DECYP Values 

A key focus for our school community this year is to understand our new DECYP values and the behaviours that connect to our organisation. The new core values that support the department are: Connection, Respect, Courage, Growth, and Responsibility. 

A snapshot of the values: 

Connection: Cultivate strong bonds within our school family, fostering relationships that support one another through every challenge. 

Respect: Each member of our diverse community is treated with kindness, empathy, and understanding. 

Courage: Embrace the courage to step out of comfort zones, to pursue excellence, and to stand up for what is right, even when faced with adversity. 

Growth: We take every opportunity to learn and grow, both academically and personally. Together, we will strive for continuous improvement. 

Responsibility: We all play a vital role in shaping our school culture and environment. We take ownership of our actions, demonstrate integrity, and a commitment to making St Marys District School a place where everyone feels safe, valued, and inspired to thrive. 

Over the second half of the year staff and students will work together to unpack the school values and drill down into the core behaviours that are related to each value. We look forward to sharing the work we do around our new values with our school community in coming newsletters. 

Transition From Year 10 to 11 

Our Year 10 students have commencing planning for their transition to Year 11.  Visits from both Launceston and Newstead Colleges have been occurred earlier in the term and students attended Newstead College on Thursday and will visit Launceston College on Monday next week. Students have the choice of attending Year 11 at St Marys District School or transitioning to a Secondary College. Apprenticeships, School Based Apprenticeships, Traineeships, and other training opportunities are all options that students might consider for their future. We hope that parents will play an important part in planning for these important choices.  If you would like further information about supporting your young person, please contact the school administration office. 

Online Information Hub for Families 

The Department for Education, Children and Young People has an online information hub for families with school-aged children in Tasmania. This website has information to help you navigate your child's education, from birth all the way up to 18 years of age.  

Some of the information you will find includes: 

• tips on how to support your child’s learning at home 
• information to help you keep your child safe and well 
• a guide to explore courses for the career they want 
• school holiday and term dates. 

Visit the webpage at Information for families - Department for Education, Children and Young People (decyp.tas.gov.au)  

Moderation Day/ Student Free Day  

On the 7 June our teaching staff travelled to Campbell Town and joined teachers from St Helens DHS, Cressy DHS, Flinders Island DHS, Bicheno PS, Longford PS and Bracknell PS. Up until lunch time, teachers worked together to moderate student work sharing work samples and discussing assessment against the Australian Curriculum achievement standards. Moderation is an important process for teachers to engage in to ensure assessments are consistent across the state.  During the afternoon block our teachers worked in teams to explore their professional development plan goals for reading and student attendance. 

Teacher Assistants (TAs) were also engaged in learning together, travelling to Launceston to participate in DECYP wide professional learning on the evidenced based teaching of reading.  Although a technology outage threatened to impact their experience, overall our TAs have reported that it was fantastic opportunity to work with TAs from other schools and to engage in professional learning that was specifically designed for their important role within our school. 

Warm regards, 

Carolyn Watson 

Principal 

In week 4 of this term, Grades 5-10 were able to participate in health promotion and harm minimisation education related to drugs and alcohol.  Rob, from the Drug Education Network (DEN) facilitated age-appropriate evidence based sessions in a non-judgemental and safe environment.  Students learnt what categories different drugs and alcohol can be classed as, the effects on both a personal and broader community level, how to keep themselves and each other safe and places or people they can turn to for support. 

They explored some physiology of the brain and leant how vital it is to keep their developing brains free from harms that may occur if exposed to different forms of drugs and alcohol.  Some take home points for the secondary students were to delay experimenting, reduce frequency and avoid binging and mixing.

An interesting topic for discussion occurred when all year levels identified caffeine as a drug.  Grade 5/6 students explored this extensively and we all learnt at caffeine is actually not recommended for anyone under the age of 15 and often energy drink labels will have a warning on them, albeit in very fine print on the back of the can.  They were then able to make their own energy drink design, either with or without caffeine and labelled appropriately.  They were then blue tacked onto our pretend vending machine.  A great activity with some very creative labels.  It was amazing to see the engagement from students. 

Rob and I were both so genuinely impressed with how engaged, polite and considerate the students were, and a very big ‘thank you’ must go to them. 

