Newsletter 7 2023

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

On Saturday we celebrated the feast of the Ascension, the day Christians remember Jesus’ ascension into heaven, 40 days after Easter. Next Sunday we celebrate Pentecost, and this day signals the end of the Easter season. Pentecost Sunday is the day we recognise the birth of the Church. It commemorates the descent of the Holy Spirt on to the Apostles and other disciples following Jesus’ crucifixion, Jesus’ resurrection, and his ascension.  At Pentecost, Jesus’ disciples were tasked with sharing Jesus’ story throughout the world and this event marks the beginning of the Christian church’s mission to the world. Our mission today is to continue to be the heart and hands of Jesus, not just sharing his story, but living it in our everyday actions of compassion, inclusion, and love.

Catholic Education Week

Last week we celebrated Catholic Education Week. Students, parents/caregivers and staff were asked; what do they value about our school? Please check out our website to hear student and parent/caregivers responses. We are very proud of our inclusive Catholic school and we want to share our love and pride of our school with families who may be looking to enrol their child/ren in our school. So spread the word, we have much to offer and we would welcome their child/ren to our community.

Building News

Wonderful news! I am able to officially announce that Horizon Construction Services has been appointed by Catholic Education SA to build our new facilities of a new administration building and two new classrooms along the front, Glen Osmond Road side. We began the process of consultation, funding application and planning almost two years ago.  Our vision was to create new contemporary spaces for our community. Studio 9 Architects have once again helped us with the planning and design process.  The building construction will officially begin on Monday 10 July.  See here for the building design.

Possible Uniform Change

At the Board Meeting last night, the Board discussed the possibility of changing our current formal uniform. We discussed the option of moving from a formal uniform to a more active wear type uniform that is more user friendly for both female and male students. We are interested in hearing from our parent community and a uniform survey will be available for parents/caregivers to have their say. The survey will become available in the next couple of weeks.  Should we decide to change the uniform, there will be a phase in period allowing students to outgrow the current uniform.  I have detailed below parents/caregivers who sit on our 2023 School Board for your information as you may wish to have a conversation with a Board member regarding your thoughts.

2023 Board Members

Chairperson:                      Amy Thornton
Finance Chair:                   Kirstie Coultas
Secretary:                          Gaia Ricci

Members: Fr Denis Travers, Samuel Chua, Matthew Pike, Mathew Gill, Corey-Lee Lewis, Luke Read

With every best wish,
Mia Harms
Principal

We pray for the Madronero family on the sad passing of their mother, Liberty.

Faith in action

Part of our Catholic Identity is to transfer faith in action, and we can do this by actively supporting others. Therefore, this term, as part of our faith in action, we are organising a collection of non-perishable food. This will be donated to those who are finding life difficult and are in need of assistance.  To mark this day children come to school wearing a crazy hair style and bring a along a donation of food. More information will be coming in the next few weeks about this. Our student voice reps will take an active part in the organisation of this initiative.

The Feast of Pentecost

On Sunday, we mark the feast of Pentecost, the coming of the Holy Spirit among the apostles and followers of Jesus. Celebrated 50 days after Easter (including the day of Easter itself), the name of the holiday comes from the Greek Pentēkostē, which literally means “the 50th day.” This is the time of year when the church celebrates its ‘birthday’ too. It is called Pentecost and falls fifty days after Easter Sunday.

Churches celebrate this day because after Jesus rose from the dead, he spent forty days with his friends, and then he went up to heaven. Before he went, he promised to send God’s spirit to live in people’s hearts and help them live as followers of Jesus. Ten days after that, Jesus’ friends were gathered together. Suddenly they felt a rushing wind and saw an amazing light above everyone’s heads! The Bible described this as ‘tongues of fire’ because that is what they looked like. Jesus’ friends realised this must be God’s Spirit that Jesus had promised, and they all went out into the streets and started telling everyone the good news that Jesus was alive and had defeated death.

