St Anthony's School - Newsletter No.4

 As we celebrate Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Sunday, we recognise and honor the diverse cultures and histories of the First Australians. Let us come together in a Spirit of unity and respect, bringing our Prayers and worries before God. We seek Healing, Justice, and Peace for all people, and trust in the power of Community and love.

Dear Families and Friends of St Anthony’s School,

As we close off Term 2, I hope there is so much that you and your child / children have loved about the learning and the experiences and events that have occurred. It has been an amazing term where we have lived out our L of love.

On our school Feast Day, 13th June, we gathered together for the celebration of Mass, followed by the miracle of the donuts, and the staff baby photo competition.

We loved that Michael Mangan performed for us and invited us to sing our faith with great joy.

We welcomed our term 3 Reception students for a visit and loved showing them around. We loved visiting many of our Term 3 students at Kindy.

We extend our congratulations to Evie on the celebration of her Confirmation and pray that the Holy Spirit will continue to fill her heart with love.

We were touched by the amazing spirit of our Year 6 students during the Vinnies Sleepout and were so blessed to have such a generous community with close to $3000 raised together with hampers of love.

During the second half of the term, we had students participate in Catholic Schools Basketball Carnival, SEDA Netball Clinics, Emily, Islay, Cruz, Francis & Xavier being selected for SAPSASA Netball, Catholic Schools Netball Carnival, After-School Basketball Teams, and Friday Volleyball.

Today we have shared our love through our PJ Day with money raised to support Vinnies. Thank you to the families who baked muffins for us as a part of our Hot Chocolate fundraiser.

Today student reports were sent home in paper format and digitally through SEQTA Engage. We look forward to student-led conferences being an opportunity to further celebrate, address and plan for growth and further development.

Huge and happy holidays, rest up, charge the batteries and get ready for an amazing term 3.

Best wishes from Stuart

In the second part of Term 2, in Mathematics we focused on addition sums and started to look at word problems involving addition. We also continued to consolidate the concept of part- part whole.

In English we focused on writing sentences that had capital letters at the beginning, finger spaces in between words and full stops at the end. We also started to use our tricky words in our sentences. 

 In Religion, we looked at the beauty within our families and we learnt how to write our own prayers. We also went on an adventure around the school to capture beauty that God had created using our iPads. 

 In Science we focused on the different external characteristics of different animals that allow them to live in certain areas. We went on an excursion to Cleland where we got to meet some of the animals that we had been learning about.

 In year 1 we have been learning about how living things have needs that need to be met to be able to thrive and survive. As a collaborative project, the students worked with the year 2's to be able to create their own terrarium. We learned what layers are needed in the terrarium such as rocks, sand and soil and that we need to water it to keep it alive.

In maths the students have become skip counting masters! We have used a combination of hands on manipulatives and recording tasks to practice a range of patterns. Our base learning has been skipping in 2s, 5s and 10s and our next step is to create more complex number patterns. 

We loved our excursion to Cleland Wildlife Park earlier in the term! The students we able to observe animals thriving in their habitats and even learned about how their needs are met through an educational session. We were able to get up close to the koalas and pat some of the kangaroos.  

In the second half of this term, the Year 2 students have continued to be engaged and active learners in all the curriculum areas.

We have had an excursion to Cleland Wildlife Park to connect with writing an informative text in English.

 We have continued celebrating student's achievements using the Capes for the Key Capabilities Continua.

 The Year 2's worked with the Year 1's and created 8 terrariums for both classrooms. We then wrote a procedure text on how to make a terrarium. These are displayed outside the classrooms on the whiteboards.

For STEM, the students created marble mazes/runs using LEGO bricks and timed how long it took for the marble to go through the maze. 

Year 3 Science Excursion

This term in Science, the Year 3’s have been learning about Soils, Rocks and Minerals. We have explored and compared the observable properties of different minerals, rocks and soils; and investigated why they are important as Earth’s resources.

To extend our learning, we went on an Excursion to the city to explore our city’s historic building stone by walking along the North Terrace Geological Trail. As we stopped to observe different buildings and monuments, we witnessed the rich diversity of South Australian building stone used both historic and modern.

Year 3 Geography

This term in Geography, the Year 3s have been learning about Australia’s neighbouring countries. Within this unit, we have learnt about different climate zones and how this impacts the natural features of each country. Students chose a neighbouring country to research and compare their populations, religions, native language, climates, landmarks, and additional interesting information.

 Year 3 and 4 Integrated Learning

The Year 3 and 4 students have connected with the gifts and fruits of the Holy Spirit with Miss Williams and Mrs D in Religion lessons across the term. Students have explored the symbolism and meaning of the gifts and fruits of the Holy Spirit, as well as identified ways to ignite the Holy Spirit within themselves. To extend their learning, students have created a narrative which illustrates their main character/s either developing or using a specific gift of the Holy Spirit to make their world a better place. 

English

This term in Year 4/5 we have been focusing on narrative writing, with a big focus on description. We have been learning about how to start our writing with a sizzling start, how to show and not tell, how to use the senses and how to end a narrative exciting. With this writing focus, we have been reading our class novel ‘Wonder’, we have been learning to infer meaning and to become fluent readers. Students have been writing their own narrative from the perspective of a character from ‘Wonder’, they have been able to connect ideas from the novel into their ideas. This term we have had a big focus on reading, students have had many chances to read in ‘fluency pairs’ to practice.

