Newsletter Term 4 2025 16 October 2025

NAIDOC march 

Next Monday morning on 20th October, our Aboriginal students and school leaders will represent St Mary's Primary School and celebrate the NAIDOC week march and presentation afterwards at Robertson Park. 

Eight Benefits of Reading to Children 

1. Builds concentration

Focusing on a story, characters and plot is good practice for a child and an interactive way to develop focus. Skills like concentration and focus are very important for school aged children who spend many hours a day listening and interacting with peers and teachers at school.  

2. Improves memory

To follow a story you need to be able to remember it. Reading an extended story over a number of nights you’ll build on your child’s memory skills. You could go one further and ask for a recap or a ‘previously on…’ before or after a reading session.   

3. Teaches about the world

Reading, even more than film and tv, is a window to other worlds and times. This is because a child creates the world they’re reading about in their head as they read. Instead of simply telling a child ‘what is what’, a story book invites the child to construct a universe in their own mind.  

4. Develops empathy

The more we know about our emotions and feeling, the better we can empathise with others and relate to their point of view. Reading stories can showcase those emotions and helps us pinpoint different feelings in ourselves and those around us. We learn about empathy, one of the most important social skills.  

5. Expands vocabulary

Just 20 minutes of reading time a day will expose your child to more than 1.8 million words a year. That means an expanded vocabulary for your child, more ways for them to express themselves and significantly improves language comprehension.

Language comprehension relies on students applying their background knowledge, vocabulary, knowledge of language structures (e.g., how words are put together into sentences) and verbal reasoning (which refers to inferences, metaphor etc.) to whatever they’re listening to or reading. Background knowledge and vocabulary are essential components because they help make sense of what is being read by linking it to their existing (background) knowledge and words they already have in their oral language vocabularies.  

6. Boosts critical thinking

Comprehension skills and analytical thinking are built when we talk about books and read more. Practice makes perfect, so get your child listening and reading more and their skills in analytical thinking and comprehension can increase. Also, we are taught to not believe everything we read and the only way to better understand this is to read a variety of things!  

7. Helps build positive self-image

Reading reveals different people of different shapes, sizes and colours and this too is important for children. Sometimes we don’t always see relatable images in mass media, reading is a place where we see that there are different types of people in the world, ones that we can relate to. 

8. Better performance in school

Reading can improve a child’s results and performance at school. There is plenty of evidence that shows children read to more frequently tend to achieve higher scores in tests. 

Here’s why it’s important to read to your children – even after they have learned to read.

What’s involved in reading skills?

Research on reading skills suggests there are two main types of skills involved in learning to read.

1. Constrained skills are skills that once we learn, we keep. For example, once we learn the alphabet we don’t have to keep learning it. It’s like riding a bike.

2. Unconstrained skills are skills we continue to learn throughout life. For example, vocabulary, reading fluency and reading comprehension. Even as adults we continue to learn new word and language forms.

Reading to older children is a simple way to build unconstrained skills.

How reading aloud helps

The books we read aloud at bedtime to young readers tend to be those they can’t read themselves. So it introduces more complex ideas, words and sentence patterns. This is why reading aloud to your children is a parental superpower – you can continue to build where the school learning stops.

Reading together can also encourage closeness between children and parents, as well as shared knowledge and laughs. When you are reading to your child, they have your full attention, which also makes the time special.

What should you be reading?

Reading aloud doesn’t necessarily have to involve multiple chapters of a book. Research suggests what matters is that it’s something you are both interested in and enjoying. You could read to your child on a device, or you could even tell a traditional tale without a book. You could read poetry, news articles or magazine articles about a favourite football team or player – these can all build unconstrained literacy skills. Even re-reading a beloved picture book from younger years can build fluency and focus on direct speech in text (especially when the reader does “funny” voices).

How often should you read to your child?

Family life is busy and parents often have many commitments. So there are no rules, other than to make it fun. Don’t be put off by “how much you have to do” – a few minutes of engaged reading time together is better than none at all.

You could read to your child when you yourself are reading something and want to share it. If it’s too hard to read to your child every night, do it every weekend night or make another time during the week. Or ask a grandparent or older sibling to help.

And there is no set age to stop – if you like, keep reading to your kids until they leave home!

