Book Week
Last week we held our Book Week celebrations for 2024. This year's theme was ‘Reading is Magic’, and there was plenty of magic on the day with students and staff enjoying a fun and colourful celebration. It is always wonderful to see the creativity behind the book week costumes and how all St Mary’s students from K-6 involve themselves. 

We enjoyed another exciting and challenging Book Quiz, which is always a fun way for the students to come together to celebrate their love of books and reading. Students from K-6 worked together to answer questions related to the books they have been reading in their classrooms. Congratulations to the “Can You Teach A Fish To Climb A Tree” group comprising of Claudia A G (K), Finnley B (Yr 1), Quinn A (Yr 2), Maisie B (Yr 3), Noah B T (Yr 4), Delilah S (Yr 4), Matilda W (Yr 5) and Felicity P (Yr 6) who were our 2024 Book Quiz winners!

A big thank you to our wonderful community council who organised a book swap. Students had the opportunity to choose some new (recycled) books to continue their love of reading. It was exciting to see them sitting around the playground during the breaks reading their new books.

Farewell Mrs Matthews
On Tuesday afternoon staff officially wished Mrs Jo Matthews farewell as she is retiring at the end of this year, she will be on long service leave in Term 4. Jo has been a valued member of our staff and we want to take a moment to express our deepest gratitude and admiration for the incredible 21 years Jo has worked at St Mary’s. After close to four decades as an educator across a number of schools, she has provided support for our students, families and for staff, especially in recent years as our Learning Support Teacher. Jo’s commitment, passion, and unwavering dedication to work with our students and families has made a profound impact on our school community.

Jo’s expertise in understanding diverse learning needs and styles has been instrumental in helping numerous students achieve their learning goals and provided families with support both at school and within the community. We have been enriched with her knowledge about learning needs, where Jo has been a mentor to colleagues, and a true embodiment of the vision we hold dear at St Mary’s ensuring that every child is a learner. Her legacy will undoubtedly live on in the hearts and minds of those she has worked with. We know many families have been supported by Jo over the years, so please reach out and wish her well on her retirement before the end of the term. 

Bus Behaviour Code of Conduct

There are a number of important travel expectations to keep students safe and to ensure an enjoyable and stress free trip to and from school. This term, there has been an increase in reports from the bus companies of unsafe behaviour of students when travelling to and from school on buses. As a matter of urgency, please revise the following expectations about safe bus travel with your child/children.

Students are expected to follow these rules for the safety and comfort of all passengers, including themselves. If the rules are not followed, it may lead to the suspension of students or banning students from travelling on buses.

It is every student’s responsibility to behave in a manner that ensures the safety and comfort of passengers and drivers. This includes: 

Behaviour on buses: 

• Use appropriate language not offensive or racist language 
• Fighting, spitting, feet on seats, throwing things in or from the bus is not permitted 
• Do not push or shove other people
• Do not bully or harass other passengers or the driver 
• Avoid attracting the attention of the driver except in the case of emergency 
• Do not play music at such volume that it may distract the bus driver or other passengers

Safety on and near buses:

• Obey reasonable directions from the driver (e.g. where to sit or to remain in the bus) 
• Remain in your seat – do not move around the bus unnecessarily
• Keep bags and other items clear of the aisle 
• Do not allow any part of your body to protrude out of the bus at any time 
• Wait for the bus in a quiet and orderly manner – including at bus interchanges 
• Stand away from the roadside until the bus comes to a complete stop 
• Allow other passengers to leave the bus before stepping onto the bus in a single line 
• Wait until the bus stops before moving to get off the bus at your designated stop 
• Wait until the bus leaves the stop and you have clear vision before crossing the road 
• Cross the road where and when it’s safe to do so, use crossings/traffic lights where available

Legal considerations on buses: 

• Wear the seat belt properly adjusted and fastened, if one is available
• Ensure that buses are not vandalised – report any damage, e.g. graffiti and window etching, to the driver 
• Do not interfere with bus property, equipment and signage 
• Do not leave rubbish on the bus, or at bus stops or interchanges

It is important that students catching the bus report any unsafe behaviour to the driver and their parents.

