Term 4 Week 9

I am truly amazed at how fast this year has gone and here we are at our last newsletter for the school year. We have much to reflect upon and be grateful for. It is easy to forget this when we are going at full speed trying to manage everything that is asked of us. I think Friday night’s End of Year spectacular gave us a chance to stop for a short time and remember how lucky we are to be a part of this wonderful community.

I hope that you all enjoyed yourselves at the concert on Friday night. Boy, wasn’t that music a trip down memory lane when fashion was questionable but the tunes were amazing. I do have a quiet chuckle when I hear my own kids singing and being word perfect on songs that I grew up with. My work is complete!

Thank you to the P and F committee who supported the night through coordinating raffle donations, selling the tickets and prepping the prizes ready for collection. To the many families who donated prizes, thank you. Your generosity will make such a difference to the lives of others as all proceeds from the raffle will go to the Vinnies Christmas Appeal, along with the gold coin donation. I ask all families to support the many businesses that made prize donations. We are a small community but from small actions of support big changes can happen. A list of donors is included in this email for your information.

A sincere thanks to all the students and staff for all their hard work in preparing for each class performance. The Performance Choir sang with confidence and passion. How exciting for many of them that they will be a part of the Catholic Schools Music Festival next year. The excitement and enthusiasm that each class brought to their performance was energising. St Monica’s does indeed have talent!

My final thanks are offered to Kildare College who generously allowed us to use their amazing facilities again. We were blessed to have three Kildare staff members with us to help ensure that the evening ran smoothly with the sound and video system. To Nicholas (third time veteran), Ray and Enrico – thank you for gifting us your time, skills and expertise.

On Tuesday 12 December all students’ Semester 2 reports will be released through the SEQTA engage app. Contained in the Pastoral Care comment will be the name of your child’s class teacher/s in 2024. The students had a chance to meet their 2024 teacher during Tuesday morning and they are looking forward to an exciting start to the school year with their new class peers and teacher.

My final part of my report is staff farewells. This year we farewell Georgia Parisotto who has been teaching in both year 4/5 classes in 2023. Her passion for science, and her use of ICT in the classroom were great favourites of the children. Georgia’s connection with her students was always one of genuine care and support and I know that the families of these children appreciated her commitment to their child’s learning and wellbeing. Next year Georgia will be teaching Year 5/6 at St James Catholic Primary School in Jamestown. We wish her every success and happiness.

Next year, Rachel Milosevic, will be taking a year’s leave to explore her passion for tertiary education and other areas of interest such as student agency and enrichment learning for students. We hope that her time away from St Monica’s is very successful and we look forward to her return in 2025.

Finally, I need to say thank you and farewell to Bronwyn Ridley, our school’s APRIM for the last 5 years. I have been blessed to have Bronwyn as the Assistant Principal during my time at St Monica’s. She made settling into the St Monica’s community easy for me by always being there to answer my questions, collaborate with me on the planning and development of whole school focuses such as Religious Education inquiry-based learning, assessment tasks and our school’s new Strategic Plan which will be launched in 2024. I am eternally grateful to Bronwyn not only for her hard work, leadership in the Catholic Identity of our community, constant support and help but also the gift of friendship that she gifted to me. I will miss our laughs and great conversations about learning, faith and many other things but I know that she will be an amazing Director of Mission at St Mary’s College next year.  Our love and blessings are always with you.

As we come to the end of another school year, I would like to say thank you to all the members of the St Monica’s community. This is a community of welcome, inclusion, kindness and service. I am truly grateful for the trust that families place in us as a teaching staff so that we can help each child to flourish.

I hope that each family has a blessed and safe Christmas time. May the celebration of the birth of the Christ child bring hope and blessings to each of you. May the start of the new year be one of gentleness and optimism and good health.

Blessings,

Emily Sayer

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For our final newsletter for 2023 I’d like to take this opportunity to thank the community of St Monica’s for your support, generosity and love shown to me in the past five years that I have held the position of Assistant Principal Religious Identity and Mission (APRIM). Highlights every year included the Sacramental Program, Children's University, Liturgical Celebrations and Mission Days. Opportunties to engage with students and families in such significant and memorable ways, make this role unique and life giving. St Monica’s truly is a special community, graced with a diversity of cultures and faith traditions I was blessed to have the honour of upholding our school’s Catholic Identity in my position.

May God Bless

Bronwyn Ridley

On Tuesday we celebrated our Year 6 students as they graduated from primary school. This group of young people set a wonderful example for the younger students, and we wish them every blessing and success as they move forward to high school. We know they are future leaders in a world of change. Congratulations to all of you.

Christmas Eve

St Monica's Church - 5.30 pm Carols and 6.00 pm Mass

St Martin's Church - 9.00 pm Carols and 9.30 pm Mass

Christmas Day

St Monica's Church - 10.00 am Mass, Ordinariate of Our Lady of the Southern Cross

St Martin's Church - 9.30 am Mass

On Thursday 30 November, the following students, Naksh , Hitansh , Matthew.  Flynn , Mahlie , Paul , Elsie , Shivansh and Navya participated in the Tennis Hot Shot State final. Last year we finished 7th out of 15 schools, this year I was super proud of our students who finished 2nd in the final to Prince Alfred College.

All the students participated with great sportsmanship and awesome team work. Well done St. Monica's, we definitely punch above of weight for a small school.

Jim Mihelios

(Sports Coordinator)

2023 Premier’s Reading Challenge

Congratulations to the students who completed this year’s challenge and to those who also achieved the 20 Year Book Challenge .  Awards were distributed on Monday at the Assembly. I hope many of our students will receive the gift of a book for Christmas and the extended holidays present an opportunity to visit your local library for the many wonderful activities they run.

Scholastic Book Club

Thank you for your wonderful support of the Book Club this year.  Not only did the students have the opportunity to buy good quality and reasonably priced books, the school also benefited as 15% of total sales goes to the school to purchase resources for the Classrooms and Library.  This year we were able to spend $1300 on school resources. 

Wishing you all a very happy Christmas and New Year and happy reading to all.

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.