Term 2 - 26th April, 2023

Principal - Mrs Katrina Dunne

Welcome back to Term 2!

This term, we invite parents and volunteers into our classrooms in an effort to increase our parent engagement across our school. We are blessed to live in a small community where relationships between school and home are well entrenched. What exactly is parent engagement I hear some of you ask. Parent engagement in schools refers to the involvement of parents in their child's education and school activities. It means parents taking an active interest in their child's academic progress, attending school events, volunteering at school, communicating regularly with teachers and school staff, and supporting their child's learning at home. Parent engagement is important because it helps to create a positive and supportive learning environment for children, fosters strong relationships between parents and teachers, and ultimately leads to better academic outcomes for students. We would like to provide opportunities for all parents to be involved in meaningful ways that align with their interests and schedules. Please offer any ideas to your classroom teacher to share with our school team. We will implement an idea shared last term and offer some presentation snippets at school pick up time soon. Watch this space 😊

Tuckshop Volunteers Needed! 

NO TUCKSHOP THIS FRIDAY - 28TH APRIL 2023

We require helpers in our school tuckshop each Friday. If you would like to get involved, please contact your classroom teacher with the date that you are available. Tuckshop runs every Friday (with some preparation required on Thursday).

Show Holiday

A reminder that we have our annual show holiday on Friday, 19^th May. Our students have produced a piece of work in The Arts last term and will work on another entry piece this term for the show display! Please take the time to visit the schoolwork pavilion and celebrate your child’s efforts. Show work results will be published in the newsletter following the show.

Uniform at St Mary’s

The St Mary’s uniform is an important part of the school culture. Why?? You might ask… A uniform promotes equality among our students by eliminating visible differences in clothing and appearance, which can help reduce the impact of socioeconomic status on student behaviour and achievement. A school uniform fosters a sense of community which can improve school spirit and create a sense of belonging. Unforms can help reduce distractions in the classroom, as students are not as focussed on what they/their peers are wearing. Students are required to follow the uniform expectations at St Mary’s School. Encouraging discipline, reducing peer pressure, promoting equality and creating a sense of belonging all support why students are expected to wear the school uniform in its entirety. These benefits have a positive impact on children’s academic, social and emotional development.

Attached below are our uniform expectations. Please note as we are coming into winter, the only acceptable winter apparel is plain navy track pants and jumpers, the school jacket which can be purchased from the uniform shop or the newly designed fleece jumper that can be purchased from R & P Taylor. Girls are permitted to wear a plain white/navy skivvy and boys a plain navy skivvy. Thank you all for your effort in ensuring your child is in the correct school unform each morning.

Learning a language – Mandarin via Meg Languages

Did you know our Year 4, 5 and 6 students are learning Mandarin this year! See our flyer below for some interesting information about this exciting journey.

Have a fabulous fortnight!

Cheers,

Katrina

APRE News - Mrs Kirsty Lines

Happy Easter!

It was lovely to see former and current St Mary’s students at various Parish masses over the Easter holidays.  Did you know the liturgical season of Easter lasts for six Sundays after Easter Sunday?  We celebrated Jesus’ rising with our Easter Remembrance last Friday.  Thank you to all who attended.  Please see some photos below.

Sacramental Program

This term our candidates begin their journey towards making their First Holy Communion.  Please pray for Zoe Ebsworth, Ruby Russell, Sam Jones, Henry Lehmann, Maddison Sainty, Peggy Stirton, Maggie Thomas and Beau Short as they begin preparing to receive this most blessed Sacrament.  Please see a photo below of our candidates.  First Holy Communion will take place on Saturday, June 3^rd at 6pm Mass.

Staff Blessing / Children’s Mass

On Saturday, May 6^th, at 6pm, Fr Peter will bless our staff at Parish Mass.  Our students will participate in this Mass by helping Fr Peter with readings, offertory and will feature hymns our students are familiar with.  We’d love to see lots of St Mary’s families there to support our students and teachers.  Everyone is welcome  - Catholic and non Catholic alike!  Please spread the word!

Looking forward to seeing you all at these events through out the term – thank you for the amazing continued support of your children!

God bless,

Kirsty Lines

APRE

Term 2 Prayer Assemblies / Liturgical events

Please see the table below for Prayer assemblies and Liturgical events this term.  Subject to change as the term progresses.

