Link Up Term 3 Week 4 2022

Hopefully everyone has seen recent communications regarding the great opportunity next week with Mission Australia running an information session for families at the College at 1:30pm on Tuesday. It’s not too late to register at landrew@stfrancis.catholic.edu.au. See elsewhere in this newsletter for details about the session.

It’s been an action packed term, as you will see with the reports elsewhere in this Link Up, for all of our students involved representing the College in Knockout Sports. Whether it’s been Senior Girls Netball, Senior Boys Soccer, Year 7/8 Girls Netball, Open Boys and Girls Volleyball, Year 5/6 Basketball, Open Boys Netball, Year 7/9 Boys Netball, Year 7/9 Girls Football or Senior Boys and Girls Statewide Basketball, all of our students have represented the College well and shown great sportspersonship in their participation, as well as having some amazing success. Congratulations to all students involved and to our staff who give of their time to enable it to happen.

Thoughts this week with Leni Newham in Year 9B and Gabe Cregan in Year 10G who are away this week in Brisbane at the School Sports National Swimming Championships. A great achievement!

It’s been wonderful to be able to have some events occurring this term bringing our whole College together in community. Our Mary MacKillop Mass in Week 1 was a great celebration led strongly by our students from across all areas of the College. Our Awards and Hearts Assemblies in Week 2 were another wonderful opportunity to come together and celebrate the achievements of Semester 1, and to welcome to the College new students with the presentation of their Heart Badge.

Our Basketball Academy students undertook a trip to Mount Gambier in Week 2 of this term playing a number of games against Tenison Woods Catholic College. A great opportunity for our Basketball Academy students and one which both schools are hopeful will continue and become a regular fixture on our annual calendar.

Thanks to our families of our secondary students who joined us for the SACE Pathways Information Evening in Week 3. If you missed this event this year, it would be great to have parents of our Year 9 to 11 students join with us when offered this time next year, so we can work together to support our students to make the best possible subjects choices from Year 9 into Year 10, Year 10 into Year 11 and Year 11 into Year 12. I’m grateful also to the staff who have provided their expertise in individual counselling sessions for subject preference selection over the last week.

There’s been plenty of science based activities happening across the school in this National Science Week, and our Year 4 students have been having a wonderful time away with their teachers at their annual camp in Mylor. We also look forward to the opportunity being provided to our Year 8 students to attend the Canberra Civics and Citizenship Experience Camp in Week 6, one they were not able to attend in November last year as Year 7s as originally planned. We hope they have a great time.

I will be taking some leave from the College in a few weeks’ time and am grateful to have Sonia Nelson able to step into the role as Acting Principal from Week 8 this term to Week 2 next term. The College is pleased to have been advised recently of the appointment of Carla Thomas to the role of Acting Deputy Principal (Learning) during this same time period. I hope you have seen recent communication sharing news of the appointment by the Director of Catholic Education of James Gill to the substantive position of Deputy Principal (Community & Wellbeing) from the start of next year, when Paul Fairlie moves into retirement. We look forward to welcoming James to the community and the gifts he will bring to working with and supporting our students and broader community.

Gavin McGlaughlin
Principal

That's Your Inner Voice Talking To You

The inner voice is a fascinating development in humans. Infant children can be so innocently caught up in the own parallel universe that they appear completely oblivious to what is going on around them. They need an adult to guide and direct them and it is awesome from a parent perspective to see them master tasks for themselves and develop their own character. The inner voice of an infant child, at its purest, is joyful to watch but as children grow and develop, the inner voice develops a power of its own.

As we get older, we talk to ourselves all the time. The voice in our head helps guide our decision making and helps us believe in our ability to cope and manage sometimes tricky situations. Encouraging positive self-talk with I can or I will statements helps build confidence, inner strength and self-esteem. Sometimes our inner voice can be harsh on us and while it is ok to be angry when things don’t always go our way, we need to develop the capacity to forgive ourselves too. Keeping our inner voice in check is key to maintaining a growth mindset and it helps us to be who we are and be that well.

Children and teenagers of today’s generation are bombarded with images and messages that can challenge how they feel about themselves. Social media and particularly chat platforms, can send the inner voice into overdrive. This can have a powerful effect on how a young person feels, responds and reacts. Events and conversations are re-lived and elaborated on, exaggerated and pulled apart. The outcomes can be devastating for relationships and self-esteem. Positive self-talk and maintaining trusting relationships with important adults can only help young people to negotiate the tricky years of adolescence.

Children and young people need boundaries around social media and breaks from screen time are extremely important. Responsible use of technology is a huge challenge for the adolescent brain. Adults need to rise to this challenge with their children to support them when things go awry and guide them when the bombarding is taking over.

