Newsletter, week 8, term 3, No 4
Principal's Report
Dear Parents & Carers,
I would like to begin by sincerely thanking all students and parents for their efforts in dressing up for book week last week. It was fantastic to see so many wonderful costumes at our annual book week parade. The theme of book week this year was to ”Dream with your eyes open”, because books can transport us to all sorts of places. Reading is a lifelong skill that is strongly encouraged at St Mary’s School. A special thanks to our book week committee for organising this special event.
This week we have had Anne Ruddell from the Catholic Education Office Ballarat visit our school and observe in classrooms. Anne was observing our school wide positive behaviour practices. She spoke with a number of students about our school matrix and was really pleased to see and hear the positive way students spoke about our matrix and in particular our SWPBS awards. I would like to take this opportunity to thank our Sponsors Manang Handyman & Cleaning Services and Irribiz Robinvale for their support this year.
We have noticed an increase in the number and frequency of rough play occurring on the oval during break times. We would like to remind everyone that rough play is not acceptable at St Mary’s, this includes no tackling. We will continue to have a focus on this behaviour to ensure a safe playing environment for everyone.
Our Secondary students performed their best to represent our school in Ouyen for the Inter-School Athletics on Wednesday. Thank you to Mr Mays for organising this and to Belle for helping on the day. The senior primary students will be competing in the Mini Olympics next Wednesday 7th September at the Old Aerodrome Sports Complex in Mildura.
Today is the first day of Spring which means students need to start wearing their hats in the school yard. If you are unable to locate your hat then please contact the office to order a new one. Please ensure that all hats are clearly labeled with your child's name on it.
Our parent teacher interviews are fast approaching in Week 10. Information was sent home yesterday with times and dates, please contact the office if you require further information. Parent Teacher Interviews are an important opportunity to meet with your child’s teacher to discuss their learning and progress. We strongly encourage all parents to attend.
We look forward to celebrating Father’s Day on Friday with our annual Father’s Day breakfast as well as Footy Colours Day. A reminder that we have a Father’s Day Raffle which is a Baby Webber Q BBQ. Tickets are available at the office or can be purchase on Friday morning. The raffle will be drawn at our Father's Day breakfast. Students are reminded to wear appropriate clothing under their footy guernseys. I would like to take this opportunity to wish all Fathers and Speical Friends a wonderful day on Sunday.
We would like to wish all those students and staff who are playing in the Football/Netball finals this weekend and congratulations to those who have already secured a place in the Grand Final.
Kind regards,
Maryanne Leslie
Religion
Jesus often used stories to explain something important. In this gospel, Jesus used the example of seating at a wedding to teach his followers something about being humble. Jesus was at the home of an important person, and he saw that the guests were all trying to get the best seats. He told them a story about guests at a wedding. He asked them to imagine how it would feel if, when the guest came to the wedding, he sat at the best place. Then later, someone came up to him and asked him to move to make room for someone more important. Jesus said it was better if that person had chosen a different seat, and been asked by the host to move to a better one. Jesus also told them (and us) that they should not just show care for those we like or love, but should be concerned about people that others neglect. He promised that God would reward us. In this gospel story Jesus is trying to teach us the importance of being humble. We should not always try to get the best things, or the best place, or the best treatment for ourselves.
Let us pray…
That those who work with the poor and the homeless may they be blessed in their work.
That we will always be kind to people who are sad or lonely.
Loving God, you sent your Son Jesus to teach us. Help us to be more like him and to grow in strength and humility.
Amen
Wellbeing
SWPBS
The goal of School Wide Positive Behaviour Support (SWPBS) at St Mary's School is to create and maintain a positive and safe learning environment that enhances our school culture where we maximise individual academic, social and emotional growth.
The Behaviour Expectation Matrix translates St Mary's core values into expected behaviours. The matrix clarifies what our behaviours should look, sound and feel like. Our expected behaviours are explicitly taught in every classroom and consistently reinforced throughout the school.
Our SWPBS focus this week has was protecting personal information and taking care of our digital footprint. This was an opportunity for students to revise our ICT agreement, cybersafety rules and expectations and the importance of privacy in general when using online programs and apps..
Next week our SWPBS focus is: let an adult know when you are feeling unsafe or concerned about something. This focus fits in nicely with Australia’s Biggest Child Safety lesson and R U OK? Day.
This is also a good opportunity to discuss with your children household rules or expectations around the use of technology and what they should do if they feel unsafe online.
