The Lion's Roar - 16 June 2021

Our Push Up Challengers are still hard at work, powering through their daily exercises. The St Mark's Push Up Community stats are pretty impressive:

• 177 people participating in 31 teams
• 127,984 push-ups completed
• $3,221 funds raised

Our total funds raised puts us right at the top of the WA Education Leaderboard, ahead of Scotch College by quite some way! The Quad Squad are our top team fundraisers so far, counting for about one third of our funds raised to date. The Quad Squad have done some next level work - check out the photo gallery for an awesome example of their efforts.

You can donate to the St Mark's Push Up Community at any stage, through the main page or through one of the 31 team pages. All funds raised go to mental health awareness and to supporting Lifeline and headspace. We publish a daily fact on our social media pages every day, which have tips for keeping yourself healthy, or ways you can support one another. It is a fantastic initiative, spearheaded by our Wellbeing Prefects, Tye Thompson and Rachel Lowndes.

In a first for St Mark's, both our Boys and our Girls Hockey Teams won their respective Grand Finals in the ACC Interschool Hockey Tournaments! This is a big achievement for these teams, and a fantastic double win to add to our sporting history books.

The boys competed in the Division 2 Boys ACC Hockey Challenge on Thursday 10 June, and won the day with a strong all round performance.

Some hard-fought and highly skilled games were played across the day between the competing boys teams. Some of the goals scored were certainly worthy of highlight reels with players weaving past defenders and drawing the goalkeeper off the line.

The Grand Final was a hard fought game with St Mark's striking two early goals in the first five minutes of the game. Mazenod then regrouped quickly and started to even up the contest with some excellent defence and midfield play. Both teams earning short corners in the second half that could have easily landed scores. The defence of St Mark's held firm and this resulted in the 3-0 result with the early goals proving pivotal. The win is a fantastic result for the boys!

Team: David Beevers, Joshua Brown, Geoff McQuade, Lucas Dobrescu, Sylas Orley, Bailey Dixon, Jasper Forder, Callum Inglis, Charlie Clarke, Tom Charlish, Noah Julian, Jack Sandwell, James Groocock, and Harry Thompson.

The girls were in action yesterday, in the Division 1 Girls Hockey Challenge. They performed strongly all day, in challenging wet conditions, but the rain did not dampen their spirits at all. The girls took out the top spot in Pool A, which saw them win against John XIII and draw the match against Newman College. Their Grand Final opposition, Bunbury Cathedral Grammar, had won both of their Pool B matches, so the Grand Final was set to be a real corker.

Our girls performed well against Bunbury, and came away with a 2-0 win. The win secured them a place in the Buchanan Cup, which will take place in August this year. Only the top two ACC Teams go to this tournament, which will see them face opposition from the top two teams from Country Week Teams, IGSSA, and the Metro Teams from the SSWA competition.

Well done, girls, and all the best for your preparation for the Buchanan Cup!

Team: Anna Chinnery, Megan Bothma, Elyssa Melville, Emma Van Selm, Sine Holroyd, Abbey Bryan, Alyssa McLeish, Georgia Bamford, Louise Van Selm, Demi Van Rensburg, Mia Used, Indianna Paris, Iliana Diamandis and Skye Bryant.

Music Exams

Two of our Music students recently sat their music exams, with excellent results.

Philippa Kapp (M9.2) received a Distinction (93%) for her AMEB Grade 3 Vocals exam, with the examiner noting her confidence in performing, and writing that she had “little to improve on.” Well done, Philippa!

Jemima Lovell (C7.1) only started learning the oboe last year, which is a notoriously difficult instrument to play. She has been steadily refining her skills and recently sat her comprehensive Grade 1 Oboe exam, receiving an A with Honours. Congratulations, Jemima!

Baseball News

Brothers Jack (C9.2) and Hyte Brooks (C7.1) have had a fabulous year on the baseball pitch. Earlier this year, we shared the news that both boys' teams were to be representing WA in interstate tournaments. We are delighted to share some follow up news on how they went.

