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Dear Parents and Caregivers,
It is almost unbelievable that this is our final full week for the year. 2020 has been an exciting and tumultuous time for all of us, but despite the challenges we have faced, our School Community has never been lacking in community spirit, energy and the motivation to be ‘church in action.’ This was very evident yesterday during our Feast Day celebrations. We are extremely grateful to our Year 6 RE Team who meticulously planned the activities for the school and were well supported by Mrs Simpson to bring their plans to fruition. What a wonderful expression of leadership in action! Thank you to our dedicated P&F for their tireless efforts in ensuring our celebration included the traditional sausage sizzle. What a wonderful expression of celebration and thanksgiving!
Next Monday our students will be promoted to their new class for 2021. They will have the opportunity to meet their new teacher and classmates who will journey with them during 2021. A complete staff list will be sent home next week.
As we make preparations to begin a new school year by finalising the staff and students for 2021, we do this with the knowledge that we will be farewelling some of the existing members of our community.
Next week our Year 6 Students will complete a milestone in their lives, the completion of their Primary Education. For the majority of these students Mary Immaculate has been the only school they have ever known. As these students leave us to begin the next phase of their journey, I thank them for sharing their special gifts with all of us in the Mary Immaculate School Family. Year 6 please be assured that each of you takes with you our love and prayers and you leave with us the memory of the special, unique person that each of you are.
For many of our families their association with the Mary Immaculate Community will be coming to an end. I take this opportunity to thank these families for living out their commitment to the school and for contributing to the building of this wonderful community in a multitude of ways. We farewell the following families at the end of 2021 ~ Da Silva Family, Capitly Family, Dess Family, Gendy Family, Rios Family, Bampton Family, Morris Family, Rezo Family, Warner Family, Cutajar Family, Watfa Family, Ramos Family, Warwick-Smith Family, Vicario Family, Reyna Castro Family, Cameron Family, Hartley Family, Coreas Family, Bassett Family, Scales Family, Papallo Family, Panya Family, Nakad Family, Locke Family, Bahamondez Family.
Many of our staff will be beginning or continuing new adventures in 2021. Emily Spiljar, Alison Harris and Gabriella Lowe will be commencing contracts at new schools. Josephine Theunissen will continue supporting our school in a casual capacity.
In addition to farewelling teaching staff, we will also be saying goodbye to our Catholic Care Counsellor, Rita Maher who will continue her role at St John the Evangelist. In 2021 we will welcome Bianca Scaramella in the role of Catholic Care Counsellor. To each of these valued staff we say ‘thank you’ for the contributions they have made to making a difference to the lives of our students. We wish each of them abundant blessings as they all begin their new adventures in 2021.
On a more personal note, as I complete my first year as Principal at Mary Immaculate, I wish to express how blessed I feel to have been so warmly welcomed into the Mary Immaculate Community by staff, clergy, parents and students. In a year that has presented unique challenges, both personally and professionally, I have been blessed to be surrounded by a loving, welcoming and nurturing community that has helped to support my transition and leadership, despite the challenges of a global pandemic. 2020 has not been an easy year. It has presented many challenges, but it has also afforded fantastic opportunities for learning and growth. I wish to express my deep gratitude to all members of this community – parents, parish, staff and students for the patience and support each of you have provided. I am especially grateful for the respectful feedback received, positive as well as constructive. Without this feedback I believe it is extremely difficult to continue the journey of growth and improvement either as an individual or as a community. I look forward to continuing our journey together and am excited by the opportunities for continued partnership in 2021, especially as we move into the significant milestone in our history, our 35th year as a School Community. Please be assured that all we do will always be underpinned by the desire to improve the learning outcomes for the most important members of our community, our students.
Tina Murray
Principal
PROMOTION TO CLASSES FOR 2021
Students will have the opportunity to meet their teacher and classmates for 2021 on Monday December 14. New students who will be joining Mary Immaculate in 2021 have also been invited to attend. Information about 2021 requirements will be provided to students by their 2021 teachers.
At the conclusion of the blessing, our community will form the traditional leaving tunnel to farewell all leaving students and staff. Parents will be directed to the Infants Grass playground and are asked to maintain social distancing protocols. At the conclusion of this special celebration students will be able to begin their summer holidays a little early. If someone other than a parent is going to pick up your child on this day, please ensure that a note confirming permission is provided to the class teacher at the beginning of the day. Students will need to be signed out with the class teacher before leaving.
