Week 4 - Term 3

Dear families,

Four weeks of term 3 have already passed by, and life continues to be busy and exciting at St Francis School. Over the past two weeks, I have had to work remotely because of covid 19, and I have been most grateful for the wonderful work of all of the staff at St Francis, who kept things running smoothly in my absence.

Upon my return, I was privileged to be able to attend the year 5 camp for a night, down at Wirraway in Strathalbyn. Camps are a fantastic way for our young people to experience life beyond home and school, to have experiences they wouldn’t normally have, to develop resilience, as well as cement friendships. I am most grateful for the extra time and commitment of our teachers and ESO staff-Corinne, Ellie, James D, David, Nives and Andrea E, who left their own families for two nights, to enable the children to have this camp experience.

Over the past few weeks, a significant amount of work has taken place in the background, in bringing stage one of our building program to life. We are close to final approval for the project to go ahead, and as such we are moving into a phase of planning for the movement of the relocatable village, in preparation for the build to commence in 2023. This is a very exciting time for St Francis and I am very much looking forward to sharing some concept designs later in the year. There will be some disruption to the end of our school year, and we will be doing all we can to both minimise that disruption and to keep you informed of what will happen.

Week 5 is traditionally Book Week in primary schools, and the theme for 2022 is “Dreaming with your eyes open.” In addition to many class based activities, we will have our traditional Book Week parade on Tuesday 23rd August.

Week 5 is also Catholic Schools Open Week. Hopefully you will have observed the spotlight in the public domain on the value of a Catholic Education through the various media. At St Francis we are hosting 2 school tours during Open Week, and our year 6 students will lead those tours as part of their leadership program.

The “Living Learning Leading” survey has been open now for 3 weeks, and it will stay open until the end of week 5. If you haven’t yet had the chance to complete the survey, I encourage you to do so. The data collected provides valuable information about what we are doing well and where we can improve.

Have a great week everyone!

God bless,

Phil

Dear Families,

From last Friday and for 3 more visits, St Francis is hosting a group of International Masters of Education students doing an immersion placement with us in Junior Primary. We are one of 4 schools in Adelaide involved with this initiative and its purpose is for the students to become familiar with Australian school language, contexts, practices/pedagogy and student behaviours.

While onsite for 3 hours, our teachers provide explicit teaching in the junior primary context.  The student teachers spend time in the Junior Primary classrooms to observe teaching in situ and experience aspects of the daily life of a given school community.  Following their classroom  observation of teaching, the student teachers then spend time to reflect and discuss what they saw in relation to their learning about theorised practice and junior primary teacher roles and responsibilities.

Some of the feed back they gave after their first visit included:

• Teachers made the learning intentions very clear for the students at the beginning of lessons

• The teachers know the students SO well

• Lots of scaffolding.

• The children were so engaged- they were active and alert

• Teachers used very simple, clear explanations and instructions

• The language of the teachers- very encouraging and provided feedback (growth mindset)

• Purposeful seating/placement of students

• Students seemed to feel safe to make mistakes

Kind regards,

Nives Kresevic

Feast of the Assumption of Mary

Catholic Schools Open Week Prayer

Raising Hearts and Minds Prayer

Loving God, Guide us to know life in its fullness, to raise 
our hearts and minds to know God’s love.

Raise our hearts and minds to be inspired 
by Jesus, the Catholic faith and tradition.

Raise our hearts to be loving, 
compassionate and respectful.

Raise our minds to be inquisitive, 
capable and seek truth.

May we be aware of listening to the stirring of our hearts to prompt action.

Guide us to respond to the needs of others and all of God’s creation.

In all our thoughts, words and actions, help us raise our hearts and minds in creating the world you desire.

Loving God hear our prayer
Amen

God Bless,

Angela De Nadai
APRIM

SAPSASA State Football

Congratulations to Miriam Fisher and her U12 Girls SA team at last weeks State Football Carnival, our SA team went through undefeated against the other states during the week leading up to the game against Victoria on Friday where they narrowly lost by 3 points in a nail biter. Congratulations SA on being awards the Silver medal and also the fair play award team medal also. Prior to the carnival commencing the team took part in a Guernsey presentation evening where I had the honour of being invited by Miriam to present her with her state guernsey on the night. Congratulations and well done Miriam

SACPSSA Cross Country

Last Thursday our cross country team headed along to the 2022 SACPSSA cross country carnival in Adelaide, our team of 52 students all competed very well. Most students accomplished a PB while others excelled and were awarded medals and ribbons. Congratulations to all students involved.

SAPSASA Statewide Basketball

Last Friday our two teams made up of year 5/6 Boys and year 5/6 girls competed in the statewide basketball championships at St Clair Recreation Centre. All of our students involved had a wonderful day and enjoyed the experience of playing against some very talented sides. Thank you to Mr Goldy who was able to coach and guide the students on the day and in the lead up training sessions with his extensive knowledge of the game. 

Athletics Trials

We will be continuing our Athletics Trials over the next 2 weeks as we finalise our SAPSASA team made up by year 4-6 students who will compete at this years Airport District day in week 6.

James Daley

Sports Coordinator

Home Reading

As part of our change to teaching based in the science, our processes and procedures around home reading has changed. This article is designed to answer some questions you may have around home reading.

Reception / Year 1 / Year 2

Our early readers in Reception, Year 1 and some Year 2 students are exclusively working with decodable books as their home reading books. These books include words that the students can ‘decode’ (sound-out) according to the letter sounds they have been taught. Early readers need lots of practice with the phonic skills they are learning in class and these books provide that important practice. Reception, Year 1 and 2 students take home 1 book per week. This gives plenty of time for the student to practice decoding the words (reading each word with accuracy) and then to practice fluency (reading with expression, attending to punctuation) and reading for meaning. Students in higher grades may also bring home decodable books or passages to read if they have not yet ‘cracked the code’.

Year 2 and 3

Readers who have ‘cracked the code’, or are independently reading, will be encouraged to choose appropriate books for their ability. Students in Year 2 and 3 for example, may choose reading books based on interest that are across different levels and different text types. These books will be the home reading books for the students to practice fluency (reading with expression, attending to punctuation) and comprehension. Students will read these texts in class and bring them home for further practice.

Year 4 Onwards

Older readers that have ‘cracked the code’ choose specific home books from the library. We use a program called ‘Star Reading’ from Year 4 to assess students each term in word attack skills and comprehension. These assessments identify the level of each student – this level equates to a colour. Books throughout the library have coloured dots on them at each level and the students are able to borrow books at the appropriate level for their skills and abilities. Once again, we are expecting students to be continually working on decoding unfamiliar words as well as fluency and comprehension. These skills are explicitly taught at school in literacy lessons.

In every year level, reading is explicitly taught in daily literacy lessons. The Phonology component of the lessons is when we teach the rules and concepts of the English language which are applied to both reading and spelling. There are also fluency lessons, paired reading activities as well as individual 1:1 reading to the teacher.

While the way we teach reading and the processes around it has changed, our knowledge of where each student is at in their literacy development has increased. The whole school comprehensive and regular testing that is conducted informs our teaching at every level and helps us make important decisions about what to teach when, which students need extra teaching and what that needs to look like. We have trained ESO’s and teachers who are working to progress each student on their literacy growth.

As previously mentioned, I encourage you ALL to continue to read to and with your child/ren at home. Research has shown that reading aloud to your child is the single most important thing that you can do to prepare your child for reading and learning.

Keep on reading!

Christie-Lee Hansberry