Dear Parents and Community Members

As we continue into the term, I am truly grateful for your ongoing support and involvement in our school community, and I’d like to take a moment to address some important reminders about student safety during after-school hours.

Afterschool Supervision

While we encourage active play, it is essential for the safety and well-being of all children that they are supervised by a parent or responsible adult if they remain on school grounds after dismissal.

Please remember that no soccer games or other group sports are permitted in the yard after school, as these activities can lead to unintended accidents without proper supervision.

For students who are waiting to be picked up, they should be at the exit gates where a teacher will be supervising until 3:20 PM. The side gate will be supervised until 3:25 PM. Beyond these times, it is crucial that children do not remain in the yard unless accompanied by an adult.

Thank you for your understanding and cooperation. Working together, we can maintain a safe and secure environment for our children.

OHSC Renovation Update

I am excited to share that the Out of Hours School Care (OHSC) room has undergone a small but impactful renovation! During our recent pupil-free day, the OHSC kitchen was updated with new cabinets, making it a more functional space for the children and staff. As well, new storage was added to help keep the area organised.

We would like to extend a special thank you to the YMCA, who organised a working bee over the weekend, bringing in volunteers to help give the OHSC room a fresh, decluttered look. Their hard work has transformed the space, creating a more welcoming and efficient environment for everyone.

Debating

This year, eight Year 5 students (Lucy, Zara, Florina, Lynh, Dylan, Zen, Tanay, and Tom) competed in Debating South Australia’s interschool competition. These students, divided into two teams, showcased their skills on Thursday nights at Grange Primary School. It was inspiring to see them demonstrate critical thinking, research, public speaking, persuasive techniques, active listening, teamwork, time management, and confidence.

Congratulations to both teams for finishing 14th and 31st out of 45 schools, with a special mention to Tom W for winning Year 5 Debater of the Year out of 202 students.

Yours faithfully,

Catia Frasca

Our SRC Reps Call for HELP

When our SRC Reps recently learnt that September is Childhood Cancer Awareness month they were very keen to organise a fundraising event; especially because most students in our school know Aria has had treatment for cancer.  

The SRCs invited Aria and her mum to a meeting and discussed ways we could work with the Childhood Cancer Association and organise a fundraiser.  The SRCs embraced Mary MacKillop’s call to ‘Never see a need without doing something about it’ by organising a ‘Crazy Hair/Crazy Sock’ Day.

What: Fundraiser – gold coin donation 

When: Wednesday, 18th September

How: Wear crazy socks and/or crazy hair.  You may even choose to simply wear yellow.

Why: To help families like Aria’s

We hope you have fun planning crazy hair styles and deciding which socks to wear. 

Please note: all hair decorations/sprays/accessories need to be organised and styled at home before coming to school. Children must wear closed shoes.

Catholic Charities Month

Today your child may have brought home a Catholic Charities pamphlet/envelope.  Inside there is a message from Archbishop Patrick O’Regan.  He names 5 of the frontline agencies that the charity supports.  You may have heard of them or know someone who has needed to access St Patrick’s special school, Our Lady of La Vang or Centacare Catholic Family Services.  The organisation is reaching out to you to consider supporting them during their 2024 appeal.

Sacrament of Confirmation

Last Thursday and Friday evening our last Confirmation celebrations were officiated by Vicar General, Fr Dean Marin.  The Whitefriars community congratulates the following students in Year 6, 4 and 3 who are now Confirmed – Isabella Busljeta, Jakob Sosnowski, Dion Leo, Mateo Magaletta, Milania Magaletta, Gabriella Bueti, Zara Della Foresta, Megan Fernandes, Eddie Gagliardi, Emelia Greco ,Mabel Mossop, Benjamin Nguyen, Thea Nguyen, Hans Ochon, Christian Parisi, Isabella Parisi, Renata Rinaldi, Estella Scali, Boston Thorn and Sage Thorn.

This term in Maths, our Year 4 students have been exploring how to measure the area and perimeter of shapes and use grid references, a compass and scale on a map to give directions. Through an exciting investigation, students were asked to create a virtual school yard where they needed to design classrooms and play spaces using Microsoft word. From this, students were required to analyse their school yard and find different measurements for their buildings. They also wrote directions using the language required to read a map.

Students thoroughly enjoyed creating their virtual schoolyard and had the following to comment on the task:

“I really enjoyed the investigation because I got to use lots of different maths skills to create my school yard and work out the perimeter and area of the buildings” -Nikola

“I loved the investigation because the questions were interesting to answer” -Megan

“I found it difficult to give directions but once I got used to using the right language it made much more sense” -Ryder

“I enjoyed this investigation because it was lots of fun to create a school yard using the shapes tool on Microsoft Word” -Stella

“I found it a bit tricky to get the shapes straight but I was able to overcome it by lining it up with the grid” -Lacey

WHITEFRIARS WAKAKIRRI WINNERS!!!

🎉Congratulations to our amazing Year 6 students on their incredible achievements with this year's Wakakirri National Story-Dance Festival.  

Our Year 6's have received a list of awards for their outstanding performance of 'Bungle in the Jungle':

🤩State Award:  Environmental Action Story State Award

🤩Production Award for Sets, Props and Costumes

🤩Storytelling Award for Story Theme and Concept

🤩Ensemble Award for Overall Performance

🤩Lead cast Award for Performance in Acting

🤩Production Award for Soundtrack

🤩Best Public Speaking Award

On the night we also received a National Award nomination for our performance. We are now in the running to receive the National Award!! The National Awards will be announced in October. 

The Whitefriars Community are incredibly proud of our Year 6 students, for their dedication, commitment, hard work, enthusiasm and how they have represented our school community.

