Final countdown for our Year 12s

This past fortnight saw our Year 12s enter into their last 50 days as students of our College.

This milestone was met with excitement (and a touch of trepidation!), as students cut into a special celebratory cake and reflected on how far they have come since the start of the year.

We are very proud of our Year 12 students and we wish them the best of luck as they begin preparations for their final exams and end-of-year assessments.

English department update

Success story

We are pleased to congratulate Nicola Morgan (Year 12) who has been shortlisted as a national finalist for the 'What Matters?' competition, run by the Whitlam Institute (within Western Sydney University). Read more here.

Bell Shakespeare

Last week the Year 9 and 10 students had the pleasure of watching and participating in some wonderful performances from the national theatre company, Bell Shakespeare.

The Year 9 students watched the performance of 'Shakespeare is Dead', while the Year 10s enjoyed 'Shakespeare: The Human Experience'.

Each performance was an action-packed hour of Shakespeare immersion to compliment the students’ study of Macbeth (Year 10) and Romeo and Juliet (Year 9).

The performances allowed the students to explore key scenes and soliloquies, as well as Shakespeare’s language, and themes through a contemporary commentary.

National English Teachers' Conference

Lorise Clark, Learning Leader for English, attended the National English Teachers’ Conference in Darwin in the recent holidays and co-presented a workshop with Simone Tunbridge, Education Producer for the ABC Heywire Competition.

St Mary’s College has been involved in this competition for a number of years and four of our students have been recognised as national winners. In 2021 the College was awarded the State Winner for Excellence in Storytelling. The impact of this competition has been transformational for students in creating connections through communication and storytelling.

Lorise spoke about the power of story for both entrants and winners and how the competition has engaged and supported learners in a wider school context.

Debating at SMC

On 3 August St Mary's College hosted the Tasmanian Debating Union debating competition.

Students from 14 Year 7 teams competed against each other, followed by eight College level teams.

It was fantastic to see our own Year 7 team (Beatrix Clarke, Lucy Pinelli and Preetinder Khakh) defeat Taroona High School.

The night would not have been possible without an enthusiastic team of helpers: Molly Topham, Zyla Williams, Estella Whiting, Harriet Kelly, Hannah Korn, Beatrix Clarke, Lucy Pinelli, Abby Wilson, Lara Schultz and Nicola Morgan, along with Mrs Anita Wilson, Mrs Caroline Wilson-Heffernan and Mr Andrew Clarke.

Thank you to all those who made the evening a very enjoyable event.

Lorise Clark

Debating Coordinator

STEM class introduced to circuits

In STEM this term, students are learning about circuits, how they work and the practical aspects of circuits in our lives.

In their first lesson, the students were challenged to create simple circuits to turn on a light bulb or fan, but of course, their curious minds didn't stop there! They then created much more complicated projects such as using touch sensors to turn lights on and making speakers play the 'Happy Birthday' melody.

Dr Diana Nahodil

Learning Leader of Science

Green Team on a mission to wipe out waste

The Junior School is embracing the nude food revolution in Term 3, with students encouraged to bring a lunchbox free of food wrappers, such as pop corn packaging, glad wrap or aluminum foil, every Monday in a bid to reduce the amount of plastic sent to landfill.

Here's what Matilda Cunningham (Year 5) has to say about the initiative:

The Green Team is a team in the SMC Junior School that looks after our environment. This term, we're starting up Nude Food Mondays. 'Nude food' means that, if possible, plastic wrappers are replaced with reusable containers and beeswax wraps. This is better for our environment because less plastic means less rubbish around the school, the streets and the oceans, which is better for Tasmania's wildlife and lands.

On Mondays we will count the rubbish collected in each class and tally it. The class with the least rubbish at the end of term will win a prize. Thanks for helping us to save the planet!

100 days of fun

Prep students were delighted to celebrate 100 days of school on Thursday 28 July.

To mark the special milestone, our young learners created brightly coloured party hats and beaded necklaces, which they proudly wore throughout the day.

They also produced some impressive 10 x 10 = 100 posters, before tucking into yummy fairy bread featuring 100s and 1000s, of course!

We are very proud of all our Preps have achieved in just 100 days, and look forward to seeing what they will do in the next 100!

Community news

Tasmanian Parent/Carer online workshop

Anxiety workshops for parents and carers

Coder College Term 3 after-school program

Josephite Mission and History Centre