As you may be aware, the Northern High Schools Sports Association (NHSSA) winter sport rosters have finished for 2023.  I would like to commend all students who represented our school demonstrating commitment, teamwork and good sportsmanship throughout the season as part of a netball, soccer or AFL Winter Sports teams.   My thanks also to Laura Swanson, Will Innis, Claire Neyland, Jack Foreman, Janine Burt and Nic Wardlaw for their high level coaching, management and support of these teams during the season.  Congratulations to our Div 2 Netball team on their Grand Final win and to Ava Howorka for being named Most Valuable Player. Congratulations also to our Mixed Soccer team, scores were level at full time, still level after extra time and still level after the Golden Goal process.  In the end, the win was awarded to their opponents as they had finished above our team on the ladder.  Rio Kiely was named Most Valuable Player.  Well done to all players!  

As a result of the Department of Education’s review into Reporting to Families a new policy, Communicating Learning Progress to Families, was developed.  As part of the implementation of this policy, teachers will be contacting parents through email or by phone to share examples of learning growth over the last 2 weeks of this term and into the first 4 weeks of Term 4.  Parents are encouraged to speak with their child and their child’s teachers about the learning that is shared. Any parents wanting to have a more formal parent/teacher discussion, please contact the school administration office on 63723900, so a meeting time can be set up.

Student wellbeing is a strong focus at St Marys. Our students are completing the annual Student Wellbeing and Engagement Survey over the coming weeks. We use this information to identify priorities that are important to supporting student wellbeing and their engagement in learning.

A reminder that the Family Satisfaction Surveys remain open until September 22nd.  These data sets which capture parental voice are one of many that we use to inform planning and to review progress.  I encourage all families to complete this survey. 

We have a team of students participating in the Merino Wether Challenge on Wednesday 27 September. Our students have been learning about caring for the animals as well as practising handling and leading them. We are excited about our participation in this event.

In the final few weeks of term, I urge all students to continue to work hard, make the most of their opportunities and continue to uphold high standards of behaviour.  Every minute matters when it comes to your education!

Regards

Carolyn Watson
Principal

Wednesday 13 September 2023 

A bus load of very excited students left St Marys District School on Wednesday to either participate in or spectate a NHSSA grand final game for 2023. Both mixed soccer and Division 2 Netball SMDS teams qualified for a grand final this year. The qualification was history making for our two teams, and we were so proud of their achievements throughout the season. 

The mixed soccer team came up against strong opponents in Deloraine. It was a tight battle all game, with SMDS leading one-nil, up until the last ten minutes. At full time the game was drawn 1 All. After the completion of extra-time and “golden goal” the game was still drawn 1 All. The premiership was awarded to Deloraine on account of their team finishing top of the ladder. Congratulations to our mixed soccer team for finishing runner-up for the season 2023 and what an amazing final game to end the year on! Congratulations to Rio Kiely who was awarded most valuable player of the final. 

SMDS division 2 Netball team had only been defeated once throughout the rostered rounds and were feeling confident heading into their grand final game against Kings Meadows. The girls started strongly and were up by 8 goals at quarter time. They continued to move the ball extremely well down the court and worked so efficiently together to win the game convincingly 39-16. I have coached some excellent netball teams over the years, but never have I seen a team work as well together as this group of girls. Congratulations on being the first ever SMDS winter sports team to win a premiership, our school and wider school community are so proud of this achievement. Congratulations also, to Ava Howorka, who was awarded most valuable player of the final.  

Thanks must go to SMDS staff, who have to alter their programs each fortnight to allow our teams to compete in Launceston and keep programs going back at school while we take over half of the secondary students to Launceston. To Jack Foreman, who continues to give up his time to coach, manage, umpire and train our mixed soccer team- We are very grateful, thank you Jack. To the staff that attend winter sports to support our students – Mr Innis, Mrs Neyland, Janine Burt and Laura Swanson - we value your support and couldn’t do it without you and lastly to our admin team - who prepare all the paperwork, chase up permissions and organise first aid each and every fortnight - we are so grateful.  

Please enjoy some photos from the grand final games. We look forward to another successful season next year. 

 Laura Swanson 

With great excitement and nervousness, nearly thirty St Marys students joined sixty students from St Helens and Bicheno to participate in the ENE Country Gold Selection Trials on Thursday 3August. Students from Grade 4, 5 and 6 were selected to attend the trials based on their interest and skill levels in AFL, soccer and netball.

In perfect weather conditions for playing sport, the trials ran from 10.30am – 1.30pm.  The day was divided into two sessions.  The first session included warm-up activities, skills practices and drills designed for the three sports.   The second session included studentS playing their sports in a game situation with the appropriate rules and positions.  Students were given the opportunity to play in a number of positions to best show their talents.

