Newsletter W8 T1 2025

Dear Parents & Carers,

Let me begin by apologising for this newsletter being a little late. This term is flying past and has been particularly busy yet very rewarding and full of learning opportunities for our students.

This week we celebrated Harmony Week. Harmony Day is particularly relevant to us here at St Mary’s as it is an opportunity to highlight and learn more about the twenty plus cultures we have represented in our school while reminding ourselves of the value of inclusion and diversity. We are indeed lucky to live and work in such a richly diversified community. To have the opportunity to learn from each other and enjoy such a variety of cultures and languages on a daily basis is invaluable. The level of respect and acceptance that we are able to promote in our school and teach our students because of our unique and truly special community cannot be underestimated.

Our recognition of this important event culminated with a wonderful interactive performance of cultural dances involving all our students, led by the Nikki Vasaj dancers. The performance was opened with a wonderful rendition of ‘We are One’ sung by our very own St Mary’s choir. It was a huge amount of fun and enjoyed by all. In addition to the dancing we enjoyed a shared lunch of butter chicken and dumplings. An enormous thank you to Gulab & Rajveer Bal, parents of Aaron and Gurevelyn, a new family to our school who donated their time to cook butter chicken for all 330 of us. We truly valued the enormous effort this took and appreciate that they were willing to share a delicious traditional dish from their Indian culture with us. It was delicious! Thanks also to Jack Dang & Elain Chan from Eliane’s Kitchen who provided us with no less than 500 dumplings. Another enormous effort that we were extremely grateful for.

Another highlight of the celebrations were the colourful and informative cultural displays hung up around the school. Each classroom selected a culture represented in our student population to learn about and then created an exhibit to showcase their learning. Our amazing Harmony Day organising committee also prepared some beautiful artwork to enhance the student displays. These displays are highly informative and a delight to look at. I encourage all of you to come and walk through the school to view them. A huge thank you to the committee, Maryanne Leslie, Reema Madhur, Jill Appleton, Sophie Westland, Sereima Waqalevu, Tehan Kelleher and Asela Sauaki who worked incredibly hard to make Harmony Day such a memorable experience for us all. 

Over the past couple of weeks our students in Years 3, 5 & 7 have undertaken NAPLAN testing. Congratulations to all the students who participated and to the staff whose professionalism and support for students throughout the test period has been outstanding and much appreciated. We won’t receive the results until much later in the year but once we have the reports we will let you know so you can collect them from the school.

Today we sent a bus full of excited Year 3/4 students, and their equally excited teachers, off to Lake Cullulleraine for their annual camp. Camps are a critical part of our curriculum as they provide students to develop social skills, independence and experience activities that they may not otherwise have access to in a safe and supportive environment. We look forward to hearing all about their adventures when they return Friday afternoon.

Next week a group of our students will receive the Sacrament of Reconciliation for the first time. Please keep these students and their families in our prayers during this sacred and special time.

Next week we will end the term with an Easter Liturgy to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus and this very significant time in our liturgical year. The liturgy will commence at 9.15am and we invite you all to join us in this significant celebration of our faith. At 12.45pm  we will hold our annual Easter Raffle which is always a lot of fun and a great way to finish our term.  Thanks to everyone who has already generously donated Easter eggs for the raffle, please keep them coming!

Kind regards, 

Andrea Welsh

The SWPBS focus for week 9 is to stay within the designated areas.

The SWPBS focus for week 10 is to contribute to a clean, tidy and safe environment.

School Wide Positive Behaviour Awards Sponsorship

As we continue our journey to support our students through the School Wide Positive Behaviour Support (SWPBS) Framework, we are seeking sponsorship from local businesses. Below is an outline of the different levels of sponsorship we are seeking.

Sponsorship is a wonderful way to advertise your business while supporting our school. Sponsorship will be used to provide a weekly award to a student from each area of our school behaviour matrix: We are Respectful, We are Safe and We are Learners, which will be presented at our assembly.

The awards will be given to students who have been observed demonstrating Respectful, Safe and Learner behaviours. Recipients will receive a certificate and a REBA gift card.

This sponsorship program will enable us to support our local businesses in the Robinvale and Euston community while we recognize and promote positive behaviour at St Mary’s. If you are interested in sponsoring this initiative, please contact the office.

Foundation

Hands on Maths - Vincent, Hendrix and with help from Hugo, together ordered numbers from 1-10 and then showed this value using items from the classroom. Other maths topics covered over the last few weeks have involved our students noticing 2D shapes around the school and making their own circles, squares, rectangles and triangles. They have also found creative ways to measure using objects and to continue a repeating pattern.

We have new letter sounds in English - Mm, Ss and Tt.

It has been fun learning the actions to each letter sound and practising how to write these correctly.

Both prep classes have Library borrowing each Wednesday. Please keep library books safe at home and remember to bring the books back in the bag provided. 

