Newsletter 9 2022

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

Sacramental Program

We were privileged to attend the weekend Masses 18-19 June, at the Glen Osmond/Parkside Parish, when some of our students celebrated the Sacrament of First Holy Communion. These students and their families have been part of our Sacramental Program, led by Parish Associate, Sue Shultz and Kelly Manera. Last Tuesday, these same students celebrated the Sacrament of Confirmation, officiated by Fr Dean Marin, Vicar General. We congratulate Georgia, Mia, Luella, Elaine and Leo.

Marianne Farrugia’s Farewell

On Friday 24 June we will be farewelling Marianne as she will be on Long Service Leave for the remainder of this term and next term she begins her new role as Principal, St Joseph’s School, Hindmarsh. We will be hosting a special Assembly at 9:00am followed by a morning tea. All parents/caregivers are most welcome to come along and participate in the festivities.

Welcome to New Staff

We welcome Matthew Ressom who will be replacing Mrs Elizabeth Bello for the remainder of this term and for the first 3 weeks next term. Mrs Bello is taking Long Service Leave from Monday 27 June and we wish her safe and happy travels.   We look forward to her return on Monday 15 August.

Semester 1 Reports

Teachers are in the process of finalising student Semester 1 Reports. Reports will be sent home to parents/caregivers on Thursday 7 July. Parents/caregivers are invited to make a time to discuss their child’s Semester 1 Report on our return next term.

Pupil Free Days

The Office will be closed on Friday 8 July as all staff, including the Office Administration staff, will be attending a staff Retreat, led by Fr Denis. On our return back to school, Monday 25 July, teachers will be involved in a professional learning day combining with our colleagues from two regional schools, St Thomas, Goodwood and St Therese, Colonel Light Gardens continuing our learning in ‘Visible Learning’.

OSHC is available for families who need this service on both days. To organize a booking for your child/ren please use the Fully Booked program which you can access here. 

With every best wish,
Mia Harms
Principal

What a special few weeks it has been in the life of the School and Parish. We congratulate Georgia, Mia, Luella, Elaine, Leo and James who are now fully initiated into the Catholic community. We extend our thanks to Fr Dean Marin, Vicar General, who confirmed our candidates in a beautiful ceremony at St Paul of the Cross Church and Fr Denis and Fr Jacob who celebrated Masses over the weekend that included our young people celebrating their First Eucharist witnessed by the Parish community. A big thank you to Sue Schulz who coordinated an outstanding sacramental program.

A big thank you

Thank you to all our learners, families and staff who have contributed to the Vinnies Winter Appeal over the past few weeks. We received many donations of quality winter warmers, hand knitted beanies and scarves, socks, toiletry items and monetary contributions to support many in our community who are doing it tough. Your donations and support is greatly appreciated and it was wonderful to see an array of coloured socks last week!

Art Show

We look forward to welcoming you all to the inaugural Art Show at the Monastery on the weekend of July 1-3. Our exhibition will display an eclectic mix of styles, mediums and creative works from our talented learners. The exhibition will be open for viewing on Friday 1 July from 4:00pm-8:00pm, Saturday 2 July from 10:00am- 1:00pm and Sunday 3 July from 10:00am-1:00pm. We thank the Parish for hosting this event for us.

Staff Retreat

Our annual Staff Retreat Day will be held at the Monastery on Friday 8 July (pupil free day). This is a special time for staff to nourish their faith and connect with each other. The day will be led by Fr Denis and will include prayer, meditation, journaling and reflection on two of our new Mercy values, compassion and justice. We look forward to a connected, reflective and meaningful day.

This Friday we celebrate the Feast of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus. We are reminded of the call for us to love abundantly and know that we too are abundantly loved.

May God bless us open hearts to respond the world’s need.
May God bless us with responding hearts that take action when we witness injustice.
May God bless us with hearts that create communities of love and compassion.

Wishing you a wonderful week ahead.

God bless,
Kelly Manera
Assistant Principal Religious Identity and Mission

St Raphael’s School Vision

We are pleased to have finalised the graphic representation of our new St Raphael’s School Vision, included in this newsletter.  This vision depicts who we are and who we strive to be as a school of excellence and has been co-constructed with staff, students and families across a number of months.  Our vision image will soon be visible in all our learning spaces and front office.  Sincere thanks to Amy Thornton who has generously provided the design work for the vision.

