Calendar

September

THIS WEEK

8 Feast Day activities commence

at 10:00am

Mass 10:15am

9 Dudley Jones Tennis

11 Children’s Liturgy 8:00am at St

Mary’s Church

12 ‘Motivating Teenagers’ Parent

information evening at MCC

13 P&F meeting 5:30pm

For your diary

16 Dance Performance 2:30pm

(after Assembly)

23 Last Day of Term

Students return Term 4

Monday 10 October

Mercy means Grace, Holiness and Forgiveness As a school community may we all extend mercy, be patient in offering compassion and comfort to all who

we encounter.

Canteen

Friday 9/9 Jodie Yager

Stacey Kroehnert

Monday 12/9 Rochelle Whitton

Friday 16/9 Fiona O’Farrell

Angie Day

Emma Hreszczuk

Kane McPherson

22 September Fundraiser - Stay tuned for more details

Newsletter 27 2016 7 September 2016

Dear Parents and Carers,

Last week we shared the news that Mrs Yvonne Rincheval has resigned to spend more time with her family.

On behalf of the parish school community we wish Yvonne every happiness as she takes this time with her family and her loved ones.

The Catholic Schools Office is no doubt formulating a plan of action for our community and continue to offer us guidance throughout the process. Pleased be assured of our ongoing commitment to our school and students to support everyone during this time.

Staff of St Mary’s met yesterday to process Yvonne’s decision and formulate a strategic plan to move forward. Further meetings are scheduled to continue the development of this plan so that we may present it to our parish school community during Term 4.

We value the opinions and perspectives of our parent community and are looking forward to working with you throughout this process to create a way forward which not only meets the needs of our community but also places our learning agenda at the forefront of educational excellence in the Clarence Valley.

Warm regards

Frank and Jacki

Feast Day Celebrations

Thursday 8 September (tomorrow)

Come along and celebrate with us!

Kennedy S, Tait S, Emma McP, Steffany N, Sharvani A, Sharika A

Children’s Liturgy 2nd Sunday of each month 8:00am Mass

St Mary’s Church

St Mary’s Church, Grafton Weekend Mass Times

Saturday Vigil 6:00pm (Daylight Savings Time)

5:00pm (9 April - Winter)

Sunday Mass 8:00am

Date Event Where Time

8 September Feast Day Mass St Mary’s Hall 10:15am

11 September Children’s Liturgy St Mary’s Church 8:00am

Please join with students and staff of

St Mary’s Primary School

to celebrate our

Feast Day Mass

on Thursday 8 September

10:15am

In the School Hall

Hail Mary, full of grace!

Parents and Carers are invited to participate in our Feast Day activities:

10:00am Open Classrooms

10:15am Mass in the Hall

10:45am Lunch- BBQ

11:35am -1:00pm Tabloids with parents/parishioners

St Mary’s Primary School will be presenting ‘Cinderella and Rockerfella’ in

Term 4, 2016.

You are invited

We will celebrate the success of our Term 3 dance lessons with students performing their

dance pieces for our whole school community.

Where: St Mary’s School Hall

When: Friday 16 September

Time: Assembly 2:00pm

Dance Performance 2:30pm

We hope to see you there.

Musical preparation is underway! Make sure your children are

learning their lines!

Upcoming Events

P and F News

FATHER'S DAY

The special Father’s Day Gift bag was a real hit in our house. The Hug and Kiss coupon and the 5 Things I Love About You are stuck to the fridge, the chocolates were consumed for breakfast and a yummy cup of tea topped off the morning. A big thank you to the Year 5 team of Belinda Chapman and Kellie Vereyken who were responsible for the creation, organisation and distribution of over 150 bags. Thanks ladies it was much appreciated.

The Father's Day breakfast on the Friday was a great success due to the perfect organisation of our Class Parent Coordinator Stacey Kroehnert and the band of parents who generously gave of their time to man the BBQ, serve the food and cleanup. A big thank you to all our volunteers this year especially Derek Morgan, Natasha Powell, Louise Thompson, Angie Day and Frank Jones. Thanks to Hanks for donating the yummiest bread in the Clarence Valley.

P and F Meeting

The next P and F meeting will be held next Tuesday 13th Sept at 5.30pm. The aim is to keep these meetings to an hour. All are very welcome and it was great to see some new faces at the last meeting. Children are welcome.

P & F News

Exuro

Exuro is a Retreat Day for selected Year 5 students from Parish Primary Schools based in Regions of the Diocese to celebrate their faith at a Diocesan level.

Exuro is Latin for ‘on fire’. This Retreat will be a one day opportunity to bring students together with like-minded peers, to share and

build relationships that strengthen the practice of their Christian faith and to be leaders in building strong

Catholic school communities. The activities will be a mixture of large and small sharing groups as well as

celebrating a Liturgy together. The program has been developed to meet the needs of these Year 5 stu-

dents.

What: Exuro – a Retreat for students from every Parish school in each Region of the Diocese.

