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Upcoming Dates
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- 19th September: BYODD Parent Information Session
- 22nd September: Public Holiday - National Day of Mourning for Queen Elizabeth II
- 23rd September: Assembly led by Room 13
- 23rd September: Last day for term 3
- 10th October: Students return for term 4
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Event details will be updated on School Stream closer to the event date.
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Please check the EVENTS tab regularly and add event details directly to your calendar!
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Principal's News
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Week 9, Term 3, 2022
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Dear Parents and Caregivers,
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This week we welcomed Making Jesus Real - MJR author, Marty Ogle to St Mary’s. Last Friday on our pupil-free day our staff participated in a full day of professional development working with Marty. He skillfully led the staff in activities which explicitly link Catholic faith and spirituality with the practicality of everyday life.
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MJR has touched the lives of thousands of students, parents and teachers across Australia and has been part of our everyday practices at St Mary’s for several years. Our St Mary’s students experienced a little of Marty’s MJR magic when he visited classes on Monday and Friday.
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At its heart, MJR brings the Catholic faith to life for our students by showing them how to live it every day. Giving them all the tools, they need feel the Spirit of Jesus each day and find the God Moments that are always happening around them.
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We hope to host a parent session with Marty later in the year when he next visits Darwin. Please keep an eye out in future newsletters for further dates and details.
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Meanwhile click here for a link to the MJR website and resources for parents video.
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Welcome to Sienna (Room 14) and Hayden (Room 6) and family; Georgia (Room 8) and family who joined our school community this week. Welcome back to Olivia (Room 8) and family who rejoined our school community this week.
In Faith and Love,
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Prayer
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Religious Education News
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Making Jesus Real:
This week at St Mary’s we were lucky enough to have Marty from MJR work with the students in our school. Marty worked in each year level sharing his experiences and engaging students in MJR. He explored the power and impact saying “OK” with a smile can have on people and how we can speak kindness and thanks to others. In the older years, Marty explored what does it mean to be a WEST person and how the power of adding a name can make people day.
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The Season of Creation:
We celebrate the Season of Creation 1st September – 4th October. The Season of Creation has a special significance for the Catholic Church, particularly since Pope Francis established 1st September as an annual World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation. The Season of Creation is marked throughout the Christian world from 1st September to 4th October (Feast of Saint Francis of Assisi) and celebrates the joy of creation as well as encouraging awareness-raising initiatives to protect the natural environment. Listen to the Voice of Creation The theme for the Season of Creation 2022 is “Listen to the Voice of Creation”. “I have heard their cry…I know their sufferings…Come, now! I will send you…I will be with you” (Ex 3: 1-12). The burning bush is the Symbol for the Season of Creation 2022. Creation cries out as forests crackle, animals flee, and people are forced to migrate due to the fires of injustice.
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Religious Education Co-ordinator
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Year 6 Public Speaking Competition
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Today St Mary's hosted students from Catholic Primary Schools across our diocese of the annual Year 6 combined Catholic Schools Public Speaking Competition. We are grateful to our judges Marty -MJR Educator, Dean from the Parish and Tara from the NET team. They had a very tough job as all the candidates did a wonderful job representing their school!
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We are so proud of Cooper Hopkins who represented St Mary's today. Cooper spoke clearly and confidently about the given topic "E-Waste is detrimental to our society!" Congratulations to Holy Spirit CPS representative Hayden who was chosen as the overall winner by the judges.
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We started the morning with Mass in the Cathedral celebrated by Bishop Charles. Thank you to staff and students from Sacred Heart, Holy Spirit, Holy Family, Mother Teresa, St Paul's and St Francis of Assisi for your participation in the day's events. It was so lovely to see the Year 6 students networking and getting to know someone new, who they may cross paths with next year in middle school. The students enjoyed activities with the NET team and Marty Ogle to end the day.
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We hope you all had a wonderful day! Thank you to all the St Mary's staff who were involved in the organisation of this event and the preparation of the students.
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BYODD Parent Information Session
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Since 2020, St Mary’s has implemented a BYODD (Bring Your Own Designated Device) Program for students in Years 4 to 6 in line with our goal to enrich and enhance learning through the integration of Information Communication and Technology.
