PREP

We have come to the final week of Term 1. What an amazing term it has been!

Next Term we'll jump straight into Stage 2 of Little Learners Love Literacy. Our focus sounds/letters are ‘b, d, l, v, g, h, n, o’.

A friendly reminder that our term begins on the 28th of April. This is due to public holidays and school collaboration days in the week prior. Please see the newsletter for further information.

On Monday, we glued in another copy of the reading parts for our upcoming Prayer Gathering in Term 2. We really need your support with this and would love you to practise this at home as much as possible. Our Prayer Gathering will be on the 22nd of May, so mark this date on your calendar. This change of date is due to a Pupil Free day on the 23rd.

This week we explored ‘Holy Week’ as a focus for our Religious Education. This helped us get prepared for Easter.

Here is what our Preps had to say in our final week of Term 1, about what they have liked about Prep this term.

Cooper - Playing with my buddies and all my friends.

Tilly - I like playing in the playground, playing with my friend Harriet and doing art/DDT.

Charlie - I like playing on the playground and learning to write words.

Phoebe - I like writing my words and playing in the playground.

We wish you a safe and happy holiday. We also hope you have a wonderful Easter and we look forward to welcoming you back in Term 2.

Gemma Blake gblake@smcolac.catholic.edu.au

Elissa Rodger erodger@smcolac.catholic.edu.au

GRADE 1

Grade One News – Easter Celebrations & Learning Fun!

What a wonderful and busy time we have had in Grade One! Over the past weeks, our students have been engaged in exciting activities, learning about the meaning of Easter and celebrating the season in creative ways.

We have:

- Reflected on the events of Holy Week and the story of Easter

- Practised our writing skills by retelling the Easter Story

- Explored our family history by creating our Family Trees

- Designed and decorated fun Easter baskets—ready for the Easter Bunny to visit!

A big thank you to our students for their enthusiasm and creativity, and to our parents and carers for your ongoing support.

Important Reminder:

School will not commence until Monday, April 28th (the start of Week 2).

We hope you all enjoy a restful and joy-filled break!

Wishing all our students, parents, and carers a safe and Happy Easter!

Leah Martin lmartin@smcolac.catholic.edu.au

Rebecca Murray rmurray@smcolac.catholic.edu.au

Judy Carr jcarr@smcolac.catholic.edu.au

Paula Parish pparish@smcolac.catholic.edu.au

GRADE 2

Here we are in the final week of Term 1—how fast has this term flown by?! We’ve had so many wonderful moments to celebrate along the way!

Today, we had a fantastic time learning about Holy Week in our house colours. The highlight was definitely sharing our work and learning from one another at the school assembly.

Tomorrow is casual clothes and crazy hair day! We can’t wait to see the wild and wacky hairstyles—don’t forget to bring a gold coin donation if you can!

A quick reminder that Friday is an early finish at 2:15 PM as we wrap up the term.

Looking ahead, our holiday break is a little longer this year, giving students three weeks to recharge while our staff take part in professional development with our neighbouring Catholic schools in Colac and Warrnambool. Please note that there is no school on ANZAC Day, so we’ll welcome students back on Monday, 28th April.

Wishing everyone a wonderful and well-deserved break!

Emma Roberts eroberts@smcolac.catholic.edu.au

Matt O'Dowd modowd@smcolac.catholic.edu.au

Amanda Delorenzo mdelorenzo@smcolac.catholic.edu.au

GRADE 3

Just like that it is the last week of Term!

The big news from Grade 3 is that our fabulous kids have all returned safely from their first school camp. What adventures we had together! There was mud, mozzies and a little bit of mayhem, but in the end we have some pretty great memories to share.

Here are some of our thoughts on Grade 3 Camp at Kangaroobie:

Dusty- I loved the night walk because I got to see Mars.

Ella- I really enjoyed the obstacle course because you go through in teams and it helps to develop teamwork, because some obstacles you have to help each other.

Nickho- When I was at camp we came to the obstacle course. It was fun.

Thea- I loved the hot chocolate and the people that were in my room.

Barney- When I was at camp I loved the food, and I mean LOVED.

Izzy- I loved the Game of Life and Death and the food.

Levi- I loved playing footy out the back.

Willow- I love all the games we got to play, the obstacle course, and the people in my cabin.

We hope all our kids and families have a fantastic three week break over the Easter period.

We look forward to seeing thirty-three well-rested and enthusiastic children on Monday 28th of April.

Jade LoRicco jloricco@smcolac.catholic.edu.au

Deb Holland dholland@smcolac.catholic.edu.au

GRADE 4

Term 1 has been a fantastic learning journey for our Grade 4 students! We wrapped up our fractions unit and completed our novel study on Kensuke’s Kingdom, exploring themes of survival and friendship. In writing, students have been showing their persuasive skills, crafting persuasive arguments on why ‘Warra Gnan’ is the best camp, using all the techniques they’ve learned this term.

