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- PRINCIPALS REPORT
- PRIMARY REPORT
- KINDER - GRADE 2 ATHLETICS CARNIVAL
- SECONDARY SWIMMING CARNIVAL 2021
- GRADE 10 SCIENCE
- BATIKING
- SCISSORS SKILLS IN KINDERGARTEN
- WOMEN'S DAY LUNCHEON
- GRADE 5/6B - ICT IDENTITY ARTWORK
- WOMEN OF THE VALLEY
- EXCURSION TO THE GLOVER AND ART RAGE
- GARDENING GROUP
- SCHOOL HEALTH NURSE NEWS
- HOMEWORK/ASSIGNMENTS
- SCHOOL ANNOUNCEMENTS
- COMMUNITY ANNOUNCEMENTS
It is hard to believe it is the last newsletter for Term 1, how quickly the weeks have flown by. Although this term has been a busy one, with swimming and athletics carnivals, excursions and participation in both the Women of the Valley event held at St Marys and the International Women’s Day Lunch at St Helens it has been quite uneventful compared to this time last year. We haven’t escaped without incident though, with a group of six students and five staff camping out at the St Marys campus on Wednesday night due to flooding. We managed to make a great night of it with plenty of games and fun had, along with a meal of ‘take-aways’ from the Coach House and a movie or two on the big screen. As I write this report all six students are sleeping soundly, and staff are reflecting on another interesting day (and night) in the life of a teacher. Many thanks go out to all the parents who were so flexible today and to Calows Coaches and the bus drivers. A very special mention to the members of our community who sent messages, offered help and supplies. We really appreciate how wonderful it is to be part of the St Marys District School community.
Congratulations to Narmina Hasanova and Jason Gledhill on the birth of their beautiful baby, Jasper. Although rather early, Jasper is doing very well and Narmina and Jason are delighted with the new addition to their family. We are looking forward to meeting Jasper next term.
A reminder to parents that the last day of Term 1 for students is Wednesday 31st March. Thursday 1st of April is a Moderation day for teachers. On behalf of the staff, I wish families a wonderful, relaxing holiday break.
Kind regards,
Carolyn Watson
Principal
Dear Parents/ Carers,
We are fast approaching the end of our first term at school for 2021 and autumn is upon us, bringing with it unpredictable weather.
The primary staff are looking at some additional lunch time activities for students, particularly as we head into the months ahead, when the days begin to cool down. We would like to set up a Lego Club for interested students on Tuesday and Thursday lunch times. We have some Lego at school, but if any families have any additional Lego at home which they no long have a use for we would love to build on our collection. Any donations would be gratefully received, and I am sure will bring hours of pleasure to our primary students. If you would like to make a donation, please contact Ros Smith on 63723900 to make arrangements.
Athletics Carnivals
Congratulations to our Primary students for their conduct and performance at our recent K-2 and Launching into Learning and Grade 3-6 Athletics Carnivals. There was wonderful participation, good sportsmanship and performances at both events.
Particular thanks to Miss Bramich for her outstanding organisation of these events and to our secondary students for their support of the Grade 3-6 Carnival and Grade 5/6 students for their Support of the K-2 Carnival. Awesome job everyone!!
We are certain you will enjoy the articles about these events in this newsletter.
Best wishes to our Grade 3-6 students who have been selected to represent our school at the ENE Athletics Carnival. We are certain they will represent themselves, their families and our school with distinction.
Parent Help
It has been lovely to welcome parents back into our school, following the restrictions to visits in 2020. We would love to have parents once again supporting our children’s learning at school. If you would like to visit your child’s class, please make arrangements with class teachers. You will be warmly welcomed.
Primary Assembly
There will be a Primary Assembly on Wednesday 31st March, 11:10am in the Performing Arts Centre. This assembly will be lead by some of our Grade 10 Student Leaders and Grade 5/6 B. We would love to see you there if you are able to join us.
Ros Smith
Assistant Principal (K-6)
KINDER - GRADE 2 ATHLETICS CARNIVAL
What happens when you get more than 60 children under 7 years of age together for nearly 3 hours of fun in the outdoors???? Chaos? No!!!! It was amazing – a mosaic of green, red and blue t-shirts and sun hats belonging to the early childhood students was a fabulous spectacle. The students participated in a huge variety of fun events to showcase their physical, social and emotional development.
Friday 12th March was just the perfect day for the Kinder – Grade 2 Athletic Carnival. It was wonderful to see so many Launching into Learning families accept the invitation to participate as well.