Jack's team, the Wanneroo Giants, placed an impressive 4th in the Australian Junior National Baseball Championships in May, while Hyte's team, also from the Wanneroo Giants' stable, took the bronze medal for Western Australia in the Australian Little League Championships in Lismore, last week.

Congratulations to Jack, Hyte, and their teammates on some terrific performances this year. Well done!

Gymnastics News

Congratulations to Ava Wicht (6.1) on her performances in the West Australian Gymnastics Championships on Sunday, 13 June 2021. Ava was crowned the overall level 7 State Champion across all age groups. Fantastic news, well done Ava!

The yearly 2021 Australian Geography Competition involves 727 schools and over 73,000 students from across Australia. The competition tests student’s knowledge and skills in geography against the Australian Curriculum standards at particular year levels. This year St Mark’s entered Year 9 students in the competition.

It gives me great pleasure to announce that Charlie Manger achieved a score in the top 1% of all students in Australia in Year 9. An awesome achievement.

Congratulations also to Riley Baddock, Elliot Berrigan, Ashlyn Cole, Dylan Evans, Mia Farrar, Harry Lang, Tabitha Love, Cohen Lovell, Logan McMillan, Annika Neill, Michael O’Neill, Jasmine Orton and Lucas Hill who gained High Distinctions. Maya Best, Laura Hazell, Lachlan Henery, Kevin Le Tran gained Distinctions.

Rachel Honey, the Competition’s national coordinator, said “The competition aims to encourage student interest in geography and to reward student excellence.” “Geography is such an important subject because it develops in students a holistic understanding of the world around them, and their place in it,” said Ms Honey.

Congratulations also to Ms Bakalis for her leadership in Geography teaching and learning in aiding students in achieving these fantastic results.

By Mr Daniel Lehman, Head of Humanities and Social Sciences

Earlier in the term we had to cancel our plan to commemorate St Mark’s Day. We will now be celebrating this day tomorrow, Thursday 17 June. On the day, all Primary School students will be involved in a whole School service from 9am – 10am that will take place in the quadrangle.

During the afternoon, there will be an opportunity for Year 2-5 classes to take part in a variety of activities and stalls that have been organised by the secondary school students. Year 2-5 students are invited to bring in approximately $5 to engage in a variety of activities, including larger activities from Monster Ball amusements, to smaller student run games. There will also be several food and drink stalls. The purpose of St Mark’s Day is to fund raise for our sister schools in South Africa and Tanzania.

Students in Years 2 to 5 should wear their sports uniform for the day.

At St Mark’s we pride ourselves on enabling our students to play an active role in their community. We encourage them to work with others experiencing hardship or disadvantage to make our planet more peaceful, sustainable and fairer.

To encourage this, the Primary School Global Citizenship Council is asking for donations of basic stationery, new or recycled.

Items such as pens, pencils, small staplers, pencil cases, erasers, rulers, and highlighters that we can pass onto Girrawheen Senior High School would be most useful. These items can be dropped off into the boxes located in the Year 4/5 area in the Primary School.

Year 7 have once again displayed the Middle School theme of PRIDE by upholding the School Values. This dynamic group of young people were acknowledged in their Year Assembly by their Pastoral Care Tutors who spoke highly of their individual accomplishments. Mrs McGibbon, their Head of Year, was thrilled to see such a diverse group of young people so positively acknowledged. Well done!

