Newsletter, week 2, term 2, No 1
Principal's Report
Dear Parents & Carers,
Welcome to our first term 2 newsletter. I’m pleased to be able to say that the term has started well. Having many of the COVID restrictions placed upon us lifted has certainly allowed us to open up our school to more people and more learning opportunities for our students which is wonderful to see.
Although currently minimal, the the virus is still present in our community so below is a quick refresher on what is currently required of us:
- RATs should be conducted by all staff and students twice a week, at least until week 4 of this term
- All positive cases are required to isolate for 7 days
- Household contacts are no longer required to isolate but must wear a mask (if over 8 years of age) outside the home and take a RAT five out of the seven days that the positive case is in isolation. They must begin their own 7 day period of isolation if they return a positive test at any stage
- Positive cases do not need to take a RAT for 12 weeks once their period of isolation is over
- All positive cases and close contacts must be reported to the school
- Parents, carers and visitors to the school no longer need to show evidence of vaccination, however, anyone who works at the school (staff, contractor, volunteer) must be vaccinated
- Social distancing, respiratory etiquette and hand hygiene is still required.
A friendly reminder that Monday 16th May is a closure day which means no students are required to attend school. Staff will use this time to engage in some important professional learning.
Thank you to all the parents and carers who made appointments and attended Parent/Teacher interviews. As we know, students learn best when the partnership between home and school is strong and interviews are critical to developing this relationship. Later this term teachers will begin preparing Semester One reports which are another important means of ensuring that communication with our families is as thorough and open as it can be. Please remember though, as I have often said, you do not need to wait for interviews or reports to discuss concerns, or share successes, with any of our teachers, myself, or a member of the leadership team. We value your input and will always make time to speak to you.
On Friday we honoured all the special women in our lives with a Mother’s Day celebration. It was truly wonderful to see so many mums, grandmothers, aunts, siblings, cousins and friends join us. The delight on our visitors and students' faces was more than enough to indicate that the event was a success. We are hoping that this is the first of many community celebrations this year. Thank you to everyone who attended and to all who helped in any way. Particular thanks needs to go to Mikayla McGowan Rickard, Ellen Bock, Sharise McMonnies and Caitlin Chirchiglia who formed the organising committee. They put many hours of work into preparing the event so we could all have an enjoyable and memorable experience. Well done ladies! We wish all mothers a very happy Mother’s Day on Sunday.
Over the weekend several of our students participated in the sacrament of First Eucharist. This is a special time for our students and their families and an important part of their faith development. We wish them the very best as we keep them in our thoughts and prayers.
Kind regards,
Andrea Welsh
Religious Education
The theme of Project Compassion 2022 was ‘For All Future Generations’ this reminds us that the good that we do today will extend and impact the lives of generations to come. It invites us to make the world a better place by working together now and finding long-term solutions to global issues. That is why we held our ‘Crazy Caritas Combinations Day’ and WOW! What a great response to this fundraiser. We saw many crazy clothing and hairstyle combinations. Thank you to everyone who helped to support this wonderful cause. As a school community we raised a total of $1,305.35.
This coming weekend we will acknowledge and celebrate with our students who will be receiving their First Eucharist.
Javier, Yamila, Milan, Cosmo, Antonio, Ja’von, Chanel, Julian, Iggy, Ruby, Miller,Dillon, Belle, Amelia, Sebastyen, Maya, Olivia
Classes again are attending Mass on Thurday mornings with Fr Anthony. Members of the public are also welcome to attend. Mass is held at 9:30am, each Thurday at the Church.
Please find below the link for the April 2022 edition of
“Our Diocesan Community Magazine”
This publication features news from around the Diocese both in and surrounding our school communities.
https://www.ballarat.
SWPBS
Do it For Dolly Day 14th May 2022
Do It For Dolly Day is a day dedicated to bringing the community together, spreading kindness and uniting in taking a stand against bullying. Sadly, around one in four Australian school children are bullied each year and around one in five are cyber bullied.
We will be saying no to bullying and supporting Do it for Dolly day next Friday 13th May. Students are encouraged to wear a blue ribbon or wrist band in support of this day and we will be participating in some activities supporting the message:"Be Kind - Speak up even when your voice shakes"
SWPBS
Our school wide positive behaviour focus last week was Using the internet as a learning tool.
During the week, classes discussed the ways in which we use the internet to support learning in our classroom. We revisited our internet user agreement and spoke about how to find reliable information on the internet. We also spoke about what to do if your something worrying or upsetting on the internet and talked about internet safety. This is a great opportunity for you to discuss how the internet is used at home and how students can be safe online.
The focus for week 3 will be:
Striving for excellence and taking pride in your work
Next week will be exploring what is means to strive for excellence (do our best) and what is means to have pride in our work. This is particularly important as students in year 3, 5 & 7 sit their NAPLAN tests. It is important for all students to try their best to complete all work tasks.
Grip Leadership
On Wednesday 4th May our year 5-7 class captains attended the Grip Leadership conference in mildura.
They participated in a range of sessions to develop their leadership skills and came away with some great ideas for our school.
Primary
Foundation
All Foundation students have been incredibly busy with their learning this term. We are now bringing home our InitiaLit readers every Monday, Wednesday and Friday to read to an adult. Families please continue to support your child at home with their daily reading and practising of tricky words. Your child may like to create their own flashcards or have these displayed in the kitchen or bathroom. So far we have learnt the tricky words ‘I’, ‘the’, ‘my’, ‘is’, ‘a’, ‘was’ ‘you’. In Mathematics, we have been learning about quantities and comparing those that are more than and less than. In Religion, we have been thinking about our own ‘wondering’ questions and talking about Mary.
