Newsletter 15 2022

Dear Parents/Caregivers, Students, Staff and Friends of St Raphael's School,

Welcome to our final week of Term 3!

Mercy Week Celebrations

This week we celebrate Mercy Week and there have been a few activities organised for our students to celebrate this week and what it holds for our students. Part of our outreach is an awareness of ‘other’ and what we can do in our own small way to make a difference to someone else’s life.  Yesterday students were able to fundraise for Mercy Works, a charitable organisation that supports families who are struggling for essential basic needs. This charity also provides resources for community initiatives worldwide. Our Year 6 leaders did an amazing job in organising the variety of stalls aligned to their learning, as well as providing a service to our community.  Through their collective efforts, we raised $270. Thank you to our parent community who supported this fundraiser.

This morning Sr Sally Bradley from Mercy Works addressed our school community and shared personal stories about her work and the charitable works that Mercy Works undertake. Her message was that all we do matters and makes a difference, no matter how small.

On Friday we end Mercy Week with a whole school picnic to the Monastery where our students will celebrate Mass together, followed by a few fun activities hosted by the Parish. We thank Fr Denis Travers, Parish Priest for providing the bus transportation funds enabling all our students to visit the Monastery and partake in the activities.   

Working Bee

A tremendous thank you to the Gaia Ricci, Michael Galipo, Sathitha Udani, Nayomi Peiris, Kusal Fernando, Matt and Nadine Pike, and their respective children for helping with our Working Bee on Saturday 24 September. Our school, and in particular our Natural Play Space, has never looked better!

Catholic Schools Music Festival

Tomorrow evening, Thursday 29 September our St Raphael’s School Choir, Loraine C, Jessica S, Maxim M, Ivy H, Mia P, Elaine G, Senuli R, Gemima M, Nathan F,  Georgia A, Holly K, Gracie N and Natalia S will be part of a much larger massed choir of students performing at the Adelaide Festival Theatre.  This evening is one of a number of highlights for me as I sit in the audience and watch in awe as our students perform. I thank Mrs Amanda Flynn for her dedication and commitment to the choir in ensuring that our students shine on performance night.

End of Term

Term 3 concludes at 3:10 pm this Friday 30 September with Term 4 commencing on Tuesday 18 October. Monday 17 October is a pupil free day for staff professional training in Senior First Aid.  OSHC will be available on the pupil free day and to register, please use the Fully Booked system which you can access here. 

I wish all families a wonderful term break and I look forward to welcoming you all back next term on Tuesday 18 October.

With every best wish,
Mia Harms
Principal

It’s hard to believe we are at the final week of the term, Mercy Week!  This has been a full week of activities to honour our school foundress, Catherine McAuley. I have included some of the recent and upcoming Religious Identity and Mission aspects of school life in this report. If you have any questions about the content of this portion of the newsletter please don’t hesitate to contact me at abishop@raph.catholic.edu.au

Community Prayer

The school community has been celebrating weekly Community Prayer on Thursday mornings with each class taking responsibility for the readings. Families have been welcomed to join us to celebrate these mornings and have a cup of tea or coffee while they wait for prayer to start. This week the Year 6s will host Community Prayer with the theme of Catherine McAuley and the Mercy Sisters. Commencing in Term 4 starting on 20 October, we will have a coffee cart at the Kiss and Drop from 8:30am on Thursdays so you can recharge with a barista made coffee before community prayer. 

Father Denis

Fr Denis has visited the children over the past two Fridays. His presentations to the children have consisted of images of his life living in Rome with many sites of the Vatican. The children asked very interesting inquiry questions and took a great interest in Father’s stories. We are always grateful for the time Fr Denis offers our school community.

ReLAT

Religious Literacy testing took place last Friday in Year 4. This occurs each year and is organised similar to NAPLAN in that the students answer questions online and the questions are modified as they proceed through the test. The grade they receive is not reflected in their Religious Education School Report at the end of the year. Instead, a separate grade is sent home.