Year 1/2

The Year 1/2 students have really been busy in their Initial Lit classes with the Grade 2 students completing lots of spelling practice and understanding how to read with fluency and expression. While the Grade 1 students have finished up their review of their Foundation sounds and words and will begin introducing new sounds next week. 

Year 3/4

The year 3 students have successfully completed their NAPLAN Assessments. It was a pleasure to see them show confidence when appearing for the test.

The year  3/4 students  are looking forward to the upcoming Lake Cullulleraine School Camp. Here are a few tips to help you prepare your child for the camp.

• Talk to your child- Encourage them and address their concerns.

• Reduce the sense of the unknown- Make them familiar with the place by showing pictures or talking about it. Encourage them to clarify their doubts from the teachers during  school camp meetings.

• Practice sleepovers

• Practice 'independence' skills at home. For example: applying sunscreen , turning off shower taps etc.

• Prepare, make lists, and pack together. It's exciting for them to help prepare and pack. It will also help them be aware of where all the things are and all that need to come back home again!

• Keep communication with school staff. 

• Keep positive.

Please let us know if you have any queries regarding the camp. The 3/4 teacher team will be happy to help.

Year 5/6

Firstly, a big well done to all of the Year 5 students who have completed their NAPLAN assessments over the last 2 weeks. It was fantastic to see everyone approach the tests with enthusiasm and determination and all should be proud of their efforts. 

Also this week, the 5/6 students have been celebrating Harmony Week in their classrooms by reading different books and engaging in discussion about the different cultures that make up our classrooms. We all feel very lucky to be around such multiculturalism and are looking forward to it all culminating on Monday the 24th with our school Harmony Day celebration. On this day students are encouraged to wear a splash of orange to school, and will take part in a cultural dance workshop.

Homework will return next week, to be returned to school by Friday. As always, please encourage your child to be reading each night and recording this in their student diaries. If possible, extra practice of recalling times table facts up to 12 would be beneficial as well.

Thanks and have a great week!

Art

During Term 1 all Primary Classes have explored various modelling techniques using play dough, model magic, plasticine and air dry clay.

Preps have loved making long snakes and lines out of play dough and are currently working on creating a caterpillar out of model magic. They have started using water colours to paint the leaves for their caterpillars to sit on.

Year ½ have made very realistic pizzas using model magic and this week have made some delicious looking cupcakes with icing and even a cherry on top!

Year 3/4 have continued to work hard on making their plasticine self portraits. They are looking absolutely amazing and we can’t wait to share the finished work.

Year ⅚ have worked in groups to plan and create a diorama based on a miniature world. They have painted, used various materials such as pipe cleaners, cotton wool and clay. There are outer space worlds, candy land, dinosaur worlds and even a world of basketball.

Year 7/8

It is hard to believe that we are only two weeks away from the end of the term!

Firstly, a huge well done to our Year 7 students who recently sat their NAPLAN tests. They conducted themselves exceptionally well, demonstrating focus and resilience under test conditions. We are very proud of their efforts!

The Year 7 students have also been busy writing letters to students in Villers-Bretonneux, and we eagerly await their responses. This exchange is a fantastic opportunity to build connections and cultural understanding.

Our Year 8 students had a special visit from The Nationals Member for Mildura, Mrs. Jade Benham MLA, as part of their studies on the role of an MP within parliament. This was a great opportunity for them to deepen their understanding of how the government works and ask insightful questions. 

Last Monday, the delicious aroma of Irish Stew filled the Food Technology room as we celebrated St. Patrick’s Day. This truly was a paddock-to-plate experience, thanks to Corcoran’s potatoes and Lamattina’s carrots. A huge thank you to these families for their generous support of our school.

The Year 7 & 8 classes have been busy this week sculpting ‘Monster Bowls’ out of air dry clay. They had to design their monster ensuring it had a use such as pencil holder, pot plant, key holder etc. They also had to ensure they used the pinch pot method, score and slip to join clay pieces together and were encouraged to include texture on their monsters. Next week we will begin to paint them. 

A big congratulations to all the students who participated in the basketball finals this week! It was great to see students actively engaged with their teams and demonstrating sportsmanship.

Looking ahead, we are excited to see you at the upcoming Parent-Teacher Interviews in Week 10 on April 1st and 2nd. This is a great opportunity to discuss student progress and celebrate achievements.

We also encourage everyone to continue supporting Project Compassion by sending in cans and plastic bottles. All proceeds from recycling will go towards this important cause, making a meaningful difference in the lives of those in need.

Wishing you all a wonderful weekend and remember that it is Earth Hour this Saturday 22nd March - we can all play a part!

Art

The Year 7 & 8 classes have been busy this week sculpting ‘Monster Bowls’ out of air dry clay. They had to design their monster ensuring it had a use such as pencil holder, pot plant, key holder etc. They also had to ensure they used the pinch pot method, score and slip to join clay pieces together and were encouraged to include texture on their monsters. Next week we will begin to paint them.