Dear Families,
“Boy, that was fun!” - Year 2 student
I overheard the above quote from a Year 2 student after he participated in the Year 5 Soccer Challenge at St Monica’s Fair. He was pretty proud of himself for the kicks he did and the number of times he connected with one of the targets.
I think this quote is one I would like to borrow to summarise my first term at St Monica’s. It was certainly a different start with the snap lock down but once we were back into the ‘normal’ business of learning and teaching, great things happened. During this term the students and staff have celebrated Book Week and Italian Day, engaged in Yoga lessons with Tammy, developed our skills in Tennis with Martin, our Tournament of the Minds team worked hard to develop their presentation and then gave it their very best during the performances last weekend. We have had three students complete their initiation into the Catholic church through the sacramental program, our Years 3 to 6 students participated in the Touch Carnival, and we had representatives in the Cross Country event. But wait there’s more! We have celebrated St Monica and St Mary of the cross MacKillop’s feast days, held an amazingly successful St Monica’s Fair, worked with Chris Crebbin to create impressive art pieces that are influenced by indigenous culture. We also put together a different way of sharing Student Led Learning Conversations and loved sharing the students’ learning with their families. Students have cooked, created, designed, planned and constructed some very impressive learning tasks and outcomes. We participated in a Women in STEM breakfast both at St Monica’s and at a Catholic Education event at the Adelaide Convention Centre. I am sure that I have missed a few more events but what a busy and productive term we have had. I would like to thank the staff (both teaching and our support staff) for their enthusiasm in being involved in events that build community and offer different learning opportunities for our children.
The staff will be attending professional learning opportunities this Friday (24 September) on our school closure day. Time has been allocated for updating training in the very important area of recognising and responding to abuse and neglect and also in training in engaging with our system wide online learning platform – SEQTA.
Student Led Learning Conversations
I would like to thank families for your commitment to being involved in the alternative Student Led Learning Conversations. The feedback that teachers have received from families about their child’s learning goals and how they have gone about achieving them have been very positive and supportive. We will plan that next year we are able to share these with all families in person.
I would also like to thank each family for their very warm welcome to St Monica’s. I am slowly recognising cars at end of school pick up and who belongs with whom. My hope is that through the coming holidays that you all find some time to spend together and ‘chill’. Have a PJ day or go for a walk or make a cubby house under your table with sheets and cushions – have fun together.
Take care of each other and we look forward to seeing you return on Monday 11 October ready for a busy but exciting term.
Blessings,
Emily
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