Dear Parents and Carers, 

Yesterday was certainly an exciting day in our school calendar, as we had the opportunity to welcome our new Kindergarten students and their families to Mary Immaculate for their first official day at ‘big school.’

For our new parents it was the first opportunity to walk through the gates and begin the process of becoming familiar to the physical school site and daily school routines. 

We certainly wish all our new families a positive start and we hope each of them will enjoy their time being part of our Mary Immaculate school family.  

As we are all in the very early stages of the year we certainly look forward to working with and developing relationships with all the members of our community. Research tells us this is key to providing a strong foundation of learning for the most important people in our school, our students.

I am confident we can work together, so that our children can grow in confidence, develop a continuous love of learning, and a determination to be the best person they can be. 

Parents and carers play an enormous role in making this a reality, most especially by the value they place on education. Frequently reinforcing and modelling those important life skills such as treating everyone with respect, being on time and at school every day, wearing the correct uniform, following school rules and working hard are important to you as parents will help to ensure that we are all ‘on the same page’.  As your child’s first educator, the value you place on these will be the value your child holds onto and reflects at school. 

Many thanks to our Mary Immaculate parents for making sure that the children have come back to school in their full school uniform and equipped with all their school supplies. The students have looked wonderful each day and this obviously reflects the pride they have in themselves and their school. 

As you know, our school is underpinned by shared values and we endeavour to do everything we can to support you in your choice of a Catholic education for your child. Respect for everyone and everything supports all our operations and we all are mindful of how important this value is in underpinning every action and interaction.  Our school staff will do everything they can to help your child to do their best. 

Please let us know if we can support you in any way.  Remember we operate an open-door policy – feel free to arrange an appointment at a mutually convenient date and time with your child’s class teacher if you have concerns or need support, help or advice.  As always, I am available most mornings and afternoons to talk to parents or am just a phone call away should you need to share information or if you require clarification. I also encourage parents to share suggestions or ideas regarding ways we can make our school the best it can be.  

To help get our year get off to the best possible start we will be holding parent information sessions via Zoom for each grade. 

As our usual onsite Meet and Greet sessions cannot take place at the moment due to restrictions, these remote sessions will provide parents with an opportunity to meet the class teachers virtually and put a face to the names. The teachers will attempt to provide parents with a ‘window’ into the classrooms, provide an overview of classroom procedures and expectations and will outline the learning for the term. 

It is expected that each grade Zoom meeting will last approximately 40 minutes and recordings will be made available should parents not be available to attend at the designated time. Zoom session details and term overviews will also be provided via Compass by the grade teachers. Kindergarten parents will have a similar opportunity at a slightly later date, once classes have been allocated.

GRATITUDE

Many thanks to all our Mary Immaculate parents for making sure that the children have come back to school with their full school uniform and equipped with all their school supplies. The students have looked absolutely wonderful each day reflecting the pride they have in themselves and their school.

SPORT UNIFORMS

Students will be required to wear their Sport Uniform on the following days:

Tuesday - Year 4 & 6

Wednesday - Year 1 & 5

Thursday Year 3 & Kindergarten 

Friday - Year 2

P&F Annual General Meeting (AGM)

Notice is given that the P&F AGM will be held via Zoom on Monday 28 February at 7pm.

The primary purpose of the P&F is to provide an opportunity for parents to be involved in the school through community building activities, fundraising and support for school initiatives.

At the meeting all executive positions will be declared vacant, and an election will take place.

Information about each position will be provided.

Any parent who wishes to nominate themself or someone else for any of the positions are asked to complete the nomination form that will be sent out separately via Compass.

Parents must be present at the meeting to accept the nomination.

We very much look forward to welcoming many new and existing parents at this first meeting for 2022.

PLEASE DO NOT SEND GLASS WATER / DRINK BOTTLES IN WITH YOUR CHILD.

