Saint Mary of the Cross MacKillop
Last Monday, our Year 4 students led us in a liturgical celebration of the Feast of St Mary of the Cross MacKillop. St Mary MacKillop, is the first Australian saint and founder of the Sisters of St Joseph of the Sacred Heart. She is remembered for her leadership in providing education and support for children especially those from poor backgrounds. St Mary’s exemplary life and her acceptance of all people irrespective of their religious, racial, or cultural differences, make her ‘a saint for all Australians’. This is especially important in today’s society.

Catholic schools in Australia continue to be inspired by the words and actions of St Mary MacKillop.

‘Do not be afraid. Love one another,
bear with one another, and let charity guide you in all your life.’

Book Week
On Friday August 23 we will celebrate Book Week at St Marys with our fabulous parade, Book Stall and Book Quiz. Book Week is always a highlight of the school year and families are invited to join the fun from 9am. This year's theme is Reading is Magic which allows for much imagination with costumes. Of course children can be dressed up in almost anything for Book Week, so please don’t go to a lot of cost with costumes.

This year, our School Community Council is organising the Book Stall. Families are asked to send in some books in good condition and their children will come home with new ones.

Multilingual Learners
Last week, I met with Ms Sam Chrzczonowicz, Teaching and Learning Officer from Catholic Education to discuss ways of further supporting our multilingual learners at St Marys. Many of our students have language backgrounds other than English and it is timely that our teachers develop more expertise in supporting them in the classroom. On the first day of Term 4, staff will be participating in a professional learning day with Ms Chrzczonowicz.   

Parent Learning
Online Triple P - Positive Parenting Program
Parents and carers are able to access free online parenting courses developed in Australia by the Triple P – Positive Parenting Program, thanks to Australian Government funding. Below is a link to some online resources that may assist families with the everyday challenges parents and carers face raising calm, resilient and happy children. Topics include:

• Managing emotions/anger
• Anxiety
• Behaviour and Discipline
• Sleeping
• Technology 

I encourage parents to also consider completing the online course for parenting under 12s. 

Online program, research-backed | Positive parenting strategies | Triple P (triplep-parenting.net.au)

Invitation to 'A Bluey Perspective'
A free family event with ‘Bluey’ creator Joe Brumm will be held at Merici College on Wednesday 11 September. Presented by Catholic School Parents Canberra and Goulburn with the support of Catholic Education Canberra and Goulburn, the event aims to bring families from across the Archdiocese together, to listen to Joe talk about why he thinks Bluey has been such a success and the important role parents play in their child’s learning and development. There is an option for live streaming for parents and carers who are unable to attend in person.

Print:  Bluey poster - print.pdf

Digital:  Bluey poster - digital.pdf

Register here: https://events.humanitix.com/a-bluey-perspective

Contact: sarah.rose@cg.catholic.edu.au or 0447888326 (Family Engagement Officer)

Mrs Noeleen O'neill​​​​
Principal

Science provides a way of inquiring about the world around us. It explores evidence and investigates ways to discover, develop and produce solutions to real world problems. The inquiry and skill-based nature of science opens doors to ideas and discoveries.

At St Mary’s we use Good to Great Schools Australia’s Oz-e-Science program, Australia’s only science curriculum featuring explicit instruction. Through these units of work, students develop skills in conducting scientific investigations and design, and produce solutions whilst learning about the Living World, Material World, Physical World, Earth and Space, and Digital Technologies. Our students are always engaged in learning new concepts and making new discoveries in their weekly science lessons.

This week schools across Australia have been celebrating National Science Week. The theme for National Science Week in 2024 is Species Survival - More than just sustainability. The theme aims to highlight the importance of science and innovation in ensuring the survival and thriving of different species in an ever-changing world. These are some of the things we have been up to at St Mary’s to celebrate Science Week…

Indigenous Science
Aboriginal Peoples and Torres Strait Islander Peoples have worked scientifically for millennia and continue to contribute to contemporary science. This year our whole school cultural goal has been for our students to be able to describe how Aboriginal people use scientific knowledge of plants, sea, sky and land to ensure Country is able to survive and thrive.

