Term 4 Week 5 Newsletter 2021

Crazy Socks Day – pulling our socks up for a good cause 

Thank you for your participation in 'Sock-vember' to support Catholic Missions. This crazy sock day was an opportunity to have some fun while raising money for a very valuable cause. It was amazing to see the assortment of socks and to see so many people participating. We were pleased to be able to raise $300 which will be given to Catholic Mission in order to help provide young men and women in developing countries with the skills and knowledge to lead their local faith communities towards peace and prosperity. You can find further information about Catholic Mission and the work they do at the following link: Catholic Mission Homepage 

Commissioners Student Voice Post Card Initiative 

Primary school students have been given an invitation from the Commissioner for Children and Young People (Helen Connolly), to share what really matters to them. Her student voice postcard initiative asks the children to respond to questions, answering from their own point of view. You may wish to also provide your child with the opportunity to reflect on the questions and complete one of the post cards. Completed postcards can be returned to the Commissioner any time before the end of Term 4. We are happy to return them on your behalf if they are sent back to our School Office. We do ask that where an adult is needed to support a child to complete a postcard on their behalf, please write the words ‘ADULT ASSISTED’ onto the student’s card. Post cards are available from the Front Office for collection should you wish to have your child participate. Further information can be found at the following link: https://commissionerspostcards.com.au/get-involved/ 

Please also find a copy of report 'The Things That Matter' HERE. It offers a snapshot of student responses from previous years. It offers great insight into how our young people are thinking and what it is that really matters to them.

Family Mass 

Thank you to the families who were able to join us for our Term 4 Family Mass at St Matthew's Church. We are pleased to be able to join the Parish again and share in these family masses.  

Turning Our Attention to Christmas 

As we move into the second half of this year, we will begin collecting food items for the Vinnie's Christmas Appeal. We will be gathering up nonperishable food items which include both everyday items but also those things which are a bit special, such as puddings, custard and biscuits. Donation tubs will be available in each classroom and we are hoping that families may be able to purchase and item or two which can be placed into the tubs. At the end of the term they will be collected by the St Vinnies group in Stirling and distributed to families in the community.  

We are also asking that if there are families who are in need this year, we would love to be able to support them through our work. This can be done discretely through the School Front Office or by contacting Krystina Dawe and letting us know. The Christmas season can be expensive and no family should go without as a result.

Sacramental Program  Application Form.  

Children who will be in Years 4, 5 or 6, and who are baptised, are invited to complete their initiation in the Catholic Church through the Sacraments of Reconciliation, Confirmation and First Eucharist. The Sacramental Program will commence in February 2022 and through a series of workshops, children will prepare for Reconciliation, Confirmation and First Eucharist. Registration forms are available from the Parish website (Adelaide Hills Parish) and the School Office or you can access yours through the newsletter. Completed registration forms may be given to Krystina Dawe (APRIM) or emailed to Cathie Oswald (Parish Pastoral Coordinator) catherineoswald@ozemail.com.au Closing date for registration forms is Friday 19 November 2021. A copy of the registration form can be found HERE.

Christmas 2021 Mass Times - St Matthew's Church Bridgewater

Mass times:     24 December (Family Mass): 6 pm Vigil           
                        25 December (Midnight Mass): 12 Midnight 
                        25 December (Christmas Morning): 9.30am 
                        26 December (Boxing Day): 10.30am  

All families are invited to celebrate the birth of Jesus by attending Mass at one of these times. 

PLEASE NOTE: Registration is necessary for the Vigil Mass at 6pm. This is a Family Mass and the church capacity is limited, so early registration is highly recommended. To register, please email: catherineoswald@ozemail.com.au 

 NATIVITY PLAY: A Nativity Play will form part of the Vigil Mass celebrations at St Matthew’s Bridgewater on Christmas Eve, 24 December 2021 at 6pm. Parents of children who are interested in participating in the Nativity Play should contact Cathie Oswald:  catherineoswald@ozemail.com.au. There will be one or two rehearsals prior to the performance; the date(s) for the rehearsals to be confirmed.  

SACPPSA - Catholic Schools Athletics Carnival -2021

On Tuesday 2nd November 2021, 39 students form St Catherine’s competed in the annual SACPSSA Athletics Carnival at SANTOS Stadium Mile End. The Carnival is open to Year 3-6 students with all students selected earlier in the year after lunch time trials for all events. This year the Carnival was postponed to Term 4 and the students braved some very warm conditions on the day, and competed admirably, representing the school with great pride.

Thank you to our parent officials Mrs Kate Wall and Mr Grahame Adkins as well as Mrs Dawe and Mrs Lewis for their help on the day.

Special mention to Hugo in Year 5 and Giselle in Year 4, who both had an outstanding day in all their individual results. Well done Hugo and Giselle!

Hugo was awarded another very special award on the day by breaking the 100m record running the 100m race in 12.79 seconds! Well done Hugo!!