Carnley 7.1

• Nadia Polechow
• Mia Poultney
• Eli Maloney
• Noah Skelton

Carnley 7.2

• Harper Lasscock
• Jaxon Snell
• Casey Munro-Smith
• Riley Halnan

Challen 7.1 Mrs Rourke

• Bria Baddock
• Ashlynn O Donoghue
• Henry Berrigan
• Harper Kieran
• Emilia Padilla

Ch 7.2 Mr Finnemore

• Benjamin Galvao
• Rhianna Cole
• Harrison Bouhlas
• Chiara Wurster

Moyes 7.1 Mrs Bakalis

• Ezra Grieves
• Kate Job
• Mischa Hughes
• Hannah Jowett

Moyes 7.2

• Maxim Albrecht
• Claire McCallum
• Kara McGinnity
• Charlie Anderson Nicholls
• Jasper Greenwood

Watkins 7.1

• Charlotte Nolte
• Sam Parnaby
• Lily Brown
• Holly Hunt

Watkins 7.2

• Lily Robinson
• Will Tregurtha
• Emma Stockley
• Kaiden Tulloch

Last Wednesday, the inaugural Middle School Eisteddfod took place in the Barbara Godwin Performing Arts Complex (PAC). It was such a high quality afternoon of music making, with our Middle School competitors performing with confidence and professionalism. The adjudicator for the afternoon, Miss Brianna Louwen, spoke of how impressed she was with the standard of all the performers and, in particular, the amazing ensemble playing. The following competitors have been recognised for their stand-out performances. They will be presented with these certificates at the next assembly. Congratulations to all involved!

Certificates of Excellence:

1. Mitchell Bierma and Finlay Paterson (Year 7): Marimba Duet “The Mandalorian Theme”
2. Mitchell Bierma (Year 7): Drum Solo “Heavydirtysoul”
3. Grace Halsall (Year 7): Voice “It’s the Heart That Matters Most”
4. Levi Jeffs (Year 6): Electric Guitar “Zombie”
5. Luca Spath and Ruby Sudintas (Year 6): Clarinet Duet “The Lonely Goatherd”

Certificates of Outstanding Achievement:

1. Daniel Ciccullo (Year 6): Piano “L’Avalanche”
2. Daniel Ciccullo (Year 6): Violin “Concertino in la minore”
3. Finlay Paterson (Year 7): Drum Solo “No One Knows”
4. Riley Daniel (Year 8): Voice “I Dreamed a Dream”
5. Jett Newton, James Thompson, Sienna Sandy & Mitchell Bierma (Year 7): Percussion Ensemble “Super Mario Bros. Theme”
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Please note that VPNs and similar mechanisms are not permitted to be used at School. This is clearly outlined in the Acceptable Use Agreement signed by students and their parents at the beginning of each year.

Middle School students are required to have their mobile phone securely stored in their lockers during school hours. As outlined in the School’s Acceptable Use of Mobile Phones policy, if students are caught with their phones during the day, they will have their phones confiscated and left at Student Reception for the rest of the day. Students may collect their phone at the end of the day.

We will be reminding students of their obligations, and we encourage parents to reinforce this at home, and perhaps review the apps that their child has loaded onto their device.

Early Departures/Late Arrivals

Just a friendly reminder about our procedures around early departures and late arrivals for students in Years 6 to 12.

Parents should email absentee@stmarks.wa.edu.au to inform of the late arrival or early departure. Please place your child’s name and PCG/HR in the subject line.

Early Departures: students should sign out at their relevant reception and meet parents at their pre-arranged meeting place (for example, car park). Parents can meet their child at the subschool reception only if they have signed in at the Main Reception. Parents are not to meet children at the classroom.

Late Arrivals: students need to sign in at their relevant reception on their arrival late to school and then proceed to their locker, and then class. Parents can escort their child to the relevant School Reception, only if they have signed in at main reception. Parents are not to escort their child to class.

After School Pick Ups

Just a quick reminder that, if students (Years 6 to 12) are being picked up from the School later than 3.25pm, they must either be involved in an after school program/activity, or go to the Secondary Library and make a start on their homework. Students are not permitted to hang around classrooms and lockers after school hours, as there are no staff on duty in these areas.

