Term 3 Week 8 2023

Another busy two weeks in the lives of St Monica’s students to share with you all.

Thursday last week our courageous Years 3 to 6 students and staff and volunteers, braved the cold and rain to participate in the SACPPSA Touch Football Carnival. As a smaller school one of the great opportunities that is offered to our students is the participation in so many of the system organised carnivals and clinics. We don’t just choose the most skilled sports people but rather include everyone so that they have a chance to experience and develop new skills and capabilities in sports that they may never have considered before. Well done to all who participated in this carnival and strived to do their best but also went with a mindset of having fun and being positive, despite the conditions.

Tournament of the Minds

We also had another group of students from Years 5 and 6 represent our school. This was at the Tournament of the Minds on Sunday 10 September at Adelaide High School. This competition provides the opportunity to solve authentic, open-ended challenges that foster creative, divergent thinking whilst developing collaborative enterprise, excellence and teamwork. Challenges are set in the disciplines of The Arts, Language Literature, Social Sciences and STEM. It was wonderful to watch their enthusiasm and creativity as they performed for the judges in The Arts. They are to be commended in being such creative, problem-solving and collaborative young people. Congratulations to each of you and a big thank you to Sarah Morris who has again worked so well in supporting these students in their preparation and on the performance day.

School Fees

As we come to the end of Term 3, we are working on finalising the school fees for 2023. Thank you to those who have been making their payments or have approached me about a payment plan. I know that at times there are unexpected changes to family’s finances, so if at any point making fee payments needs to be revisited or you need some extra time, please email me or come and see me. We are here to support you and your child’s education but if we are unaware of changes of circumstances, we are unable to do this. Any conversation with me or Louise Watkins is confidential and private.

Vacation Care

The Vacation Care program for the upcoming holidays has now been released. Our policy is that priority is given to families with parents who are working and then others have the opportunity to book their child/ren in for care.

Please remember that if you have any outstanding fees for OSHC, these need to be finalised before bookings for Vacation Care can be made. Please contact Jodie Byrne with any questions.

School Lunches Survey

Thank you for feedback we received from families about the lunch order options we have available for the students. We will collate this information and share it back to the community along with actions that have been undertaken. One of the strongest pieces of feedback was about having gluten free options being available. We will certainly be exploring this more in the coming weeks.

Hats and Summer Uniforms

Next week we enter the transition period for uniforms. During the last two weeks of Term 3, students can wear their summer uniform or if it is still cooler weather, they can continue to wear their winter uniform, and this may still occur in the first two weeks of Term 4.

A reminder that from Monday (18/9), hats must be worn as per our Sun Smart policy. We want the children enjoying and playing in their break times and not having to sit in the shade because they don’t have a hat. Please also check that their hats have been named.

Student Led Learning Conversations

During this week, we held our second Student Led Learning conversations. The feedback from parents that I have spoken to before and after school has been very positive, and they are very impressed and proud of the way that their child/ren was able to articulate their learning goals and how they are working towards to achieving these.

As educators we highly value student agency and voice in developing learning goals and tasks. Each student is empowered to express what it is they are learning and why, identifying how they are tracking with their work and how do they know this, what are the next steps and what are their strategies in seeking support if they need help. I hope that you have found these conversations informative in hearing from your child their perceptions of themselves as a learner. Please remember that at any time if you would like further information or have a question, please contact your child’s teacher. We are partners with you on your child’s learning journey and value the opportunity to work collaboratively with you.

Important Calendar Dates

Please note that our school year this year will end on Wednesday 13 December. This will allow teachers to spend time transitioning student information to the next year’s teacher, allow staff to undertake some extra professional development and to allow for any movement of rooms to occur with minimal impact on the learning program. OSHC will be available for families on Thursday 14 and Friday 15 December.

Have a wonderful week ahead.

Emily Sayer

Only one more week until our Year 6 Choir perform at the annual Catholic School’s Music Festival. Our performance night is Tuesday September 26 with tickets available through Ticketek. website just make sure you select Tuesday Sept 26 for the correct performance night. Tickets are priced from $35pp.

https://premier.ticketek.com.au/shows/show.aspx?sh=CSMFEST23 

We can’t wait to see our students shine! 

Topic: Soccer

Students Involved:

Naman , Charles , Charlie , Hrishi , Hitansh , Artin & Isaac 

In OSHC, the grass area has transformed into a mini soccer field as students actively embrace the beautiful game, taking inspiration from the FIFA Women's World Cup hosted in Australia. The infectious energy of the tournament has sparked a newfound passion among the students. They're dribbling, passing, and scoring with enthusiasm, demonstrating not only their skill but also their love for the sport. Students are creating new friendships and are developing teamwork skills.

“It’s fun playing soccer after school. I like how there is more room to run around the grass area” – Charlie Gentilcore

“Playing soccer in OSHC feels more competitive. It feels satisfying scoring goals.” – Artin Salehi

“I like playing soccer because I’m a good goalkeeper!” – Isaac Southwell

The Touch Footy Carnival this year was lots of fun and a great success despite the rain we had on the day. We hope the year 3s had a great first carnival and they will grow and get better each year. Thanks to Mr M for the positive feedback during the carnival to all the teams. He also helped the other teams from other schools learn to play. You helped lift our spirits and it wasn’t the first time either! All the teams had a win, loss or draw but most importantly It was great to see everyone trying their best, even in the bad weather and making St Monica’s proud.

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.