Some outstanding achievements included:

Hugo       Record in Year 5 100m – 12.67 seconds
Hugo       1st 100m, High Jump, 200m and 2nd in relay
Giselle     1st 100m, 800m, 200m and 2nd in relay
Lochie     1st 800m, 2nd 400m, 2nd Relay
Zoe          2nd Hurdles, 1st 200m, 2nd High Jump, 4th 100m
Jasper     1st 100m, 2nd Relay, 2nd 200m, 3rd High Jump
Flynn       1st 400m, 1st 200m
Archie      3rd 800m, 2nd Relay
Zak          3rd in Long Jump,
Verity       3rd 800m
Zara         2nd 800m
Isabella    2nd 800m
Jack         3rd 100m, 3rd 100m
Julia         2nd 100m,
Mackenzie 1st Hurdles

Congratulations Xavier in 6C

Congratulations to Xavier in 6C who was recently selected in the Hills SAPSASA Boys Cricket Team. Xavier played in many different locations in Adelaide over four days last week. The Team came 5th overall. Well done, Xavier! 

Mr De Giovanniello (Physical Education Teacher/Sports Coordinator)

Congratulations to all students at St Catherine’s on their successful Swimming Week activities held at Woodside Pool from Monday 8th November until Thursday 11th November. The Swimming program provides an efficient specialist service to assist students to develop a range of knowledge, skills and understanding of water confidence, water safety in, on and around the water, survival in the water, rescuing techniques and mobility in the water.

A special thanks to all the teachers for their support during the week both at the pool, on the bus and teaching students for the rest of the day. A big thank you to all the parents that attending and assisted children to get dressed after their lessons, and those who made hot chocolate on Thursday. It was much appreciated!

Finally, a big thank you to Mrs Pat Wheeler for her continued support in running these sessions with Woodside Pool and Mrs Dawe for her support managing the timetable for the week.

How lucky are we at St Catherine’s School to have such an amazing school community. Being a part of a community is an important aspect of our wellbeing as it makes us feel as though we are a part of something greater than ourselves. Our young 5/6 entrepreneurs recently put a call out to the rest of our school to support their business endeavours and classroom learning from within the $20 boss program and, my goodness, did our community respond!

On Friday 5th November, we held our inaugural school Market. Our 5/6 students hosted 6 classes throughout the day, giving our marketgoers a range of experiences which included food stalls, homewares, clothing, face painting and even a unique Alpaca experience!

This kind of learning opportunity is a highly practical way to promote student agency in our upper primary students at St Catherine’s. Learning through activities that are meaningful and relevant to our students, driven by their interests, and in many aspects self-initiated with appropriate guidance from us as teachers, is what this learning experience has all been about.

Our 5/6’s will be trading again at the Stirling Laneways Market on Sunday 28th November, and again at the Twilight Market before our School Concert on Wednesday 1st December. We would love to see you there!

Thank you again for your wonderful support!

Kerry Cornelius and Corey Lewis

Year 5 and Year 6 Teachers

The voice of our students:

My favourite part of Market Day was having the experience of masses of people wanting to buy your product and us feeling capable and responsible – Verity, Year 6

My favourite part of Market Day was when I made my first sale! – Lucy, Year 5

I really enjoyed making the kids feel good about my product and seeing them buy it – Xavier, Year 6

I’ve learned that you need to make sure you have a reasonable price for your product for people to buy it – Louis, Year 5

I learned that you have to do a lot of planning, like checking the prices and costs to make the product, and making sure that everything is safe – Scarlett, Year 6

I learned that it is hard to know how much stock you have to bring – Noah, Year 5

In 2022, St Catherine's is moving to One Uniform Activewear. The new activewear uniform is comfortable, high quality and invites all children to be more active – enabling all children to take advantage of our wonderful outdoor learning environment.

Please take a moment to familiarise yourself with the One Uniform Activewear Information Booklet which sets out the transition timeline and expected compulsory items moving forward.

Thank you to the members of the uniform committee who have worked tirelessly over the past 12 months, through the somewhat challenging COVID environment, to support the development of this new uniform direction.

There are samples on display in the Treehouse.

PAT Testing 

Teachers have numerous ways that we are able to assess where students are at with their learning. Each teacher conducts formative and summative assessments of learning for each learning area to inform them of an A-E grade for each child. In addition to this, we are required by the government to conduct NAPLAN in years 3 and 5 in primary school, which gives us a snap shot of where students are at in that point in time comparatively to the National standard.  

At St Catherine’s School each student is administered a Progressive Achievement Test (PAT) in both reading and maths annually, soon to be twice a year. This year, PAT testing occured in week 4 this term for each class. We also currently assess our students in spelling twice a year. At least once each term, teachers conduct a running record for each child in years R-2 and in years 3-6 students sit a Literacy Pro Lexile test. This collated data informs teachers where their students strengths and any gaps in their learning, supporting their teaching program to support or extend students. At the end of the year St Catherine’s teachers have a rigorous hand over process to inform their students new teacher of where their students are currently at.  