On Tuesday we were thrilled to have Lachie Eveston, Teaching & Learning Officer - Aboriginal Education visit us at St Mary’s and share with our students how Aboriginal people used tools and managed resources for over 65,000 years to ensure that these resources were sustained for future use. Lachie showed the students some tools from Gamilaroi country and shared how people from this nation used these tools. We also learnt that animals were used in their entirety - the meat was a food source, the fur and skin became clothing and bones were used to make tools. Nothing was wasted. One of our favourite items was the emu caller. We learnt how this tool was used to distract the male emu who sits on the eggs. When the male emu hears the emu call, he leaves the nest to investigate and the hunter and gatherers are able to steal an egg or two…never taking more than they need for food…and ensuring that the species is able to survive and thrive.

Science & STEM Rockets
3... 2... 1... 0— blastoff! This week some of our Year 6 students who have been attending Carroll College for Science and STEM lessons launched their rockets! Each group of students have had to research the science behind what makes a good bottle rocket and then design and decorate their bottle rocket launcher ready for launch day! The goal is to see whose rocket can travel the longest distance and students make observations about which designs are most successful. This week it was Aria’s rocket that travelled the furthest as well as rating highly for its aesthetic quality! Well done Aria!
 
Our students work alongside their peers from St Bernard’s with Carroll College Science teachers coordinating the lessons. Our students have really embraced and enjoyed the opportunity of this extension Science program. Mr Harpley is planning a possible relaunch day for all our rockets later in the year!

UOW Science Day
Today our Year 5 students travelled to Batemans Bay to participate in a Science day coordinated by the University of Wollongong. Opportunities such as these expose our students to a range of experiences in Science, develop students’ future aspirations and expand their understanding of future careers and job possibilities. Today they were able to learn about they types of things nurses do, how people help wildlife and what physics is!

SolarBuddy Program
Our Year 3 and Year 4 students shone a little brighter this week as they participated in the SolarBuddy Program. The activity is part of a renewable energy education effort, dedicated to minimising our environmental footprint and maximising our positive impact on communities and the planet. Our students got the chance to build upon their knowledge of alternative energy sources and take useful steps to combat global energy poverty.
So just what did they get up to? Use the QR code below to see video of our students talking about their part in the SolarBuddy Program.What an incredible gift to the children of PNG! Well done, Stage 2, and thank you to SolarBuddy and Mary Dullard from Origin Energy for making it all possible.

It has been a super week of Science at St Mary’s and a great way to bring this year’s Science Week theme, Species Survival - More than just sustainability, to life for our students in a real and practical way!

Indigenous Reading Project
Over the past two years we have had seven students participate in the Indigenous Reading Project and this year three more of our students have also been given a place in this unique program: Emerson, Jake and Delilah.

This program works to improve the reading ability of Indigenous kids in Australia and the Torres Strait Islands. Students from Year 3-6 who meet the criteria for selection into the program are nominated by their class teachers. If successful, the students are loaned a tablet and given access to e-books that are interesting to them. Clear goals are set and students reading behaviour and achievement are measured before they enter the program and again after 12 weeks. Students who make good progress on the program are then able to keep the tablet.

All of our previous recipients have met their goals and have been able to keep their tablets. They have also now been invited to be part of the organisation's Reading For Life program. The Reading for Life (RFL) is a selective program offered to students who have made significant improvements in their reading ability through the E-reading program. The program provides reading resources for participating students for their entire school life. This is a great achievement for these students and a testament to their commitment to improve their reading skills! Well done everyone!

Year 1 Phonics Screening Check 
The Year 1 Phonics Screening Check is a short statewide assessment that tells teachers how your child is progressing in phonics.

What is phonics?
Phonics is the relationship between letters and sounds and is vital in learning to read. Some children struggle with learning to read so it is important that these children are identified quickly so teachers can plan for any specific support they may need. 

