Newsletter 15 2023

Mercy Day

As I write this, there is a great sense of anticipation for Mercy Day tomorrow and thank you to Helena Card for overseeing the organisation of the day. Thanks also to the St Paul of the Cross Parish community who have paid for the buses and are providing a sausage sizzle for the students.

Staffing

Helena Card
It is with mixed feelings that I share that Helena Card has decided to retire at the end of 2024. The school is indebted to her for her work as our APRIM, Assistant Principal Religious Identity and Mission and our Inclusive Education Coordinator for the past 12 months, and to Catholic Education over many years. We will be advertising in the coming weeks to fill these roles for 2024.

David Monti
As the students in Year 5 would be aware, David Monti will be taking long service leave next term and I'm pleased to share that Jodie Hamilton will be the Year 5 class teacher for Term 4. Jodie is well known to the St Raphael’s School community. David and Jodie have spent considerable time over the past few weeks planning to ensure a smooth transition for the students. In addition, David has won a position as classroom teacher at Whitefriars Catholic School for 2024.

Catholic Schools’ Music Festival

Excitement is building among our talented musicians as they prepare to perform in front of their peers at the Adelaide Festival Theatre on Friday evening. Thanks to Mandy Flynn for her enthusiastic work in preparing our musicians for this performance.

Building update

The concrete is currently being poured, and when school returns at the beginning of next term, we will begin to see some of the building framework. This will give us a greater sense of our brand-new building and I look forward to sharing regular updates with you.

Staff planning day

A reminder that Term 4 will commence on Tuesday 17 October. All staff will be undertaking professional learning on Monday 16 October with a focus on how we can better cater for the needs of our students.

Best Wishes
Mark Simpson
Acting Principal

Religious Education Assessment

Religious Education (RE) is a core Learning Area in all Catholic schools. It is a foundation for all learning and is integrated into the life of the St Raphael’s School through prayer, liturgy and social justice outreach programs.

All Year 4 students in Catholic schools are assessed in the area of Religious Education. Over the last few weeks, our Year 4 students have practised the test and also completed the Religious Literacy Assessment Tool (ReLAT) online test.

The test is based on general religious knowledge gained from participation in RE lessons and the religious dimension of the Catholic school. The assessment is not put in place to measure a child’s faith, nor their participation in the broader life of the Catholic community. It is important to draw upon a variety of assessment strategies in order to develop a comprehensive picture of a child’s progress and understanding in Religious Education.

The ReLAT assessment tool is an online multiple-choice test with 35 questions. Children are given up to an hour to complete the test. The data from the ReLAT assessment is collated and used by us to inform whole-of-school professional learning needs and the continuous improvement of teaching in Religious Education. Individual results are made available to individual student’s parents. An individual ReLAT report for parents is provided to complement the school report.

Mercy Week and Mercy Day Celebrations

All week, we have been celebrating Mercy Week and our week of valuing the Mercy Charism concludes tomorrow with our excursion to the Monastery for Mercy Day. It has been a whole school immersion into the values and actions of our Mercy tradition.  All children will receive a token gift today which includes a school bookmark and some treats to acknowledge and celebrate the week.  Tomorrow, the parish is providing a sausage sizzle lunch for all children.  If your child does not want the sausage sizzle lunch, please send along a packed lunch. All children will wear sports uniform and come along with a filled, labelled water bottle and their own recess. We start the day with a whole school mass followed by a variety of activities for the students throughout the day. Please ensure that you have returned all permission notices for the Mercy Day excursion tomorrow to your class teacher.

Wishing you all the best for the coming holidays, hopefully you can have some down time and time with your family.

Peace and Blessings,
Helena Card
Assistant Principal Religious Identity and Mission

On Tuesday 19 September, Mark Simpson and I attended A Day with Lyn Sharratt at the Adelaide Convention Centre. Lyn Sharratt is a leader in building teacher and leader capacity to increase student achievement and growth in an ongoing and sustainable way. The day was spent engaging in the 14 principles of school improvement, and ensuring these core principles are embedded into everything that we do.