We are on a journey… a Laudato Si journey…

Last year, Pope Francis invited all Catholics around the world to commit to a 7 year plan towards ecological sustainability. 

The protection of God’s creation must be placed formally and permanently at the centre as part of our faith response ... It is a vision based on our relationship with everything that has been created by God. For “God saw all that God had made, and indeed it was very good” (Gen 1:31).

Our school is enthusiastically committed to Pope Francis’ call  by signing up to the Laudato Si Action Platform. This means that we will be working really hard to make choices in our school that reflect our care and commitment towards ecological sustainability. 

Handy Tip for this week:

Remember to cut the elastic straps off your face mask before disposal. This will ensure that our wildlife do not become entangled or harmed!

Catholic Schools Week

‘Faith, Excellence, Service’

Catholic Schools Week this year will be held  between 28 February - 4 March 2022. 

We will be celebrating the week with a variety of school wide activities including a Shrove Tuesday mufti day. The newest members of our school community will be invited to receive a special blessing at our Church and our Year 6 Leaders will attend their special ‘Leadership Mass’ to officially commence their duties. Further details will be communicated to you early next week.

Mrs Kirsty Simpson

Religious Education Co-Ordinator

Well it is wonderful to be back in our beautiful Library!! We just need to remember to bring our Library bags on our lesson day so we can borrow! Library bags are essential for protecting the books travelling to and from school. They can be a cloth tote bag or something similar, or Mary Immaculate Library bags can be purchased from the office for $10.00. Library day is the same day as Sport so that might help as a reminder!

Tomorrow is Library for Year Three, and Friday is Year Two. Below is a reminder of Library days next week when each student needs to bring a Library bag:

Tuesday – Year 4

Wednesday – Year One

Thursday – Kinder

Technology

An important aspect of the Library lesson in today’s information-rich society is the use of technology. We have a pod of laptops and iPads available for use in the Library, and we use them to help the students become information-literate and cyber-aware. We aim to develop effective research skills, where the students identify the need for information, obtain it from the necessary sources, and evaluate its relevance and accuracy. We aim to teach the students not only what they need to know but how to find what it is they need to know, and how to develop skills in the use of technology for the presentation of their findings. Information literate people are avid readers, critical and creative thinkers, and organized investigators. We also focus on Cyber Safety, so our students become safe, responsible and respectful digital citizens.

“Technology resources are available to all CEDoW students. The effective use of technology relies on the responsible conduct of the users who must adhere to the following agreement, school-based processes and respect the dignity  of all involved in line with our Catholic ethos. Students  acknowledge the use of technology to access the CEDoW network  (including CEDoW supplied technology as well as personal technology) can be remotely monitored and logged for  auditing, forensic data gathering, planning and fault determination.  … Inappropriate use will result in subsequent actions in line with the school’s behaviour management processes." CEDoW Student Acceptable Use of Technology Agreement. 

An expectation from the Catholic Education Office is that every student in our school is to read with their parents the CEDoW Student Acceptable Use of Technology Agreement at the beginning of each year. This agreement outlines the expectations regarding appropriate and safe use of technology in the education of our students. All students will receive a copy of this agreement in the first few weeks of school. Parents and students are then asked to sign the agreement and return it to school, before they will be able to use the laptops or ipads at school. 

Scholastic Book Club

The brochures were sent home last week, ordering is only available ONLINE as indicated on the brochures. No orders or money are able to be accepted at school. If you have any problems, please don’t hesitate to contact us in the Library before or after school. Orders close for this issue, Issue One, Monday 14  February. Thank you. 

Daily Reading

It is important to try to read with your children for at least ten minutes a day. Even in our very busy lives the rewards are priceless.

"Reading for pleasure is the most important way to advance literacy attainment in children.”

  - National Literacy Trust UK, 2006

Mrs Sue Bryant

Teacher-Librarian

Due to COVID-19 directives and the uncertain nature of changes to the NSW government advice, it has been decided that the Swimming Carnival for 2022 will be a competitors only event. The purpose of this event is to select a team to represent our school at the Diocesan Western Region Swimming Trials held later in the term.

