free.

Happy for you to give my phone number: 0427 578015.

Dorrigo Rotary BBQ Breakfast

Dorrigo Rotary Club is holding a BBQ breakfast on Saturday, May 29, 2021 at the recently reopened Coronation Park, Corner of Hickory and Vine Streets, commencing at 8.30 a.m. and finishing at 11.00 a.m. The breakfast is to mark the completion of the park upgrade, with its new play equipment, and to provide an opportunity to bring local families together to view the new facilities. Rotary will be offering a sausage in a roll, bacon and egg wraps and Popper drinks.  The event is not a fundraiser, but rather a community service, so prices will be affordable.

Parent Assembly Family Retreat

Messy Church

School Bus Travel

Applications for student travel can now be made online. Apply here 

School Drive Subsidy

The School Drive Subsidy is available for eligible school students where there is no public transport available for all or part of the journey. If you have to drive your child more than 1.6km to a school bus stop, you may be eligible for this subsidy – go to the link below to apply. 

Head Lice

If you notice head lice on your child, please treat his or her hair ASAP and notify the school that you did this. Remember – long hair must be tied back at school.

After School Lego at Dorrigo Library

Working With Children Check

For those parents who are volunteers at school, such as canteen helpers, we need to ensure that you have a current Working with Children (Volunteers) Check. To apply for this check, go to 

COVID Student Attendance

Staff and students exhibiting even mild COVID-19 symptoms should be sent home and are required to produce proof of a negative COVID-19 test before returning to school. 

As per these guidelines, a screenshot of the text message, confirming a Negative result, is all that will be required to return to school. 

Instrumental Music With Hazel

We have music tutor available to teach instrumental music through private tuition. Hazel Buchanan is interested in working with our students. Hazel can teach:

- flute

- clarinet

- saxophone

- oboe

- bassoon

- trumpet

- trombone

- percussion

- bass guitar

The school owns a flute and a clarinet, which are available for families to borrow long-term at no cost. The payments for lessons are billed each term and paid directly to Hazel. An Essential Element Band Book will be supplied by the school too.

Students wishing to learn these instruments can do so in individual lessons or in small groups depending on the instrument chosen. It is hoped that one day, we can start a small ensemble or band for instrumental students to play together. 

If you are interested in taking up this opportunity, please contact Hazel directly on 0458 572 525.

Lessons will take place on Fridays. 

School Bell Times

This year we have modified our bell times.  The current times are as follows:

8:55 am - 11:00 am English Block

11:00 am - 11:15 am Lunch (children sit and eat)

11:15 am - 11:35 am Lunch Play

11:35 am - 12:55 pm Mathematics Block

12:55 pm - 1:05 pm Recess (children sit and eat)

1:05 pm - 1:20 pm Recess Play

1:20 pm - 3:05 pm Other Key Learning Areas (Science, Arts, History etc)

Term 2 School Fees

SCHOOL FEES: Term 2 school fee statements were sent home last week. Term 2 fees are payable by Friday 28th May, unless you are paying by regular direct deposit amounts. 

Several payment methods are available; 

• Regular direct deposit payments (see suggested amounts below).
• Lump sum direct deposit
• Cash
• Cheque

If you are planning to set up regular direct deposit school fee payments for the 2021 school year, following are instructions on how to do this: 

Suggested direct deposit amounts (from beginning of February 2021)

1 student - Term 2 - $276.00

       $46.16 per fortnight (x 25 fortnights)

       $23.08 per week (x 50 weeks)

2 students - Term 2 - $483.00

       $81.28 per fortnight (x 25 fortnights)

       $40.64 per week (x 50 weeks)

3 or more students  - Term 2 – $621.00

       $105.36 per fortnight (x 25 fortnights)

       $52.68 per week (x 50 weeks)

If you would like to arrange a regular direct debit payment from your Bananacoast Credit Union account into the school’s account, the BCU Credit Union in Dorrigo will organize this for you.

When using Internet banking, please use your child’s surname as a reference.

Bananacoast Community Credit Union   BSB no. 533-000

Account no. 3282 0430                 Name: Mt St John’s Primary School

GLUE

GLUE: "God Loves Us Eternally" (formerly GFS) is on each Wednesday from 3-5pm at the Anglican Hall. Afternoon tea, games, fun worship and craft. All primary kids welcome, as are newcomers. For more info, ring Gwenneth on 6657 2135. COVID-safe practices will apply.

Comunity Directory Resource

Nutrition Snippet