Term 4 Week 9 2022

Principal's Message

Dear families and friends,

‘We do whatever it takes to lead the way in Love, Learning, Faith, School Spirit, Sport & Community’

Christmas Mass Times

St Mary’s Casino  - Christmas Vigil 6.00pm and Christmas Day 8.00am

Mallanganee Church to be advised

Thank you 
It has been such a great year again of Love, Learning, Faith, School Spirit, Sport and Community.  I am truly blessed to be the principal of such a great school in such a great community.  I often pinch myself as to how I ended up here.  Some highlights for me of the year thus far:

• Our recovery, resilience and persistence after the floods, we got stuck in and just got on with it
• Our gratitude to the community due to this through our Beef Week Walk of Flame
• Student learning, behaviour and wellbeing has never been better
• Teacher learning, confidence and support has never been better

2023 School Improvement Plan 
We have been constructing a 2023 School Improvement Plan from many different sources of data including:

• Student, Parent & Staff Tell Them From Me Surveys
• NAPLAN
• Other school assessments such as PAT
• Fullness of Life Framework Reflection Tools
• Communication had with families, staff and students

We will have a pretty sharp focus to ensure we are Deeply Improving.  Our initial draft goals look a little like this:

• Improve student writing for all students
• Improve staff knowledge and practice of Catholic values, beliefs and traditions
• Students are deeply loved, empowered and responsible 

Farewell Staff 
Anne Ross:  Anne is retiring after 40 years of Catholic education in our Diocese as an Educator, mostly at St Carthage’s in Lismore.  Thank you for all you have done in these 40 years, Anne.  You should be proud of the commitment you have given to so many over this time.
Kandis Hoffman:  We are really going to miss your bright, bubbly nature. You are an amazing educator.  Best wishes at St Joseph’s, Wauchope.
Jacinda Summers:  Thank you for all you have contributed over the last few years.  I wish you all the best in moving up to 'God's Country' and working in the Queensland system.
Lisa Transton:  Thank you also for your time and commitment to us at SMP over the years.  We wish you all the best at Our Lady Help of Christians, South Lismore in 2023.
Carissa Pursey:  Thank you for this year and we wish you all the best at St Joseph’s, South Grafton.

Farewell Families
I would very much like to thank and farewell the following families who have finished their children’s education journey with us:

Melissa & Benjamin Hoare Hayley & Kirk Hancock Karla & Clinton Carey Donna & Lindsay Patch Nicole Povey Sylvia & Tom Cooling Lee & Peter Glasby Benita & Joe Leven Debbie & Richard Peters Kasey Henderson & Joe Ryan Rachel & Jason Adam  Lucy Sheppard & Adrian Johns Rebecca & Brett Loy Aaron Stubbin & Jennifer Waugh Kristy & Matthew Martin Leigh Bosworth & Jamie Richardson Sarah & Michael Walker Rachelle Kennedy & Glenn Anscombe Michael & Diane Brombal Benjamin Bennett  Jane & Tim Lockwood Clare Urquhart & Cassandra Purdon Candice & Matthew Sproule and Melissa & Scott Gordon.

Farewell to Fiona & Daniel Borello Catherine & Lyall Morrow Jasmine & Stewart Smithson will have a break before resuming their association with us.

Farewell to Kim Coxon & Liam Bonner Julie & Gavin Sparke Justine Irving and Tauwehe Herewini & Ross Daw who are moving to other areas.  Best wishes. 

Take care
John O’Brien
Principal

Assistant Principal's News - Mission

School Jackets
All school jackets have been ordered and will hopefully arrive mid-Term 1, 2023. 

Basketball Hoops
Thank you Liam Convine for giving up his own time to put together some portable basketball hoops for our students. We really appreciate you volunteering to help us with this!

Edward Shields - Rep Softball
On the weekend Edward attended the NSW softball Under 12 State Championships as part of the Southern Districts representative team. The Championships were held over two days in Orange. This tournament drew children from associations all over NSW.  On Saturday Edward played four games and then played three games on Sunday. The team played well and managed to win three of the six games, drawing one game and narrowly missing two. This had them placed in fourth position at the end of the tournament. Edward played many positions.  Catcher is his favourite. His strength was definitely with the bat over the weekend.  Although only being 10, Edward was able to be a major contributor to his team.  Well done, Edward!