VOLUNTEER APPRECIATION - Unfortunately, we have been unable to schedule our traditional Appreciation Morning Tea for Volunteers.
We want to take the opportunity to thank all our valued parent helpers and volunteers who have contributed and assisted us in any way this year.
We pay particular tribute to our Clothing Pool and School Banking volunteers. We are also indebted to the tireless efforts of our P&F Association who despite the challenges faced in 2020 have remained focused on building community and supporting the resourcing of the school.
Tina Murray
Principal
PRACTISING MATHS SKILLS DURING SCHOOL HOLIDAYS
School holidays are all about relaxing, enjoying a well-earned break and having a good time with family and friends. School holidays can also be a great opportunity to practice maths skills with your child. I have included an article with lots of practical and fun activities for practising Maths skills during the holidays.
FOR YOUNGER CHILDREN
Discovering Shapes - Encourage your child to explore different shapes. How many sides does each shape have? How many angles? Is it similar to any other shape? Which one? Discuss the shape of common household and outdoor items.
- Puzzles are a great way to discover shapes by making the pieces fit right.
- Copy, draw, paint, and make composite shapes – use different materials: textas, crayons, chalk, paint, water, sand, playdough, etc.
Sorting - Sorting is an essential element of math reasoning. With young children you can start with real objects.
- At home, young kids can help with jobs while practising their sorting skills. Sorting out clean laundry – ask your child to help with sorting the laundry into different clothing items (e.g. pants, t-shirts, socks, etc.) by different coloured items, or even by different sizes. They can also help to sort items from grocery shopping (e.g. cans, veggies, fruits, etc.). They can help tidy their room by sorting out their toys (e.g. books, dolls, cars, balls, etc.).
- A family outing to the local pet-zoo, animal farm, zoo, or aquarium can be a great opportunity to talk about different types of animals – their characteristics, size, colour, etc.
Counting - Counting can be practiced everywhere! At the park, kids can count trees, rocks, swings, etc. Kids can count food items at snack time (e.g. carrot sticks, grapes, apple pieces, crackers, etc.), they can count their items and yours. Ask questions such as: “Do we have the same? Who has more? How can we make it equal?” As an extension, before counting, ask your child to predict how many there are, then ask them how they predicted this.
Recognising Numbers - Everywhere we go, we see numbers.
- At home, kids may recognise numbers on books, toys, telephones, and on packaged food.
- Outside, we can find numbers on license plates, house numbers, and advertising signs.
Multimodal Learning - there are lots of apps and computer games available to teach math skills to young children in a fun way.
FOR SCHOOL AGE CHILDREN
Play the license plate game! This is an all-time favourite – there are so many variants to play it, your kids will never get bored in the car again! This is a great game as you can adapt the game to your child’s math level.
- While driving, kids have to spot on license plates each number from 0 to any pre-determined number in order (e.g. 0-10 for younger kids, 0-999 for older kids).
- Kids can also find which numbers are odd and which ones are even. As an extension, they can point out which ones are prime.
- Another way to play is for kids to try to make up the largest number from a license plate by rearranging the numbers.
- According to math level, kids can add, subtract, multiply, or divide all numbers in a license plate. If you have more than one child, see who can do it faster.
- For an extra challenge, ask them to use the numbers in a license plate to make the number 24 by using any combination of the orders of operation.
Board Games - Playing games with the family is a great opportunity to practice math skills! There are so many different board games that involve math skills -
- Bingo, Snakes and Ladders, Uno, Monopoly, Battleship, Yahtzee, Risk.
- At the end of the day, no matter what board game you play, if you make your child keep track of the score, they will be doing math.
Making Sense of Time - Making up a schedule for the day which includes the start and end time for each activity. Ask your kids to predict how long routine activities will take, such as a walk to the park, a drive to the local shops, etc.
FOR OLDER CHILDREN
Encourage your kids to buy wisely. For example, if you are planning on buying them a phone, ask them to explore different phone plans and show you which plan is the most economical and why.
When purchasing discounted clothing, ask them to tell you an estimated price before you buy it.
When at the grocery store, ask them to analyse different product costs and select the best options (e.g. look at the price of toilet paper per sheet rather than the price of the whole package). And ask them to predict the total to be paid while waiting at the register.
