Newsletter, W2, T4, 2024
Principal's Report
Dear Parents & Carers,
Welcome to Term 4!
As usual we’ve hit the ground running and are excited to be heading into another productive and enjoyable term.
We started off with a very busy week one. On Thursday 10th October some of our Secondary students headed off to Bendigo to represent St Mary’s in the Regional Athletics. Congratulations to the team of competitors who did extremely well to make it to this level of competition. We are extremely proud of their achievements. Special mention goes to Javon Costantino who placed second in the 800m and 1500m running events and to Rickey Diwedi who came third in shot put.
The Secondary athletics was followed by the Primary Regionals, also in Bendigo. Once again the team of competitors were outstanding and each of them is to be congratulated on reaching this level of competition. Well done to Macy Aikman who came third in High Jump, a great achievement!
A huge thanks to Des Lowry for his coordination of these, and all of our sporting events. This takes a considerable amount of organisation behind the scenes and often involves very early starts and late finishes to ensure students arrive at venues on time and get home safely. Des’ ongoing commitment and dedication to ensuring our students have every opportunity to participate in a variety of sporting events in his role as PE Leader is certainly paying dividends. Of course, Des does not operate alone and there is always a team of willing and supportive staff behind him, so thank you to these people as well.
Also in the first week, we celebrated Grandparents Day & Special Friends and what an amazing celebration it was! The morning started with a lovely liturgy led by our Year 7 and students. Maddie from STOMP worked throughout the week with our primary students to prepare a fantastic performance from each year level building up to the grand finale with every student involved. Of course, Grandparents & Special Friends Day would not mean much without our grandparents, parents, family members and friends who come along to enjoy the show, morning tea but most of all the company of our students. The feedback you gave indicated everyone enjoyed the event and we are extremely grateful for your support and pleased to be able to celebrate our wonderful school and community with you. We’re already looking forward to next year!
Once again, a significant amount of behind the scenes work takes place before a day like this can happen. Jess Baldock and Nicole Zappia deserve a special mention as they were the driving force behind the day and put in many hours of preparation. Thanks also to our wonderful team of LSOs who are always there to make sure things run smoothly, that morning tea is ready and, of course the clean up occurs. We would not be able to have these kinds of celebrations without them. A huge thank you to all the families who provided the delicious morning tea which topped our morning!
Another significant event in our school calendar is taking place as I write this. Our Year 1/2 classes are on an excursion in Mildura for the second day of their annual sleepover. By all accounts the sleepover on Thursday night was a huge amount of fun and everyone got at least a little bit of sleep despite the thunder and lightning! Well done to all the students who participated. The Year 1/2 Sleepover is often the first time students have stayed away from home. It’s a very important step in every child’s social and emotional development and they do a fantastic job to manage it so well. It goes without saying that the staff who organise and participated in the sleepover deserve a huge congratulations and thank you. Well done to Ferne O’Louglin, Aidan Davies, Sophie Westland, Nicole Zappia and Mikayla Simpson for all their work before and during the sleepover and also to all the other staff who volunteered their time to support them. Although it was an amazing experience, I’m sure everyone involved will be looking forward to sleeping in their own bed tonight!
Last but certainly not least, please remember the students who are celebrating the Sacrament of Confirmation this weekend. We offer our congratulations and our prayers to each of these students as all the preparation they've been undertaking over the past months culminates in this wonderful celebration of faith.
Kind regards,
Andrea Welsh
Wellbeing
THe SWPBS focus for Week 2 is to respect the privacy of others (toilets).
Primary News
Foundation
Welcome back to Term 4!
This term, we welcome back Miss Pepping. She has been travelling around Australia since the beginning of the year and has shared many great adventures. Miss Pepping has taken over Room 2 from Mrs Brigante as she has begun her leave to welcome her baby.
This Term will be full of great learning as we finish the InitiaLit program for Foundation and our Maths units of work. The pace is quick as this happens, and it is important that students attend school regularly to avoid missing important learning. Also, a friendly reminder to please check your child's reading diary daily. It allows both teachers and families to ensure that reading practice is happening at home.
A reminder that our PE days are as follows and these are the days that students can wear PE uniform:
Monday - PE with Mr Lowry
Thursday - PE With classroom teacher
Year 1/2
Welcome back to Term 4! We’ve had a great start, and we are excited to share some of the wonderful moments ahead. The children gave an outstanding Stomp performance at the start of the term, impressing their grandparents and special friends with their energy and teamwork.
