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Dear Families,
Our staff and students returned after the long weekend, rested and ready for the remaining weeks of this term. Our focus for learning time is to make every minute count and this is particularly important as we move towards the end of Term 1. For students to achieve at least a year’s growth during this school year, they must be coming to classes ready to learn, and working hard during lessons to ensure they achieve the stated learning goal for each lesson. Our teachers are also working hard to support students with this goal. Last week we hosted a visit from Pamela Macklin, an experienced educational consultant, coach, teacher and writer. Pamela will be supporting our leadership team and teachers to become the best teacher or leaders we can be, in order to support every student to make significant gains in their learning. This is exciting work and I look forward to sharing more insights into this work as the year progresses.
Leadership Blazer Assembly
Last Thursday we held our Leadership Blazer Assembly to induct the eleven Student Leadership Board members into their roles. Mr Martin hosted this assembly and we were extremely pleased to welcome parents of the SLB to this event. Messages about leadership, and the skills and attributes needed and developed through being part of the SLB were shared. I know that this year’s leaders, who are an outstanding group of young students, will lead with pride, enthusiasm and determination. Congratulations all our 2021 SLB!
Attendance
I would like to take this opportunity to remind families about the importance of regular attendance at school. It is imperative for good learning outcomes to be achieved that students attend school every day. A goal for students to aim for is an attendance rate at or above 90% and that is what we aim for as a school. Up until this week we were staying within reach of this but after the large number of secondary students not attending on the day of our swimming carnival, we are currently sitting on 88%. This is a significant drop. What may seem harmless can have a cumulative effect that significantly hampers learning.
As a school we work hard to support students to be at school every day and we ask that parents support us with this work by ensuring your child/ren attends school every day unless they are unwell. When students are absent, we ensure we know where our students are and why they are not at school. We acknowledge that students are not always well and able to attend school and thank families for communicating this to our administration team as soon as possible. This can be done via a phone call, SMS, in person or through the Schoolzine App. Attendance at school is a legal requirement and we must follow this up accordingly following processes and protocols as outlined in the Education Act.
The Education Act limits the reasons for a child to be authorised to be absent from school.
Reasons your child can be authorised to be absent from school include:
- sickness/incapacity
- medical/legal or related appointments
- natural disaster or extreme weather preventing your child from safely attending school
- terminal illness of an immediate family member
- bereavement of a person that your child had a close, significant, or family relationship with
- having witnessed or been subjected to family violence
- participating in a recognised learning experience
- being a participant or official at a recognised State, National or International event
- an application for home education being received by the Education Registrar and provisional registration being granted.
An absence from school that is not for a reason in the list will be recorded as an unauthorised absence. Members of the administration team, teachers or members of the leadership team follow up absences and will contact you if there is an unexplained absence recorded for your child/ren. We thank families in advance for your polite co-operation.
We understand that for a small number of families, no matter how hard parents try, some students experience times when they can be reluctant or refuse to go to school. We know that attendance patterns are established very early in the year and that is why we have a strong emphasis on working with you to address any attendance concerns at the start of the year.
What You Can Do:
- Talk about the importance of showing up to school every day, make that the expectation. Regular attendance sets up good behaviours for regular attendance at work.
- Help your child maintain daily routines such as finishing homework and getting a good night’s sleep. On average, children need 8-9 hours’ sleep to be healthy and alert. You may also need to monitor their use of the Internet, mobile phone and TV at night to ensure they are not staying up too late or being disturbed while sleeping.
- Avoid making hair, dental or medical appointments during school hours.
- Schedule family trips for school holidays, rather than during term time.
- Don’t let your child stay home unless genuinely sick. Complaints of headaches or stomach aches may be signs of anxiety.
- Monitor your child’s attendance and school performance. A regular check in by phone or email is a good idea. If you have concerns about your child’s attendance, please contact us through your child’s teacher, AST or Assistant Principal.
Open Afternoon and BBQ
Many thanks must go out to the many parents, family members and friends who joined us this week at our Open Afternoon and BBQ. It was wonderful to have so many community members onsite and to see the obvious pride in our students as they took groups of visitors for tours of our school. For many of our visitors, it had been many years since they had the opportunity to visit classrooms and workshop areas and for others it was a perfect opportunity to work alongside their child in their scheduled class. After 3.00pm staff and parents enjoyed a snack at the BBQ and time to talk. My appreciation goes out to the members of our administration and EFA teams for supporting this wonderful school community event to happen. We are looking forward to running another open day later in the year.
Kind regards,
Principal
The School Association Committee has vacancies commencing 2021. There are 3 parent member vacancies and 1 community member vacancy on the Committee. Positions are for a period of 2 years.
