St. Mary's eNews
Week 3 Term 1
School App
To download the app just visit the App Store for iPhones or Google Play for Android’s. Search for Updat-ed and from the menu select our school. We’ll receive your registration request and will need to approve you before your app is up and running.
Principal's Message ~ 11th February
Dear families,
It’s been a great first full week back. Our students continue to settle in well and our Preps definitely need a mid-week break from the intense learning that is already taking place!
Walking through their classrooms, no one would be able to spot them as Prep students. They are all so settled and so confident, it’s wonderful to see.
This week, our students also commenced specialist classes. I was positively thrilled to hear the buzz following their first Auslan lessons. Students were eager to show me what they had learnt. I have already learnt so much from them. Mrs Richards will be sharing videos and instructions with families soon so that our whole community can join us in this new, exciting learning.
Leadership and growth
Every year, schools develop an Annual Action Plan that sets out our their goals for the year.
You can view ours here. I am enthusiastic about the great new learning that we as a staff wll undertake this year.
If you have any question about our goals for the year, please reach out.
Uniform Shop
Last week we announced the changes to Uniform Shop hours. If you are available to assist Katrina, please let me know and I will pass on your contact details.
It is our preference that orders are made via email, whenever practical. Once payment has been arranged, orders will be sent home with your child.
It is still our aim to transition to a new uniform and offsite, shopfront provider. We are hoping to be able to host onsite forums so that parents can see and feel some of the options before a final decision is made. If restrictions continue to impact parents onsite, we will look at options to hold brief meetings outside before and after school. Watch this space.
Carpark Safety
I urge everyone to take care in our surrounding streets before and after school. There have been one too many near misses of late so I urge drivers, riders and pedestrians to take extra care of your surroundings when walking to and from school. I know that many of you like to attempt u-turns or drive into driveways to change directions, but if this can be avoided, it is a much safer practice to drive straight down the street. It may add a few minutes to your overall trip, but you avoid the difficulty of watching for traffic from every direction, pedestrians included.
I also ask parents with small children/babies, not to leave them in cars for any period of time without you. I understand this is a difficult balance, especially with young children. I would be more than happy to arrange for us to bring your child/children to you if needed so you can remain in your car when looking after very young children/babies.
ECSI Survey
This coming Monday, the window for the Enhancing Catholic School Identity survey opens for our community. I will post instructions via Operoo on Monday.
The results from this survey will be used to help shape the future Catholic identity of St Mary’s school, so it would be great to receive a large representation of parent opinion upon which to base our direction for the next 4 years.
Assembly
Our first assembly will take place online on Monday at 2:30pm. A link will be shared with you via Seesaw. You are welcome to join us.
RATs
The next set of RATs will be handed out to students this coming Monday. Please look out for them in your child’s bag.
Happy news
This week, we found out that Mr Matthew Taylor and his wife Katrina, are expecting a child in August. We wish the Taylor family, and a very excited big-sister-to-be, (I’m sure their much older brothers are also excited!) all the best for this next special chapter.
Have a lovely weekend,
Sonia
International Day of Women & Girls in Science
The International Day of Women and Girls in Science, celebrated on 11 February, is implemented by UNESCO and UN-Women(link is external), in collaboration institutions and civil society partners that aim to promote women and girls in science.
On 22 December 2015, the General Assembly decided to establish an annual International Day to recognize the critical role women and girls play in science and technology, through Resolution A/RES/70/212(link is external).
This Day is an opportunity to promote full and equal access to and participation in science for women and girls. Gender equality is a global priority for UNESCO, and the support of young girls, their education and their full ability to make their ideas heard are levers for development and peace.
A significant gender gap has persisted throughout the years at all levels of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) disciplines all over the world. Even though women have made tremendous progress towards increasing their participation in higher education, they are still under-represented in these fields.
Despite a shortage of skills in most of the technological fields driving the Fourth Industrial Revolution, women still account for only 28% of engineering graduates and 40% of graduates in computer science and informatics, according to the forthcoming UNESCO Science Report, whose chapter on gender in science, entitled To be Smart the Digital Revolution will Need to be Inclusive, is published on 11 February to mark International Day of Women and Girls in Science.
To date, women and girls have only won 23 of the 631 Nobel Prizes in science and are still a minority in science-related studies and fields.