What an end to week 2 with our Year 1/2 Sleepover, which included lots of fun and team-building activities. We also enjoyed our excursion to Mildura. Stay tuned for more details and recounts in our next newsletter!
Thank you for your continued support, and here’s to a fantastic Term 4!
Year 3/4
And just like that, Term 4 has arrived!
This term, we welcome back Miss RM who will be working alongside Mrs Kennedy in 3/4AK on Thursday’s and Friday’s.
We have lots of exciting learning opportunities coming up this term; in science we will be answering the question “Bees - friends or foes?”, in humanities we will be learning all about Australia and in Religion we will be learning about the birth of Jesus as told to us by Matthew in his Gospel. In writing we have taken the time to fine tune our understanding of sentence structure; the children have enjoyed upskilling themselves!
A huge congratulations to our children who represented St Mary’s in Bendigo for the Loddon Mallee Regional Athletics Day. They made us proud, as always!
Important dates to remember:
Friday 25th October - 3/4AK Assembly (2.20pm in the school gym)
PE Days: Monday (Class PE) and Wednesday - Room 9
Friday (both PE sessions) - Room 8
Wednesday and Friday - Room 7
Children should wear their PE uniform and sneakers only on these days.
Year 5/6
Wow! Can you believe that it is term four already?
You may have noticed our classroom displays highlighting figurative language about our Grandparents. Figurative language refers to words or expressions that go beyond their literal meaning to create more vivid or imaginative descriptions. Some examples we had were:
‘My Nonna is like a fresh cookie from the oven, warm and soft.’
‘Nonno is as helpful as a toolbox, always fixing broken things.’
‘Grammy is like a fire she’s always burning energy.’
‘Bar is like a guard dog, always protecting his family.’
‘My Granma has a heart of gold’
‘My Nonno is like a generator because he never stops working.’
'My Nonna is like a bubbling pot of pasta, full of energy...'
Congratulations to our students who represented St Mary’s at Bendigo for the Loddon Mallee Regional Athletics Day. As always, they represented our school with pride and great sportsmanship.
In Humanities this term, we will learn about the difference between a need and a want and how consumer choice can influence what we buy, and in Science, students will explore the properties of light.
PE/ Sport days for each class:
Room 10 - Tuesday and Friday
Room 15 - Tuesday and Thursday
Room 16 - Monday and Tuesday
Students are to wear their sports uniform and sneakers only on these days.
Secondary News
Year 7/8 Homeroom
Well done to all the Year 7& 8 students who represented St Mary’s last Thursday in Bendigo you gave it your best shot. A special mention to Javon who came second in the 800 m and to Rickey who came third in the discus..
All students are busy writing letters for the capsule as part of the celebration of Robinvale’s centenary on the 26th of October.
English
Year 7: Students are preparing for their new unit: Creative Writing. They have been analysing the structure and focusing on techniques to incorporate in their writing.
Year 8: Introduced new unit: Poetry. Discussing the poetic techniques and things to look for when analysing a poem. They have been introduced to Banjo Patterson and looked at some of his famous material.
PE
Year 7: Invasion games. Soccer - practising passing, teamwork and strategy to overcome obstacles in mini games.
Year 8: Fundamental movement skills in Cricket. Throwing, catching, striking the ball and bowling.
Health
Year 7: Changes in me: Analysing and discussing the changes in adolescence and the supportive resources & strategies they may use to overcome when faced with these pressures.
Year 8: Moving for Success: Understanding the basic fundamental movement skills and designing a lesson that focuses on these movement skills for a class from Prep-grade 2.
Humanities
Year 7: Geography - Water as a resource in Australia
Year 8: Geography - Natural Features around the world and Australia
Languages
Year 7 and Year 8: French Introduction - Greetings, Dates, Numbers, Days.
Steam
Year 7 and Year 8: Design Project - Creating and designing paper aeroplane challenge, to travel the furthest. Practice for individual design challenge over the upcoming weeks.
Science
Year 8: Had fun learning about Atoms and Elements and made beautiful models of atoms of selected elements of the periodic table.
After School Travel Arrangements
Please note that the school office must be notified of any changes to travel arrangements, for example ASC, travelling on a different bus, pick up before 3.00pm.
Notification can be made by email (lzappia@smrobinvale.catholic.edu.au), phoning the school on 50263483 or note sent with your child.
If there has been no notification from a parent or carer, students will need to travel home via their normal arrangements.