Currently, Catholic Education of South Australia are revising the recommended guidelines of PAT testing, which will include the purpose of PAT testing, the expectations of year levels to be tested, frequency and timing of tests and the expectations for analysis of student data. This future mapping will be invaluable to benefit our students to use their data for instructional change. 

Corey Lewis
Leader of Learning: Curriculum 

Thank you to all those families who purchased books at the Book Fair. Due to your generosity, we were able to spend over $500 on additional books for the library, on top of the 80 new books that have already been added this term. We have LOTS of new books for students to borrow!

School carpark 

We all know that the carpark can be chaotic at the best of times. If we consider the amount of people using the car park from 3:00-3:30pm, it is no wonder the car park is so busy. We have about 180 people being collected by their families. 

We encourage parents to support and model to the children how to keep safe around cars and in carparks. To ensure the safety of everyone please follow the reminders as well as the ones previously communicated with families. 

• Please only cross at the 2 crossing points in the pick-up lane. It makes it difficult for drivers exiting after they have their children when families are crossing anywhere.   
• Adults and children need to wait for the duty teacher to say it is safe to cross the pedestrian crossing.  
• Students are not to play in the carpark area or staff car park area. 
• If you are waiting in the staff carpark area, please be aware that this area will still have cars parking and exiting.  

Below a reminders that were sent out toward the end of Term 3.  

• Drivers should not leave their car to get their child out, or put their child in the car. If your child needs help with this, you should park and walk them to the front of the school. 
• Only 3 cars at a time should be between the pedestrian crossings. 
• NO PARKING on yellow lines (especially the lines in the carpark next to the pedestrian crossing by the school entrance). 
• Cars should enter the school driveway by making a left turn, rather than turning right across traffic. This may involve driving down to the roundabout at Avenue Rd and coming back up. 
• If you are unable to enter the school driveway, the safest option is to continue along the road to the roundabout, head back down Ayers Hill Rd to the Avenue Rd roundabout and approach again.  
• Parents/ Guardians need to effectively supervise their children whilst waiting and also once students are collected. The carpark is extremely busy, including cars moving from the staff parking area. 

Transition 

In our daily life we all experience change, such as changing activities, or going to different places. Transition is a word often used by schools and other professionals to talk about changes in routine and the ability to stop one activity and start another.   

Some people find change and transitions more challenging than others. Some young people may feel very overwhelmed by the many changes that occur throughout the day, week, month, term and year. 

As we draw closer to the end of a school year, we have many students who may be wondering about the following year and the changes that are ahead of them.  

Here are some tips that can help with transition:  

• Talk with the young person, or the people that support them and find out what has helped them transition and cope with change in the past  
• Consider the young person’s strengths, interests and challenges when planning how to approach a transition  
• Discuss with parents/carers, teachers and other support people to find out what might support the transition  
• Take photos of the new environment, the people who will be there and the activities they may be asked to do  
• Use a map of an unfamiliar place and highlight areas of interest to allow the young person to familiarise themselves with the new location  
• Identify a key support person that they can go to if they have a question or need extra support  
• Ensure all people involved in the transition know the plan and the supports required  
• Create any visual supports required  
• Use a diary or calendar to countdown the days/weeks leading up to the change, if this would be calming for the young person  

Social Learning and Competency Skills 

This week teachers took part in a professional development session facilitated by Occupational therapist Kelly Kroeger. Kelly runs ‘Learn Sense Grow’ and works with children, families and schools to support children with their development.  

The session focused on developing ‘Social Learning and Competency Skills’, the 4 main competencies. A useful website that was shared with staff was: https://www.socialthinking.com There are also some links to free webinars that families may find useful.  

Melinda James 

Leader of Learning: Wellbeing and Inclusion 

For 90 years, our School Banking program has helped children learn about money, reinforced the importance of regular savings and provided structure for parents to support their children to save.

Though the program continues to have strong support from schools, parents and teachers, recent decisions by some state and territory governments because of a review by the corporate regulator mean we are unable to continue providing programs in schools, and we have had to make a difficult decision to close our School Banking program for all government and non-government schools across the country.

Our School Banking program was established in 1931 at a time when having a bank account was not commonplace, and since then we have helped more than 15 million Australians take their first financial steps. This would not have been possible without the wonderful support we have received from schools like yours, including all the parents and volunteers, and for this we are deeply grateful. Thank you.

Even though this is a sad time, School Banking has taught so many young Australians, past and present, the value of money and we believe this should be celebrated. We have created a place for you to share your stories, fondest memories and lessons learnt through the program. To share your story and access our financial education resources, please visit commbank.com.au/schoolbanking

Even though the CommBank School Banking program will not be returning to your school after this year, you can continue to make deposits into your child’s Youthsaver account through online transfers or at any CommBank branch. If you need further information please phone 132 221 or visit your local CommBank branch.