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Upcoming Dates
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- 10th November: P&F Gathering 3 pm Library
- 11th November: Remembrance Day Liturgy, Led by DSM and Defence students, 8.30 am Mackillop Hall
- 18th November: Assembly led by Year 5/6
- 19th November: Darwin City Christmas Pageant
- 25th November: Advent Liturgy led by Year 3/4 Room 13
- 15th December: Last day for students for 2023
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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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Acting Principal's News
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Week 4, Term 4, 2022
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Hello St Mary’s Families,
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It has been a very busy week at St Mary’s!
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We kick started the week by holding our Mission Stall Fundraiser. Yesterday we held various Socktober Activities to raise awareness of the work of Catholic Missions and then today we ended the week with our Years 3 to 6 Swimming Carnival! Phew, the children will no doubt be exhausted tonight! I was so impressed by the students participation and sportsmanship shown today. There was lots of cheering from the Houses and encouraging of one another, which is what we strive for in our students showing the Spirit of St Mary’s. Congratulations to the overall winning House Hartzer! A big thank you to all the St Mary’s staff and families who contributed to the atmosphere today and we are most grateful to Miss Zara Pearson for her overall coordination, planning and preparation of today’s event.
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2023 classes: The process of creating our classes for 2023 has started this week and we thank families who have notified us of their intentions for next year. Our classes are created after many hours of work and consideration by our teaching staff. They will be working through the friendships that students have identified and ensuring that every child is placed according to what will best support their continued well-being and academic growth. In the next few weeks, we will be finalising our class structure and staffing. We look forward to sharing this with you all in the coming weeks.
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Perception surveys: This week we sent out an invitation for families to complete the 2022 Parent Satisfaction Survey. I would strongly encourage all families to complete this survey as we greatly value your growth focused feedback. This survey allows us to collect valuable data to help inform our future plans and directions. Responses to this survey are confidential and anonymous.
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The survey will be open until midnight Friday 18th of November. I thank you in advance for the time take to complete the survey and for contributing to the direction of St Mary’s Catholic Primary School.
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Next week we look forward to welcoming back Ms Rosie Harrison as she returns from her long-service leave. It has been a pleasure and real privilege to have led our wonderful St Mary’s community over the past four weeks.
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The remaining six weeks of Term 4 brings many more exciting events!
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Prayer for World Teacher's Day
Last Friday was World Teacher's Day
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Thank you for every teacher who notices a child’s special gift.
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Thank you for teachers who are listeners and gentle guides.
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Thank you for teachers who expect much and love enough to demand more.
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Thank you for the special teacher each one of us remembers.
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Sustain teachers who give everything they have.
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Strengthen teachers who assume the blame for so many problems beyond their control.
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Help exhausted teachers rest.
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Encourage teachers to care and inspire them to nourish.
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Motivate teachers to keep on learning for the fun of it and to make learning enjoyable for children.
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Help and support teachers in their special calling, wherever they teach and whatever obstacles they must face.
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We pray these things in the name of our great teacher, Jesus Christ.
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Religious Education News
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On Monday we held out Catholic Mission Stalls. As a school we raised $963.75. Thank you for all your support and donations to help make this a successful day for our students.
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Additionally on Thursday, we held our Socktober Shoot Out. Students had the opportunity to participate and learn how to make a ‘Sock Ball’, and take part in a penalty style shootout as a way of understanding the challenges faced by children around the world. Students also wore crazy socks for this day.
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We did this because Catholic Mission is not only endorsed by Pope Francis but because, as believers in Christ, it is our mission to continue the work of Jesus Christ. Fundraising is one arm of the work that Catholic Mission does. At our liturgy we focused on praying together for Ethiopia, where the Church seeks to provide life-fulfilling opportunities for children in need. Advocating is giving voice to the needs of the poor and vulnerable and, finally, fundraising is just one component of our Gospel mission. Thank you for all your support.
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Key events and dates for term:
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Mission stalls – Monday 31st October
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Socktober Day – Thursday 3rd November
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Remembrance Day Liturgy – Friday 11th November at 8:30 in the Mary Mackillop hall
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Advent Liturgy - Friday 25th November at 8:30 in the Mary Mackillop hall
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End of Year Mass – Monday 12th December at 8:30 in the Cathedral.