MITIOG

The Made In The Image Of God (MITIOG), Human Sexuality curriculum is mandated for South Australian Catholic Schools, for Years R-12. Each year our students engage with age-appropriate curriculum content regarding sexuality through this (MITIOG) curriculum. This year the Human Sexuality Curriculum will be taught during Term 4 (Weeks 1-3). The content to be covered in the MITIOG, Human Sexuality Curriculum will be in line with curriculum outlined by the South Australian Catholic Education Office. We have borrowed a large library of resources from the Catholic Resource Centre at Thebarton to help with the delivery of this content.

Mercy Week

Mercy Week is here. We have had an activity on every day this week including a wonderful guest speaker, Sr Sally Bradley from Mercy Works. Sr Sally shared some images and video clips showing the projects that Mercy Works is involved in both in Australia and in Papua New Guinea. The week culminates in an excursion to the Monastery on Friday 30 September. A letter has been sent home seeking permission for the excursion and outlining the activities offered on the day. We are very fortunate to have such a strong relationship with the Parish that they welcome us to their grounds and support our activities for the day.

Andrea Bishop
Acting Assistant Principal, Religious Identity and Mission

Girls In Tech

What does a circular saw, computer algorithm, dishwasher, medical syringe, street sweeper, life raft and windshield wiper have in common? They were all invented by women!

Last week, our Year 5 girls attended a Girls in Tech Expo where they were immersed in all things technology, STEM and engineering. Our learners listened to multiple key note speakers who shared inspiring stories about their careers and work that they do. It was clear from their presentations that the possibilities in this field are limitless.

As part of the experience, our learners saw exhibits by Lumination, Flinders University, University of Adelaide, SAAB, Rising Sun Pictures, HerTechPath and Civil Train. The hands on expo also included opportunities for coding and robotics, that culminated in a Robo Wars competition as well as an APEX ESport tournament challenge that was led by high school students.

Our learners asked thought provoking questions, ably demonstrated their coding skills, were inspired by other women in the industry and utilised their problem solving and collaborative skills as they navigated through each of the challenges. It was wonderful to witness our girls' enthusiasm and interest in technology as they engaged in a well organised day of learning and inquiry.

Year Level Assemblies and Mercy Awards

Over the last few weeks, our Year 3, 4 and Reception classes have showcased their learning at our whole school assemblies. It has been a wonderful way to share and celebrate the rich learning that has taken place. The skills of speaking clearly to an audience, presenting learning in interesting ways such as songs, raps, images, comedy and exemplars has been most entertaining. At each assembly, all our learners, staff and families gets a glimpse of the great things happening around our school.

In addition to showcasing learning at assemblies, our young people also have the opportunity to receive student awards. These awards acknowledge students demonstrating our learner dispositions of being resilient, responsible, curious, thoughtful and collaborative. We are now pleased to also include our new Mercy values as part of our student awards. These include acknowledging students who display our school values of being compassionate, respectful and just. A number of worthy recipients received these awards at our last assembly. We are very proud of all our students who take on board these values and dispositions as they engage in school life here at St Raphael’s School.

As we head into the final week of Term 3, I would like to commend all our learners and staff for the ‘full’ and eventful term we have had.

I wish you all a safe and restful holiday break and hope all of our students have time to recharge and connect with family and friends.

Go well,
Kelly Manera
Assistant Principal Director of Learning

Dear Families,

As we commence Week 10, I cannot help but reflect on the shared achievements of Term 3 and the personal victories of our talented students who have embraced every learning opportunity with passion, enthusiasm and dedication.

In celebration of our gifted young people, please enjoy viewing the below collection of photographs taken during Performing Arts lessons and extra-curricular activities/clubs during Term 3.

Furthermore, I wish you and your families an excellent school holiday break and I look forward to welcoming your sons and daughters back into their Performing Arts classroom next term.

Kindest Regards,
Mandy Flynn
Performing Arts Coordinator

As we are approaching the end of Term 3, I ask our parent community to inform me in writing if their circumstances change and students will not be returning in 2023. Except for graduating Year 6 students, the assumption is that all other students are returning, unless informed otherwise.  As per our Enrolment Policy the school requires a term’s notice.

