Dear Parents and Carers

Welcome back to Term 3. I hope you have had an enjoyable and relaxing holiday, and the students are now ready for another busy term. It’s wonderful to begin a new term together, and I’m looking forward to the learning, growth, and connection the weeks ahead will bring.

We warmly welcome Fr Josh, our new Parish Priest at Sacred Heart. It is great to have him join us at the beginning of Term 3, and we look forward to walking alongside him as we grow together in faith.

In his homily on Saturday evening, Fr Josh spoke about the importance of prayer and service—encouraging us to reflect on how we can live our lives in prayerful action. His message reminds us that we are all called to serve one another with love and compassion, especially within our school community.

As we begin this new term, please know that our door is always open. Whether you have a question, a concern, or just want to connect, you are warmly welcome to come in and have a chat. We understand that children sometimes come home with big feelings, whether it’s something that went really well or something that’s worrying them. Please don’t hesitate to speak with your child’s teacher or with me. We value open communication and strong partnerships with our families, and we are here to support you every step of the way.

FIRST EUCHARIST
First Eucharist will be celebrated this term with our Year 4 students. Please keep them in your prayers as they prepare for this significant step in their Sacramental journey. The Sacrament will be celebrated on Saturday 13 September at 5.00pm. All families are invited to join us at this special celebration. The Enrolment Evening for Parents will take place Week 2 Thursday 31 July.

NAIDOC WEEK
St Mary’s is proud to celebrate NAIDOC Week in Week 2 of Term 3. A big thank you to Mr Nolan, who has been working hard to organise meaningful cultural activities for each grade.

Yesterday, our K–6 Aboriginal students, along with our Year 6 leaders, attended the NAIDOC Mass at St Patrick’s Church in Bega. It was a special opportunity to come together in faith and community to honour Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture.

I am pleased to congratulate the following students who have been recognised with a 2025 NAIDOC Award at the NAIDOC Mass:

• Amelia Gillis: Academic Award
• Arthur Mcleod-Ferry: Arts Award
• Jake Ferry: Culture and Identity Award
• Theodore James: Deadly Encouragement Award

Each of these students has shown outstanding commitment and excellence, and we are incredibly proud of their achievements.

Congratulations also to Mr Riley Nolan, who was recognised for his leadership in Aboriginal Education. I’m sure you’ll agree that Mr Nolan is doing an exceptional job in teaching our students about Aboriginal culture, traditions, and history. His dedication and passion are appreciated and continue to enrich our school community.

The 2025 NAIDOC theme, “The Next Generation: Strength, Vision & Legacy,” marks a powerful milestone, 50 years of honouring and elevating Indigenous voices, culture, and resilience. This theme celebrates not only the achievements of the past, but also the strength of our young leaders, the vision of our communities, and the enduring legacy of our ancestors.

As part of our NAIDOC Week events, Mr Nolan and Mrs Brady coordinated the Yuin Bunaan on Wednesday in collaboration with Carroll College and St Bernard’s. The Yuin Bunaan is a cultural celebration for our South Coast Catholic schools. Students, families, and staff from St Bernard’s Batehaven, Carroll College Broulee, and St Mary’s Moruya came together for a vibrant day of cultural connection and learning. We were delighted to welcome our Aboriginal families to this event, which included a range of traditional activities, such as a cultural cook-out.

It has been great to see our students engaging with and honouring the rich traditions, stories, and contributions of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

CLASSROOM LEARNING TIME
At St Mary’s we always strive to focus directly on creating a high performing culture enabling the students in our care to reach their academic potential. As a staff we have professional conversations focused on teaching and learning, classroom management, student wellbeing, timetabling and class sizes. Educational research has confirmed that it is the teacher who has the greatest influence on improving student learning outcomes. The morning block is prime time learning for students in Literacy and Numeracy. Parents can assist in this matter too. Students need to arrive at school by the morning bell at 8:50am to ensure that they do not miss any element of their first lesson of the day.

On Monday, our staff took part in professional learning focused on improving the way we assess and support students in reading. Next year, we are introducing a new assessment platform called mCLASS, which includes DIBELS 8th Edition—a trusted literacy assessment based on the Science of Reading.

mCLASS with DIBELS is used across all Catholic schools in the Canberra Goulburn Archdiocese from Kindergarten to Year 6. It helps teachers gain a clear picture of each child’s reading development and identify where students are thriving and where they may need extra support. DIBELS also acts as a screener for dyslexia and tracks student progress over time.

This assessment supports our ongoing work with Catalyst and helps us answer the important question: “How do we know how each child is progressing?” The insights it provides allow us to make informed decisions about teaching and support, ensuring we meet the needs of every learner.

Students may complete assessments using iPads or through one-on-one conversations with their teacher. The process is designed to be quick, supportive, and engaging for students.

This work is all part of our commitment to achieving Bold Goal 1: “Every student is a competent reader.” We’re excited about the positive impact mCLASS and DIBELS will have in supporting your child’s literacy journey. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to speak with your child’s teacher.

