Primary News

Welcome Back to Term 3 

I hope you had a wonderful break filled with rest, laughter, and quality time together. Whether your family spent the holidays travelling, visiting relatives, or simply enjoying some well-earned downtime at home, I hope that it allowed for you to take time to breathe.  I am delighted to welcome every one of our students back to school for Term 3.

I especially want to reach out to our new families that joined us on the first day (and we had a few) and hope that you are already feeling that special feeling of being a MCC parent and student. 

A Fresh Start

There's something special about the start of a new term. The classrooms are tidy, the students are refreshed, and there's a real sense of energy and possibility in the air. Term 3 is traditionally one of our busiest and most rewarding terms, packed with learning milestones, community events such as Book Week and the Arts Festival, and opportunities for our students to shine both in and out of the classroom, especially with the Year 6 Canberra Trip towards the end of term and numerous enrichment opportunities.

What to Look Forward to This Term

• Continued learning growth - teachers have been busy planning engaging units of work that build on the strong foundations laid in Semester 1.

• Whole-school events and celebrations - keep an eye on the school calendar and newsletter for upcoming incursions, excursions, and special days.

• Sporting and creative opportunities - from PE lessons and representing the College in sport to art, music, and performance activities, there's something for every child to get involved in.

A Gentle Reminder

As we settle back into routine, a few small things go a long way:

• Please ensure your daughter is arriving on time, in the correct uniform, with all that she requires.  

• Check the school Facebook page and The View regularly for important dates and updates.

• If your family circumstances have changed over the break please let the College Office know as soon as possible.

Looking Ahead

Term 3 promises to be just as exciting, with a huge range of activities and initiatives planned to enrich our students' learning experiences.  Just a few of these events are listed below and for some further information will be sent through closer to the date.

• Science Week: Our budding scientists across some primary grades have already been involved in exploring science with the Young Tassie Scientist program last week.  This year we have decided to run Science Week in classrooms and not link in with the Secondary students and staff.

• Book Week: We will celebrate the joy of reading by celebrating Book Week - Symphony of Stories with various activities, culminating in our Book Week Parade on Thursday 27 August.  More information will be sent home closer to the date.

• Tournament of Minds: Our Year 5 and 6 students are already in the thick of answering their TOM challenge which will be presented on Saturday 12 September. 

• Numerous Competition: Again students will be invited to participate in a number of competitions such as ICAS, AMC and Maths Relay.

• Arts Festival: Bringing the Arts to the forefront of our community with a celebration culminating on Friday 11 September.   

• Canberra Trip - Our Year 6 students and a number of staff will be heading off on Monday 14 September and spending five days in our nation's capital

Learning Conversations

Last week and then again this week it was fabulous to so many parents and students (Years 5 and 6) attending Learning Conversations.  If you were unable to attend please reach out to your daughter’s class teacher and see if you can schedule a catch up - even if it is over the phone.  The last round of Learning Conversations for 2026 will be held at the start of Term 4.

National Primary Education Week 

This week we celebrated all things Primary as it was Primary Education Week.  Thank you to those parents who reached out to staff and thanked them personally for all that they have done for their daughter or are doing for their daughter.

Below is what I wrote to Primary staff at the start of the week:

“Ask any one of us as members of a Primary community why we do what we do.  You'll hear about the student who finally cracked reading in Term 3. The one who came in as shy as anything in Prep and left Year 6 being a Primary Leader.  The moment a Year 3 looks up mid-lesson or in the middle of a playground duty and says something so unexpectedly wise it stops us in our tracks.

Primary teaching and being part of Primary School education is special because it happens at the exact age when everything is still being decided, not just what a child knows, but who they believe they are. We aren’t just teaching times tables and sentence structure or running an intervention or working 1-1, we are helping shape one of our students' sense of curiosity, resilience, and self-worth.

Being part of a wider ELC to Year 10 community changes the experience again and for many of us it becomes a bigger reward.  We know we do not exist in isolation, our part of the College is the foundation stone of something much bigger.  When one of our girls walks through the Louisa gate, they're not just starting kindergarten, they're beginning a twelve year relationship with a community that will watch them grow from learning to write their name and identify sounds to formal assessments, from oral language presentations to public speaking, from best friends in the Louisa sandpit to leadership roles in Secondary school.

That continuity is rare, and it's powerful. We as part of the Primary are not working in a silo, we are handing our students forward to colleagues who already know the culture, the values, and the expectations those students have grown up with. Secondary teachers, in turn, inherit students who have had years to absorb what it means to belong to this particular community. Everyone is playing the long game together to quote a political term.  

Being part of an ELC–Year 10 community means Primary staff get to see the whole arc. We bump into students who are now Year 9’s and taller than some of us. We hear our name called out with a “Do you remember when—" from a Year 10 who is about to graduate and who still carries a memory from when they were in Year 1.  That's a kind of reward you don't get in many professions or even at many schools.  It is a reward that is tangible, visible proof that the work we do in the Primary does matter and that you matter.”

Mount Carmel College Mini Fair

Thank you again to you all for your support of our MCC Day Mini Fair on the last day of term. In less than an hour we raised over $1500 and this money will be donated to Home Base - Mara House.

A Celebration of Staff and Students

• On Friday 31 July Felicity Wilson Haffenden (MCC Alumni) won Gold in the Women's Team Pursuit at the Commonwealth Games. 

• Over the first week of Term 3 Ms Lisa Wheeldon was the manager of the successful Under 15 Tasmanian Netball team that had travelled to Adelaide.

• On Friday 31 July Doris Jiang (6 Navy) and Olivia Avery Huston (5 Navy) were awarded first place in their categories for the What’s Matter National Writing Competition 

• On Sunday, 15 August, Layla Cranefield will have her hair cut to raise funds for children with cancer. She'll be donating the hair so it can be used to make wigs.