Newsletter, Week 2, Term 2, #1

Principal's Report

Dear Parents & Carers,

Welcome to our first term 2 newsletter. Although we’ve only been back at school for two weeks there has already been plenty happening. 

We started the term with our annual ANZAC Day ceremony. This year this important occasion on our school calendar was made even more poignant by having a live bugler, Siosiua Taumoefolau, with us. We’d like to extend a special thank you to Siosiua for joining us and for making the event even more memorable and moving than it usually is. Thanks also to Chris Brouwers for organising the ceremony and for our student leaders who so capably read. Thank you to Maryanne Leslie and our two school captains, Carla Nguyen and Chanel Gareffa, who proudly represented our school at the public ceremony on Tuesday. Lest we forget.

This Tuesday we ran our annual School Cross Country at the football ovals. This was followed by a sausage sizzle lunch and presentations back at school. It was a wonderful event, thoroughly enjoyed by all in attendance and yet another way for us to come together as a school community. Many students from year 3 up went on to represent us at the School Sports Victoria Sunraysia South Division (SSVSSD) Cross Country in Mildura on Thursday. I’m proud to be able to report that they did exceptionally well bringing home trophies for Champion School in the 12 year old boys, 11 year old girls and 11 year old boys categories. Amazing job everyone and congratulations! Special thanks to Des Lowry for his organisation and coordination of both of these events.

On Wednesday our Class Captains travelled to Mildura with Fiona Pike and Nicole Zappia to attend the Grip Leadership conference. This is becoming an important event on our school calendar and provides an opportunity for our upcoming leaders to meet others with similar roles in other schools and further develop their leadership skills. Well done to all who attended.

While this was happening Prep reading meetings were taking place back at school. Our Preps have been at school for over a term now and it is very rewarding to see how much they have grown academically, socially, emotionally and physically too! Thanks to all the parents who attended and to Ellen Bock & Mikayla McGowan-Rickard (our Prep teachers) for leading the meetings and for all the work they do on a day to day basis helping our youngest students take the first steps into the wonderful world of reading!

If you have been to the school lately you will know that we have now moved into our new administration building. The old building no longer exists and the builders have begun laying the foundations for our brand new classroom and bus shelter/outdoor learning area which is exciting to see. We are slowly but surely settling into our new home and it is definitely an improvement on the old one! A friendly reminder that students should continue using Parke Street and the temporary bus entrance to enter and exit the school. Anyone who comes to the school outside of drop off and pick up times should use the front door of the new admin building as all other entrances will be locked during the day for child safety reasons.

Last week at assembly I spoke to our students about school hats as I’ve noticed that some have developed a habit of writing on the brims. School hats are a part of the school uniform and as such should be treated with respect and kept neat, tidy and presentable at all times. If you notice your child has written on their hat please remind them of this and perhaps consider purchasing a new hat if their old one is not in good condition. Hats are available from our uniform shop for $10 each. 

Another issue we have at the moment, in regard to uniforms, is students wearing jewellery to school. Again, I’d appreciate it if you could remind your child that the vast majority of jewellery is not permitted to be worn at school. This is for safety reasons as earrings, bracelets and other items are easily caught on things or can scratch etc. leading to injury. These types of items are also easily lost which can lead to students being unnecessarily upset.  I’ve included below our uniform requirements for your information and thank you for your support and cooperation with this.

School Uniform

It is the expectation of the school that all students wear the correct school uniform. Decisions in regards to our uniform have been made to make sure it is serviceable, practical and affordable. It is the responsibility of parents to ensure that their children come to school wearing the correct uniform. If for some reason, particular items are not available on a given day, a note explaining this should be sent with the child. 

We have a Summer Uniform and a Winter Uniform, and we leave it up to parents to decide when their child transitions from one to the other.

Additional information regarding the School Uniform:

• School colours are navy blue, light blue and white

• Only St Mary’s beanie or school hat to be worn at school

• School colours scarf and gloves may be worn in winter, no logos or coloured patterns 

• Rain coats in school colours may be worn in wet weather

• Full summer, winter or PE uniform to be worn, combinations of each are not acceptable. The exception to this is that shorts may be worn in place of tracksuit pants in winter if preferred

• White socks to be above the ankle, no logos

• Shoes must be all black, no coloured soles or logos

• Only school colours hair ties/headbands to be worn (navy blue, light blue, white)

• PE uniform to be worn on PE days only

• No nail polish or makeup allowed

• No jewellery with the exception of a watch (excluding those with a camera,  internet capacity or cellular network), one pair of studs or sleepers & religious medallions worn on the inside of clothing

• School bags with the school emblem printed on them are available at the uniform shop for purchase but are not compulsory.

Kind regards, 

Andrea Welsh

Religion

We welcome Fr Shaiju Mathew to our St Mary's community. Fr Shaiju is our new Parish Priest in Robinvale. We look forward to joining parish masses again this term and having Fr Shaiju celebrate masses and liturgies with us here at school. 

SWPBS

This week our SWPBS is to be a positive role model.

SWPBS focus for next week 3 is to participate and be actively engaged in activites and experiences.

