The Lion's Roar - 29 November 2023

CHEER CHAMPS

Congratulations to Year 4 students Maddie, Indi, Grace and Pippa from West Coast Fury Cheerleading, who were selected to compete at the Australian All-Star Cheer Federation Championships last weekend in Team Heatwave.

This tournament is the third largest in the world and Team Heatwave secured second place in the Youth Level 1 Division amidst fierce competition.

Well done to the girls on representing WA - your hard work has paid off!

AWARDS FROM THE SHOW

The Wanneroo Show is an annual tradition of the City of Wanneroo and takes place at the Wanneroo Showgrounds.

It consists of game stalls, food trucks, rides, musical performances and dancing, woodchopping, and best of all, the display hall. The display hall holds all the entries of people who have competed in a special competition that the Wanneroo Show Committee runs. There are many different categories for adults and children, including cooking, artwork, pottery, horticulture, woodwork and metalwork, fruit and vegetables, handwriting, stamps, eggs, sauces and jams, honey, and many more.

I entered many objects in the children’s section, 13 to 16 years old, including two items I made at school. I entered a clay pot I made in art class, which received second place, and a lolly dispenser that I made in woodwork, which received first place and best exhibit for my section!

The photo of the trophy is the trophy I was awarded for receiving the best exhibit for my lolly dispenser.

Guess what? Every single item (6 of them) I entered in the Show got either 1^st, 2^nd, or 3^rd place! I was given $24 as my prize. I was very happy with my prizes this year.

I hope that this article has encouraged you to enter something in the Wanneroo Show next year.

By Makalia Smith,
Year 8 Student

ICT STAFF STAR

Congratulations to Mrs Michelle Chomiak, our esteemed Digital Technology Teacher and advocate for the digital tech industry! She has been honoured with the 1962 Educators Award by the Australian Computer Society (ACS) WA in recognition of her exceptional contributions to ICT education in Western Australia.

Michelle's steadfast passion for all aspects of ICT is truly commendable, and we take immense pride in her dedication to imparting this passion to our students.

Congratulations, Mrs Chomiak, on this well-deserved achievement!

International Day of People with Disability is on 3 December. It's important for people with disability to share their voices on this day, and our Year 11 student, Ella, has something wonderful she can share.

This year's theme is ‘United in action to rescue and achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for, with and by persons with disabilities.’ One of these goals relates to digital accessibility, which refers to people with disability having equal access to technology and the Internet. This goal is very close to Ella's heart.

For the last two years, Ella has written a Twilight fanfiction, which she hosts on a website. To ensure all readers can access her story, she has built-in accessibility features. In September this year, Ella was interviewed by the Centre for Accessibility, an award-winning not-for-profit organisation that promotes digital accessibility. In this interview, Ella shared why digital accessibility is important to her and how she adds accessible features to her fanfiction.

Watch Ella's interview here.

Read Ella's Twilight fanfiction with built-in accessibility features here.

What better way to beat the heatwave from last week than to take to the refreshing Indian Ocean? That's just what our Years 7, 8 and 10 students did as they competed in the inaugural Schools Open Water Swimming Championships.

The competition featured a diverse range of swimming distances—250m, 500m, and 1km—alongside an exciting relay event. The participating swimmers, divided into three age categories— Years 7/8, Years 9/10, and Years 11/12—competed in both male and female divisions.

Following intense competition, we had some stand-out performances; Lachy Bean won the 500m, Zach McCamley claimed 4^th overall for the 250m, and Indi Bueddeman finished 9^th in the 1km.

A huge congratulations is in order for our remarkable team who gave it their all and helped us achieve third place overall!

A massive thank you to our awesome staff, Mrs Humble, Mr Simmons and Mrs Lee, for organising and guiding our team. Stay tuned for more details on individual placings in the next issue of The Lion's Roar.

Congratulations to our Middle School First Lego League Team, who came second out of 21 teams on the day at the recent First Lego League Regional Competition at Ellenbrook.

• Francesa Lei Nguyen
• Emily Prestage
• Cadel Coffin
• Koga Haywood
• Hayes Lambie
• Samuel McCallum
• Marshall Munro-Smith

The Middle School team also won the Core Values Award and now progress to the state final at Curtin University on Saturday, 9 December 2023.

The Perth Girls Programming Network achieved a milestone over the weekend, gathering over 100 girls and gender-diverse students for their workshop!

