Term 3, Week 9, Issue #23 2024

Dear CMS Families and Friends

It is hard to believe that we are in the final weeks of Term 3, and before we know it, the end of year and Christmas (13 ½ weeks to go!) will be upon us.

In preparation for 2025, teachers are currently working on class placements for next year. A friendly reminder that if you have any special requests that you would like considered, please let your child’s class teacher know.

You will have noticed that the work on the newly installed transportable buildings is almost finished. During Term 4, these classrooms will be used for different purposes, however, in 2025 these spaces will form the Year 5 and Year 6 classes. These new classrooms have been created to allow for the additional space needed when building work commences on the Administration Building during Term 1, 2025. It is an exciting project that will enhance the services for our students and families, provide new and improved learning spaces and provide a home for our Mini Macs Early Years programs. As details about the building project are finalised, these will be shared with the community.

On Monday 23 September, students from our school will be participating in the Catholic Schools Music Festival Choir at the Festival Theatre. The theme for this year is “Where Dreams Begin”, and in addition to the choir, will feature soloist artists, a cappella groups, and bands. If you are keen to come along to support and celebrate the hard work of our choir and Mrs Pollard, tickets can be booked here. A BIG THANK YOU to Mrs Pollard for all the hard work she has put into supporting our students to be part of a wonderful experience.

Enrolments are filling fast for 2025, 2026 and 2027, with very limited positions available in many year levels. A friendly reminder that if you have not yet enrolled a sibling, to please do so as soon as possible. This will ensure that a position is reserved for you. Enrolment forms can be accessed from the Front Office or online here.

Online safety continues to be a challenge, especially with the difficulty of keeping up with the latest trends, apps, and privacy laws. For many young people in the community, they are accessing online apps and content not appropriate for their age. Too often, many children are experiencing online bullying, sometimes in group messages containing members they do not know. We strongly advise that you explore the eSafety commissioner’s website, particularly the portal set up for parents https://www.esafety.gov.au/parents. The parent portal contains some great conversation starter guides that can help support you in your conversation around online safety with your child.

The Carly Ryan Foundation also offers some great App Fact Sheets to support parents and caregivers with their understanding of the Apps their child may be accessing. These fact sheets also contain important information about privacy setting that you could incorporate into your conversation around online safety with your child. These App fact sheets can be found here.

Should your child be subject to online bullying, we strongly advise that you consider reporting the incident online. eSafety helps Australians prevent and deal with harm caused by serious online abuse or illegal and restricted online content. This can be done by clicking here. 

Finally, we wish you all a happy and safe break over the upcoming school holidays and look forward to seeing you in Term 4.

Yours in Faith, Growth & Unity

The Leadership Team
Marc, Eleni, Maria, Rebecca, Breanna

Blessings All,

How are we almost at the end of Term 3! So much has happened this year with visible changes in the schoolyard and events and activities planned within the school terms. Just this term, we have had so many sacred and spiritual celebrations and activities.

Sacraments
Firstly, September marks the ending of the 2024 Sacramental Program. With 34 children from the Parish and neighbouring Catholic Schools, have been preparing through a series of workshops beginning in March. Each workshop has focused on the Sacraments of Baptism, Reconciliation, Confirmation and First Eucharist. Children with their families have worked through lessons, activities, and practice sessions all for the preparation of the Sacrament of Reconciliation, Confirmation, and First Eucharist. Deepening their commitment to the Catholic Faith and affirming their belief in Jesus Christ.

Last week Thursday the 12^th of September the Archbishop Patrick anointed the students in the Sacrament of Confirmation and on Saturday the 14^th and Sunday the 15^th of September, children received their First Eucharist celebrated during the daily Masses.

We congratulate Leila Catania and Ayla Paterson from Catherine McAuley School for receiving their Confirmation and First Eucharist.

Mass visits
Fr Santosh Pereira MSFS and Catherine McAuley continue to strengthen the relationship between the Parish and Catherine McAuley School. The Parishioners at St Ann’s Church are so welcoming, and the students love attending and hosting the Daily Mass. Each time the students have so many questions for Fr Santosh, strengthening their learning of the Catholic faith. Our latest visits were with children from Year 3 and 2, celebrating the Masses with the Parishioners.  

