T2 W4 Newsletter 2025

From The Principal

Last Sunday, we celebrated Mother’s Day, a cherished occasion that honours the invaluable role of mothers in our lives.  It was also a time to recognise and appreciate all the incredible women who take on mothering roles—grandmothers, stepmothers, aunts, cousins, teachers, and special friends—who help shape and support us on our journey.

At St Anne’s, last Friday, we gathered for a heartfelt celebration, honouring the remarkable women in our community.  It was wonderful to see so many families come together for our prayer assembly, beautifully led by our Year One class.  The morning was filled with love, joy, and warmth, making it a truly special event for all who attended.  The smiles shared between mums, grandmas, big sisters, aunties, family friends, and our students lit up the day.  Special thanks to all those who had a hand to play in this prayer celebration and afterwards.  Thanks to Ms Moloney and Mrs Dunn for their prior preparation and to Mrs Cox for her support of the students.

I recently found out that Mother’s Day in Australia owes its existence to Mrs Janet Heyden.  She pioneered the tradition after launching a campaign in Sydney to raise funds for gifts for lonely or forgotten mothers.  Originally, the day was meant to acknowledge and support disadvantaged mothers without family to care for them.  Thanks to Mrs Heyden’s efforts, Australia now celebrates Mother’s Day on the second Sunday of May.  This tradition, I’m led to believe, has even influenced the way we celebrate Father’s Day.

We extend our heartfelt gratitude and joy to all the wonderful women in our St Anne’s community and to those who nurture and care for our students like mothers.  Your love, kindness, and guidance are deeply appreciated, and we pray to our Mary, mother of Jesus, to bless and watch over all the mothers within our St Anne’s Catholic Primary School community.

We pray that Mary, our heavenly mother, blesses you all, inspiring and uplifting you with her gentle and prayerful example.

“And now these three remain: faith, hope and love.  But the greatest of these is love”

1 Corinthians 13:13

Principal's Messages

WE HAVE A POPE  |  The Cardinals who recently gathered in the Vatican’s Sistine Chapel have elected American Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost as the 267th Pope, who took the name Pope Leo XIV.

Please keep the new Pope in your prayers as he begins his Papal journey.

Walk Safely to School- Friday 16th May

St Anne’s Catholic Primary School is proud to be participating in Walk Safely to School Day on Friday, 16th May.

We invite students to join us for a group walk to school, promoting road safety, health, and environmental awareness. We will be meeting at Field of Dreams in Sarina at 8:00am, with the walk promptly departing at 8:10am.

For families dropping students off at Field of Dreams, we kindly ask that you remain with your child until they are under the supervision of a St Anne’s staff member. This is essential to ensure a safe and smooth handover and to uphold our duty of care to all students.

We look forward to a fun and meaningful morning as we walk safely to school together.

MOTHERS |  Last week, we celebrated the mother figures in our lives; those who nurture us like mothers, bringing love and guidance into our lives.

In the Catholic faith, we honour the sacred role of mothers, inspired by the love of Mary, Mother of Jesus.

To all who embody motherhood, thank you for your love and care.

Year one led us in a heartfelt prayer with many, many mothers present. Thank you, year one, you did an amazing job.

CONGRATULATIONS MRS DUNN | We are very proud of the hard work and dedication you have shown towards achieving this Graduate Certificate in Religious Education with Distinction!!  Your hard work and determination has paid off!  Congratulations and well done on this great achievement!

NEW PLAYGROUND  |  Many months of planning have gone into the construction of our new playground.  Weather continues to be the hold up with the removal of the temp fencing.  As soon as this is safely removed students will be able to access our newest piece of playground.  Many thanks to our very, very active FOCUS Group aka P&F Association for completely funding this project and to Nikki McCowan for her incredible guidance and overseeing this project.  Our sincerest thanks goes to you all from the bottom of our hearts.

TELL THEM FROM ME SURVEY  |  In the coming weeks we will be inviting students, teachers and parents to provide feedback on their experience of our school using an online survey. The surveys are an important part of our whole school evaluation and planning process.

We would like to invite you to complete the Tell Them From Me (TTFM) Partners in Learning survey. As we value the role of parents and carers within our school community we would greatly appreciate your feedback. The information you provide will be used to maintain our commitment to working together in partnership to further improve student learning and wellbeing at St Anne’s Catholic Primary School, Sarina.