SOUTHERN REGION PUBLIC SPEAKING COMPETITION
Congratulations to our finalists who will compete in the annual Southern Region Public Speaking Competition. Stage 2 students will compete via a video link up on Wednesday 6 August and the Stage 3 competition will be held on Friday 8 August. We wish you all the very best of luck!

Year 3 Finalists: Olivia L and Quinn A
Year 4 Finalists: Hattie W and Maisie B
Year 5 Finalists:  Thomas D and Fergus   
Year 6 Finalists: Tessa H and Matilda W

Please don’t hesitate to come and see me if you have any questions or concerns, my door is always open. I am looking forward to catching up with families throughout the term.

Blessings on your family this week.

Warm regards
Jo

Johanna Wain
Principal

NAPLAN 2025
All parents of children in Year 3 and Year 5 should have received paper copies of The National Assessment Program- Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) results. These reports were sent home from school on Tuesday. This assessment was held in March, 2025. 

From 2023, NAPLAN individual student results are reported against proficiency standards to provide parents and carers with clear information on student achievement. The proficiency standards are set at a challenging but reasonable level expected for students at the time of NAPLAN testing. What NAPLAN assesses has not changed.

How to read a NAPLAN individual student report
The front page of the student report provides general information about the tests and an explanation of how to read the report.

The second and third pages show the student’s result in each assessment area. The results are classified into one of 4 proficiency levels: Exceeding, Strong, Developing and Needs additional support.

The report shows the student’s achievement against the national average for their year (shown as a black triangle) and the range of achievement for the middle 60% of students in their year level (shown as a light shaded rectangle).

The final page of the report provides a brief summary of the skills typically demonstrated by students at each proficiency level. Longer descriptions of the skills typically demonstrated by a student at each proficiency level can be found at proficiency level descriptions. 

Watch the video below on reading the NAPLAN Individual Student Reports.

There is also an information brochure Individual student report – brochure for parents/carers (PDF 294 KB)

The NAPLAN assessment provides a snapshot of your child's achievement at a point in time. The information in this report should be considered together with school based assessments and reports. 

BOOK WEEK/PARADE - Monday 18 August 2025
Get ready to book your spot - our 2025 Book Parade will be turning the page on adventure, and we can’t wait for our families to join the story! The book parade is scheduled for 9am on Monday 18 August.

The theme for Children's Book Week this year is BOOK AN ADVENTURE. 2025 is also a milestone year as the Children’s Book Council of Australia celebrate 80 years of Children’s Book Week! For eight decades, CBCA has been dedicated to inspiring young minds to journey through the countless worlds that books offer.

The annual Book of the Year Awards aim to promote quality literature for young Australians, support and encourage Australian writers and illustrators of children’s books and celebrate contributions to Australian children’s literature. The CBCA 2025 Book Week winners of the shortlisted books will be announced on Friday 15 August.

The feature artist of this year’s Book Week poster is Jess McGeachin, who is an award-winning Australian picture book illustrator. His book week poster features a map filled with imaginary characters, inviting young readers to embark on fantastical journeys, and inspiring them to travel to worlds that books open up. 

You can learn more about this artwork and this year’s theme by visiting the Children’s Book Council of Australia website. There you can view an image of the poster and watch a video of Jess McGeachin. You can also locate the Shortlisted books 2025.

ICAS ASSESSMENTS
Only 4 days left for parents to order and register students before ICAS entries close on 28 July.

These optional academic competitions test students’ higher-order thinking skills and develop critical thinking and problem solving through academic challenges. St Mary's is offering Maths, English, Science and Spelling Bee for Years 2-6 and Writing and Digital Technology for Year 3-6. 

Every student who participates is celebrated and recognised with a printed certificate in each subject area, and an online results report to track development each year. Top performers are eligible for one of the highly coveted ICAS medals.

To learn more about this year’s exciting ICAS competition, visit: (icasassessments.com/products-icas/)

How to participate in ICAS  

If you wish for your child to participate in ICAS this year, please:  

1. Read about ICAS subjects and prices here: (icasassessments.com/products-icas/)  
2. Read the Privacy Collection Statement below.
3. Read the terms and conditions here: (icasassessments.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/2023-ICAS-Assessments-Schools-TsCs_S2023.V6-1.pdf) 
4. Go to the Parent Portal to sign up to chosen subject areas here: (shop.icasassessments.com/pages/pps)  
5. Enter our school’s access code – SJE888 
6. Enter your child’s details, select the subject areas your child would like to participate in, then proceed to payment.

ICAS Results and Certificates
All assessments will be conducted online, at school. We will notify you of the date(s) that we will run ICAS assessments, and when your child’s ICAS results are ready. Your child’s ICAS certificates will be delivered to school. Once we have received them, we will present them to your child to bring home. The back of the certificate will show your child’s ICAS results and the login details, “TAP ID and Pin”. - Use these to enter the Results Portal orti.icasassessments.com/ortiStudent

Privacy collection statement  
The following information is a privacy notification about how your child’s data is kept private and secure.

