Newsletter 9 2022

Religious Education News

What a special few weeks it has been in the life of the School and Parish. We congratulate Georgia, Mia, Luella, Elaine, Leo and James who are now fully initiated into the Catholic community. We extend our thanks to Fr Dean Marin, Vicar General, who confirmed our candidates in a beautiful ceremony at St Paul of the Cross Church and Fr Denis and Fr Jacob who celebrated Masses over the weekend that included our young people celebrating their First Eucharist witnessed by the Parish community. A big thank you to Sue Schulz who coordinated an outstanding sacramental program.

A big thank you

Thank you to all our learners, families and staff who have contributed to the Vinnies Winter Appeal over the past few weeks. We received many donations of quality winter warmers, hand knitted beanies and scarves, socks, toiletry items and monetary contributions to support many in our community who are doing it tough. Your donations and support is greatly appreciated and it was wonderful to see an array of coloured socks last week!

Art Show

We look forward to welcoming you all to the inaugural Art Show at the Monastery on the weekend of July 1-3. Our exhibition will display an eclectic mix of styles, mediums and creative works from our talented learners. The exhibition will be open for viewing on Friday 1 July from 4:00pm-8:00pm, Saturday 2 July from 10:00am- 1:00pm and Sunday 3 July from 10:00am-1:00pm. We thank the Parish for hosting this event for us.

Staff Retreat

Our annual Staff Retreat Day will be held at the Monastery on Friday 8 July (pupil free day). This is a special time for staff to nourish their faith and connect with each other. The day will be led by Fr Denis and will include prayer, meditation, journaling and reflection on two of our new Mercy values, compassion and justice. We look forward to a connected, reflective and meaningful day.

This Friday we celebrate the Feast of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus. We are reminded of the call for us to love abundantly and know that we too are abundantly loved.

May God bless us open hearts to respond the world’s need.
May God bless us with responding hearts that take action when we witness injustice.
May God bless us with hearts that create communities of love and compassion.

Wishing you a wonderful week ahead.

God bless,
Kelly Manera
Assistant Principal Religious Identity and Mission

From the Director of Learning

St Raphael’s School Vision

We are pleased to have finalised the graphic representation of our new St Raphael’s School Vision, included in this newsletter. This vision depicts who we are and who we strive to be as a school of excellence and has been co-constructed with staff, students and families across a number of months. Our vision image will soon be visible in all our learning spaces and front office. Sincere thanks to Amy Thornton who has generously provided the design work for the vision.

Mid-Year Reporting

Families will soon receive their child’s mid-year report which provides an A-E grade for each of the learning areas for students in Year 1-6. We are not required to report A-E for Reception students. Teachers are currently finalising assessments, and these take many forms such as a written learning sample, a presentation, a video, a conversation or reflection. The teacher’s goal in assessment is to provide opportunities for learners to demonstrate what they know, understand, and can do in relation to the Achievement Standard of each learning area.

The Australian Curriculum is available for all to view via the website and contains resources to help parents understand the intent and content of the curriculum. Following a review, ACARA have now released Version 9 of the curriculum and schools will use this version from the beginning of 2023.

Teachers also use standardised assessments to inform them of next step learning needs, progress and achievement. These take place at various times across the year. Some of this testing includes:

National Assessment Program in Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN Year 3 and 5
Year 1 Phonics Screening Test)
Progressive Achievement Tests in Reading, Mathematics and Vocabulary (PAT M, PAT R and PAT V)
SA Spelling Test
Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills (DIBELS)

We are currently about to undertake our DIBELS testing for the mid-year. This assessment, facilitated one on one with each student, is done at the beginning, middle and end of the year to monitor progress and ascertain the success of our explicit approach to teaching reading and spelling.

Thank you

As I come to the end of my time at St Raphael’s School, I proudly reflect on the many aspects of school life that I have contributed towards including:

successful implementation of a new approach to literacy
development and implementation of our learner dispositions and identification of our school values
professional learning of our teaching staff to refine and improve their skills in constructing rich, deep and visible learning
implementation of the marketing strategy
provision of a school counsellor
building refurbishment and new building design
a new strategic plan and school vision

In doing so, I have gained much, much more in return. These gifts include the joy of working in collaboration as a part of a strong school and parish leadership team, the privilege of working in partnership with families to support the learning and wellbeing of each of our students and, most especially the grace of knowing and loving each and every one of the amazing and wonderful children in the St Raphael’s School community. I truly, have been blessed.

Thank you for partnering with me for the best outcomes for your children over the past 2 ½ years. I wish the whole of the St Raphael’s School community every good wish into the future.

Marianne Farrugia
Assistant Principal- Director of Learning