42 Juliet Street South Mackay Q 4740 (PO Box 4124) Telephone 07 4951 1743 Fax 07 4951 4793 Email smm@rok.catholic.edu.au

“The meeting of two eternities, the past and future… is precisely the present moment.” – Henry David Thoreau This quote from Thoreau, the 19th Century American philosopher and poet, is but one of many famous sayings about the beautiful gift that is the present moment; something that all too often can be wished away and wasted in our busy lives. I know that in my hectic life - with the demands of a job, extra study, a growing family and other commitments - savouring the present moment can often be neglected. I sometimes find myself thinking and saying things like; On the school holidays, I can… Once the kids get a bit older, we can… When this year is done, I will be able to… It can be very easy to fall into the habit of not being contented with our current state of affairs and wishing the present away in exchange for a preferred past or a more ideal future. But as Thoreau’s quote above states, we live in the present; framed by the events of the past and the uncertainty of the future. In the present - this meeting of two eternities - we have the gift of ‘presence’, with nature and with others, able to enjoy their company and experience their love. It is in this moment that we live and are truly alive. It is also the moment when we can experience the love and wonder of God. The present moment, our families and our lives, are things that we should savour and never take for granted. Appreciation of our lives as they are now, instead of always looking towards an idealised future, is an important part of living a contented life. I leave you to reflect on the following two quotes, beautiful words that I hope will inspire you to appreciate the wonderful gift the present moment is. “Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, today is a gift of God, which is why we call it the present.” ― Bill Keane “Stop acting as if life is a rehearsal. Live this day as if it were your last. The past is over and gone. The future is not guaranteed.” – Wayne Dyer All the very best, Wes Rose Principal

Week 9 Term 2 - 13 June 2017

Calendar of Events

JUNE

Wed 14 Musicorp Concert-school hall

ICAS - Spelling

Maroon’s Footy Clinic

Mercy homework help

Thurs 15 Cyber safety talk for parents

Fri 16 Year 6 excursion-Cape Hillsborough

Year 5 Mum’s Dinner-Claudie’s

Sat 17 Children’s liturgy-St Mary’s Church

Year 1 & Year 4 Mum’s Dinner-Cactus Jacks

Mon 19 Mini athletics carnival for P-8yr olds

P & F meeting @ 6:30pm

Tues 20 Year 5 excursion-Greenmount & Mirani Museum

Year 2 excursion-Sarina Sugar Shed

School Board meeting

Wed 21 Rugby league & netball gala days

Thurs 22 Mackay Show Public Holiday

Fri 23 School mass @ 9.30am

Green card movie ticket draw

Last day of term 2

JULY

Mon 10 Term 3 begins

Wed 12 Challenge Cup begins-Yeppoon

Thurs 13 Prep B class liturgy

Sat 15 Children’s liturgy-St Mary’s Church

Mon 17 NAIDOC Mass

Tues 18 Southern Suburbs athletics

Fri 21 Wakakirri performance - MECC

Farewell We wish Sienna and Sophie Townend, and their parents Liza and Peter, all the very best for their move back to Yamba, NSW. Cyber Safety Talk for Parents I am pleased to announce that we have a very special event upcoming that I encourage all parents to attend. We are hosting a cyber-safety talk, conducted by members of the Qld Police, this Thursday 15th June from

3pm – 4:15pm. Child minding will be available in the library, to allow all parents the opportunity to attend. It would be great to see as many parents as possible attend. Sports Carnival Last week’s track and field carnivals were a success, with the students showing great determination, sportsmanship and ability. Congratulations to the Illawong House, who were crowned the overall champions. A big thank you to Mrs Kerrisk, who prepared the students so well and organised a great carnival. Following this carnival, several students from 10-12 years will represent our school at the Southern Suburbs Athletics Carnival. This will be held on Tuesday 18 July. Mini Athletics Carnival Our Prep - 8 years Mini Athletics Carnival will be held at school next Monday 19th June from 8:40am-10:40am. Students will be involved in several activities, including long jump, high jump, ball games and other athletics based games. All parents and relatives are most welcome to attend this morning. Musicorp Concert The Musicorp instrumental music students will be holding a concert tomorrow in our School Hall, Wed 14th June at 8:40am. Parents are most welcome to attend. ECSIP Class Party This Friday we will host class parties for 2D and 1P, the two classes with the highest amount of ECSIP parent surveys completion. A big thankyou to the Bonnici family and their business, Bounce Now, who have kindly donated the use of their jumping castles. Upcoming Excursions This Friday our Year 6s will travel to Cape Hillsborough to learn about the local indigenous history of that area. Due to this, there will be no Peer Support on Friday afternoon. Next Tuesday, Year 5 will travel to Greenmount Homestead and the Pioneer Valley Museum and Year 2 will visit The Sarina Sugar Shed to learn about the history of our local area. Rugby League/Netball Gala Days Next Wednesday our U10 Rugby League team will play in the Grant Rovelli Gala Day. We also have four netball teams participating in the interschool netball day. Challenge Cup Netball Game Next Tuesday at 3:30pm, our netball girls will play a friendly game against the St John’s Walkerston netball team. I thank Miss Parker and Mrs van Lint for coaching the girls. School Uniform Reminder With winter upon us, it is timely to remind families of our school uniform expectations. Our winter uniform consists of a school jumper and navy track suit bottoms (unisex) or navy tights (girls). Thank you for your consideration with this. School Disabled Parking A friendly reminder that the school disabled parking is frequently used at school, and only those with disabled parking access should be using these carparks. Kind regards

