Head of Junior School 

Welcome to Week 2 of our last term. This term promises to be an incredibly busy one with many events taking place.  At the end of this article, I have listed all important dates and times. Most notably are the events taking place in the final week of school. Traditionally, we hold our annual Year 6 Thanksgiving and Award Ceremony in St Mary’s Cathedral. Due to ongoing construction work, this will be unavailable. This event will be held at the Senior School, in the JPC, on Monday December 5 at 7.00 pm for Year 6 students and their family members only. This night also includes the handover of the Leadership for 2023.

Our annual End of Year Assembly is Wednesday December 7 in the Nagle Centre at SMC between 9.30 am and 11.00 am for students in Kindergarten, Prep and Years 3 to 6.

Further detailed information regarding end of year events will be sent out on Edsmart.

Junior School Gates

As you are aware, during the school holidays, fences and gates were installed, securing our site. This ensures that our students are safe and secure in the Junior School. We ask that you adhere to our rules of students not being onsite prior to 8.15 am. Gates will be opened when duty commences at 8.15 am and will be closed at 9.00 am. They will be re-opened at 2.50 pm and locked again at 3.30 pm. 

Swimming Programme: Weeks 3 and 4

We are looking forward to the commencement of our annual Learn to Swim Programme this year. All classes, Prep, Years 3 to 6 will be participating in the Learn to Swim program at the Collegiate Pool. Our boys in Years 3 to 6 will be walking to and from the pool. Our Prep class will be transported on the school bus. 

Please remember that there are no lunch orders during the two-week swimming program. 

Early Years Athletics Carnival

Last week we hosted our inaugural Early Years Athletics Carnival. What a wonderful success it was. The sun was shining, we had mums, dads, brothers, sisters, grandparents all in attendance to watch the Kinders and Preps take part in athletic and fun activities. There were bean bags relays, sack races, vortex throw (who could throw as far as a superhero!, the 25m sprint, parachute games and the Cat, Mouse and Cheese game. Finally we had the sponge race, which drew contention at the end to determine which team has the most ‘blue water’ in their tub! Thank you to Karryn McCullagh for your efforts in organising such a smooth, well run carnival which included so much fun and participation from all the boys.

Catholic Mission Month

October is Mission Month in the Catholic Church all throughout the world.  It is a time in our Church's year when we remember Jesus's call to go out to the ends of the earth and to care for the most vulnerable people in our world.  

On Tuesday, Miss Daun went with six Year 6 students to the Children's Catholic Mission Mass, where Archbishop Julian told us about the poverty and food insecurity in Ethiopia, and how our fundraising efforts this month will help people in Ethiopia with food and education.  

To raise money for Catholic Mission this month, we have a "Guess the weight of the lolly jar" competition going.  It is 50 cents to guess the weight of the jar, and you can have as many guesses as you like.  This competition will run until the end of Week 4.  The closest guess gets the whole jar!  Guesses are available at lunch eating time.  We are aiming to raise at least $117, which will allow Deberety Farm to purchase a goat for their farm, which will provide nutritious goat milk for a family with young children who are facing malnutrition.  

If you would like to learn more, you can go to: https://www.catholicmission.org.au/ or https://www.socktober.org.au/ethiopia

Ice cream sales - every Thursday

We will continue to sell ice creams on Thursdays at lunch time this term, including during Learn to Swim. The money raised supports charities such as St Vincent de Paul and also goes towards equipment for our playground.

Lord Mayor’s Reception for Children’s Week

In Term 3, Miss Daun's vocabulary class learned about the work of local government and considered what they would do if they were the Lord Mayor of Hobart. The boys were asked to choose a 'platform' (one key issue) to base their campaign on.  Hamish McGuire wrote a well-researched and persuasive piece about how, if he were the Lord Mayor of Hobart, he would work to promote and encourage the use of electric cars in Hobart by installing more superchargers in strategic locations and having electric-only priority car parking.  Hamish also wrote about how his generation would benefit from this in the future by having a cleaner and greener city. Hamish will be meeting with the Lord Mayor on Friday afternoon to receive a Highly Commendation Certificate for his submission. Congratulations Hamish.

Caritas Just Leadership Day

Congratulations to the following boys who have been chosen by their class teachers to participate in a Just Leadership Day with Grade 5 students from other Catholic Primary Schools on Wednesday November 17: Charlie Booth, Ben Pigden, Jesse Mackey, Jack Lemm, William Lowe and Talyn Pringle.  

Southern Regional Basketball Championships

Our two Grade 5/6 teams participated in the Southern Regional Championships on the weekend. Our Grade 5/6 team went down in a nailbiter in Division A to Corpus Christi in the Grand Final. They will still compete at the State Championships on the first weekend of December in Launceston. Thank you to coaches Mrs Kylie Anderson, Mr Nadler, Bellah Parker (SMC) and Mia Anderson (SMC)s Lack for their support and mentoring of the boys on the weekend. Our Division 2 team also had a great weekend of competition, finishing third. This weekend our Grade 3/4 team will be competing. We wish them and their coaches, Miss Lack and Mrs Nicole Read, all the best for the weekend of games.   

STCPSSA and JSSATIS Athletics Carnivals

In the next couple of weeks, the athletics team will be competing at the STCPSSA and JSSATIS athletics carnivals on Thursday November 3 and Thursday November 10 respectively at the Domain Athletics Centre. Mrs McCullagh, Mr Beard and Mrs Read will be accompanying the boys. We wish them all the best for the events they will be participating in.

SRC Initiative - Fair Week

The SRC will be selling ‘fair food’ in Week 5, which is November 14-18. Each day we will have a different ‘food theme.’ The week will commence with Milkshake Monday, Treats Tuesday, Wedges Wednesday, Thirsty Thursday and Fairy Floss Friday. All money raised will go into the kitty of the P&F, which will go to the purchase of games and resources for classrooms.  If you have any availability to help at lunchtime on any of these days, it would be appreciated. 

Mock House of Representatives

This week 6L participated in a mock House of Representatives session as part of their Civics and Citizenship module of learning in preparation for their trip to our nation’s capital, Canberra, in Week 7. They have learnt about key roles and positions within the parliamentary system in this hands-on experience.

Upcoming Calendar events

Wednesday November 17     Caritas Just Leadership Day (6 x Grade 5 boys)

Tuesday November 22           Grade 6s: Canberra Trip (return Friday Nov 25)

Wednesday November 23     Grade 5s: camp at Port Arthur (return Friday Nov 25)

Monday November 28           Orientation Day: Whole day: Years 3 to 6

Tuesday November 29           Kindergarten Nativity: 9.30am: SMC Chapel

Monday December 5              Year 6 Thanksgiving and Prize giving: 7pm

Tuesday December 6              Whole school attending Botanical gardens play

Wednesday December 7        End of Year Assembly: SMC Nagle Centre: 9.30 – 11.00am

Friday December 9                 Last day for students, whole school picnic at Wentworth Park, 2.45pm: Guard of Honour for Year 6 students