Nominations for these vacancies close on Thursday 18th March 2021. If there are more nominations than vacancies, elections will be held on Wednesday 24th March via an electronic poll.
St Marys District School Association invites you to consider nomination for one of these positions. To nominate please complete the attached nomination form and return to Sharlene Ridler-Mason, Returning Officer c/- St Marys School Administration Office by 3.00pm Wednesday18th March, 2021.
NOTICE OF ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING
An Association is made up of the parents, staff and community members of a school. An Association exists for each Tasmanian Government School, including primary schools, high schools, district schools and colleges.
The purpose of an Association is to provide members with a way to participate and be involved in supporting the school.
The Association for each school has been established under the Education Act 2016 (Tas).
What are the main functions of the Association?
- Associations participate in:
- development of school policies, school improvement plans and the formulation of school objectives, priorities, strategic directions and values
- planning the financial arrangements to support these objectives
- evaluating the school’s performance to achieve those objectives, priorities, strategic directions and values
- the selection process of a Principal, where a permanent vacancy exists
- fostering the value and benefits of education
- encouraging co-operation among teachers, students, parents and the school community
- raising funds to benefit the school.
Who are members of the Association?
- The following people are automatically members of the School Association:
- all parents (parents or guardians who have children or young people enrolled at the school)
- all staff (permanent and fixed-term employees at the school); including the Principal Community members need to apply to the School Association Committee to become a member of the School Association.
How can I be involved in the Association?
- As a member of the Association you can:
- attend General Meetings of the Association
- nominate for the Association Committee
- where they exist, you can join a Subcommittee of the Association Committee
- support Association events or fundraising.
How can I get more information?
- If you would like further information about Associations, you can contact:
- Your school or college, including:
- any current member of your School Association Committee
- the Principal or staff at your school
- Tasmanian Association of State School Organisations (TASSO):
- email info@tasso.org.auor visit the website tasso.org.au
The Department of Education:
- School Associations website
- phone the Department of Education on 1800 816 057 (Free call)
- email schoolassociations@education.tas.gov.au
It has been wonderful to welcome students, parents, and staff back to school and to see how quickly students have settled into routines and expectations of their classes.
If you have not had an opportunity to come into the school so far this year please let us introduce you to our Primary teaching team:
- Mrs Rebecca Hibberd – Kindergarten and Launching into Learning programs
- Miss Jessica Hilliard – Prep/One
- Miss Leonie Youdale – Grade 1/2
- Mrs Fiona Gray – Grade 2/3
- Mr Andrew Kelly – Grade 2/3 and Grade 3/4
- Mr Jason Gledhill – Grade 3/4 and HPE
- Mrs Meg Burbury – Grade 5/6 A
- Mrs Gemma Seabrook – Grade 5/6 B
- Miss Karen Bramich – HPE and Music
- Miss Narmina Hasanova – Grade 3/4 and Grade 5/6 A
- Mrs Julie Stanford – Fingal Campus
- Miss Shanti Sundram – Fingal Campus
- Mrs Michele Bennett – Fingal Campus, Support Programs and Library
- Miss Sandra Cook – AST, K-6
- Miss Ros Smith – Assistant Principal, K-6
We look forward to working with you throughout 2021 and are happy to meet with you at any time to discuss your child’s learning. Please contact us via the school administration on 63723900 to make an appointment or arrange a phone conversation.
Primary Library
We have now set up our new library for primary students in the primary building and classes are currently enjoying using the space and borrowing books. Mrs Bennett is working with students and discussing and sharing books. I encourage parents to come and visit us in this inviting space.
Student Learning
Students have been actively engaging in their learning throughout the classes. It is wonderful to see the effort, dedication and focus students are applying to their learning.
Athletics Carnivals
Our Grade 3-6 and Kinder to Grade 2 and Launching into Learning Athletics Carnivals will be held on Thursday 11th March and Friday 12th March. I am certain that there will be outstanding performances and participation, and we look forward to sharing results and photos in our next newsletter.
Ros Smith
Assistant Principal (K-6)
Primary PE with Miss Bramich
Our students have been having so much fun with individual, partner and team activities in preparation for the Athletics Carnival. There has been a big focus on “belonging” to a team and how doing your best will make your team stronger. By demonstrating our school values of courage and aspiration, many of our students are developing a sense of pride in their school house (Dalmain, Blackwood and Duncan) and are becoming very excited for our Athletics carnival….particularly the Grade 3 – 6 students who have been lucky enough to be practicing with brand new throwing equipment for the field events!!
