Newsletter 8 2022

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

Pentecost

On Sunday we celebrated the feast of Pentecost, the 50th day (the seventh Sunday) after Easter Sunday. It commemorates the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles and other followers of Jesus Christ.  This day is important to Christians today because it represents the beginning of the Christian Church. Pentecost reminds us how Jesus' promise that God would send the Holy Spirit was fulfilled. When the Holy Spirit came to Jesus’ disciples on the first Pentecost, it gave them courage and empowered them to share the Good News with others. Fortitude, or courage, is one of the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Like the early disciples all those years ago, we are called today, to put our own gifts to use and spread the Good News with love, compassion and care.

Celebration of Confirmation and First Eucharist

We pray for Georgia, Luella, Mia, Elaine and Leo who will be celebrating the Sacrament of Confirmation on Tuesday 14 June and their First Eucharist on the weekend of 18 and 19 June.  We keep these children and their families in our prayers as they continue on their sacramental journey. We thank Kelly Manera APRIM and Sue Schulz for facilitating the Parish Sacramental Program and helping prepare these children and their families to celebrate these sacraments.

Art Show

Students have been busily preparing their creations to display at the upcoming Parish School Art Show. The Monastery will be open to our families on the weekend of 1 July - 3 July to come and view their children/s artistic creations. We are grateful to Fr Denis and the parish team for allowing us to use the Monastery as a venue to showcase our students’ creations.

Staffing

We congratulate Mrs Kelly Manera who has been appointed, Director of Learning in Ms Marianne Farrugia’s stead. As you will recall Marianne has been appointed Principal at St Joseph’s School, West Hindmarsh, a position she will assume in Term 3.  Marianne’s last day with us will be on Friday 24 June as she will be taking Long Service Leave for the last two weeks of this term.  Kelly Manera will officially begin her new role at the beginning of Term 3.

Mrs Elizabeth Bello will be taking Long Service Leave from Monday 27 June and returning on Monday 15 August. Matthew Reesom has been appointed to replace Elizabeth.

Multi-million dollar upgrade of our facilities

Now that our upstairs classroom refurbishment is complete, we have been busily working with architects and designers at Studio Nine to design Stage 2 of our school building project. This stage involves a new administration building constructed at the front of our school facing Glen Osmond Road along with two new general learning areas providing us with a wonderful, contemporary street frontage.   We are pleased to share with you the latest concept drawings as we continue to work with the Catholic Education Office and Studio Nine to ensure St Raphael’s School has exemplary facilities for our learners and their families.See the images here.

Parents and Friends Trivia Night

At our recent P&F Meeting, the decision to host the Trivia Night is back on. A new date has not yet been finalised but we will keep you posted!  Thank you to our P&F for finding ways to bring our community together.

With every best wish,
Mia Harms
Principal

Dear Parents and Caregivers,

On Sunday, we celebrated the feast of Pentecost, the coming of the Holy Spirit upon the disciples 50 days after the resurrection of Jesus. It is a joyful celebration in the Catholic Church and often referred to as the Church’s birthday. It commemorates the time when the Holy Spirit came upon the disciples and instilled in them many gifts to help them convey and live out Jesus’ message to the wider world. I share with you the following prayer, that highlights how the gifts of the spirit can continue to nourish us today.

We pray,
for the Spirit of Peace, that calms our minds and stills our life, we give you thanks.
for the Spirit of Love, that touches our hearts and reaches out to others, we give you thanks.
for the Spirit of Joy, that lifts our soul and gives us faith, we give you thanks.
for the Spirit of Courage, that helps us understand our purpose in life, we give you thanks.
Amen.

Winter Woolies Week and Silly Sock Day

This week, our Student Voice Representatives have initiated ‘Winter Woolies’ and ‘Silly Sock Day’ to support those in our wider community who are doing it tough and experiencing homelessness. We are asking for donations of ‘winter warmer’ items such as quality clothing, socks, scarves, jumpers, blankets and gloves, as well as, toiletry items like soaps, shampoos, tissues and toothpaste. In addition, this Friday, our school community will raise awareness about the Vinnies Winter Appeal by wearing coloured socks or stockings. Donations of a gold coin or new pair of socks will be warmly accepted by our Student Voice team. They thank you all in anticipation for supporting this important cause. Any donations to the Vinnies Appeal will be graciously received all term via our Vinnies bins located outside the school Office.

Year 6 Religious Education and Father Denis Travers Visit

On Friday, Fr Denis visited our Year 6 learners to break open the origin of the four Gospels and share some insight into how each Gospel presents Jesus’ life, Ministry and Passion. The four Gospels that we find in the New Testament, are of course, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, with the earliest, Mark, probably being written some 70 years after Jesus’ death. The Gospels share a lot of detail about Jesus but it is important to know and appreciate each author’s interpretation. Our learners found the presentation very insightful and recorded notes to assist with their own assessment tasks. We are always so appreciative and inspired by Fr Denis’ presentations.