Wes Rose

FROM THE PRINCIPAL

Peer Support

During Peer Support last week, the children discussed and developed ways to be responsible. The activities reinforced the concept that being responsible is doing what we say we will do and to the best of our ability. This week help develop with your child 2-3 things they can do around the home to show they are responsible i.e. feed the dog each night, set the table at 6.30pm each day.

Books for School in Laos

This is the final week we will be collecting books for Laos.

Mrs Teresa Hackney who is a teacher, parishioner and past parent of St Mary’s is taking a group

of 30 students up into the hillside of Laos, about 4 hours north of the main city, to build a new

toilet block for the school. It is a remote and quite poor village where the local income is about

$15 US dollars per month. The group would like to take books for the students in Laos. They are

asking for any donations of children’s books, picture books and colouring in books. If you have

some books to donate please bring them into the office. Thank you for your support.

Terri Leotta

Children’s liturgy

We would like to extend an invitation

to children to come and join us for

Children’s liturgy.

during saturday night’s mass at 6pm the Children of

the congregation are invited to

attend a separate Liturgy of the Word where they will be able

to Celebrate god’s word through Craft, aCtivities and

reflections on the Gospel.

Vinnies Winter Appeal

1 in 18 people experience homelessness, disadvantage and social

injustice across Australia.

The St Vincent de Paul Society is asking the community to dig deep

and donate to the 2017 Vinnies Winter Appeal to make a real

difference to the lives of men, women and children in our local

community.

We are asking for donations of warm clothing and blankets or bedding. If you have

suitable items please send them in to the office by Tuesday 20th June.

Year 1P's Tower Building Day

After many weeks of investigating, planning and designing, the students of 1P finally got to build and test their princess towers as part of their design and technology assessment.

I can proudly say every child's tower passed the test and the princess was kept safe.

All children successfully received their building approval certificate and had a wonderful time!

Mrs Cran

Tuckshop

Please note: Our last tuckshop day for term 2 will be

Wednesday 21st June

Tuckshop is open everyday except Tuesday. If you would like to help out in the tuckshop,

Sharon would love to hear from you. She can be contacted on 0447 750 240.

Wednesday 14 June Sharon Etwell Thursday 15 Angie Forslund Friday 16 Help needed please Monday 19 Help needed please

A copy of the tuckshop menu is available from the school office, tuckshop or our school website www.smm.rok.catholic.edu.au

Thursday Special

Macaroni & Cheese $4

Available Thursday 15th June only

Sport News

Athletics Carnival Last week we held our interhouse track and field carnival. On Tuesday, our 9-12 year olds competed in shot put, discus, long jump and high jump. We witnessed amazing jumps and throws and fantastic team spirit. Congratulations to the following students on their record-breaking throws: Samuel Anderson – 9 years shot put, 6.51m Nicholas Star – 9 years discus, 17.34m Kyana Van Kerkwyk – 10years discus, equaled the record at 15.40m Kye Camilleri – 11years discus, 18.79m Scores were very close at the end of Tuesday but by the end of the track day on Thursday Illawong Blue finished in first place with a 99 point lead. Thank you to the parents and staff who helped on the day. Rugby League Our U12 team have now finished in the local competition and are preparing for Challenge Cup. As part of their team bonding, the team ran out at half-time at the Cutters match on Saturday night against the combined St Joseph’s/Mackillop team. What a buzz! This week both our U12 and U10 teams will make their way down to the BB Print Stadium to take part in the Origin Team kids clinic on Wednesday. You can’t get a better preparation than that! Training for the teams over the next few weeks is as follows: Monday Week 10 (19/06) – U10 Grant Rovelli Gala Day training at St Mary’s, 3:00pm- 4:00pm. Monday Week 1 (10 /07) – U12 Challenge Cup training at Abbott Park, 3:15pm-4:15pm.

