Newsletter 16 2022

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

This term, although our last for the year, will no doubt pass very quickly. We have many events planned for our community and one of the events is our Grandparents and Special Person Morning being held on Wednesday 9 November at 9:00am.  We hope to see many grandparents and special VIPs on this day.  More details will follow later.

Last weekend Kelly Manera, Fr Denis Travers, Sue Schulz and I, along with key personnel from the Parkside/Glen Osmond Parish attended the 2022 Diocesan Assembly, ‘Together on the Way’, a gathering of over 400 delegates from parishes, schools, communities, and Diocesan agencies within the Adelaide and Port Pirie Diocese. It was a big undertaking reflecting on how we continue to be a ‘synodal church’, and the 255 recommendations created after the 2021 Diocesan Assembly.  Following the 2021 gathering, parishes and school communities were asked to choose 3 top priorities and send these to the Archdiocese. From the feedback results of priorities, the 5 top recommendations were selected for our local churches and the 6 top recommendations for our Archdiocese were selected.  I was asked to be on a panel and I spoke about our strong school and parish partnerships and what it looks like at St Raphael’s School. It was heartening to be reminded about the mission work we do in our everyday life. Each of us, by our baptism, is the extension and hand of God to one another. We are called to be ‘a mission to one another’.  

Years 3,4,5 and 6 Camp to Dzintari Campsite, Normanville

Next week our Year 3, 4, 5 & 6 students embark on a camp to Normanville and for some of these students it will be their first camp experience.  The combined camp was deferred from Term 1 due to COVID restrictions and we are excited to be attending. Class teachers as well as additional staff will be attending ensuring that supervision and care is one of our priorities. Students will be involved in Snorkelling, Raft Making, Treasure Hunt, Problem Solving, Billy Cart Racing, and a few more engaging activities.  We provide this opportunity for our students to experience a fun outdoor experience away from home. I thank our teachers, Kelly Davies, Clare Deverson, Kelly Manera, David Monti, Deb Parker and Anthony Sicari for their commitment in attending.

Staffing News

It is with sadness that I announce that Mrs Andrea Bishop has resigned the Acting Assistant Principal, Religious Identity and Mission position at St Raphael’s School for personal reasons. Andrea was appointed to this role last term. We wish Andrea all the best in her future endeavours.

In the interim, I have appointed Mrs Sue Schulz in Andrea’s stead until the end of this year.  Sue is well known to our school community as she is the Parish Associate for the Parish of St Raphael’s/Glen Osmond.  Sue is a regular visitor here running the knitting club and working with our families participating in the Sacramental programs.  

Mrs Elizabeth Bello will be leaving us in 2023 as she has been appointment as a Class Teacher at Stella Maris School. We wish Elizabeth all the best in her future teaching endeavours.

COVID News

I am reminding families that students are to stay away from school if they display symptoms as this is the most effective control against an outbreak of COVID-19 in a school community.

To protect our school community, families should note:

• If students are unwell, please keep them at home.
• If they have cold or flu symptoms they should get tested for COVID-19.
• If they have COVID-19, please keep them at home until their acute symptoms (runny nose, sore throat, cough and fever) have cleared. In consideration for the health of others, when they return to school, if over the age of 12, that they wear a mask while indoors until 7 days have passed since their symptoms first started or since they tested positive, (whichever is earliest).

With every best wish,
Mia Harms
Principal

Monastery Visit for Mercy Day

Our school is blessed to have such a strong relationship with our Parish and for the second year in a row we were invited to spend the day at the Monastery to conclude our Mercy Week celebrations. As a school community, we celebrated Mass together at St Paul of the Cross Church, explored the gardens, planted seeds, fed the chickens, picked and ate fresh fruit, had a tour of the historic buildings, listened to an informative sessions by Annie from Catholic Charities, played lacrosse and decorated butterflies. It was a beautiful sunny day full of connection, laughter, learning and fun! We sincerely thank our friends, Fr Denis, Sue, John and the Parish team.

Icon Visit

Last Friday, Fr Denis and Sue visited our school and brought with them a beautiful Icon of St Paul of the Cross that was commissioned by the Passionists to be created for the 300th anniversary of the founding Passionist Congregation. This Icon has been sent to every part of the world for the past two years and displayed in monasteries and Churches alike. We were lucky to have the Icon visit our school and Fr Denis led an informative presentation sharing its unique and symbolic features. Our learners were most impressed with the Icon and asked thought provoking questions about what they observed. We are one of the only schools lucky enough to have witnessed such a beautiful piece of history.