At the end of the day, students were congratulated for attending the selection trials.  It is a huge life lesson to experience the disappointment of not being selected or the happiness of successful selection.  No matter what the outcome for our students, we at St. Marys District School are very proud of all our students who demonstrated the courage to attend the trials.

This year, St Marys District School had 16 students selected in the ENE Country Gold Sporting teams. Every Wednesday since August 3,  all our players have been attending team training sessions at St Helens, St Marys or Bicheno.

• Our netballers are – Charlize Speers, Claire Ward, Halle Gillies, Indi Howorka, Jessie Quilliam, Layla Woods, Lily Woods, Lily Wooley, Sienna McGiveron and Asha Woods

• Our soccer players are – Cohen Piscitelli-Cole, Ollie Bunton and Ellie Haberle

• Our AFL players are – Levi Woods, Hamish Bean and Hamish Davenport

You will notice in the photo montage that our players have already been presented with their playing uniforms. 

We congratulate these players on their selection and wish them well over the next few weeks of training and at the Carnival on September 28 in Launceston. 

Every year, interested Grade 5 & 6 girls have an opportunity to participate in a selection trials pathway to vie for a place in a combined North East/East Coast AFLW team to play in the annual Primary AFLW Carnival. 

This year, 28 girls from the North East region and our East Coast region attended selection trials at Winnaleah on Monday 4 July.  We are very proud of Indi Howorka and Lily Woods who were selected to play in the team at the carnival on Friday 1 September at Prospect Park in Launceston.

After a whole team training session on August 21 at Winnaleah, our girls travelled to Launceston feeling very nervous but very excited.

The team played three games on the day and came home with one win.  Overall, the team finished 4^th in the competition.

Congratulations Indi and Lily on your AFLW achievements.  We hope you continue to strive in this sporting pathway.

Please enjoy some representative and action photos of Indi and Lily.

In the last SMDS Newsletter, many wonderful photos were shared of our students developing basic body management skills within the discipline of gymnastics.  It has been the most wonderful experience for me to watch our students’ skills, safety, confidence and controlled techniques blossom over the last few weeks. Their balance, take-offs, landings, timing, safety and body control have improved greatly. 

Our students are now combining a range of skills into short movement sequences and some students are composing entire routines using a range of apparatus. 

The Grade 3 and 4 students have been required to choose two areas of gymnastics to best present their gymnastic growth and enjoyment.  The strength activities of peg board and monkey bars have proved very popular.  Students who favour the peg board are awarded bronze, silver, gold or diamond levels depending on how far up the peg board they can climb.   The monkey bar skills include 5, 10, 20, 30 and 60 second hangs, controlled swinging and controlled stopping.  Students on the monkey barS also are required to demonstrate movement over the rungs and certain hanging balances. 

The students who enjoy more creative tasks are able to create their own rhythmical gymnastics ribbon routine.  Our younger students are becoming very proficient with the hoop and ball routines.  Depending on confidence levels, we are hoping to showcase some of these routines in an assembly in the near future. 

Please enjoy the second round of gymnastics photos celebrating our students’ courage, aspiration and growth in these aspects of gymnastics. 

Karen Bramich 

K – 4 PE Teacher 

Our Early Childhood students key focus for Health Education this term has been “Safety”.  The learning intentions for this unit of learning are for students to identify the many ways we can recognise how to be safe in our homes, school and community.  Our students are also understanding the importance of “why” we need to follow certain safety behaviours.  This includes recognising:

• Specific colours and combination of safety colours and the meaning of each colour
• Different symbols that give special safety messages
• Recognising certain places in our environment that provide information about safety

Our students have had a range of opportunities to successfully acquire and retain very important information about safety.  They have:

• Watched videos and engaged in discussion about the content
• Using their fine motor skills, they have completed jigsaws to create safety posters
• Followed instructions on worksheets (writing words, labels, sentences and drawing) to articulate their understanding
• Used their cutting and glueing skills to create mini safety posters and to describe what safety message their poster gives
• Experienced a “safety walk” around the school to observe and document different safety signs around the school

Please enjoy these photos of our students engaged in Health Education.

This term our Prep -Grade 2 children have been developing their understanding of music notation, beat, the name of notes and how notes can have different pitches.  They have been learning about the percussion family – and through songs with lyrics and movement – our students have been playing instruments while singing and dancing.

They are learning that music can have sections where there is no sound; this is where a “rest” occurs.  They have learned the symbol for a crochet 1 beat rest.  They have extended their knowledge of notation by adding a “quaver” to the note family (crochet, minimum and semi-breve).  They have really enjoyed the Minecraft clapping rhythm activities which includes crochets, quavers, rests and measures.

Our Prep – Grade 2 students are learning how to play the same notes on different music instruments and recently they have been learning to play a whole song on the xylophones, music bells, music buttons, keyboards and boomwackers.  Different notes are colour coded on each instrument and the sound of the note (pitch) is recognised.

