News
Grounded YP Art Festival
A huge thank you to Sonya Rankine, Jasmine Swales and Jay Milera for their assistance with the preparation for this event, and in particular for their attendance on the day. They will be ably assisted by an enthusiastic team of Port Vincent volunteers.
Those who wish to attend can do so by booking tickets on Eventbrite - www.eventbrite.com.au/e/come-try-kids-art-session-tickets-675736003577
Sessions are 50 minutes each and offer a variety of arty options to try, including:
Rock Painting
Wooden Boat Creation
Paint a Picasso
Feather Wands with Jay Milera
Places are limited to 20 children per session.
If your child is under 6, a parent or carer will need to stay to supervise.
Please note: Painting and art can be messy. Please send your child in old clothes.
Spanish News - Middle Primary
The students were introduced to some clothing vocab. and made and shared a flap book to help learn some invierno ropa (winter clothing) words.
Home Economics
From the Green Space to the Home Ec Kitchen!
We have been working hard this term to use as much in-season produce from the school garden across into the Home Ec program.
The last few weeks have seen abundant winter harvests, with only a couple of extra ingredients required from the shop for our cooking sessions. Our focus areas have been: native ingredients, how migration influences Australian food, environmental and sustainability practises in both the garden and the kitchen, and how we can maximise use of our Green Space produce.
Spanish News - Reception and Junior Primary
Spanish R-2 Las Piratas
We are learning some pirate vocabulary in our new topic - gorro = hat, pirata = pirate, barco = boat/ship, eye patch = parche en el ojo.
We made pirate hats and practised our pirate “Argghhhs!!!!!”
Principal's Report
Hi all,
It's been a huge week as you could imagine, and with lots of up-and-coming events I thought I would focus on what is to come across the course of this term.
Book Week
We will be holding our Book Week Parade on Tuesday the 22nd of August at 9:15am. Students are encouraged to dress up as a character from a book, and all things going well with the weather, we will hold this outside on the basketball courts. If the weather looks challenging with wind and rain, we will hold it in the hall.
I love our Book Week Parade. Every student gets their opportunity to walk down the runway and have a moment and share their love of fictional characters. We have a perfect size school to allow this to happen. It is always full of smiles and humour and often the unexpected. Built into our parade which we have developed over the previous years, is a parade of the local town area. We will do a lap of the block and parade down the main street. We will release the route of this before the day, so we encourage business owners and residents to come out and see the costumes.
Peter Pan the Musical
We are jamming a bit into Term 3 and nothing is bigger than our whole school performance of Peter Pan the Musical. Students have been hard at work learning the choreography, the blocking for the acting as well as building the props and set.
The date of the Musical is Wednesday the 6th of September. We will be having a daytime matinee, as well as an evening performance. This is a compulsory event for our students.
If you are a junior primary parent no doubt you have heard the unforgettable chorus of ‘You’ve done it again Mr Smee, Mr Smee’. Thomas my 2-year-old at home can sing the chorus, having never heard the original!
We will be holding two rehearsals down at the Light Church over the coming weeks which you will receive a note about next week. The Light Church performing space is exceptional and gives our students the experience of performing in a professional theatre space.
New Students
We have welcomed a number of new students this term as part of a Mid-Year Reception intake and across other year levels. We welcome them and their families to our school community.
Announcement
Across last week you hopefully have read about the announcement of my appointment at St Francis of Assisi Newton for next year. I won’t go over this announcement, except to add some brief context and explain the process going forward.
We would expect CESA to run a process over the next six weeks, with an appointment towards the end of this term, for a principal to begin in 2024. This is an ideal time frame in a lot of ways and will allow for a smooth transition for the next principal of SCMS.
I would expect this to be a competitive process. I have been talking to the students over the past week about what type of school this principal is entering, and why they might want to come here. We have beautiful students, strong academic results and within weeks, beautiful new classrooms for students to learn in. I would expect this position would appeal to a variety of leaders - young, experienced, up and coming etc. I am looking forward to working with this person in Term 4.
From a slightly self-indulgent point of view, there will be lots of opportunities to reflect on the past five years as we head towards the end of 2023. Thank you to all those who have reached out. At present though with Book Week, Concert, school camps and Presentation Nights to come as well as the everyday running of the school, there is too much going on to stop still.
Kind Regards,
Scott March
RE News
Hello!
Welcome back 😊 I hope the school holidays was a time of rest and relaxation for your families and that you are back happily into the swing of school routine.
This term we have some great feasts days with some truly inspirational Saints who have contributed to the life of the Church and wider society. However, of all the Saints coming up the one we need to spend some time reflecting on and thanking God for is St Mary of the Cross MacKillop. Her feast day is next Tuesday, August 8th. The one thing that amazes me is the vision she had and her commitment and tenacity to see it through. What started as one little country school in Penola had, within four years, grown to 127 Sisters that were teaching in 43 schools and managing four charitable institutions. From this many more schools and charitable institutions across Australia and even overseas were begun and the Sisters influence and work spread and made an impact on many people. When thinking about this, I can’t help but think of the this passage from Matthew 13:31-32, “He put before them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed that someone took and sowed in his field; it is the smallest of all the seeds, but when it has grown it is the greatest of shrubs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches.” Our little school is part of the Josephite tree, part of God’s Kingdom, where our students and family can come and make a ‘home’ here and for that, I’m very grateful to St Mary and the Sisters and their work. This quote from St Mary reminds me of her and how she did just this, but also an encouragement that God calls us out in love to be who He has made us to be. Love is willing the good of the other and so that is what He does for us, He wills the good for us too.
“Try to become all that the love of God wishes you to be” St Mary, 1868.
MITIOG is soon to begin, and I want to encourage parents to engage with your children at home discussing further what is touched on in class. As parents, you are your child’s first educator and even more so in this area. We hope that what is explored at school is only a reiteration of what has already been explored at home with you. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me either in person (Wednesday or Thursday) or via email, mhonner@scms.catholic.edu.au.
Have a great weekend,
Miriam Honner
APRIM
Senior Primary News
Props for our School Production are a team effort. Our Senior students have been working hard to put these together as part of their Design and Tech lessons. This week we even got our friendly builders on board to make a stand up bed for the Nursery Scene!
