Newsletter - 5th June 2024

Acknowledgement of Country

Upcoming Events

7th June:  School Closure Day - ReLate Wellbeing PD for Staff

10th June:  King's Birthday Holiday

13th June:  School Photos

19th June:  Inform and Empower Parent Session at Ballan

28th June:  Last Day of Term 2 - early finish 1:30pm

15th July:  Term 3 commences

Principal's Message

Dear Families,

Winter is upon us, and we’re down to the final 4 weeks of the term! Our students are diving deep into their studies and learning. It's a privilege for our teachers to witness their growth and development every day.

The teachers have been busy in the past few weeks writing reports and you will soon be notified to make an appointment to meet with your child’s teachers to discuss their progress.  These interviews are an important part of our assessment and everyone is expected to attend. 

Today our students showcased their learning at the assembly. Thank you to the parents who could attend.  We also welcomed back Mick from the Billy Tea Bush Band who worked with the students this afternoon and had fun teaching them a new dance.

I hope everyone has a wonderful 4-day long weekend! Whether you're heading off on a little holiday, catching up with family and friends, or staying cozy and warm indoors, make the most of this special break. Enjoy and recharge!

Let's make the most of these last weeks and finish the term strong!

Inform and Empower Parent Session

The Inform and Empower Parent Information Session titled “Raising Kids in a Digital World” will be held on Wednesday, 19th June. 

If I could encourage you to attend one parent night this year, this would be it as all children are exposed in ways we don’t even realise! 

There is no cost to attend as the school has already paid the bill for all parents to attend. That’s how important it is! 

Please register using this link bit.ly/stmarys2024. I really look forward to seeing you there on Wednesday, 19th June.

Pupil Free Day - Staff Professional Development

This Friday, school will be closed as staff work together with ReLATE consultant Craig Reid from MacKillop Institute in Melbourne. Within ReLATE, wellbeing is understood as an essential precondition for quality teaching and learning. Safe, predictable and supportive learning environments are created and maintained in classrooms where students and staff are not just known, but understood.

Long Weekend - King's Birthday

A reminder that Monday 10th June is a public holiday and there will be no school on this day.  Enjoy the 4 day weekend!

School Uniform

We have noticed some students wearing their sports uniform on days other than Monday and Friday and this is not acceptable. Can you please make sure that your child is wearing their correct uniform? If your child is out of uniform for a reason, please let their teacher know on the day. 

Sovereign Division Netball Carnival

Congratulations to our netball stars! Alexis, Evie and Maeve, alongside the girls from St Brigid’s Ballan, showcased their netball skills at the Sovereign Division Netball Carnival last Friday. I heard that their performance was fantastic, displaying outstanding teamwork, determination, and sportsmanship. Thank you Alexis, Evie and Maeve for representing us so brilliantly!

Reconciliation Week

Last week we celebrated National Reconciliation Week at school.  The theme for 2024 is “Now more than ever.” It's meant as a reminder to all Australians that the fight for equality and justice for Indigenous Australians must continue. We prayed, discussed, listened and participated in activities around working together towards Reconciliation. 

National Reconciliation Week (NRW) is a time for all Australians to learn about our shared histories, cultures, and achievements, and to explore how each of us can contribute to achieving reconciliation in Australia.

School Photos - Thursday 13th June

Our annual school photos are scheduled for next Thursday 13th June. On this day students are required to wear their full winter uniform including the knitted school jumper, not the windcheater. Hair below the collar is to be tied back. No student should be wearing jewellery, other than sleepers or studs in ears, at any time.

If you would like a family photo, you will need to collect an envelope from the office and return it on the day.

Parents & Friends

Last Friday afternoon, a Parents and Friends Meeting was held in the staffroom.  A huge thank you to Amelia, Bec, Bryden and Melinda for attending and for everything they have done to help support our wonderful school.  It would be great to see some new faces at our next meeting. 