The survey is anonymous and will take approximately 20 minutes to complete. You are able to access the parent survey on your computer or mobile device by using the URL below:

http://tellthemfromme.com/stasarina

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact Ms Moloney either via email or the front office.

Prep Enrolments Now Being Taken For 2026

PREP 2026  |  Do you have a Prep student beginning in 2026?

We are now taking enrolments via the online system.  We encourage both existing and new families who have a child starting Prep in 2026 to lodge their enrolment application as soon as possible.  Applications are to be made via our online enrolment application available on our website via this link: https://www.sasrok.catholic.edu.au/   

Please contact the school office for further information or if any assistance is required.

STRATEGIC PRIORITIES AND GOALS FOR 2025

St Anne's Centenary Week 2025

Student Protection News

Across The Curriculum

LIFE EDUCATION

Since 1987, Life Education Queensland has empowered over 1.5 million children with the knowledge and skills to lead healthy, safe lives. The programs cover areas such as cybersafety and cyberbullying, emotional health and resilience, and bullying and respectful relationships. From the 13th May - 15th May, Life Education Van will visit St Anne’s. Students will explore the following:

Prep - Harold’s Friend Ship

Year 1 - Ready, Steady, Go!

Year 2 - Growing Good Friends

Year 3 - Friends and Feelings 

Year 4 - B Cyberwise

Year 5 - Relate, Respect, Connect

Year 6 - Take a Breath

If you would like further information on these units, click on this link: https://lifeeducationqld.org.au/life-education-hub/

READER'S CUP

This year, St Anne's has entered the Reader’s Cup Competition. 

Reader’s Cup is a a reading competition for avid readers in Year 6 organised by the Queensland Branch of The Children’s Book Council of Australia (CBCA). A team of five students will compete against other schools in the Mackay region. Students will be given questions to answer about given texts – in a trivia style event. The competition will take place on Thursday the 12th of June.

We look forward to keeping you posted on our Reader’s Cup journey!

NATIONAL SIMULTANEOUS STORYTIME

National Simultaneous Storytime is on Wednesday 21st of May. National Simultaneous Storytime (NSS) is held annually by the Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA). Every year a picture book, written and illustrated by an Australian author and illustrator, is read simultaneously in libraries, schools, pre-schools, childcare centres, family homes, bookshops and many other places around the country. Now in its 25th successful year, it is a colourful, vibrant, fun event that aims to promote the value of reading and literacy, using an Australian children's book that explores age-appropriate themes, and addresses key learning areas of the National Curriculum for Foundation to Year 6.

• When - Wednesday 21st of May, 2025 at 10:25am
• Where - The Hall
• Who - All students, parents welcome 

'The Truck Cat' will be read to all students, then they will be released from the hall to lunch. 

TERM TWO OVERVIEWS

Term Two Curriculum overviews were emailed to families this week. These documents provide information regarding the concepts your child will be covering this term. If you have any questions/concerns, please reach out to your child’s classroom teacher.

We appreciate your continued partnership in your child's learning journey.

Religious Life of the School

From the Assistant Principal: Religious Education

Ms Georgia Moloney

A Visit from Father Anthony

We were delighted to welcome Father Anthony to St Anne’s last Thursday! He thoroughly enjoyed his visit and was especially impressed by the wonderful gardening work of Year 2G. The mega-sized zucchini and apple cucumber from the garden certainly caught his eye! We will have to ask him what he made with his garden goodies next time he comes to visit.

Father Anthony also spent some time with our Prep students, where he had a great time listening to their enthusiastic phonics song and answering their curious questions. It was a joyful visit that brought smiles to both students and staff!

Thank You, Year 1!

A big thank you to our wonderful Year 1 students for leading us in a beautiful and heartfelt Mother’s Day Prayer Celebration. Your thoughtful words, songs, and reflections were a special tribute to all the amazing mothers and mother figures in our community.

We also extend our sincere thanks to the parents and carers who joined us for the celebration and to those who generously brought along food to share for the morning tea. Your support helps make these moments truly memorable.

