Term 1 Week 1

Welcome back! It has been wonderful to have all our students and families return after a lovely summer break. I hope that each of you had time to recharge your batteries and spend some lovely time together as a family. This time last year we welcomed back Reception and Year 1 students and the children of essential workers. We didn’t reconnect as a ‘full’ community until Week 3. Being able to welcome all back onsite and go about a ‘normal’ start to the year has been uplifting.

We welcome all our new students and their families to St Monica’s. We pray that as you begin your journey with us, that you know you are blessed and loved by the wider St Monica’s family.

We also welcome the following staff to our community: Georgia Parisotto (Year 4/5 class teacher) and Nikki Grosser (chaplain) and Rocco Carpenteri (groundsperson). We offer them our best wishes as they begin their journey with us.

Farewell Fr Kym

After school finished last year, we received the news that Fr Kym was finishing his time with us as parish priest for Greenacres Walkerville Parish. Fr Kym has been in the parish for the last ten years and in this time brought the community together with his leadership, caring nature and seeking to make a difference in the lives of those in the community.

The children thoroughly enjoyed having Fr Kym visit and listened intently to his homilies at mass. When he was unwell, the children wrote him some jokes to cheer him up. They knew that these were appreciated very much when he returned the favour by writing some jokes for us to enjoy. Fr Kym moves to the Modbury/Para Hills parish but we are planning on having him come back to us so we can say farewell and thank you. We will keep you informed of the details as they are finalised.

Welcome Deacon Andrew

Until a parish priest is selected for the parish and schools, we are blessed to have Deacon Andrew Kirkbride join us. He will lead us in Communion Services, Liturgies of the Word and be a member of our school board and the parish sacramental program. We welcome Deacon Andrew and look forward to having him a part of our community at St Monica’s.

Front of School Play space

The final plans have been approved for our reimagined play space at the front of the school and we have engaged Dirt Works to build our new nature play and learning space. The final stages of planning, WHS checks to create a building site and costs are being worked on and we are hopeful that the construction can begin later this term. Please click on the link to see the plans. 

Playground Designs

School Board and AGM

I invite all parents/caregivers to attend the Annual General Meeting (AGM) on Monday 20 February, 7pm in the school library. The School Board play a very important role in the life of St Monica’s by supporting the ethos of our school, ensuring the compliance with legal obligations, exercise financial stewardship, help to promote educational excellence within the school and support the leadership and staff of the school and uphold child safety and protection. Board meetings are held twice a term on a Monday night, commencing at 6.30pm in the school library.

So, who can be a member of the School Board? Any enrolling parent or legal guardian can nominate themselves or someone else can nominate them (with permission of course), someone who brings a diversity of gifts, skills and capabilities, an enthusiasm for and willingness to promote the mission of Catholic schools and have a current Working with Children Clearance certificate and a current Responding to Risk, Harm and Neglect in the Educational Context certificate.

A hard and electronic copy of the invitation to the AGM and the nomination form has been sent to all families. Please consider if you could offer your time and service as a board member. We would love to see our numbers increase and this group is welcoming team who work collaboratively for the benefit of St Monica’s students, families and staff.

School Board Nomination Form

God’s blessings in the week ahead,

Emily Sayer

A huge thank you to the Allison Family - Carmel and past students Ethan and Lily as well as Tanya Sharda and Tiera Lippiello for their amazing support with sorting and stocktaking the Early Years take-home texts at the end of 2022. This was a big task and their time and effort were greatly appreciated.

The Early Years Teachers 

This week Maria, Rocco, Gia-Rose and Antonio welcomed into the world Francesca Maria. We prayer that she may always be held in the comforting love of God. Congratulations to your family, St Monica's can not wait to meet her.

Last year we farewelled our school chaplain Maisie, who completed her university studies and accepted a teaching position at Cabra College for 2023. Excitedly I have the pleasure to introduce to you Nikki, our newly appointed chaplain. Please read below a short introduction from Nikki and if you see her around the school, I invite you to introduce yourself.

"This year I will be completing my third year of university, studying a Bachelor of Secondary Education (Honours). I major in Mathematics and sub-major in Catholic Studies. In previous years, I have been involved in sports coaching at multiple schools and communities. I enjoy a wide range of sports such as cricket, netball, dance, running and swimming. I also enjoy music and have undertaken lessons in piano and flute, which I continue to play as often as I can. I grew up on a sheep and cropping farm in the Mid-North, yet have moved to Adelaide for my university studies. I look forward to being part of the St Monica’s community and am always happy to have a chat."

During Vacation Care we did lots of different activities.  We went to see two movies; we went bowling and played indoor sports and games at the The Lights Sports Centre.

When we were at school we did lots of art and cooking. We had bubbles and water balloons, as well as the Lego and Nintendo switch.

Hello, my name is Carolyn Easterbrook and I am also thrilled to co-chair the P&F committee this year. My husband Stephen and I have been a part of the St Monica’s community for 4 years now, Harrison is in year 3 and Elodie is in year 1. I enjoy reading a good book or catching up for a coffee in my spare time, during the days I can be found working in operations and administration. During our time in the community, we have made some wonderful connections and friendships which have extended past the school yard. Like Kathryn, my passion is to grow our St Monica’s community and assist in raising funds to contribute to a wonderful learning environment for our children and the wonderful staff, creating lifelong memories. I look forward to meeting many of you in the school yard and hope to see you at our P&F meetings held regularly throughout the year.

St Monica’s acknowledge the Kaurna People as the Traditional Owners of the lands on which we live, learn and work. We acknowledge the continued deep spiritual connection and relationship of Aboriginal peoples to this country and commit to the ongoing journey of Reconciliation.