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Last Wednesday the grade 3/4 classes attended the stage production of ‘How to catch a star’ at the Gippsland Performing Arts Centre in Traralgon. It was a magical tale about reaching your dreams. Here are some of the students thoughts on the production:
I was amazed when the orchestra played the music. The music made me feel calm because they played softly. - By Archie
My favourite part of the show was when he talked to the bird and ran away. I was amazed when he played the cello. - By Hudson
My favourite part of the show was when he climbed the tree and the star was at the top and it kept going top to bottom and when he found the star. - By Caleb
I laughed when he could not catch the star. - By Lily
I was amazed when the boy’s feelings and moods matched the music. - By Peppah
I was amazed when the boy caught the star and it was a starfish from the ocean. - By Mason
The music made me feel relaxed, calm and excited because of the sound of the cello and violin. - By Posy
I laughed when the boy said ‘still waiting’ because he did a handstand and picked his nose! - By Jake
The music made me feel happy, calm, and sleepy because it was high and then low. - By Georgia
I was amazed when the boy climbed the tree. - By Laitin
My favourite part of the show was the dance, actions and it was funny. - By Anna
The music made me feel sleepy and content. - By Holly
Dear Parents,
Pope Francis emphasises the three and most important languages learned in school: “the language of the mind, the language of the heart, and the language of the hands.
As we come to the end of Term 2, we reflect on all we have been doing throughout the first half of this year.
All members of St Mary’s school community have committed to enacting this quote from Pope Francis, as they pursued excellence in all areas of education, continuing to ensure the growth of every child academically, spiritually and emotionally through the provision of rich learning experiences. The dedication of the staff across the school enabled every student to learn and grow in an environment rich in opportunity, care and inclusion. The St Mary’s School Learning focus is based on high quality teaching and learning through collaborative practice.
As many of you are aware, the mid year school reports are coming out next week. These reports provide a summary of your child’s learning throughout the semester and is a celebration of this learning. Please celebrate this learning when reading your child’s Semester One report and remember that this is only a report of their understanding at one point in time on their long academic journey. In the instance of a child not moving in any subject area, we ask you to please understand that this does not reflect no learning having taken place. A progression point not moving simply indicates some skills missing from their understanding or recent assessments not reflecting this understanding. Parents are encouraged to reach out to their child’s classroom teacher should they have any concerns about reports, or alternately have a conversation with them at the parent teacher interviews scheduled for early Term 3.
Through our Whole School Approach to Positive Behaviour Support, St Mary’s community continues our commitment to promoting and living the BEST acronym,
Building Relationships
Expecting Excellence in Everything
Staying Safe Everywhere
Take responsibility for Your Learning
Throughout the year, St Mary’s community engaged in a range of opportunities to develop skills, strategies and understanding regarding how, as a school community, we can continue to strive to be our BEST. As a team, the staff of St Mary’s exemplifies the BEST that St Mary’s has to offer our families as they strive to build students who are empowered, lifelong learners.
In Semester One, our students were given the opportunity to participate in a wide range of extra-curricular activities. These activities included school camps and swimming programs, a wide range of sporting days, from school based to district, regional and state level participation. With many activities still to come on our calendar, we have already celebrated so much such as Mother’s Day, St Mary’s Day, Colour Fun Run, Welcome BBQ, Working Bee, Sacraments and many other religious celebrations. At St Mary’s we have resumed our school choir, who practiced weekly and participated in school various celebrations, most recently singing beautifully at the St Mary’s Church during the Sacrament of Confirmation.
To assist in the provision of a holistic learning experience for every child, we further engaged with Mindfull Aus’ mental health and wellbeing program, “Healthier Hearts and Lighter Minds”. All classes engaged in sessions of the Stage 2 program with the Mindfull Aus team, with the learning consolidated through the provision of lessons throughout the year.
St Mary’s is committed to ensuring every child has the opportunity to reach their potential. We ensure this is achieved through our commitment to every Year 6 child being a school leader. This is a powerful way to instil in all children their ability to be a leader in life. It is a highly valued part of who we are at St Mary’s and encourages every child to strive to be all they can be. Our Year 6 leadership team run our school assemblies, create opportunities to support our student wellbeing and the environment, are our ICT leaders and sport leaders. These roles are complex and support the development of our Year 6 students as potential future leaders.
