TERM 3

• 
  
• Fri, 18th Aug, School Disco
• Fri, 18th Aug- Reception Excursion to the Zoo
• Wed 23rd Aug, Bookweek Parade
• Wed 30th Aug, 7pm P & F Meeting 
• Thur 31st Aug, Father's Day Stall
• Fri, 1st Sept, Father's Day Breakfast
• Tues, Journey to Emmaus Day
• Fri, 8 Sept - Pupil Free Day - OHSC is available 
  
• Wed, 13th Sept- School Board Meeting 
• Fri, 22nd Sept - Year 2 Italian Night 5-8pm
• 23rd & 24th Sept, First Holy Communion Celebration
• Wed, 27th Sept, Reception Assembly 
• Fri, 29 Sep - Last Day of School 12:30pm dismissal

TERM 4

• Mon, 16 Oct - First Day of School
• Wed, 1st Nov, School Board Meeting
• Wed, 29th Nov, School Board Meeting
• Thurs, 14 Dec - Last Day of School 3:05pm dismissal

Dear Parents and Community Members,

Feast of St Mary of the Cross MacKillop

Last week, a very important week in the life of our school as we celebrated the Feast of St Mary of the Cross MacKillop.

We began with Action Hour on Monday the 7th of August raising money for the 'Mary Mackillop Today'. Mary MacKillop Today works with local communities in Australia and internationally through learning for life and enabling access to learning opportunities in the areas of education, health, financial inclusion and livelihoods to share practical life skills that enhance people's dignity across various stages of life.

Thank you to all the teachers and children for their efforts to raise money, $2,402.60 through sales and games. Thank you also to all families who were able to donate books and toys for this charity work.

On Tuesday the 8th of August we celebrated a whole school Mass with Father Charles led by music played by Andrew Chinn who was with us all day and has written many wonderful religious songs. The children really loved having Andrew Chinn at our school making this feast day quite memorable.

Pedal Prix

On Saturday 5th of August 10 our children (Ivory G, Olivia W, Jack F, Callum M, Edel L, Fleur K, Christina L, Daniel O, Henry R, Anthony C, were able to participate in the Pedal Prix race at Tailem Bend.

I want to firstly thank Mt Carmel College for providing us with this opportunity to join them with their Pedal Prix car. Thank you also to Rossana Rositano and Aidan Brigden for supervising pedal prix for the last 10 years.

Finally, thank you to their parents who woke up early to drive up to Tailem Bend.

Concert Sponsorship

At our last School Board, it was shared that our concert sponsorship was $8400. This was above our expectations, and I thank them for their generosity. It was a huge support towards covering some of the cost of the concert. I am now encouraging families to support and be generous in return with these families’ business whenever possible and thank them for their generosity.

The powerpoint has been uploaded on our school website and it will be there for the next 2 years.

Term 3 Learning Conversations

In Week 8 of this term (Monday 11th of September to Friday 15th of September) there is a second formal opportunity for parents, teachers and children to discuss your child’s learning progress.

We encourage all parents to dedicate this time to value your child’s education. If your child has a Personalised Plan for Learning (PPL) it is important that these meetings occur.

Staff News

At our last School Board, I shared some news that Carmela Sartoretto (Year 2) and Lyn Harrison (Finance Officer) who have both made the decision to retire at the end of this year.

I also shared the news that Franca Notarangelo has decide to resign and continue her career doing relief teaching and short contracts.

Carmela, Lyn and Franca have made huge contributions to our school over many years, and we will take the opportunity to appropriately acknowledge them for their service to our school community.

Kind Regards

Frank Congedi

We acknowledge the below student's who read regularly at Children Mass and support the Parish & Whitefriars Catholic School.  

• Aston N
• Ivana C
• Eithen J
• Jaden L
• Hunter N
• Rafaela M
• Patrick M
• Aidan D 

Action Hour – Monday 7th of August

On Monday the 7th of August we held our annual Action Hour fundraiser to raise money for the Mary MacKillop Today foundation. We have raised $2400 this year which will go towards this organisations charitable works in St. Mary of the Cross Mackillop’s name. Thank you for your kind donations, and it was wonderful to see so many parents join us in the festivities.