For further free and trustworthy information about young people and drugs please visit this website Community Online Drug Education (CODE) (den.org.au)

KINGS MEADOW HIGH SCHOOL

The SMDS team of secondary students attended the Inter-High Cross-Country Carnival at Kings Meadows High School on Friday 24 June.  We arrived early to good conditions and walked the course and warmed up ready to run. Please see the age group team results below: Unfortunately, our team was not eligible for the overall shield this year, however we did have some outstanding individual performances and age group team results.

AGE GROUP TEAM PENNANTS- DIVISION 2

We congratulate all students who attended this event on their bravery and the fabulous way they represented our school.  Thank you to Mieka S who attended as an extra and ended up running up a grade for the Grade 9 girls event. Amazing team commitment Mieka. 

Outstanding achievements came from:

Grade 7 Girls: Sienna M - 7^th overall and 2^nd in Division 2.

Grade 9 Boys: Both Wally F and Connor F ran exceptionally well.

Grade 10 Boys: Lachie W – 2^nd Overall and 1^st in Div 2

                       Matthew E- 2^nd in Div 2

Grade 10 Boys (Lachie W, Matthew E and Senh O) Team champions Division 2

Congratulations to Lachie W for his selection in the Northern High Schools Sports Association (NHSSA) team to represent at the All -Schools Cross-Country at Symmons Plains on Thursday 13 June.  We are all behind you Lachie and wishing all the best for your run next week.

Please enjoy some photos from the day.

Laura Swanson

Lachie Woods placed 13th in a field of 80 runners in the U17 Boys State Cross-Country event at Symmons Plains on Thursday 13 June 2024.

He ran the 6km in 23.21 minutes and he finished first out of all the NHSSA runners in that field.

Such an amazing achievement.......we are very proud Lach!!

The following pieces are heading to QVMAG for Artstart exhibition from our Grade 4/5 Visual Art class. Theme this year is in conjunction with NAIDOC week Keep the fire burning.

Ellie Grade 5

Evie Grade 4

Hamish Grade 5

Joanie Grade 4

Willow Grade 5

On Tuesday 4June, we had Megs and Adele visit from the Royal Flying Doctor Service (RFDS). We learnt about how RFDS work to provide emergency medical and primary health care services to anyone who lives, works, or travels in rural and remote Australia.

Did you know:

• The man on the $20 note is the man who pioneered the world's first aerial medical service now known as the Royal Flying Doctor Service – his name is John Flynn.
• That you are meant to brush your teeth for 2 mins of a morning and night!
• In 2022/23, 36,951 Australians were flown by our expert medical, nursing, and aviator teams. 

Results round 2

Cressy District School

All teams played at Cressy last week for round 2 of the winter sports roster. A big thanks to Cressy for hosting us for this round. Please see the results and some photos from some of the games.

Soccer:

St.Marys 8 def Cressy 1

Football:

St.Marys 161 def Cressy 32

Netball

Div 2: Cressy 27 def St.Marys 17

Div 3: St.Marys 16 def Cressy 0

Please note: After the first few rounds, teams are graded (based on their performance) and divisional changes are made.

Football will now be in Division 2 and Netball (Div 3) will go to Division 3A.

(Periods, Pain and Endometriosis)

St Marys District School year 9 and 10 students participated in a facilitated session with Ally, a clinical educator from the Pelvic Pain Organisation Australia to educate and raise awareness around Endometriosis.  The session plays a critical role in informing and educating students to recognise and identify whether their pain is normal, how all the different symptoms fit together, simple ways to reduce their pain, and how to look for further help if pain is severe. This allows students to fulfil their true potential, without the burden of pain.  Students who do not have pain will be better prepared for pain conditions that they may develop in the future.

For our boys and people assigned male at birth, the session was aimed to help students be more comfortable discussing menstruation and help them learn how best to support the people in their life with pain. 

Again, I am so proud of the students overall participation and the way they engaged in asking and answering questions, being respectful by listening and taking part in activities. 

PPEP Talk® Next Steps:

As part of our booking, PPEP also offer a FREE follow-up session called PPEP Talk® Next Steps. PPEP Talk® Next Steps is a FREE online session for any student who identifies a complex pain concern or would like their caregiver to know more. Students attend with a caregiver and have the opportunity to ask questions to our Gynecologist and Pain Specialist, Associate Professor Susan Evans. Students can register for upcoming sessions here (https://www.pelvicpain.org.au/ppep-talk-schools-program/ppep-talk-next-steps/). I have attached the PPEP Talk® Next Steps flyer for more information.  This came highly recommended by Ally as a very worthwhile session to attend.   

