ST MARY’S: A destination for dance

Dance plays an important role in the everyday life of St Mary’s. It is a feature of ceremony, celebration, worship and leisure. In recent years, St Mary’s has witnessed marked growth in dance participation, which comes as no surprise given the School’s investment in its facilities, the calibre of instruction and range of in-class and cocurricular offerings. It goes without saying that St Mary’s has quickly become a destination school for dance.

In the past year, St Mary’s has expanded its dance program to ensure that every girl, from those in Kindergarten all the way through to Year 12, can experience the joy that dance brings to one’s life.

Head of Performing Arts, Megan Cullen, said that broadening the program to cater for Junior School students presented a raft of exciting opportunities.

"Growing interest in our Years 11 and 12 Dance ATAR courses made a really strong case for expanding our dance program into the Junior School,” Mrs Cullen said.

“We have teachers who are really willing to develop the program in response to parent and student demand. I think this will strengthen the calibre of dance at St Mary’s even further. Laying the foundations and expectations in the Junior School will mean that not all of our students will be starting from scratch when they enter the Senior School program. I think that over the next few years we will see a really strong group of students come through dance. We have that now, but we might have students participating who otherwise might not have picked dance as a pathway because they didn’t have opportunities when they were younger.”

The program caters to all levels of dancers, from students who simply want to dance for enjoyment to those who are aspiring to make a career out of the art form. Our Junior School students enjoy instruction from our highly-trained Senior School dance teachers as part of their in-class curriculum. In the Senior School, there are myriad inclass and cocurricular dance options. Students wishing to study Dance ATAR are encouraged to join the

In the past year, St Mary’s has expanded its dance program to ensure that every girl, from those in Kindergarten all the way through to Year 12, can experience the joy that dance brings to one’s life.

School’s Dance Extended elective, which begins in Year 10, and aspirational dancers can audition for our Junior (Years 7 to 9) and Senior (Years 10 to 12) Dance Companies, who train together, choreograph items and perform at the IGSSA Dance Festival and St Mary’s annual Dance Showcase. Our Liturgical Dance Ensemble, which performs at some of the School’s most significant ceremonies, is another option for committed dancers, as are our Lower School and Senior School productions.

Girls who love to dance for fun are encouraged to participate in our Years 7 to 9 and Years 10 to 12 Interhouse Dance Competitions, which are always a highlight of the year.

“We love seeing girls who simply enjoy dancing, involving themselves in our Interhouse Dance Competitions. They just love being on the stage and learning a range of skills, like teamwork, confidence and presentation. It’s not all about the dance steps; there are a lot of other skills that girls learn through dance that can be useful to them during and after school,” Mrs Cullen said. Not all in-class and cocurricular programs culminate in performances, but the ones that do are truly spectacular due to extensive team of staff members who help bring them to life. Aside from St Mary’s brilliant dance teachers, the School is fortunate to have highly experienced professionals working in production, costuming and much more.

“We pride ourselves on producing shows that are of a professional standard. That gives our students a sense of the level to be expected beyond school. We all take it very seriously because we want the girls to as well,” Mrs Cullen said.

BOND BLOCKS build strong maths foundations

For the past 10 years, St Mary’s Junior School Academic Centre for Enrichment (ACE) has been using the Maths Assessment 1:1 Interview to evaluate and determine the mathematical understandings and misconceptions of our Kindergarten to Year 3 students. This information is shared with classroom teachers so that they can better understand each student’s mathematical strengths and weaknesses. In 2023, our teachers will have another tool to help them develop individualised learning plans for our girls’ mathematical learning journeys: Bond Blocks.

Developed by experienced teacher, Narelle Rice, and renowned Western Australian mathematics education consultant, Dr Paul Swan, Bond Blocks is an evidence-based system made up of ready-to-go, sequenced resources designed to build early years students’ counting and calculating skills. The Bond Block program, which boasts more than 100 sequenced lessons, activity boards and games supported by teaching videos, was the winner of the 2022 Primary Student Resource Mathematics Numeracy Award.

St Mary’s trialled Bond Blocks with select classes in 2022 and such was its success, the program will be implemented in all Kindergarten to Year 3 classrooms this year.

Coordinator of the Teaching and Academic Centre of Enrichment, Helen Shaw, said that she was excited to utilise Bond Blocks in a greater capacity this year.

“We have seen evidence that this program is assisting us in providing the missing link, to help students move from concretely counting by ones to abstractly adding using numbers and symbols,” Mrs Shaw said.

“Andrea Dingley, our ACE Numeracy Support Teacher – Early Years, and I have been excited to witness the growing confidence of our students, who are now more willing to respond to the Maths Assessment 1:1 Interview questions. Bond Blocks is providing them with a way of explaining their mathematical thinking.”

Mrs Dingley said that she was amazed at the progress some students made by utilising Bond Blocks.

“Every year, I assess our early years students using the Maths Assessment Interview. They always struggle with the question, subtract nine from 12. However, this year when conducting the Maths Assessment Interview with the Year 1 students, I was amazed at how many could quickly respond to the problem of how many strawberries were left in a punnet of 12 when nine were eaten. In previous years, this has been so hard for them, as they would struggle with trying to count up or count back or not find they had enough fingers to cope. This year when I asked, ‘How did you do that so quickly?’, the response was often ‘Bond Blocks’,” Mrs Dingley said.

Last year, St Mary’s early learning staff participated in two full days of training and established a close working relationship with Narelle Rice. This year, our staff will meet with Narelle twice per term so that they can extract maximum value from the Bond Blocks program. They will also be supported in the development of a data-informed numeracy program, which will help further improvements in student learning, classroom practice and overall student wellbeing. The data-informed practice is typically a cyclical process: Plan, Teach, Assess, Analyse and Adjust.

“There is compelling evidence that following Plan, Teach, Assess, Analyse and Adjust cycle will result in improved results. Meeting regularly with Narelle and coordinating fortnightly meetings where teachers will discuss class observations, the ‘sticking points’ in mathematical understandings being observed and curriculum content, will ensure that our early years students are being provided with every opportunity to gain confidence, experience success and enjoy maths,” Mrs Shaw said.