Our Early Childhood students have been encouraged to think about their learning and find ways to share how they felt about their learning. Recently they have been asked to look at an emoji chart, reflect on the words that match up with each emoji face. They have then written their name on a sticky note and placed it against the emoji that best describes their learning in that lesson. At the end of the lesson, we sit as a group while we drink our water, and reflect on the lesson by linking back to our learning intentions and success criteria. The students then complete their emoji response. This not only supports their critical thinking about their learning in PE but also supports their literacy skills.
I am very proud of the efforts, endeavour, fairness, empathy and fun shown in PE lessons by our students at both campuses. Please enjoy these pictures of recent PE lessons.
On Friday 5th March the SLB attended the GRIP Leadership Conference in Launceston. The SLB attended workshops to improve leadership skills such as time management, creating events and motivating a team. The SLB felt inspired to lead in a way that will ensure all their actions will create a lasting impact on school life. We will focus on pride, motivation and inclusiveness. Some immediate actions are to initiate the mentoring program again, work with newly elected class reps and begin some homegroup challenges. The conference was a fantastic experience and helped us clarify how we are going to work and what we are going to do in 2021.
Fingal Campus Science Term 1 2021
In Science students are learning to pose and respond to questions and make predictions about familiar objects and events.
Grade 1 students have been learning to observe changes in our local environments. They have looked at how our day changes from day to night and the students made mobiles showing the difference between the daytime sky and the night sky.
Grade 2 have been learning about the earth’s resources. Air, wind, and water are natural resources. Without natural resources like soil, air, water, forests, plants animals, fossil fuels and natural metals and minerals, our world would be a very different place. Everything people make uses the Earth’s resources. Some resources can grow or form again like new animals can be born and new plants grow, but resources like petroleum and gold cannot be replaced.
Collage: How the Earth needs water to survive
Grade 3 students have been investigating how the Sun is a source of light and the relationship of the Sun, Moon, and the Earth. Students brainstormed the similarities and differences between day and night and learnt how the ‘Earth rotates on an axis that causes regular changes including day and night.
Grade 4 have been researching what is the Earth made of. They discovered that the outer core is the layer underneath the mantle. The outer core is made up of liquid (melted) iron and nickel. It is around 2000 kilometres thick.
The inner core is at the centre of the planet. It is also made up of iron and nickel. However, due to the intense pressure surrounding it, the metals exist in a solid state. The inner core is around 1200 kilometres thick. Students looked at howthe surface of the earth has changed oveer time due to weathering and erosion. Students had hands on experience investigating and sorting rock and soil samples.
Grade 5 students are gaining understanding about Earth and Space Sciences. The learning intentions in this science unit involves identifying planets of the solar system and comparing how they orbit the sun. Students read the text Formation of the Earth and answered a range of questions designed to help students extract the key information about how the planet was formed. Students used reading strategies of re-reading to gain understand and comprehension and inferential skills to answer questions about how the earth was formed.
On Friday 26th of February St Marys District School hosted the Pollie Pedallers for lunch. We welcomed them and entertained them on the Green. Sage Lye and the school band performed some beautiful songs and Elise, our SLB president, formally welcomed the honoured guests. Our catering students, along with Amanda Jordan and Rachel Hodge, did a wonderful job feeding everyone. Guy Barnett MP spoke to students about diabetes and answered some thoughtful questions from our Primary students. It was an informative and interesting lunch. We were presented with a book: One Man’s Journey by Ken Gourlay which will reside in the Secondary classroom libraries.
What am I worth?
A topic recently explored in several small groups has been, ‘what am I worth?’. If we were to break down the body into it’s various elements, we would be worth very little: enough iron to make one nail, enough phosphorus to make about 2200 matches, enough sulphur to rid one dog of fleas, and so on, as well as several buckets of water. We are worth so much more than just the components of our body. Each of us is unique and have our own character, talents, personality and appearance. We should see ourselves as priceless – so precious that our value cannot be determined.
We also discussed how we feel when other people don’t value us, try to drag us down or emotionally harm us. Can we still feel valuable even we feel damaged and broken? We demonstrated with a $50 note – it is worth $50 when it is in pristine condition. When I crushed it in my hands and stepped on it, it was still worth $50, no matter how crumpled or dirtied it appeared. Our value as unique individuals remain the same regardless of how others treat us or what circumstances we find ourselves in. Remind yourself today that you are so valuable; you are priceless.
Hannah Rubenach-Quinn
Chaplain
CLASS |
TEACHER |
HOMEWORK/ASSIGMENTS | DUE DATE |
9A | K Green |
Ecology Test Study Ecosystems Assignment |
16th of March 30th of March |
These notices have been sent home to parents in the last fortnight. If you did not receive one and would like to receive a copy of the notice, please contact the school office on 63 723 900.
PRIMARY
SECONDARY
Short_Course_Farms_Excursion.pdf
WHOLE SCHOOL
NOTICEBOARD