Have a wonderful holiday and enjoy spending time with each other.
Mrs Lillian Del Giudice
Assistant Principal
Happy Birthday to the following children who will be celebrating their birthday this week:Upcoming events:
- ACTIVATE Fire Retreat Day - School - Wednesday 9 December 2020
- Year 6 Farewell Liturgy and luncheon - Tuesday 15 December 2020
- End of Year Mass - Wednesday 16 December 2020
COVID UPDATE
Year 6 Farewell Liturgy - Our ‘Year 6 Farewell Liturgy’ will be held on Tuesday 15 December 2020 at 11.00 am. Parents are now able to attend due to COVID Restrictions being eased. An invitation this morning was sent out advising parents that you will need to register to attend (maximum of 2 family members per child only). Students ONLY will participate in a special luncheon in the hall afterward, with a sharing of memories.
End of Year Mass - Year 5 will be attending our ‘End of Year Mass’ on Thursday 10 December. This Mass will be recorded and will be available for viewing on Wednesday 16 December. During this Mass our Sacred Heart recipient and our 2021 School Leaders will be acknowledged.
Year 6 Guard of Honour - Parents are invited to attend School at 11:00 a.m. on Wednesday 16 December 2020 for an outdoor gathering to bless our students, watch the Year 6 children receive their Certificates and form a Guard of Honour to finally Farewell the Year 6 Students. All children are welcome to go home after these celebrations with a parent. If you are taking another child home please ensure you have written permission to do so.
ADVENT WREATHS - A big thanks to 5th Ave Florist for their kind donation of the foam base we used to create these stunning Advent Wreaths in each class. Thank you Santina & Enza!
This week is the second week of Advent. Advent is a time of preparing and waiting for the birth of Jesus.
The Advent Wreath is a symbol of God’s eternal love for us. It is in the shape of a circle. The wreath has four candles - each week we light a different candle. This week’s candle symbolises peace. This candle reminds us that God’s promise will be fulfilled in the birth of Jesus Christ.
THE FEAST OF MARY IMMACULATE - What a joyous celebration we had yesterday for our Feast Day! Students gathered together in prayer to celebrate the Immaculate Conception of Mary. We had an extremely delicious sausage sizzle and the Year Six RE team prepared a range of activities for each class.
ACTIVATE FIRE - Today Year 6 participated in their Spiritual Retreat Day called ACTIVATE Fire. You can see that they have been having a great day!!
Mrs Kirsty Simpson
Religious Education Co-Ordinator
Congratulations to 3 Gold, the only class so far with no outstanding borrowers – excellent!! Congratulations to the all the students who have remembered to return their books already, there are still 115 books on loan to students!! Please continue to search at home for any Library books and Classroom readers which might be hiding on shelves, under beds etc! Thank you too to the generous families who have donated spare Library Bags.
ATTENTION: The Library is closed for a Stocktake of the Collection this week. As part of the stocktake, we de-select some books which are now too old for us to keep for borrowing, or are not being borrowed very often. Instead of just throwing these books out, we will be having a Sale Day next Tuesday 15 December. Students are invited to bring a shopping bag, and for the cost of a gold coin donation, they are welcome to purchase these books for themselves. Any money raised will be given to St Vincent de Paul for their Christmas appeal.
Remember that holidays are the best time for the children to keep reading. All those lovely books at home on the shelves, books for Christmas, and don’t forget the local Library – if you are you not already members of the Campbelltown Library, it is free to join - just call in to the Eagle Vale Leisure Centre and ask there.
Premiers' Reading Challenge: Congratulations to all the students who will receive their completion certificates this week. Special congratulations to the students who will receive a Gold Award for completing four years in a row, and some who will receive a Platinum Award for seven continuous years – fantastic commitment to their reading. Keep it up!
Have a good Christmas break, and as the end of year draws nearer, and our lives become even busier, try to remember how important it is to take at least ten minutes a day to read with your children – they learn from you the importance of reading in their lives.
"I have a passion for teaching kids to become readers. To become comfortable with a book, not daunted. Books shouldn't be daunting, they should be funny, exciting and wonderful; and learning to be a reader gives a terrific advantage."
~ Roald Dahl
Happy reading!
Mrs Sue Bryant
Teacher-Librarian