World Teachers' Day

World Teachers' Day celebrates quality teaching and inspirational teachers.

There are over 170,000 primary, secondary and early childhood teachers working in NSW. The event is an opportunity to recognise all teachers.

World Teachers' Day is celebrated every year on 5 October/ As this date is within the school holidays, NSW celebrates on the last Friday of October.

This year, World Teachers' Day will be celebrated in NSW on Friday 31 October 2025.

The wisdom and expertise of teachers shines brightly in our NSW schools, communities, homes and vibrant workforce/

Tell us who lights up your school community by adding a NSW teaching gem to our interactive map. A gem is a teacher or educator who is important to you.

You can add a gem to the map by following the link below:

https://educationstandards.nsw.edu.au/wps/portal/nesa/events/world-teachers-day-in-nsw

If you want to take a look at more resources available to help show your appreciation this World Teachers' Day, please follow the link below:

https://www.nsw.gov.au/education-and-training/nesa/awards-and-events/world-teachers-day 

Bathurst Diocesan Community Sport

Dear Parents,

Keep up to date with sporting events and achievements across the Bathurst Diocese. Search CEBD community sport or use the following link. 

https://sites.google.com/bth.catholic.edu.au/cedbsportcommunity/

SEVERE REACTIONS TO ‘NUTS’ & ‘EGGS’
As some of our students have a ‘nut’ and/or ‘egg’ allergy, we ask that nuts, nut
products and eggs NOT be packed as part of school snacks and lunches.
Sometimes even contact with nuts or eggs can trigger the severe reaction. This
severe allergy is called ANAPHYLAXIS and can be life-threatening.
Please, NO eggs, peanut butter, Nutella, nut products, etc.

(Check those labels to see that products do not contain nuts.)

SPB4L 

UNIFORM EXPECTATIONS

I will be safe: 

• wear my school hat every day
• wear appropriate enclosed shoes (school shoes with school uniform and sport shoes for sport)

I will be respectful: 

• wear my uniform with pride at school and in the community
• follow directions from teachers if requested to attend to my uniform

I will be responsible:

• wear the full school uniform correctly (including correct coloured socks)
• keep myself neat and tidy
• tuck my shirt in before entering the classroom & when leaving school at home time
• tie my hair back if it is past my collar
• ask my parents to write a note if unable to wear the correct uniform

BREACHES OF EXPECTED BEHAVIOURS

MINOR BREACHES 

• incorrect uniform
• extreme hairstyle

MAJOR BREACHES - CONSEQUENCES 

• consistently wearing incorrect uniform

Uniform Expectations

We continue our school-wide focus is on uniform expectations. The school uniform is a distinguishing symbol of belonging to St Mary’s Catholic Primary School and it is expected that students wear it with pride at all times. The assistance of parents and staff is sought in maintaining a high standard of dress and presentation by all students. 

Students not wearing the correct or incomplete uniform are required to provide a note from a parent/guardian giving reasons and an expected date when the uniform will be corrected.

Medication at School-  Parental  Advice

If your child requires medication that needs to be administered during school hours, please bring the medication to the school office, where it is stored safely. This includes asthma inhalers.

Medication must be authorised by a Medical practitioner with a letter 

Students can come to the office at an arranged time to have the medication administered by trained First Aid Officers.

The office does not have Panadol, unless parents supply and complete a form for their child only.

Thank you 

Children with communication devices such as iPhones and Smart Watches must be handed to the school office in the morning before class and collected at the end of the day. This includes any device capable of taking photos.

Please support your child to meet this school requirement.

If you need to contact your child during school hours please call the school office.

NO Parking in the  Bowling Alley car park

the bowling alley car park is for their patrons so please park elsewhere when dropping or picking up your children.

The PCYC has many parks that can be used for dropping off and picking up

Thankyou 

St Mary's Uniform Shop

is run by  Parent Volunteers and is open from 8:45 am for an hour on  Friday Mornings. 

If you have put your order through Flexi schools it will be packed the following Friday and sent home with your child.

Dear Parents & Carers

Please label students' clothing , so we can return them from lost property with ease.

Clothes that don't have names will be returned to the clothing pool, if not collected by the end of term.

Thank you