Learning Support News - Mrs Belinda Phillips

Welcome back to Learning Support news for Term 2. This term we will be focusing intently on improving our student outcomes with a particular focus on reading – both decoding and comprehension. Students who have been identified as needing support in these areas will engage in two different forms of reading intervention support. I will be continuing with the synthetic phonics approach and Mrs Lines will continue with the guided reading approach, similar to last term. This term we will also be offering extra support to those students who are just below their year level benchmark or just needing a little boost to ensure they have a greater chance of tracking towards their year level benchmark by the end of the year. This will be conducted through RAFTS – Reading for Advancement for Targeted Students. RAFTS sessions will be run by School Officers in the classrooms. They will receive planning time to develop their activities for each group based on specific student needs. I will be supporting the School Officers in their planning, implementation and reflection of these sessions, along with the class teachers. I am looking forward to seeing these in action and developing a whole school improvement culture around reading and comprehension.  

This term, teachers are beginning to consider their requirements for the NCCD. The Nationally Consistent Collection of Data on School Students with Disability (NCCD) takes place every year. The NCCD is a collection that counts the number of school students receiving an adjustment or support due to disability and the level of adjustment they are receiving to access education on the same basis as other students. I have attached a Parent Fact Sheet for your perusal and please feel free to ask me any questions you may have regarding this. 

This term I will be visiting in Weeks 3 and 8. Please feel free to pop in and say hi. Also, if you would like to arrange a meeting, please send me an email so we can arrange a time to meet while I’m there: belinda.phillips@twb.catholic.edu.au

Our Auslan sign for this edition is:

Australia.

1. Fingers stretched out below.
2. Use your middle finger and thumb to act like you are picking something up.
3. Bring the hands up.
4. Pretend to drop the ‘thing that was in your hands’ with your thumb and middle finger.

Have a wonderful week!

Belinda Phillips

Curriculum News - Mrs Vanessa Alexander

Welcome back to school!

Teachers had the opportunity to engage in professional development at the beginning of the term to advance their skills and knowledge with regards to student wellbeing, reflecting on reading data and planning for a term of reading instruction, and unpacking and understanding the requirements of Term 2 Mathematics.

This year at St Mary’s, we have reflected on our need for more resources to be used in classrooms to support the learning of Mathematics. All classroom teachers have engaged with the Mathematic Activities Guidelines (MAGs for short) resources to support their planning, teaching, and assessment of number and algebra, measurement and geometry, and statistics and probability. These resources support teachers with their planning and students with the manipulation of abstract concepts with concrete materials.

Our P&F have also supported our students and teachers in the Mathematics learning area by purchasing construction resources for classrooms to further develop students’ STEM (science, technology, engineering & mathematics) understandings.

Wishing you all a wonderful fortnight,

Vanessa Alexander

Middle Leader: Curriculum

Library News - Mrs Michelle Sheehan

Welcome Back to Term 2

In our first library lesson for the term each class spent time listening to an Anzac Day story, as well as discussing the significance of the day and looking at various Anzac Day memorabilia on display. The students were so lucky to view an original flag from the Light Horse Brigade belonging to Mrs Short’s great grandfather.

THE BEST BORROWING CLASS FOR TERM 1 ……

YEAR 1

followed very closely by Year 3.

The Year 1’s were able to have free time on the iPads completing online picture book puzzles including an ANZAC Day one. They also had fun completing an ANZAC online picture matching game. If you would like to have a go at these activities simply visit our Library Web App hyperlink available on the school’s website. You can also select the senior dashboard from the drop-down options to listen to some veteran stories and play further ANZAC interactives.

Book Club due Thursday 4^th May

Our term reading theme “Reading Makes Your World Big” will be highlighted throughout the term. We would also love students chatting with us on how their world became bigger after reading some of their take home library books.

HPE & District Sport- Miss Ashleigh Harding

I have felt very welcome coming into this role and every class has been a delight to teach. I am looking forward to challenging students throughout the remainder of the year to increase their skills in Physical Education, as well as integrating athletics training in the term 2 lessons to prepare students for the carnival in early term 3. We will also continue to work within the Health lessons to analyze societal factors to take action to enhance their own and others’ health and wellbeing.

