Middle School Bulletin - Term 1, Week 6

Our Year 6 Parent Teacher Interviews are fast approaching. These are being held on Friday, 28 March, between 8.30am and 4.30pm and are an important opportunity for you to connect with your child’s Homeroom and MESH teachers (Maths, English, Science and Humanities). We want to celebrate your child’s strengths and highlight how they can improve their learning. Your child may join you in these interviews to reflect on their start in Year 6, where possible. As such, Friday 28 March, is a Student-Free Day for Year 6, and no Year 6 classes will run for the day, including PCG time. Your child is to stay home for the day.

We will be offering a combination of online and in-person interviews to accommodate your busy schedule. Online interviews can be scheduled in the morning between 8:30am and 12:30pm and in person interviews will be available in the afternoon between 12:30-4:30pm.

Bookings will open from Friday 14 March at 3pm on the SEQTA Engage Portal. The interview slots are for seven minutes per teacher, whether that teacher is your child’s Homeroom teacher or teaches your child one or more subjects. Please do not book more than one interview session with a given teacher and be aware that extending the interview time will not be possible on the day as teachers will have full interview schedules. Instructions on how to book your interview is listed below. If you cannot attend an interview on 28 March or feel you need more time, please get in touch with your child's teacher(s) and arrange an alternate time.

The Parent Interview Tile can be found on the Welcome Page of SEQTA Engage under Online Services. The school will be using Booked (previously known as PTO).

We hope you can attend these important interviews to talk with your child's teachers about how they are managing their start in Middle School.

CALLING ALL BUDDING ARTISTS AND GRAPHIC DESIGNERS

Want to win a $200 Visa card? Want to have your artwork featured on P&F communications?

We need you! The P&F is currently seeking submissions from Middle School and High School students to create the new P&F Logo.

Artistic Design Brief for Parents & Friends Association Logo

Client: Parent’s and Friend’s (P&F) Committee, St Mark’s Anglican Community School, Hillarys, Western Australia

Project: Logo Design Competition

Target Audience: Middle School and High School students

Award: $200 Visa gift card for the winning design

Technical Specifications:

• Format: Vector (e.g., .AI, .EPS, .SVG) and/or high-resolution raster (e.g., .PNG, .JPG)
• Dimensions: Scalable, with a minimum size of 1000x1000 pixels
• Color Mode: CMYK for print, SRGB for digital
• Colors: Maximum of 4 colors; include a black and white version
• Typography: Readable at various sizes; avoid overly intricate fonts

Artistic Design Guidelines:

• Theme: Reflect the school and the supportive, community engagement role of the P&F Association. (https://www.stmarks.wa.edu.au/community/parents-and-friends)
• Imagery: Incorporate the St Mark's imagery and color set where appropriate (INSERT LINK TO SCHOOL BRAND/STYLE GUIDE HERE – FILES ATTACHED)
• Style: Modern and clean, yet respectful and timeless
• Tone: Welcoming, supportive, and inclusive
• Versatility: Ensure the logo looks good on various mediums (e.g., letterheads, websites, uniforms, email signatures)

Professionalism Suggestions:

• Simplicity: Keep the design simple and avoid clutter
• Originality: Ensure the design is unique and not a copy of existing logos. Use tools like Logo Lab, Logolyzer, and Logo Rank to check originality.
• Relevance: Make sure the design is relevant to the school’s ethos and the P&F Association’s mission
• Feedback: Be open to feedback and willing to make minor revisions (winning design only).

Submissions:

• Digital: Submit your details and design at the link below: https://forms.gle/31NfxRqRhGQxwTsK6
• Submissions close midnight March 31^st, 2025.

During Term 1 & 2 in 2025, the Secondary Wellbeing Team at St Mark’s wishes to implement a survey with Middle and Senior School students. The survey is the Resilience Survey, implemented through The Resilience Project which forms part of the Flourish wellbeing program within the School’s secondary curriculum.

The Resilience Survey is an online survey which collects, analyses and reports the resilience of young people at a cohort (Year group) level in terms of their strengths, life satisfaction, hopefulness, anxiety and depression, coping style, and risk and protective behaviours. Specifically, the survey measures the resilience and wellbeing of your young people across nine key domains: Understanding Self, Social Skills, Positive Relationships, Safety, Healthy Body and Healthy Mind, Learning, Positive Attitude, Positive Values, Positive Identity.

Participation in the survey is voluntary and anonymous – any student may choose not to be involved. All collected data is non-identifiable and sensitive or personal information is not collected. Those students who do participate in the survey will do so during a scheduled Flourish lesson within the School’s timetable.

Only aggregated data is reported to the School – individual responses from students are not reported to the School. Analysis of the aggregated data collected enables the School to put efficient and effective data-based strategies in place to enhance student education outcomes and School community wellbeing. Student resilience and mental health data are strongly linked to learning outcomes, so it’s important to know what students are experiencing in school and beyond the school. Wellbeing staff gain an insight into their students’ wellbeing strengths and challenges. Wellbeing staff can use clear evidence from these cohorts to plan responses to the evidence as well as introduce and measure the success of initiatives over time.

The survey does not require students to share personal information such as their name or school email address. Individual anonymity is protected by creating one universal login, through the School, for all participants and by setting a minimum number of responses required in order to report a result for any cohort. These measures ensure that responses can never be traced to an individual.