National School Improvement Partnership Survey (Living Learning Leading Surveys) – Parent/Community responses

Thank you to those families who have completed the Living Learning Leading Surveys – your feedback is greatly appreciated. For those families who have screenshotted their completed surveys to me – you have been entered in the draw for the Coles Myer gift card.

Catholic Education South Australia (CESA) through National School Improvement Partnerships (NSIP) are asking parents/caregivers to participate in a survey regarding Whitefriars Catholic School.

This survey is being offered to Catholic schools across South Australia. When you access the survey and enter the specific code for our school community (details below), all the relevant information will be sent to our school. Staff and Year 2-6 students are participating in a similar survey, and like the parent/caregiver survey, all responses are confidential.

We would like as many parents/caregivers of our school to complete the survey to provide feedback across the various domains of the survey. The information provided is used to affirm the strengths of the school, whilst also providing information to identify areas of opportunity to improve the school. This data can be useful to inform decision making when planning the schools Strategic Goals for the short and long term.

This year – all families who complete the survey will go into the draw (random selected) to win a $100 Coles Myer gift card – to enter the draw – please take a screenshot of your completed survey and email to jpage@whitefriars.catholic.edu.au

If you would like to complete the survey please click on the following link https://www.nsipartnerships.com.au/

and enter the unique school code when asked: WSLLLP The survey closes on Friday the 25th August 2023 (end of Week 5). Further information about the survey is available via the attached document.

Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions regarding the survey

Made in the Image of God (MITIOG) Human Sexuality Curriculum – taught in Term 3

Later this term each class will be taught the MITIOG Human Sexuality curriculum as part of our Religious Education curriculum. These lessons will begin from Week 8 onwards. As we work in partnership with you as parents, being the first educators of your child, this is one area of our curriculum that you do have the option of removing your child from the lessons, if you would prefer to teach these concepts yourself. If you do wish to remove your child from the lessons, please speak with either Mr. Frank Congedi or Mr. Josh Page.

I will be running a parent information session which will provide further context to the curriculum, the purpose of the curriculum, and will provide further opportunities to ask questions (this is the same session that I have run over the previous few years). This session will be held at 9am on Wednesday the 30th of August (Week 6) upstairs in the Caritas Building. To RSVP please email jpage@whitefriars.catholic.edu.au

If you are unable to attend the parent information session but would like to know more about the curriculum please do not hesitate to contact me via email

Josh Page

APRIM

School Fees

Thank you to the families who have paid fees for Term 3. A gentle reminder that Term 3 fees are due on the 1st September unless prior arrangement has been made or you are paying by direct debit.

If you are experiencing financial difficulties please see either Frank, Catia or me to discuss.

Lyn Harrison

Finance Officer

On August 4th, it was Indigenous Children's Day!

Together with Miss Gillard, our Indigenous students spent the afternoon together to design story telling stones which can be used to retell dream time stories.

We look forward to using these in our learning. 

Students in Years 2-6 who have registered to participate in the ICAS Assessment/s, this will be held in the Caritas building (EALD room) on the following days:

Science                                 Monday 21st August 9:30am

Maths                                   Wednesday 30th August 9:30am

Year 3 Sleepover

On Friday August the 4th we had our Year 3 sleepover. During the day we were all very excited as we got ready for the sleepover.

We were all a little bit nervous and the teachers were nervous and excited! We talked about some of the rules and the teachers were very busy getting everything ready.

We all came back to the hall at 5:30. In the hall there were sleeping bags, so many pillows, blankets, toys, water bottles, slippers and bed mats everywhere. There were even a few huge, inflatable mattresses! Everyone was busy setting up their beds, finding their friends and saying goodbye to their families. Before dinner we had a scavenger hunt and we had to find lots of things outside and inside. We had our torches and it was lots of fun.

For dinner we had pasta and garlic bread. There was gnocchi, plain penne, spaghetti bolognaise and vegetarian.

It was very good! Ms Radetti ordered it for us and we all said thank you! After dinner we had rotation activities.