St Raphael’s School started working with Lyn Sharratt this year, and our school was chosen to speak at the symposium. What an honour to be able to share the fantastic work we have achieved in teaching and learning by embedding the core principles into our school and then sharing this with all the Catholic schools in South Australia. This is a credit to all our hard working staff at St Raphael’s school.

The key principles that have had the most significant impact:

Parameter #1: Shared Beliefs and Understandings
Parameter #3: Quality Assessment informs instruction
Parameter #5: Early and Ongoing Intervention
Parameter #6: Case Management Approach
Parameter #7: Focused Professional Learning at Staff Meetings
Parameter #14: Shared Responsibility and Accountability

The key elements as a result of our engagement:

Learning Intentions and Success Criteria
Bump It Up Walls
Case Management Meetings
Data Walls
Assessment to inform instruction
Learning Walks and Talks
Early and ongoing intervention

The leadership team conducts weekly learning walks and talks. This is where we ask the children 1. What are they learning and why? 2. How are you doing? 3. How do you know? 4. How can you improve? 5. Where can you go to for help? These 5 essential questions inform us of the impact the principles have had in our classrooms, helping us to know what the student knows, and how the teachers are going with the professional learning and implementing in their class.

Corey-Lee Lewis
Assistant Principal - Leader of Learning

We want to thank all those who came to visit us on Monday to enjoy some homemade brownies from our Year 6 teacher Mr Sicari, accompanied by our Acting Principal, Mark Simpson.

We believe that a sense of belonging is essential for our students' growth and success. We prioritise supporting and positively connecting our students' families with their school life to create an environment where children feel cared for, respected, and supported. Our school is not just a place of learning, but rather a place where students and families can form meaningful connections with the staff and each other. 

Thank you for being a part of our community. We wish you a little rest and relaxation over these upcoming school holidays.

As part of our Mercy Week celebrations each class performed an act of kindness to express our school's Mercy Values of Respectful, Just and Compassionate.

Our Year 5 students each wrote a heartfelt letter and packaged it up with a few beautiful seeds that was handed to our neighbours close by to bring a little sunshine and happiness into their days.

Our Year 2 students have been busy colouring in and writing thoughtful messages to accompany some handmade chocolates for each of our wonderful staff. 

Other year levels have produced lovely painted stones, given out brownies as part of our special Monday coffee morning, delivered lolly bags to other students and an array of other acts of kindness.

We encourage you all to pass this idea for an act of kindness on - it could be picking up rubbish and putting it in the bin, smiling at someone as you walk past them, saying an enthusiastic thank you at the checkouts, complimenting a family member or simply helping to unpack the dishwasher tonight! Spread a little kindness and it will come back to you three-fold. 

Catholic Schools Music Festival Performance

‘Where Dreams Begin’
WHEN: Friday 29 September
TIME: Performance starts at 7:30pm
WHERE: Adelaide Festival Centre

Purchasing Tickets
An email regarding ticket sales went home to all participating students families at the beginning of Term 3, although if you have not yet purchased your seats for the performance, tickets are still available via the Ticketek website www.premier.ticketek.com.au (and search for ‘Where Dreams Begin’ in event search box). Reminder: When you are purchasing tickets online, please ensure that you select the FRIDAY evening performance from the drop box. Each year the festival organisers allocate ONE performance evening for each participating school, and this year we have been fortunate enough to be placed on the FRIDAY evening - which is also the last day of school for Term 3.

In addition, please note that the Catholic Schools Music Festival is an event open to the general public and thus, you do not need to have a child currently participating in the St Raphael’s School Choir Ensemble to attend. In fact, we strongly encourage all students who are thinking of joining the Choir Ensemble next year to attend with their peers and families.

Amanda Flynn
Performing Arts Coordinator

Over the past week at St Raphael's School, we have begun undertaking our trials for the upcoming Athletics Carnival in Term 4. Forms will go home with students selected to compete in the event.

Forms have also gone out, along with information letters regarding the quickly approaching Water Safety Week. The Water Safety Week is a great opportunity for students to actively participate in the water, learning the vital skills of how to safely engage in water-based activities/play.