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Acting Deputy Principal/Religious Education Co-ordinator
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Making Jesus Real - MJR
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MJR is deeply immersed in this saying, From Little Things Big Things Grow. We strive to create positive habits in our young students so that eventually when they grow up, they become positive contributors in all that they do. This week we continue to focus on Spirit of Jesus Moments. One highlight this week was a group of Year 4 girls playing handball with some transition students teaching and guiding them at recess and lunch. A wonderful demonstration of leadership and the Spirit of Jesus.
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News from Room 14
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PE News
Congratulations to Freddie Richards on being selected to represent Darwin Region Sport Education and St Mary’s Catholic Primary School at the combined SSENT and Athletics Track & Field Championship.
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Freddie will be competing in the 12-year-old boys long jump after winning this event at the interschool carnival, jumping an impressive 3.81m.
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Freddie’s event will take place at Arafura Stadium on Friday November 4th at 6:15pm. Spectators are welcome for those who wish to show support.
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We are super proud of Freddie for this achievement and wish him the best of luck!
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Year 3 to 6 Swimming Carnival
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Congratulations to all students who participated in the Year 3-6 Swimming carnival today! HARTZER were the overall winning team taking home the swimming shield.
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Age Champions will be announced at a future assembly. Thank you to our parent helpers!!
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2023 Transition Enrolments
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We find the best form of advertising is word of mouth and we often have families enrol at St Mary's based on your recommendation! If you know of anyone still considering schools for next year, we are aiming to finalise our Transition 2023 enrolments in the coming weeks.
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Our Transition Orientation program commences on 15th of November. Students can only attend these sessions once they have been enrolled into the school for next year. Children who turn 5 before June 30th 2023 are eligible to begin Transition in 2023.
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BYODD Program 2023
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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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Please find linked below the documents that were shared at our Parent Information Session last term:
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These documents contain all the information that you need to know regarding our 2023 BYODD program.
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Our BYODD purchase portal is now open and taking orders for devices for pre-Christmas delivery. You can learn more about our supplier Edunet by watching this video.
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In the chance that you have purchased a previous BYODD device for an older child who will be moving into Middle School next year and will not be requiring the device, it can be passed on to the younger sibling. If you have any further questions regarding the BYODD program, please do not hesitate to contact Christine Ferreira christine.ferreira@nt.catholic.edu.au
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Pastoral Care and Wellbeing News
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This month’s Action for Happiness calendar focuses on all things ‘new’. This could be trying a new hobby, taking a new perspective, or having a ‘new’ approach or mindset. There are lots of ideas or actions to take on the Action for Happiness Website. The calendar provides a great opportunity to discuss growth mindset with your child or perhaps an opportunity for us to shift our own fixed mindsets toward a new skill or perspective.
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Learning something new can feel challenging as we can feel ineffective and of course, make mistakes - that’s a normal part of the learning process. It’s through sticking with it that we gradually build our capability, confidence and resilience, and find pleasure and fulfilment in our expanding our horizons.
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The psychologist Carol Dweck and her colleagues found that the mindset we adopt towards learning something new has a significant effect on how much we persist in our efforts and therefore how much we learn – at whatever age or stage we are [7].
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If we expect ourselves to ‘get it all right the first time’ or even the second, third or fourth time, we can feel embarrassed, ashamed or annoyed when we mess up and so we give up. That’s known as having a fixed mindset towards what we are trying. Whereas when we adopt a ‘growth mindset’ we recognise that mistakes and struggles are a part of the process of learning something new, we are much more likely to keep trying and improve. So, for example, instead of saying to our self “I’m no good at this”, we can add a “yet” to the end of that sentence: “I’m no good at this…yet”. That simple change can make all the difference. Try it!
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Activity: Next time you are frustrated trying to do or learn something new – try repeating to yourself “I’m learning so I’m not good at this…YET, but I can improve”. See what you notice.
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New Ways November
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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 of St Mary’s goal for this term is: 50,000 points!
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It’s a big goal for our students 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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Week 4 point check: 38,582 points!
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Shout out this week goes to Room 8 for showing the 4Rs and earning lots of Dojo points! Well done!
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Disruption to School and Urban Bus Services
Due to driver shortages, some school and urban bus services may be cancelled or experience changes at short notice.
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The Department of Infrastructure, Planning and Logistics is working with CDC Northern Territory (NT) to limit these disruption and we apologise for any inconvenience caused.
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2023 School Fees
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Outside School Hours Care and Early Learning Centre Fees
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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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