 Math

This term in Year 4/5 we have been looking at fractions, decimals, and percentages and how they connect. Students have had many hands-on learning opportunities to be able to make fractions, decimals and percentages and see how they are connected to our everyday lives. Students have worked amazing collaboratively in investigating and prompting questions. It has been fantastic to see so many students making connections to this topic! Towards the end of the term, we have also been focusing on money math, making connections to our prior learning this term with fractions and decimals, we have learnt many of our peer’s love collecting coins!

 Health

This term in health we have connected ideas to our class novel ‘Wonder’, for students to learn about inclusion and diversity. We have had many rich discussions surrounding these ideas and students have had many opportunities to showcase their identity. They have made amazing artwork, inspired by ‘Wonder’ where they created a portrait of themselves with everything that makes them, them around their faces.

Year 5 HASS

This term Year 5 students have been looking at types of resources and how this helps in understanding needs and wants. We then focused on understanding how Australia’s environments are managed, including in severe weather events. Students explored some of Australia’s world heritage listed sites on Google earth, they then chose what site to focus on and either completed a poster or PowerPoint to share with the class. They made connections with how it might be affected by severe weather, what the government does to protect it, how it impacts communities and individuals.

 Year 5 Science

Students have had so much fun within science this term. We have been focusing on how weathering, erosion and deposition causes slow changes to the earths surface and how volcanoes, earthquakes and landslides can cause rapid changes. Students have had many hands-on learning to understand these factors and to showcase their understanding. Students have also posed questions and had rich discussions surrounding the topic.

Year 6 has had a productive term, engaging in various projects across multiple subjects. In HASS, students worked on historical recounts of Colonisation, White Australia, or the Gold Rush, honing research and writing skills. In Math, they tackled projects on measuring area and perimeter, adaptable to different skill levels. Science saw students creating dioramas or posters on earth's tilt, movement, or seasons, expressing creativity and understanding scientific concepts. Health focused on the pros and cons of sedentary versus physical behavior through infographic creation. They also explored Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures during Reconciliation Week and differentiated between literary and non-literary texts in English. In Maths, they explored volume, capacity, and multiplication, while HASS (Civics and Citizenship) covered government structures. Each week, students helped make soup for Moore Street Soup Kitchen, participated in a virtual drawing experience on sustainability issues, and took part in the Vinnies excursion and sleepout, highlighting community service and empathy.

Update from the St Anthony’s School Board 

We welcomed Harry Georgiou to our June meeting to discuss learning strategies and focus at St Anthony’s School. Harry shared insights into how data and continual monitoring informs the teaching and learning at St Anthony’s. He also shared how student agency and capacity building learning capacity is helping to encourage constant student progression based on individual needs.

New playground

After spending much of our time focusing on the school’s master plan in 2023, the board is delighted to see stage 1 of the plan coming to life with our new playground. We thank the school community for its patience as the works have been undertaken, and we can’t wait to see our beautiful students enjoying the new facility when it opens early in Term 3 (exact dates TBC).

We’re now working towards stage 2 of our master plan and hope to see an exciting upgrade to our school library, kitchen, resource center, and staff area over the next 12 months, pending approvals.

Who’s on the school board?

The St Anthony’s School Board allows parents to have a say in the strategic direction of the school. As a group, we have a responsibility to ensure the overall well-being of St Anthony’s School through decision-making, partnership, and service. We represent the interests of all members of our school community.

Your board members:

Father Phillip Alstin, Parish Priest, St Anthony of Padua Catholic Parish, Edwardstown (President)

Joh Kohler, parent of Elroy in Year 5 and Zoe in Year 4 (Chairperson)

Stuart Baker, Principal, St Anthony’s School (Executive Officer)

Tim Jasson, parent of Hudson in Year 4 and Violet in Year 2 (Chairperson of the Finance Committee)

Anna Merola, parent of Archer in Year 4

Brett Hutchinson, parent of Finn Year 5

Geoff Walles, parent of Nathaniel Year 3

Lynne Hargreaves, grandparent of Lucas in Year 2

Aby JohnPaul, parent to Jonathan and Jayden in Year 3

Jessica Hirschausen,  parent to Angus in Year 2 & Lucy in Reception

The St Anthony’s School Board will meet again on 18th June. If you have any questions or have a topic you’d like the board to discuss, please get in touch with one of our friendly members or email: SBaker@stantedw.catholic.edu.au

P&F Executive:

• Laura Steele (Chair)
• Anna Merola (Secretary & Board Rep)
• Alicia Bignall (Treasurer)

CLAIM THE DATE - QUIZ NIGHT - FRIDAY 18th OCT

 We have an outstanding line up of guest speakers, who will touch on three different topics. As listed below.

• Maggie Dent: Help Me Help My Teen.

• Paul Dillon: Teens, Parties, Alcohol and Vapes. What do parents need to know?

• Madhavi Nawana Parker: Being calm in the eye of a parenting storm.

Event details :

• Tickets are $25ea with a light lunch provided & a fantastic line up of speakers.
• Held at The Sanctuary Adelaide Zoo  
• Term 3, Sat 31st Aug
• 9:30am – 3:00pm

More Details & Registration - https://cspsa.catholic.edu.au/newsroom/events?eventID=12372