Newsletter, W4, T3, 2024

Dear Parents & Carers,

Welcome to this week’s newsletter.

It’s hard to believe we have been back at school for four weeks already! There are lots of exciting events happening in the coming weeks that we are eager to share with you. Next week is Science Week, and the theme is 'Species Survival - More than just sustainability.' Our Year 7 and 8 students have been busy preparing for their Science Fair displays and experiments, which will be showcased on the 13th and 14th of August. We look forward to seeing what they have to share. On Thursday, the 15th of August, we are hosting the Fizzics Science Show. Students from Robinvale College will join us for these shows, making it a truly collaborative and educational event.

Thursday, the 15th of August, is the Feast of the Assumption, a Holy Day of Obligation in the Catholic Church. This is one of the most important feast days of the year, celebrating the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary into heaven. Primary students will attend Mass at 12.45pm, and secondary students will attend at 10am. Family and friends are welcome to join us for this special celebration.

Next week, we are delighted to welcome two new staff members to St Mary’s: Ruairi Meban and Jill Appleton. Ruairi, a secondary teacher from Ireland, will join our secondary teaching team. He will teach Year 7 Maths, Year 7 & 8 Languages, Year 7 & 8 Humanities, and Year 7 & 8 STEM. Jill, originally from Ballarat, is a primary teacher with experience both in Australia and internationally. She will take over from Jess Baldock as the classroom teacher in Room 9 and will remain a Year 3/4 classroom teacher for the remainder of the year. We are thrilled to have Ruairi and Jill join us, and we know that everyone will make them feel welcome here at St Mary’s and in the wider Robinvale community.

After a successful day at the Division Lightning Premiers in Red Cliffs, our Netball A Team and AFL Team have qualified for the Regional Competition in Swan Hill. Our netballers competed on Thursday, August 8th, and the footballers will compete on Tuesday, August 13th. We extend our gratitude to Fiona Shawcross, Clare Smith, Mark Zappia and our 5/6 teachers for giving up their time to coach and support our students. Well done to both teams for proudly representing our school!

Our Year 5/6 students and teachers are preparing to head to Campaspe Downs for their camp in Week 6. The students are looking forward to the opportunity to connect with peers outside school while participating in a range of experiences. It promises to be an enjoyable and exciting time for all involved.

We are also happy to announce that Book Week will be celebrated on the 20th of August. This year’s Book Week theme is ‘Reading is Magic.’ There will be a Book Week parade in the gym at 9am. We look forward to seeing our students dressed up in character, celebrating the magic of reading together. Everyone is invited to attend!

Kind regards,

Andrea Welsh

The SWPBS focus for this week is using the toilets during break times.

The SWPBS focus for next week is to participate positively and be a good role model.

Foundation

Foundation students have been learning lots over the last few weeks. We are exploring lots of new concepts in Math, including subtraction and 3D shapes. Students have enjoyed using different items to act out subtraction stories. In InitiaLit we have learned many new digraphs and tricky words.

In the next few weeks a note will be sent home about our excursion to Mildura and Prep Tea on September 2nd. This is an exciting opportunity for students and staff to experience new things. In Mildura we will be watching a show at the Mildura Arts Centre! This is a great opportunity for students to learn about etiquette in a theatre and around the public. 

For Prep tea we will share an afternoon snack at school, followed by a few fun activities. We will then share dinner and dessert before parents can join us for an activity before heading home at around 7pm.

If you have any questions or concerns please contact the classroom teacher as we are able to discuss our plans with you. 

Year 1/2

Year 1/2 have been busy working on their Informative writing pieces. They have been learning how to find the information, to write the information into their own informative piece. Through this the students have been learning about the Olympics and Australian animals. 

The 1/2 teachers would like to remind families to encourage students to read and fill out their daily reading diaries regularly to return to school regularly.

Year 3/4

Recently, in our reading and writing lessons, we have focused on developing students' ability to make inferences from texts and images. Students have been introduced to narrative poetry, learning about its various elements, and have started to compose their own pieces.

