Week 10 - Term 2

Dear parents & caregivers,

We have reached the end of a busy and productive term, as well as the end of Semester one of the 2022 school year. While it has been a year full of challenges there is also much to celebrate about our wonderful community, and I continue to be energised by my interactions with staff, children and families. Let’s hope term 3 continues in this vein!

Since I last wrote to you, a number of students and staff have shone in their various pursuits. Last week, our year 6 band, under the expert tutelage of Music teacher Olivia Bozzon, competed in the Nazareth College battle of the Bands. While we ultimately didn’t win the competition, we were competing against larger Secondary schools, and our students really shone, doing St Francis and their families proud. Music is such an important part of our lives and it is indeed heart-warming to see our students involved in initiatives such as these-my congratulations to all involved.

Recently, I have been advised that year 6 students Miriam Fisher and Aria De Pasquale have been selected in the State SAPSASA Football and Hockey teams respectively. This is a huge achievement for both girls, as these teams are selected from state wide talent from all schools in SA. Their national carnivals will take place next term, and we look forward to hearing of their progress. On behalf of everyone at St Francis, congratulations Miriam and Aria!

Last weekend, our year 4 students completed their initiation into full communion with the Catholic Church by receiving their first Holy Communion. There were services on Saturday night, and two on Sunday. Each of these services were wonderful celebrations of this important milestone in our young people’s faith journey. My thanks to Angela DeNadai, our year 4 staff, Fr Michael Trainor our Parish priest and Joan Walsh, Pastoral associate for their work in preparing the students and the services.

This week, we celebrated and acknowledged NAIDOC week in a variety of ways. Classes have been learning about this significance of this celebration, and our year 5 students led a beautiful Mass on Wednesday. This was also ‘donut day’ at school, and while enjoying tasty donuts supplied by Charmaine Norris from Scrummy’s Cakes, we raised over $400 for the Tjindu Foundation, which supports young Aboriginal people through education, cultural programs and sports programs. Well done to the year 5 students for this worthy initiative!

Families would have  hopefully seen the media coverage recently surrounding school fees in Catholic Schools for 2023. We are pleased to inform our school families that there will be no increase in school fees for the 2023 school year. As South Australians continue to feel the impact of COVID-19, Catholic Education SA has announced it will freeze fees at its 86 Diocesan schools for the 2023 school year.

“These decisions are part of our continued COVID 19 response as we seek to support families at a time when they are being impacted by rising costs and inflation,” says Dr Neil McGoran, Director, Catholic Education SA. Since 2019, Catholic Education SA has been implementing the Making Catholic Education More Affordable Initiative to ensure our schools are accessible to any family who wants their child to have a Catholic education.

Dr Neil McGoran said the fee-freeze would not impact the quality of education. “We’re committed to keeping school fees as low as possible and ensuring a Catholic education is affordable and accessible to all.”

As previously advised, Semester one reports will be distributed on Thursday, which is the last day of term 3 for all students. These reports reflect progress towards achievement of the year level standards and are important moments in time, as we all reset our learning goals for Semester two.

On behalf of the staff at St Francis, I wish all families a safe and restful holiday period and we look forward to seeing you all in term three.

God bless,

Phil Schultz

Dear Families,

Lost property

There are number of uniform items on our lost property table in the Quad.  Please try to make time to check through the items is your child has misplaced something.  Many of these items are not labelled.

School Photos

Please note that our school Photo Day will be Wednesday the 10^th August, 2022  (Week 3)

An order envelope will be sent home with your child early next term.

UNSW ICAS Competition 2022

Interested students in Year 3-6 were issued with enrolment information last week and science was also added.

A reminder that payment is due by Friday 29 July.

Payment can be made via the new online Parent Payment System. Details for payments and codes and privacy notification are contained in the letter sent home.

Please contact me if any further information is required.

Wishing all families a restful and safe break.

God Bless

Nives Kresevic

First Communion

Congratulations to all students from both St Francis School and neighbouring schools who celebrated their First Eucharist last weekend.

Holiday Funnies

Some of the Reception students would like to share one of their jokes for you to enjoy over the break:

Q: Why did the chicken join the band?

A: Because it had drumsticks!

By Lilliana C in Reception RLF

Q: Why did the dinosaur cross the road?

A: Because chickens weren’t born yet!

By Jasper C in Reception RLF

Pope Francis’ thoughts on First Holy Communion

"The Eucharist is such a great gift. That's why going to Mass is so important. Going to Mass not just to pray, but to receive Communion, the Bread and Body of Christ. It saves us, forgives us and it makes us one with the Father. How beautiful!”

He then explained that the word 'Eucharist' stems from Greek, and it means thankfulness. The greatest gestures of all, he explained, is the Last Supper, where God's love and mercy come together. He then added that celebrating the Eucharist is not just about honouring the past.

This Sunday’s Gospel

15^th  Sunday in Ordinary Time Year C  10 July 2022

Luke 10:25-37 – The Good Samaritan

There was a lawyer who, to disconcert Jesus, stood up and said to him, ‘Master, what must I do to inherit eternal life?’ He said to him, ‘What is written in the Law? What do you read there?’ He replied, ‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind, and your neighbour as yourself.’ ‘You have answered right,’ said Jesus, ‘do this and life is yours.’

