Week 6 - Term 3

Dear Families,

It was wonderful to be able to celebrate Father’s Day breakfast with many of our dads, grandads and other special people! Over the previous two days, our children had the opportunity to purchase a gift for their dads and others. This was made possible through the dedication and generosity of our wonderful P&F committee-my sincere thanks to Charmaine Feiter-Norris and her crew of  supporters for facilitating the father’s day stalls.

 To become a father is both a great joy and a privilege. But more importantly, it is a great responsibility. It is a father’s duty to love his children, to bring them up knowing how to live in this world where there is so much to lead them astray! A father must teach his children the truth about courage, the difference between right and wrong, how to remain true to themselves and how to treat others with reverence, respect and hospitality, with his very life. We give thanks for all the dads, grandads and important male role models in the lives of our children and we wish them all a very happy Father’s Day this Sunday. 

Now that we are in the second half of term 3, our next major event will be our annual Sports Day, to be held on September 30-the last day of term 3. A significant amount of work has been done already, in preparation for the day, and we will begin to circulate information to you all, about the event, very soon. Our P&F once again have been working to ensure there are suitable catering options for the day, and I thank this committee as well. We are praying for a nice weather day!

Another major event coming up is the annual Catholic Schools Music Festival. Our choir attended their final combined rehearsal last week and are now gearing up for their performance in week 10. My thanks to Olivia Bozzon for her expert conducting of our choir.

Planning for our building program continues apace. This planning includes the management of the moving of transportable buildings in readiness for -hopefully-the commencement of works early in 2023. There is likely to be some disruption at the end of term 4, and I will be doing my best to keep you all informed of our plans to manage and minimise this disruption. Stay tuned for updates!

There is much to be excited about as we look forward to 2023. I remind all families to complete the survey circulated via szapp recently, to confirm your child’s continuing enrolment at St Francis. I also remind families to complete the Vacation Care survey sent recently. To date we have had 48 responses, which is encouraging, however we do need to capture the feelings of a larger group of families so that we can make an informed decision as to the provision of vac care into the future. The surveys are available via szapp.

On Thursday, our team of athletes competed in the SAPSASA district Athletics carnival. While at the time of writing I don’t have any results, I do know that the children have all competed successfully and have been most worthy representatives of our school community. Sincere thanks to James D and James G, along with other attending staff for their support of our extensive sports program at St Francis. I am very much looking forward to hearing of their results!

Have a great week everyone.
Phil

Made in the Image of God

The Made In The Image Of God (MITIOG), Human Sexuality curriculum is mandated for South Australian Catholic Schools, for Years R-12. Each year our students engage with age-appropriate curriculum content regarding sexuality through this (MITIOG) curriculum.

This year, the Human Sexuality Curriculum will be taught during Term 3, Weeks 7- 9.

You will have received a letter from your child’s class teacher outlining the content to be covered. There may be sheets/booklets sent home for you to peruse and discuss with your child.

Catholic Charities Appeal Month

September is the month of Catholic Charities, a time when Catholic schools raise money to support the many charitable works in the Adelaide Archdiocese. During the month of September year levels will hold special activities to raise money for Catholic Charities.

I was hungry 
and you gave me food,
I was a stranger
and you welcomed me.
I was naked
and you gave me clothing
just as you did it to 
one of the least of these
who are members of my family,
you did it to me. 
Matthew 25:44-46

Pope designates Sept. 1 as World Day of Prayer for Care of Creation

The day is inspired by Pope Francis' landmark encyclical Laudato Si’, which calls on "every person living on this planet" to care for our shared Earth.
“Listen to the voice of creation” is the theme and invitation of this year’s Season of Creation. In his message for the World Day of Prayer 2022, Pope Francis calls us to use the season to "cultivate our ecological conversion” and to pray together for the protection of creation, thank God for what we have and to reflect on what our role means to be stewards of creation.