In Miss Fieldhouse’s room we made marshmallow and spaghetti towers, with Mrs Tedesco we played Pictionary on the whiteboard and in Ms. Berry’s room we played “Who am I?”

After that we went back to the hall and put our pyjamas on and then we had some yummy cannoli. After dessert we all got in our beds ready to watch the movie ‘Sing’.

Finally we all went to sleep but during the night people kept getting up to go to the toilet so the teachers got no sleep!!! We heard some snoring from the teachers but we better not say who it was!

It was still dark when we woke up, we packed up all our stuff and got changed.

For breakfast we had blueberry muffins and there were gluten-free muffins too.

We had a great time but we were all very tired and we were happy to go home. We would like to thank the Yr 3 teachers for organising our exciting, fun sleepover and we would like to thank all the other adults who stayed to look after us.

A special thank you also goes to Vicky and Iris for helping organise the day.

Ariyana, Kara and Reiko – on behalf of all the Yr 3 students

News from the Sports Desk

Cross Country Carnival

Last Thursday saw the very talented Whitefriars Cross Country team compete in the annual Catholic School Carnival at East Parklands. We had 84 keen and fit students representing the school over the gruelling 2000m endurance course which included a creek crossing and some difficult hills. We were lucky with the weather, the sun came out throughout the day and we stayed dry.

Each race had between 90-150 runners competing and our students did exceptionally well and tried their very best. We had some runners finish in the top 20 which were excellent results, especially for the runners in Division A. 2 of our runners finished in the top 4 in their race. Dominic G received a ribbon for placing 2nd in the Division C Year 4 boys race and Madeline R received a Gold Medal for finishing first in Division A which hasn’t happened at Whitefriars for a long time. A massive thankyou to our lovely volunteers, Selena Brown, Daniel Santos, Jade Lehmann, Carina Boyce and Antonette Zavaglia for their support and help throughout the day.

SAPSASA Basketball

Last Wednesday , Whitefriars Year 6 boys and girls team played in the State Basketball Carnival at St Clair Recreation Centre.

The girls’ team was comprised of 3 of our amazing school Basketballers along with some talented Netball players. Our boys’ team was made up from our school teams and had some very experienced and talented basketballers. All day the teams supported each other and tried their best against some very strong teams. The boys team lost some very close games and ended up finishing 4th and won their cross over final game. The girls team improved throughout the day and had some very close games, drawing 1. Well done to all the students who represented Whitefriars so well on the day. Thanks to Coach Natalie Cameron for her tremendous mentoring of the boys team throughout the day and to the parents and grandparents who came to support during the day. Congratulations to our SAPSASA Basketball teams!

SA Table Tennis Tournament

Last Friday Whitefriars entered the SA Table Tennis tournament which was held at the Woodville Table Tennis Centre. This was the first year we have entered a team and we had a huge interest from students but decided to take along a team of 4 supremely talented Year 5 players. Nicolas C, Dion Di M, Vittal Bi and Jake W.

The day consisted of single and double games against other school teams with the boys playing multiple times thoughout the day. In the end the team finished 3rd out of over 20 teams, receiving a bronze medal each. Congratulations to each of the boys on representing Whitefriars so well.

Each year we have over 100 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.

Thankyou to the following volunteers assisting in Term 3, Week 1 & 2.

If you would like to contribute to this wonderful school community and spend some of your day making delicious food, chatting and laughing in good company, having fun and of course drinking coffee, whether you are able to assist for both recess and lunch, or just an hour, it makes a huge difference and we would love to have you join us.

• Monday - Friday
• Times: all day (9-1:30pm), recess (10:50-11:30am), lunch (12:50-1:30pm) or just an hour wherever you can!
• Tasks include: Making popcorns, jellies, sandwiches, assembling burgers, serving at the counter, packing lunches and stacking the chip rack.

Tasks are given in very easy, manageable steps so everyone can comfortably learn as you go.  No experience necessary!

If you would like to volunteer some time in the Canteen or would like to ask questions about what is involved, please contact Iris at the Canteen before school.

Iris Mori

Canteen Manager

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.