Building Futures Showcase

It's almost time for the Building Futures Showcase, which takes place next Thursday 20 May in the Nagle Centre.

This expo-style event is designed for students in Years 8 to 11 to support them in seeing their pathway through school to life beyond.

It will provide information for students choosing courses for the following year, and all Senior School teachers will be available to talk through options and directions.

We will also have some specialty booths from organisations such as the University of Tasmania, TasTAFE and Drysdale, Work and Training, and the Alliance of Girls' Schools Australasia to provide a broader perspective for students.

For more information about this event and to register, visit the College website here.

Keeping safe in cyberspace

On behalf of the Alliance of Girls' Schools Australasia, St Mary's College invites parents and carers to attend Keeping Safe in Cyberspace, a cybersafety session presented by Susan McLean, leading Australian and internationally renowned expert.

The event will take place on Tuesday 8 June at 5.45pm in the St Mary's College Nagle Centre.

If you wish to attend, please RSVP by Tuesday 1 June via the booking link here.

We look forward to seeing you there!

School Satisfaction Surveys

If you haven't filled out the satisfaction survey, there's still time!

Each year we invite all parents and carers, staff and students in Years 5 to 12 to have their say through our School Satisfaction Surveys.

The surveys will be analysed by an external party and will help us to identify what we do well as a College and where we can improve.

The link to the surveys was sent in an email last week. You can also visit the link here.

We would really appreciate your participation in this important project and thank you in advance for your valuable feedback.

Gifted Awareness Week

Gifted Awareness Week (GAW) Australia 2021 will take place on 22-30 May.

GAW is a project of the Australian Association for the Education of the Gifted and Talented (AAEGT) that aims to raise community awareness of giftedness and to promote activities that celebrate giftedness in all its forms.

This year's theme is 'Thriving as gifted', and there will be two online professional learning sessions on offer during the event.

AAEGT present: Thriving Not Just Surviving: An interactive presentation of the latest research on grouping in gifted education

Facilitators: Dr Karen Rogers and Dr Peta Hay

Date: Sunday 23 May 2021

Time: 11.00am - 1.00pm

Online Cost: $25 non-members, $5 for AAEGT members

To register click here.

Tasmanian Association for the Gifted (TAG) present: Gifted children: building friendships at school

Facilitator: Sarah Muskett, Educational Psychologist

Date: Monday 24 May 2021

Time: 7:30pm - 9:00pm

Online Cost: $10 non-members, free for TAG members

To register click here.

Changes to language offerings in 2022

We wish to advise our parents, carers and Senior School students of the changes to Languages coming into effect next year.

Sadly 2021 will be the last year that Chinese is offered in Years 7 and 8 as we phase the language out in the Senior School.

Despite the enormous commitment of staff, international excursions and a sister school arrangement, we have been unable to achieve sufficient numbers of students studying Chinese to make it a viable option. It seems two languages are not sustainable with our student population.

Current Year 8 students will be able to choose Chinese as an elective option going into Years 9 and 10. There may also be potential for them to continue in Years 11 and 12.

Sharing our winter woollies

The Young Vinnies group is gearing up for this year’s Winter Woollies drive. From Monday 24 to Friday 28 May, students are asked to please bring in winter woollies donations for the St Vincent de Paul Society. These donations can include items such as clothes, gloves, beanies and blankets. Anything that would help to keep a person warm would be a lovely donation.

Last year we received over 400 donations and we would love to be able to donate even more this year. On Wednesday of that week, students will be able to wear their winter woollies or pyjamas to school for a gold coin donation.

Loui’s Van will also be here on the Wednesday to show these students what they actually do and where the donations will be going. It’s a little bit early, but you can get a head start on your spring cleaning and see if there’s anything in your wardrobe that you would like to donate. Thank you for your support of the Winter Woollies drive.

Ashley Mitchell

Year 12

Some handy help with Read&Write

Read&Write provides Junior and Senior School students with access to a suite of reading support tools, giving them a choice in how they access and engage with content. The program fosters independence and helps students to study, revise and proofread their work.

Some of the features include:

Text to speech (reads words, passages, or whole documents aloud with easy to follow dual colour highlighting
Text and picture dictionaries: provide definitions and display images to help with word comprehension
Vocabulary list: creates a list instantly in a new document, including selected words, the dictionary definitions, images and notes column
Check i: reviews writing for incorrect grammar, spelling, capitalisation, punctuation, verb tense and more
Audio maker: converts selected text into an audio file, and automatically downloads
Talk&Type: turns the spoken word into text.

If you are interested, please use the links below to install the software.

Read&Write for Windows: Student Take-Home Installation (Windows)

Read&Write for Mac: Student Take-Home Installation (Mac)

Read&Write for iPad: Student Take-Home Installation (iPad)

Read&Write Learning & User Resources (a link for all different platforms)

Once installed, be sure to sign in using Microsoft. Students will need to use their school email and password to access the software.

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