The Lion's Roar - 22 February 2023

AMAZING AUSSIE GRIT!

You may remember last week, our Year 12 student, Charli-Rose, received a call from Athletics Australia to say, "don the green and gold as you are now racing in the Mount Panorama Bathurst World Cross Country Championships U20 6km Race due to a withdrawal!"

The end of the week turned into a busy few days for Charli-Rose, as she moved into the Athletes Village to be with the rest of the Australian team and completed interviews with Athletics Australia and Athletics West, plus the essential visit from ASADA.

Saturday was race day, and it was hot! Racing in gruelling 37-degree conditions on the dusty Bathurst track, Charli-Rose was the second Aussie over the line and 39th in the world out of a field of 80.

This is a fantastic achievement for Charli-Rose, and we couldn't be prouder!

What a fantastic turnout we had for our School of Rock auditions on Sunday! Over 100 students tread the boards and gave it their all for a part in this year's Secondary School production.

It was wonderful to see so many new faces audition, as well as our seasoned performers.

Good luck to everyone who put themselves out there, and cast lists will be up by the end of the week.

Miss Cook’s ATAR Biology class partnered with the Perth Hill Discovery Centre and the Department of Conversation and Wildlife for an overnight camp in Week 2 of this term.

The students were given a hands-on approach to assessing the population numbers of local marsupials by conducting forest transects and surveying the local area. This experience links directly to the syllabus content surrounding ecological conservation, population dynamics and biological sampling techniques. Students were also walked through the process of setting humane traps to capture local wildlife and were even able to tag and microchip new animals in the area the following day as part of the Western Shield Program.

A highlight of the excursion for many was the night tracking of marsupials and interacting with young joeys, echidnas, bandicoots and potoroos!

It was all glitz and glamour when our Year 12 students glammed up for the annual School Ball. As the premiere event on the 12s calendar, the night was filled with memorable moments, great food, fabulous company and lots of dancing as they grooved the evening away!

Year 12s - your photo orders are due Thursday 23 February 2023. Details on how to order are on the St Mark's App.

At St Mark's, we are proud to be part of the Duke of Edinburgh's International Award and the Ignite Award programs, with many of our students actively involved. The awards are designed to challenge and inspire young people across several areas.

Earlier this term, we were delighted to welcome Sean Moring from Awards WA to present three of our students with their Duke of Edinburgh's Awards. Congratulations to the following Year 11 students on their achievements:

• SILVER - Ella
• BRONZE - Hannah and Jemma

To learn more about the awards and what curricular and extra-curricular activities will meet the award criteria, head to www.dukeofed.com.au or contact our Award Leader, Mrs Jane Upson at jupson@stmarks.wa.edu.au.

We have been informed of a number of traffic and road safety incidents involving our St Mark's community.

Please ensure that when parking along St Marks Drive that all driveways are kept clear and you only park in designated carbays not along the kerbing. On-street parking, including the Kiss and Drive facility on St Marks Drive, is subject to the City of Joondalup's bylaws.

Please find below a general reminder about on and around campus road safety:

• Do not ‘park’ in the Kiss n Ride 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.
• There is no pedestrian access through Gate 3 next to the ELC. The pedestrian access from Endeavour Road is located between the ELC and the Whitford Family Centre.
• Please do not double park at any location, including (but not limited to): Kiss ‘n Drive points, St Marks Drive, School parking lots, access gates and across our neighbours’ driveways.
• Please do not overtake stationary cars on the School grounds, especially in Kiss ‘n Drive zones.
• When exiting the School grounds, please ensure you look both left and right carefully before re-entering St Marks Dr, particularly around our neighbour’s driveways.
• Please do not park in the following neighbouring businesses when dropping off/collecting children or when attending school-based events:
  
  • Endeavour Centre (cnr Endeavour and Banks Ave)
  • Whitford Business Centre (Mitre 10, Better Pets, AutoMasters, SuperCheap)
  • Endeavour Childcare and Whitford Family Centre

Our 'Back to School Guide' 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 be considerate of other drivers and families.

Thanks to a fabulous team of parent helpers, the lost property has been sorted, and the named items are now available for collection under the stairs near IT. Please check through the below list to see if any of the items belong to your child.