Keeping our children and young people safe is a Department, School and Community priority.  One way we can support this priority is by teaching our young people how to interact safely using social media.  The e-Safety Commissioner has provided a range of resources to support parents, educators and young people to navigate social media platforms safely.  Having conversations at home, sharing and discussing these important messages can support our young people to make strong and safe choices.

The links provided below are part of the resources provided by the Commissioner.

Parents | eSafety Commissioner 

Young People | eSafety Commissioner 

Kids | eSafety Commissioner 

Parental controls | How to keep your child safe (esafety.gov.au) 

On Thursday 6 June we were lucky enough to have Scott from Scott's BMX Trick Bike Show join us on site for an in-school performance.  This performance told the story of Scott and when he received his first bike, the struggles that he had learing to ride that bike and the success he has had since perfecting the tricks.  We were wowed by what he could do on a bike and there was even some audience participation at the end.

On Wednesday 22 May, 24 St. Marys students, supervising staff members and family members travelled 2 hours to the Winnaleah Tree Farm to attend the 2024 ENE Cross Country Carnival. It was a beautiful day and perfect conditions for running. On arrival at the course, the team gathered with accompanying teachers. Seven schools competed in the carnival. Smaller schools – Ringarooma, Bicheno and Winnaleah competed in Division B. The larger schools - St. Marys, St. Helens, Bridport and Scottsdale, competed in Division A. At the end of the carnival, special shields were awarded to the winners of each division. Scottsdale won Division A this year and St. Marys came a strong 3rd in Division A.

Every member of the team represented our school with pride and competed with great spirit. Out of the 24 students running on the day, 7 students finished in the Top 10.

Ella G came 8th, Shiloh F came 9th, Hamish D 3rd, Evie B 6th, Macey G 9th, Indi E 7th, and Cohen P finished in 4th place. As a result of our Top 10 places these student have been invited to run in the State All Schools Primary Cross Country event at Symmons Plains on the 18th June.

ROUND 3-WEDNESDAY 12JUNE

FOOTBALL

RIVERSIDE HIGH SCHOOL: 81                           SMDS: 51

MIXED SOCCER

SMDS: 4                                                       PORT DALRYMPLE: 1

NETBALL

DIVISION 2: 

QUEECHY HIGH SCHOOL: 19                            SMDS: 11

 DIVISION 3A:

STAR OF THE SEA: 24                                      SMDS: 8

Secondary students have been finishing off ceramic projects. Learning how to lino print. Grade 4/5 have been working on colour theory and landscapes as well as learning how to hand-build with clay.

On Thursday 6 June a group of over thirty students from Grade 8-12 went on an excursion to see the Bay of Fires Youth Exhibition at Portland Hall in St Helens. The theme this year was Ocean. There were over 382 entries this year and the quality of work was outstanding. Tommi S in Year 11 won with her sculptural ceramic Octopus piece. We also had three other finalists, Ty M- Year 12, Kaden B - Year 8 & Zephyr L - Year 9. 

Students were also lucky enough to have a guided tour at Panorama of the professional Bay of fires exhibition. We were met by Dr Malcom Bywaters from UTAS who is head of the Faculty of Arts. Malcom gave the students insight in to the judging process and what they are looking for when selecting the winner of the exhibition. Students enjoyed the exhibition and gained inspiration for their own arts practice. 

Here are some photos from the Bay of Fires Exhibition.

Tommi S 1st place, Finalists Ty M, Kaden B, Zephyr L.

Students had to complete an element of a campaign to highlight fair trade, substainability or publicise a social inequity.

Arielle D

Finn T

Isaac W

Rio K

This term, we were lucky enough to secure a Sporting Schools grant which provided another sporting opportunity to our Primary students in Prep to Grade 6. The funding this time around was spent on a four-week program focussing on skills and development in bowls and the name of this program is Rookie Rollers. The Rookie Rollers program provides opportunities for students to build skills similar to those used in lawn bowls, but in an indoor setting. The resources are specifically designed to support students in learning the game, with lighter, easier to handle bowls.

Former teacher, Jane Pickett from Bowls Australia has joined us to impart her knowledge and skills with us.

We are looking forward to our final session next week and hopefully we have inspired some budding lawn bowls participants in the future.

These notices have been sent home to parents in the last fortnight.  If you did not receive one and would like to receive a copy of the notice, please contact the school office on 63 723 900.

PRIMARY

• Primary Assembly - Tuesday 25 June 11:30am