Newsletter 5 2023

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

This week marks Holy Week, the most sacred week in the liturgical year in Christianity. During Holy Week, Christians recall the events leading up to Jesus’ death and resurrection. Holy Week begins with Palm Sunday, the commemoration of Jesus’ triumphant entry into Jerusalem and concludes on Easter Sunday.  During this week we recall the enthusiastic shouts of ‘Hosanna’, from those gathered to welcome Jesus riding on a donkey into Jerusalem, to the sacredness of Maundy Thursday, Jesus’ institution of the last supper to the trial and death of Jesus on Good Friday and then to the joyous celebration of Jesus’ resurrection on Easter Sunday.

All our students are involved in bringing these events to life this week with class liturgies, and on our return next week, students will enact the resurrection of Jesus. These liturgies of Holy Week recount these events and remind us all that we are deeply loved by God. 

Staff Retirement

We farewelled Angela Keam this past week as she begins her Long Service Leave followed by her retirement later next term.  Angela has been a member of Catholic Education since 1983 and taught in various Catholic schools during this time.  Angela joined the St Raphael’s School community in 2005 and has been a valued member ever since. In the last few years, Angela became the Inclusive Education Coordinator, supporting students and their families with their transition and learning. We will have the opportunity to officially farewell Angela next term.

Baby News

We congratulate Mrs Hannah Reid and her husband Andy on the happy news of their new baby due to arrive in September. We wish Hannah, Andy, and big brother Henry all the best as they prepare for their new addition to the family.

I wish all our students and their families a blessed and faith filled Easter. I look forward to your safe return on Tuesday 11 April.

God of all people
Open our ears to hear afresh the story of Easter
Open our minds to understand Your sacrificial love
Open our hearts to know Your forgiveness
Open our lips to sing Your praises
Open our lives to the wonder and joy of Easter.
Amen

With every best wish,
Mia Harms
Principal

Dear Parents,

Throughout this week, our church will journey through Holy Week as we prepare for The Easter Triduum. The Easter Triduum is the formal name for the major events over Holy Thursday, Good Friday through to Easter Sunday.  Our students commemorate the journey here at school during this week. They do this through story and actions, culminating with a Liturgy and marking of the Stations of the Cross by our Year 6 students on Thursday morning at 9:15 am. This is a solemn ceremony, which we treat reverently and in reflection.  We return next week after Easter and celebrate the risen Christ with a joyous liturgy on Wednesday 12 April at 9:15 am

Easter Bunny and Eggs

The commercialisation of Easter has dominated our religious observance for many years now. This makes talking about the bunny, chocolate and Jesus a somewhat difficult conversation. As a community we wait to share hollow eggs until after the Resurrection of Our Lord. The book “Easter Bunny’s Amazing Day’, helps to explain why we wait for the eggs until Sunday and ties the two major aspects together of our Catholic Tradition and the Easter Bunny.  You may enjoy listening to the story with your children. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mr3wBLI6mxQ

May the resurrection of Jesus Christ bring you and your family new hope, joy, and happiness into your lives.

This Easter holiday take the time out with your family and enjoy your time together

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

St Raphael's School students, staff and families would like to congratulate Fr Denis on his golden jubilee. Fr Denis served two six-year terms on the General Council before coming home to Glen Osmond as parish priest and community leader in 2019. We cherish our relationship with Fr Denis who regularly leads our students in faith learning and presides at our Masses and liturgies throughout the year both at the Monastery and at St Raphael’s Church.

Congratulations Fr Denis on 50 years in the service of God and thank you for being our wonderful faith leader.

Please take a look at the full article in The Southern Cross here.

Whole School Literacy Approach 

At St Raphael’s School, we strive for academic excellence and achievement. According to the Catholic Education of South Australia Reference Paper on Literacy and Numeracy Strategy, there is an expectation that all young people are provided with an intentional curriculum, co-constructed learning and assessment design. All teachers are responsible for explicitly developing literacy understandings, knowledge, and skills and this means that: 

• all teachers are responsible for teaching the subject-specific literacy of their learning area/s; and  

• all teachers need a clear understanding of the literacy demands and opportunities of their learning area/s. 

In contemporary society, a competent, successful, and independently literate person draws on a range of literacy practices to access the world and they have developed a repertoire of capabilities and skills to create and access a broad range of texts. These texts include spoken, written, and multimodal texts; hardcopy and digital texts, different text types/genres. Furthermore, a literate person creates and uses texts in a broad range of contexts for a range of purposes and audiences. A literate person comprehends, interprets, and draws inferences from texts through the receptive modes of listening, reading, and viewing while they also design and compose texts through the productive modes of speaking, writing, and creating. 

More specifically, a literate person has developed competencies in: 

• Listening: “…building meaning from a variety of spoken and audio texts” (ACARA, 2020, p. 12). 

• Interacting: “…active listening, strategic questioning and using language to share information and negotiate meaning and outcomes” (ACARA, 2020, p. 15). 

• Speaking: “…selecting language to express and share ideas, appropriate to audience, purpose and task in planned speaking situations” (ACARA, 2020, p. 18). 

• Reading and Viewing: phonological awareness, phonic knowledge and word recognition, fluency, understanding texts (vocabulary, comprehension, processes) (ACARA, 2020). 

• Writing: (inclusive of the sub-elements of spelling, punctuation, grammar and handwriting and keyboarding): “…how students become increasingly proficient at creating texts for an increasing range of purposes” (ACARA, 2020, p. 40) 

At St Raphael’s School, the BIG 6 of reading is comprehensively and explicitly taught and securely learned through a whole school literacy focus, through Heggerty’s Phonemic and Phonological awareness as well as an explicit and comprehensive multisensory approach to teaching literacy. 