Student Voice

On Friday, our Student Voice representatives worked with Tony Johnston from Catholic Mission to make sockballs out of recycled materials provided by the community. The sockballs will be used at our upcoming Socktober penalty shootout fundraising event. Each ball was made from an old t-shirt, foam, bubble wrap, plastic bags and string. Our Student Voice team aim to raise money to support the purchase of goat(s) for a community in Ethiopia. In the rural region of Emdibir, where 70 percent of families struggle to put food on their tables, Catholic Mission are working to provide a sustainable source of nutrition by building a goat rearing centre. Fifty dollars is enough to purchase one goat for this community. Let’s see how much we at St Raphael’s School can raise for this worthy cause. More information about the date and event will be communicated soon, but if you would like to learn more please visit the link  www.catholicmission.org.au/worldmissionmonth.

Have a wonderful week ahead.

Kelly Manera
Assistant Principal - Director of Learning

Morphology

Do you know what morphology is? You may be aware of our structured synthetic approach to reading in our Early Years but are you aware of the morphology focus our learners at St Raphael’s School engage in as part of their spelling curriculum across all year levels?

Morphology is the study of words, their formation and their meanings. You may recognise morphemes as elements of the words such prefixes, suffixes and base words and they are the smallest units of meaning within a word. Here is a more complex example.

At St Raphael’s School we have a whole school morphology scope and sequence that informs our educators on what needs to be taught and when. This teaching always includes spelling rules that in the English language is comprehensive. Our Early Years students learn about suffixes and would start with common ones such as ‘s’ and ‘ed’ and as we move up to our Year 6 learners more complex words with multiple morphemes are unpacked and understood. The tool you may hear your children talking about is called ‘Word Cracker’ as shown in the diagram. This component of literacy learning happens across our school in a consistent and structured way The explicit teaching of morphology benefits all students as it supports those that require initial understanding through to enhancing existing skills of students by providing them with an additional tool to use when they encounter a new or challenging word.

Visible Learning and Feedback

Effective feedback is one of the most powerful influences on learning and can lead to positive changes in teaching and learning practices and significant improvements in student outcomes. Hattie and Timperley (2007) evidence based model asks: Where am I going? How am I going? and where to next? These questions can provide information for the student and/or the teacher about the learner’s performance and increase autonomy, ownership and self- regulation of the learner.

As we develop a culture and shared understanding of feedback in our school,  the open ended questions we ask our learners are very important. We also encourage our parents and families to consider the questions and conversations you engage inwith your child at the end of each day or when a learning task is sent home via SeeSaw. Perhaps some of these prompts may be helpful when speaking with your child.

What did you learn today?
What are you most proud of and why?
How do you know you were successful in (this) learning task?
How do you intend to use this new learning again/in the future?
What did you do or what strategies did you use when you didn’t understand something?
How can you improve on your learning?
What was the most interesting thing you learnt today?

Kelly Manera
Assistant Principal – Director of Learning

Christmas Concert

I am delighted to announce that the St Raphael’s School Christmas Concert will be held on Tuesday 22 November (Week 6) and this year our school community will be hosting two performance times - a matinee performance (during school hours) at 11:30am and an evening performance (after school hours) at 6:30pm. The event will take place in the school hall and all Reception - Year 6 students will be required to attend and perform at both performances.

Tickets $5 per adult. Children free.

Subsequently, due to the decrease in COVID19 venue restrictions, we are encouraging all extended family members to attend the festive event and support our talented students.

All attending audience members will be required to choose one performance time and RSVP (to the front office, via email or attendance slip) no later than the 21 November (the day before the event).

Additionally, parents and caregivers do not need to attend the same performance as their extended families (i.e. some may wish to attend the evening performance, while grandparents and other relatives may prefer to attend the matinee session during school hours).

Music Tuition Vacancies

Here at St Raphael’s School we are fortunate to have an exceptional team of Music Tutors who offer one-on-one lessons with students from Reception to Year 6.

Some lesson times have recently become available for this term, specifically in the areas of drumming and guitar. If you are interested in your child learning one of these instruments (or would prefer to be waitlisted for an alternative instrument) please request an Expression of Interest Form at the front office or students can also request a copy from me during their Performing Arts lesson time.