Mid-Year Reporting

Families will soon receive their child’s mid-year report which provides an A-E grade for each of the learning areas for students in Year 1-6.  We are not required to report A-E for Reception students. Teachers are currently finalising assessments, and these take many forms such as a written learning sample, a presentation, a video, a conversation or reflection. The teacher’s goal in assessment is to provide opportunities for learners to demonstrate what they know, understand, and can do in relation to the Achievement Standard of each learning area.

The Australian Curriculum is available for all to view via the website and contains resources to help parents understand the intent and content of the curriculum.  Following a review, ACARA have now released Version 9 of the curriculum and schools will use this version from the beginning of 2023.

Teachers also use standardised assessments to inform them of next step learning needs, progress and achievement. These take place at various times across the year. Some of this testing includes:

• National Assessment Program in Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN Year 3 and 5
• Year 1 Phonics Screening Test)
• Progressive Achievement Tests in Reading, Mathematics and Vocabulary (PAT M, PAT R and PAT V)
• SA Spelling Test
• Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills (DIBELS)

We are currently about to undertake our DIBELS testing for the mid-year.  This assessment, facilitated one on one with each student, is done at the beginning, middle and end of the year to monitor progress and ascertain the success of our explicit approach to teaching reading and spelling.

Thank you

As I come to the end of my time at St Raphael’s School, I proudly reflect on the many aspects of school life that I have contributed towards including:

• successful implementation of a new approach to literacy
• development and implementation of our learner dispositions and identification of our school values
• professional learning of our teaching staff to refine and improve their skills in constructing rich, deep and visible learning
• implementation of the marketing strategy
• provision of a school counsellor
• building refurbishment and new building design
• a new strategic plan and school vision

In doing so, I have gained much, much more in return.  These gifts include the joy of working in collaboration as a part of a strong school and parish leadership team, the privilege of working in partnership with families to support the learning and wellbeing of each of our students and, most especially the grace of knowing and loving each and every one of the amazing and wonderful children in the St Raphael’s School community.  I truly, have been blessed.

Thank you for partnering with me for the best outcomes for your children over the past 2 ½ years.  I wish the whole of the St Raphael’s School community every good wish into the future.

Marianne Farrugia
Assistant Principal- Director of Learning

Reception

As part of their Drama curriculum learning area, our youngest student performers have explored the Puppetry medium, focusing on characterisation, voice, creating a narrative and essential audience skills. Although, for many students, the highlight of Term 2 has been learning about Chinese New Year Dragon Puppets and Vietnamese Water Puppetry.

Years 1 and 2

Mrs Bello and Mrs McAloney’s classes have been learning about the world of Physical Theatre (Mime and Circus) as part of their Term 2 Drama focus. As you can imagine, students have enthusiastically engaged in these learning areas and have enjoyed participating in an assortment of creative games, student/teacher discussions and in-class performances.

Years 3 and 4

Throughout Term 2, our students have explored how Music compositions and audio sound effects transform stories across a variety of entertainment platforms (film, television, art installations, live theatre, dance and interactive experiences). Also, as part of this learning, students have also enjoyed incorporating African Bongo Drumming, Wooden Claves, the Kambala and body percussion during weekly lesson time.

Years 5 and 6

Since commencing as the newly appointed Performing Arts Teacher at St Raphael’s School this year, I quickly noticed that the Ukulele is a popular instrument that is fondly embraced by our learning and teaching community. Thus, many of our senior student musicians have been eagerly awaiting the commencement of our Ukulele unit, as part of their Music Curriculum learning and assessment area for Terms 2 and 3.

Elaborating further, all learners have commenced with differing levels of abilities (i.e. some who had never held a Ukulele and some who are seasoned players) and so Mrs Flynn created four learning levels for our student musicians (see below).

Subsequently, this approach has also challenged students to take ownership in their learning by reflecting on what they may have retained from previous years in Performing Arts and how they can utilise what they’ve learned to challenge themselves and progress to the next level.  