Sacramental Program- Communion and Confirmation 2025

Parents are invited to send an email of expression of interest if their child is planning on continuing on their Sacramental journey this year. Students who have completed the Sacrament of Reconciliation are invited to continue on their Sacramental journey this year by completing their First Communion and Confirmation. This is open to new and continuing families.

Please email Ms Moloney at georgia_moloney@rok.catholic.edu.au and let her know if your child is continuing on their Sacramental journey. Please see the dates below:

Finance News

School Fees  | We apologise for the delay in the production of school fees for this term. This was due to the short weeks and many public holidays we have been enjoying.   Term 2 fees will be shortly emailed out to all parents. Due date is 2 weeks from invoicing. If you do not already have a payment plan in place and foresee difficulties paying in full by the due date please contact our Finance Office, Sandra Adams, to discuss options.  

Important Information regarding how School fee payments show on the Parent Orbit App  |  With the introduction of the new Parent Orbit App, parents are now able to easily see where they are up to with their school fee payments. However, an important thing to note is that any payments that have been made in the past 2 weeks may not show in the App, as they need to be processed to your account after the payment is received and this is done in bulk every week or two. If it is longer than 2 weeks since you have made a payment and it is still not showing on the Orbit App, please contact the Finance Officer, Sandra Adams, for it to be looked into. Sorry for any confusion this has caused.  

P&F News

School Disco This Friday Night ( 16 May) 5-7pm

This Friday night we are holding our first School Disco for the year. It is free entry, with food available to purchase. Please support our St Anne's FOCUS Group's fundraising efforts and have a fun night. Menu below.

Sports News

SWAP IT

SWAP IT  |  Try something new this week for your children.  For more everyday lunchbox ideas, visit: www.swapit.net.au/ideas

Student Leadership

Leadership is a quality that all students of St Anne's Catholic Primary School are encouraged and supported to develop.  These experiences ensure that students perceive themselves as leaders and have the opportunity and confidence to take on leadership roles and find their voice.

Newsletter Report Week 2 By  Jed  |   Firstly, I would like to acknowledge everyone who marched at the Anzac Day Parade , whether it was at the Dawn Service or at the Main Parade.

Well done to Chris Borg for his speech also.

I would like to remind everyone that the fenced part of the oval is off limits due to the new playground being installed. Hopefully, we are able to enjoy this next week.

The sand piles are also off limits, please don’t jump on them, or spread the sand around as we will need this for other parts of the school.

We are getting into the cooler months now, and that means we still must wear our hats during playtime and sport lessons. The sun can still do damage to our skin and health.

Please remember to label all your belongings, hats, lunch boxes and jumpers, and other items, at the end of the year we have a large pile of lost property that is not labelled, this is money that our parents have spent on us to attend school, let’s look after it

Lastly good luck to all the year 6 students with upcoming interviews for high school, I hope you are selected for your choice of school.

Newsletter Report Week 3 By  Addison  | I would like to thank the St Annes Focus group for fundraising enough money so we can all enjoy a new senior playground and also the parents that attended the Garden Parties to raise money to go towards the playground.

When playing on the new equipment please make sure everyone plays safe and everyone has their hats on, even if the weather is cloudy still wear your hat.

I have noticed that at lunch time we are not putting our hands up when the bell rings. The teacher on duty should not have to blow the whistle for us to be quiet. Please respect all teacher’s instructions in all learning areas.   

Lastly, I would like to wish all female role models a VERY Happy Mother’s Day on Sunday and I hope your kids bring you breakfast in bed.

Mercy Awards

Congratulations To Our Mercy Award Recipients Week 2  |  Shaelee R, Jonas H, Sage T, Jaxson T, Isla M, Mackenzie F. Hunter C, Blake E, Emmity S, Deejay P, Charlotte L, Paige E, Bronson L, Sophia C, Mack W, Peyton W, Jaxson S, Ameliyah G, Xochitl H

Congratulations To Our Mercy Award Recipients Week 3 | Indie C, Arlia C, Ellie F, Matilda D, Summer P, Hamish M, Aliya R, Jasper H, Ben G, Preston H, Seth W, Toby T, Thomas B, Addison W, Taylah R, 

General Information

Parent Orbit App Setup Guide

Community News