Newsletter 1 2023

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

Welcome to the new 2023 school year. It has been wonderful welcoming back our familiar and new faces to our school community these past couple of weeks. On Friday 3 February we held a special Welcome Assembly led by our very capable Year 6 leaders and during this time all classes presented their class mottos to the gathered community. It was fantastic to see so many families in attendance. 

Mottos

Reception
Welcome to our classroom where the magic never stops and the adventure never ends.
Year 1
Side by side, together we grow, underneath God's beautiful rainbow.
Year 2
You all belong here.
Year 3
A journey of 1000 miles begins with one step.
Year 4
We are MAD (Making A Difference).
Year 5 
Welcome to our always learning, usually discussing, sometimes messy, happy, respectful classroom.
Year 6
A leader, a learner, a friend now and always.

Upcoming Events

We have a few exciting events organised in the next few weeks, beginning with the Welcome Night tonight, Wednesday 8 February, the Welcome Family BBQ on Sunday 19 February and the Car Boot Sale on Sunday 5 March. Our Parents and Friends have been busy organising events to bring our families together, promoting connection, establishing new acquaintances and friendships.

Welcome New Families and Staff Members

We welcome all our new families who have joined our school community.  Students who have commenced this term are: Amalia C, Betty F, Chance G, Madeline G, Nico R, James K and Paul K.

We welcome new members of staff, Mrs Helena Card, Assistant Principal, Religious Identity and Mission (APRIM), Mrs Corey-Lee Lewis, Assistant Principal, Leader of Learning, Mrs Janelle Scrivener, Year 2 Teacher, Mrs Susan Moir, Education Support Officer, Curriculum Support, Mr Corey Tucker, Co-Year 6 Teacher and Mrs Oriana Radman, Japanese Teacher.

Welcome Night Wednesday 8 February at 6:30 pm

Tonight we are holding our Welcome Night. This is an opportunity for parents/caregivers to meet their child/ren’s class teacher/s and hear about what the learning will be for them. Special guest for the evening is Trish Jarvis, Executive Officer of Catholic Schools Parents South Australia, who will presenting a short session on ‘Parent and School Engagement'. Detailed below is the schedule of the evening’s events. Students are welcome to attend and will be supervised on the oval whilst the parent sessions are being facilitated. There will also be a treat for all children attending!

6:30pm             Welcome
6:35 - 6:50pm   Trish Jarvis, Executive Officer of Catholic Schools Parents South Australia presentation
6:50 - 6:55pm   Address from Gaia Ricci, P& F Chairperson, St Raphael’s School
6:55 - 7:00pm   Staff Introductions
7:00 - 7:20pm   Parent Session 1
7:20 - 7:40 pm  Parent Session 2 

With every best wish,
Mia Harms
Principal

I am Helena Card, Assistant Principal Religious Identity and Mission, and would like to extend a warm welcome to you all for the beginning of the school year.  Last week I was privileged to meet your lovely children as I visited the classrooms and have felt very welcomed into the St Raphael’s School Community by the children, staff and families.   

Catholic Identity

The Religious Identity and Mission lives throughout St Raphael’s School and makes us who we are, a welcoming community for all.  Throughout the term, we invite all members of our community to join us for Community Prayer. Please check our website and events for the dates and times.  We hope to see you join us for this form of prayer and reflection. You may not be of the Catholic faith, but don’t let this prevent you from being welcomed and joining us.
Our Catholic Identity is visible in many ways:

• All your children will experience our Catholic identity as we follow the Crossways Religious Education Curriculum which becomes a synthesis of life and living through the Catholic faith and this curriculum is tailored and delivered at a level appropriate to each child’s stage of development and experience.
• Whole School Mass events and Prayer Liturgies.
• We work in partnership with parents and the parish community in supporting children in their preparation and celebration of the Sacraments of Reconciliation, Confirmation and Communion.
• Our students become familiar with social justice as they act and support various groups such as Caritas and Vinnies.

Sacramental Program for 2023

St Paul of the Cross Parish, Glen Osmond/Parkside invites you to consider whether your child is ready to begin the formal preparation for the Sacraments of Confirmation and First Holy Communion. Our Sacramental preparation process begins with enrolment and consultation and meeting with parents. If you wish to enrol your child or children, then please contact the Parish office. Should you have any further questions about the program please contact Sue Schulz, Pastoral Associate on 83381277 or myself here at school. We look forward to the opportunity of working with you and your child on this liturgical journey. There are enrolment forms available at the front office.