This past Saturday, 108 students and 40 tutors converged at The University of Western Australia for a day filled with coding, camaraderie, and loads of fun. Notably, they welcomed the largest group of St Mark's students ever, with a majority being enthusiastic Year 6s.

The energy in the rooms was electric during our most extensive workshop to date. Participants engaged in coding a game of Tic-Tac-Toe using Python, marking a significant achievement. Throughout the event, there was a palpable sense of growing confidence and enhanced coding skills, evident in the numerous "I get it" and "it works" moments experienced by attendees.

Stay tuned for more GPN workshops next year!

Students are to wear their House uniform.

Students will be dismissed early, at approximately 11.30am, after their final Assembly.

Students involved with the Presentation Ceremonies will need to return to School wearing their full winter uniform.

• The Middle School Presentation Ceremony commences at 4.00pm
• The Senior School Presentation Ceremony commences at 7.00pm

As the end of the school year is fast approaching our Canteen will start reducing its stock levels and some items may run out before the end of term.

Please also note that there will be no lunch orders on the last two days of term, 4 and 5 December. They will be open and have some items but it will be whatever they have left.

Thank you.

The P&F want to remind our families to please log their hours. Please see the attached letter regarding Parent Commitment Hours for 2023. PCH Letter.

If you have completed hours this year, log them here 2023 Parent Hours Log.

You can also check the hours you have logged by clicking on Parent Commitment Hours Detailed and entering your family code. This document is updated at the end of each term.

If you have any questions, please contact Sarah McCormack at parentcommitment@stmarks.wa.edu.au

Looking for a way to reduce costs when shopping for textbooks and other items? Check out the Sustainable School Shop (SSS), and reuse and recycle!

SSS makes the buying and selling of second-hand textbooks a quick and easy process. It was first introduced at St Mark’s in 2013, and since then, over 2,500 items have been traded!

The St Mark's P&F is once again funding full membership to Sustainable School Shop for the School community. This service is most relevant to families in Middle and Senior school. Families who registered last year have had their memberships extended to November 30, 2024. Please take the time to check whether your existing listings are current.

New registrations are encouraged via www.sustainableschoolshop.com.au. Simply register your details and nominate St Mark’s Anglican Community School as the school attended.

All the St Mark’s booklists will be loaded onto SSS. All you need to do is tick the items you would like to buy - or sell - secondhand, and SSS does the rest. It will show you which items are available and where and will match buyers and sellers. It really is as simple as that.

HINT: When buying and selling, be sure to compare the ISBN numbers of the books - this gives you peace of mind that you are buying/selling the correct edition of the text.

HINT: If you have any books for sale, simply search the ISBN number in SSS to see if someone else - anywhere in Australia - is looking to buy it. Why not email them and offer to send it?

Plan to reuse and recycle this year with Sustainable School Shop!

Our Visual Arts department is in need of some of your old and unused items!

We are looking for donations of towels, newspapers, magazines and old phone books that you no longer require.

If you have any, please drop these off at the PAC Foyer between now and the end of the term; there will be a table in the foyer for these items.

Summer Holiday Trading Hours

• Monday 15/01/2024 - Closed
• Tuesday 16/01/2024 - 7.45am to 1.45pm
• Wednesday 17/01/2024 - 7.45am to 1.45pm
• Thursday 18/01/2024 - 11.30am to 5.30pm
• Friday 19/01/2024 - Closed
• Monday 22/01/2024 - 7.45am to 1.45pm
• Tuesday 23/01/2024 - Closed
• Wednesday 24/01/2024 - 11.30am to 5.30pm
• Thursday 25/01/2024 - Closed
• Friday 26/01/2024 – Closed Australia Day
• Monday 29/01/2024 - 7.45am to 11.15am

DON'T FORGET:

As an added convenience, online ordering is also available. Orders can be collected from the Uniform Shop during their opening hours. Please click here to access the online shop https://shop.tarauniforms.com.au/brand/st-marks/

Next year, we are introducing a series of before-school career-focused sessions for our Senior School students and are looking for Old Scholars (former students) or parents who can assist.

These career-focused sessions will provide our students with the chance to hear from St Mark's alumni or parent/community members about their careers. The sessions aim to help students decide upon their career path relating to tertiary study and General/ATAR pathways, as well as gain insight into the world of work.

