God help us to change.

To change ourselves and to change our world.

To know the need for it. To deal with the pain of it.

To feel the joy of it.

To undertake the journey without understanding the destination.

The art of gentle revolution.

Amen.

~ Michael Leunig ~

Dear Families,

Over the last few weeks I have had the pleasure of seeing some of the terrific learning that is happening across the school. It is really inspiring to see the students’ efforts and how they are engaging in their thinking. From all the examples that I have seen recently, I have been particularly impressed with the growth mindset of students. Their ability to see mistakes as learning opportunities, their positivity and their persistence, have been remarkable.

Semester One Reports and Parent-Teacher Interviews

We are pleased to inform you that the Semester One reports will be available online to families this coming Friday 21st June.

We extend our heartfelt thanks to all the teachers for their dedicated efforts in preparing these reports.

Parent-Teacher Interviews are scheduled for Tuesday 25th and Wednesday 26th in the final week of this term. Bookings are now open and can be made through PAM.

Thank you for your continued support.

PE News

Divisional Netball & Football

On Friday 21st June the Goldfields Division Primary Schools Football and Netball Carnival is taking place at Wesley Hill Recreation Reserve. This is an exciting opportunity for schools to enter a football and/or netball team to compete in a round robin against other school teams in our area. We have a keen netball and football team who are excited to participate in this event! Permission forms have been released-if you could please respond asap so we can confirm our numbers, and entry, into this event.

A big thank you to our parent helpers and volunteers whose assistance will allow us to participate. Thank you to our students for their passion and enthusiasm! Team sports provide so many wonderful learning opportunities. Looking forward to cheering our teams on next Friday!

Next term we look forward to our Grade 3-6 students participating in our district tennis and cricket sport day! Stay tuned!

Grade F/1 PE Sessions

Our grade F/1 class enjoyed a return to outside sport sessions this week following our 6 week PMP program which saw our students grow in confidence, skill and resilience. Thank you again to all of the wonderful parent helpers who assisted with this program. We were fortunate the rain held off for us on Tuesday as we played some fun group Indigenous Australian sport games and worked as a team to complete a relay, whilst practicing some of our fundamental motor skills! Our Nutbush and Macarena dance moves are becoming more refined and made for a great warm up on a cold winter morning!

Grade 2-6 PE Sessions

Our Grade 2-6 students have been participating in team relays, focusing on both team work and cooperation as well as further building their fundamental motor skills. This week many students worked on finalising their group relays whilst others demonstrated their group relay to the class who in turn engaged in them-it was so wonderful to see! I think we have some budding PE teachers/coaches/fitness instructors among us at St Mary’s!

Clare Grainger

PE Teacher

clare.grainger@smcastlemaine.catholic.edu.au

Science News

This past fortnight, students have explored our planet Earth-the rotation and revolution of our planet resulting in night and day and the seasons we experience, changes to our planet and the natural resources we have on our planet. We made our own model of a volcano-one natural cause of change to our Earth! In our final session we will reflect upon and review our learning from the term as well as have some exploratory time with this term’s topic related materials and activities.

Next term we will plunge in Chemistry-we are all looking forward to that!

Clare Grainger

Science Teacher

clare.grainger@smcastlemaine.catholic.edu.au

Upcoming Events:

Don't forget to mark your calendars for the upcoming events on the Calendar.

As always, we encourage parents and guardians to stay updated with school news and events by regularly checking Seesaw and following us on social media.

Thank you to everyone for your continued support and involvement in our vibrant school community!

Warm regards,

John

St Mary's School, Castlemaine

Respect, Resilience, Responsibility

TERM 2, WEEK 9 · 15 Jun 2024

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