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SCHOOL NEWSLETTER
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29th October 2021| Week 3
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Important Dates
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- 1st & 2nd November: All Saints Day and All Souls Day
- 4th November: School Board Meeting
- 5th November: Assembly led by Year 1/2 Room 5 & 6
- 11th November: 11am Remembrance Day Liturgy led by Year 5/6 Room 11
- 12th November: Assembly led by Years T/1 Room 7 & 8
- 19th November: Assembly led by Year 5/6 Room 9 and Year 5 leadership speeches for 2022
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All Term 4 events and details are published on SchoolStream. Please check the EVENTS tab to add event details direct to your calendar!
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Principal's News
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Week 3, Term 4, 2021
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Today is ‘World Teachers Day’ to acknowledge and thank our hardworking, dedicated teachers who make your child’s learning fun, authentic and relevant. We appreciate all that you do, each and every day!
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This week we have begun our Transition Program and have had our 2022 Transition students experience what it is like at "Big School". We look forward to welcoming these students over the next four weeks each Tuesday. Thank you to everyone for making this a wonderful experience for our new 2022 Transition students!
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This week we farewell Mrs Louise MacLellan from the Defence School Mentor role as she commences maternity leave and awaits the arrival of her little baby girl. We thank Louise for the wonderful way she has looked after our defence students this year at St Mary’s and the valued connection she has developed with our Defence families. We are still currently recruiting for our Defence position and hope to announce very soon our new DSM for St Mary’s. In the meantime Mrs Karen Jerrett will support students of our Defence families at school keeping the lunchtime activities and Defence room space open and available. We thank Karen for making her time available to our students.
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As we look forward to the reopening of State and territory borders in the coming months and the opportunities this presents for families to be reunited across the country, it is timely to consider some very positive learning experiences to come out of the COVID 19 pandemic here at the school. One being that we have proven to ourselves to be a very resilient community. As educators and parents, there are a number of strategies we can use to build our children’s resilience.
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Build a strong emotional connection - Spend one-on-one time with your child. Children develop coping skills within the context of caring relationships. When they know they have the unconditional support of a parent, family member, or even a teacher, they feel empowered to seek guidance and make attempts to work through difficult situations.
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Promote healthy risk taking - In a world where playgrounds are made “safe” with bouncy floor materials and netting around trampolines, it is important to encourage your child to take healthy risks. A healthy risk is something that pushes our learners to go outside of their comfort zone. It results in very little harm if they’re unsuccessful. Examples include trying a new sport, participating in the school musical, or striking up a conversation with a shy peer. St Mary’s encourages our learners to embrace risks, knowing this teaches them to learn to push themselves.
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Resist the urge to fix it and ask questions instead - When your child comes to you to solve their problems, the natural response is to lecture or explain. A better strategy is to ask questions. By bouncing the problem back to your child with questions, you’re helping them to think through the issue and come up with solutions.
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Label emotions - When stress kicks in, emotions run hot. Teach your child that all feelings are important and that labelling their feelings can help them make sense of what they are experiencing. Tell them it’s okay to feel anxious, sad, jealous, etc. and reassure them that bad feelings usually pass.
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Embrace mistakes (theirs and yours) - Failure avoiders lack resilience. In fact, failure avoiders tend to be highly anxious people. When parents focus on end results, children get caught up in the pass/fail cycle. They either succeed or they don’t. This causes risk avoidance. Embracing mistakes (our own included) helps promote a growth mindset and gives your child the message that mistakes help them learn. It can be helpful to talk about a mistake you made and how you recovered from it.
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Promote the bright side (every experience has one) - Optimism and resilience go hand in hand. Some children may appear more naturally optimistic than others, but optimism can be nurtured. If you have a mini pessimist on your hands, acknowledge the feelings that lead to pessimistic thinking and teach your child to reframe their thoughts to find the positive.
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Model resiliency - The best way to teach resilience is to model it. We all encounter stressful situations so using coping and calming strategies such as deep breathing can be an effective way to work through stress. Always label your emotions and talk through your problem-solving process.
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As we continue to navigate this changing world, we can use our experiences to develop strong, resilient young children.
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Uniform Reminder
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Please ensure that your child has the correct uniform requirements including the correct footwear, socks and school hat. Please support us in our endeavour to adhere to our uniform guidelines, which can be found in our Parent Handbook or school webpage.
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Classroom News: Room 14
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NED's Mindset Mission
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Last Friday, NED and his friend Chad virtually visited St Mary's. Together with the St Mary's students NED and Chad completed a mindset mission. The students learned some cool Yo-yo tricks while developing their growth mindset and discovering the power of 'yet'.
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Thank you to everyone who supported our NED initiative this week and purchased a Yo-Yo! In doing so we have helped "pay it forward" so that another school can have NED visit.
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The e-deck has been transformed into NED’s Yo-Yo Zone at recess and lunch where students can continue to practise the tricks they have been taught. While learning to yo, children will make mistakes, try again and improve.
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NED’s message closely aligns with the Spirit of St Mary’s and the school’s Four R’s:
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Bring Your Own Designated Device (BYODD) 2022
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Our students live in a rapidly changing technological world. Information and communication technology (ICT), including hardware and personal digital devices, software, and systems that manage, store, process, create, produce and communicate information, has become an important part of everyday life.