What is the Year 1 Phonics Screening Check?
The Year 1 Phonics Screening Check is a short, quick assessment where your child sits with their class teacher and is asked to read 40 words aloud. These words include 20 real words and 20 nonsense words. The test normally takes a few minutes. 

More information
Information about the check can be found in the link below. If you have any further questions, please talk to your child’s class teacher.

God bless and take care,

Mrs Sue Heffernan
Assistant Principal

Southern Region Public Speaking 2024
I had the pleasure last week of assisting students competing in the Southern Region Public Speaking competition. Held virtually again this year, the level of competition was particularly high and our St Mary’s students did an excellent job when presenting. Feedback from judges was very positive for all students. Thank you to all who were involved in the students' preparation. It was evident that the support they received was invaluable on the day, as was the effort each student had put into preparing and practising before the competition.

Our representatives were:
Year 3 - Maisie B and Evander S
Year 4 - Thomas D and Nicholas A
Year 5 - Tessa H and Matilda W
Year 6 - Elka H and Lila W

Congratulations to Thomas D (Year 4) and Matilda W (Year 5) who were winners in their age group. Both students will go on now to compete in the Archdiocesan Public Speaking Finals in September. We wish them all the best at the next level of competition.

Mr Justin Bateman
Coordinator

Year 2 has hit the ground running with an impressive start to term 3. There is a great sense of pride and teamwork in every achievement and it’s been delightful watching the growth and blossoming of new learning, friendships and confidence over the past few weeks. 

Religious Education
Meditation continues to be an important part of our day and a time where we connect with God in the stillness of prayer. In Religion lessons, we have been deepening our knowledge of Mary and finding out why we should honour her. We completed a story map and compared the qualities of Mary to an important person in our own lives. We have also been singing songs and praying the ‘Hail Mary’ to connect our minds and hearts to this extraordinary woman who is loved by so many. 

Maths
In CMC classes the children are working to achieve mastery while completing number families, addition and subtraction problems and algebra equations.

In our Ochre units we have been completing a Daily Review and extending our knowledge of time, times tables, number patterns and 2D shapes. We are also learning to draw 3 dimensional shapes and identify their properties. 

English
The children are enjoying their Mastery classes where the focus is on improving reading and spelling skills. 

In our English Ochre Units we have been trying to extend our sentences using the ‘5 W’s and How’ (who, where, when, what, why, how.) This is helping to improve our vocabulary and makes a sentence more interesting for the reader. 

We have also looked at prepositions which are important because they often begin a phrase and add details to a sentence such as location, time or position. We made a beetle biscuit and used words such as over under, beside, between, to arrange our delicious creations. YUM! Such a fun way to learn!

Our Friday reading groups are continuing this term and the children love having our parents and grandparents supporting us in our reading journey!

Visual Arts
In Art we have been creating our mixed media jellyfish paintings over the last few weeks. We have used different mediums— tempera paints, chalk pastels and oil pastels to create our pictures. Children created an underwater background painting using liquid tempera paint layering on white right on top of the blue and blended to create a tint of blue. Then painted just blue, then just purple and then black working their way down their papers. Students were encouraged to blend where two different colours met, to create a smooth transition.

Children then drew jellyfish using white chalk pastels and shaded them in.

We discussed the difference between opaque and translucent when creating the jellyfish with chalk pastels. Students then added black and green seaweed and some fish with oil pastels. We love how the jellyfish look - they’re almost glowing!

During PE lessons, the children play tag games such as ‘octopus tag’ and ‘capture the flag’. They learn team skills and cooperation as well as being a good sport and having fun together!

In Science our topic this term is Earth and Space. So far, the children have learnt about the earth, what it is made of, and described what water is used for as a resource. Last week we got our hands dirty in the gardens as we identified different types of soil around our school and how it is formed. 

Performing Arts
We are so lucky to have Miss Erika lead us in our Mary Poppins Dance for the Musical. We have some tricky moves to learn and are having fun on stage rehearsing our steps and keeping in time with the music.

Mrs Frances Devonald
Teacher 2 Blue