Caroline Kerrisk - HPE

Athletics Carnival 2017

Dear Parents and Caregivers,

TICKETS Thank you for purchasing your initial set of tickets for the Mackay Wakakirri performance. We now have a limited supply of extra tickets available for purchase via our school office. Please be considerate of other families who may also wish to purchase some of the few remaining tickets. It will be a first in first served process, so as they say the early bird catches the worm. The deadline for purchasing tickets is this Thursday 15th June. COSTUMES: WE NEED YOUR HELP!!! We have many costumes to make this year and our small team of talented mums and grandmothers desperately require some assistance. If you are able to assist, even just a little; (or you know someone who might be happy to help) please let Ronnie Carroll (our WONDERFUL head costume designer) know. Please remember…many hands make light work! PROPS AND SETS Many thanks to the Bagley family and their team of merry workers for creating some AMAZING backdrops – I can’t wait to see the finished products! A special mention and thanks must go out to the Randell family for making our sce-ne dreams a reality. The Saro family are also very busy building fun props ready for our performance. We are also very grateful to MA’s Pizza for their kind donation of 100 pizza boxes! REHEARSALS Rehearsals continue to be very productive, thanks to our gifted Miss Margot. Thank you also to Mrs Borg who tirelessly assists Miss Margot and our talented students learn the dance routine. We only have TWO remaining weekend rehearsals until performance day, so it is vital that ALL students attend rehearsals when required as we are learning the routine at a very fast pace. We wish for your child not only to be capable on stage but to feel confident too (and of course have fun!). Rehearsal times for this Sunday: 12:00pm-3:00pm (all students except backstage crew) 2:00pm-3:00pm BACKSTAGE CREW REQUIRED!

Lastly, a HUGE shout out to our brilliant students! I am so very proud of you all! It is absolute pleasure to be a part of something so special and it’s because of each and every one of you . . . it doesn’t even feel as though I’m at work on a Sunday because of you! THANK YOU! Many thanks for your support to and your amazing children! CHOOKAS!!! Mrs Donna Wood

TERM 2 WEEK 8 STUDENT AWARD WINNERS Prep B Jordan for confidently presenting to your class the fantastic map in the Mr Chicken

journal. Well done! Jimmy for working co-operatively during class maths rotations. Super effort! Prep V Archer for being a great classroom helper this week and making good choices in the

playground. Year 1L Charlotte for your fabulous maths results this term. Elijah for your fabulous maths results this term. Year 1P Aiden for using excellent word choices in your writing. Keep it up! Year 2B Phoebe for the confidence you have shown when sharing your thoughts in our class discussions. Great work! Levi for the enthusiasm and vocabulary choices you’ve shown in your creative writing pieces. Fantastic. Year 2D Charlie for expressing many of the virtues through her quiet – yet enthusiastic approach

towards life and others. Asher for your unreal narrative. You are so creative. Year 3B Sienna for showing the virtue of gentleness. You use kind words and help to create a

peaceful environment. Year 3K Joe for your creative response to our Photo of the Day writing tasks this week! Year 4A Cooper for working co-operatively and helping others. Wil for sharing thoughtful ideas in class discussions. Year 4P Pippa for your new and improved ‘I Can Do It’ attitude. It is wonderful to see you enthusiastically having a go. Well done! Will for being an awesome problem solver and the first person in the class to solve the

Maths Online swap puzzle. Congratulations. Year 5B Ryan for consistently achieving 100% for spelling and number facts in weekly tests. Year 5P Frances for the commitment and dedication you are showing in class. Your focus during

assessment tasks has been fantastic! Luke for your ‘never give up’ attitude at the sports carnival. I love the persistence you are

showing. Year 6M Rebecca for striving for excellence in everything you do. You set an amazing example to

others. Theo for persistence with reading novels. I’m looking forward to hearing your critique. Year 6L Anneliese – the example you set as a student who is self-motivated and always prepared to

do your very best, in EVERYTHING that you do. Fletcher – Thank you for making an effort to show respect and courtesy this week.

Our Weekly Achievers

Please join us!

Year 1 and Year 4

Parent’s Dinner

Saturday 17th June

Cactus Jacks @ 5pm

RSVP Paula Macey

0439 795 655.