St Mark’s has conducted due diligence in respect to Resilient Youth Australia’s Privacy Policy with regard to their collection, use and storage of personal information and its Privacy Policy and procedures and are satisfied that it complies with the Australian Privacy Principles outlined in the Privacy Act.

The following two links enable you to explore more about Resilient Youth Australia and access to their privacy policy.

Website: Resilient Youth Australia

Website: Survey — Resilient Youth Australia

Privacy Policy: Summary Data Policy — Resilient Youth Australia

St Mark’s is engaging with Resilient Youth Australia via this survey for the benefit of our students’ wellbeing. Should you not wish your child to participate in the survey please discuss that with them. You may also wish to confirm this with staff at the School.

Please email Mrs Kristin Clape, Deputy Head of Middle School on kclape@stmarks.wa.edu.au or Mrs Brittany Berghan, Deputy Head of Senior School on bberghan@stmarks.wa.edu.au by Friday 28^th March COB (Friday of Week 8) if you do not wish your child to participate in the survey. They will engage with other learning tasks at that time.

Yours sincerely

Mrs Kristin Clape Mrs Brittany Berghan

Deputy Head of Middle School Deputy Head of Senior School

Dear Parents and Carers

We are excited to be able to communicate some details about the Year 6 Camp scheduled for week 9 of this term.

In the coming weeks, you will receive an email with a link to the Consent2Go details on camp. Please complete all the information in Consent2Go as soon as possible. This will allow us the time and space to plan for individual medical and dietary requirements.

Here is an overview of some key item for your planning purposes…

Dates

Homerooms 6.1, 6.3, 6.5: Wednesday – Thursday, 2-3 April

Homerooms 6.2, 6.4, 6.6: Thursday – Friday, 3-4 April

Location

Ern Halliday Recreation Camp

Other information

• Parents will need to arrange drop off to and pick up from the camp for their child.

• All students will have 2 days of camp activities and 1 night stayover.

• We have a strict no phones or electronics rule on camp.

• All food will be provided at camp. Students get a cooked breakfast, morning tea, lunch, afternoon tea, dinner and supper, as well as a snack during the evening movie.

As we get closer to the date, we will keep parents informed, including a comprehensive outline of the camp, what to wear, and what to bring in plenty of time for students to be organised.

As with all camps, we expect exceptional behaviour from all students, and the School makes the final decision about student attendance. A Camp Code of Conduct will be provided for both students and parents to sign.

The Year 6 Camp will be a fantastic experience for students to challenge themselves, continue establishing and strengthening the bonds between themselves and others in the cohort, and build relationships with range of teachers. It will be an opportunity for personal growth outside of the normal classroom setting.

Should you have any questions about this experience please contact kbailey@stmarks.wa.edu.au or kclape@stmarks.wa.edu.au.

Yours sincerely

Kellie Bailey Kristin Clape

Head of Year 6 Deputy Head of Middle School

The School Based Immunisation Program is run by the Child and Adolescent Community Health Team. Throughout the 2025 school year the program will be providing the following immunisations at St Mark's:

• Year 7 - Wednesday 17 September 2025:
  • HPV (human papilloma virus)
  • dTpa (Diphtheria, Tetanus, Pertussis)

• Year 10 - Wednesday 21 May 2025 :
  • Meningococcal ACWY vaccine

All students require parent/guardian consent before they receive any vaccinations at school.

Please click on the link below to give consent for this program

School-based immunisation program healthywa.wa.gov.au

For help with registering and providing consent SBIP@health.wa.gov.au or 9222 2486 or if you have a question CAHS.CHSBIP@health.wa.gov.au (School-Based Immunisation Nursing team)

The Parents Prayer Group (PPG) meet fortnightly to pray for the students, staff and school community. We will be meeting every second Friday 9am in the school chapel, starting 14th Feb. 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.

Download the flyer here.

Put it in your calendars; the Art Show will return this October!

Opening night is October 10th, with the show running through to the 12th!

This year, we aim to have over 100 local artists showing over 350 pieces, live art demonstrations, musical performances, interactive art classes, a People's Choice Award, raffle prizes, and much more.

More information will be released as details are finalised, but this is going to be a show you won’t want to miss!

To stay up to date, register your interest at the link below. Don't forget to tell your friends!

https://forms.gle/UZx3HKNuSmVRymQi9

The St Mark's Parents & Friends' Association cordially invites all members of our School community to join them for the annual Welcome Sundowner on Tuesday 25 March 2025. The P&F's Annual General Meeting will follow the Sundowner.

The Sundowner and AGM will be held in the Barbara Godwin Performing Arts Complex.

• 6.00pm to 7.00pm - Sundowner
• 7.00pm to 9.00pm - Annual General Meeting* in the Barbara Godwin Performing Arts Complex

As per the constitution, all office positions will be made vacant at our AGM. Nominations are open now, and nomination forms are available from the Secretary, secretary.pf@stmarks.wa.edu.au.

Please reach out if you may be interested in any of the positions.

Relevant documents are available on the Parents Portal on SEQTA.

Please send any general business items to the Secretary no later than 7 days before the meeting, secretary.pf@stmarks.wa.edu.au.

*Please note that you can claim two hours of your Parent Commitment for 2025 by attending the Annual General Meeting.

• 2024 AGM Minutes
• 2025 Notice of AGM
• 2024 Financial Statements

Thank you for your patience. The financial statements are attached above and have been uploaded to seqta for your convenience.

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.