Individual design and talent

Check out some of the great art work and art designs students have completed for this years calendar art.  A range of excellent pieces, well done guys.

A new experience for many!

On Friday we were privileged to attend a "Benediction Mass".  Father Michael led the service and it was a great learning opportunity for many of us who have not been to a Benediction before.

Who knew that flicking a tea towel was a great skill to continue todevelop?

Usually the flick of a tea towel has the purpose of annoying or inflicting pain on a sibling.  This may be true but on Monday we learnt a new reason for practising tea towel flicking and this is to help us with throwing a forehand in Ultimate.

Thanks Mark for running our skills session.

New Record Set with The Dillon Cup

A big congratulations to Pyper for her achievement at the South Taieri Athletics Day winning the Dillon Cup.

This was a fantastic result on Wednesday but even more significant is that Pyper has won the cup for three consecutive years.  An exceptional record.  We'll done Pyper.

Camp Highlights

What an amazing time we had at camp last week.  It was fantastic to see everyone challenging themselves in unfamiliar territory during activities but also around and about camp life.  

Along with the confidence of the group growing and the huge risk-taking that was involved a highlight for me would have to be the "Care", "Respect" and "Compassion" that was shown by the students to each other throughout the camp.  It was amazing to see how you looked out for one another.  If someone was struggling you were there to encourage them, reassure them and support them.  

A huge thank you to Luanna, John, Charlie, Bridget, Paul and Mr Brosnahan for being great camp parents and staff without your support, encouragement and time camp would not have been possible.

Camp Columba - Day 1

A few shots of our first day at Camp.

WOW!!! We thought Term 3 went fast but looking at what is on during Term 4 this will be extreme speed.

Here we are already at the end of Week 2 for our final term of 2015.

This is an extremely busy term with lots of challenges, activities and learning opportunities.  It is also twinged with nervousness and excitement for our Year 8's as they prepare for their chosen Secondary School.  The Year 7's look forward to 2016 where they step up a notch with their leadership roles.

What is happening during Term 4: (Some of the opportunities to look forward to)

• Athletics training in preparation for the South Taieri Sports Day on the 4th of November.  Closely followed by the Otago Champs for all students who qualify on the 17th of November.
• Summer Camp - Week 3 we are off to put our School Vision into action as we take part in a huge range of EOTC activities which will certainly develop our "Confidence" and "Risk Taking".  Camp Columba here we come!
• Year 7 & 8 Boys Cricket - this term every second Friday afternoon we are involved in a new cricket competition.  Thanks to Mr Brosnahan for coaching us this term.
• School Wide Rosary - during Weeks 2 - 5 we will come together as a school for a time of prayer
• Careers Day - the Year 8's have their Careers Day on the 23rd of November as they consider their options for the future.
• Christmas Performance - it will soon be time to audition for your part in our show this year "The Christmas Dragon"
• Big Day Out - What a way to celebrate our successful year with a day out and about challenging and chilling as a class.
• Year 8 Leavers Mass & Prize Giving - 6pm on the 15th of December

Our learning focuses for Term 4:

• Literacy 
• AVAILLL Programme (Audio Visual Achievement in Literacy, Language & Learning)
• Study of characters - writing paragraphs & using TEDS
• Mathematics
• Fractions, decimals & percentages
• Financial Literacy
• Volume, capacity and Mass
• Patterns and Relationships
• Religious Education
• Sacraments
• Communion of the Saints
• God
• Topic/Inquiry
• New Zealand's Involvement in War
• "SOUND" - Physical World
• Learning Languages
• Te Reo - Te Ika a Maui
• French
• Health and PE
• Athletics
• Ultimate Frisbee
• Swimming & Water Safety
• Fitness 
• Athletics
• Fitness Games

What is Financial Literacy?

We have started a new Maths topic and began exploring some of the questions below in class through discussion and a game.

• What is financial literacy?
• Why is it relevant?
• What financial language do we need an awareness of?

Magnificent Money Boxes

Check out our money boxes we completed at technology today.

Our Presentation for the Mercy Day Assembly

Mercy Values Cup

Congratulations Bridget and Emma who were presented with the BOT Mercy Cup for their success putting the Mercy Values into action during Term 3.  Two very worthy recipients of this honour.

Mercy Day Assembly

On the 24th of September we remember Catherine McAuley who founded the Mercy Sisters.  St Mary's have a connection as a Mercy School and we live our lives guided by the Mercy Values.

As a school we held a Mercy Day Assembly.  This was a lively prayerful time to reflect on the life of Catherine McAuley and our values.

Basketball Success

Congratulations to our Year 7 & 8 Mixed Basketball team who came second in their section.  A team who developed heaps over the season.   Thank you to Wendy for coaching the team.

Ultimate Session

A huge thank you to Janet and Mark who came to Room 7 to talk to us about their experience with Ultimate and to take our PE session today.  Both Janet and Mark have representative New Zealand in Ultimate.  It was fantastic to learn more about the game and the skills need to develop to play the game.

Satisfaction of Sharing

Friday was our day along with our buddy class Room 1 to share some of the learning that has been happening recently.  It is always great to show what we have been up to with the school and the parents who join us at assembly.

A favourite part for our class is always when we turn around a piece of art and there is the big "WOW" moment from the younger students at school.

On Friday we shared a range of items including a selection of our:

• Space Inquiries
• Pop Art Chimps
• War Silhouettes from our trip to the Art Gallery
• Mihimihi
• Visual Mihimihi

 

 

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Who will be the Ultimate Participant/Team?

For PE we have begun our unit on "Ultimate Frisbee".  Everyone is really enjoying the sessions and thinking about the "Spirit" of the game.

Here we are finding out the rules for Ultimate.

Extra Current Events Quiz

On Wednesday the 9th of September we had two teams entered in the Year 7 & 8 Extra Current Events Quiz.  Both teams enjoyed their evening sharing their knowledge and enjoying representing 

St Marys'.

A huge congratulations to St Mary's 1 who were successful achieving a place in the quiz.  The team were placed 3rd equal.  This is an outstanding result for the team and we are extremely proud of their success.  Congratulations to Sam, Ben and Thomas who were in this very successful team.   

Busy times in Room 7

The last two weeks in Room 7 have flown by, we have been involved in lots of EOTC activities as well as extra curricular activities.

The students have been representing our class well and achieving personal and team bests.

A huge congratulations to all of Room 7 for their leading of our Class Mass on Friday the 4th of September.  It was fantastic to hear the high praise from our parishioners especially for your wonderful singing.

We have two groups at golf coaching with Melanie Harper at Belleknowes.  The groups are enjoying their lessons even when the weather has been miserable.  The third group will begin their lessons in Week 10.  

Well done to the students who competed at the Otago Cross Country who did well out there amongst the mud and bog.  Here are some of our competitors after the event.  Check out the mud!

Netball success in the Finals

Certainly was a game of two halves but great to see the St Mary's Flames settle and get the win.  A wonderful game of netball with some great plays under pressure.  Congratulations girls, very proud of you all.

Following the Flames game another nail biter of a final which was won by the St Mary's Steele.  

Excellent to have both teams winning their sections and then getting awarded the most progress by a team in their respective section groups.

Launching into our latest learning focus ......

What better way to begin our new topic than to start with a class day out to Toitu and the Art Gallery.  We are going to be looking at New Zealand's involvement in War.

Not sure if one of our lovely parent helpers wanted to play "Where's Wally?" in the photos or is she just a photo bomber?