Newsletter, Week 6, Term 3, No 3

Principal's Report

Dear Parents & Carers,

Once again I find myself apologising that this newsletter is late due to our ongoing staff shortages. This leads me into a reminder that at the end of this week the school will be closed for two days (Friday 26th & Monday 29th August) for our circuit breaker weekend. This weekend has been offered to all schools in our Diocese by Catholic Education Ballarat in response to our ongoing battle with illnesses resulting in significant staff and student absences. We sincerely hope that everyone in our school community enjoys the extra break and uses it to rest and rejuvenate so we can come back to school ready to approach the rest of the year with enthusiasm and energy. Thank you to all our families for your support and understanding this matter. 

A couple of weeks ago the Year 7/8 students headed to Rose’s Gap for camp. Unfortunately the weather was against them and they had to come home a day early. Despite this some good memories were made and the students enjoyed activities and experiences that they would not usually have access to. Thanks to all the staff who attended the camp for their organisation and extra work.

Last week was Science Week and what a wonderful week it was here at St Mary’s! The week involved incursions run by the Melbourne Museum on robotics and dinosaurs and a visiting Science Show. Without a doubt though, the highlight of the week was the Year 7/8 student Science Fair. The displays put together by our students were nothing short of amazing and ranged from volcanoes to lemon powered batteries. Congratulations and well done to all students involved, you should be very proud of your achievements. A special mention needs to go to Maryanne Leslie who worked tirelessly to organise the events and always ensures our secondary students are exposed to a positive and creative science curriculum and experience.

We also held our annual Athletics Day last week. As always it was a day filled with fun and healthy competition. Thank you to all the parents who volunteered their time to help on the day or came to support their children. Thanks also to Kieran Mays and the staff who organised and made sure the day ran smoothly. Congratulations to all the students who competed and to those who managed to take home a ribbon. The winners of each event are listed a little later in the newsletter.

Looking forward we have a few more important events planned for the rest of this term. On Thursday (25th August) we will have our annual Book Week dress up parade. This is always lots of fun and generates a lot of excitement. Dads, please keep the morning of Friday 2nd September free so you can join us for Father’s Day breakfast and a game on the oval. We will also look forward to seeing you at school for Parent/Teacher Interviews which are scheduled for Wednesday 13th & Thursday 14th September. 

Take care everyone and enjoy the circuit breaker weekend!

Kind regards,

Andrea Welsh

Primary

Foundation

Last week in Foundation for Science week we were conducting an experiment each day that uses one of our five Senses. For smell we smelt different essential oils, for taste we tried something sweet, sour, bitter and savoury, to hear we listened to many different sounds and had to record what we heard, for touch we did a super fun dinosaur excavation activity and finally to see we did a raining colour experiment. We also absolutely loved the Science Fair in the gym on Tuesday morning. All of the experiments run by our buddies and the Year 7 students were so cool. Just a friendly reminder that your child needs to bring their library bag to school every Monday, Wednesday and Friday to change their InitiaLit reader and picture storybook. 

Year 1/2

The Year 1/2 classes have been lucky to enjoy a number of special occasions over the last couple of weeks. We were immersed in culture on Italian day, enjoying special games, mosaics and edible colosseums! The pasta lunch was fantastic. We celebrated the Mass of the Assumption with the whole school, recognising the importance of Our Lady in the church. 

Last week we have done our own science activity looking at how light comes through coloured glass and were fascinated by the experiments in the Year 7 and 8 science fair.

On Wednesday we had an incursion learning about Traces of the Past and how dinosaurs fitted into prehistoric times.

Year 3/4

Learning with excitement, fun and hands-on activities!

Wow! A wonderful week indeed! 

Our students enjoyed the Science Fair. The variety of experiments and the demonstration by our Secondary students was absolutely amazing. The Year 3/4 students learnt a lot and were thrilled to be able to watch it all. We also did some interesting Science activities such as painting on baking paper with bottle lids to create a stained glass effect, making bubbles and making Newton’s Disc. Our Reading and Writing lessons have been very exciting while the students have been working on creating colourful information brochures for different countries around the world. In Math the year 4 students are learning about multiplication facts and the Year 3 students are learning about four digit numbers and patterns.