Newsletter, week 4, term 4, no 2
Principal's Report
Dear Parents & Carers,
It has been a full week since we all returned to onsite learning. It is wonderful to hear and see our students laughing and playing once again and we are all enjoying face to face learning. I hope that parents and carers have found a bit of well deserved time to relax after our many periods of remote learning.
Restrictions are slowly easing but as yet we are not permitted to have visitors onsite. It is our sincere hope that we will be open to the whole school community again by the end of the year. We will continue to keep you up to date with developments on this front as we are made aware of them.
One restriction that is due to be lifted on November 1st is the ban on transition programs. From this date we will be permitted to run our usual transition programs. This is very exciting news and we will begin this process with our 2022 Prep students very soon. Letters with all the details about this year’s transition program have been sent to families who are enrolling a child in Prep next year. We have also begun the process of transitioning our Year 8 students to Robinvale College and, in some cases, other secondary schools.
Please note that current guidelines state all visitors must be double vaccinated to come into the school. We believe this mandate is unlikely to change this year. As restrictions continue to ease we are hopeful that we will be able to invite our families to school events such as the end of year Mass and graduations. However, it is important to note that in order to attend, anyone over 16, including parents, must show proof that they have been double vaccinated.
As explained in my last report, after much consideration, it was decided that we would go ahead with our upcoming student free day. Please be aware that no students are to attend school on November 1st enabling staff to engage in important professional learning.
To conclude this report I have another staffing update. Recently, Joe Chirchiglia tendered his resignation as our canteen manager. Joe will finish at St Mary’s at the end of the 2021 school year. We are currently assessing the best options for our canteen in 2022 and will keep you up to date with this. We thank Joe for his contribution to St Mary’s over many years and we are looking forward to the opportunity to say our farewells to him towards the end of the year.
Kind regards,
Andrea Welsh
Religious Education
As we come to the end of October, our students have been exploring the meaning of the Catholic Rosary. Together we have discovered that the main prayer that is said when reciting the rosary is the Hail Mary. The Hail Mary invites us into the wonder and awe that Mary felt when she pondered all these mysteries in her heart. (Lk 2:19)
The rosary consists of other repeated sets of two traditional prayers: Our Father; and the Glory Be.
The Our Father is the prayer taught to us by Jesus – God as ‘Father’ is the protector and source of all life. The Glory Be reminds us that the whole of life is held in the embrace of the Trinity.
The rosary appeals to many. It is simple. The constant repetition of words and the tactile fingering of beads helps create a calming atmosphere which can counterbalance our often stressful lifestyles. We sense that Jesus and Mary are with us in the joys and sorrows of life. We grow in our ability to be centred and we learn to trust that God will bring us through difficult times to inner peace.
Let us pray the special prayer of the rosary, the Hail Mary.
Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with you.
Blessed are you among women
And blessed is the fruit of your womb, Jesus.
Holy Mary, mother of God,
pray for us sinners now,
and at the hour of our death.
Amen.
Source: Liturgy Ritual Prayer
Wellbeing
SWPBS
This week the SWPBS focus is ‘wearing the correct uniform including school hats’. This was an important focus as all students returned onsite as many have not worn their school uniform for some time. You may like to discuss with you child/children at home why school uniforms are important, about belonging to a community, taking pride in our uniform and school.
The SWPBS focus next week will be ‘using the appropriate tone and language.’ It is important that we talk about the way we speak to each other, to adults. You may like to discuss with your child/children what tone is, when we use different tones and how it can be perceived by others.
SWPBS Sponsorship
We would like to thank our current SWPBS sponsors Irribiz Robinvale and Elders Insurance Robinvale for their support of our school wide positive behaviour approach. Their sponsorship is greatly appreciated and has enabled us to recognise students with special awards each week at assembly. These awards are presented to nominated students who are consistently demonstrating the expectations of our school behaviour matrix and setting an excellent example for the rest of our school community.
This sponsorship has been used to provide award recipients with a Robinvale Euston Business Association (REBA) voucher. Providing these vouchers as part of the awards has not only enabled us to raise the profile of SWPBS in our school but has also enabled us to support other local traders by having the vouchers spent locally.
If you are interested in sponsoring our School Wide Positive Behaviour approach in 2022 please see the attached sponsorship flyer and contact the office for more information.
Primary School
Prep
In Foundation, over the past two weeks we have learnt the digraphs /ng/ ‘ding dong’ and /ay/ ‘as in play’. We have worked so hard learning how to write a sentence or more into our new dotted thirds writing book. Our handwriting is really improving which is excellent to see in preparation for Year 1. In Maths, we have learnt how to tell o’clock times and analyse teen numbers.
Just a friendly reminder to please ensure that your child is not bringing to school any personal items such as toys, pencil cases, fidgets or jewellery (other than a watch, one pair of sleepers or a religious medallion worn on the inside of clothing) as these can very easily be misplaced or broken.
Please ensure you speak to your child about our upcoming swimming lessons to be held on Tuesdays from Week 6 to Week 10. All permission notes need to be returned to school by Friday the 5th of November. Keep the front page at home so your child knows what needs to be packed inside their school bag on swimming days. If you have any questions or concerns please do not hesitate to contact your child’s teacher at any time.