Primary

Foundation

Well done to all Foundation students on such a successful transition back to school after the holidays! This week, we have started bringing home our first InitiaLit reader which is very exciting. Please ensure your child brings their library bag to school every Monday, Wednesday and Friday to change their reader and picture storybook. Reader diaries will be checked every Friday by the classroom teacher to ensure regular reading is occurring. We really appreciate all parents and carers for attending our InitiaLit parent information sessions on Wednesday. If you have any questions along the way please don’t hesitate to contact us.

So far we have introduced 11 letter/sounds, with their matching character and movement. We have begun learning tricky words, such as I, the, my, is, a. These words all have a part of them that are ‘tricky’ and we cannot sound them out, so they must be learned by sight. In Religious Education lessons we are looking at the idea of ‘wonder’. To begin, we went on a nature walk and collected things from around our school that is made of nature, looking at the wonder that is our world. This is a great time for students to begin to develop their curiosity and ask questions regarding the things they wonder about.

Year 1/2

Welcome back to Term 2! We have had a great start to the Term beginning with an Anzac Day Liturgy on our first day back and our cross country on Tuesday this week. Students are to be congratulated on such an amazing effort. Great running by everyone!

We have been exploring the difference between fiction and nonfiction texts over the past two weeks. This Term we will also be looking at the structure of different texts in our Reading lessons and we will begin to write our own information texts in our Writing lessons. It has been great to see quite a number of home readers being exchanged regularly and we encourage everyone to keep up the reading at home. 

A reminder that if you have any questions or concerns please contact the class teacher via Dojo or the office.

Year 3/4

Term 2 is off and racing! We have had a great start to our learning with our cross country event being run this week with perfect weather and excellent participation. Congratulations to all the Year 3/ 4 students who competed in the next round in Mildura. 

In reading we are looking at finding literal and inferred meaning from different texts and images. We find the clues from the text, think about what we already know and then figure out what makes sense. This gives us a deeper understanding of the text and what the author wants us to know.

In writing we are looking at different sentences to help develop our own sentence structure. We are learning about simple, compound and complex sentences.

Each student has a reader diary to record their reading. Students need to bring their reader and diary to school everyday. We encourage all students to regularly read at home.

Year 5/6

We have had a great start to Term 2. The Year 5/6 students have settled well into classroom routines and are eager to learn. Students have been exploring the structure and language features of an informative text in both reading and writing this term. They have enjoyed using their research skills to write information reports on a chosen topic and publishing these in their workbook. In Religion this term, students are learning the concept of ‘Gratitude’ and incorporating thankfulness into our daily prayers.  A reminder that homework is due this Friday.

Secondary

Homeroom

In Year 7 & 8 Homeroom we have been practicing for the Cross Country which paid off for our age champions so well done to all those students who participated on Tuesday.  Our school-wide positive behaviour focus this week was about being a role model and exploring who was a role model our own eyes and it was great to hear that many Mums were regarded as one of their role models.

English

In Year 7 and 8 English, students are exploring and learning about different cultures and traditions through reading a range of texts from different cultural perspectives. Students will be writing a recount about their own culture and traditions next week.

Maths

In Year 8 maths students have started  their new topic on Fractions. A reminder that Maths Mates are due in every Wednesday.

Science

Year 7's have been investigating and exploring ideas for the Science Fair, which will be held in August. They have begun the order of Classification.  Yr 8’s are currently working on a Body Systems assignment. They will be body mapping their assignment for display.

Religion

In Year 7 & 8 RE students have been learning about the history of our school and why we are named  St Mary’s and who Catherine McAuley was and the relevance to our school.

PE

Both Year 7 and 8 students have performed their cardiac fitness pre-test in preparation for the cross-country, run on Tuesday. They will follow this event with a post test of their fitness performance and record their results

Health

In Year 7 Health students have been discussing and showing their understanding of online safety when using digital platforms.  Year 8’s have studied nutrition and are moving on to looking at making healthy decisions regarding physical activity.

Humanities

Yr 7 and 8 students have begun history with Chronolgy and learning to read timelines. They have created their own timeline to understand their place in History. The 7’s will move on to Ancient Egypt and the 8’s will study the Middle Ages.

Outdoor Ed

Year 8 students have been doing their basic first aid training and will be tested this Friday on basic first aid.

Food Technology

This term in Food Technology students will be focusing on a range of different cooking methods and techniques. They will also be busy preparing for our Food Technology showcase at the end of the term.

The Arts

The Art elements of line, form, tone, texture, shape and colour are being explored in Year 7 Art. Students are creating outer space compositions and expressing their understanding of light through darkness.

Year 8 students are consolidating their knowledge of the Art elements through a graphite composition. This will follow through with a stylized piece in colour.

Electives

The Year 7 & 8 students went to the tennis courts to have a hit of tennis this week during electives. Thank you to the Robinvale Lawn Tennis Club for opening up and putting up the nets for us.

ANZAC DAY

On ANZAC Day we remember, thank and pay our respects to all those who have served our country.

'Lest We Forget'