Primary
Foundation
Foundation students have continued to work on reading and writing sounds. We have learned all the letters and sounds of the alphabet and more than 5 digraphs. This week we prepare to celebrate our fathers and special friends for Father's Day. We look forward to hearing about all the amazing things these people do in our students' lives. T
his week we have started looking at parts of a whole, this means your child may begin to identify when things are half full. They are working on coloring in half a shape or putting half the items into a tub.
We look forward to seeing through the final weeks of this Term and seeing how much our students have learnt.
Year 1/2
Everyone did a marvelous job dressing up for the Book week parade. What a great effort by parents and students. Students wrote wonderful recounts on what they undertook in the circuit Breaker days. We all enjoyed listening to all exciting places they visited during the break.
Year 1 and 2 students have been busy writing stories with structure, including characters, a setting, problems and solutions. The teachers have enjoyed reading their stories. We are also focussing on recognising long and short vowels. In Humanities we have been learning about Robinvale and why our town is called Robinvale.
In RE we are concentrating on the concept of Call on how Jesus called his disciples. We will also explore ways that we can be like Jesus and his disciples and we how we can help others.
In Math year 1 students are comparing 2 digit numbers and Year 2’s are working on the relationship between addition and subtraction.
Year 3/4
Hello families and friends! As you know we have been non-stop with great learning and activities. Hopefully, the circuit breaker has restored us all so we can complete the term with gusto. We have just completed our unit on Information texts in our literacy lessons and all the Year 3/4 students produced some wonderful brochures describing the countries they researched in class. We have now started procedure texts which should be quite entertaining! We have discussed, learned and created art to depict the Sacraments of Initiation in Religious Education, which can be found on the gym wall.
Years 3/4 are also very lucky to participate in a footy clinic this Friday. We also would like to make special mention to all the dads and male role models who are important to our students for Father’s Day.
Year 5/6
As the final two weeks of Term approaches, the Year 5/6 students have been very busy and working hard to complete their projects and best work. The Year 6’s have enjoyed exploring angles and using their knowledge and skills to calculate the value of unknown angles at a point. The Year 5’s have been working with fractions and are learning to add common and mixed numerals. In English, students have continued looking at the language and structural features of explanation texts on a variety of topics and have been improving their ability to summarise texts. Students have also been busy further developing their research skills as they continue to discover more about the continents and countries and their location in the world.
Secondary
Maths
Year 7 students will be completing their measurement projects this week. We have also begun our new Geometry topic. Please remind students to complete their weekly Maths Mate homework sheets. This helps students to practice previously learnt topics and develop organisation skills.
In Year 7& 8 Maths we have just finished competing in the annual ESSI Money Finance game that ran for two weeks. ESSI Money (standing for Earning, Saving, Spending and Investing) is an online financial literacy game for Australian secondary school students that helps students to understand the fundamentals of Earning, Saving, Spending and Investing – ESSI!
ESSI Money is a game with interactive Apps to replicate a range of real life financial transactions.
Congratulations to Jordan Natale for making the top 10 Leadership Board in Victoria.
Our next topic this term is Measurement.
English
Year 7 students have been learning the importance of using correct punctuation in their writing.
Year 8 students have been learning about the different types of sentences and how to use them effectively in their writing.
Technology
Students have been focusing on chocolate as an ingredient for cooking this term. We have made a range of dishes using different types of chocolate. Students have been developing their own chocolate dish recipes. This week we will be cooking something special for Father's day.
Electives
In woodwork students have begun making a chopping board. Students have been using a range of equipment and the chopping boards are starting to take shape.
Science
In Year 7 Science we are starting a new topic Separating Mixtures and in Year 8 we are starting States of Matter. This is the Chemistry side of science.
Specialist
Languages
Students have been using a program called Giochi Stars to help learn how to play Briscola and Scopa. Students are also learning about Marco Polo and his travels to Asia.
Digital Tech
Students have been adding comments and images to their personal digital profile in Digi Tech. It has been pleasing to see them adding comments, feedback and images.
PE
In PE we are working on our throwing and catching skills within games and activities. Foundation students are working on these skills in their station rotations. Station rotations are 4-5 different activities that we rotate through practicing these skills. Have a look a Foundation MMG in these pictures who were practicing their underarm throwing and catching skills by throwing the ball in the air and then catching it in a cone for a point.
Art
The Foundation students are learning to make music to a beat. They are responding really well and enjoy playing the different instruments.
Year 1/2 students are finalising their dance routines. Each class has made up dance moves to create their dance sequence. Each class is different and looks fantastic moving together.
The 3/4 students are putting their plays together using finger puppets. They are enjoying the acting process and are learning to add expression to their voices to add interest for the audience.
Year 5/6 students have created some amazing puppets and are finalising their scripts for their plays. We are hoping the Foundation students will get to see and experience these plays soon.
