Junior School Bulletin - Term 3, Week 8

Athletics Carnival

Our Primary Athletics Carnival last Thursday and Friday was a wonderful success. Across the two days, it was fantastic to see so many students getting involved, giving their best and encouraging one another. Whether on the track, in the field events or participating in the novelty activities, students represented their Houses with great enthusiasm and sportsmanship.

A particular highlight was the number of parents, grandparents and family members who joined us across the two days. Events like these are a wonderful reminder of the strength of our community and the value of coming together to support and celebrate our children. Thank you to everyone who attended and helped create such a positive atmosphere.

Special congratulations to our Year Champions and Runners-Up, whose performances across the carnival were recognised at the final presentation. Interestingly, there were a number of tied placings this year, reflecting just how evenly matched many of the competitions were. Just as importantly, it was great to see so many students getting involved and contributing to their House across the two days.

Congratulations to Carnley House, who finished the carnival as our overall House Champions for 2026. This is a wonderful achievement and a testament to the contribution of every Carnley student across the two days.

Finally, thank you to Mr Barton, our staff and the many parent helpers who contributed to the success of the carnival. Events of this scale require a tremendous team effort, and we are grateful for the support that helped make the two days such an enjoyable experience for our students.

Lost Property

Following last week's Athletics Carnival, a significant number of items have found their way to Lost Property, particularly hats and jackets.

If your child is missing any clothing, I encourage you to take some time to check our Lost Property locations. Items can currently be found at the ELC Reception, outside the Year 3/4 Forum and in the Year 4/5 bag rack area.

This also serves as a timely reminder of the importance of clearly labelling clothing and personal belongings. Named items can usually be returned to students very quickly, while unnamed items often remain unclaimed.

Friendology Tip of the Week

5 reasons kids don’t seek help with friendships. https://urstrong.com/5-reasons-kids-dont-seek-help-with-tricky-friendships/

Empower your child with this activity. https://urstrong.com/resource/keep-it-cool/

Please sign up for a FREE lifetime membership to the Friendology Program using this link if you haven’t already. https://urstrong.com/parents/

The St Mark's office continues to receive regular feedback from businesses surrounding the School regarding the use of private parking spaces by members of our community. This includes parking while dropping off and collecting students, as well as vehicles being left in these car parks for extended periods during the day.

The areas affected include:

• Endeavour Business Centre (corner of Endeavour Road and Banks Avenue)
• Whitford Business Centre (including Mitre 10, Better Pets, Auto Masters and Supercheap Auto)
• Endeavour Childcare and Whitford Family Centre

While we understand the convenience these locations may offer, we ask all parents, caregivers and students to refrain from using private business car parks when attending the School. Year 11 and 12 students must continue to park in the Muzz Buzz car park.

St Mark's values the strong relationships we have built with our neighbouring businesses over many years. These partnerships provide valuable benefits to our School community, including access to the Muzz Buzz car park for student parking and overflow parking during major events, as well as a range of educational opportunities and community connections.

To maintain these important relationships, we ask everyone to respect the parking spaces provided for customers, staff and visitors of local businesses. Continued misuse of these areas will result in enforcement action during peak school times.

We also ask that all members of our community show consideration for our neighbours by avoiding parking on verges, across driveways, or in private car parks.

Thank you for your understanding and support in helping us maintain positive relationships with our local community.

Thank you,

St Mark's

Due to Athletics Carnivals, there will be no Running Club on Thursday morning in Week 7 (3^rd September) and Week 10 (24 September).

Once again, the Year Three classes from St Mark’s will be participating in a project called Operation Christmas Child. This is a charity project run by Samaritan’s Purse, a Christian organisation which supports children in need around the world.

We are seeking donations to fill shoeboxes which will be given to children less fortunate than ourselves. Items can be placed in the large boxes set up in the Year 2/3 open area. All items must also be new, as per the charity guidelines.

Donations are for children aged 2-14 years old and can include items from the following categories:

• Something to love (eg. a small soft toy or doll)
• Something for school (eg. pencils, sharpener, eraser, pencil case, notebook)
• Something for personal hygiene (eg. a flannel, a hairbrush, a toothbrush)
• Something to wear (eg. any new clothes, hats, shoes or underwear)
• Something to play with (eg. a ball, a small toy, a yoyo, a skipping rope)
• Something special (eg. a bag to carry their box, a bracelet or necklace, small books)

For postage and safety reasons, we cannot accept liquids, pastes, gels, soaps or any items related to war.

Thank you in advance for your support of this important project. Please contact Mrs Greaves via email egreaves@stmarks.wa.edu.au should you have any further questions.

To ensure the safety and wellbeing of all students, it is important that play occurs only when appropriate supervision is available. Staff supervision is provided between 8:15am and 3:15pm. As such, all playgrounds and oval areas are out of bounds outside these hours.

Before School
This morning, a number of students arrived at school before 8:15am. Unless students are participating in a supervised before-school activity, they should not be on campus before this time.

