Latest news
Kindness at Christmas
St Mary's College Junior School was honoured to be invited to prepare the Christmas decorations for this year's Henry Jones Art Hotel Christmas Tree. As part of their Christmas program, Henry Jones Art Hotel gifted St Mary's College with $1,000 to donate to the charities of their choice. The students selected the Catholic Care Family Assistance Christmas hampers initiative and the Sacred Heart Catholic School Geeveston fundraiser for bushfire affected families in Queensland and NSW.
Pictured below: Mrs Ruth Prichard, Junior School Religious Education Coordinator and Year 1 Teacher accepts the donation cheque on behalf of St Mary's College.
Year 5 Science Fair
Over the course of 2019, Year 5 have been working with scientist, Allanna Russell, to learn to understand and apply the scientific method. Their efforts culminated in a Science Fair where each small group designed a question and followed the scientific method to answer their question.
MDF masterpieces
Year 7s made marvelous portable tables from MDF material. They learned how to use a cross halving joint and painted and decorated these with their own designs. Ella Grice and Tayla Spong are pictured below with their masterpieces.
Leavers' Dinner memories
Our lovely Year 12 students had a wonderful night celebrating at their Leavers' Dinner and looked amazing.
View some of the beautiful photos taken by Tracy Vagg here, www.smc.tas.edu.au/photos/
Ethics Olympiad
On Tuesday 3 December five St Mary’s College students competed in the Ethics Olympiad held at The Friends' School. There were 13 other teams who each spent the day wrestling with ethical problems and debating and discussing what the right course of action would be. Some of the topics focused on whether people should always tell the truth, are some charities better to donate to than others, and is it okay for parents to use phone apps to track the movements of their children.
The St Mary's College team comprised of Molly Topham (Year 9), Margot Henry (Year 8), Estella Edwards (Year 8), Charlotte Nicholson (Year 8) and Grace Cox (Year 7). These students have been preparing for this event since Term 3 and they performed very well on the day. They came a close 4th, only two points away from 2nd place. All had a challenging and enjoyable day and they should be very proud of their participation and the way they represented St Mary’s College.
Year 9 Law and Politics visit to the Supreme Court
During Term 4, Year 9 students studying Law and Politics have been learning about the justice system, including the role of the courts. In this unit, they have discussed a range of justice issues in the Australian court system and investigated their own choice of court case, judging whether the justice system has upheld the rule of law principles.
On Monday 25 November, they were lucky enough to attend a trial at the Supreme Court to see these principles in action, accompanied by our Legal Studies expert, Angela Deconinck. The criminal case helped students to understand how a trial is conducted, including the role of the jury, the use of evidence and how the defence and prosecution question key witnesses. Additionally, students were able to see the range of ways studying Law and Politics or Legal Studies could contribute to future career paths, from the forensics police officer, the lawyers, the judge, the clerks and the journalists covering the case.
The Year 9 students were very respectful during their visit and many members of the public were impressed by their maturity. The court visit provoked some interesting discussion about the arson case itself and the complexities of the court system. We are also very grateful for the expertise and time of Angela Deconinck to help make this excursion possible and to accompany the group.
Students studying Civics and Citizenship, Law and Politics and Legal Studies are provided with many opportunities to witness justice in action by visiting the different courts, meeting with politicians and legal experts, hearing from lobby groups and investigating current issues in Australia today.
Making smartie bands
Year 7 Science got smart about Smarties last week. Experimenting outside the box, they meticulously extracted the individual colours out of the Smarties, created a dye and used this to colour string to make lovely friendship bracelets.
Getting shipshape for big sea adventure
Thank you to everyone who purchased raffle tickets in our recent College fundraiser to provide Christmas hamper donations and support student, Joly Karabite (Year 11) in the Windeward Bound Trust Youth Leadership Challenge.
The fundraiser has supplied Joly with the required equipment to help undertake her journey, departing today, Wednesday 11 December.
Along with the cupcakes sold last month (pictured), Joly and the College raised $562, thanks to the support of Dee Spaulding.
Thank you to the generous sponsors who donated raffle prizes: Great Bay Construction, Edge Living, Lost Freight Café, Francis Mann, Wendy Forsyth and St Mary’s College.
In the spirit of giving
Our Year 9 elves were busy packing Christmas hampers for Catholic Care yesterday to support families in need this holiday season.
Years 7-9 Activity Day fun
Lots of fun was had yesterday at Activity Day with one group of students going beyond their comfort zone and getting muddy while tackling an obstacle course on the mud run at Redbanks.
Australian Catholic Youth Festival
St Mary’s College students Alyssa Lee (Year 10) and Gloria Wani (Year 9) attended the Australian Catholic Youth Festival in Perth along with Sharon Lawler and Daniel de la Motte this week. The festival provided a range of experiences for young people from around the country including singing, dancing, inspirational speakers, prayer, mass and heaps of time to get to know new people. Our students shared this experience with over 5,000 people (83 from Tasmania) and had an amazing time.
