The Lion's Roar - 15 February 2023

FOOTY STAR

Year 10 student, Ella, who is a member of our St Marks CAS AFL team, and also plays for Sorrento-Duncraig with lots of other Year 10 St Mark’s girls, has been chosen for the Subiaco Development Squad and has made it through to the Rogers Cup.

The Rogers Cup is considered the lead talent development competition for young female football players in WA and nurtures aspiring AFLW players to grow their skills and take their football to the next level.

Way to go, Ella!

LONG LOCKS FOR WIGS

Emily in Year 7 has grown her locks long for a great cause. She recently chopped her ponytail and donated her hair to Ella Wigmakers who makes wigs for children with cancer. Her ponytail needed to be at least 20cm long for wig-making.

Well done to Emily for donating her hair to such a wonderful cause.

You can read more about hair donations here.

Thank you for the care and consideration of our students when using the drop-off and pick-up zones each day. This is a busy time for every school and while there is no perfect solution to the traffic flow issues that occur, there are simple practices that keep the lines moving.

The Kiss and Go zones require vehicle circulation to be effective. To this end, can all parents please ensure they do not ‘park’ in the pick-up zones. If your child is not at the pick-up zone, then continue forward and rejoin the queue for another lap. This gives time for children to make their way to the location.

Parked cars at the pick-up zone halt the traffic flow and the entire system stops. Our finish times are staggered so this requires some planning for parents who are having to wait for a child to finish at a later time. There are a number of options, ranging from parking at a location, making a short drive while you discuss the day with the child that has been picked up before re-joining the queue. This will differ for each family.

Our 'Back to School Guide' (link below) has some guidance around traffic management around the school. The most important aspect though is to be patient and mindful of the young children present, as well as being considerate of other drivers and families.

https://www.flipsnack.com/stmarksacs/2023-back-to-school-guide-cfyxa8pd1j/full-view.html (please see Road Safety, pages 11 and 12).

Thank you to our families who have paid their fees or contacted Family Accounts to set up payment options.

If you haven't paid yet, please do so, as FEES ARE NOW DUE (unless a set payment nomination is in place for 2023)

• Annual Fee Due 14 Feb 2023
• Quarterly Fee Due 14 Feb, 16 May, 8 Aug, 24 Oct 2023
• Monthly Fee Due 25^th of each month Feb to Nov 2023, or the next business day if the 25^th is not a business day
• Fortnightly Fee Due Friday fortnightly commencing 17 Feb and ending 10 Nov 2023

Subject and Music adjustments will be amended later in February once payment nominations and queries are effectuated.

Please contact Kaye at familyaccounts@stmarks.wa.edu.au if you have any queries.

Thank you for your patience during this busy start to the 2023 school year.

The Secondary Assistance Scheme is available to parents/guardians with children enrolled in Years 7 to 12 who hold an eligible concession card (a Pensioner Concession Card or a Health Care Card).

The Secondary Assistance Scheme comprises of an Education Program Allowance of $235 which is paid to the school and a Clothing Allowance of $115 that is paid to the parent.

Applications open at the commencement of Term 1 2023 and close on 6 April 2023. Forms are available from Main Reception during Term 1 between 8am and 4pm.

The OzHarvest collection for 2023 is just around the corner and we'd like to invite our families to drop off non-perishable food items this week. Collection bins will be located in the Quadrangle and Cottesloe from Monday to Thursday.

OzHarvest is a not-for-profit food rescue organisation that collects good quality food and then redistributes this, at no cost, to charitable agencies that feed vulnerable men, women and children in need. In the wake of COVID-19, OzHarvest has looked to adapt its operations, which has included creating essential food hampers to keep up with the growing demand of those experiencing food insecurity across Perth and the greater metropolitan area.

The organisation is extremely grateful to all in the local community for their ongoing food donations and support.

Our Year 10 students are hoping you will continue to support one of our projects just like you did in 2022.

