T3 Week 1 2024

Dear Families,

Welcome to Term 3. It promises to be another busy and exciting time for our students. I would like to welcome all our newcomers. Firstly, we welcome our new Reception students: Alexis, Brielle, Charlee, Cheyenne, Connor, Daisy, Gabriella, Hemansh, Jacob, Jaxh, Lincoln, Macey, Nasir, Punlue, Tyson and Wilkie. We also welcome Saara in Year 3. We hope your time with us is full of learning, friendships and fun! We also have some new staff: Corrine Harris (Co-Educator) who will be working with our Reception students and Samantha Reynolds who will share Counselling duties with Shannon O’Toole. We also have Carlie Davies joining us until the end of the year as a Student Counsellor. Welcome to our community! Next week on Friday we have our annual census and with our new students we will now be 190+ children … certainly up on our numbers from five years ago.

On Monday of this week we celebrated the Feast of St Mary Magdalene (22nd July). “Mary of Magdala” lived in the times of Jesus and was present when he was killed and was the person who reported that he had ‘risen from the dead’ to the disciples. What do we know about Mary Magdalene? Magdalene probably wasn’t her surname. She was probably just known as Mary of Magdala (the town she was born in). She was quite wealthy and an important person in the community. This would have been unusual because she was a woman and a leader. She would have provided money for Jesus and the disciples to do their mission work. After Jesus died she would have continued some of his work and is known as the ‘apostle to the apostles’. It is such an honour that our school is named after such an important person and a model of leadership for all women. To celebrate and raise awareness of Mary of Magdala we will walk down to Mofflin Reserve next Friday to have lunch and some play time. Parents are more than welcome to join us there or volunteer to walk down with us. You would have received a notice about this. Please return the permission slip to allow your child(ren) to attend.

As you would be aware we have removed the ‘tepee’ in preparation to convert that area into a sand pit. The poles for the shade structure are already in place. The top frame and cover will be installed next Tuesday. We will then look at removing the bark, clearing the base and filling it with sand. We are also about to install some new Promethean ‘smart boards’ into some of our classrooms. This will happen on Tuesday week. The other important thing for you to know is that we are about to upgrade our telephones to a VOIP (voice over the internet protocol) system in the next few weeks. This will mean that we will have a new school phone number. We will advise you of this new number when it becomes available.

Our Year 3 and Year 5 NAPLAN results arrived this week. They will be sent home to families today. Congratulations to all of our children on their efforts in undertaking these tests earlier this year. We are pleased to see your ongoing progress.

The Catholic Schools Music Festival date for our school is on Monday 23 September. The CSMF is held at the Festival Theatre in September each year. Parents of those children involved will be given information in the near future about ordering tickets. Good luck to Mrs Villano and all of our children in the school choir.

The Olympic Games begin in Paris at this time. This event runs for about two weeks and is a great opportunity for children to observe elite athletes in a variety of events. Hopefully your children will be able to witness some of the replays, rather than sitting up through the night. I know that some classes will have a focus on the Olympic Games for the next couple of weeks.

On Monday and Tuesday of this week our Year 5 and Year 6 students attended the AFL Max overnight Camp. This was a great experience and the children had a fabulous time. Thank you to our staff members who attended (Ms Tullio, Ms Dickson, Ms Rose and Mr McGinty) and ensured it was a great learning experience for everyone. Hopefully you have some time this weekend to recover some lost sleep!

Congratulations to the Longhe and Odunaro families on the recent births of ‘Divine’ and ‘Daniel’ recently. May this be a special time, full of many blessings!

Thank you for having your children look presentable for Photos on Thursday of this week. We do have a ‘catch up day’ for those children who were absent - next Tuesday 30th July.

Please remember if your child is late to school, or is picked up early, they should be signed in and out through the front office. 

We would like to remind students and families to be wary of approaches from strangers, especially when they are unaccompanied or travelling to and from school. If they are approached, students should not respond and should not accept offers of rides or gifts. Students should seek the assistance of other nearby adults if they feel unsafe and should report any events to a trusted adult (parent or school staff member) as soon as possible.

SAPOL advises that taking out a mobile phone and calling police can deter an offender and they recommend the student making a formal report to their closest police station.Please remember that we have the following dates set aside as Pupil Free Days for the staff to undertake professional development, staff reflection, complete hand over activities, etc. Our remaining set dates are: Friday 23 August, Monday 14 October, Thursday 12 December and Friday 13 December. Please mark them in your diary and book in to OSHC if you require this service (spaces are limited).

Kind regards

Peter Mercer

Head of School

‘Shaping our Future Together’

Congratulations to our brand new MID-YEAR RECEPTIONS 🙌🎉🎈

Starting Reception is such an exciting time for the student's and of course their families too. We're so proud of our new little ones who are adjusting to school-life beautifully.

Did you know? Beginning school mid-year and completing 6 terms of reception can help to make a positive impact on children's transition to school as well as their academic achievement!

In religion we have been learning about Mother Mary.

She gave birth to Jesus in Bethlehem, she raised him in the city of Nazareth in Galilee and was in Jerusalem at his crucifixion and with the apostles after ascension. She inspired us to follow faithfully in her footsteps by Imitating her virtues. Mary was a very kind and loving person. She never judged anyone. She helped a lot of people in her time. She opened schools and shelters for the poor and homeless and welcomed all those in need. Mary’s love for Christ was so strong that she sought him out in the poor, sick and suffering.

This term in writing we have been learning about information reports. We have enjoyed creating complex sentences and learning how to take notes.

In art this term, we have been learning about the 7 elements of art line, shape, colour, space, form, value, and texture. A few weeks back we each got 2 or 4 pieces of a puzzle, and we had to draw different lines and patterns on the puzzle piece. When we finished Ms Rose put all our pieces together and it created a cat, we named line cat! 

In week 8 we started learning about Alexander Calder, and his famous mobile art. We have found out about the different lines artists use in paintings, drawings, and sculptures. Along with the different shapes and how they are used in art.