The Year 3/4 teachers would like to remind students to bring their diaries to school each day. This practice helps students develop good work habits by consistently recording important information in their diaries.

Year 5/6

On a windy day at Red Cliffs, our Year 5-6 students participated in the Lightning Premierships on July 24th. Staff have again continued to be proud of our students, who displayed excellent sportsmanship towards each other and the opposition teams. While the soccer students were unsuccessful (even though we scored 10 - 0 in one game!), our Netball and AFL students made it to the next round in Swan Hill. We wish them all the best as they head off to represent St Mary’s once again.

Our focus theme in English has been the Olympics. We have been learning more about this event by completing comprehension activities, focussing on locating key information and then writing well-structured sentences to answer questions. This work leads nicely to our next topic - Discussions.

This Thursday, we attended the Parish mass at 10am on Thursday. This time, the Secondary students joined us. 

Our camp is fast approaching and scheduled for August 19th - Thursday 22nd. ALL students NOT attending camp are expected to be at school and will be marked on the roll accordingly. If you need another packing list, please let your teacher know. 

Please encourage and support your child in completing their homework. Homework is handed out on Mondays and is then due on Fridays. Again, nightly reading is strongly encourage

Homeroom 7/8

Next week is an exciting time for our secondary students as they showcase their Science Fair Projects. Parents are warmly invited to attend the presentation on Tuesday, 13th August, from 9 to 10 am. This event will be followed by the highly anticipated Fizzics Science Show on Thursday, 15th August, a day that also marks our celebration of the Feast of the Assumption. We look forward to an engaging week filled with scientific exploration and community celebration.

English

Year 7: Planning and Writing Descriptive Paragraphs. Learning Simple, Compound and Complex sentences.

Year 8: Frankenstein & Gothic context. Analysing the different perspectives of both the Creature and Frankenstein. Talking about first impressions and emotive languages used by Mary Shelley to emphasise meaning.

PE

Year 7: Preparations for Athletics carnival; High Jump & Relays.

Year 8: Preparations for Athletics carnival; High Jump & Discus

Health

Year 7: 6 essential nutrients: Researching & Designing a poster in a group. Presenting their findings to the class. 

Year 8: Fit For LIfe: Discussing the Health & Skill related components with Fitness. Participating in a range of activities that help measure the Health & Skill related components in sport.

Careers

Our Year 7 & 8 students have been out and about visiting our local businesses including Pioneer Ford, the Resource Centre, the Aged Care at  RDHS thank you to Alison Watts and to Lorraine Connell at the Riverside Hostel for allowing us to visit and play bingo with the residents.

Food Technology

The St Mary’s Kitchen Rules Grand Finale for Year 7 and Year 8 students was held on Wednesday with great success. The event showcased the culinary talents of our young chefs, who all made amazing dishes.

Well done to all the Year 7 and Year 8 students for their hard work and creativity in the kitchen. Each student brought their unique flair to the competition, impressing everyone with their delicious and innovative dishes.

A special thank you goes out to the parents who attended and participated as taste testers. Your suppor tand feedback were invaluable and greatly appreciated by the students.

The judges now face the difficult task of deciding on the winners, given the high quality and variety of dishes presented. We will have one winner from Year 7 and one from Year 8, and the results will be announced soon.

Congratulations again to all the students for their outstanding efforts and to the parents for their enthusiastic participation.

Science

National Science Week Theme 2024 - Species Survival More than just Sustainability

Our Year 7 & 8 students will be showcasing their Science Fair Projects to our parents and students  next Tuesday and Wednesday in the Gym

BOOK WEEK 2024

 Book Week Dress Up Day: Tuesday August 20

It’s time to start thinking about your book week costumes! The theme for book week is ‘Reading is
Magic’, a celebration of reading stories and their amazing power to transport minds. 

More information will be provided closer to the date.

Father's Day Raffle

We have put together a Father's Day raffle to continue with our fundraising efforts this year. Tickets will be going home next week with students and more information will be shared.

ROBINVALE COUNTRY MARKET

When:

Sunday August 11th 2024

Where:

    Caix Square from 11.00am - 3.00pm