Shrove Tuesday

The season of Lent leads us on the journey towards Easter and begins on Ash Wednesday. The day before the start of Lent is known as Shrove Tuesday and is celebrated around the world with pancakes.  This year Shrove Tuesday falls on Tuesday 21 February.  We are looking for volunteers to help us with cooking the pancakes for the children to partake in.  If you are available to help us cook the pancakes, we will be starting at 7:30am and you are welcome to bring your children with you at that time.  Please contact me: hcard@raph.catholic.edu.au or the front office info@raph.catholic.edu.au if you are available to do this. 

Mercy Values

We are a school steeped in Mercy values and through consultation with staff and community our Mercy values are to be Respectful, Just and Compassionate.  In light of this, as a staff and community we are taking on board the theme this year of ‘listening with a compassionate heart’.  Listening with compassion is a gift we can give to each other as we allow ourselves to be truly present and attentive to one another.

“Listening with my heart reminds us of the other golden rule-- to treat ourselves with the same understanding and compassion we give to others.”  (Author anon)

Blessings to you all,
Helena Card
Assistant Principal Religious Identity and Mission

Thank you for such a lovely, warm welcome to St Raphael’s School. It has been lovely to meet all the new faces, including staff, students and parents. What a different start to the schooling year compared to last year!

Australian Curriculum

In recent months, the Australian Curriculum has been updated and refined to ensure a teachable curriculum that identifies the essential content that children should learn. The Australian Curriculum is a national curriculum that enables all students to receive equitable and quality education. The curriculum is designed to help all students become successful learners, confident and creative individuals and informed citizens. At St Raphael’s School, there is an expectation of at least one year’s growth in each child’s learning.

The curriculum consists of eight key learning areas – English, Mathematics, Health and Physical Education, Humanities and Social Sciences, Mathematics, Science, Technologies, The Arts and Languages (Japanese at St Raphael’s School). The key learning areas are then broken up into achievement standards, content descriptors and elaborations. Find out more about the Australian Curriculum here:  The Australian Curriculum. An overview for parents. (acara.edu.au)

National Assessment Program - Literacy and Numeracy NAPLAN

This year, the National Assessment Program - Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) has shifted assessment time to Term 1 from Term 2. At St Raphael’s School, students in Year 3 and 5 will be sitting the assessments in Week 7 and 8.

Items in the tests are linked to the Australian Curriculum, and are primarily based on knowledge, skills and understandings from the student’s previous year of schooling.

The assessment and reporting process is not in place of extensive, ongoing assessments made by staff at St Raphael’s School, but rather provide additional professional judgements about their student’s attainment of literacy and numeracy skills.

Warm regards
Corey-Lee Lewis
Assistant Principal – Leader of Learning

Has your child shown interest in learning a musical instrument in 2023?

At St Raphael's School, students are invited to participate in weekly one-on-one lessons with one of our talented instrumental tutors in one of the following areas: piano, guitar, drums and voice/singing.
For further information please contact me, Mandy Flynn aflynn@raph.catholic.edu.au

Ukulele Club

Each Friday our Year 3 and 4 students are invited to attend the Ukulele Club.

In addition to learning how to play this positively upbeat instrument, student musicians will also learn and experience:

• How to play popular songs
• Performing as a group and as a solo artist
• Develop personal self-confidence
• Take part in a variety of school music performances in 2023.

Drama Club

Years 4, 5 and 6 are invited to join our Drama Club held every Friday at lunchtime.

Mandy Flynn
Performing Arts Coordinator

Afterschool Sport Term 1

Kelly Sports will be running both clinics for our Reception – Year 2 students, and our Year 3 - 6 students on Wednesdays after school from 3:15 - 4:00pm. Reception – Year 2 students will have the opportunity to try a variety of sports through the mutli sport summer program, with hockey, athletics, Tball and cricket. Our Year 3 - 6 students will have the opportunity to participate in a specialised tennis program. If your child is interested, please sign up through Kelly Sports or go to the links below. 

Sizzling Summer Sports
Tennis Clinic

Swimming Carnival

SACPSSA Swimming Carnival will be held on Friday 31 March at SA Aquatic Centre Marion for students in Year 3 - 6.  This is a mixed gender carnival where there are no separate events for boys and girls. Events are in the four standard styles of Backstroke, Breaststroke, Butterfly and Freestyle, with three ability levels A, B and C offering a greater number of children the chance to compete.

Swimming trials will be held at Norwood Outdoor Pool on Thursday March 8, 16 and 24 from 3:45-4:30pm. If your child is interested in trialling they MUST be able to swim 25m without stopping. More information about this will be sent out in the upcoming weeks.