Swimming Carnival Results
Last Thursday, 41 students attended Evans Head Pool to compete in the School Competitive Swimming Carnival. Congratulations to each and every one of the competitors and a special thank you to all parents and helpers who volunteered their time to help run the carnival. 

A huge congratulations to Tom McCormack, Laura Lockwood and Emma Green for breaking 8 records between them!  What an effort!

Tom Mc Cormack: 8 new school records

• Junior 100m Freestyle 1:13.39
• Junior 50m Butterfly 40.45
• Junior 4x50m IM 3:05.26
• 10yo 50m Freestyle 33.21
• 10yo 50m Breaststroke 45.41
• 10yo 50m Backstroke 42.70

Emma Green: 1 new school record

• 11yo 50m Freestyle 33.11

Laura Lockwood: 1 new school record

• 13yo 50m Freestyle 37.21

Age Champions

Divisional Champions

House Champions

Assistant Principal's News Teaching & Learning

Celebrating our Academic Achievers for 2022

At SMP we lead the way in learning and we have had a number of students experience great success in their academic pursuits this year. We would like to acknowledge and celebrate these students this week and encourage all students to continue their positive attitude toward learning in 2023.                                       

                        NAPLAN 2022

These students were successful in scoring the highest possible band for their year, or above. 

Progressive Achievement Tests

All students in Years 2-6 take part in Progressive Achievement Tests (PAT) in Reading and Numeracy, twice a year. These students achieved the highest score for their year level in these assessments. 

ICAS Achievers

ICAS assessments are run every year across Australia to recognise and reward academic excellence. This year we had a number of students take part in these assessments and they did SMP very proud with their results.

Maths Extension Groups

These were our top achievers in our Maths Extension activites for 2022.

Bebras CSIRO Logical Thinking Challenge

Bebras is an international initiative aiming to promote Informatics and Computational Thinking among students. These students were the highest scorers for SMP this year. 

Felicity Wilde
AP Teaching & Learning

SMP Academic Acheivers 2022

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Leader of Pedgaogy

Writing Success
Congratulations to Sophia Derrig in Year 4 who entered the Unleashed Short Story Competition with her story called The Greatest Grubber. Sophia's story has been selected to be published in the 2022 Unleashed Book alongside other young authors from across the country. Well done, Sophia!

PAT Testing

Every student from Years 2 to 6 complete the online PAT Maths and Reading Assessment twice each year. This test assesses the skills that each student has in reading comprehension and a range of areas in Mathematics. This data is analysed and used to track student growth across the year, to identify areas of strength and to plan what is needed for each student in their learning. 

Congratulations to the following students in each grade who have shown the most growth  from their previous assessment in Term 2 up to their current results from this term:

Michelle Bratti
Leader of Pedagogy

Leader of Love and Community

Hi Everyone!

Week 7 saw us celebrate our whole school Christmas Concert. It was a beautiful late spring afternoon that saw many of our family and friends come out to watch the kids perform Christmas songs and hear the Nativity story.  We even had a visit from Santa!

Many thanks to all who came out and made it a special evening and to Casino Rotary and students from Woodlawn for providing us with delicious food! 

.

Thank you all for your support in our Community events this year.  Looking forward to many more in 2023!  Wishing you all a very safe and blessed Christmas and New Year!

Kristie Irvine 
Leader of Love and Community 

Birthdays

Happy birthday to  Billy Stavenow Jorgie Gava Charlie Walker Maddison Clark Cooper Gould Rayarla Lambeth Sylas Hodder Bryson Martin Blair Clark Emmaleigh Richardson Daisy Townsend Zoey Wilson Theo Leece Indie Bonner Rocco Jenkins Lillyanah McDonald and Byron Cruickshank who have recently celebrated their birthday.

Student of the Month & Learner Achievement Awards ~ 9 December 2022