May God bless you all and keep you safe,  

Clare Scanlon, Principal

South Room News

We were lucky enough to attend two live performances last week. For many of us, it was our first experience seeing performers on stage. Mary Poppins, performed by the students at Loreto College, was fun with lots of singing and dancing and Mary Poppins even flying across the stage!

The second performance at the Civic Hall was quite different. Parrwang Lifts the Sky was an Opera performance based on the traditional Wadawurrung creation story. With front row seats we were up close to all the action. The props,costumes, lighting and music were fantastic.  We loved listening to the story through song, and were amazed at the high notes some of the performers could hit.

Back at school we have been busy finishing up our addition and subtraction unit, completing our post test last week. We will get our results this week and are all hoping to have lots of green on our proficiency scale. We have done lots of work on measurement, focusing on time ( telling the time on digital and analogue clocks, and working on elapsed time) and also length (measuring different items and converting units of length)

As part of our daily reading, we have been doing ‘fluency pairs’. We have been partnered up with someone and we take it in turns reading for 1 minute each, for a total of 8 minutes. We read something familiar, so we can work on our fluency and expression.

We have been learning about interoception, the ability to be aware of internal sensations in the body, and learning about different activities we can do to help calm ourselves and nurture an awareness of our body. We have learnt that:

• Your inner experience is always correct and valid
• Not knowing how you feel is okay
• There is no wrong way to feel
• Not wanting to feel can be highly
  

We have also started our own Gratitude Journal. Each day we spend some time writing in our journal. It is a chance to reflect on how we are feeling and put our thoughts on paper. We can write about our day, things that are troubling us, things we are looking forward to, things we are grateful for.

Last Friday Maeve, Evie and Alexis represented St Mary’s at the Sovereign Netball Championships, teaming up with St Brigid’s Ballan. The girls had a successful day, with a couple of wins and a draw. Well done girls!

News from the North Room

Genevieve:  I have loved learning about the platypus.  It is an Australian animal and it lives in fresh water, like lakes and streams and rivers.  They have waterproof fur so they can go underwater. It is a carnivore and the meat it eats are worms and bugs. The boys have sharp spurs on their back feet with venom that they use when they fight.

I like learning about length in maths.  Some of the words we use in length are short, shorter, shortest, long, longer, longest.  It is fun when we measure objects with unifix, icy pole sticks and other items. 

Last week was Reconciliation Week and I learnt about the word country and what it means for the indigenous people of Australia.  Country to them means everything about their culture.

Ellie:  I have been learning about Australian animals and I did an information report on the quoll.  The quoll is a cute spotted animal with a pink pointy nose.  They live in lots of different areas; rainforests, grasslands, mountains and the bush.

Skyler:  I enjoyed learning about Australian animals and I really loved learning about the quoll because I didn’t even know that they existed.  I have been making a poster about the saltwater crocodile.  The thing that is interesting is that they eat any prey that go into their territory. No thank you, I am not going into their territory ever!

I have been working really hard at counting by 10,  I think I have improved. I love phonemes because they are helping me to learn to read. 

Adelaide:  I have been researching about the cassowary that lives in rainforests in Australia. I have made an information report as a poster with lots of interesting facts about this bird. There are three different types of cassowary, they are the northern, southern and dwarf. I haven't seen one in the wild because they live in the northern part of Australia. 

For Reconciliation week we created art in the indigenous colours of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders flags. The black represents the people, the red represents the land and the yellow represents the sun; the blue represents the sea and the green represents the land, the black lines represents the people and the white represents their traditional head dress, the dhari and the 5 pointed star represents the 5 island groups.

Regular Reader

It is interesting to note that 15 minutes of independent reading can equal 1 million words in 1 year!  This poster raises some interesting facts!

Free Household Chemical Drop Off Event in Ballan

Detox your Home is a free service run in partnership with Sustainability Victoria allowing householders to safely dispose of unwanted and toxic chemicals.

This program is a great opportunity to clear out your garage, kitchen cupboards and sheds to responsibly dispose of any unwanted or out-of-date products.

 Please see the flyer below for more information.  You must register prior to attending the event.