Below is district and regional trials that are to occur this term:

Congratulations to the following students who have been chosen to represent the school at the following sports -

• Charlie Sullivan, Harry Thomas, Alec McKellar, Luca O'Toole, Gabriel O'Toole, Ben Williams competed at the South West Regional Rugby League Trials on Monday 24th April at Roma 
• Charlie Sullivan and Harry Thomas have been selected in the South West  10 - 12 years Touch team and will compete at the Touch State Trials in Cairns  on the  18th - 21st May.  
• Sophie Tickell has been selected in the South West Netball team. They will be competing at the State Championships at  Caloundra - Thursday 1st June - Sunday 4th June. Best of luck Sophie to you and your team mates.
• A big congratulations goes to Millie Williams as she competed at the State Trials for Aquathlon in February - well done Millie

We wish all the students the best of luck with their upcoming trials.

Prep News - Miss Imogen Hunt

Welcome back to term 2, I hope all families had a wonderful break.

What a kick start to the term we have had in Prep last week.

Students were lucky enough to receive a visit from the Royal Flying Doctor's simulator. They got to inside and experience what the plane looks and feels like. Students even got to sit in the cockpit and pretend to fly the plane. It was wonderful to see the keen interest students had.

In our literacy rotations this week students were given a range of letters where they had to listen to the sounds and create words. We looked at keeping the vowel (red letter) in the middle of our words and even got a chance to create our own word by sounding it out.

We ended our week by participating in our first Easter celebration where we even got to stand up and sing a special song. Then we got to see our buddies for a little bit of play time. Students were able to find a new buddy and have a little play with them developing stronger bonds with their older peers.

It has been a wonderful start to the term and we can’t wait to see all the adventures that we get up to this term.

Prep Students - Term 2 Week 2

Please find an overview attached of what we will be learning this term. .

Thanks,

Imogen

Year 1 News - Mrs Bernie McPhee

Welcome back to Term 2! It’s hard to believe that we are already in week 2.

We had a lovely first week back, catching up with each other and getting to know new people, particularly Miss Harding who is teaching us for Health and PE. These lessons are both on a Tuesday (except this week).

On Tuesday we were lucky enough to have the Royal Flying Doctor Service Simulator come to the school for a visit. Students got to sit in the pilots’ seats and pretend to fly the plane, they sat in the nurses’ seat and some even laid on the patient’s stretcher. Students tried on headphones and were able to talk to each other through the headsets. It was so much fun.

In the library this week we were lucky to have Mrs Sheehan and Mrs Short bring in some old war memorabilia. Mrs Sheehan brought in a WW1 helmet that the children were able to try on and Mrs Short brought in a Light Horseman Flag which is over 100 years old.

On Friday we met with our buddies again, which will happen every week this term. We met in the library where we were able to read books to each other. Year One chose new Year 4 buddies for this term. Students worked so well together. It was great to see Year 1 and Year 4 students reading to each other. 

Year 2 News - Miss Holly Price

Welcome back to term 2!

We have been learning about ANZAC Day in HASS and in Library, and we could even try on a helmet from the war – thanks to Mrs Sheehan!

Our term outline:

• Math – multiplication (repeated addition), division (sharing in equal groups), money, time and shapes.
• English – focus on fairy tales and writing to entertain.
• HASS – geography: local area and Uluru.
• Science – students learn about materials that don’t mix well, and others that are difficult to separate.
• Religion – Catherine McAuley: hospitality.
• Technology – making a pinball machine.
• Thick cardboard is needed for our technology unit – if you have any at home it would be greatly appreciated!
• Our prayer assembly is this Friday (28^th April) at 11:10am.

April Birthdays

Tuckshop News - Mrs Betty Couch

NO TUCKSHOP THIS FRIDAY - 28th April

TUCKSHOP URGENTLY NEEDS VOLUNTEERS ON FRIDAYS

For tuckshop to continue I need your help one day every term. Would I please be able to get a volunteer each week from the following classes - (Please contact the school office to register)

• WEEK 3- YEAR 2- PARENT 
• WEEK  4- YEAR  3- PARENT 
• WEEK  5- YEAR 4- PARENT 
• WEEK  6- YEAR  5- PARENT 
• WEEK 7- YEAR 6- PARENT 
• WEEK  8, 9 & 10 - PARENT FROM ANY CLASS.

Thank you for your support,

Betty

P & F News

Flyers