To our school community,  

Welcome back to what will be an exciting and eventful Term 2. I trust everyone enjoyed family time over the Easter break and are now ready for the busy term ahead. Students and staff have already participated in an excursion to AGFEST, a Careers Taster Day in Launceston and a visit from the Australian Defence Force. While other events already on our calendar include Cross Country, Winter Sports, MND Big Freeze, Performances, Bay of Fires Art Exhibition, College Open days and excursions. Keep an eye on our school website and Facebook page for regular updates on all Term 2 events and happenings.  

St Marys District School (education.tas.edu.au) 

St Marys District School | Facebook

Uniform

At St Marys District School we want all students to have a positive sense of community and pride in the school. Uniform is an important part of this. We are very pleased to see so many students wearing their uniform with pride and are appreciative of parents/carers efforts to ensure students are wearing the correct clothing. Students can wear a plain black long sleeve top under their polo but casual non-uniform hoodies are not to be worn.  A reminder that the following clothing items are not part of our everyday uniform: board shorts, sports shorts, steel capped boots. 

If you need support with your child’s uniform you can talk to your child’s teacher or AST or contact the office, to discuss your family’s eligibility for support or assistance in the purchase of school uniforms. 

Reminder: Every school day matters 

As Term 2 kicks off, we wanted to share a timely reminder about the importance of school attendance.  

We love seeing your child at school every day – it’s the best place for them to learn and grow. It’s a chance to be around their friends, learn new things (including life skills), spark their curiosity and have fun.  

For tips on creating positive attendance habits, visit the Anything can happen website.

Please talk to us if you’re having trouble getting your child to school. We’re here to help and support is available.

Carolyn Watson

Principal

Come and join us in the staff room for an informal coffee and a catch up after dropping the kids off at school on Thursday 15 May.

Great news regarding excursions! 

Our off campus planning guidelines have been updated to redefine Major and Minor excursions, meaning in most cases excursions outside of the St Marys area are now considered minor. (Unless they involve a risk such as swimming, overnight stays or adventure activities). This means no more lengthy consent and medical form for every trip.

HOWEVER, to ensure your consent for all future minor excursions, a minor excursion consent form has been sent home with each student. This will cover all minor excursions for the remainder of the year. Parents will still receive notices with all of the excursion details, but will only have to respond if they WITHDRAW their consent for a particular activity.

We really hope this streamlines the process for everyone.  Please return your paper notice to the office as soon as possible.  If you did not receive your notice or would prefer to provide consent online, please follow this link to our online version:  2025 Minor Excursion Consent Form

In Kinder we are discovering and learning about “Under the Sea”. We have been learning about why the oceans is important, different ways in which we need and use it, understanding of oceans, its inhabitants and their habitats as well as life cycles and food chains and ocean conservations. We have started to create a large underwater world in our classroom which is looking fantastic and we are really proud of what we have achieved so far.  We are also exploring shape in our learning environments as well as writing our names.

We have been exploring the concept of smallest to tallest, we measured ourselves in a line to show this, we then traced around our bodies and have painted these as a representation of ourselves and will display these in our classroom to show the smallest to tallest.

Kinder have also been busy planting seeds and seedlings in our raised garden beds, such as strawberries, lettuce, cabbage and chives. We have been very excited watching our carrots growing and can not wait to be able to pick these to eat.

Regards

Kate

KINGS MEADOWS HIGH SCHOOL 2025 

On Thursday 10 April, a group of secondary students travelled to Launceston to participate in the Northern High Schools Sports Association (NHSSA) AFLW Gala day event.  

Our first game was against Kings Meadows on the full-sized field, we had a team of thirteen players and they matched us for numbers. Dominic and Byron stepped up into the coaching role for the entire day and did an excellent job of getting our girls into positions and managing changes, making adjustments and encouraging and supporting our team. The games were played in 2 x 12-minute halves on one full sized field and one half sized field. Our girls did an amazing job at moving the ball  and scoring, considering the small numbers. We came away with the win.   

The second game was against Deloraine, who were strong opponents, and the game was quite closely contested. Our girls showed amazing bravery and were improving in confidence with their kicking, marking and tackling as the games went on. Deloraine won the game. 