Sports Jackets

- Neal …

- Sam Posey M8.2

- Pede Pilger

-…… Baumgartner

- Blake F

- Kham Strely

- Emily Rowe Yr8 (Labelled with brother Jordan)

- James …..beck

- Nicholas Padilla

- Ashton Mitchell

- Liam Nelson

- Toby Hill

- Charlotte ……

Sports Pants

- H.H.

Sports Shirt

- Ben Calvert

- …. D’Rosa

Jumpers

- G. Cook

- Alex Snare (Spelling)

- …… Lee

- Bentley Roger

- Nicole Brown

- Sienna ….

- M. Page

-…… Mauritz

Cardigan

- Isabella Tu…./Th…. (Unsure of Surname)

Rain Jacket

- Oscar English

Sports Bag

- Emily Bamford Yr8 (Labelled with sister Georgia)

Pencil Case

- Tia Cox C8.?

- Thatcher Simmons

Please note that items not collected by Friday 9 March will be donated to the Uniform Shop.

St Mark's has received a request from the Australian Government Department of Education, Skills and Employment to provide residential address and other information as required under the Australian Education Regulation 2013.

For further information regarding the data that will be provided, please read the attached notice.

Collection Notice for Parents/Guardians

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.

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

Karen Young (from the organisation, Hey Sigmund) is a presenter on managing children’s anxiety.

Karen is offering parents a free 2-hour webinar on 27 March 2023. The webinar will provide parents with highly effective strategies they can use with their child to keep everyday anxiety at a manageable level (and will even assist with managing the more intense levels of anxiety).

This comes highly recommended by our Primary School Psychologist, Angela Byrne.

Register here.

The UWA Open Day and Thomas Moore Open Day will be held on Sunday, 12^th March between 10.00am to 2.00pm.

THOMAS MOORE (TOMMY MOORE) RESIDENTIAL COLLEGE TOURS

Thomas Moore Residential College will be running tours throughout the day to give students and their parents the opportunity to discover the Residential College.

Thomas Moore Residential College is located at 48 Mounts Bay Road, Crawley (directly opposite UWA). Parking will be available over at UWA.

They will also be holding a Community Market Day, which will have a variety of stalls, an Op Shop, a welcoming vibe and much more.

Download the event flyer here.

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.

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.

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

There is less than two weeks until St Mark's hosts the Annual Billy Cart Derby for dads and kids against neighbouring schools!

Schools involved in The Fathering Project within the local area are invited to compete for a range of awards and prizes. Caitlin Collins will attend to open the event, as well as Officers from Hillarys Police Station to speed-check the carts.

We are looking for a maximum of 30 teams of Dads/Father Figures and their associated St Mark's kids to build a billy cart in preparation for the event on Sunday 26 March.

The Derby will be held on the Senior Oval from 12-5 pm.

Local schools with a Fathering Project Dads Group competing against us are:

• Currambine Primary School
• Burns Beach Primary School
• Whitfords Catholic Primary School
• Beaumaris Primary School

The event is open to students in Years 1-6, and all teams must book to pay the Entry Fee of $20 per cart.

Bookings will open soon via this link, so for now - save the date and start planning!

How to build a billy cart: www.instructables.com/Build-a-Billy-Cart.

Please note all racers require helmets.

A sausage sizzle and coffee van will also be available. If you don't want to enter but are keen to watch, come and cheer for St Mark's and enjoy the hilarity of it all!

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.

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 COUNTDOWN IS ON

Hold onto your hats, folks... Joondalup Festival 2023 is less than three weeks away!

With more shows and festivities than you can poke a stick at, you're guaranteed to find something for your whole extended family to love... even your hard-to-impress great aunty Ethel (show her Vivaldi Masterworks 😉).

But don't just take our word for it! Read on to discover some of the highlights...

Explore the Festival here.

By popular demand, Chris Murphy and Lachy Reid are back to host the HeartKids Quiz Night!

Sport v Music Trivia | Games | Silent Auction | Raffle + more!

BYO platter to share with your table.

Drinks available from the bar (no BYO drinks)

18+years event.

TICKETS : $200 per table of 8.

Book your tickets here.