The events began with everyone warming up their bodies and their giggles with activities on the parachutes. From there, our children demonstrated their skills at running, hurdling, relays, jumping, team-work, moving in a lane, sitting on house coloured marshalling benches and listening for when their races were called.
What a busy time, but oh what fun!! Thank you to all our parents and friends who signed in and maintained physical distancing while supporting our students. A huge thank you to our teachers and teacher aides who supported our students for this event. A big thank you to Olivier Chartrain for preparing the track and setting up the house tents.
Please enjoy these photos of our special Kinder – Grade 2 day.
Keep a look out for photos of the Grade 3 – 6 Athletics Carnival. When house points and champions have been finalised, there will be a report in the next newsletter.
Karen Bramich – Carnival Organiser
SECONDARY SWIMMING CARNIVAL 2021
Swimming Carnival Results 2021
1st Place- DALMAIN 375
2nd Place- BLACKWOOD 310
3rd Place- DUNCAN 123
CHAMPIONS AND RUNNER-UP CHAMPIONS
Grade |
Champion |
Runner-up |
7 Boys |
Matthew Englmhyr |
Tysen Gamble |
7 Girls |
Helayna McGiveron |
Arielle da Graca |
8 Boys |
Byron Ball |
Ned Woolfe |
8 Girls |
Sienna Patmore |
Hallie Thomson |
9 Boys |
Caleb Broughan |
Jimmy Freiboth |
9 Girls |
Zali Taylor |
Mia Gillies |
10 Boys |
Max Salter |
Sam Jordan |
10 Girls |
Darshini Barnes |
Ella Triffit |
NEW RECORDS
Grade |
Event |
Name |
Old record |
New record |
7 Girls |
25m Butterfly |
Helayna McGiveron |
18.64 Bronte Cook (2006) |
18.02 |
7 Girls |
50m Freestyle |
Helayna McGiveron |
36.11 Charlotte Lockwood (2016) |
35.56 |
9 Girls |
50m Breaststroke |
Zali Taylor |
47.47 Micala Witton (2001) |
45.97 |
10 Girls |
25m Butterfly |
Darshini Barnes |
16.85 Sophie Bourke (2009) |
16.81 |
Congratulations to our champions and runner-up champions for the secondary swimming this year. We had a fantastic day at the pool with some very close contests across the grades. We wish our team all the best for the Inter-High event in Launceston on the 29th March.
We have been studying genetics and inheritance this term. As part of our investigation into the process of inheritance, we created ‘Vegetable Babies’ to consider their similarities and differences. All of the “Babies’ were siblings (sharing the same parental genes) and we could clearly see the inherited traits (eyes, arm length and feet). The differences caused by their environment during development were also very conspicuous.
Students in grade 7/8/9 and 10 are able to participate in a short course option on a Friday afternoon. The following batiks were completed during the first round of short courses in the Art room with Mrs Lewis. A Batik is created using cotton material, hot wax , jhanting tools and dye.
SCISSORS SKILLS IN KINDERGARTEN
The Kindergarten children have been learning to use scissors. They have been concentrating on putting their fingers on the bottom and their thumb on top. It is very tricky!
They snipped and cut a range of papers to create these colourful, textured collages.
Whilst using scissors strengthens hand muscles, it also supports the development of:
- bi-lateral coordination (both sides of the body work together as both hands are used at the same time. One holds and moves the paper and the other operates the scissors.)
- hand-eye coordination (using hands and tracking with your eyes)
- visual perception (being able to see the shape that you are cutting)
- fine motor skills
- focus and attention
In Kindergarten we support this development though play, including opportunities for:
- cutting playdough
- tearing and ripping paper, magazines and newspaper
- using tongs, tweezers and pegs to pick up small items such as pom poms, shells or pebbles
- punching holes in leaves or paper with hole punches
- using eye droppers to squirt and drop coloured water
- playing with spray bottles – squeezing the trigger
- squeezing sponges and loofas
- painting and drawing
We had a very special experience on Friday the 19th of March 2021. Accompanied by Janine Burt Montanna Reece and Achounta Butwell attended the International Women’s Day Luncheon hosted by the Break O’Day Women in Agriculture at Parkside Bar and Kitchen. Thank you to Mr John Tucker M.P. who supported the two selected SMDS Agricultural students to attend.
The theme of the event was ‘Celebrating Lives of Women in the Break O’Day.” Whilst enjoying a 2 course meal the guests listened to Professor Katie Flanagan who spoke about her research in vaccine immunology. A current topic in our COVID-19 present world.
