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Upcoming Dates
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- 26th April: Anzac Day Liturgy led by Defence Students
- 27th April: School Board Meeting
- 29th April: Assembly led by Room 9 Year 4/5
- 5th May: P&F Mother's Day Stall
- 6th May: Mother's Day liturgy led by Transition Room 7 & 8
- 10th May to 19th May: Naplan testing period for Years 3 & 5
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Please refer to School Stream for full event details. Please check the EVENTS tab to add event details directly to your calendar!
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Principal's News
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Dear Parents and Caregivers,
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Welcome to Term 2! I hope you all enjoyed the beautiful weather over the holidays and were able to spend quality time with family and friends. The next two long weekends and shorter weeks will be a lovely way to ease everyone back into the busyness of school life again.
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It seems we had had another wave of COVID-19 cases across our school community this week which has impacted the attendance numbers for both staff and students. This is a good reminder for us all to still have awareness of the NT regulations and guidelines around COVID-19. Thank you to those families who have notified us of illness and absences, hopefully this wave will pass quickly!
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On Tuesday afternoon we came together as a whole school community in Liturgy, celebrating the new life of the Easter season. This was a wonderful way to start the term with the special Easter message of sacrifice and love to strengthen our faith for a hope filled future. I want to especially acknowledge the wonderful leadership of our Room 11 and Room 16 students who have led our Holy Week and Easter Liturgies – your reverence and leadership of prayer in the school has been outstanding. If you missed it, there is a link to the Holy Week liturgy on our school Facebook page.
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Monday will be a public holiday for ANZAC Day. A special ANZAC liturgy led by our Defence students will be held at school on Tuesday morning at 8.30am to mark this significant Australian day. Parents and extended families are most welcome to attend.
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Staffing: I wish to congratulate Miss Zara Pearson on her successful appointment to the position of PE Teacher replacing Mrs Sarah Muller for the remainder of 2022. Zara has a wealth of experience and expertise as a Physical Education teacher and I am sure you will make her feel very welcome to our St Mary’s School community. Zara will keep the same teaching days and timetable as Sarah Muller, teaching REC release for Room 11 on Tuesday and PE classes across the school each Wednesday and Thursday.
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Term 2 Events: An overview of events currently planned for Term 2 are included with this newsletter today below. This list is not exhaustive and does not include incursions and excursions planned by year levels. Please continue to consult the newsletter, the school calendar and School Stream for any adjustments to times or dates. Additional activities may also be added during the term.
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Welcome to Harriet (Room 8) Finn (Room 16) Tara (Room 13) and families and welcome back to Oscar (Room 6) Zoe (Room 13) and Jade (Room 16) and Sebastian (Room 6) and families who joined our school community this week.
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I trust you will have an opportunity to celebrate the true ANZAC spirit over the long weekend.
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Term 2 Coffee Morning
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This morning we held our Welcome back to Term 2 Coffee Morning event! Thanks to Denis from Just Coffee Darwin for serving up delicious hot and cold beverages and to our canteen staff Mr Prem and Miss Kaitlyn for preparing an assortment of sweet treats to start the day! We hope families enjoyed this time and have a wonderful long weekend...
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Religious Education News
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Easter: Central to the faith of Christians is the Easter story. Easter is a reminder to us all that Jesus, through His sacrifice, has overcome death and sin; that good
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has triumphed over evil. His resurrection offers us the promise of new life
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and confirms that our trust in God will save us from despair. These are
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undoubtedly messages that we all need to hear amidst the uncertainty of our
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everyday lives, even more so in recent times.
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Anzac Day Commemorations: This Monday is Anzac Day, a day when we pause to remember the many sacrifices our servicemen and women (and
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their families) have made, and continue to make, for our country.
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Our Defence Students have been working hard to prepare for our school commemoration liturgy which will be held on Tuesday 26th at 8:30 in the hall. Parents are welcome to attend.
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Sacramental Program: This term children will begin preparations for their Sacraments.
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Children celebrating Reconciliation and First Communion will begin their first lesson next Thursday 28th April from 3 - 4pm. Children will need to be collected from the library at 4 pm, please enter the school via the coded gate to collect your children.
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Children celebrating Confirmation will begin their first lesson on Thursday 5th May at 3 - 4 pm in the library.