Amanda Flynn
Performing Arts Coordinator 

Term 3 School Netball

School Netball will be available next term for both girls and boys in Years 4, 5 and 6. Every week the team plays at Netball SA on a Thursday afternoon at 4:30pm.  If your child is interested in playing for the school please email me hreid@raphs.catholic.edu.au

Term 3 Kelly Sport Rec- Year 2

Programs for Reception - Year 2 students run weekly for 8 weeks and next term we will focus on the following sports:

Football (AFL)
Basketball
Hockey
Soccer

This program gives students skills and confidence in a fun and enjoyable environment and encourages enthusiasm for sport and the life skills that such involvement brings.

When: Wednesday
Commencing: 3 August 2022
Concluding: 21 September 2022
Time: 3:15 – 4:15pm School Courts
Cost:  $115

A flyer with more information is available here and please register for the program through Kelly Sports online www.kellysports.com.au

SACPSSA Netball Carnival – Monday 4 July

On Monday Week 10 St Raphael’s School will be participating in the SACPSSA Netball Carnival at Netball SA Stadium. We have 3 teams participating made up of: Year 5 girls, Year 6 girls and Year 5/6 boys. Each team will be playing 6 games throughout the day. Thank you to those parents that have volunteered to assist with team management. Spectators are allowed to attend.

SACPSSA Cross Country Carnival – Training

The SACPSSA Cross Country Carnival is held each year in the East Parklands, starting on the Prince Alfred College Oval and making its way along a 2km course through Park 15. Annually, this event sees students in Years 3, 4, 5 and 6 challenge themselves over a 2km course. The event hosts approximately 60 schools and around 2500 students each year. All students in Years 3-6 are invited to come and participate in training.

Training: Wednesday Week 9 and Week 10
8.20am
Meet on School Oval

Hannah Reid
PE Teacher and Sports Coordinator

Trivia Night

The Parents and Friends Committee is excited to announce the school’s Trivia Night will take place in Term 3 on Saturday August 20. Tickets are now on sale for $10 each through Humanitix here. 

Also this is your last week to take the opportunity to stock up on some quality local wines with the Parents and Friends Wine Fundraiser. Please use the link here to see what’s on offer and make your purchasers before Friday.

More future events:

Term 3 events:

Trivia Night Saturday 20 August 
Father's Day Stall Thursday 1 September 

Parents and carers disco social at a local establishment on the night of the school disco with special meal packages on offer.
Parent Educative Session  

Term 4 events:

• School Playdate  
• Working Bee  
• People's Choice Community Lottery    
• Parent social event with the potential for a wine tour. 

Katrina Tucker
Marketing and Communications Coordinator

Pupil Free Day Friday 8 July 2022
Pyjama Party Day!    

Friday 8 July 2022 is a Pupil Free Day. Come dressed comfy and warm in your PJ’s, onesie or a trackie, bring your favourite game to play with your friends and enjoy a relaxing Pupil Free Day in OSHC.

Enjoy:

• decorating biscuits then eating them with a nice hot chocolate
• making cosy cubby houses and decorating them with cushions and blankets
• playing board games and doing puzzles in the loft or your cubby house
• pillow fights
• other games and prizes
• then relax with a movie and popcorn

BYO lunch, drink bottle and hat.

Book before Friday 1 July to avoid late fee.

Pupil Free Day Monday 25 July 2022
Pirate Party!

Monday July 25 2022  is a Pupil Free Day! The good news is…..

OSHC IS HAVING A PIRATE PARTY AND YOU’RE INVITED!

Where: The OSHC Room
When:  8.00am - 5.30pm 25 July 2022

BYO: Hat, recess and drink bottle

Dress as a pirate and use your best “Pirate Talk” as we hunt for treasure, walk the plank and play other “pirate games”.

OSHC will supply a yummy party lunch and afternoon snack so come join the party!

BOOK NOW!

Reminder school fees
Fee statements have been sent home to families with your child last week.

Instalment Term 2 - Due Date 1 July
Instalment Term 3 - Due Date 1 September
Instalment Term 4 - Due Date 1 November

Please assist us by keeping fee payments up to date.

If you have having difficulties paying school fees, it is important that you contact the school finance office to discuss and make alternate payment arrangements.

Thank you.

Damian Emery
Finance Officer
Ph: 8272 2368 accounts@raph.catholic.edu.au