Newsletter, W5, T1, 2024

Principal's Report

Dear Parents & Carers,

Term One is now in full swing, everyone is settled with plenty of fun and learning taking place across all areas of the school.

Last Friday our annual School Photos were taken. Although I was in Horsham attending a diocesan leadership meeting, I have it on good authority that the day ran smoothly and our students and teachers were all looking their very best. We look forward to passing the photos on to you once the  photographers send them to us. 

Yesterday we held our Swimming Carnival. It was a wonderful day with Patrician (Green House) taking out the annual trophy. They were closely followed by Xaiver (Red House) with Aquinas (Gold House) in third place. Congratulations, and well done for the fantastic participation and sense of community displayed by all in attendance. Thanks to Des Lowry for his organisation of the day and a special mention to Charlie Ford, who did an excellent job keeping the crowd both informed and entertained in his role as the MC. Congratulations to our age champions who received their medals yesterday and Ironman & Iron women. These students were acknowledged yesterday and will be named in our next newsletter. Well done to the staff for, yet again, taking home the honours in the much anticipated staff/parent/student race. Thank you also to the parents, family and friends who came to support our students and of course to all the spectators and competitors who made the day such a success. As you can imagine a significant amount of time and effort goes into the planning and organisation goes into an event of this size and we really appreciate the students and community members who supported our School by coming along and participating.

The Garage Sale that we held last week was a huge success and thanks to the generous support of the St Mary’s and Robinvale community we were able to find good homes for almost all our excess furniture and other bits and pieces. Thanks to Chris Brouwers who returned to organise and lead the sale for us and to Shaun Nel and Travis Pike for the hours of work they put in to prepare, set up and clean up.

On Wednesday of this week our Year 7 students were lucky enough to participate in the Supporting And Linking Tradeswomen (SALT) workshop. The SALT team has the goal of teaching as many women and girls as possible how to use tools. This initiative is based on research by Fi Shewring, which identified that the majority of women who were succeeding in apprenticeships had been taught to use tools at an early age. The SALT team now travel around offering this unique workshop experience to secondary students all over Australia. This was an exciting opportunity for our Year 7 students to be involved in and we are very grateful for the SALT Team to have included our school in their program.

A friendly reminder that since the beginning of the year we have sent home the following notes that we must retain for our school records:

• Annual Local Excursion & PG Media Consent Form
• Acceptable Use and Cyber Safety Agreement
• Photograph/Recording Permission Form

Thank you to all those who have returned these notes already. If you haven’t please do so asap as it is a requirement that we have these permissions for all students. If you have misplaced your notes please contact the office for a replacement.

Kind regards, 

Andrea Welsh

Parish Report

In support of the 2024 Sacraments of Confirmation, Reconciliation and First Eucharist, the following has been organised.

RECONCILIATION: (Year 4 and above)

Dates to be advised prior to First Eucharist.

FIRST EUCHARIST: (Year 4 and above)

Parents are invited to present their child with an enrolment form at a Parish Mass by 31st March.

Information Group Meeting for Parents: 17th April, 2024

SACRAMENT: 15th June 2024

CONFIRMATION: (Year 3 and above)

Parents are invited to present their child with an enrolment form at any Parish Mass up until 30th June. Information Group meeting for Parents: 17th July, 2024

SACRAMENT: 19th October, 2024

Enrolment forms will be available in the Narthex of the Church as well as at St. Mary’s School Office.

For any further information please contact Father Shaiju on the Parish Office phone - 50 263 068.

SWPBS

The SWPBS focus for this week is to report incidents or concerns to the relevant teacher.

The SWPBS focus for next week  is to respect everyone’s personal space.

Primary

Foundation

The Foundation students have settled into the school routine exceptionally well. We have finalised our beginning of the year Literacy testing and jumped straight into InitiaLit lessons. So far students have learned three sounds with the matching character and action; Maggie Mouse, Sammy Seal and Tommy Tiger.

We have explored the idea of reading; including what the different parts of a book are called, where we start reading on a page and the direction we read and write in a book. Library bags will be sent home next week, it is crucial that they are brought to school each day, even though students may not necessarily change their readers, to allow for students to keep work and notes safe when travelling home.

Year 1/2

Congratulations to all the Year 1s and 2s who participated in the Swimming Carnival on Thursday 29th February. All the students showed great enthusiasm and participation during the day. In the words of the students the carnival was “fun, hot and super fun”.  It was wonderful to see so many students giving the width events ago and even one talented student swimming in a length event.

All classes have now settled into the regular routine of school after spending the first few weeks settling back into school and going through class routines and expectations. In Reading we have been exploring prediction and making connections with a text. In Writing we have been building on sentence writing skills exploring the difference between a sentence and a fragment (part of a sentence). Students are getting very confident with identifying a sentence from a fragment by identifying the subject and verb of the sentence. 

Nightly reading is required for all students and we ask that Parents sign their children's diaries each night.

Year 3/4

The 3/4 students enjoyed the Swimming Carnival  which was a huge success. It was great to watch the excitement and enthusiasm amongst students. The loud chants and cheering were enjoyed by one and all. Congratulations to all the winners and to all those who participated. 

Students have returned to their regular routine after having some time getting to know each other and learning the expectations within the school and our classrooms. We have been  learning to write persuasive texts. Students have been engaged in interesting discussions whereby they shared times when they used persuasion in their day to day lives.

