Newsletter, Week 4, Term 2, #2
Principal's Report
Dear Parents & Carers,
Welcome to this week’s newsletter. I hope you’ve enjoyed the last few days of sunshine as we head into the colder winter months. With the weather cooling down please ensure your children are dressing appropriately in the school winter uniform. Also remember that if your child is unwell please keep them at home to reduce the spread of cold and flu through the school community.
Last week we had the pleasure of DOBCEL representatives Matt Byrne, Deputy Director: Catholic Education and Berenice Kerr, Board Director visiting our school. Our tour guides Chanel Garreffa and Montana Zappia did a fabulous job of welcoming our guests and showing them around. By all accounts they enjoyed their visit and we appreciated the opportunity to ‘show off’ our wonderful school.
We were pleased to have the opportunity to officially welcome Fr Shaiju to our school community last week with a morning tea. Class Masses resumed this Thursday morning at 10 am in the church with our 1/2 classes attending. We look forward to celebrating our Feast day Liturgies with Fr Shaiju on Tuesday 30th May and seeing much more of him around our school and in the community.
Our annual Mothers Day celebration last Friday was a great success. It was fantastic to welcome so many mothers, grandmothers and special guests. We hope you all enjoyed this special time with your loved ones. I would like to thank all involved for planning and organising our celebration. A special thankyou to our Mothers Day committee; Mikalya McGowan-Rickard, Ellen Bock, Caitlin Chirchiglia, Sophie Westland, Sarah McMonnies and Maryanne Leslie. Thanks to Nicole Zappia, Jess Baldock and Maryanne Leslie for making the delicious scones for morning tea and to our students for leading our liturgy this year. We would also like to thank Sassy Balloons for the beautiful backdrop display for our liturgy and Rotary for the amazing hot donuts.
We held a lockdown drill this week, which is an important part of our schools safety plan and an excellent way to prepare our students in case we ever need to remain in our classrooms due to a problem outside. Thanks to all involved.
Congratulations to Montana Zappia who represented St Mary’s at the Secondary Mallee Division Cross Country in Ouyen this week. Montana performed very well finishing 6th in her age group and qualifying for Secondary Regional Cross Country in St Arnaud. Congratulations to Ja'von Costantino who recently tried out for the Victorian Primary School Basketball squad in Bendigo. We wish both students all the best. Thank you to their parents for supporting them and enabling them both to participate in these events.
Our Secondary students attended the Mildura Field Day today. This provided a hands-on learning experience for our students in agricultural science as well as providing an opportunity for them to get up close and personal to learn about different animals, including snakes, and view a Fizzics Science experiment. We look forward to seeing photos and hearing all about their experiences next week.
Kind regards,
Andrea Welsh
Religion
Catholic Education Week 2023
Catholic Education Week 2023 is going to be celebrated from 21-26 May. The Theme is, ‘Let the words you speak always be full of grace’ – Colossians 4:6. Grace is the gift of God’s presence in our lives. How we engage, speak and dialogue with others can bring God’s presence into being. Our student leadership team will represent St Mary's School as we celebrate Mass with our local schools at St Joseph's College Mercy Campus on Friday 26th May. If any parents would like to attend the Mass can they please let Lisa in the office know by 3pm on Monday 21st May.
Mary Help of Christians Feast Day
Our School Feast Day, the Feast of Mary Help of Christians is celebrated on May 24th. This year our school will celebrate this special day on Tuesday May 30th with a fun activity day for students. This year we will have a guest musician Gen Bryant visit the school and work with our students. The day will conclude with a concert by Gen and her band. Parents are invited to attend the concert in our school gym. The concert will begin at 2pm.
SWPBS
This week our SWPBS is to be respectful at all times.
SWPBS focus for next week 5 is to be considerate of the public.
Primary
Foundation
Throughout the past two weeks in Foundation, we have been continuing to work hard on our letters, letter sounds and tricky words. Also when reading, we have been learning other strategies to help us understand what we have read. For example: looking at the pictures for clues, looking at the beginning sound in the word, checking does the word look right, does it sound right, does it make sense? These techniques will help us become more confident and capable readers. Parents/carers are also welcome to use these prompts/questions with their child at home.
In Mathematics, we have been learning about comparing quantities using the terms more than and less than. In Health, we have been learning about different community helpers and how we can ask for help when needed.
A special thank you to all of the mums, grandmas & special friends for coming along to our Mother’s Day celebration last Friday. We hope you all enjoyed your day on Sunday especially the craft activities that we made here at school for you
Year 1/2
Over the past two weeks the Year 1/2s have been continuing their focus on understanding the difference between fiction and non-fiction texts. Students have explored the features that make up the different text types. To build on their reading skills students have been focusing on rereading a sentence when it does not sound right. This will help students to understand and make connections with the words they are reading. The students are using their knowledge about non-fiction texts to begin understanding how to write their own information texts.
