Latest news

World Environment Day

St Mary’s College recently came together to celebrate World Environment Day by participating in the Jar Challenge which encourages students to look at what they, and their families, contribute to landfill each week. This report was filed by Year 9 student and Footprint Project member Zoe Brown.

"World Environment Day was on Wednesday 5 June, and the Footprint team set out a take-it-home challenge for any student and their family keen on learning about sustainability. My name is Zoe and I am a student in Year 9 who took on this challenge with my family.

It was a week-long challenge where students and families collected all their landfill rubbish used at home over the week and keep it in a container or jar. By the end of the week our jar did not have very much waste in it; what was in the jar were some milk bottle lids, and small pieces of plastic, and foil that could not be put in another bin.

In my home we try to reduce our waste and footprint on the earth by recycling everything that we can in the yellow bin. We also have a compost bin that all our food scraps go in which eventually go back into the earth on our vegetable garden. We have chickens and give them a lot of our food scraps as well.

We also recycle our soft plastics at Woolworths or Coles, which is an easy way remove them from landfill, and they will be reused and made into things like benches and chairs. We collect our bread tags and recycle them at school to make into wheelchairs for people in need.

When we go to the shops to buy our groceries, we try to select items with a limited amount of plastic. Did you know you can get reusable mesh fruit and vegetable bags and bread bags? These are handy when you want to buy your food without plastic."

Writer's visit inspires students

Tasmanian author Lian Tanner visited the Year 11-12 English Writing and English Literature classes on Tuesday 29 July to run a creative writing workshop. Lian is a well-known author who has published more than ten novels, and has a wealth of experience in encouraging students to use their creative writing skills. The students experimented with a wide range of writing techniques in order to unlock their creativity. Lian gave the students permission to discover, explore and let their imagination ‘run wild’ as they wrote. She was an inspiration to budding writers and those with looming creative pieces.  

Chinese language learners shine

Last term Year 10 student Isabella Cox was selected to represent Tasmania to compete with other Chinese language learners in Melbourne. Isabella’s strong performance saw her coming away with some exceptional results, placing in the top 10 nationally!

Year 7B girls had a tradition Chinese costume lesson and fashion show last week of Term 2.

Debaters make it to the finals

The College’s Year 10 Debating team has celebrated a strong season making it all the way through the grand final held last week. Alyssa Lee, Miranda Guy, Emily Keane and Isabella Cox all debated fiercely, the suffered a narrow defeat to St Michael’s Collegiate. The team was well-prepared and focused, and should be proud of their amazing efforts which saw them passionately participating in eight debates.

Bonanza Book Week planned for students

It’s an exciting time of the year for both the Student Resource Centre (SRC) and the St Mary’s College community as we prepare to celebrate Book Week. The Library has embraced the theme: ‘Reading is my secret power’ and is setting up a myriad of activities to allow everyone an opportunity to revel in the power of words!

SRC staff and students will be transforming the library space for the big occasion, so we hope you can pop in for a moment to enjoy it. Below is a brief outline of the week’s activities which we hope will help prepare you and your child for fun times ahead.

Junior School competitions

Kinder - Year 2 can enter our colouring-in competition which depicts the official Children’s Book Council of Australia design by artist and illustrator Bob Graham. There is no restriction on materials able to be used, and judging will focus on creativity and presentation.

Year 3 and 4 students can enter our poster competition and their design must focus on this year’s theme: ‘Reading is my secret power’. It must not exceed A3 in size and again, they can use any medium they wish

Year 5 and 6 can submit a poster inspired by the beautiful quote by Cassandra Clare: ‘One must always be careful of books and what is inside them, for words have the power to change us’.

Entries should be coming home this week, and must be submitted by 16 August.

Book character dress-up parade (Wednesday 21 August)

As in previous years, the week culminates in our much loved parade which will be held on Wednesday 21 August at 2.00pm on the College Green (top ground). Students are already excited about their costume ideas, but please remind them as we have, that it is not necessary to spend money and they should be creative about using what is already available to them. Sometimes the most effective outfit is the simplest, home-made one! Parents are welcome to attend the parade in the afternoon, and any student going home with parents and carers are permitted to leave in costume. The Senior School students have a special parade in the SRC at lunchtime with various prizes up for grabs!

Book Swap Fair (Monday 20 - Thursday 22 August)

Our Book Swap event will run again in the Library, giving students an opportunity to ‘reduce, reuse and recycle’. For every book that is donated, students will receive a token which they can redeem for a book of their choosing from the fair.

All books for swapping must be handed to the library from the 12 - 16 August.

This year we are limiting the number of books donated per student to keep donations to a reasonable level across the years, however we are making it clear that there is no guarantee that students will be able to use all of their tokens, and to be satisfied that any non-redeemed books will be passed on to other charitable organisations.

Kinder-Prep: limited to five books per student.

Year 1-6: limited to 10 books per student.

There will be a range of activities for the Senior School students, most of which were announced at the school assembly on Friday. More information on these will be provided later.

Author Visit

Acclaimed local illustrator Coral Tulloch will be visiting the Junior School to discuss her career and share some skills with our Year 3 and 4 classes.

We hope that everyone embraces the week and truly appreciates how lucky we are to be in a school community that cherishes literacy and learning through books!

See you there!

On behalf of all the staff in the SRC

College Green Team branches out

Did you know?

• About 50 per cent of Australia's rain forests have been cleared.
• Hobart's tree canopy is only 59 per cent.
• Time spent in green spaces can reduce the risk factor of many diseases
• A 5 per cent increase in tree cover could reduce the daytime temperature by 2.3c (Planet Ark).

National Tree Day was founded in 1996 by Planet Ark and Olivia Newton-John. It has grown into Australia’s largest tree planting and nature protection event. Help make a difference and plant a tree to make cleaner and fresher air!

Chloe, Lucy, Mia 

The SMC Green Team

Year 5