Please enjoy these wonderful photos of our students enjoying a range of Music experiences.

Karen Bramich

On the 11 September 2023, St Marys District School Grade 6 students along with the Grade 6's from Bicheno Primary went to Rostrevor (Scotch Oakburn College Valley Campus) as a transition excursion to get to know each other before high school.

There were four activities: low ropes course, orienteering, rock climbing, and a game called Croc Pit to work on teamwork. To start the day, we got to meet the leaders and played games as a group, then we got split into smaller groups and then did the activities. The low ropes had eight different elements, we put on helmets as a safety precaution then we made a start.

For the orienteering we got paired up, one person held the map and the other held the stamp sheet. After, we did rock climbing it was a two-sided wall. One side was harder than the other during the rock climbing, we did a challenge to see who could get from one side to the other the quickest. Next, we did Croc Pit where we had to get from one side to the other without jumping, walking around or throwing anything.

Before we left, we played a game called Wizards, Giants and Elves. It’s like Rock, Paper, Scissors but if you win you chase the other team.

A lot of fun ny Grade 6 students and I think getting to work with the Bicheno kids will really help for next year.

Last week, students in Grade 5/6 classes participated in the Primary Illuminate Challenge. This is a competition designed to showcase the creative and innovative abilities of primary school students. It encourages them to explore their interests, think critically, and come up with groundbreaking ideas to make the world a better place. This challenge is about nurturing the next generation of thinkers, dreamers, and doers.

Delivered by the Illuminate Education Australia team, it is an opportunity for students to develop a core set of life skills that can be used from the very first day of the program through the rest of their lives. Throughout the program, students combined design thinking, entrepreneurship, social and ethical understanding, business, and personal development into the learning opportunities presented to them as part of the challenge.

The problem that was posed to the students was: “How can digital technologies have a positive impact on our lives?”.

In the initial stages, the students brainstormed ideas then refined these ideas and chose one key problem that exists within the community. These problems included the cost of fresh produce, lack of sporting opportunities in the town, lack of teachers, pollution on the ocean floor, stubbing one’s toe, graffiti in public places and connecting the elderly to the community.

Once groups settled on their problem, they then explored digital solutions that could be created to help solve these problems. The five day program gave students opportunities to develop core skills in the areas of communicating, understanding, and solving problems. The groups built their capacity to work collaboratively, show leadership, be organised, and persevere through challenges. We are extremely proud of the students ideas, the way they conducted themselves throughout the week and their willingness to take on learning in a new environment. 

August 28 to September 1 was Teacher Assistant Appreciation Week.  During this week, we recognised our wonderful team of Teacher Assistants.  Our supportive and dedicated Teacher Assistants were celebrated with a morning tea, and our students celebrated the dedication and support of our TAs with these beautiful certificates of appreciation.

Your enthusiasm and tireless work never goes unnoticed and it has a long lasting impact on the success of our students and the wider SMDS community. We thank  you wholeheartedly.

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

• Grade 5 Camp - Rostrevor -  Thursday 21 September - Friday 22 September 2023
• Prep - Grade 6 School Fire Education Program - 18- 22 September 2023

WHOLE SCHOOL

2023 - 2024 POOL SEASON

OPENING:

Friday 29th September, 2023 (after 3pm)

CLOSING

Friday 31st May, 2024

Requirements in acquiring a access key:

• Be 18 years of age or over
• Have read and understood the agreement form and brochure - available below.
• Must have a current CPR certificate as a minimum.  A copy to be attached to the filled-in and signed Agreement form.

 *CPR certification needs to be renewed every year.  If you have done the 1st Aid course previously, the CPR component needs to be renewed every 12 months.

• Key renewals/purchases can be done during the hours of 9am - 2pm, on  Mondays - Thursdays ONLY.  We cannot process the keys on a Friday.
  
• Friday 29th September - we will be unable to process any keys so please be sure to have your agreement and payments in before this if you are wanting to use the pool over the school holidays.
  
  
• ENJOY!!

Agreement forms are available via this link: St Marys District School (schoolzineplus.com) and we do also have some paper forms available at the school office.

ST JOHN CPR COURSES

Roxy Cowie has kindly put on another CPR course for anyone who may have missed our last one here at school and still need to renew their CPR certification ready for the 2023/24 pool season.

Where:  St Marys Fire Station

When:   Thursday 21st September, 2023

Time:     6:00pm - 7:30pm

How to book:    either through St Johns Book a course | (stjohntas.org.au)

 - scroll to the bottom of the page to 'choose course'

 or you can call Roxy on 0419 872 781.

Pool Agreement forms are now available by clicking here: St Marys District School (schoolzineplus.com)