For safety reasons, and your peace of mind, please remind your children to go to the Library until you are able to fetch them. The Library is open until 5pm, Mondays to Thursdays and is the perfect place to study or get some homework done. There are always teaching staff on duty, so if they have a question, there will be someone to ask for help.

St Mark's Day is always a highlight of the School calendar, and we are delighted that the event will go ahead tomorrow after the COVID-19 cancellation earlier this term. Please take note of the following arrangements:

• Students should wear their House uniform, including tracksuit, as the weather is set to be dry, but cool. This includes appropriate sports shoes and their personal medication, such as Ventolin.
• Students are to go to the PCG rooms at 8.35am to be marked on the role.
• Students will head to the Quadrangle for the St Mark's Day service. They will be joined by Primary School students.
• After recess, students will attend House meetings, where they will be allocated their timing bibs for the cross country, before walking to Mawson Park for the Cross Country Carnival. Parents are welcome to come along and watch the races.
• After returning from the Carnival, students will set up the stalls for the fundraising activities. As per an email from earlier this week, students will be issued with their "St Mark's Dollars" to spend on the various activities. All funds raised during the event go to our sister school programs.
• After the stalls are packed down, students will return to the PCG rooms, before being dismissed at the usual time of 3.25pm.

By Shanika Jayatilaka (M11.2)

Last Friday, a group of Year 9 and 11 students, myself included, went to Kingsway Indoor Sports Stadium to compete in a badminton tournament. We have been training every Friday morning since 2020. Unfortunately, last year’s competition got cancelled because of COVID-12. However, we continued training in hopes that this year's competition would still be able to go ahead. And happily it did!

We met at School at 7:30am and then went to Dome for a team breakfast. When we arrived at Kingsway Stadium, we put our bags down and then found a spot on one of the 14 courts, and did our warm-ups. We were split up into divisions, with each division having around 3-4 other schools. There were time slots for each game, so you basically just went to the court you were assigned to when game time arrived.

After we had all finished our games, and were waiting for the finals to start, we grabbed a spare court and played a bit of badminton for fun. One of our Boy Doubles Teams made it to the first round of finals, so congratulations to Harry and Caleb for that. But the competition was very tough and, unfortunately, they didn’t progress further into the finals. But we were all cheering from the sidelines!

Overall, it was a great day where we got to socialise with people from our School, and from other schools, and of course we got to play a lot of badminton!

I want to say thank you to Mr Spada for training with us every Friday morning leading up to this competition, and for getting our teams into the event. It was a great opportunity.

The ASC Combined Schools Concert will be held in Term 3, involving students from all fourteen ASC schools across Australia. Six ASC schools in metropolitan Perth joined together on Saturday 12 June for a Reading Day, to start working on the concert repertoire.

Both auditioned and open ensembles rehearsed together on the day and had a chance to hear the repertoire for the concert in context. For some schools, this day is the only chance their students will get to play with a large ensemble until the two weeks of intensive rehearsals leading up to the concert.

St Mark’s has 73 students involved in the concert this year, with every ensemble performing on the night having some representation from St Mark’s. Saturday was a great introduction to the repertoire and the students are looking forward to performing at the Perth Concert Hall in September.

Join our Music Department for a fantastic evening of music from our secondary instrumental ensembles. Book your tickets at mytickets.co

REMINDER: Withdrawals from the Instrumental Music program must be received by Friday 18 June. And if your child shown interest in learning an instrument, we have 19 incredibly talented Music Tutors at St Mark’s who would love to welcome your child to the world of music, with applications for Term 3 enrolments now open.

St Mark's offers the following options: Oboe, Voice, Flute, Modern Guitar, Classical Guitar, Bass Guitar, French Horn, Clarinet, Violin, Viola, Cello, Double Bass, Saxophone, Percussion, Piano and lower brass.

If you'd like more information, please check out the Instrumental Music Handbook.

Both enrolments and withdrawals from the instrumental music program are now completed online. If you have questions, please contact the Arts Administrator, Eloise Thomas, at ethomas@stmarks.wa.edu.au or on 9403 1350.