We ask that you please continue collecting your PLASTIC BREAD TAGS (not cardboard ones). We hope to collect as many as possible over the next three terms. The plastic bread tags collected will be recycled locally, raising funds to buy wheelchairs for disadvantaged people, mainly in South Africa.

We encourage our St Mark's community to continue collecting and ask family and friends to get behind this worthy cause. If you would like to read more about the fundraising efforts, please head to https://ozbreadtagsforwheelchairs.org.au/

Collection points are in the Library and at all School Receptions - ELC, Primary , Middle, Secondary and Main Reception.

For more information regarding our Bread Tag Collection please download the FLYER HERE.

We hope you have all downloaded the re-furbished School App and selected your preferences for 2023. If not, it is available for free on Google Play and the App Store. The preferences have changed for 2023, so to ensure you do not miss extra-curricular or other general notices, please update your settings as a matter of priority. Your preferences will also carry over to the calendar on the App.

Just to keep you in the loop, our aim is to make the App a one-stop shop for parents to get their year group and whole school notices, info and reminders etc. Please note that this will not affect teacher-to-parent emails, Consent2Go emails, or notices posted to the SEQTA noticeboard for student reminders.

We will be pushing our bulk notifications (eg. Weekly Bulletins, whole year group/school emails) to parents via the App and SEQTA for Term 1. Eventually, we'd like everyone to be using the App as their go-to.

Consent2Go have a new App and it is available to all parents registered on the platform.
The Parent App is for parents to manage and update their child’s care information, approve excursions, and much more. Please find the details below on how to install and use.

Consent2Go guide

The scores have been tallied and it's official, WATKINS are the Secondary House Swimming Champions!

Announced at our Swimming Carnival Assembly on Friday, Watkins has taken out overall bragging rights for both the Secondary (Year 6-12) House Trophy and the Senior School (Year 9-12) House Trophy whilst Challen proved a tough competitor taking the Middle School (Year 6-8) House Trophy. The results are as follows:

Middle School Results

• 1^st: Challen
• 2^nd: Watkins
• 3^rd: Moyes
• 4^th: Carnley

Senior School Results

• 1^st: Watkins
• 2^nd: Moyes
• 3^rd: Carnley
• 4^th: Challen

Overall Results

• 1^st: Watkins
• 2^nd: Moyes
• 3^rd: Challen
• 4^th: Carnley

Congratulations to the following students on their outstanding individual efforts:

The St Mark's spirit stepped up both in and out of the pool at the Carnival, with many personal bests achieved and fantastic sportsmanship on display. We are extremely proud of the efforts of those students who participated and cheered on their peers.

Click here for some of the images, taken by our students, of the Swimming Carnival.

The HaSS Department has help sessions available for students needing a little extra tuition with their HaSS subjects

Years 7 - 10

• Friday
  • 7.30am - 8.30am
  • Year 7-10 HaSS
  • S223

Years 11 - 12

• Wednesday
  • 7.30am - 8.30am
  • 12HIM, 11GEO
• Thursday
  • 7.30am - 8.30am
  • BME, ECO

Other subjects by appointment. Please contact the HaSS Department for further information.

Download the HaSS Flyer here.

Does your child need some support to get homework done or need some help with assessments, study skills and organisation?

Supervised Homework Club

• Years 6-9
• Tuesday 3.30-4.30pm
• Library Glass Room

We will start the term by checking all the assessments are in the diary and recorded on the term planner as well as checking in on our organisation for each subject.

If there is something you would like us to support your child with, please don’t hesitate to contact us.

rrourke@stmarks.wa.edu.au, kswan@stmarks.wa.edu.au

Mrs Rourke and Mrs Swan

Would you like to learn more about coding, hacking (cybersecurity), robotics or anything computing related?

Then come along to our Computing Club.

• When: Tuesdays afternoons: 3.30 - 4.30pm (starting Tuesday 14 February)
• Where: B2 Computer Lab in Busselton
• Open to all students from Years 6 to 12

No need to sign up - just come along at 3.30 and there is no need to come every week.

Any questions ask Mrs Chomiak or Mr Blair.