Children need to:

• be at least 8 years of age in 2022

• be able to swim 50m by themselves confidently in the chosen stroke

Parents will need to organise transport to and from the event for their child due to COVID advice.

Date  - THURSDAY 24 February 2022  

Venue - Gordon Fetterplace Aquatic Centre, Bradbury

Time -  2:00pm  - 4:00pm. 

Cost -  $10.00

This is an OPT IN Event and not Compulsory.  If you would like your child to participate please complete the Compass OPT IN notification by Friday 11 February. 

You will receive confirmation of your child’s nomination on Monday 14 February. 

Mr Astill

2022 SCHOOL FEE INFORMATION

School fees for 2022 have now been invoiced and statements will be issued by the end of Week Two with annual or first instalment payment due on 28 February 2022.  You may view school fees in the Compass Parent Portal.

We would also like to advise you of the following important information in relation to school fees and the rollout of new administrative systems.  All primary, secondary and K-12 schools have now been transferred to the package which includes Compass and Technology One.  This has provided the Catholic Education Office with the ability to perform centralised functions relating to school fee accounts on behalf of our schools.

WHAT CENTRALISATION OF FUNCTIONS MEANS FOR FAMILIES

The invoicing of school fees and the distribution of school fee statements each month, is now a function carried out by the Catholic Education Office.  Payment of fees, whether as an annual payment or payment by instalments is due on the date/s provided on your school fee statement.

Please note that if an adjustment is made to your school fee account eg your child changes subjects in a secondary school, etc., we will email a new school fee statement.  If you are paying by instalments, they may need to be regenerated and a change may occur in your payments.  If this is the case, a new schedule of payments and due dates will appear on the last page of your statement.

REMINDERS FOR LATE PAYMENTS

In 2021, the issue of reminders for late payment via email was introduced and in 2022 the ability to send SMS messages will be added to the system.  These reminders are automatically generated by the software based on the number of days a payment is overdue and are distributed by the Catholic Education Office.  For those families that may have difficulty in paying their school fees, these reminders may cause some distress. This is not our intention.  Our intention is to manage the collection of school fee accounts with new technology and in so doing, alleviate some of the administrative work of our schools.

SCHOOL FEE ACCOUNT ENQUIRIES

Please note, despite the centralisation of various functions, your school/s will always be your point of contact for matters pertaining to fees.  If you wish to discuss your school fee account, please contact your school office.  The role of the Catholic Education Office is to action centralised tasks on behalf of schools.

IF YOU WISH TO PAY BY INSTALMENTS

Many families have already elected to pay their school fees by instalments.  If you wish to avail yourself of this option please complete a Request to Pay by Instalment Form which is available on your school’s website or at your school’s office.  On completion of the request either email it to instalments@dow.catholic.edu.au or submit at your school’s office.  Following receipt of the request, instalments will be generated on your account and a schedule of payments and due dates will be provided on your next school fee statement.  Please note it is only necessary to complete this form once during the period of child/children’s enrolment, unless you wish to amend your payment frequency.

DIFFICULTY WITH PAYMENT

If you are experiencing financial difficulty, we encourage you to contact the school in which your child/children are enrolled to discuss an arrangement that will assist you meet your commitments.  This may include the completion of a Diocesan Application for Fee Concession which is available from the administration office of each school.  Be reassured that your situation will be treated with strict confidentiality and respect for your circumstances. 

For those families that received a Fee Concession in 2021, you will receive an email prior to your annual review date attaching a further Application for Fee Concession.   If you wish to submit the application, please do so at your child’s school.  Please note, if you have children in more than one school, it will only be necessary to submit one application.

For further information regarding school fees, please access the Diocesan School Fee Management Policy and Frequently Asked Questions which is available on your school’s website.