• Withdrawals - click here
  
• Enrolments - click here

Please note that the deadline for Term 3 enrolments and withdrawals in Friday 18 June. Withdrawals after this date will be processed at the end of Term 3 and another term’s fees will be incurred.

Road Closures

The City of Joondalup has commenced work on upgrades to pedestrian facilities and connectivity along Endeavour Road, including improvements to the splitter island on Kebble Close and the roundabout approach island at Cook Avenue. Works include resurfacing of Endeavour Road through both intersections. Please note that, during the works, road closures will be in place on Cook Avenue and Endeavour Road. We are awaiting further information from the City of Joondalup to confirm the time frames of the closures. In the interim, please follow the directions of the traffic management team, and drive cautiously. For more information on the roadworks, please contact the City of Joondalup.

No Warden on Endeavour Road

Unfortunately, the Traffic Warden usually on duty on Endeavour Road is still unwell, and, until further notice, the Traffic Warden State Management Unit has been unable to find a relief person to fill the role.

Please be vigilant when driving in the area. If your children regularly use this crossing, please ask them to be extra cautious, and only cross at the marked crossing points. Teaching staff have been asked to remind students of this as well.

St Mark's has welcomed a new Year 9 student to our community in Term 3. The student was previously attending the ASC Language School, and we hope he is settling well into life to St Mark's.

There is one more thing we can do to make him feel welcome: Anglican Schools Commission International is still seeking a host family for the student. If this is something you would like to consider doing, please see the information below and contact ASCI Accommodation Coordinator, Lia Simmonds, if you would like to chat about the opportunity.

Host families receive a payment of $265 per week and this is for a private furnished room, wi-fi, two meals per day (Mon-Fri) and three meals per day on the weekend, and inclusion in family activities.

If you would like more information on what is involved, please visit the ASCI website or contact the ASCI Accommodation Coordinator at homestay@asci.edu.au

Looking for ways to add to your volunteer hours for 2021? Check out this page for a list of all current opportunities. New opportunities added today, including support for the upcoming Senior School production of The Visit, and for the P&F Quiz, taking place in September.

You can log your parent hours online, at any time. The P&F recommend that you log your hours as soon as possible after completion of the task. A separate submission should be made for each activity completed. Please contact the P&F's Parent Commitment Coordinator, Mrs Sam Bean, at parentcommitment@stmarks.wa.edu.au if you have any questions regarding the Parent Commitment Hours program.

Need to check how many hours you have logged?

If you have logged hours in Term 1, 2021, but aren't sure how many you have completed, you can check your information in this PDF document. All you need to do is search the PDF for your Family Code (as shown on your Fee Statement). Please note that the document will be updated at the end of Term 2, 2021.

Looking for volunteer opportunities?

Head to our special Volunteer Opportunities page on the website.

The P&F Art Committee is pleased to announce that tickets for this year’s St Mark’s 34^th Annual Art Show Opening Night are now available for purchase here.

Priced at only $20, which includes canapes and drinks, this is a fantastic way to enjoy a social night out and support local WA artists. Some student art will also be on display this year, along with a variety of original paintings, drawings, sculptures, photography, mixed media artworks, glass art, textiles, ceramics, and jewellery. Feature Artist, Lucy Gray, will have her work on display, and there will also be live music, and a raffle for all attendees.

Artist Registrations are still open and further details are available on the website: website

Help us to spread the word by telling your friends to come along for some fun! It’s a great value night out.

General Art Show enquiries can be directed to artshow@stmarks.wa.edu.au.

The School's Holiday Workshops are back this July! Bookings are now open, so get in quick before all the spots are gone! Here are some of the activities available:

• Art
• Cooking
• Lego
• Robotics
• Roblox
• Video Game Design
• Digital Photography
• Drama
• Sports Camp
• Public Speaking
• Academic Challenges
• Website and YouTube Design!