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If you have any questions about the Sacramental Program or wish for your children to participate please contact clare.nolan@nt.catholic.edu.au for more information.
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Please return all Project Compassion boxes and envelopes to the school office by Friday 27th May or donate online via the Caritas website at lent.caritas.org.au
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ANZAC Day Liturgy – Tuesday 26th April 8:30am in the Mary MacKillop Hall
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Mother's Day Liturgy - 6th May
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Reconciliation and First Communion lessons commence - Thursday 28th April 3 - 4 pm
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Confirmation lessons commence - Thursday 5th May 3 - 4 pm
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Religious Education Co-ordinator
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P&F Prize Winners!
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We had so many winners this morning who took home goodies and prizes from our P&F Easter Raffle! A big shout out goes to everyone who donated prizes for our raffle or gave up time to put the prizes together - we couldn't have done it without your help!
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CathCroc
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2022 School Swimming Program Payments
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We have been discussing with Royal Life Saving NT options for the lesson that was missed for classes during the first week of swimming, due to the lightning storm and severe wet weather. Unfortunately, due to their busy schedule with other school bookings, we have been unable to organise an opportunity for the missed lesson to be made up. As per Royal Life Saving NT's policies, refunds are not issued for missed lessons. However, St Mary's have made the decision to offer families a refund of $10 for the missed lesson. We ask that you please make contact with the school via email admin.stmarys@nt.catholic.edu.au to arrange how you would prefer your refund processed.
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Those families with payments outstanding we kindly ask that you arrange payment to be made ASAP.
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Pastoral Care and Wellbeing News
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What is the Spirit of St Mary's?
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The Spirit of St Mary’s: At St Mary’s Catholic Primary we are focused on developing and educating the whole person within safe, supportive and respectful environments. Student learning and well-being is centred around quality evidence-based pastoral care and well-being practices that are modelled on the life and teaching of Jesus Christ and ensure students gain essential social and emotional skills for life. One of the ways that we promote student well-being and positive behaviour is through the ‘Spirit of St Mary’s. The spirit of St Mary’s encompasses our Making Jesus Real philosophy, the gospel values and the Four R’s;
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At St Mary’s we are expected to be:
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- Responsible
- Respectful
- Resilient
- Ready to Learn
We adapt a Positive Behaviour for Learning, whole school approach to teaching and managing behaviours. It is designed to increase academic performance, improve safety, decrease problem behaviour and establish a positive school culture. It teaches these behaviours by consistent and frequent acknowledgment of appropriate behaviour and constructively and specifically addressing negative behaviour.
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Our Spirit Cup token Goal for this Term is 50,000 Dojo points! It’s a big goal for out student but we are confident that if we work together as a team we can achieve this goal and have a super awesome Spirit Cup Fun Day!
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This term we will focus in the value of Resilience. Resilient students demonstrate a growth mindset and bounce back when they experience failure, seeing it as an opportunity learn and grow. Our brain is like a muscle. It grows stronger with exercise, and lazier without it. Nobody expects anyone to be able to run a marathon or lift a heavy weight without practicing, but just like you can grow those muscles, you can also grow your brain. Failure, mistakes, accountability and risk taking are essential parts of this growth. This can help young people achieve better results in school, but also to make meaningful relationships, pursue their goals and dream big dreams for their lives.
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Our Spirit of St Mary’s shout this week goes to Mrs Ferreira for showing incredible resilience in managing staffing, our fantastic relief teachers and always doing so with a growth mindset and positive attitude.
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Growth Mindset
What is a Growth Mindset? A growth mindset is the belief that a person can develop skills and abilities through practice and perseverance (e.g. studying, setting goals, hard work, and accepting constructive feedback). The belief that one can grow can spark one’s desire to grow, which subsequently drives motivation and produces results. In truth, our belief about our ability to change and willingness to do so is the key to building our growth mindset muscle. Our willingness allows us to unlock learning and unlock our potential through our actions.
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On the contrary, when you are in a fixed mindset, you perceive your skills as innate and abilities as unchangeable. Imagine that you performed poorly on a math test and you don’t believe you can get better at long division. If you don’t believe you can improve, you wouldn’t be motivated at all to try to improve. On the other hand, if you approached this with a growth mindset, you would believe that your skills and abilities are malleable, and you would probably work towards your goals and develop your long division skills by putting in the work.