We ask families to ensure that students arrive from 8:15am onwards, allowing them to be appropriately supervised as they begin their school day.

After School
Please note that all playground equipment and oval areas are also out of bounds after school.

To support families with after-school collection, teacher supervision is available in the following locations:

• PAC Drive Through
• Year 2/3 Gate Kiss 'n' Drive
• Inside the Library

Students who are waiting to be collected should remain in one of these supervised areas.

The safety and wellbeing of our students is always our highest priority. We appreciate your partnership in reinforcing these expectations with your children and thank you for your support in helping us maintain a safe environment before and after school.

Please click on the following link to open the schedule for the Junior School Clubs this term: 2026 Junior School Clubs - Term Three. Please note, the schedule contains sign-up links for these clubs and spaces go very quickly.

The St Mark’s Community Art Show is looking for an MC for our Opening Night on Friday, 9 October, from 6:30pm–10:30pm.

It’s a fun evening celebrating and showcasing the work of local artists. We have organised Entertainment and our Welcome to Country, so the MC role will be focused on guiding guests through the evening and introducing the scheduled parts of the program.

Parent Commitment Hours will be provided for the event as well as preparation time.

If you’re interested or would like to find out more, please email artshow@stmarks.wa.edu.au.

Preparations are well underway for the 2026 St Mark’s Community Art Show, and we would love some extra help.

Raffle & Sponsorship Coordinator

We’re looking for a parent to help our committee with Raffles & Sponsorship. This is a flexible role helping us connect with local businesses and community contacts to source raffle prizes, donations and sponsorship for the Art Show.

You won’t be starting from scratch – we have previous contacts, information and a supportive committee ready to help. It’s a great way to get involved behind the scenes and make a valuable contribution to one of our wonderful P&F events.

Interested or want to know more? Contact us at artshow@stmarks.wa.edu.au.

Parent Volunteer Hours Available

If you’d prefer to lend a hand closer to the event, we also have plenty of opportunities to complete parent volunteer hours during the final week of the October school holidays, helping with preparations for the Art Show.

Sign up for volunteer hours here:
https://signup.com/go/jBfVnRs

Whether you can take on a role or simply spare a few hours, we’d love to have you involved.

**LIMITED SPOTS REMAINING**

We are pleased to invite all St Mark's parents and carers to a special evening on Thursday 10 September, focused on something almost every family is quietly navigating: artificial intelligence.

AI is no longer coming. It is already in our children’s homework, their phones, their search results and their social feeds. Some of what it produces is genuinely useful. A great deal of it is what our presenter calls "slop": fast, shallow and forgettable. Knowing the difference matters, and so does knowing what to say at home.

Our guest is Matthew Esterman, Founder and CEO of The Next Word, a consultancy that helps Australian schools take safe and sensible steps with AI. Matthew was a History teacher and school leader for around twenty years before moving into this work, so he speaks the language of classrooms and families rather than the language of Silicon Valley. He is an Adjunct Fellow at Western Sydney University and co-author of The Next Word: AI & Teachers and The Next Word: AI & Learners.

The evening runs from 7:00pm to 8:30pm, with nibbles and drinks from 6:30pm. Matthew will speak for an hour, and then we have set aside a full 30 minutes for your questions. We encourage you to bring them.

This event is free for families, but places are limited, and bookings are essential.

St Mark's families can claim 2 hours of Community Participation.

Register here.

The Parents Prayer Group (PPG) meet fortnightly to pray for the students, staff and school community. We will be meeting every second Friday 2pm in the school chapel, starting 31st July. Please sign in at reception. All are welcome.

For enquiries or prayer requests, please message Wing Shattock on 0433 002 151.

It is time for our Year 12 Drama and Dance students to grace the St Mark’s stage for the last time as we present ‘The Finale’.

Showcasing the Year 12 ATAR Drama Set Choice and Candidate’s Choice Monologues, Year 12 General Drama Group Performance and Year 12 ATAR and General Dance performances, this is set to be an evening to remember. With supporting performances from Year 11 Dance and our Senior Dance Troupe, be there for ‘The Finale’ as our Year 12’s bid farewell to their performance experiences at St Mark’s.

• Wednesday 9 September 7pm
• Barbara Godwin Performing Arts Complex
• Free Tickets: www.trybooking.com/DPDOA

In just over two weeks, the Year 11 ATAR and General Drama students are set to unleash monsters as they present their Curriculum Production of ‘She Kills Monsters’. The play tells the story of high schooler Agnes Evans as she deals with the death of her younger sister, Tilly. When Agnes stumbles upon Tilly’s Dungeons & Dragons notebook, she finds herself catapulted into a journey of discovery and action-packed adventure in the imaginary world that was her sister’s refuge. Utilising the techniques of Epic Theatre, the Year 11’s are excited to invite you into a world of monsters, some more obvious than others, adventure, magic and heart.

• 16-17 September 7pm
• Barbara Godwin Performing Arts Complex
• Free Tickets: www.trybooking.com/DNHRU