News
Spanish News
This year we prepared a card for Dad on Father’s Day. This activity involved :
1. learning a song about how great Dad is
2. memorizing phrases from our Saint Joseph prayer, as he is a model of the perfect father
3. using conventional letter writing techniques, such as ‘Dear Dad’, ‘With love from….’
4. memorizing Happy Father’s Day in Spanish
We made use of both the prayer and our song to conveniently give us suitable phrases to employ in our fathers’ cards; phrases like “I love you dad” / “You protect me” / ‘With your help I grow closer to God”.
We made a comparison between the two languages, English & Spanish, and noted that Spanish has no apostrophe at all. We now know Spanish speakers have to say, “Happy Day of the Father”. We also can appreciate why in Spain, Father’s day is celebrated on March 19th, St. Joseph’s feast day; our supreme father figure.
Regards,
Mandy Thompson
Principal's Report
Hi Families,
Book Week Parade
The Book Week Parade was such a beautiful morning for our school. From the parade in the morning at school with parents watching on in beaming sunlight, to the parade down the main street which almost turned into our own version of the Christmas Pageant.
I’ve already received 3 emails since yesterday morning from Yorketown people, expressing joy in seeing our children out in the community in full costume. As I said through our Facebook post….The strangest of times can turn into the best of times.
Those who attended would have noticed the confidence of our children on the parade. Many through their poses, and walking style on the catwalk embodied their characters in the most delightful and funny of ways.
The students walked up Marno St and came down the Main Street. In my wisdom I thought it would be a good idea if I walked the other way so I could meet them as they came up to the Main Street. I underestimated the number of strange looks or laughs as I approached Foodland by myself in full Sherlock Holmes costume.
It was simply a wonderful morning. Thank you for everyone’s efforts in preparing the students in costumes.
It’s much appreciated and makes the event so special.
Opportunities
As a school we pride ourselves on offering as many opportunities as possible for our students. The small school, big opportunities phrase is more then just a marketing phrase, it’s a determination by our staff to give students as many opportunities as possible.
Take SAPSASA Basketball carnival as an example. It’s an easy option as a school to take 1 to 2 teams, or even no teams at all. We take the option of offering all our students the chance to be involved, allowing over 20 of our students to play in their first ever game of competition basketball. The hope is that this allows some children to take up the sport, feel confident in the sport and hopefully build connections in our community through playing sport.
Over the next 10 weeks we have further opportunities ranging from sport, to performing arts, to camps and excursions. I know the strain this can put on families both financially and with time. It’s challenging to make early drop offs to school, or to pick children up after hours.
What I want to say to all parents though…is we are here to help.
Please call us if you are unable to make a drop off or meet a requirement for one of these opportunties and we can facilitate transport. It may be through a carpool or an individual drop off.
Professional Development
As a staff we are continually looking at ways to improve our practice both individually and as a collective. We are currently undertaking a review of our spelling program led by our Literacy Coach in Mandy Thompson with the support of Angela Grigoras-Oates and the staff team. We want consistency through our approach at SCMS and as a school we’re having some hard conversations about our current program. We will keep you posted throughout the back half of the year as we make further progress.
Regional Schools Pathway Project
We are nearing the end of an exhausting process. Within the next two months I will be able to announce what structure our school will take from 2024 onwards.
This year has been one of growth especially in our Upper/Senior Primary in our subject offerings. The children have benefitted so much through our Home Ec program and Digital Tech pathways this year. It was wonderful to see a Year 6 student who had sewn part of their costume, using the skills they had learning in class.
I’m asking for your ongoing patience through this. It’s testing mine.
Kind Regards,
Scott March
Stansbury Basketball Club
Stansbury Basketball Club would like to welcome any junior players wanting to take part in the upcoming 2021/2022 season. Our Under 12 Boys and Under 12 Girls had very promising campaigns last year and we intend to enter both an Under 14 Boys and Under 14 Girls team this year as well. If you have an interested youngster we'd love to hear from you and no previous basketball experience is necessary.
Please contact Dan Player on 0407069069 or dan@cutlinedesign.com for more information and to register your interest.
For those with younger kids who aren't quite ready for competitive action we intend to run a Mini Hoops program this season as well. More information will follow once details are finalised.
R.E. News
Hello!
This morning we had our second whole school mass for the term. Today we reflected on The Elderly, our grandparents, special friends and especially those who have no-one around them. It was a beautiful opportunity for the students to consider those who are part of our lives in a special way and all they do for them, but also to pray for those who are sick, lonely or separated from loved ones. During this pandemic, it has highlighted to many of us the importance of connection and relationship, especially for the elderly in our community. As vaccination rates go up and we eventually see easing of restrictions, it is my hope that visits back to the nursing homes will be back on the agenda. As will Grandparents/special friend days, masses and morning teas. In the meantime, we continue to hold these people in our prayers!
Our next mass will be on Thursday, September 16 at 9:15am. We will be reflecting on St Vincent de Paul as his feast is around this time (September 27) and how he is a great example for us in our efforts to help those less fortunate than us. You are all most welcome to attend.
Last Friday I travelled to Port Pirie to meet with other APRIMs from other country schools to look at and moderate teachers RE overviews. This was a great experience for me to be able to learn from those who have been in the APRIM position for many more years than myself and who have a depth of knowledge that I can tap into. We specifically looked at assessment of RE and what that looks like. It is important to note here that there are two different dimensions to RE, one is the child’s Faith development, that of his/her own relationship with Jesus and second, that of the child’s knowledge of Religion/Catholicism. Faith development is NOT assessed. Each child’s faith journey is personal and unique and we respect this. The knowledge of religion/Catholicism is what we assess and treat like any other subject in school. What colour is used during advent and lent? How many Gospel accounts are there? Etc etc. These are the types of questions asked in last week’s ReLAT assessment for the year 4s. It was great to see these kids be able to answer these questions confidently. A great reflection of the RE teaching occurring in our school.
Have a great couple of weeks as we head into the end of term 3!
God Bless,
Miriam Honner
APRIM
5/6/7 News
Library News
Our Book Fair will run for another two weeks closing on Wednesday the 8th of September. There are still some fabulous books for sale.