1. Oral language (listening, interacting, and speaking)

2. Vocabulary (general and academic)

3. Phonological awareness (inclusive of phonemic awareness)

4. Phonics (linking to morphology)

5. Comprehension of a range of digital and print text types (listening, viewing, and reading)

Reading and comprehending non-fiction texts may make different demands on readers than when they are reading fiction; there is not a one-size-fits-all set of comprehension strategies that may be used (e.g., prior knowledge, predicting, getting the main idea, visualising, summarising, synthesising, inferring, monitoring & clarifying, and questioning).  

Whatever text types are read, it is crucial that comprehension of the author’s message is always the learning intention. 

6. Fluency (silent and oral at sentence level) 

What you can do at home 

Often parents/cargivers ask, how can I support my child with their literacy skills at home? Giving your child opportunities to read aloud is a fantastic way to support your child. Following up with questions and checking for meaning will help your child. Even as your child gets older, it is important for them to have the opportunity to read aloud to increase their fluency. They can even read to a younger sibling, or a pet.  

Corey-Lee Lewis
Assistant Principal – Leader of Learning

A Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP) is a formal statement of commitment to promoting reconciliation between the wider Australian community and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. A RAP demonstrates to the community that St Raphael's School is forward thinking about reconciliation and committed to making positive change. We are seeking parent's and the community's ideas and perpectives to support us through the development and implementation of a RAP. If this is something you would be interested to be a part of, please contact me through the school or email me clewis@raph.catholic.edu.au

Corey-Lee Lewis
Assistant Principal - Leader of Learning
 

Years 1 and 2: Musical Theatre

As part of their Australian Curriculum Drama focus, our Year 1 and 2 students have explored the world of Musical Theatre and the fundamental skills that are required to deliver an entertaining theatrical performance.

Our core learning areas have included:
- Singing and vocal projection
- Creating a character and establishing a scene
- Applying engaging facial expressions and body language  
- Examining why people make Drama and Musical Theatre

Over the last fortnight, Drama Club actors have participated in reading a new play which student performers will present toward the end of Term 2.

The core theme for this upcoming project is kindness: its significance in our world and its impact on the lives of those around us.

What’s more, our student actors have taken part in co-writing the playscript with Mrs Flynn, through participation in writing tasks and guided group discussions.

Below are some student responses, which will be featured in our upcoming project:

“If kindness did not exist, we would not be able to care for others”- Ivy (Year 6)
“If there was no kindness, the world would be a horrible place” - Braxton (Year 6)
“There would be more violence and corruption in the world” - Elaine (Year 6)
“Kindness breeds love” - Maxim (Year 6)
“Everyone in the world deserves kindness” - Mia (Year 6)

Thank you for reading and please stay tuned!

Mrs Mandy Flynn
Performing Arts Teacher

SACPSSA Swimming Carnival

Well done the 12 students from Year 4-6 who proudly represented St Raphael’s School at the annual SACPSSA swimming carnival held at Oaklands Park on 31 March. Our students showcased our school values, supporting each other throughout the day, as well as a growth mindset and positive attitude to give each race their very best. A huge congratulations to Matthew in Year 3 who won his year's level Age Champion. Matthew came first in all of his individual events. As a school we finished in 5th place. 

Congratulations to all students for a fantastic effort.

Sports Day

Congratulations for McAuley House for winning both the Sports Day Shield and Spirit Cup. It was fantastic to see so many students actively involved in the festivities as well as many parents and carers coming out to watch. Thankyou to all teachers and volunteers for assisting on the day to ensure it ran smoothly.

Sports Day Shield
1st McAuley (1503 points), 2nd Raphael (1390 points), 3rd Fitzpatrick (1255 points), 4th Mercy (1226 points).

Spirit Cup
1st McAuley (2530 points), 2nd Raphael (2440 points), 3rd Fitzpatrick (2395 points), 4th Mercy (2305 points).

Hannah Reid
P.E. Teacher and Sports Coordinator

Join us

Our Parents and Friends Committee meet online once a term via TEAMS.

These meetings are a great way to connect with our school and find out about fundraising and community buildings events taking place.

There are no expectations to join the group or actively participate unless you choose to. Your contribution can be as little as volunteering once to help sell sausages at a BBQ, to leading an event. It's up to you. What you can give is very much appreciated. To register your interest, find out more, or to make a comment or suggestion, please email Katrina at ktucker@raph.catholic.edu.au

Next meeting will be Tuesday Term 2, Week 1 at 6pm on TEAMS. If you would like to be invited to this online meeting, please email ktucker@raph.catholic.edu.au

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.

We are currently accepting enrolments for our mid-year Reception intake for 2023, 2024, and 2025. We are also accepting enrolments in all year levels for 2023, 2024 and 2025. To enrol, please fill out an enrolment form for each student and submit it to the front office for processing. If you would like to discuss the enrolment process further, you can contact the front office by phone at 8274 4900 or by email at info@raph.catholic.edu.au.

You are also encouraged to invite friends and family to book a tour before enrolling because we would love to welcome them to our school!

The first day of Term 2, Monday 1 May is a Pupil Free Day. OSHC will be available from 8.00am-5.30pm on that day. We intend having an OSHC Pyjama Party themed day.

Please book through the OSHC Fullybooked family portal. If you haven’t already enrolled your child you will need to do so before they can attend. To enrol them, please use the link below.

https://straphaelsos.fullybookedccms.com.au/family/login

If you have any problems or further queries email Anne at oshc@raph.catholic.edu.au