It was a different experience because we have never had an experience like that before. It was fun because we both got to meet new people and experience things out of our comfort zone.
Please enjoy these photos which capture the experience.
Montanna Reece and Achounta Butwell.
GRADE 5/6B - ICT IDENTITY ARTWORK
Upon examining how identities are influenced by people and places, 5/6B described their own strengths and achievements (and those of others) before identifying how these contribute to personal identities. To complement this, students applied their ICT skills to create individual artworks.
On the 9th of March, students walked in groups to visit the Women of The Valley event taking place in the St Marys Community Hall to celebrate International Women’s Day. We had a look at all the different stalls, talking to people from NDIS, aged care and wellbeing services. We sported pride and women’s rights badges, as well as putting the polaroid camera to good use. It was great to see the portraits that celebrated the leading women of our community. Toward the end of our visit we listened to the workshop from Break O’Day Employment Connect. The story of the guest speaker left us uplifted and inspired. The time spent in the hall was one to remember and we look forward to a similar event next year!
Olivia Bonner
EXCURSION TO THE GLOVER AND ART RAGE
On Thursday March the 11th, the Art students from St Marys District School, went on an excursion to Evandale to see the Glover Exhibition, which is the most prestigious landscape competition in Tasmania. The students were then taken to Invermay in Launceston to the Inveresk Museum and Art Gallery where Art Rage was held this year. Art Rage is an exhibition of the best art work from year 11 and 12 students state wide.
A huge thank you to ADFAS Australian Decorative and Fine Arts Society for donating $900 sponsorship money to pay for the bus to Launceston for the students and half the cost for a relief teacher to enable us to take two teachers on the trip, Mrs Lewis and Miss Draghici. The ladies from ADFAS met us at the Glover exhibition with Megan Dick, the curator. The students had a great trip and all comments afterwards were really positive. Miss Draghici has recently joined our school from the mainland and was very impressed with the quality of work in both exhibitions. She said, ”It was such an enriching and rewarding experience to see the great art being produced! Also the student art at Art Rage was really inspiring!”
Student comments were, “Thank you so much for the amazing trip. It was so much fun to see all the amazing artwork." Thank you—Alice
“The excursion was actually really good. It was good to see people’s art. It was also fun going around with friends to see things.”- Amali
“Thank you for letting us visit and admire everyone's fantastic art pieces. It was great looking at all the different art types and the creative minds behind them. It was truly a day to remember.” - Bayli
“Thank you for giving us this opportunity to experience art, first hand, in different mediums.”- Kyia
Wednesday afternoons is gardening time for several Prep/Grade 1-2 students each week. We have been busy planting out garden beds with winter vegetables and flowers. The children are enjoying identifying weeds and bugs as well as learning how to read seed packets to know what time of year to plant, depth and spacing of seeds. Much thanks to Harry’s mum Kerry for donating lots of vegetable and flower seeds.
It is a joy to see little sprouts popping out of the soil. Even as the cooler days approach along with some potentially dreary weather, there are constantly signs of freshness, energy and growth in a garden.
Hannah Rubenach-Quinn
Chaplain
Sugar and tooth decay
Everyone knows eating too much sugar can lead to tooth decay, but few are aware of exactly how that happens. It's not the sugar itself that does the damage, but rather the chain of events that takes place after you eat that piece of cake.
How Cavities Develop
The mouth is full of hundreds of bacteria, many of which are beneficial to the oral ecosystem. However, certain harmful oral bacteria actually feed on the sugars you eat to create acids that destroy the tooth enamel, which is the shiny, protective outer layer of the tooth (and it is stronger than bone). Cavities are a bacterial infection created by acids that cause your teeth to experience a hole in them. Without treatment, cavities can progress past the enamel and into the deeper layers of the tooth, causing pain and possible tooth loss.
Constant vigilance is the key to preventing the negative effects of sugar on teeth. Encourage your kids to limit their sugar intake, brush away bacteria-filled plaque regularly (twice a day) and consume healthy foods that strengthen the teeth. Add regular dental visits and fluoride treatments to the mix, and you and your loved ones have the best shot at winning the battle against tooth decay.
Class |
Teacher |
Homework/Assignments |
Due Date |
9A |
K Green |
Ecosystems Assignment |
30th March |
10A |
L Cornelius |
Creative Writing - This task is very open. The goal is for students to find their voise and write as only they can. |
1st April |
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
Primary Assembly 31st March
SECONDARY
Inter - High Swimming Carnival - Monday 29th March 2021
WHOLE SCHOOL
NOTICEBOARD