Year 1/2
We have had a great start to Term 2, and our Room 15 changeover has been completed and we are all settled in. In Religion we are focussing on Love, and all the different ways we show and receive love.
Our Social and Emotional learning at the moment is based on Problem Solving. It would be worth discussing with your child the best way to solve problems they encounter at home, even if it might be after the dust has settled!
One area we are looking at in English is Non Fiction texts. If you have Non Fiction texts at home, perhaps look at the different features, like diagrams, contents pages, captions, labels, index and glossary pages.
We are getting excited about attending our excursion to Mildura this Thursday and watching The Alphabet of Awesome Science.
Thank you to all those parents who came in for Parent/Teacher interviews. If you have not had a chance to, perhaps make a time in the next week to catch up with your child’s teacher.
Year 3/4
It has been a delight to see the smiling faces of our students back in the school after a restful Easter Break.
In Religion we are learning the concept of ‘UNITY’ in depth. Science has been interesting with the focus on different types of materials. Students have shown a keen interest in learning about Pioneers and successfully related their learning to the Pioneer Settlement Camp,which they thoroughly enjoyed at the end of Term 1. In Math the Year 3 students are learning about multiplication facts and the Year 4 students are learning about the relationship between multiplication and division. For reading and writing our focus has been on preparing ourselves for the NAPLAN TEST to be held next week (week 3 of Term 2) for the Year 3 students.
Year 5/6
In returning to school and commencing Term 2, the Year 5/6 students have been settling well back into classroom routines, focussing on set tasks and eager to learn. In Math, the Year 5 students explored dot plots and applied the partial-products strategy to multiply two-digit numbers. The Year 6 students explored strategies to multiply fractions and identified prime and composite numbers. Students have worked hard in Reading and Writing over the past two weeks to revise the language and structural features of a persuasive and narrative text. They’ve shown a keen interest in Science, with a focus on the Solar System, and have enjoyed researching facts about planets.
Specialist
PE
Welcome back to term 2!
Footy season is back so this term we are starting off in PE learning some of the important skills of AFL. Cross country is also coming up this term so we will practice running long distances and learning some strategies for what to do if we start feeling tired or puffed during the race.
Finally we also have an exciting school basketball tournament starting this week for the years 5-8 students running at recess and lunchtime. Thank you to the volunteering students who will be helping to run the competition by scoring and umpiring.
Art
Art is now mobile! All students from Foundation to Yr 6 now have art in their own classroom. This has been working really well and students are engaged and excited about their new topic and completing tasks from term 1.
The Foundation students are learning how to add movement to their drawings using simple expressive lines. They are looking at the artwork of Keith Haring and are going to draw dancing bodies. The photos below are the completed Elmo collages in term 1, using the colour red .
Year 1/2 students are drawing seascapes. We have looked at images of underwater coral reefs and the fish you might find. They have practiced drawing their seascapes and are now beginning their artwork. You will need a torch to see what is under the ocean in this artwork!
The 3/4 students are continuing on with their artworks inspired by the Australian artist Pete Cromer. They are busy cutting and pasting. These artworks are going to look amazing.
The 5/6 students have been introduced to an artist from America called, Michael Alberts. He is a collage artist and likes to use cereal box covers in most of his artworks. They have been busy cutting and pasting interesting designs. Some students are finishing their artworks from term 1 inspired by the Austrian born artist Friedrich Hundertwasser.
Secondary
Year 7/8
ALL students need to bring headphones or earphones to school each day. Year 7 students require them for NAPLAN testing next week.
English
Year 7 have been revising and improving their reading, writing, spelling, grammar and punctuation knowledge in preparation for NAPLAN testing next week.
Year 8 have been learning about traditional and new media. They are looking at how to identify any bias within the articles to make informed decisions about what they are reading.
Parent Access Module (PAM)
PAM provides you with information on a range of areas relating to your child's education, including medical information.
ARE YOU USING PAM?
If you have not already downloaded PAM, please download the web app and log in. If you have misplaced your username and password please contact the school office.
It is important that we have updated medical information for all students. e.g Medicare no, Doctors name and phone no. Medical information can be updated on PAM.
Are you contact details up to date?
Important information is sent out via sms and email.
Please contact the school office to make sure we have have your correct details. Contact details can be updated on PAM.
Bus Travel
If you children/child normally travels home on a bus and is not travelling on the bus after school or requires a permanent note for football and netball training, please contact the School office.
Book Club is due back
Wednesday 11th May.
Uniform
As the cooler weather approaches, it is an expectation that all students are wearing the correct St Mary's winter school uniform. Please ensure your child is wearing the correct uniform each day.
If you need to purchase uniform, you can collect an order from the office or visit the uniform shop on Wednesday afternoons from 3.15-4.45pm.
CANTEEN
Please familise yourself with the Canteen menu. Only order what is available.
Robinvale Leisure Centre
is excited to be hosting its biannual Community Network Forum.
Please save the date and time: Wednesday 25th, May 2022, 10:30am-12:30pm.
We would like to take the opportunity to invite you to our Community Network Forum.
About the Community Network Forum
Learn about current Robinvale Leisure Centre community leisure programs.
Join in round table discussions about how we can collaborate to achieve the best health and wellbeing opportunities for our community.
Round table discussions will focus on priority health and wellbeing service and program outcomes for:
- Children
- Youth
- Women
- Men
- Older Adults
- Culturally and linguistical diverse
- People with a disability
- Indigenous community
- Socially isolated
- LGBTIQA+
Robinvale Leisure Centre is passionate about connecting our community to leisure. Helps us plan for a Healthy and Active 2022 for all of our community.