Enquiries

For questions regarding the upcoming Christmas Concert or the Music Tuition Program, please do not hesitate to contact the school front office on: (08) 8274 4900 or alternatively, I can be contacted directly via email aflynn@raph.catholic.edu.au 

Kindest Regards,
Mandy Flynn
Performing Arts Coordinator

Please ensure your child is wearing the correct school uniform by adhering to our uniform policy.  This includes:

• Sandshoes – predominately white with white shoelaces.
• No make-up or nail polish.

Hair:

• neatly cut and styled and not hanging over the face or eyes.
• shoulder length or longer needs to be tied back.
• no extreme styles.
• natural colouring.
• girls’ hair ties: Navy or sky blue ribbons. Headbands and scrunchies in school uniform fabric, navy or sky blue.

Jewellery:

• plain gold or silver sleepers or studs for ears, a watch and religious necklaces that are worn underneath clothing. Only one earring in each ear is to be worn at school.

The complete Uniform Policy is available here.

After School Sport

We have had a great start to after school sport this term with many students in Reception - Year 2 taking up the Multi-Sport Program run by Kelly Sports. This term students will participate in cricket, athletics, tee ball and tennis. For the first time this year Kelly Sports has offered Basketball clinics for our Year 3-6, again many students have taken up this opportunity. It has been great to see so many students being active after school.

National PE Week

National Physical Education Week is taking place in Week 5 of this term. A special PE Assembly will be taking place on Friday 18 November to recognise those students and parent volunteers who have been involved in school sport. There will also be a number of different PE activities happening during the week.

Water Safety Week 7

It is with excitement that I let you know that students in Reception - Year 5 at St Raphael’s School will be involved in Water Safety Education as part of the Health and Physical Education program in Week 7 at Unley Pool. Department of Education and Child Development (DECD) Water Safety Education program provides an educational experience that:

• Is designed to encourage students to think for themselves, make good decisions and understand the consequences through simulated open water scenarios and personal survival strategies.
• Promotes confidence and awareness by providing opportunities for students to develop skills and knowledge that can help keep them and others safe in a variety of aquatic environments.
• Focuses on what primary school children are able to learn in their school program to ensure they are able to save themselves in potentially dangerous situations.

The program is based on the belief that, if we only have one opportunity to teach children what they should do if they fall into open water, these are the key skills they actually need to learn. It is important that children learn the skills and knowledge to gain the understanding and ability to make good decisions around water and keep themselves and others safe. More specific details about the Water Safety Program will be sent home next week.

Hannah Reid
PE Teacher and Sports Coordinator

Let's get together to socialise and support each other.

Sunday 20 November
School playdate at Princess Elizabeth Playground on South Terrace from 2pm to 4pm, everyone is welcome and we hope to see you there. 

Friday 25 November
Meet in the school canteen at 9am to help bake goods to sell at our fundraising stall at The Monastery's car boot sale on November 27.

Sunday 27 November 
The P&F will be holding a stall to raise funds for our school, while supporting the Monastery at their Car Boot Sale. If you would like to help on the day, please email Katrina ktucker@raph.catholic.edu.au and if you would like to donate items to sell, please drop them off at the front office by Friday November 25. Note: we are unable to accept furniture, white goods, bedding or clothing.

Thank you for your support!

Katrina Tucker
Marketing and Communications Coordinator

We have been very busy in Year 2! 

Last term we were learning about mapping and perspective drawings. We also had fun at the Mercy Day stalls in Week 10. Seb created a wonderful PowerPoint all about his dog to share with us. This term we have been learning about division in Maths and are looking forward to going to the Road Safety School with the Receptions and Year 1s.

Congratulations to Loraine, Brax and Oliver from Year 5 who at last Monday's red-carpet assembly were presented with the Arch D Podcasting Award for 'Principal's Podcasting Award'. This award was presented to the team who stood out the most in reference to the Living, Learning, Leading Capabilities: self-aware, collaborative and socially adept. This team is now in the running to win the "Podcast Team of the Year" at the red-carpet Arch D Awards to be presented on Sunday, November 27 at Sacred Heart College.

Further congratulations are to go to Ivy, Mia, Luella and Jess from Year 5 whose podcast 'What's the Problem with Pluto" has been nominated for the 'Most Creative Podcast'. This award goes to the most entertaining episode that went "outside-of-the-box" in terms of ideas, script, structure, interviewing or storytelling against the Living, Learning, Leading Capabilities: Knowledge, Inquisitive and Innovation.

Congratulations to all our podcasting teams for their work and creative collaboration.