We would also like to thank all our parents/ caregivers and volunteers who have supported this amazing journey.  What an incredible achievement this is for our Year 6 students that will be a long lasting memory.  

This term the Reception unit’s focus is on Sustainability. We having been discussing, researching and learning about the impact rubbish has on the ocean and its inhabitants.

To support our learning and explore the local marine environment we went on an excursion to the Marine Discovery Centre at Henley Beach. One of our favourite parts of the excursion was exploring the beach, where we used information charts to deepen our understanding of what we discovered during our walk. Some ‘cool’ things we discovered were a Port Jackson shark egg, Sea snail egg sack, crab claws, tiny cockles burying themselves in the sand. 

PRC Reading and Design Challenge

Again this year, all students from Reception to Year 6 produced high quality pictures and posters as entries to the Reading and Design Challenge.

On Wednesday of week 6, Mark Williams from the Premier’s Reding Challenge office presented our school with prizes for 5 of our students.

Congratulations to Lorenzo (Year 2), Jaqueline (Year 6) and Leo (Year 6) for their Runner up entries and Lewis (Year 6) for his winning poster entry. Certificates for all entries will be given out next term.

Each year Mrs Fairweather and award three class-based certificates to students for their effort, improvement and over all quality of their work. These were awarded to students in week 6 or 7.

We are always excited every year to be part of this initiative and we are always proud of the high level of creativity and knowledge that is shown through the student’s work.

STEM MAD Challenge

The STEM MAD challenge was entered this year by three Year 5 and four groups of Year 6 students.  These students worked together to find real world problems to solve using the Design Thinking Process and that would Make A Difference.

In a 3.5 minute video the groups needed to detail the stages of the Design Thinking Process (Empathise, Define, Ideate, Prototype and Test) and how we are asked to make a difference through our faith. Groups used their knowledge and skills of Minecraft, iMovie and the Green Screen to explain and demonstrate their prototypes.

Only 3 projects can be submitted into the Catholic Education SA competition. Two of our groups, The Electron Catcher (Year 5) and The Heat Monitor 1040 (Year 6) were asked to present at Mawson Lakes, this term with other schools from around the state.

The showcase was a great opportunity for the students to work on their public speaking and questioning skills as they interacted with creative ideas from other primary students.

Congratulations to the Year 6 team, Lewis, Eithen and Tisshya, who were awarded fourth prize for the primary section of the challenge. Their efforts have won 3 ‘Tobbie The Robot’ for the school.

We are now waiting to hear if our teams will be nominated for the National Challenge.

Welcome Back to Parent Corner!

The Case for Risky Play in an Age of Overprotection

We’ve become so obsessed with a well-intentioned desire to protect our kids from every possible bump and bruise that we’ve forgotten something crucial: kids need risk.

In this week’s Insights article ‘The Case for Risky Play in an Age of Overprotection’, Justin talks about the importance of risky play.  Research shows that risky play is essential for building resilience, confidence, and problem-solving skills. It helps kids learn to assess risk, make decisions, and navigate the world on their own terms.

For more parenting information, visit the Happy Families website: https://happyfamilies.com.au./

Thank you.

Grace Loizos Wellbeing Leader gloizos@whitefriars.catholic.edu.au

• Week 9 - TERM 3
• Monday - 16th September - Help needed
• Tuesday - 17th September - Anne Vu
• Wednesday - 18th September - No Help needed
• Thursday - 19th September - Tina Bodjo/Helen Burns-Clarke
• Friday - 20th September - Help Needed

• Week 8 - TERM 3
• Monday - 23rd September -Help needed
• Tuesday - 24th September -Anne Vu
• Wednesday - 25th September - No help needed
• Thursday - 26th September - Tina Bodjo
• Friday - 27th September - 1/2 day No Lunches

We have over 280 registered volunteers who help our school in so many different ways, contributing to our school and supporting children and staff.  Registered volunteers contribute to the school community in just some of the following ways:

• School Board 
• Parents & Friends events
• After School Sports (Coaches and Team Managers)
• Canteen
• Learning Assistance Program (LAP)
• Reading with children
• Assisting at excursions

All volunteers are required to obtain appropriate clearances, including a Department of Human Services (DHS) Clearance and Catholic Clearance.

Once submitted, clearances may take up to 6 weeks to process.

When you receive your clearance or card please bring this into the office for us to update to the Volunteer Register.

If you would like to volunteer, please see staff in the front office for a Volunteer Information Pack and support in registering as a volunteer.

Please see below for current volunteers wanted in our school.

We are seeking a passionate parent or caregiver to join our Out of School Hours Care (OSHC) Committee. Your input will help shape and enhance our out of school hours care program.

The commitment involves attending just one meeting per term, lasting approximately 1 hour.

If you are interested in contributing to our school community in this meaningful way, or would like to know more about what is involved, please email info@whitefriars.catholic.edu.au to register your interest.

We look forward to your participation.

If you child/children will not be attending school for an extended time (more than 5 days) please complete the below form and email back to us at info@whitefriars.catholic.edu.au in advance.

Please note a form must be completed for each child.

Thank you 

Dear Families,

We are currently conducting Term 3, 2026 student enrolment interviews.

Term 1, 2027 interviews will be scheduled in Term 1, 2025.

All interviews are usually scheduled 2 years before commencement date.

PLEASE ENSURE ALL SIBLINGS ARE ENROLLED FOR ALL FUTURE YEARS.

Thank you 

We acknowledge and pay our respect to the Kaurna people as the traditional owners of the land of Mikawomma on which Whitefriars Catholic School is located.  We come with open hearts and minds to listen and learn from Elders - past, present and emerging.