Our third and final game for the tournament was against St Helens. There were some amazing football skills on show from both teams during this game and it was a very competitive game. Our girls dug deep and managed to win by 1 point! 

We are so proud of the way our girls represented our school and the improvements in confidence they showed with each game.  The girls should be commended for their efforts, especially those who were playing for the first time. Congratulations to Isla, Sienna, Mieka, Halle, Georgia, Laena, Savannah, Indi, Malika, Sahara, Paige, Ellie and Ruby. 

Thank you also to the boys who attended this event to help officiate. These boys signed up to coach, field umpire, goal umpire, boundary umpire and manage the team at the tournament. It was fantastic to see the leadership from the boys and the support they gave to the girls during the tournament. Thank you and congratulations to: Byron and Dominic (coaches), Wally, Lachie B and Byron (umpires).  

Lastly, a big thank you to Sommer for stepping up at the last minute to support this excursion. Much appreciated.  

Congratulations to our AFLW team for 2025. 

Laura Swanson 

DIVISION 1B 

2025 

St Marys District School participated in the Inter-High Swimming Carnival at Launceston Aquatic in the second last week of Term 1. We had a small team of very talented swimmers who represented our school with amazing determination, pride and resilience……….up against much larger schools in the Division 1A and 1B carnival. 

We hit the pool …..beginning with the Medley Relays and then into the 50m Freestyle events, where Sienna M finished 3rd in heat one for the Grade 8 girls. We were super excited when both Ping and Robert finished first in their heats of the 50m freestyle and Harley second. Bentley finished 3rd in his 50m Freestyle heat. Receiving a place ribbon in the Division One carnivals is an outstanding achievement. Other swimmers to place were: Sienna M - 2nd in the 50m Backstroke for Grade 8 girls and Ping L – 2nd in the 50m Breaststroke for Grade 9 boys. 

Outstanding achievements came from the following students who participated in so many events to gain points for our school. What a mighty effort and thank you for your commitment. 

Harley M, Sienna M, Wally , Ellie W. Mieka and Ping.

A special mention to the following students who stepped up and filled in extra events for the day…… 

Ryan G, Halle G, Molly P, Ella G and Finn M

Congratulations to our students for representing our school with such courage. Our team was very short in numbers this year, so we are hoping to build on participation for next year so we can aim to have a swimmer in every race. We will be in the Division 2 carnival next year. 

Thanks to Mr Wardlaw for supporting our team of swimmers again this year, both at the event and in training the squad prior to the carnival and to our support squad of parents that travel up to Launceston to cheer on our students.  

Laura Swanson 

Meet some of our staff!

Last term we have been looking at Fairytales, Myths, Legends and Fables, and we explored the differences between them. The students had fun reading different stories and learning about various cultural myths about creation as well as being warned, through a Legend, about concentrating on what we are doing and not getting distracted (the legend of Icarus).  

Our final task for the term was to create a fractured fairytale. This means we had to choose a fairytale, change at least one part of the story, while still keeping the same idea. For example, Goldilocks and The Three Bears became The Girl and The Three Hippos.  

Everyone created a new fairytale. Thanks to Ms Kirk and her Grade 3/4 who listened to our stories and gave lots of positive feedback to the student’s.

I am so proud of the work and engagement Year 7 are demonstrating in English. 

Although Anzac day took place during the school holidays, a number of our students got up early, put on their uniforms and attended dawn and 10 am ceremonies throughout our communities.  

With the winter sports season in the community off to a great start, now is a good time to remind families of the "Ticket To Play" initiative.  

Ticket to Play is a Tasmanian Government initiative designed to reduce the cost of sport and active recreation membership and/or registration for eligible children.

Ticket to Play provides two vouchers worth up to $100 each towards club membership fees for children aged 5-18 years who are listed on a Services Australia Health Care or Pensioner Concession card or have received Family Tax Benefit A in the previous or current financial year. Children in approved out of home care are eligible as well. Temporary or provisional visa holders, undocumented migrants or international students can also apply. Vouchers can be used at two different activity providers, or both can be used at one activity provider.

The key objective of Ticket to Play is to increase the number of young Tasmanians participating in sport and active recreation.

For more information or to apply visit  Ticket To Play

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