Mercy leaders
Recently our Mercy Leaders went for a visit to the neighbouring Resthaven Age Care. The theme of the day was ‘Show Day’, and our students had a great time chatting to the residents and learning about what it was like when they were young and went to the show. So many stories were told, and friendships strengthen. It was a fantastic day.

Catholic Charities and Fundraising Events
September also marks the beginning of Catholic Charities, and Catherine McAuley School supported Catholic Charities through wearing silly socks all of September. The money raised from the sales of the socks went to Catholic Charities.

We are coming to an end of our weekly Centacare donations. The amount of donations raised by each class is overwhelming. Driven by our class teachers, families of our students donate items for the members of our community. The donations are welcomed and appreciated by the staff of the Centacare centre at Elizabeth.

Funrun - Do it for Dolly
Do it for Dolly advocates for stopping bullying.
At the moment, the school has raised a significant amount. Brilliant Effort!   

ReLAT, (Religious Education literacy assessment tool)
Religious Education as a subject is assessed statewide in Catholic Schools through the assessment tool, ReLAT, (Religious Education literacy assessment tool) in Year 4. Every student in Year 4 in a Catholic School completes the ReLat in the second week of September. Our students had a practice run in week 7 and completed the test in week 8 on the Wednesday the 11^th of September. Well done to our year 4 students who completed the test.   

In Closing

As September marks Catholic Charities, we prayer together the common Catholic Charities Prayer.

Lord Jesus,

Open our eyes that we may see you in all our sisters and brothers.

Open our minds that we may understand their hopes and dreams,

their sorrows and pain, their longing for you.

Open our hearts to give generously of ourselves.

 Grant us wisdom to respond effectively to the needs of your people

with grace and compassion.

Give us the courage to speak your words of life,

peace, love, mercy and human solidarity.

Bless the people whom we serve,

and strengthen the staff and volunteers

who reach out to them every day in your spirit of Charity.

Amen.

Thank you and God Bless.

Maria Girolamo-Corbo
Assistant Principal in Religious Identity and Mission

This year for Remembrance Day, Playford/McAuley will be remembering our school communities’ military members both past and present.

We are asking our school community to send in details of any family members that have served our country.

We would love you to send in a photo, along with their name and a little story about them and their service history, including the years they have served (e.g. 1995 – 2008).

I have attached an example below.
Further information about the assembly will follow next term.

If you can please send this information to me via email, that would be appreciated. I will then put it all together when I return from leave in Term 4.

Wow what a busy term we have had in Year 1! 

We started the term off fascinated by all the new and interesting facts we learnt during Science week. Did you know that the bark spider can shoot its web 25 meters away! We loved trying the different types of jam and honey and then closely inspecting the different blossoms that the bees would have taken the pollen from.

Science week quickly moved to book week and we loved dressing up as our favourite characters. We were wizards, witches, spies, Pokemon masters, princesses, super heroes, footy players, comic book stars, fairy tale creatures, book characters and so much more.

We demonstrated our gratitude for our co-educators and worked hard to create pictures, cards and presents to show them how much they mean to us.

We have worked hard throughout the term to learn new sounds and spelling concepts, we're learning how to write a narrative, how to read a map and follow directions and we have learnt about how life has changed over time. We have loved interviewing our older family members and we are looking forward to exploring the Migration Museum next term!

During Term 2, 44 Year 4-6 students thoroughly enjoyed working with James Meston from ArchD Radio and Podcasting to complete the Level 1 Podcasting course. Students learnt about what a podcast is, the history of podcasts, what makes an interesting podcast, how to tell a story through answering a question, how to create artworks that stand out for the purpose of a podcast and how to record and edit audio files. Once each group had reached completion, their podcast was uploaded to a range of sources including Spotify and iHeartRadio.

A very big CONGRATULATIONS to the following students who have been nominated by James for the awards below:

STUDENT VOICE (PRIMARY)

An award recognising students who stepped out of their comfort zone, and made a big positive impact on their group’s podcast.

LLL Capability: Self-Aware, Collaborative & Socially Adept 

• Piper Niegut (Catherine McAuley)
   

PODCAST ARTWORK OF THE YEAR (PRIMARY)

An award to recognise creativity, attention to detail and an understanding of the way podcast artwork attracts listeners.  