A healthy inner voice leads to positive choices and happy kids and that has to be good for all of us.

Good luck to all of our students attending camp for the first time. The Year 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9 students will all be out and about in the coming weeks and months. Time with friends and classmates away from screens and social media will offer plenty of good memories and fun times.

Paul Fairlie
Deputy Principal - Community and Wellbeing

Term 3 has started positively for our community after a well-earned time for rest and recreation in the holidays. Students were keen (and quick) to move back into their routines, and in my lesson visits they were able to share ‘what’ they were learning, ‘how they thought they were going’, and ‘how they could gauge this’ when I spoke with them in their classes. These conversations too, were an affirmation of the work teachers are doing to be explicit about these aspects. As part of our ongoing Vision for Learning professional development on STUDENT AGENCY this year, teachers  have been focusing on making the LEARNING INTENTIONS and SUCCESS CRITERIA clear and accessible for students to enable them to be more cognisant and responsible for their own learning progress. Students have been finding out more about what ‘student agency’ means and have also been giving us valuable feedback about how the Learning Intentions and Success Criteria may or may not be helping them.

We were delighted to have our families join us for the R-6 and 7-12 Hearts and Awards Assemblies held in Week 2! It was a special occasion where we welcomed our many new students and acknowledged the outstanding efforts and academic achievements from Semester 1. We congratulate the award winners and also recognise that many students not receiving awards this time were still working at their best this year!

Before the end of term we also look forward to sharing your child’s 2022 progress during the Learning Reviews (7-12) and Tours of Learning (R-6). These are significant opportunities for teachers, students and parents to collaboratively discuss successes, challenges and areas for growth and we encourage all parents/caregivers to book for these events when the information is sent out to the various communities.

I, like many of the students, have had enough of the winter weather and am looking forward to days full of sunshine! May the spring warmth and signs of new life bring us some welcome relief from the cold and rain. I send best wishes to all in our community – go gently and God bless.

Sonia Nelson
Deputy Principal - Learning

“We should be shining lamps, giving light to all around us.” This quote from Catherine McAuley, the founder of the Sisters of Mercy, brings us hope as we begin Term 3 – our Mercy Mission term. Catherine’s message inspires us to use our gifts and talents in the service of others. This will be emphasised in Week 10, as we celebrate College Day as our Mercy fundraiser, raising much needed funds for Catherine House. This organisation offers crisis, longer term accommodation and support services for women experiencing homelessness. A very worthy cause. More information will be presented soon about College Day.

Keepers of our Outdoor Environment

This term, we have rolled out the Genesis Project, which is already making a noticeable positive impact on our call to be custodians of our natural world. Each year level from R-12 has been allocated an outdoor area of the College that they are responsible for, in relation to keeping it clean and tidy. In most cases, this is zoned in learning community groups. Every person at the College is a custodian of their zone and they have the privilege to ensure that it is free of litter and that the bin stations within it are used correctly. At the end of each term, the learning community who is most consistent in keeping their zone clean and tidy, including correct use of the bin stations, will be awarded the Genesis Trophy. One for the Junior School and one for the Senior School.

There will also be an Eden Award (one for the Junior School and one for the Senior School), presented fortnightly. In the even weeks of a given term, they will be awarded to the learning community who has demonstrated consistent custodianship of their zone in the two weeks prior. The Eden Award will be placed on the prayer table of each of the Home classes of the learning community on rotation, within the two week period. This is a special prayer focus for the Home class who is caring for the Eden Award. A huge thank you to Branden Hill, Learning Area Specialist - Technologies, for making the physical Eden Award and Genesis Trophy for us.

It is my pleasure to announce that at the end of Week 4 this term, the Eden Awards have been presented to the Year 1 and 2 Learning Community and the Year 12 community. Congratulations to those students and staff for their dedicated work in being custodians of our outdoor environment!

Vinnies Winter Appeal and Sleepout

We wrapped up last term bringing the Vinnies Winter Appeal to a conclusion. A huge thank you to all in our College community for your generous commitment to our Vinnies Winter Appeal. As a community we donated 1,247 food items, hygiene products, and toys through the Appeal and also raised over $5,000 through the Vinnies Sleepout. This is a tremendous effort! The money and the items donated, will be used to directly support people in need in the Mt Barker region.

The House Team tally for the Winter Appeal is:
Lyon (358 items)
Padua (320 items)
Savoy (307 items)
Geneva (262 items)

Congratulations to Lyon House!

