Week 10 - Term 3

Dear families,

The end is nigh! We have arrived at the end of term 3 and there is much to look back on and be thankful for.

Sports day

Friday’s sports carnival was a fantastic celebration of our school community. The children were exemplary in the way they competed, showed positive spirit and enjoyed themselves! The staff did an amazing job of leading the children through the day. A massive congratulations and thanks must go to James Daley, James Goldy, and mark Bowman, who coordinated all aspects of the sports carnival so well. It is a very large undertaking and I am sure you would agree that it was a very enjoyable day! My sincere thanks also to Rebecca Greck, Leonara Radosav and their committee of volunteers for coordinating the hospitality on the day. Hopefully you were all able to enjoy some coffee, fruit, and Yiros! I know the children loved their chicken meals.

Catholic Schools Music Festival

On Thursday night, our choir took part in the Catholic Schools Music Festival. There has been a year long preparation for this event, which is held over 4 days in the Festival Centre. Our children were wonderfully prepared and led by Olivia Bozzon, and their hard work really paid off on the night. They were a credit to themselves, their families and our school! I look forward to plenty of year 5 and 6 children being involved again next year.

2023

A reminder to families to confirm your enrolment for 2023, using the link provided through szapp. 2023 is going to be a busy and exciting year at St Francis as our new facilities begin to take shape, and we very much look forward to partnering with you all once again next year!

I hope you all enjoy some quality family time during these holidays and we look forward to seeing you all on October 17 to begin term 4.

God bless,

Dear Families,

As we approach the end of term, I take this opportunity to congratulate all students on a very busy and rewarding Term 3. Students have engaged in creative learning activities and experiences and continued to nurture their many relationships.  I know this will continue into next term and students will build onto their skills and experiences.

The staff take this opportunity to thank the families and parents who have supported us in so many ways during the term. Your partnership and support ensures that we provide the best opportunities and experiences to improve student outcomes and their participation at school.

NAPLAN 2022

Parents of students in Year 3 & 5, please be aware that individual results were sent home last Friday. 

NAPLAN results provide nationally comparable data to help governments evaluate education programs and whether students are meeting literacy and numeracy benchmarks.  Your child’s achievement is reported on a developmental scale against a school and national average.

NAPLAN provides an ‘at time’ assessment of your child’s Literacy and Numeracy skills and is only one of a number of ways we gather information about your child’s learning at St Francis.  All data informs our planning and our continuous improvement plan.

Please don’t hesitate to contact your child’s teacher if you have any further questions.

Catholic School Music Festival

This evening (Thursday) our choir will participate in the Catholic School’s Music Festival, held at the Entertainment Centre.

As always, I am confident the night will be a wonderful showcase of musical talents across Catholic schools in SA.  Our thanks to our choir instructor, Olivia Bozzon, for her support and preparation of the students.   The choir students can indeed be proud of their achievements and a truly memorable performance.

As we approach the end of term, we wish all students and families an enjoyable and relaxing holiday.

Catholic Charities Month Thank you

Thank you to all who participated and donated to Catholic Charities month, so far, we have collectively raised over $1000. A fantastic and generous effort from the St Francis community.

St Francis Feast Day

October the 4th is the official feast day of St Francis of Assisi, as this falls during the school holidays, staff and students will celebrate this occasion by attending Mass on Wednesday 28th September followed by various class activities.

St Francis – October 4th

Francis was born in Assisi, Italy in 1182. He grew up leading a privileged life as the son of a wealthy cloth merchant. Francis loved to learn and sing songs as a boy. His father wanted him to become a businessman and taught him about the French culture. 
Saint Francis is one of the most well-known saints of the Roman Catholic Church. He is one of the patron saints of Italy. He founded an order, called the Franciscans. The Franciscan order is one of the largest orders in the Roman Catholic Church. Saint Francis was known for his love of nature, particularly his love of animals.

The most well know prayer of St Francis is the Peace Prayer

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace:
where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
where there is sadness, joy.

O divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console,
to be understood as to understand,
to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive,
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.
Amen.

Wishing you a safe and peaceful time during the Term 3 break.

God Bless,
Angela De Nadai
APRIM

The Reading Rope

A really cool way to look at the skills required for a person to be a skilled reader is to look at Scarborough’s Reading Rope.

Hollis Scarborough (senior scientist at Haskins Laboratories) is the creator of the famous Reading Rope which was originally designed as a tool for parents and educators to show how students develop as readers. The Reading Rope metaphor talks about how skilled reading is like a rope woven of many strands.

At the top (red) pieces of the rope are made up of Language Comprehension strands – background knowledge, vocabulary, grammar, semantics, verbal reasoning and knowledge about literacy itself, for example how a book is organised and the difference between fiction and non-fiction, formal and informal writing, and a letter and an advertisement.  The blue pieces of the rope at the bottom are Word Recognition strands – awareness of the sound structure of words, the idea that letters of the alphabet represent sounds, knowledge of which letters/patterns correspond to which sounds, and recognition of familiar words. The blue and the red strands twist together to form the reading rope with the ultimate goal of skilled, fluent, independent readers.

With practice, weaving the main lower (blue) Word Recognition strand becomes more and more automatic, until it is done effortlessly and unconsciously. At the same time, language skill development, practice and life experience allow the weaving of the upper strand (red) in an increasingly strategic way. If any of the strands are weak or not tight enough, this affects the strength of the whole rope.

As you can see, this way of looking at the skill development of reading leaves nothing to chance. This ‘leaving nothing to chance’ philosophy is what we are applying to our teaching of reading at St Francis School. It is why we have changed our teaching methodology. It is exciting to be teaching to the science in our literacy lessons and to be seeing the progress and weaving together of strategic skills in our learners.

Until next time, keep reading!

Christie-Lee Hansberry