LLL Capability: Confident and careful creators and users of ICTs

• “Year 6 Camp” – Ollie Verhoeven, Brady Sanders, Grace Davies and Indy Bromilow (Catherine McAuley)

No more than 5 people/ teams have been nominated in any of each of the award categories from all schools that have participated in the past 12 months, making our students nominations an incredible achievement! These students have been invited to a very special red carpet awards ceremony at Sacred Heart College on Sunday, November 24 where the Primary school award winners will be announced and trophies presented.

Earlier this term, Catherine McAuley School participated in the Catholic Schools Touch Carnival at the Greenhill Road Touch Grounds. We entered 5 teams involving 40 students from Years 3-6. The carnival provided students with a great opportunity to showcase their skills and knowledge taught in Physical Education lessons.

Most students have had very little experience in Touch Football outside of Physical Education lessons, however, all teams started like they had been playing for years. Teams started confidently, sharing the ball around, creating attacking plays to score and making many great defensive touches. The highlight of the day was observing the student’s developing teamwork in defence to save many tries and display slick running in attack to score spectacular tries. As the day progressed all teams developed strategies to out-think the opposition achieving many successful results. Students played a total of five-six games throughout the day, and it would be fair to say they were exhausted by the end. All students displayed great sportsmanship and professionalism representing the school proudly.

Thank you to Miss Timmins, Miss Bach, Mr Wood, Mrs Gaffin and Mrs McDonagh-New for their help and the many parents that attended on the day for their help and support during the carnival.

Top Effort Everyone!

PE Co-ordinator
Fabian Chevalier

Congratulations to Lucas Marafioti who was selected to represent the Northern Metro Hockey team at the SAPSASA State Carnival last week played at the University playing fields, West Beach. The teams played multiple games over 3 days against other regional teams. Well done, Lucas!

Congratulations to Indiahna Coplestone, Ruby Enders and Ryder McConnell who represented the Playford SAPSASA District at the State Athletics Championships earlier this week. All three athletes represented the district in multiple events and should be very proud of their achievements on the day. Overall, Playford finished 3rd which is an outstanding result, and the team should be proud of their efforts.

A special mention to Indiahna who achieved 3 individual medals, a silver and 2 bronze medals and has been invited to nominate for the state team to attend the national championships in Sydney later this year. Indiahna and Ruby were also part of the Under 12 Girls relay team which achieved a bronze medal.

Outstanding result and well done, Indiahna, Ruby, and Ryder!

Please note that Term 3 concludes at 12:30pm Friday 27th September, with a Wear Your Sporting Colours Day, seeing as it's finals fever!

If you require after-school care, please book into OSHC using FullyBooked.

Term 4 Resumes Monday 14th October.

Wishing you all a safe holiday, see you in Term 4!

Don’t miss out on your chance to grab a pair of fun, colourful socks for just $5! We have a selection of exclusive patterns available at the Front Desk throughout September or while stocks last.

All proceeds will benefit Catholic Mission, the Pope’s international mission agency in Australia. Catholic Mission partners with communities worldwide, supporting essential grassroots projects in healthcare, education, and spiritual care across Africa, Asia, Europe, Oceania, and the Americas.

Thank you for your support. Let’s make this Silly Sock September a fantastic success!

Don’t miss out on your chance to grab a pair of fun, colourful socks for just $5! We have a selection of exclusive patterns available at the Front Desk throughout September or while stocks last.

All proceeds will benefit Catholic Mission, the Pope’s international mission agency in Australia. Catholic Mission partners with communities worldwide, supporting essential grassroots projects in healthcare, education, and spiritual care across Africa, Asia, Europe, Oceania, and the Americas.

Thank you for your support. Let’s make this Silly Sock September a fantastic success!

The latest edition of The Southern Cross can be found here.

Email: club@munnoparalac.org.au 

Grasshopper Soccer is an engaging children’s soccer program with a focus on character development. Our caring team positively impacts children’s lives on and off the field through best-in-class coaching, communication and curriculum. Our coaches are the best-trained in the business. Our expert-approved curriculum is age-appropriate and aligns with childhood education standards. In addition, we provide an exceptional customer experience and ongoing communication with parents. For more information, please visit our website https://grasshoppersoccer.com.au/adelaidenorthwest#locations

Enrolments for Term 4 are now OPEN!