On Tuesday of the last week of Term 2, the College’s Vinnies Sleepout was held. The Sleepout began with a shared dinner of soup, which was made by the members of the Vinnies FIA Group. Additional soup was also made and given to Vinnies Fred’s Van service, to provide meals for those who are homeless in our community. Various activities were conducted throughout the evening, including presentations and games run by Vinnies members, Umes Acharya and Tom Mead. After the scavenger hunt for food items, the participants then got to work constructing their cardboard shelters in Callen Quad, which became what they slept in through the cold night. The next morning, we all went to Breakfast Club to have breakfast and then got ready to start the school day.

A sincere thank you to the students and staff who participated in this year’s Vinnies Sleepout. They are: Rache Alegre, Marcus Barnes, Caitlin Batge, Rhys Batge, Toris Bynoe-Kinsley, Olivia Crowe, Leila Cushnie-Stock, Erin Irudayaraj, Lily Rau, Eva Hoelscher, Josip Horvat, Lincoln Hutchinson, Lainie Jackson, Matilda Lovelock, Sophie McCallum, Annie Mossop, Naishe Nyakudya, Isabel Orr, Holly Paech, Ashlee Peterson, Nathan Sachse, Joseph Schembri, Leah Stewart, Jasmine Taylor, Livinia Waide, Alya Wamayi, Maija Wamayi, Devan Chalmers, Tahlie Jones, Sr Shiji, Jo Matthews, and Carol Jarell.

The Vinnies Sleepout provided the opportunity for us to learn many new insights and facts about the situation of homelessness and poverty. Well done to all involved!

Inspirational Women

Since the last Link Up newsletter was published, we celebrated and acknowledged three women who have positively impacted our College narrative. The whole College community had the opportunity to watch a terrific live drama production about the life of Catherine McAuley, performed by Starr Productions in the Sports Centre. It was very entertaining and enabled students and staff to learn more about Catherine McAuley in a different format.

It was pleasing to begin Term 3 gathered as a whole College for the Mary MacKillop liturgy. This was very much student led and featured the musical and singing talents of many students. We also had the privilege of hearing reflections about the Gospel from Sophie McCallum and Anthony Pham. During the ceremony, Fr Richard blessed two potted Mary MacKillop Bottlebrush plants, which we have since planted - one at the College and the other in the Gathering Garden near Our Lady of Mercy Church. These will be enduring reminders for us and the parishioners, of the wonderful example that Mary MacKillop is to us.

This week we celebrated the first disciple, Mary mother of Jesus, with the Feast of the Assumption.

All three women provide a brilliant example to us of how to follow in the footsteps of Jesus and live life in service of others.

Year 10 Reflection Day

The Year 10 cohort recently experienced their Reflection Day, which was held at The Village Well at Aldgate, and facilitated by the group called ‘Real Talk’. The day was themed ‘Life and Love’ and focused on sexual health through the lens of respectful relationships, and living life to the full as God desires for us. The students were engaged throughout the day and had the opportunity to discuss the topics raised and ask questions in a safe environment.

What’s Next?!

There are a number of events that are coming up that I’d like to draw your attention to. On Sunday, 21 August is the birthday of the man, St Francis de Sales. He was born 455 years ago! The College will acknowledge this special occasion by providing a piece of cake to each student and staff member as a sweet treat, on Monday, 22 August. Something to look forward to.

As Father’s Day approaches, you may be looking for gift ideas! Well, we’ve made it easy for you, as the Parent Community Group will be hosting the Father’s Day Stall on Thursday, 1 September on the Junior School deck. There will be a variety of items to choose from and all priced at $5 (cash only). All Junior School classes will have an opportunity on the day to visit the Stall and students will be able to select up to two items and present their money then. Senior School students will be able to purchase items from the Stall at lunchtime on the day.

All dad’s and father-figures are welcome to attend the next Dad’s Group event (Fathering Project), which will be just for dad's and father-figures this time. The event in Term 4 will include children. The gathering will be on Sunday, 18 September from 12:00pm – 3:00pm in the Sports Centre Function Room, and will include a BBQ lunch. This is an opportunity for dad's at the College to come together to network and continue to build a stronger community. More information will be sent out next week, including a website registration form for RSVPs.

I wish you well as we continue to journey through Term 3!

In Peace

Oreste Farrugia
APRIM

R-6 Heart Badge and Semester 1 Awards Presentation

Our R-6 community celebrated the Heart Badge and Semester 1 Awards Presentation on Wednesday 3 August 2022. The Heart Badges are a wonderful tradition at our College and are presented as a symbol of welcome to every student and staff member who join our community. The Heart Badge symbolises the foundational values of our College: Faith, Perseverance, Compassion, Integrity, Respect, Wisdom, and Justice. It was lovely to see so many new students and staff be officially welcomed into our R-6 community and receive their Heart Badge at the presentation.