Staffing
St Mary’s teachers may seem like superheroes, but actually we are not! There are times when we are doing other things that can take us away from being super in our classrooms. Some of these reasons may be:

• Professional Learning courses
• Applying assessments requested by Catholic Education Canberra Goulburn or Government & Education agencies
• RFF - (Release From Face-to-Face teaching), where teachers prepare learning programs, prepare resources, mark and grade assessment tasks etc
• Illness/injury
• Caring for an unwell family member
• Specialist medical appointments
• Leave of other types e.g. long service leave, leave without pay

Generally, we do quite well at St Mary’s to cover staff absences and we are fortunate to have some outstanding relief staff connected to the school, who are able to follow the teaching and learning programs prepared for the students. However, as you would know, there is currently a chronic shortage of teachers and we are affected like all other schools and communities. When there are many teachers who are sick, we call upon any additional staff who are already in our school if possible, and collapse extra programs if needed, but there may be times that classes will need to combine or split into other classes for the day. When this happens, students are provided with work to complete and are provided with assistance from the teacher in that class. We make every attempt to avoid this, but the situation is tricky at the moment. Thank you for your understanding.

Mrs Noeleen O’Neill will be on long service leave until the end of Term 3. During her absence, Mrs Sue Hefferrnan will be Acting Principal and Mrs Carla Durnan will be Acting Assistant Principal. Ms Allison Lock will be Acting REC, job sharing the position with Mrs Jessica Afflick. If you have any concerns during this time, please do not hesitate to contact Mrs Heffernan.

Kindergarten 2025 Enrolments & Orientation
We are very close to finalising the enrolments for 2025 and we want to be sure that all enrolments have come through to the office. If you know of any parent who is still undecided, please encourage them to contact the front office for information on how to complete the enrolment form.

Dates have been set for 2025 Kindergarten Orientation sessions - Thursday November 14 and Thursday November 28. Invitations will be sent to families who have enrolled their children at St Mary’s next year. 

Happy Father’s Day
While Father’s Day is a celebration of fatherhood, it’s a time for us to honour, celebrate and be thankful for all of the men, father figures and male role models in our lives…including our uncles, grandfathers, Godfathers, and even our male teachers. We recognise the very important role you have in the lives of our children.

Thank you to all of the families who came along to celebrate the fathers, grandfathers, uncles and father figures in our community today. We are pleased to be able to acknowledge and thank these role models for the wonderful support they offer our students. It was a fantastic morning and we would like to sincerely thank all of the staff who made the morning possible.

Thank you to all of the dads in our school community. The children love you and are so proud of you. We hope you have a wonderful day on Sunday. You are a hero!

Dear God,

Thank you for all the fathers and father-figures in this world and for the many ways you use them to lovingly guide others to Your heart. We ask that you bless them and give them great joy and peace. May they see You and know You in new ways. Show them how much you love them and care about them. Guide their steps, use their hands, and make them a blessing to others as you continue to fulfil your special purpose for their lives.

Amen

Leadership Team

English
This term in English, Stage 2 students have been sharing the very well known Australian novel ‘Storm Boy’ by Colin Theile. The story shares the relationship between Storm Boy and Mr Percival, a pelican. Storm Boy lives a reclusive life with his dad, Hideaway Tom, on the South Australian coast and while their relationship builds throughout the story, there are underlying themes of animal and environmental protection. These themes have linked in very nicely with our Informative writing unit of work. Using the Coorong National Park as our focus, we have been researching the cultural heritage of the Ngarrindjeri people and the importance of preserving the unique habitats of the environment. The students have been thoroughly immersed in learning about the Coorong area to help visualise the setting of the story of Storm Boy. 

We continue to take part in Daily Review lessons which revise and practice word level reading, grammar, vocabulary etc.  Using vocabulary from the novel, we explore and devise complex and compound sentences. This week, our vocabulary words have been sulk, slogged and blurted. The students worked with a partner to write creatively and share their sentences using their understanding of the word meanings. 

What I like about the story Storm Boy so far…..

Ryan F: ‘I like the pelicans in the story, they think that Storm Boy is their Dad and that Hide away Tom is their grandad’.

Benjamin L: ‘I like that Storm Boy has found the pelicans and I think Storm Boy will help them. Mr Percival is Storm Boy’s favourite because he is calm and quiet and not bossy like the other two pelicans’.

Theodore: ‘I like learning all the facts about the Coorong National Park and how we have to make sure we look after the environment for the animals like the pelicans’.

Winnie: ‘ I like that the story is based around the beach, where Storm Boy lives in a beach humpy. I also like how Storm Boy looks after nature’.

