Term 1 Week 1 2025

Welcome to St Monica’s for 2025!

Before school duty is the best duty I think because you can connect with the students and their families as they arrive or leave for the day. On Tuesday there was a lot of excitement, enthusiasm and energy in the air as the children returned for another year of great learning and fun in 2025. Of course, there were some who had a few wobbly moments, but they used their skills of resilience and courage and experienced a very successful day.

This year we welcome new students and their families and some new staff members:

In Reception: Logan, Hamish, Sophie, Giselle, Sharvan, Ivaan, Evan, Viaan, Enaara, Peyton, Thea, Theodore, Henry, Aidan, Riley, Frankie, Yuvik & Penelope.

Year 1: Felipe

Year 2: Ty & Juliette

Year3:  Mia & Valentina

Staff: Natalie Bampton - APRIM (Term 1)

          Bec Ryan – 6MR (co teacher with Jim 2 days)

          Victoria Renney – working 1 day with Kylie REC CR & 1 day with Michelle 1/2BR

          Deneka Wilson – ( Mid-Year Reception Teacher and Reliever)      

We hope that your time at St Monica’s is filled with love, learning and lots of fun!

I would also like to share with the community our new leadership structure. From this year, St Monica’s will have an Assistant Principal Religious Identity and Mission (Natalie Bampton) and an Assistant Principal – Learning and Inclusion. Sarah Morris was successful in winning the AP - Learning and Inclusion position and I am very excited to be able to work collaboratively with both Assistant Principals in continuing our students’ growth and success in learning, wellbeing and building our wonderful community.

2025 is going to be an exciting year at St Monica’s as we have some building works scheduled as we continue to improve some of our outdoor learning and play spaces. I will be sharing these with the community at next week’s Open Classrooms meeting on Wednesday 5 February commencing at 5pm in the Mary MacKillop Resource Centre (Library). Following the general gathering, parents are invited to move to their child/ren’s classroom for an information session with the teacher. These sessions will run for 30 minutes. I hope that you can join us.

The role of the School Board and the Parents and Friends Committee are both integral to the success of any school community. Each of these important groups are always seeking new members who can assist in some way. Our annual AGM for the school is being held on Monday 17 February at 6.30pm in the Mary MacKillop Resource Centre (library). Following on from this meeting, the first board meeting is held, and this is where new board members are inducted. We have several vacancies this year due to students who have finished their time at St Monica’s, and I hope that I will be overwhelmed with offers for new board members. More information will be sent home next week.

There are several important dates to pop into your diaries. Please check this section of the newsletter for them. One that I would like to draw your attention is the Welcome Family Picnic which will be held on Sunday 2 March. More details about the venue and times will be available soon but it would be great to have many families come and enjoy a relaxing Sunday afternoon together.

I hope that week ahead is a gentle and kind one for you.

Blessings,

Emily Sayer

Almighty God We give you our school. We give you all the teachers and staff who work here, We give you all the children who learn here, We give you all our families who are part of our community. We pray our school will continue to be a place of great love, inclusivity, courage and respect. May it be a place where we love to learn and where we learn to love, A place where everyone is respected and all are deeply valued. We ask all this through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Welcome to the 2025 school year. My name is Natalie Bampton, and I am the Acting Assistant Principal Religious Identity and Mission (APRIM) for Term 1. I have worked in Catholic Education for 17 years and have recently embarked on taking on APRIM roles in schools, something that has been a desire of mine. I am looking forward to supporting the Catholic identity of St Monica’s this term and spending time within the community.

Religious Education

Beginning our term’s learning in Religious Education classes will be looking at the Big Idea of Love, one of our school’s values. This idea focuses on teaching students how Jesus loved everyone and teaches us to do the same. Students will learn through our school’s motto ‘In all things love’, which ties in nicely with our term 1 scripture, taken from John chapter 15 ‘Love one another as I have loved you’. This is a very powerful and important idea for students to learn and will set them up for exploring our other school values throughout the year of inclusion, courage and respect.

Sacrament program news

Children who are nominating to celebrate the sacraments in 2025 are asked to contact our parish for further information. The program will commence in Term 2. Rebecca (Pastoral Associate) admin@gwparish.org.au or call 8261 6200.

Shrove Tuesday

Shrove Tuesday is a Christian festival celebrated by many all over the world. It falls on the Tuesday before the beginning of Lent – a period of around six weeks leading up to Easter. During Lent, Christians pray, fast and give to remember when Jesus went into the desert for 40 days to fast and pray prior to starting His ministry.

Shrove Tuesday is on 4th March (week 6) this year. Our pancakes will again be made by the Liturgy Group Leaders. More details will be sent home closer to this date.

Upcoming Dates

Tuesday 4th March Shrove Tuesday

Wednesday 5th March 9am Ash Wednesday Liturgy

Wednesday 19th March 9am St Joseph’s Feast Day Mass

Natalie Bampton

Acting APRIM

Learning and Inclusion

What a great start to the 2025 school year we’ve had!  Across the school, the first 2 weeks back are dedicated to establishing positive relationships between students, teachers and families.  Research tells us that ‘wellbeing is a combination of a person’s emotional, mental and social health and is linked to improved academic achievement, enhanced mental health and responsible life choices’ (studentwellbeinghub.edu.au).

We use Wellbeing supports to foster resilience, respectful relationships and emotional intelligence including: Kimochis (R-2), Zones of Regulation (3-6). These programs have been developed to help children recognise and manage their emotions and develop strategies to help them when they are not ‘in the zone’ for learning. 

In future newsletters, we will share some more information about ‘Kimochis’ and ‘The Zones’ and hope over the coming weeks that your child will share information about these with you too.  These are great tools to use at home as well!

Welcome back.

Dates to remember –

Adelaide Festival – Young Readers Day – Sunday 2nd March 9.30am-4pm.

Simultaneous Storytime – Wednesday 21st May

The book ‘Truck Cat’ by Deborah Frenkel and Danny Snell will be read at the same time in schools and Libraries throughout Australia and New Zealand.

Book Week 2025 – 16th-23rd August

This year’s theme is ‘Book an Adventure’.

Premier’s Reading Challenge – runs until 7th September.

Premier’s be-active Challenge – runs until 26th September.

More information about these exciting activities will be in future newsletters.

Scholastic Book Club – Issue 1 2025

Students will receive the first issue for 2025 next week. All orders will need to use the LOOP method of ordering and paying and will close on Tuesday 11th February. Thank you for your support.

The parent community has established a private group on Facebook that facilitates the trading of second-hand uniform items.

Please visit www.facebook.com/groups/stmonicasbuyswapsell and request to join the group if you are interested.

The page is ideal for selling items in good condition that your child has outgrown, or to sell items if your child is moving on. Simply post images and your contact details. Alternatively, you can join the group to take advantage of the pre-loved items that become available.

For those of you who are not on Facebook, please contact the P&F pandf.stmonicas@gmail.com and they will assist you with the sale of items.

Please note the sale of old-style uniform items is not allowed. St Monica's Parish School does not manage this page and takes no responsibility for any private sales.

We acknowledge the Kaurna people as the traditional custodians of the land upon which St Monica’s learn, work and play.

May we walk gently on this land acknowledging the Kaurna people's deep spiritual connection with their country.

We pay our respects to Kaurna elders past and present and commit to the ongoing journey of Reconciliation.