Pope Francis’ Message for the World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation

Pope Francis Message
 

Father’s Day September 4th

Wishing all the Fathers, Grandfathers, Uncles and Male Carers a very special day this Sunday

A Father’s and Male Carers Day Video

Morphology

Do you know what morphology means? Did you know that our students are learning morphology from Reception all the way to Year 6?

Morphology is the study of words and their parts. Morphemes, like prefixes, suffixes and base words, are defined as the smallest meaningful units of meaning in a word. Morphemes are important for phonics in both reading and spelling, as well as in vocabulary and comprehension.

But why should you as parents know a bit about morphology? Inevitably, you will be asked questions from your children such as, “Why does bicycle mean two wheels but biology doesn’t mean two –ologies? The answer is because the prefix in biology is not bi– (two), it is bio– (life). By the way, -ology means the study of something.

We have a whole school morphology scope and sequence that informs us what we need to teach and when. In Reception, students learn what a suffix is and are introduced to suffix ‘s’ and suffix ‘ed’. From there, each year, our students are introduced and taught the meanings and functions of different morphemes including prefixes, suffixes, roots and bases.

One resource that is used to aid the teaching of morphology, is the Word Cracker. As you can see, the first part of the Cracker is for prefixes, the middle is for roots or bases, and the end of the Cracker is for suffixes. The word on this poster ‘deconstructing’ is meaningful because that is what we are doing when we are looking at words through the eyes of morphology.

de (down / reversal)       con (with or together) struct (to build)        ing (present tense)

Therefore, the meaning of the word ‘deconstructing’ is to reduce or analyse (something) to its constituent parts in order to reinterpret it.

As well as teaching the meanings of the morphemes in words, we also teach the spelling rules associated with adding affixes (prefixes and suffixes) to bases and roots. In the early years this is as simple as ‘just adding suffixes to VVC words’. This means that when we are adding a suffix to a word that has one vowel followed by two consonants, we can just add the suffix straight onto the word, as in kick + s or spend + ing. As the words get longer and more suffixes are introduced, the students are taught rules to go with them such as the ‘drop e’ rule. This rule is for V-C-E words; words that end with a ‘silent e’. We teach that we drop the final ‘e’ when adding a vowel suffix, as in make + ing = making.

I hope that you learnt something new about morphology from this article. Don’t forget to ask your children what morphemes they have been learning about at school.

August 17-19, the Year 5’s attended camp at Wirraway Homestead. The camp ran three days and two night and students participated in a variety of activities including horse riding, a low ropes course, archery, sheep mustering, the amazing race and bushwalking. Down time included 8-ball, table tennis, carpet ball, singing, dancing, foosball, trampolining, horse grooming and puzzle challenges.

The nightly entertainment consisted of a night hike and a movie night. It was a fabulous camp and the students were engaged with all activities. They strengthened their relationships and their ability to work as a team when completing activities.

A memorable moment from camp was sheep herding, because it was hard trying to get all of the sheep in to one place and switching the pens with the exact amount of sheep in there. A skill I learnt at camp was working with my friends better and understanding and communicating better. (Arlo)

A memorable moment from camp was horse riding and it was really relaxing when I groomed the horses. It was also really exciting when we got to ride the majestic horses. A skill I learnt at camp was teamwork. I learnt this by joining in on activities and most of the activities required you to work as a team. (Mia)

Wirraway camp was extremely enjoyable because we got to do lots of activities that I thought I would never do. A memorable moment from camp was shooting a bow and arrow because I hit a target. (Billy)

A skill I learnt at camp was how to shoot a bow and arrow and how to sheep herd. I learnt to hold a bow sideways before shooting it, for safety reasons. I also learnt that it is unlikely for the string on the bow to break. I learnt that sheep can only see sideways like horses and that they are afraid of splitting up from their pack. (Connor)

Camp Wirraway was extremely enjoyable, because we all got to do different activities, try new things, and hang out with the entire class at free time, so it felt like we were one big family. A skill I learnt at camp was learning how to lead, turn, and ride a horse. I learnt this by listening to my instructor and horse. It also boosted my love for horses even more! (An)