A big highlight has been our convict projects, where students dived into Australia’s past and showcased their knowledge in creative ways. A huge thank you to all the parents who visited our open classroom—it was wonderful to share our hard work with you!

Our much-anticipated camp at Warra Gnan was a standout experience. Students built teamwork and resilience through exciting activities like Capture the Flag, mini golf, and The Amazing Race. It was a fantastic adventure filled with fun and learning.

As you will have read in Mick’s message, Meg will be finishing up teaching her Grade 4 class at the end of this term, however she will still be around the school for a few more weeks next term. She would like to say a massive thank-you for all the support this term, it has been a rewarding journey - even if only for a short period of time.

As we reach the end of term, we want to wish everyone a safe and restful break. We look forward to another exciting term ahead!

Here is what some of our Grade 4’s had to say about camp;

Maya Donovan - “I really loved playing mini golf with Maddi and I nearly got a hole in one!”

Shanelle Escabusa - “I loved Capture the flag on camp and everything else that we did!’

Alex Fleming - “I really enjoyed all the activities, especially mini golf!”

Nyabel Gerich - “I loved playing mini golf because I got a hole in one!”

Matt Absalom mabsalom@smcolac.catholic.edu.au

Meg Knight mknight@smcolac.catholic.edu.au

GRADE 5

It's really hard to believe that Term 1 is coming to an end already; it has flown but our Grade 5s have achieved so much and have been working very hard to earn their holiday break. Well done to the Grade 5s who represented us so well in Lawn Bowls on Monday.

For Inquiry and Literacy, we are wrapping up our unit on 'Democracy in Australia' by producing a poster where the students are explaining what they have learnt about democracy in Australia, our laws and regulations and how we work together to achieve common goals through volunteering. The students have learnt a great deal in such a short time and have enjoyed using the website Inquisitive for some of this learning.

Our students did such an amazing job for our Prayer Gathering on 'Hope' last week. We had so many compliments about how impressively the children read, sang and presented our celebration. After all our learning on 'Hope', this week we have started designing symbols of hope that we are going to make, present and explain for our Learning Expo celebration later on in the year.

Our Kinder visits have been such a fun learning experience for our Grade 5s. Our students have represented St. Mary's so beautifully and have engaged and interacted with the Kinder children so gently and maturely. It really has been such a delightful experience to be a part of and our students have demonstrated that they will be such kind and patient buddies to the Prep children next year.

On Friday, could ALL students please bring in their homework folders so we can reset counting/times tables goals for the beginning of next term.

We really have had a great term of learning and fun in Grade 5 and we are looking forward to more next term after a well deserved holiday break. Here are some reflections from some of our Grade 5 students for Term 1.

Heidi: This term I enjoyed Sports Day because we're nearly at the top of the school and it was our last Sports Day before we are leading it as Grade 6s. I've achieved some new learning on decimals and I've improved in this a lot.

Samrat: I've achieved getting smarter at Maths such as decimals and addition. My favourite thing in Grade 5 so far has been Sports Day because we got to run around and have fun.

Isabelle: I liked the Kinder visits this term; meeting new people each week was fun.

Alex: I have achieved getting better Maths such as decimals because now I know my hundredths. I have enjoyed the Kinder visits because it's been good to get to know kids who might be my buddies next year.

Will Russell: This term, I have enjoyed our Inquiry Unit learning about democracy. I've especially liked looking at Surf Life Saving Australia as an organisation.

Nyabiech: This term I have loved visiting our local Kinder to share stories with the children.

Sophie: This term I became a champion at using subtraction with internal 0s.

Emmanuel: This term I have enjoyed playing outside with my new friends and reading stories at the Kinder visits.

Rachel Downard rdownard@smcolac.catholic.edu.au

Rachael Cahill rcahill@smcolac.catholic.edu.au

GRADE 6

Our final weeks of term have been all about wrapping up our units of learning. In Maths, students revised the topics addition and subtraction, decimals, and negative numbers. For Inquiry, they created a poster to show what they have learnt about Australia’s systems of Government. In Literacy, they published their persuasive piece on Child Labour and we finished reading our class novel Rivet Boy. And lastly, students designed their own Symbol of Hope to wrap up our Religion unit on Hope. You might like to have a conversation with your child at home about what they have learnt in these areas throughout the term.

On Monday, some students represented our school for Lawn Bowls. They showed great sportsmanship and enthusiasm throughout the day.

Well done to all the Grade 6s on a fantastic first term.

Important Dates:

Friday 4th April - Last day of term

Wed 15th Oct - Fri 17th Oct - Melbourne Camp

Jess Downard jdownard@smcolac.catholic.edu.au

Jodie Hassett jhassett@smcolac.catholic.edu.au

Katie Monaghan kmonaghan@smcolac.catholic.edu.au

Wellbeing