This is the day Christians believe God’s Holy Spirit came into the world. Sometimes in Christian art and stories, a dove is used as a symbol of God’s spirit. It is a pure white bird about the size of a pigeon. It appears in the story of Noah’s Ark and also in the story of Jesus’ baptism.

We celebrate Pentecost as the inauguration of the Church’s mission in the world. Over the next week, our children will be learning about the story of Pentecost and how the gifts of the Holy Spirit can be used in our lives. 

Peace and Blessings,
Helena Card
Assistant Principal Religious Identity and Mission

Debating 

We have 10 wonderful Year 5 and 6 students who have volunteered their time to train towards the Debating SA debating competition. We are very proud of their achievement from their first competition, which was on Tuesday 16 May. The students demonstrated their critical thinking skills by preparing a debate that was structured, and responded to what their opposition was saying.

I would like to congratulate the students from Year 5: Chris, Senul and Caroline who represented the school beautifully with debating that Cats are Better Than Dogs on the negative side. Senul won speaker of the night.

In Year 6, Sanuli, Jemima and Nathan debated that Mullets Should be Banned in Schools also on the negative side. Jemima won speaker of the night and the team lost by 1 point, which is a huge achievement as they are scored out of 100.

Nick, Mia and Loraine (with Braxton as Chairman) won their debate on the affirmative side of mullets and Mia won speaker of the night. 

What an amazing achievement!

Corey-Lee Lewis
Assistant Principal - Leader of Learning

The Year 5’s learning in Chemical Sciences recently culminated with a Nitro Nat Science Incursion.  Look at the fun we had with Nitro Nat as she guided us through a barrage of highly engaging learning about the observable properties of solids, liquids and gases.  The highlight of the incursion was the liquid nitrogen cloud we were able to make inside the STEM Room by adding boiling water to the liquid nitrogen.  Nitro Nat explained how the liquid nitrogen changed state from liquid nitrogen to water vapour (a gas), then back to liquid water in the form of the cloud.

School Sports Results

Our school has had a successful start to our winter sport this term. Both our netball and soccer teams have been training hard which has paid off in some early wins for the season!

Year 5/6 Netball Results
Week 2: St Raphael’s 15 defeated St Dominic’s Eagles 7
Week 3: St Raphael’s 26 defeated St Dominic’s Hawks 10

Year 3/4 Soccer Results
Week 2: Rose Park PS 8 defeated St Raphael’s 1
Week 3: St Raphael’s 2 defeated St Joseph’s Hectorville 1

Sporting Schools

Our Year 3 and 4 students have started their AFL Clinics in their PE lesson. These specialised clinics have been run by Sturt Football Club. Last week our focus was on handballing. With our funding, we have been able to purchase new footballs, which the whole school will be able to enjoy.

Netball Carnival

Friday of Week 9 students from Years 5 and 6 will be participating in the SACPSSA Netball Carnival. This is held at Netball SA Stadium, where students can enjoy SA’s best outdoor netball facilities. SACPSSA Netball Carnivals traditionally encourage participation rather than competition. Aimed for both boys and girls, St Raphael’s School has registered a 5/6 boys team, Year 6 girls team and Year 5 girls team. More information about this will go home in the next few weeks.

Hannah Reid
PE Teacher and Sports Coordinator

Join us for a St Raphael's School indoor playdate

Please RSVP to Katrina on ktucker@raph.catholic.edu.au

Information on what Imagination Kidz has to offer, including their onsite cafe and entry fees [adults free] can be found here.

Thank you to all our St Raphael's School students, families and staff who participated in our celebration of Catholic Education Week last week. We posted some wonderful photos and videos to our social media channels and we're blessed to have such positive feedback.

We invite you to scroll through our school's Facebook or Instagram page to see all that happened.

#LOVEMyCatholicSchool

To view upcoming events please open our St Raphael's School Events page here.