St Mary's is proud of our female staff and students who embrace exlore their curiosities, embrace the challenges and show a love of learning in all the areas of Science Technology Engineering and Maths. Click on the link below to see some of our amazing staff and students in action.
St Mary's women & girls in STEM
Yours in Education
Matthew Taylor
Leader of Learning & Teaching
Wellbeing: What's bugging you?
It's a fun tool to help your child create and practice using powerful “I statements”. e.g "I feel frustrated when I need to get ready fast. I need more time."
Use the printable to help your child fend off peer pressure, grow healthy relationships, and uphold personal boundaries!
Sign up to BIG LIFE JOURNAL to receive regular emails that have great tips and tricks for parents
Maths: Counting Article
I encourage students to count and play number games as part of their daily maths homework time.
The Importance of Counting
Alyssa looked out of her hospital bassinet at the card the researcher had positioned just within her focus. Even though she was only two days old, Alyssa detected a difference between cards with two dots and cards with three, staring longer when the number of dots changed. When she was 14 months old, after watching her mother drop crackers into two containers one by one, Alyssa consistently chose the container that had more crackers over the identical container that had fewer. By the time she was two, during a game she liked to play with Teacher Maria, Alyssa knew that if she put three balls into the cloth bag and teacher Maria took out two, there was still one ball left in the bag. Alyssa was developing number sense before she even knew the number words.
It seems that children are born to notice numerosity—arguably the basis of all later mathematics—in the world around them. And, as they grow older, they fall in love with numerosity’s companion, counting.
Verbal Counting and Counting Collections
Unlike knowing which of two groups is larger, or that adding one object to a set of objects makes the resulting set larger, counting requires the support of a more knowledgeable other, whether that person is a parent, caregiver, teacher, or peer. The reason is that counting requires language. Specifically, it requires number words. For centuries, children’s rhymes, games, and songs have set the stage for the seemingly effortless acquisition of verbal counting. Young children happily sing songs in which ducks disappear and monkeys fall off beds.
But counting isn’t just knowing the number words. It also requires the ability to count a set of objects (or even sounds or gestures). This ability also requires a more knowledgeable other, as counting objects accurately is quite complicated.
Those who study children’s mathematical development explain that counting involves five principles:
1. one-to-one correspondence,
2. stable number word order,
3. cardinality (the last number word in the count represents the numerosity of the set),
4. order irrelevance (objects can be counted in any order), and
5. abstraction (items, even if dissimilar, can be counted as a set, or a collection of objects)
Sound complicated? It is! Something we adults take for granted as “simple” is actually quite complex developmentally.
What is more, counting is foundational to later math development. In order to develop a strong understanding of quantity, and eventually how to manipulate quantities (like adding, subtracting, or fair-sharing—what we call operations), children need an abundance of counting experiences. Counting needs to become almost automatic.
by Linda M. Platas
https://dreme.stanford.edu/
Community News
Church Bulletin
Girls Soccer
Australian Girls Choir
Music Lessons
Inclusive Sports Day
We would also like to thank Mancini Real Estate for their continuous support to St Mary's Altona
Lent - Professional Learning Series
The series is an opportunity to take some time to explore the meaning of Lent in the context of the Sacramental life of the Church, this exciting program invites us to reflect on the Lenten Gospels. Fr Elio Capra will take us on a journey towards the Resurrection of Jesus from a Johannine perspective and the origins of Lent, making connections to the Sacraments of Initiation celebrated at the Easter Vigil. He will then explore the Synoptic texts used in the Church’s 3 year cycle to help us truly reflect on the gift of Jesus, in his life, death and resurrection.
This is a part of our commitment to not only providing the students of St Mary's with the most up to date and informed curriculum, but also, to strengthening our Catholic identity and culture as was explained in last week's newsletter.
Yours in Faith
Matthew Taylor
Religious Education Leader
Tuckshop
Some prices have increased so be sure to check the Tuckshop Menu when you are adding money to your order bag.
Website Updates
We have added a PARENTS tab at the top of the home page. In the drop down you will find lots of useful information.
Calendar, Newsletters, Aussie of the Month, Out of School Hours Care, Parent Handbook, Tuckshop, Uniform, Policies, School Advisory Council, other Useful Links
Take a tour around our classes to find out which staff are teaching and supporting across the levels. These pages are available by clicking these links but also under the CLASSES tab on the home page
Prep
Year 1/2
Year 3/4
Year 5/6
Auslan
Performing Arts
Physical Education
Visual Arts