The St Mark’s Senior Library has approximately thirty boxes of weeded books that need to be disposed of. If you know of any charities, youth centres, or the like that could benefit from a donation of some or all of these books, please feel free to email library@stmarks.wa.edu.au to discuss.

We would be happy to count this towards your Parent Commitment Hours if you are able to make the arrangements and/or deliver the books.

We look forward to hearing from you!

St Mark’s has a fantastic opportunity for Mandarin-speaking parents to provide the 10-hour-a-year parent Commitment Hours by assisting students in Years 6 to 8 in Mandarin lessons.

If this is something you could help us with, please contact the Head of the Languages Department, Mrs Cat Harrison, for more details.

Email: charrison@stmarks.wa.edu.au or call us on (08) 9403 1300.

The P&F is planning to hold its Welcome Sundowner and Annual General Meeting on Tuesday 28 March 2023.

To nominate for the Committee, please download the form here. We'd love to see our St Mark's community step-up and be part of the P&F for 2023.

Please find below the Notices of the AGM and Special General Meeting:

• Notices of Meeting and Agenda
• 2022 Audited Financial Statements
• 2022 Association Letter
• 28 June 2022 AGM Minutes
• Current Constitution
• Proposed Constitution

Did you know that our Old Scholars' Association Little Lions Playgroup is run on-site every Friday during term time? We'd love to see your little cub there this Friday!

Join us from 8.45 a.m. to 10.30 a.m. for lots of fun and games. Little Lions Playgroup is a community-based group run in conjunction with Playgroup WA and caters for children up to school age. Families attending our Kindy and not in session on Fridays are more than welcome to join as well.

For more information and to book your spot, please email us, osa@stmarks.wa.edu.au or join our Facebook group HERE.

Everyone is welcome - you do not need to be an Old Scholar (former student) of St Mark's to attend.

Tickets are selling fast, and it's your last chance to be at the hottest event in town this weekend! Rumour has it there is a special guest attending who breathes fire?!

All Old Scholars who graduated from St Mark’s in 1993, 2003 and 2013 are invited to the Milestone Reunion on Saturday 25 February 2023.

We can't wait to see you all and hear what you've been up to since leaving the land of maroon and blue!

Ticket details are available here.

If you have not received an email regarding the reunion, it means we do not have your current email - please update your details here.

That's what guests will be vying to hear at the next Fathering Project Quiz Night at St Mark's!

Prizes are rolling in from the community and there are rumours of some EXTREMELY generous ones this year!

If you would like to donate a prize from your business, please contact Damon - damondenooyer@gmail.com.

This Quiz Night is hosted by the dazzling Quiz Master Jon Lewis 6PR 882AM who keeps everyone laughing all night long. It's a great excuse to get local friends together for a bit of fun for the adults.

Booking link: https://www.trybooking.com/CFPEU

Tickets are now available at $20 each or make up a Table of 8.

Attendees remember to bring gold coins to participate in the Coin Toss game.

Donations to damondenooyer@gmail.com

The Anglican Schools Commission International are seeking caring families to host, regional, interstate, and international students. We invite you to be a part of the ASCI homestay community where you will be supporting education, whilst developing strong foundations for cultural understanding.

• NO COST TO REGISTER
• LONG TERM HOSTING
• SHORT TERM HOSTING
• SCHOOL HOLIDAY HOSTING
• HOSTS RECEIVE A FORTNIGHTLY PAYMENT*

All enquiries to Accommodation Coordinator | homestay@ascschools.edu.au

Visit the link Become a Host Family - Anglican Schools Commission (ascschools.edu.au) for more information

*T&Cs apply

ASCI Hosting Information Flyer

The Parents Prayer Group (PPG) meet fortnightly to pray for the students, staff and school community. We will be meeting every second Friday at 9am in the School Chapel, starting 10th February.

Please sign in at reception and perhaps stop by the coffee van on the way.

All are welcome.

Please share any prayer requests by emailing parentsunitedforprayer@gmail.com or call Wing Shattock on 0433 002 151.