Volleyball Sporting Schools

We are fortunate enough to have received funding through Sporting Schools for our students in Year 4 - 6 to participate in specialised Volleyball Clinics during their PE Lessons. These clinics will be run during Weeks 3, 4, 5 and 6.

SANFL Clinics

Auskick is starting up again.  As our school is part of the Sturt Metro region, our Reception and Year 1 students will be participating in some football clinics during their Physical Education lessons this term, run by Sturt Football Club. There are a number of AusKick clinics situated around our school that students can sign up for which take place on Saturday mornings. If your child is interested in participating in Auskick please sign them up via the link below.

https://www.play.afl/play/auskick/?gclid=EAIaIQobChMI3figqeWB_QIVAldgCh0VggppEAAYASAAEgJ1uvD_BwE

Sports Day

Sports Day will be held on Friday 24 March (Week 8) on campus. We are currently in the process of selecting our Year 6 Sports Captains. The process requires the Year 6 students to write a speech and deliver it to their fellow teammates.  Students then vote for who they think would best to represent their team.

Volunteers

For School Sport and sports carnivals to be successful we require parent volunteers to help coach or manage teams. As a Catholic community, we welcome and value volunteers. To be able to volunteer, and/or attend at other times throughout the school year, we ask that you hold the following:

• A current Catholic Police Check (parents/caregivers attending excursions, reading in class, helping in class, attending community events).
• A Working with Children’s Check.
• A current Responding to Abuse and Neglect in Education and Care for Volunteers certificate.

Please speak to front office staff to start the process and to avoid disappointment.

Hannah Reid
P.E. Teacher and Sports Coordinator

Welcome to 2023!

The Parents and Friends have lots in store for our school this term and across the year.  Please find our calendar of events below.

School Family BBQ

Please join us on Sunday 19 February from 11:30am on the school oval. There will be a free sausage sizzle provided by the Parents and Friends Committee, and families are invited to bring a hamper, picnic rug and enjoy the day together.  To assist with catering, please RSVP to ktucker@raph.catholic.edu.au with the number of family members attending the BBQ.

We look forward to seeing you there!

Community Car Boot Sale
Sunday 5 March, 9am to 1pm

We are asking our school families who need to do a clear out of their house and yard to book a stall at our Car Boot sale on 5 March. The cost is $20 for the stall and what you make on the day is yours to keep in full. We are looking for stalls of bric'a'brac, tools, plants, clothes, toys, books, food, bespoke items and treasures.  If you are interested in having a stall, please contact Katrina on ktucker@raph.catholic.edu.au Set up on the day will be from 8am and we request, where possible, people pay in advance to secure a spot.

We are also requesting donations of biscuits and slices with ingredient labels to be given to the front office on the Friday before, to then be sold at the school's trading table. We will also have a book swap area, so if you have any books you would like to donate and/or bring on the day to swap with others please do so.

Sausage sizzle will start around 9am so bring your $2 coins!

We look forward to seeing you there! 

Katrina Tucker
Marketing and Communications Coordinator

St Raphael's School is a place to Learn and Belong and we invite our families and their friends to join us at our upcoming events. Please check our events page here for what's coming up at your school.

Welcome back to OSHC for 2023!

OSHC looks a little different this year as we have had a big change of staff. Abi, Corey and Jess Archer have all moved on to other roles but we are very fortunate to welcome Jessica Harmer, Kayla Pisani and Cameron O’Connell as our new OSHC staff.

Abi, has accepted a full time teaching contract at Highgate for this year.

Corey has accepted a teaching role with Anthony in Year 6 at our school and will also be doing relief teaching.

Jess Archer is continuing her Uni studies fulltime and working part time for MIND.

Corey and Jess will still be in OSHC occasionally this term especially whilst Kayla and Cameron are “finding their feet”.

We thank them all for their wonderful work in OSHC and wish them well in their chosen careers.

Jessica Harmer comes to us as a previous OSHC Director with many years experience. She will work each Monday doing admin through the day and then in After School Care.

Kayla is in her first year of her teaching degree and also works in OSHC for Camp Australia. She will work most afternoons.

Cameron is in his third year of his teaching degree and will be working most afternoons.

I will introduce you to them all when I can but please feel free to introduce yourselves and to speak to them at any time. They are all lovely people and I am so pleased to have them join our St Raphael's School community.

Jeanette Archer will continue to work in Before School Care each day and help out if needed in After School Care.

Anne O’Connell
OSHC Director