In other related sports news, Year 6’s Jessica S played off in a netball grand final for Cheerio Netball Club. While the team was ultimately unsuccessful in defeating the Garville Netball Club, it was a valiant effort, and we congratulate Jessica in her achievements in making the Grand Final.

As always, should you have any questions regarding anything PE/Sports related, please don’t hesitate to reach out ctucker@raph.catholic.edu.au.

School Sport Results

Week 8:
Year 5/6 Netball: St Raphael’s 19 defeated SAC 8

Week 9:                                                                                                                                   
Year 5/6 Netball: St Raphael’s 26 Defeated Pulteney 8

Netball

The Year 5/6 netball season has come to a conclusion, finishing the season with a standout winning performance. It was great to hear from families and students how far the group had progressed as a team. This improvement was due to the hard work that players demonstrated in their commitment across the season to training and matches. While it also was due to the amazing job that Samantha Stoltz did as coach, along with Sathitha Adhikary as player manager. Your support and efforts across the season are truly appreciated and will be recognised during our PE Week Assembly in Term 4 Week 5. A special thank you to Mr Sicari and Mr Neate for making a banner that the team was able to run through in their final match.

Term 4 Kelly Sports R-5

The Kelly Sports Program continues this week for Reception – Year 2. Sessions are held on Wednesdays after school from 3:15pm - 4:00pm. Please be mindful that you must be on time and pick your child up at 4:00pm otherwise they will be sent to OSHC.

Term 4 Kelly Sports Program flyers have been sent home with students and copies are available below. Nominations will open once the forms are sent through and finalised. 

Years 3 to 5 Volleyball Program flyer is available here.
Reception to Year 2 Multi-sport Program flyer is available here.

Corey Tucker
P.E. Teacher and Sports Coordinator

The Kiss 'N' Drop Zone can, at times, be very hectic and experience lots of high traffic movement. For the safety of all our pedestrians and vehicular traffic we ask that you follow these simple guidelines AT ALL TIMES when entering and exiting the Kiss 'N' Drop area.

• Do not exceed the 5km per hour speed limit.
• Always be alert for pedestrians, particularly at the entrance and exit and give way should they need to cross.
• Please do not allow children to exit/enter your car while you are in the right hand over taking lane, move over to the left hand lane.
• Children are to enter and alight from the left side of the car only.
• Children must be able to get into the car and put on their own seat belt while the driver remains in the car.
• If your child cannot alight from the car by themselves you will need to park in the surrounding streets and walk into the school.
• For the sake of our neighbors and the Unley Council, please do not queue on Macklin Street, please go around the block and queue on Kenilworth Road.
• To ensure the smooth flow of traffic in this zone, please DO NOT leave your car unattended.
• To all parents and carers, please be considerate of other users and remember that the KISS ‘N’ DROP is a NO PARKING ZONE.

Staff are on duty until 3:30pm. If you are unable to collect your child by this time, please contact the school and your child will be looked after in Out of School Hours Care (OSHC) until you arrive. A minimal cost will incur for this service.  Please pass this information on to other family members who pick up/drop off you child.

Poppies Project for Remembrance Day

We, at St Raphael's School, are proud to announce our Poppies Project for Remembrance Day. We would like to invite all of our students and their families to participate in this project. To honor this solemn day, we will be creating a special Remembrance Board that will display the red poppy flowers that are knitted or crocheted by our community members.

The red poppy has been a symbol of remembrance since the end of World War I. It is a symbol that honors the brave people who have fought and died for our country. The Remembrance Board that we are creating will serve as a tribute to these brave individuals, and as a reminder of the sacrifices that they have made.

We encourage everyone in our community to participate in this project. Whether you are a skilled knitter or a beginner, your contribution will be greatly appreciated. Together, we can create a beautiful display that honors the memory of those who have served our country. Thank you for your support, and we look forward to seeing your poppies on our Remembrance Board.

If you would like to participate, please contact Katrina on ktucker@raph.catholic.edu.au for a pattern. All poppies are to be delivered to the front office once finished and no later than the end of Week 1 Term 4, Friday 20 October.

Katrina Tucker
Marketing and Communications Coordinator