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Transferrable Growth Mindset Lessons: As you start believing that you can adapt and grow as you learn, you’ll be motivated and able to put more effort into all manners of life, thus making a growth mindset essential to lifelong learning.
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When we are in a growth mindset, we’re able to do the following:
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- Look forward to challenges, even when they’re intimidating
- Work towards your goal, no matter how many times it takes
- Persist through mistakes and failures, despite how hard it may be.
Best Practices for Moving into Growth Mindset
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1. Set Clear Goals: Failing to set goals can lead to delays and set you off track from the end result you are working toward. It’s important to set SMART goals, so that you can keep yourself on track for what lies ahead in your learning journey. The acronym SMART stands for specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-based.
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2. Focus on Effort and Deliberate Practice: Put in high-quality effort toward your goals. Be intentional, work hard, let motivation fuel your fire, and don’t settle for half-hearted efforts. Deliberately focus on your own learning and growth.
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3. Persist Through Mistakes and Failure: Mistakes are inevitable and failure is often unavoidable. It is important that when you fail, you get back up again. However, it’s not just a matter of resilience; you must adapt to not to repeat the same mistakes. Learn from those mistakes and try again. This is persistence in a nutshell.
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4. Learn from Other People’s Mistakes: In addition to learning from your own mistakes, you can look to others’ successes as inspiration. Successful people have persevered through mistakes and failure on their journey to achieving their goals. Who better to model mistakes than those who’ve overcome them? Though we can learn a great deal from these people, there’s no need to compare yourself to them.
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5. Reflect Often: Self-reflection is essential to learning, because it lets you ask yourself questions, think deeply about your processes, and re-evaluate your strategies. Self-reflection uncovers lessons we can only learn retrospectively and can lead to new positive insights.
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Give Growth Mindset a Try: First and foremost, invest in the belief that you have the capacity to change, grow, and develop in whatever you set your mind to. Accept that failure is part of the road to success. Remember that you have the power to push through failure, exert effort, deliberately practice, and learn from your mistakes, as well as those who have already made those same mistakes.
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Here are two successful people who found success, despite failing repeatedly:
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- Seuss’s book To Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street didn’t see the light of day until 27 publishers later.
- Thomas Edison famously said: “If I find 10,000 ways something won’t work. I haven’t failed. I’m not discouraged, because every wrong attempt discarded is another step forward.”
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What can you learn from their experiences? What can you glean about what it felt like to fail time and time again but have the tenacity to persevere and succeed?
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In a growth mindset, it’s okay to fail. Not only is it okay, it’s encouraged. Only though failure are we able to learn and grow because we can differentiate between what works and what doesn’t.
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As we move through life reaching for our goals and learning through our experiences along the way, having a growth mindset lens can benefit the way we think, act, and learn. Through a growth mindset, we can achieve many great things. In the words of Carol Dweck, “A person's true potential is unknown (and unknowable).”
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Download School Stream
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Why download the App?
- Receive instant notifications for important news and classroom updates.
- Complete permission and absentee forms.
- Keep up to date with events and save event details directly to your own calendar.
- Order from our school canteen.
Don’t forget to turn your notifications on – so you don’t miss any important notices!
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Canteen Online Orders & Update
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To streamline processes across the school, in 2022 we are now only accepting online orders for lunches.
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All families need to set up an account for online ordering through Flexischools, which is linked directly in the School Stream App. Details on how to set up an account can be found in the “CANTEEN” tab of School Stream. There is no need to download the Flexischools App, it can all be accessed from the School Stream App.
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For those with an existing account, you will need to update your child's class and room number for 2022 before placing your first order. Please refer to the instructions in School Stream.
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You can find the updated 2022 Canteen menu in School Stream. Please note daily orders close at 8.40am. Any orders received after this time, will be fulfilled subject to availability of stock and may be substituted for a basic sandwich.
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Please note that at this time our school canteen has been impacted by supplier shortages. Some items may be temporarily unavailable and will be marked as 'out of stock' when ordering. Thank you for your understanding.
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What is happening in Darwin
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