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The transition to BYODD at St. Mary’s has proven to be extremely successful and popular - providing opportunities for teachers to integrate technology meaningfully into the learning and teaching program and for students to extend their learning beyond the classroom. As a result of this success, in 2023 we will be expanding the BYODD program to students in Years 3 to 6. Children moving into Year 3 next year are eligible to join the BYODD program.
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A parent information session is being held on Monday 19th September at 5pm. Please note a venue change to the school library. We encourage all families whose students do not currently have a BYODD device to attend.
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Pastoral Care and Wellbeing News
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Playzone Highlights Term 3
Our students have enjoyed participating in Playzone this term. Our lunch time play space encourages students to build their social skills in a fun, supported play based environment
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Our theme this term is “St Mary’s Village”. We will be incorporating different aspects of everyday life into our activities giving students an opportunity to role play, think about their own place in a community and practice their communication skills.
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Healthy Harold & Life Education Van
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Healthy Harold has been a regular feature of the school calendar for many years now and is always an informative and engaging experience for the children. “At Life Education we believe that all children deserve to lead safe and healthy lives. By placing preventive education at the core of our work we want to instil in children the confidence to make safer and healthier choices now and in the future.”
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This year our students from COL- Year 6 participated in a number of different modules:
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Transition: Harold’s Friendships
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Year 5/6 Relate Respect Connect
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All students received booklets to work through in class that will go home with the student once complete. If you would like further information about Healthy Harold or tools to continue conversations with your children, please visit the website: https://lifeed.org.au/
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Talking about internet use and online content
Talking openly about your own internet use and encouraging your child to do the same will help your child feel they can talk to you if they have a bad experience online. Sharing negative online experiences with a trusted adult is the best way for your child to develop resilience and deal with risks they encounter online. It’s important for your child to know that they can talk to you about bad online experiences without getting into trouble.
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You can get your child talking by asking them to explain the apps, games and content they enjoy. You might say, ‘PewDiePie seems weird to me but he must have something special to attract more than 108 million followers! What do you like about him?’
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It’s good to encourage your child to develop a sense of what they like and don’t like on the internet, and to defend their choices to friends. You might say, ‘That video seemed to make you uncomfortable. It’s OK to tell your friends that you’d rather not watch videos like that’.
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You could also explain that not all online information is true or helpful – for example, some news is made up. Encouraging your child to question things they find on the internet helps your child develop digital and media literacy.
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And it’s important for your child to understand that if something seems too good to be true, it probably isn’t true.
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Building an online reputation
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Your child’s online reputation is shaped by their online activities. This means your child needs to understand the consequences of uploading photos, videos and other personal content. Once this content is online, it’s very hard to get rid of and can become part of your child’s permanent online reputation. Also, photos can be altered or shared without your child’s permission.
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It’s a good idea to encourage your child to think about the online content or behaviour their future self might be comfortable with. For example, you might say, ‘Some photos and videos might seem OK to you now, but you might feel differently about them in the future and not want people to see them’.
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You could agree that your child shows you posts, images and other content before uploading them.
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To be continued next week.
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Self-Care September
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Spirit of St Mary's
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Our Spirit of St Mary’s goal for this term is: 25,000 points!
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Week 9 point check: 24,876 points, almost there!
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Shout out this week goes to Cooper Hopkins for showing courage, responsibility and a positive attitude and the Spirit of Jesus in representing St Mary’s Catholic Primary School at the Catholic Schools Public Speaking Competition, today.
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O'Loughlin Catholic College
Year 7, 2023
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St Mary's Playgroup
We are so excited to be running our very own playgroup sessions at St Mary’s!
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When: Wednesday 9.30 – 11.30 am (Term weeks)
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Where: Mary MacKillop Hall
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St Mary’s playgroup is the only playgroup in the Darwin CBD registered with Playgroup Northern Territory. Our playgroup sessions allow children to explore through play, enjoy story time, morning tea and create a masterpiece too!
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These sessions are open to families outside of the school and cater for babies and toddlers of all ages. You can find us every Wednesday (school terms only) in the Mary MacKillop Hall, please enter via the Parish entrance from Smith Street.
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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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What is happening in Darwin
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