Our R-6 Semester 1 Awards Presentation was also a fantastic opportunity to officially acknowledge the special efforts and achievements of some of our students who have demonstrated excellence in one or more of the award categories. Selected students in each class received Semester 1 awards for Learning Endeavour and Learning Excellence. One student from each year level was awarded the 2022 Heart Value Award: Integrity. We congratulate all our award winners for Semester 1.

Book Week

This year's Book Week theme is Dreaming with eyes open. We are all looking forward to a week of celebrating all things books next week, 22-26 August. We will kick off the week with a Book Week launch where our Principal, Gavin McGlaughlin will read us a story. We have various activities planned in class and with our buddy classes, as well as a coffee morning on Wednesday for all parents/caregivers to come and enjoy before school. Some R-2 parents/caregivers will stay on to read to groups of students. We will finish the week with our Book Week Dress-Up Parade, a favourite tradition here at the College. More information about the Book Week schedule of activities can be found on Seesaw and through your emails. We look forward to a fantastic week of fun and bookish celebrations!

Alice Taylor
R-6 Director of Learning and R-6 Literacy Leader

Students and staff in 7-12 have been working through a busy Term 3.

We have had a lot of events linked to learning including, Science Week for our Middle School students – a big thanks to Zonya Grear who provided the opportunity for our students.

Our Year 7s undertook a trip to Monarto Zoo to consolidate their learning in a number of areas.

Year 10 students attended their Reflection Day at Aldgate, which linked to Religious Education – Made in the Image of God – Curriculum.

Year 11 students have been involved in subject counselling preparing for Year 12 and starting to think about their pathway after Year 12. An exciting and sometimes scary time for decisions on Stage 2 subjects.

The Year 12 students are nearly at the finish line with trial electronic exams coming up in the last weeks of term, practice exams held in Week 10 and all work due. Not to mention SATAC applications and decisions on pathways; employment, further study and starting the next chapter.

Kim Bathe
7-12 Director of Learning

Basketball Academy visits the South East

In Week 2 of this term our Basketball Academy students travelled to Mount Gambier to participate in a range of experiences aimed at furthering their skills and game play in basketball. We spent a full day at Tenison Woods College playing four matches against their High Performance Program students, and all students competed hard and with sportsmanship. The students were also able to observe the Mount Gambier Pioneers at a training session, showing what it means to compete at a professional level. Students were given multiple opportunities to interact with elite athletes and coaches in a range of opportunities and they all represented St Francis de Sales admirably. A huge thanks to Mark Billington for coordinating the many events and to Owen Davies for his assistance. We look forward to continuing to strengthen our ties with Tenison Woods College and providing more opportunities in the future.

Junior School Clinics

The beginning of this term has seen our Junior School students continue to be involved in clinics run by various local and state sporting organisations. We have been lucky to have had some players from the Adelaide Lightning (Basketball) run some sessions with our Junior School female students as part of their female participation strategy. We also had two SANFL coaches run a series of AFL clinics to all of our students. This also led into the running of our After-School Auskick program, which takes place every Thursday afternoon from 3:30-4:30pm. Auskick is run by Harry Cates and a number of senior students.

Interschool Sport

This term has continued to see a number of teams compete in the various rounds of School Sport SA Interschool sports. Our Open Boys Volleyball Team competed in a 6-team competition at the Lights Community Centre. They ended up in a three-way tie for first place but were unfortunately knocked out on percentage. We hosted a minor round for the 5/6 Basketball Competition which involved a number of students also assisting with refereeing the games. Our girls fought valiantly all day but were unfortunately unable to make it through. Our boys team, coached by Year 12 Basketball Academy student Matt Linke, competed hard all day and were successful in making it through to the Statewide Finals day later this term. Our 7/8 Girls and 7-9 Boys Netball Teams have also won through to the Statewide Finals, which will take place in Week 6. We wish all of these teams every success as they prepare for these final matches.

Open Boys and Girls Basketball

During Week 4 our Open Boys and Girls Basketball teams travelled to St Clair Recreation Centre to compete in the Division 1 Competitions. The girls are quite a young team who fought hard all day and ended up 5th. The Boys won through to the Semi Finals where they unfortunately lost to Cabra College. They then beat Tenison Woods College to end up 3rd for the day. The top four teams go through to the next stage so stay tuned for the next round.

A huge congratulations to Mark for his work and effort. This is a brilliant result.

Over the course of the year we are always looking for parents and volunteers to assist with the various teams. If you are interested in volunteering at the College please refer to the information available on our website under Community > Volunteering.

For all sports related information parents and caregivers can keep an eye on daily notices through SEQTA Engage. If there are ever any questions about these activities or other sporting related opportunities please email Nadia Honner.

Nadia Honner 
Learning Area Specialist - Health and Physical Education and Specialist Sport Coordinator