The whole unit has been learning about tennis in their PE lessons. It has been very enjoyable and everyone is learning the how and why of tennis.

Year 5/6

Well done to all our 5/6 students who participated in this week’s Swimming Carnival. It was great to see who attended supporting each other and enjoying themselves.

Recently students were given the opportunity to present and vote for their class captain representatives in 2024. We were delighted with the high level of thought, dedication and deliveries of the speeches students wrote and delivered. Congratulations to the following students who will be representing their classes.

Miss Zappia & Mrs B: Harper Curran & Carter Costantino

Ms Jacky: Tyler Zappia & Rose Corcoran

Mrs C: Yamila Albanese & Charlize Costantino

Reminders: 

• Students are not permitted to use deodorant aerosol sprays at school. These sprayes can affect students with asthma. Remember, roll on are the best!
• Teachers have noticed that many students appear quite hungry during the day, particularly around Brain Food (approx 10am) time. If possible, can parents please pack an extra fruit or vegetable snack for this time. 
• Tennis coaching is continuing again this week. 

• Physical Education (PE) - students are expected to wear their sports uniforms on these days.
• Mrs C - Tuesday & Friday
• Miss Jacky - Tuesday & Thursday (Wednesday instead of Tuesday for Tennis during weeks 6 & 7)
• Mrs B & Miss Zappia - Tuesday & Thursday (Wednesday instead of Tuesday for Tennis during weeks 6 & 7)
• Nightly reading please remind your child to read nightly and sign their diary each night.
• Homework is due on Friday. We will briefly revise homework in class each Friday.

Secondary

Year 7/8 

A huge welcome to Miss Lydia Kamau who has just recently joined our Secondary Team and will be our Year 8 Homeroom Teacher along with Mr Ford who is the Year 7 Homeroom Teacher. 

Please let the Homeroom Teacher know of any concerns or questions you may have.

Homeroom teachers can be contacted via Class Dojo or email:

Year 7 Mr. Ford

cford@smrobinvale.catholic.edu.au

Year 8 Miss Lydia

lkamau@smrobinvale.catholic.edu.au

English

Year 7 has had a great start to the term! We have dived into learning about different text genres and focusing on persuasive writing as we prepare for NAPLAN coming up later on in the term. Students have also written individual goals for the year about what they want to improve on in English so they can always reflect back on and strive towards doing their best.

Year 8 has had a great return from last year! Our unit overview is around ‘The Future’ as we prepare for our assessment task on a Film review called ‘Big Hero 6’. Here, we will be discussing a range of different themes in the text and techniques used to create an engaging movie for all ages. Currently, students are writing persuasive argument agreeing or disagreeing with the statement ‘Advances in Technology are ALWAYS good'.

Maths

Year 7 & 8 Students have been working on their Maths Mates in class with the of the teacher to help fully understand and show the method required for area in maths.  

PE

Just some reminders for when classes have Physical Education (PE) - students are expected to wear their sports uniforms on these days.

Year 7  - Monday 

Year 8 - Thursday 

Due to both Practical lessons being at the last period each of the days mentioned, students can wear their sport uniform all day or choose to get changed straight after lunch but MUST have it. 

Exemptions are:

• You’ve let Mr Ford know by email or class dojo that your PE uniform has been ordered and it has not arrived yet.
• You have a note explaining why you cannot participate in PE due to injury or health reasons

Health

Year 7 has had a jump start in these few weeks. We have been learning about Identity and Diversity as students strive to develop positive relationships within themselves, peers and others around them in the community. 

Year 8 has been great! We have been looking at Nutrition and the 5 main food groups listed by the Australian Guide to Healthy Eating. Within the next few weeks we will be looking at food labels and discussing the impacts of sugar in a variety of foods.

Humanities

This term Year 7, have been discussing Civics & Citizenship and have began with the 3 different levels of parliament in Australia and the Australian Constitution. We have been engaging in a variety of educational videos and brainstorming different scenarios on what responsibilities belong to whom. In the  next couple of weeks we’ll touch on the legal system and have some guest speakers come in from the Victorian police force to share their duties and responsibilities.

Digital Technology

Students have satisfactorily completed their e-safety lessons on cybersafety. They also completed their individual digital footprints.

Performing Arts

We are really excited to offer the Year 7&8 students Performing Arts this semester with Mrs Sutton and Miss Bowcott. We can not wait to see the development of our potentially budding actors.

Grip Leadership 

On Tuesday, February 13th, the School and House Captains of St. Mary's had the privilege of attending the GRIP Leadership Conference in Melbourne. The conference provided an invaluable opportunity for our student leaders to enhance their leadership skills, gain new perspectives, and connect with peers from other schools.

Throughout the day, our Captains participated in a series of workshops and activities designed to develop key leadership qualities such as communication, teamwork, and problem-solving. They engaged in interactive sessions led by experienced facilitators, exploring topics ranging from effective goal-setting to building positive relationships within their teams.

The conference also offered our Captains the chance to network and share ideas with fellow student leaders from different schools. They exchanged insights, strategies, and success stories, gaining inspiration and motivation to further excel in their roles as leaders within our school community.

We would like to extend our sincere gratitude to Mr Lowry and Miss Ash for accompanying us to Melbourne.  We are confident thatour student leaders have returned with new skills, perspectives, and enthusiasm to continue making a positive impact within our school community.