Year 1/2
Year 1/2 have done some wonderful writing over the past two weeks. We have been writing sentences using the conjunctions ‘and, but, so’. We have also been writing some very creative stories. Last week we changed the solution and problem in The Little Red Riding Hood story. This week we are writing stories from a different point of view. We are also busy exploring relationships in Religion and this week looked at the Holy Cross Trinity. As we quickly approach the summer holidays we have begun to look at safety in Health and have had some interesting discussions about what being safe looks like, feels like and sounds like. We are also VERY excited about our upcoming swimming lessons commencing on the 9th of November. Thank you so much for all the permission slips that have come back.
Year 3/4
The year 3/4 students are beginning to settle back into onsite learning. Please remember to return your chromebook and charger as soon as possible and any other books that were taken home during remote learning. We have been exploring the Rosary as well as the main understandings of various world religions and how these belief systems challenge people towards self understanding. This is also evident in our Humanities topic for term 4 in which we are currently exploring Aborginal spirituality. All classes have been having wonderful discussions on our current Social and Emotional Learning topic of Gender Roles. We have compared traditional fairy tale gender roles to more modern day stories.
Art
Week 4 sees the return of all classes to the art room. The last three weeks the yr 1/ 2 students have been painting and decorating backgrounds for dogs they have drawn and coloured. These artworks have been inspired by artist George Rodrigue. The effort that has gone into these paintings is outstanding. Next newsletter will be photos of their finished work.
Yr 3/4 have been looking at the work of two different artists, Yayoi Kusama and Andy Warhol. Yayoi loves drawing pumpkins that are covered in patterned dots and bold colours. We looked at some of Andy Warhol’s paintings of repetitive images and combined the two artists' ideas. Students chose a fruit or vegetable to draw and then used the complimentary colours to decorate them.
The 5/6 students are going to explore the work of Pop artist Roy Lichenstien to make their own artwork. This artwork will contain an onomatopoeia and a self portrait to match the sound their word makes. This process will take a number of weeks to design and create. I’m looking forward to seeing what they can come up with.
Secondary School
Year 5/6
It’s wonderful to have all year 5 and 6 students back at school! Most students are settling back into the classrooml well. Over the last 2 weeks we have been focussing on welcoming students back to school and settling them back into the classroom routine. Students have proven themselves to be adaptable and resilient. In the last 2 weeks we have been reading and writing information (non-fiction) texts, exploring sources of energy in Science and economics in Humanities. We hope you like the pictures of 5/6K conducting a scientific experiment into ways to increase the speed of heating water using only the Sun.
Maths
Year 7 and 8 students will be finishing their Linear Equations unit this week.
Year 7 students will begin working on Geometry next week. We will be looking at naming and identifying different angles and measuring and constructing them with protractors.
Year 8 Students will begin working on their cartesian planes and linear graphs unit. They will be looking at cartesian planes (x & y axis) and plotting linear equations.
These have been supported by completing Maths Pathways modules to support this learning.
Religion
The year 7 students have been learning about the relationship of God and God’s people in the Old Testament and learning how to efficiently find different parts of the Bible. They have enjoyed discussing what a covenant is and looking at it from different perspectives and comparing it to an agreement in their own world.
The Year 8 students are showing lots of enjoyment with learning about Psalms and their purpose in Religion. They have been reading, praying, meditating and creating their own Psalms.
Physical Education
In PE, The year 7 & 8 students have been learning about Tee-Ball and BaseBall and learning the skills needed for each game. They have shown some great improvement with understanding the rules and how to work well with their teams. Next they will be learning about the game Ultimate Frisbee.
Health
In Health we have been learning about the changes and challenges of adolescence and the students have been asking plenty of questions about the variety of information they are learning and going to go through during adolescence.
Humanities
In Humanities both 7 & 8 students are almost up to their post test & exam for their first topic in Economics and Business module. They have been asking plenty of questions about how money and taxes work and the benefits of paid work.
Langagues
Students have been learning more about France as a country, including the geographics, lifestyle and culture.
Outdoor Education
Students are coming to the end of learning about different environments, the living and nonliving factors that impact on these.
Technology
Students are enjoying expanding their skills in the kitchen during Food Technology. Last week we focused on the creaming method and made some very tasty chocolate chip muffins. This week students have been using a range of techniques such as whipping cream and working with gelatine to make some delicious lemon cheesecakes. Thanks to Mrs Smith for some lovely fresh home grown lemons.
The Arts
Year 7 students have been busy preparing props, organising costumes and rehearsing their performance. Most groups are now ready to start recording.
Year 8 are enthusiastically writing and beginning to rehearse their end of year performance.
COLOUR EXPLOSION SCHOOL FUN RUN
We will hosting our Colour Explosion School Fun Run on Friday November 18th, 2021. Students can wear casual clothers to school on this day and are encouraged to wear a WHITE or PALE coloured shirt for the fun run. Students will need to bring a change of clothes for after the fun run, expecially bus travellers.