Tommy: ‘I like that it has lots of details about the Coorong and they have included facts about the animals that live in the wetlands.’

Ginger: ‘ I like how Storm Boy takes in the pelicans and takes care of them. He wants to make them well enough so they can be back in the wild.’

(insert photos information report writing planning notes- see photos in newsletter drive)

Maths
This week in  Year 3 Maths, we conducted a chance experiment using a coin and learning how to record our results in a table. As a class, we identified the vocabulary surrounding chance experiments including: likely, unlikely, certain, uncertain, possible, impossible. We predicted that while it was ‘possible’ to throw all heads or all tails, it was unlikely. Year 3 played Heads and Tails and identified we had one chance out of two of tossing a head or a tail. We used our skills to draw a table to tally our results within an experiment of 10 coin tosses. While in Year 4, students have been learning about converting fractions to decimals and recognising the pictorial value of tenths and hundredths. We have been exploring the different ways to write a fraction as a mixed numeral or improper fraction.

Our students are continuing to learn about the link between the Sacraments of the Church and the Gospel teachings of Jesus. The Gospels portray Jesus as a person of compassion, someone who saw the suffering of those around him and responded in word and action. We will continue to look at Gospel stories from Mark and John that explain the context of healing as actions for today and how we too can be like Jesus. 

Science
This term in Science, Year 3 has been investigating a unit of work about Earth and Space. We have identified planets and super planets and that the sun is the star closest to earth. We have also learnt about clouds, storms and that earth spins on an axis giving us night and day. Recently we conducted an experiment using a globe and a torch. The globe was spinning, on an axis, and as it spun, the torch showed the parts of the world that were in daylight and those in the night time.

Milton: ‘I like that we are learning about the sun and how the earth spins around it’.

Tash: ‘I liked that I could see which parts of the world were having daylight when the other parts of the world were at night time’.

Oliver: “ I like learning about space and the sun, the axis that earths spins on but we don’t even know that it is spinning’.

Alonso: ‘I like learning about Earth and its amazing features, the moon, the stars and the sun’.

Patrick S: I like learning about the sun and the reason why we have day and night - because the earth spins on an axis and the sun shines in different parts of the world.’

In Year 4 Science students have also been investigating Earth and Space. Students have been working with Mr Bateman and learning about the earth’s core and tectonic plates in recent weeks. Students have made a 3D representation of the earth’s core using plasticine. 

Art
Father Day Craft (Spoiler alert…Dads look away now)

To spoil our Dads, Granddads, uncles and special men in our lives, we have been busily preparing a beautiful Fathers day gift that the students will take home in time for Fathers Day this weekend. In a very fun and very messy session, we used coloured fabric dye and elastic bands to tie dye some socks. The end results are amazing! We hope all dads and granddads will get lots of use out of these works of art! Thanks to Mrs Durnan for her excellent organisational skills and to Mrs Ryan for her help to get them dry and finished to take home this week.

Students have also enjoyed taking part in our sketching lesson to create lively leaf watercolour paintings. Students have practised using light sketch lines to create a branch and leaves, before adding watercolour paints in warm colours to contrast the cool colour backgrounds. The art works are still in progress but as you can see, we may have some up and coming artists within our classrooms.

Geography
Year 3 are thoroughly enjoying their geography lessons “Places are similar and different,” so far this term. We have investigated Australia’s major natural and human features and have explored the importance of ‘place.’ Students learnt that the Australian continent is divided into spaces and they can now confidently label and name all states, territories and capital cities. 

Year 4 are researching different types of biomes such as tundras, grasslands, deciduous and coniferous forests in both Australia and the world. We are building on our knowledge of continents, and have been looking at different features of biomes and how they are impacted by location on our planet, weather patterns and temperature. 

Evander: ‘I have been learning about the states and capitals cities that make up Australia and now I need to practise at home plotting these on a large map.’

Alonso: ‘In Geography we are learning about all of the natural features that make up Australia. We learnt how to draw a salt pan, a scrub and plains. It is lots of fun!’ 

Oliver R: ‘I really enjoyed learning about the different states in Australia and it was fun when we drew different landforms in different states.’ 

Bentley: ‘Australia is a special place and you can go and see lots of different landmarks around Australia.’ 

Stage 2 Teachers
Mrs Megan Grant - Mrs Alicia Hampson - Mrs Carla Durnan