Newsletter, Week 6, Term 4, No 3
Principal's Report
Dear Parents & Carers,
Welcome to this week's newsletter.
Next week we will host our first Prep 2023 transition. We are looking forward to meeting the newest members of our school community along with their parents and carers and hope that they enjoy their first experience at their new school.
This is a good time to offer a friendly reminder that if you know of anyone, including yourself, who is planning to enrol a student in any year level next year please contact the office to collect an enrolement form asap. If you are intending to leave St Mary’s at the end of this year for any reason we also need to know about that and would really appreciate you letting us know soon.
Last week we held a school closure day which enabled teachers to work collaboratively on student assessment and begin the process of preparing Semester 2 reports. Thank you to our families who enabled this to happen. We hope you all enjoyed the extra long weekend and perhaps backed a winner on Tuesday?
This Friday we will commemorate Remembrance Day. The majority of our students and staff will honour our defence forces, past and present, in a school based ceremony which will begin at 10.45am and conclude with the traditional minute silence at 11am. Parents and other school community members are most welcome to join us in the gymnasium. While this is taking place our school captains, along with a senior staff member will represent our school at the community ceremony, laying a wreath on behalf of us all.
In the coming weeks we have several activities to look forward to. Next Thursday afternoon we will enjoy our annual Colour Run. This is an event in which all our students have the opportunity to navigate an obstacle course across our oval while being ‘coloured’ with harmless, washable bright powder. It is an enormous amount of fun and we hope to see everyone joining in. Don’t forget your white TShirt!
Following on from our senior students at the beginning of the year, this week our Foundation-Year 2 students began their annual swimming program. Swimming is a vital life skill and one that we are required to teach so please support us by ensuring you return your child\ren’s permission form promptly and by making sure your children are ready for swimming on each day of the program by bringing their swimming gear and a positive attitude.
As we draw closer to the end of the year there are several dates /events and times that you need to be aware of. These are included in this newsletter so please take the time to read over them and mark the ones that are important to you on your calendar.
I’d like to end this report with a staffing update. I am very pleased to announce that Andrew (Jako) Jakowenko has accepted a full time secondary teaching position at St Mary's next year. Jako lived in Robinvale as a child and spent many years working in various parts of Australia and overseas both as a teacher and in other industries. He has recently relocated to Robinvale and he comes to us with a wealth of experiences to share with our Year 7 & 8 students. I'm sure you will join me in congratulating Jacko on his appointment and welcome him into our community.
I’m also very pleased to be able to tell you that Sarah Sutton will be rejoining our staff next year. Many of you are familiar with Sarah as she previously worked at St Mary’s. Sarah has taken some time out of teaching to concentrate on raising her young family; she is now ready to return to her profession. Sarah will be working part time as a primary specialist teacher. We're very happy to welcome her back and know you will be too!
Kind regards,
Andrea Welsh
Religion
During October it was the United Nations International Day for the Eradication of Poverty. This day is set aside to raise people’s awareness of the immense poverty that most of the world’s population endures. Jesus told his disciples a parable about the need to pray continually and never lose heart.
There are so many people in our world who are treated unjustly and struggle to make their voices heard.
Let us pray.
In a world where so many go hungry.
May their cries for help inspire works of justice and mercy.
In a world where so many have no access to safe drinking water and proper sanitation.
May their cries for help inspire works of justice and mercy.
In a world where so many are living with diseases and unable to receive any medical care.
May their cries for help inspire works of justice and mercy.
Please find the link below for the Our Diocesan Community Magazine.
https://www.ballarat.catholic.
Wellbeing
SWPBS
The purpose of School Wide Positive Behaviour Support (SWPBS) is to establish a school climate in which appropriate behaviour is the norm for all students.
This week our behaviour blitz focus is "Demonstrate the core values of St Mary's". The core values of our SWPBS framework are Respect, Safety and Learning. These are very closely aligned with our Catholic and Mercy Core Values of Service, Respect, Hospitality, Justice, Courage and Compassion.
This provided a chance for students to think about what these core values mean and how we live them out at school and in our daily lives.Our Blitz focus for next week is "Look after equipment and facilities".
Please discuss with your family how we can look after equipment and facilities and the benefits of this.
Primary
Foundation
All the Foundation students have been incredibly busy over the past two weeks. We have been revising the letter names and letter sounds taught including learning new sounds to support us next year. For example: /er/, /ar/ and /ow/. This week we are learning the new tricky words ‘for’ and ‘or’. In Mathematics, we are working with teen numbers and learning how to draw 2D Shapes. Swimming lessons for P-2 have commenced this week. The dates for swimming are Friday the 11th, 18th, Wednesday the 23rd and Friday the 25th of November. Please ensure your child either wears their bathers underneath their school uniform or has them packed inside their swimming bag to change into at school.
Inside the swimming bag should be the following items: googles, towel, sunscreen, underwear, plastic bag for wet items. All items must be labelled. If your child cannot swim for any reason please contact your child’s teacher prior.
Year 1/2
Year 1/2s have started to write persuasive texts. We are making sure we come up with good reasons to support our opinions. We have also been busy doing some PAT tests for Reading and Maths. Next Thursday we will be going to the church for Mass. Families are invited to attend this Mass and students will receive their rosary beads. We started swimming lessons this Friday. Students can wear their bathers underneath their school uniform and must bring underwear, sunscreen, towel and a plastic bag for wet clothes. If you have any questions please contact your child’s teacher.
Year 3/4
During writing lessons the yr 3/4s have been revising narratives. They were asked to write a creative story that followed the correct features. These were to include an introduction that describes the character and setting, a problem, how this problem was solved and the ending to the story. Teachers and students were entertained by the creative story writing being produced. During reading the focus has been on summarizing a text using the who, what, where, when, why and how questions. These propts are important as it helps to organise students thinking and to independently to understand what they have read.
Just a friendly reminder that daily home reading is encouraged as part of our homework expectations, with students bringing in their homework and reading diaries regularly to their teacher.
Secondary
English
All students have been using their improved writing skills to complete a narrative and a persuasive text. Their focus has been to include different language choices that are appropriate for their topic, and detailed descriptions throughout their narratives to give the reader a complete picture.
Maths
In year 8 Maths students are starting a new topic in Representing and Interpreting Data. Students are to complete a minimum of two Math Pathway modules for homework, if parents could please support their child in doing this, it would be greatly appreciated.
Year 7 students are continuing with their Representing and Interpreting Data topic. We have been looking at different ways to represent data and how to interpret data.
Science
Year 8 students have just completed their topic on the periodic table. Please come and see their display in front of the library.
Year 7 students have started a new topic on ‘Forces’.
Technology
Year 8 students practised making some gingerbread this week in preparation for making and decorating gingerbread houses and people in the coming weeks. Last week they enjoyed making chicken tenders and chips.
The Arts
Year 7 have been completing their scripts on safety and have begun rehearsing.
Year 8 have rehearsed for their end of year performance. We look forward to their final assembly.
Electives
Students have begun making their chopping boards in woodwork and they are beginning to take shape.
Our next future Golfer’s have really taken to the golf course demonstrating their skills. They were not however prepared to be beaten by the mosquitoes on the third hole.
On Thursday 17th November we will host our annual school colour run. Please ensure students come to school dressed in a white t shirt and shoes that can get dirty.
Students will need to bring a change of clothes and shoes for after the colour run.
The colour run will start at 12pm and conclude before lunch. Please also ensure any fundraising booklets are completed and returned to the office by this date.