When: Friday 28th October

Where: McAuley Catholic College, Grafton

Cost: Nil. All transport and venue booking expenses will be met by the Catholic Schools Office.

Lunch/Morning Tea: Students to bring own food and drink.

In discerning which students might participate in this retreat experience, the CSO has recommended that

participants meet several of the following criteria;

Core catholic students

Regularly attend Mass

Are involved in some other form of Church involvement either at school or in the parish

Students who exhibit the following attributes:

initiative

common sense

a mature character

A large number of St Mary’s students have already expressed an interest in this event. We can, however,

only offer 19 places. Any student who would like to be considered is asked to write a brief statement

supporting their nomination on the information sheets provided by Mrs Tarnya Jones. Attention should

be given to the stated selection criteria. Nominations should be handed to Mrs Tarnya Jones no later

than Thursday, 8 September.

Minnie-Water Wooli- Nippers

Minnie Water-Wooli Nippers will be holding our first sign up day at Grafton Shopping World from 8:30am-

12pm Saturday 17th September and again along with proficiency swims at the South Grafton Pool Sunday

18th and Saturday 24

th September from 2-4pm. Our first Nipper activity day will be at Minnie Water Main

Beach Sunday 25th September.

For further information please contact Angela Hinterholzl jac@mwwslsc.org.au or call 0421 778 072.

Clarence Science Initiative 2017 Children from Year 4 and Year 5 are invited to apply for the 2017 CSI Program which is held at South Grafton High School. Key dates are shown below and the flyers and application forms are available from class teachers and the school office.

24/8/2016 Information evening held at SGHS Library from 5.30pm to 6.00pm.

2/9/2016 Applications for CSI 2017 close at 3.00pm.

9/9/2016 Entry testing day SGHS Hall 9am to 12noon.

23/9/2016 Teacher nomination forms required back at SGHS (week 10).

07/11/2016 CSI 2017 offers mailed.

Grafton Swim Club

Come along and join in the fun on Swim Club nights.

Our FREE TRIAL* night will be held at Grafton Olympic

Pool from 6pm on Wednesday 12th

October.

So bring your swimmers and come along.

Club nights will start at Grafton Olympic Pool at 6pm on

Wednesday 19th Oct.

Minimum age is 5 years, starting from 25m distances.

Swimmers aged 7 years and under are FREE to join – ask

us about the Junior Dolphin Membership.

For more information please email

graftonswimclub@bigpond.com

*Pool entry costs apply

Westlawn Cricket Club Junior Sign-On Days

Westlawn Cricket Club will be holding 2 junior sign-on days for the upcoming cricket season:

* Thursday 8 September at the Ellem Oval nets, from 4pm to 5pm. * Saturday 10 September in Shoppingworld (near Woolworths), from 10am to 2pm.

If you can't make it to either of those days, but would still like to find out about playing, please contact Andrew Cahill on 0428-946-468 or andrew.cahill.rsa@gmail.com. You can also check out the club's Facebook page (search for "Westlawn Cricket Club").

Sport

Touch Football Gala Day

A large group of Stage 3 students travelled to Lismore on Tuesday 6 September to participate in the NSW Touch Football Gala day. The aim of the day was fun and participation, something that all our students achieved. Each of the two mixed teams played five games of touch and learnt many new skills. Congratulations all students on representing St Mary’s in a wonderful manner.

Dudley Jones Tennis

This Friday 9 September, 16 St Mary’s Students will represent our school in the annual Dudley Jones Tennis com-petition. Students will play against schools from all over the Clarence Valley. The competition starts at 9:00am and everyone is welcome to come along and cheer our tennis players on. Good luck.

Jack Stackman

Beau Thompson

Paige Thompson

Jasmine Chellew

Abbi Palani Alex Salvestro

Maddy Yager Ruby Hreszczuk

Theo Lobsey

Noah Cox

Janet Irwin

Samantha O'farrel James Zimmerman

Noah Burchell Ashlee Zimmerman

Grace Stackman

Zone Football Carnival The postponed Zone Football Carnival will take place on Monday 12 September at Rushforth Park football fields. Our Stage 3 team will compete against schools from across our Clarence Catholic Schools zone in an attempt to be crowned the Clarence Zone Football champions. Good luck boys and girls.

Zone Netball Playoff Also on Monday 12 September, our Stage 3 Netball team will play off against St Augustine’s Coffs Harbour in an attempt to be crowned Zone champion. The winning team from this game will compete in the Diocesan Knockout Final held in Grafton on 21 September. Good luck girls.

Grafton Little Athletics

2016/17 registrations are now open. This year they are to be completed ONLINE ONLY. Please visit our Facebook

page (Grafton Athletics Club Inc) where you will find the link to register, plus additional information for the

upcoming season. An information session will be held on Friday 23 September 2016 at the Terry West field at

Junction Hill field from 4.00pm. Competition will commence Friday 14 October 2016.