ACHPER SA/ SACPSSA PE Conference

On Monday I was fortunate enough to attend the ACHPER SA/ SACPASSA Primary School Physical Education Conference at the ‘Lights Centre’, along with 100 other SA Physical Education Teachers. As an educator I am constantly looking at new innovative ways to enhance our Physical Education program here at St Raphael’s School. On the day there were 16 different practical sessions available of which I was able to choose 4 to attend. The first was ‘Developing Questioning in Game- Centered Approaches’. This session focused on questioning and providing a critical link between the cognitive and social aspects of learning. It focused on learning how to use questioning models as proposed by Harvey, Cope, and Jones (2016) to promote deep thinking and dialogue. We looked and discussed different models which included Debate of Ideas (Grehaigne, 2005), GROW Model (Gallwey, 1974), and the Reflective Toss (van Zee & Minstrell, 1997).

The second session I participated in was run by the SANFL ‘Skill Development - Building Your Activity Library’. This session had both a practical and theory section. It covered teaching the fundamental skills of AFL, and then progressed into building my range of AFL activities, before finishing with activity development. The third session was ‘Practicality in P.E’ it provided me a range of quick and easy activities you can do with students for fitness when you are low on space, time and equipment. The final session I participated in was ‘Maximising Engagement through Cricket’. This session was run by SACA, it demonstrated strategies and activities used to increase engagement for students. It provided me with some great cricket activities and games as well as looked into the different programs that can be run at schools.  I took away so many new and refreshing ideas which I am excited to bring into my PE lessons with students.

Term 4 Sport R – 2: Spring Sports

Kelly Sports will be running ‘Spring Sport’ clinics for Receptions – Year 2. It is beneficial for our younger students to be exposed to a variety of different sports, so they are able to find out what they like and what they are good at. Over the 8 week program they will be participating in Cricket, Athletics, Tennis and Teeball. All clinics will be run on Wednesdays after school on the school courts from 3.15 – 4.15pm, the first session will start in Week 1, October 19. If you are interested in registering your child, please do so through Kelly Sports.

Term 4 Sport Year 3 – 6: Basketball Clinics

Kelly Sports will also be running an eight week basketball come and try program for our Years 3 -6. This weekly program gives students the skills and confidence in a fun and enjoyable environment to try something new or develop their current skills. It also encourages their enthusiasm for sport and the life skills that such involvement brings, giving them the confidence to join a sport club or team in the future. All sessions will be run after school on a Wednesday from 3.15- 4.15pm on the school courts. The first session starts in WEEK 1 if you are interested in registering your child please do so through Kelly Sports.

Hannah Reid
PE and Sports Coordinator

Thank you to our wonderful community of volunteers who joined us last Saturday for our School Working Bee. It was a lovely sunny morning filled with busy activity. We managed to plant all the beautiful natives donated by Bunnings in the nature play area and in the Kiss n Drop, we re-filled the sand pit and achieved a general clean up of the gardens and playgrounds.  Thank you!

Last week our friends at Catholic Schools Parents SA ran a wonderfully informative and relatable parent educative session on 'Anxiety and Worry in Children and Teenagers' presented by Madhavi Nawana Parker. If you were unable to attend or would like to rewatch the session, you can via this link - Catholic School Parents SA | Let's Talk About (cspsa.catholic.edu.au)

Their next event will be on 2 November  - 'Get off that computer now!' Presented by Mark Le Messurier, bookings open soon. 

This term, our Year 6 students have been learning about Economics and Business and as part of our school's Mercy Week celebrations.  They organised a fair day, to raise money for Mercy Works, who support disadvantaged communities around Australia.  

Our Year 6 students organised a series of stalls as part of this fair day, they included Slam-Dunk, World Cup Penalty Shootout, Lucky Bowling, Disco Dancing and Nerf Battles. The fair ran between recess and lunchtime, allowing students to visit each stall. This fair was a tremendous success, with lots of enthusiasm from stall holders and customers alike. We raised $270.

Thank you for your support!