Below are some thoughts that were shared by the students:

“Fr Denis’ presentation was very informative. It was interesting to learn that each Gospel has a symbol associated with it. The Gospel of Mark’s symbol is a winged lion.” Georgia

“He told us all about the symbols for each Gospel.” Grace

“I learnt that each Gospel had different authors, audiences and places.” Natalia

“I enjoy learning about the kind things Jesus said and did.” Mia

“I enjoy reading different biblical stories and putting them into categories.” Lucy

“I like how Fr Denis always comes to visit us in the classroom and shares his PowerPoint presentations.” Sidney

“We have been discovering a variety of truths….. relational, religious and historical.” Roman

Sacramental Program

We look forward to celebrating Confirmation and First Eucharist next week with our young people involved in our Parish Sacramental Program. We welcome Fr Dean Marin, Vicar General, to preside the Confirmation Liturgy on Tuesday 14 June at St Paul of the Cross Church. Over the weekend Masses, our candidates will receive First Communion as part of the Parish Eucharistic celebrations. We continue to pray for all our young candidates and their families as they conclude their initiation into the Catholic community.

We are also commencing our next cycle of sacrament preparation. If you would like for your child to begin their sacramental journey, commencing with the Sacrament of Reconciliation preparation, we invite you to enrol your child via the enrolment forms provided at both Church locations, school Office or by contacting Sue Schulz, Pastoral Associate, at sue.schulz@themonastery.net.au The Parent Information Session for Reconciliation will be held in early August. Please feel free to have a chat if you require more information.

Look forward to seeing a multi-coloured array of socks and stockings on Friday!

Wishing you a wonderful (and warm) week ahead!

God bless,
Kelly Manera
Assistant Principal Religious Identity and Mission

SAPSASSA Football

In Week 4 Braxton and Aiden participated in the SAPSASSA football carnival at West Lakes for Adelaide Southeast. Despite the horrific wet weather, the boys had a great time and the team came away with a few wins. 

School Netball

For the first time in a while St Raphael’s School has a school netball team. This is made up of Year 4, 5 and 6 students. Every week the team plays at Netball SA on a Thursday afternoon at 4.30pm. Even though we have not won a game, it has been great to see the team improving each week and working together. Netball will again be on offer next term for both boys and girls, if your child is interested in playing for the school can you please email me. hreid@raphs.cathoic.edu.au

SACPSSA Netball Carnival – Monday 4 July

On Monday of Week 10 our Year 5 and 6 students will have the opportunity to represent the school at the SACPSSA Netball Carnival. If you child is interested in playing, can you please fill out and return the permission forms ASAP. We are also looking for parent volunteers to help on the day. If you have the correct checks and are willing to help out, please let me know.

SACPSSA Cross Country Carnival – Thursday 11 August

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 Year 3, Year 4, Year 5 and Year 6 challenge themselves over a 2km course. The event hosts approximately 60 schools and around 2500 students each year. Training for this event will begin soon. Watch this space.

Hannah Reid
P.E. Teacher and Sports Coordinator

The Parents and Friends Committee met last night and are happy to announce the Term 2 fundraising initiative along with a summary of events planned for the rest of 2022 for you to enjoy.

Term 2 event

WINE FUNDRAISER allows you to support our school with the purchase of premium local wines. Stock up on your favourite wines whilst supporting our school along with South Australian wineries and small business. There are amazing premium branded wines available for you to enjoy! Simply order online here  Orders close Friday 24 June 2022.

Term 3 events

• TRIVIA NIGHT with tickets on sale towards the end of this term.
• Thursday 1 September for our school’s annual FATHER’S DAY STALL.
• PARENTS AND CARERS DINNER 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

Our Stem Activity

This term, our Year 3 learners have been inquiring into local indigenous groups, with a particular focus on the Kaurna People of the Adelaide Plains. As part of their learning, they investigated materials and designs for traditional Aboriginal shelters. The Kaurna word for shelter is 'Wardli'. For this STEM activity, learners worked collaboratively to draw design sketches and step by step plans to build a model of a Wardli. They then co-constructed success criteria for their model prior to building it. Our learners used mostly natural and sustainable materials to construct their Wardli models. This week, our learners will reflect on the success of their design and product by referring to the success criteria. They will also reflect on how they used their Thoughtful, Collaborative and Resilient Learner Dispositions to think creatively together and solve problems. This learning took place during National Reconciliation Week and by respecting and learning about Aboriginal culture, our Year 3s contributed towards making a change for reconciliation in Australia. The Year 3s also collaboratively made a National Sorry Day artwork as part of their National Reconciliation Week learning. The artwork celebrates the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander flags, and the hands represent the action that our learners are going to take to 'Be Brave, Make Change' to contribute towards achieving reconciliation in Australia.

Our Science Topic

Our Science topic ‘Changing State’ has provided lots of fun and meaningful learning opportunities. The students have been learning about the three states of matter – solid, liquid and gas and how these states change when heat is added or removed. This topic has provided lots of opportunities for our students to become little scientists and in one experiment, students observed how chocolate change states from solid to liquid and back to a solid. Students also had the opportunity to devise their own changing state experiment where they were challenged to think like scientists by planning a fair experiment and making scientific observations.  

A special thank you to Mia, Leo and Olivia's grandmother who has generously donated beautiful, hand knitted blankets to our Vinnie's Winter Appeal.

Thank you to all families for your donations. If you wish to donate, it is not too late.  Please see Kelly Manera's Religious Education News in this newsletter for more information.