But the man was anxious to justify himself and said to Jesus, ‘And who is my neighbour?’ Jesus replied, ‘A man was once on his way down from Jerusalem to Jericho and fell into the hands of brigands; they took all he had, beat him and then made off, leaving him half dead. Now a priest happened to be travelling down the same road, but when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. In the same way a Levite who came to the place saw him and passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan traveller who came upon him was moved with compassion when he saw him. He went up and bandaged his wounds, pouring oil and wine on them. He then lifted him on to his own mount, carried him to the inn and looked after him. Next day, he took out two denarii and handed them to the innkeeper. “Look after him,” he said, “and on my way back I will make good any extra expense you have.” Which of these three, do you think, proved himself a neighbour to the man who fell into the brigands’ hands?’ ‘The one who took pity on him,’ he replied. Jesus said to him, ‘Go and do the same yourself.’

In this Sunday’s Gospel reading, God gives us a very simple guideline to find true happiness: live by the law of love. In the Gospel, Jesus showed how that law was lived out by the Samaritan who helped the injured man. The people who passed him by were following rules too, but it was not God's rule.

In his own life, Jesus always lived by the rule of love. He always looked for what would heal, comfort, encourage or help. Talk with your children about the small ways they can apply the rule of love at home, in the neighbourhood, and at school. Share with them some instances when you chose to follow the law of love.

Wishing peace and rejuvenation to students, staff and all who are taking a break over the next two weeks.

God Bless,

Angela De Nadai

APRIM

AFLW Crows Cup

On Friday 24^th June our year 5/6 Girls Football team competed in the Good For Footy, Crows Cup that was held at West Adelaide Oval. On the day our 12 Girls who competed did an outstanding job, not only was their skills showcased but their attitudes, their respect and their teamwork was amazing. Our girls did not lose a single game in the round robin fixture. We then played off in the grand final against a team that had some very talented football players and unfortunately on that day they were the better team on the scoreboard. Out girls finished the day in 2^nd place. I would like to thank and congratulate each and every student for their participation. Thank you to our parents who came along to support and volunteer their time as a team helper on the day. Well done Girls

Westies School Cup

On Tuesday 28^th June our year 5/6 Boys Football team competed in the Inaugural Westies School Cup that was held at West Adelaide Football Club, the weather was perfect, light winds and full sun. A perfect day for playing footy. The 12 selected boys on the day did an amazing job and competed very well. We started the day off with a small loss but then won every other game for the rest of the day. Unfortunately, we missed out on playing off In the grand final on percentage and finished the day in 3^rd position. I would like to congratulate and thank each of the boys who represented our school on the day in the way they went about each game. We seen great teamwork, cooperation, sportsmanship and fair play. Thank you to Tom Atyeo for his assistance and to all of the parents who chipped in as a gaol umpire also. Well done Boys

SAPSASA Netball

During week 8 the District Carnival for SAPSASA Netball was held at Priceline Stadium, Mile End. Our school had 3 Girls selected into the final team, Scarlett Grosso, Ella Nicholson and Leila Cosenza. Unfortunately Leila was unable to play during the carnival but we would still like to congratulate each of the girls for trialling and being selected into the team. Well done to Scarlett and Ella for all of their efforts in the team during the games.

School Soccer

Well done to all of our teams on their participation so far during term 2in the NWJSA School Competition, thank you to all players, coaches, adult volunteers and younger or older siblings who have gone along each and every Saturday to help support our school teams. Please enjoy the next 3 weekend off as we break up for the school holiday period. The first game back next term will be on Saturday 30^th July.

School Basketball and Netball

As we come to the close of Season 1 of our school basketball and Netball competitions I’d like to thank all players, coaches and parent helpers for their commitment each week. Well done. To those players who will continue on in season 2 we wish you all the best. If you are a school basketball player and you no longer will be playing can I please ask you to return your school basketball singlet during week 1 of Term 3.

James Daley

Sports Coordinator

Playberry Tier 3 Intervention

This year, as well as introducing a new way of teaching reading and spelling, we have also introduced a Tier 3 Intervention program at St Francis School. First let me start by reminding you about the Tiers of Intervention.

The 3 Tiers approach is about identifying and accommodating students on their learning journey. The approach includes 3 tiers:

Tier 1 – Core classroom instruction. This includes teaching to the science, with revision activities, explicit teaching of new concepts and daily practice of skills taught. 

Tier 2 – Targeted small group instruction. This is where our teachers or amazing ESO’s take small groups that are identified by the teacher as needing extra practice or learning of particular skills taught in class. Examples of this Tier include focused work on alphabet recognition, handwriting practice, phonological awareness practice, re-teaching of spelling skills or concepts or reading practice.

Tier 3 – Intensive individual or paired intervention. In this Tier, we have a highly skilled teacher, Mrs Sarah Battistella, working with pairs of students using the Playberry program. Playberry is a multisensory literacy program

 designed for students that have not made adequate progress after receiving good quality Tier 1 and 2 teaching. Playberry follows a carefully designed synthetic phonics structure that methodically adds to existing knowledge to build word attack and spelling skills. Sarah works with pairs of students each week for an hour and they then take home reading cards and practice passages to revise at home during the week.

Students may work in more than one Tier of Intervention at any one time. Some of our Early Years students engage daily in Tier 1 – whole class literacy lessons, as well as working in small targeted groups with their teacher or ESO on a particular need (Tier 2) and then also work with Sarah once per week.

Our Playberry room is located under the stairs in the room attached to the Playgroup / Transition Reception room. You will see it immediately when walking past as it is the one with the Spelling Rules poster on the window!

If you have any questions about the 3 Tiers of intervention, send me an e-mail or ask your child’s classroom teacher.

Until next time, keep reading!

Christie-Lee Hansberry