ICAS Assessment is owned by Janison Solutions Pty Ltd (We, Us, Our).

To deliver assessment products, Janison will require your child’s School to obtain your consent to provide Janison with certain personal information of students. Janison will collect, store, use, disclose and otherwise deal with such personal information in accordance with its privacy policy (below). We are aware of our responsibility to protect personal information related to children and students from being disclosed when we deliver an ICAS Assessments product. Unless you, as the child’s legal guardian consents, we will not:

• collect any personal information or data of children other than the information we need for the successful completion of an assessment, test, or exam. 

• transfer any personal information we obtain from a child in the delivery of assessments and tests to any jurisdiction outside of Australia. 

• share any personal information relating to children with any third parties (except for those third parties necessary for us to carry out our Services or provide our Products e.g., medal engraving). 
• use any personal information or data relating to children for marketing purposes. 

You can view our full privacy policy at https://www.janison.com/privacy-policy/. 

We may retain personal information and data relevant to a child for their future purposes or for research purposes by Janison for the duration of the school life cycle of the child. However, if you or your child at any time wish to have their personal information or data removed from our systems, they or you may opt out by simply contacting our Privacy Officer at privacy@janison.com or by contacting icasassessments@janison.com.

ICAS Assessments 2025

God bless and take care

Mrs Sue Heffernan
Assistant Principal

Our Kindergarten students have returned to school full of energy and excitement, ready to dive into another wonderful term of learning! It's been fantastic to see their smiling faces back in the classroom as they settle into Term 3, eager to explore, discover, and grow together.

Religion
In Kindergarten, we are learning that the Church is not just a building, but a special group of people who come together because they believe in Jesus. When we say ‘Church,’ we are talking about gathering to love God, pray, sing and learn about Jesus together. The Church is like a big family where everyone helps and cares for each other and where we grow in our faith in Christ. Another very important part of our school day is our meditation sessions - a chance for the students to be still and spend time with Jesus in their hearts. 

This week we had a very special visit from our new Parish Priest Father Josh! The visit was filled with joy and laughter and it was a wonderful way for the students to begin building a connection with him. We look forward to many more visits and are also excited for Father Josh’ next magic trick. 

Kindergarten Assembly – A Joyful Celebration of Learning
The end of Term 2 was marked with a heartwarming Kindergarten Assembly, showcasing the incredible learning and growth of our youngest students. The children delighted the audience with their confident performance and engaging presentations, leaving families and staff alike filled with pride. This special celebration of learning was a wonderful reflection of the hard work and enthusiasm shown throughout the term. Following the assembly, families were invited to enjoy a special morning tea, providing a lovely opportunity to connect and celebrate the students' achievements together.

Explicit Teaching and Reading Fluency
In Kindergarten, we are building reading fluency through paired reading activities. Paired reading allows students to read alongside a peer, which helps improve confidence, word recognition and expression. It also encourages active listening, turn-taking and a love of shared reading. This supportive practice happens each morning during our English block, helping students to feel successful and engaged as they grow in their literacy journey. 

Sport - Tennis

Visual Arts
Our students have shown outstanding enthusiasm and creativity in Visual Arts. They have been busy experimenting with a range of mediums, producing vibrant collages, expressive paintings, and imaginative sculptural works. A highlight has been their colourful Pop Art masterpieces, where they explored bold colours and striking patterns with great excitement. Inspired by the work of artist Paul Klee, students also created thoughtful and visually engaging collages, made of 2D shapes. It’s been a joy to witness their artistic confidence grow. 

Mathematics
Our young learners have been practicing counting forwards and backwards to 20, using number lines to help them understand number order and patterns. We are also discovering the world of shapes by naming and identifying 2D and 3D objects in everyday life - from circles on a clock to cylinders in a tin can! These activities help build strong number sense and spatial awareness as students make real-world connections to their learning. 

Mrs Alicia Hampson
Kindergarten Teacher

I hope that all families were able to rest and rejuvenate over the holiday break. Even though many of our school based carnivals are done for 2025, we still have many sporting events to look forward to over the remainder of the year.

Southern Region Athletics
Next Monday, we have 54 students attending the Southern Region Athletics Carnival in Bega. We are sure it will be a fantastic day and the students are very much looking forward to the competition as well as reconnecting with their sporting friends from across the other 5 schools within our region. Congratulations to the following students and wish them all the very best as they represent St Marys.

St Mary’s Athletics Team

St Mary’s Age Champions Awards
Last term, we presented the ribbons for our school athletics carnival, as well as naming the Age Champions and overall house winner. We congratulate all our ribbon winners and also, the athletics age champions for 2025.

Age Champions 2025

To conclude the assembly, the students were all very eager to hear which house would take out the title of overall carnival winner. By a very close margin, HOWARD was the winning house! Coming in close second was Eyre house and then Cassidy in third place. The Howard house captains were very proud leaders and graciously accepted the brand new Athletics trophy on behalf of their team. Congratulations to all the Howard team on a successful carnival.

Wishing you a wonderful week ahead.

Mrs Megan Grant
Sports Coordinator