If you are comfortable speaking to groups of students and willing to share your experiences of studying, working and life after high school, we'd love to hear from you. Please note that at this stage, we are looking to create a register of potential speakers with the aim of rolling these events out in Semester 1, 2024.

Please contact Amanda Kemp via email for further information or if you'd like to join the register to share your experiences.

Students in all ASC Schools who are in Years 9 to 11 in 2024, are invited to apply for the service learning trip to Samoa. The trip will take place during the September School Holidays in 2024.

For more information, download the flyer here.

Please ensure all School Fees are finalised for 2023.

Thank you to all our wonderful families for the prompt payment of their fees.

Merry Christmas

It is vital that all instruments are taken home from the Music Department by Friday 1 December at the latest. The only instruments at school in Week 9 should be those of students who are playing for Presentation Ceremonies, and they must be taken home at the conclusion of the event. If you are finishing up lessons this year and need to return an instrument, please return it to your tutor at the conclusion of your last lesson, or hand it to your ensemble director if you are performing at a Presentation Ceremony. Please note we will phone anyone with an instrument in the storeroom on Wed 6 December to come and pick it up!

For students continuing their instrumental lessons in 2024, you will have received a new instrument loan form for 2024 via email. Please sign this (an email acknowledging receipt is not sufficient) and return it to the Music Department as soon as possible.

If you have received a new loan form and were not planning to continue lessons in 2024, please contact the Arts Administrator urgently as you have missed the deadline for withdrawals.

As a way of encouraging excellence in education and rewarding high achievement, St Mark’s is offering a limited number of Academic Scholarships for students entering Year 6 in 2025 (current Year 4 students). Registrations for the 2025 program are now open and close on Friday 16 February 2024. The Scholarship is open to all*, inclusive of current and waitlisted students, as well as to those with no current connection to the School.

Up to four Scholarships are available, with partial tuition fee remission. The number of Scholarships awarded each year and the percentage of tuition fee remission is at the discretion of the School Council.

The Scholarships are awarded based on the performance of the student in the Scholarship examination. Shortlisted candidates may also be interviewed prior to final selection of Scholarship recipients. Scholarships will be awarded for the student’s entire secondary school career at St Mark’s (Years 6 to 12), subject to ongoing review.

The testing will be conducted independently by Academic Assessment Services at St Mark’s on Saturday 24 February 2024.

A Registration Fee of $105 will be charged by Academic Assessment Services for each child sitting the examination. Please note that an additional fee of $50 will be incurred for late registrations. Your registration will be confirmed by Academic Assessment Services.

More information, including key dates and eligibility, is available on the School website. Registration for the Scholarship testing should be submitted online here by Friday 16 February.

If you have any other queries regarding the 2025 Academic Scholarship Program, please email scholarships@stmarks.wa.edu.au or call (08) 9403 1342.

*Excludes international students.

Applications for the McIntosh Memorial Scholarship are now open to those students about to commence or currently undertaking tertiary study.

Eligibility

• Open to descendants of persons who have and/or are enlisted for service in any branch of the RAAF and Commonwealth Air Forces.
• The applicant must be an Australian citizen or resident.
• Residing in Western Australia.
• Undertaking their first course of full-time tertiary education and in any year of that course.

The closing date is 30 November 2023, and information is availablehere via the scholarship flyer.

New food safety standards come into effect at the end of Term 4 2023 which require parents to complete a food handler training course prior to volunteering in the cafeteria in 2024.

The City of Joondalup is assisting school cafeterias and food businesses in the training of their volunteers and offering a free online training course called FoodSafe Online. The course is presented in an interactive, easy-to-follow format and allows the user to receive a certificate of completion.

Volunteers can register and access the course here, and the course is free when the discount voucher FSJOOND359 is entered on the shipping methods page in the Redeem Online Voucher field.

We encourage parents, carers, grandparents, friends, etc, who would like to volunteer in the cafeteria to complete the online course as soon as possible.

Once you have completed the course, please email a copy of your certificate of completion to canteen@stmarks.wa.edu.au.

Completion of the course qualifies for two parent commitment hours. Hours can be logged by accessing the Parent Hours Log on the St Mark’s website here.

Lyttle Stars Tennis is taking over POP Tennis on Monday mornings in 2024. For further information please see the attached flyer or email lyttlestarstennis@gmail.com

Please find below details of the Camp Curiosity School Holiday Program available:

• Camp Curiosity - download flyer here