We are also blessed to have wonderful volunteers at St Mary’s, and we are most grateful for their support and commitment to our school community. Our School Advisory Board, our Parents and Friends, our Craft Group and the many volunteers we have are integral to the success of our school. Without the support of these wonderful volunteers we would not be able to host and manage such a wonderful range of opportunities for our students, and for this we are forever grateful.
As part of our faith commitment, we have created opportunities to support our local and global communities through a range of special days where money raised supported Caritas, St Vincent de Paul and created food hampers for those in need. These opportunities enabled us to show our faith in action as we looked beyond the boundaries of our school to make a difference in our world. I thank Fr Daniel PP (OMI) and Fr Vin (OMI) for their continued support in the faith life of our school. The St Marys’ school/home/parish partnership is important to our school community and enables us to provide a rich faith experience for every child.
My sincere thanks to the wonderful families of St Mary’s who entrust their children to our care and who share their child’s learning journey with us. I thank them for their willingness to participate fully in the life of our school. St Mary’s school community truly lives the belief that it takes a village to raise a child, and together we all create that village of support that enables the staff and students of St Mary’s to thrive and shine.
Lisa
STUDENT LEADER UPDATES
ICT Team
Hi, this is the St Marys ICT team and over the past couple of weeks we have been working on projects such as posters for various events, we helped in the Immaculate Heart of Mary Feast Day and making posters for this event we also help run activities for the students.
The ICT team runs the slideshow for assembly and sets up the church for assembly.
We are working on cyberbullying posters to raise awareness about it so people can be safe online. We are also placing computer rules for students in the classrooms so they can have a happy and a safe time when using computers.
House Captains
The sport captains ran an amazing athletics day while encouraging everyone, not just those from their own houses. We together as leaders dressed up in our house colours loud and proud. We were so proud of all the students.
Prior to St Mary’s Day, the house captains put numerous hours into planning heaps of the activities and making the groups.
On the day, all the house captains all put in their best efforts to set up the activities. St Mary’s Day ran smoothly after all the planning that went into it. We had different activities running to match all skillsets. As leaders, we made sure everyone was involved and had a good go at the activities.
The sport captains are working on a 3vs3 basketball tournament and improving all of our sports equipment.
Environmental Team
Hello, we are the environmental team. We have made signs for the bins so kids can’t get mixed up with which bin to put items in. These have been put up on the walls next to the bins. We are soon going to make boxes to put broken or lost pens, pencils, texters and other stationery items in. We will take the reusable ones to the art room and the broken ones we will take to the Terracycle, which will be recycled for other people. You also might see us just taking care of the garden, planting plants and other things revolving around the garden and nature of our school. We will be continuing making improvements to our school's environment and overall health.
Wellbeing Leaders
The Wellbeing Leaders have put in a lot of hard work towards our school. We have sorted all the kids in the school into groups from their classes (foundations - 2s and 3s - 5s) for St Mary’s Day. We have helped out the Sport Captains with volunteering in the groups to make sure everyone was safe and had lots of fun in their groups.
One of our upcoming projects is Kindness Cards. Kindness Cards are cards that will have acts of kindness on them, like for example opening the door for someone, giving someone a compliment or helping our classmates with their schoolwork. We also have come up with the idea to bring fun games out during recess and lunch to make sure that the students will have a good time outside.
Craft Group
We are now working on presents for our Father’s Day Stall. We always welcome goods that can be included in these presents but most of all we need items for the Raffle. We would especially like donations of suitable Gift Cards – what would you like to win in the Raffle? We thank you for your continued support of our fund raising efforts. St.Mary’s Craft Group
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Friday 19 July is National Pyjama Day, a day dedicated to raising support for children and young people living in foster care.
Statistics show that children in care have the lowest educational outcomes of all children, which is why the Pyjama Foundation works to empower these individuals. The foundation provides opportunities to help kids in care change the direction of their lives with learning, life skills and increasing confidence.
To support National Pyjama Day visit National Pyjama Day 2024 (thepyjamafoundation.com)
Quantum Support Services, a Gippsland-based not-for-profit organisation, has been supporting children and young people in foster care for more than 30 years.
Currently, Quantum supports 23 children and young people across Gippsland.
Unfortunately, there has been a steady decline in foster carers across the state in recent years, and there are not enough local foster carers available to meet the needs of these children.
To find out more about foster caring, visit www.quantum.org.au/foster-care or phone 1800 243 455.
Your support can make a significant difference in the lives of children in foster care.
