Term 4, Week 3, 2023

Dear Parents and Caregivers,

Last week we welcomed some new students to our school: John (Year Three), Moses and Elisa (both Year 5). We also welcomed Kathy Keough to our staff this week. Kathy is a co-educator who will be working to support teachers and students across our school. I would like to welcome the four of you and your families to our school community and hope that your time with us is full of learning, friendships and fun!

Thank you to everyone for the fabulous donations and participation in Bandanna Day last Friday when we all supported Cassie Parker as she had her head shaved at school. Your support is greatly appreciated, not just by Cassie, but by the whole school community. It is moments like these when we see the true friendship, love, care and compassion for other people.

Congratulations to our Year 5 and Year 6 children who attended their ‘Zoo Snooze’ at the Adelaide Zoo last week. They all had a fabulous time. Thank you to those staff who gave up their beauty sleep to provide care and supervision for the night. It is greatly appreciated.

On Wednesday of this week we celebrated All Saints Day with a whole school liturgy. This is an important day in the life of our church when we remember all those special people (or Saints) who have gone before us, and remind ourselves to try and live good lives like they did. Some notable saints whom your children will learn about in their time at our school will be: St Mary Magdalene, St Thomas More, St Mary of the Cross MacKillop, St Francis, St Vincent de Paul, Mother Teresa, St Joseph, St Patrick, St Peter and St Paul. There are so many others who they might also hear about. To be a saint requires two things: to have a particular miracle attributed to you and to be no longer living! Unfortunately, at this stage, most of us currently don’t meet either requirement. However, I believe that all of us are called to be saints, to be good people who change the lives of all those we meet. None of us require a special gift, or be ‘canonised’, in order to be good people: Compassionate, Courageous, Hospitable, Just, Respectful and of Service to others. I encourage everyone to be the best that they can be at all times. Thank you to our R-2 children and staff who led our liturgy.

Before the next newsletter we will celebrate Remembrance Day. Again, this is a time when we remember all those who have gone before and have fought in wars in an attempt to bring freedom and peace to our lands. Sadly, many of those people either died or were injured in the process. We pray for all those people and their families at this special time. We pray also for all those people still experiencing war in their land, such as in the Ukraine, Israel and Gaza. May lasting peace come to all of them. I encourage you to look at our good friend, Andrew Chinn’s song “We Will Remember Them (My Grandfather’s Hat)”, which is all about Anzac Day and Remembrance Day. You may use it to have a time of prayer and remembrance with your children on 11 November.

On Friday we celebrated “World Teacher’s (Educators) Day”. Our staff do an amazing job every day, teaching, supporting, nurturing and caring for a whole range of different little personalities. Each day poses different challenges and our educators still front up every day to continue to engage and develop our young people. As we move towards the end of the year the workload ramps up even more, with Reports to be written, 2024 classes to be assigned and end of year activities to be prepared, all while completing the current year’s curriculum content. I want to thank and acknowledge our staff therefore, for the way they go about their work, ensuring each child is special, learning, building positive relationships, having fun and thriving in our community. Thank you to those parents who did go out of their way last Friday to thank their child(ren)’s teacher and other staff in our school. Being thankful is a really important characteristic we want to instil in our students during their time with us.

Our School Board meets this Tuesday evening. Thank you to our Board members for their commitment. 

We wish Mr Morgado and our Year 3 to Year 6 ‘athletes’ all the best for the SACPSSA Athletics Carnival next Wednesday at the SA Athletics Stadium at Mile End. We hope it is a rewarding and enjoyable day for you all.

Kind regards

Peter Mercer

Head of School

‘Shaping our future together’

This week we celebrated All Saints and All Souls Day. We celebrate All Saints Day to remember all those that spent their entire life making a difference to others and celebrate All Souls Day to remember all those special people in our lives that we have loved and that have died and gone to be with God in Heaven.  

The Receptions, Year 1’s & Year 2’s put on a beautiful Liturgy to commemorate these days and shared some beautiful prayers.  

-We pray that we, like the saints, may rise up and live lives that make a difference by showing true compassion and understanding of others. 

-We pray that when we are feeling sad and missing someone who has died that we will find comfort through the love and support of family and friends.  

-We pray that we, like the saints, may rise up and live lives that make a difference by showing service, respect and justice.  

Zoo Snooze

We have had a very busy start to Term 4. Last week we had the joy of going to the Adelaide Zoo, for our Camp. The year 5’s from Miss Sam’s class and all of us enjoyed the sunshine and the animals for the afternoon, overnight and in the morning! We learnt a game called Zebras. 

Mercy Day and Walk a Mile in My Shoes

Last term the year 5/6’ organised our annual Mercy Day celebrations. Today we are happy to share some of our achievements for the day. Part of our outreach on Mercy Day is to Catherine House, the money raised from the Mercy Day stalls will be going to support the women and children connected to Catherine House and we thank Ms Musolino for passing on the money raised to them for us. The Market Day stalls raised $249.50.  

During the afternoon, as a school, we raised money for those who are less fortunate than us and are experiencing homelessness in Adelaide. This money will be given to the Hutt St Centre to support those who are doing it tough on our streets. As a school, we raised $108.40.  

On behalf of the 5/6 team, I would like to say congratulations and thank you for supporting us in our learning and those less fortunate than us in our local community.