Just a friendly reminder to read everyday and have an adult sign the student diary.
Thank you to all the mums, grandmothers and special friends for coming in for the Mother’s day celebration last week. The 1/2 team hopes everyone had a lovely Sunday celebrating Mother’s day.
Year 3/4
Our Year 3 and 4 students have been looking at how authors keep us interested in a story, and how to write our own narratives that have a ‘sizzling start.’ After doing simple, compound and complex sentences, we have developed these into further writing skills.
Thank you to all those who were able to come along and celebrate Mother’s day with their families. It was great to have such a strong school community event.
Just a few reminders:
- Please try to read regularly at home with your child, or have them read and fill in their diary.
- Full correct school uniform is required at all times. This includes jewellery. This has been regularly published in the newsletter.
Year 5/6
In reading the Year 5/6 students have enjoyed discussing the meaning of the Black Eyed Pea’s song ‘Where is the Love?’. They are learning to analyse the lyrics of the song and infer meaning. In writing we have been getting creative and writing colour poems. These poems use similes to describe colours using your different senses; sight, sound, taste, touch, and smell. All classes will have PE on Friday’s as we are are beginning to train for the Winter Sports (Lightning Prems). Students will participate in either netball, football or soccer.
Just a friendly reminder to read each night and have an adult sign your diary. Homework is due on Friday.
Art
During Term 2 our Visual Art focus will be on construction and sculptures. Students will learn that construction is a 3D artwork or structure. Constructions are both functional and works of art. Throughout the term they will use various materials to create different sculptures.
Year 1/2 have been learning about paper sculptures and 3D art. This week they have created caterpillars by making cylinder shapes from paper and attaching them to a paper leaf. They are super cute and it's amazing how they all have such different personalities!
Year 3/4 have also learnt about various ways to build using paper. This week they have created ‘creature’ sculptures out of paper cylinders and have added texture to it.
Year 5/6 have been learning about various ways they can use paper to join together and build sculptures. They have created paper obstacle courses using the techniques they have learnt. This week we have started to create sculptures of people playing sports using foil.
Secondary
Homeroom
We have quite a busy next 5 weeks of school with events and excursions. Year 7 & 8’s attended the Mildura Field Day today. On Friday the 2nd of June we will be going to the Bendigo Science Discovery Centre, please ensure all notes and money is handed in.
Year 7 & 8 students have whiteboard tables and are encouraged to use the table to assist with their learning. If students wish to use the table they will need to provide their own markers and a cloth or old sock to erase the markers. Students have been given their stationary allocations for this term. Some students have already lost or misplaced some of these items. Can families please ensure these are replaced to maximise learning.
English
In Year 7 and 8, students have planned and began to draft a descriptive recount about a cultural celebration or family tradition that is special to them. It has been great to hear and read about events important to the students and learn more about their culture and traditions.
Science
In Year 7 Science students have been learning about Classification and Linnaeus. In Year 8 Science students have been completing their investigation of the different body systems.
Maths
In Year 8 Maths students are revising for their Fractions Test next Wednesday. Year 7 students have completed their fractions topic with a module test this week. We will begin our focus on Percentages for the next two weeks before moving into our Algebra unit.
A reminder Maths Mate Homework is due on Thursdays and students should be completing at least one Maths pathway module at home.
Physical Education
In PE year 7 & 8 have completed their post time trials for their cross country. A focus for the rest of the term is Fitness.
Health
In year 7 Health students have been looking at Online Safety and Year 8 have been continuing on with Healthy Decisions.
Humanities
In Year 7 they are working on Ancient Egypt and how pictures were used as a form of communication. In Year 8 students are continuing their work on medieval Europe.
Languages
Students are busy designing their Venetian masks for Italian day.
Outdoor Education
Students are preparing team building games and how to use a compass for navigation without google maps.
The Arts
In Year 7 Art students are completing their Space artwork which incorporates all the elements of art. These are looking amazing and will be on display soon.
In Year 8 Art students are completing their Stylised Dead Split artworks which are looking very creative.
Religion
In Year 8 Religion students have been learning about Catherine McAuley and the Mercy Sisters. As part of their assessment they have designed some mosaic art. These are beginning to look great.
Food Technology
This term our Food Technology focus has been looking at different processes and cooking methods. We have focused on the process of creaming butter and sugar using a range of different ingredients including; Butter, Margarine, Castor Sugar, Brown Sugar and Icing Sugar. On Friday last week we made a special gift for our Mothers. This week we made sausage rolls.