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Why is ICT important for students? ICT in education improves engagement and knowledge retention: When ICT is integrated into lessons, students become more engaged in their work. This is because technology provides different opportunities to make it more fun and enjoyable in terms of teaching the same things in different ways. For these reasons our BYODD program 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.
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Thank you to those families who attended the parent information session this week. Students in Grade 4/5/6 at St. Mary’s are expected to bring their own designate device to use for in class activities. In preparation for the start of 2022 school year, BYODD information will be sent home next week to all students in Years 3 and in Years 4 and 5 who do not have a device for school use. This information includes frequently asked questions, device specifications and warranty and insurance information.
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If you are interested in purchasing a second hand device or for more information please feel free to contact our Deputy Principal Christine Ferreira.
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RE News
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World Mission Day: On behalf of all the staff, we would like to say thank you for your support and donations for Catholic Mission to help ‘sock it to poverty!’ Our Crazy sock and hair day was lots of fun and very colourful. If you still wish to donate and support children in need around the globe, you can donate via our St Mary’s Soctober Fundraising page by clicking the button below. All donations go towards the Catholic Missions. Thank you for your support.
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All Saints Day: On November 1st we celebrate The Feast of All Saints. This is a rich and beautiful tradition within the Church. It honours those who have died, it reminds us that we are part of a wider communion of holy people, and it affirms our faith in God’s loving fidelity to life. On this day we remember all who are part of the Church – those who have died and are with God, and those of us still here on earth. We especially remember all those we know whom we have loved and who have died. We ask God to bring us comfort and peace through the love and support of family and friends.
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Remembrance Day Liturgy: On Thursday 11th November, as a school we will come together for our Remembrance Day liturgy led by Room 11. This will be held in the hall at 8:30am. All are welcome to join.
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MJR: Each week we have a whole school MJR theme. In week 4 our theme is 'Spirit of Jesus'. During this week children are encouraged to recognise and show the Spirit of Jesus on the playground. Some of the areas children will be looking at are how we treat each other with kindness, respect and being a good friend.
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Religious Education Coordinator
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Back to Front Maths
What shapes could be used to make this picture?
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If you asked 5 different kids this question, you would get five different answers.
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We use open ended tasks like this one to allow students to explore Mathematics and come to their own conclusions. Open-ended problem is a problem that has several or many correct answers, and several ways to the correct answer (s). Problem solving encourages students to believe in their ability to think mathematically. They will see that they can apply the math's that they are learning to find the solution to a problem.
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What is the fewest number of regular polygons you could use to make this shape?
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Could you make the picture using two shapes?
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Could you make it ONLY using triangles?
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Curriculum Leader - Mathematics
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Parents & Friends Christmas Raffle
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This term the Parents and Friends committee are holding a Christmas Raffle to continue raising funds to upgrade the technological learning supports for our school, this includes iPads, Laptops, desktop computers and associated educational resources.
If you have a business that might like to contribute a donation of goods or services as a prize please contact Briony via email on parentsandfriends@stmarysnt.net or drop your donation to the office.
Raffle booklets will be sent home with students in the coming weeks and our raffle will be drawn at the school's Carols event in Week 9.
The parents and friends committee would like to take the opportunity to thank you for considering our request of a donation and will be thanking all businesses who contribute via our school newsletter.
Thank you, Parents & Friends Committee
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School Fee Information
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Christmas Carols Evening
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Enrolments for 2022
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Help spread the word! Enrolments for 2022 are now open
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If you would like an enrolment package, please contact the school office. If you have already received an enrolment package for your Transition 2022 child, please complete and return to the school office as soon as possible so your enrolment interview can be scheduled. If your child is currently enrolled in the St Mary’s Community of Learners Pre-school program you will still need to complete a School enrolment form for Transition.
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Please note, that until enrolment paperwork is received at the school office, we cannot hold places for Transition 2022. Therefore, if you currently have a child at St Mary's and have a younger sibling starting Transition next year, please let the school office know as soon as possible.
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Our Transition Orientation program has commenced. Only children who have completed enrolment forms will be able to attend the Orientation program, so please kindly finalise all Transition enrolments as soon as possible.
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In the Event of a Cyclone
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As we are now in the cyclone season in the Top End, families are reminded of our school procedures in the event of a cyclone. School closures are announced by the Department of Education and are broadcast to the public on the local TV and radio stations. In the event that government schools are closed, Catholic schools will also be closed. Please listen to the radio or TV for updates in relation to school closures and reopening. We will endeavour to keep families informed via our school app – school stream, facebook and email, but this will be dependent on the availability of power and personnel.
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Optimistic October 2021
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Download our School App
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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
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To streamline processes across the school, this term we will be phasing out paper bag lunch orders from our canteen.
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We encourage families 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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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 help spread the word!
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We are so excited to be running our very own Playgroup sessions at St Mary's.
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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 Friday (school term only) in the Mary MacKillop Hall, please enter via the Parish entrance from Smith Street.
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St John's Catholic College, Darwin
Year 7 2022
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Information regarding Year 7 2022 at St John's Catholic College.
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What is happening in Darwin
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