Week 10, Term 3, 2024

Last weekend, I had the pleasure to celebrate the end of the 2024 School Soccer season with many of the 150 students involved and their families with a sausage sizzle on the oval, followed by the trophy presentation in the Rosary Jubilee Centre. This year we had a record number of teams registered in school soccer – 15 in total from Reception through to Year 6.

Our after-school sports program relies heavily on the incredible support of our volunteer coaches and team managers. A heartfelt thank you goes out to all the parents who generously contributed their time and effort. A special mention goes to Mrs. Vanessa Roberts, who has coordinated the soccer program with the assistance of our Physical Education Teacher, Mr. Brenton Campbell. Both Vanessa and Brenton were acknowledged by the teams during the presentation—thank you both for your dedication!

This year, we also took a moment to give special recognition to Vanessa as she concludes her role as Sports Coordinator and Soccer Association delegate at Rosary. With her youngest son, Lucas, leaving for high school at the end of the year, Vanessa is stepping down after seven years of remarkable service. Her leadership and commitment have been instrumental in the success of our after-school sports program. We extend our deepest gratitude to Vanessa and her family—husband Clint and children Ethan, Daniel, and Lucas—for their contribution and support.

Our Year 5 students recently showcased to the school community their journey in the program ‘BECOME’, which aims to stimulate the curiosity of students about the world of work and provide an opportunity for them to experiment and try out ideas about their future self. This is based on the exploration of who they are, what motivates them and where their talents lie. The program was once again an outstanding success, I thank the Year 5 teachers, Miss Dutton and Miss Andersen for their support.

Below are reflections from some of the students involved:

I really liked the presentation at the end where we got to see the jobs of our friends. I also really liked that we were able to manage our own time throughout the project.  (Susanna)
I really enjoyed learning about a job and if we were suited to that job. (Alia)
I felt more independent, made me feel older! (Joshua M)
I loved that we got to learn about lots of interesting jobs based on a particular interest. (Niko)

I would like to congratulate our Catholic School’s Music Festival Choir, consisting of 16 students from Year 5 and Year 6, on their performance last night at Adelaide Festival Theatre. A special thank you to Mrs Kimberley Slattery, our exceptional Choir Trainer for her organisation and musical expertise in preparing the students. I would also like to take this opportunity to congratulate Matilda B on her outstanding solo performances over three nights of the festival, singing “Don’t Nobody Bring Me No Bad News” and Chrissa P who sang the National Anthem, representing Rosary in a small ensemble. Welldone Rosary Choir! 

Right to Disconnect Policy

As communicated recently to families, I remind you of the introduction of a new ‘Right to Disconnect’ policy as a part of The Fair Work Act, which includes school employees. Please see below:

We understand that parent/ caregiver engagement goes hand in hand with student wellbeing and success and productive communication with parents/ caregivers is an essential feature of a positive school culture.

Digital technologies have greatly assisted in this regard and the use of parent/ caregiver information apps (such as Seesaw), social media (for general school information), school website, and the use of email communication directly with staff is now routine.

We appreciate that parent/ caregiver expectations as to staff accessibility have evolved in the context of enhanced digital communication practices. While representing efficient modes of communication, the breadth of digital communication options can create ‘availability creep’ where school employees become more accessible in locations and at times of the day, weekends and during periods of leave when they should be able to disconnect from work. Indeed, recent laws have taken effect which provide school employees a right to disconnect.

In the interests of respecting the rights of our staff and recognising the importance of facilitating and promoting healthy communication, we are introducing the following as standard protocol during term time:

- For communication purposes, staff can be contacted via Seesaw or email between the hours of 8am - 5pm.

- Noting our staff spend a significant amount of their workday focussing on teaching or other activities applicable to their roles, staff will endeavour to respond to parent/ caregiver communications requesting a response within 48 hours, noting staff will discern whether an urgent matter requires a shorter response timeframe (please note that this may not be possible for part-time teachers, such as our specialist staff).

- Parents/ caregivers are encouraged to contact the school front office in the first instance for general information (such as early pick-ups, OSHC arrangements, appointments etc.).

- In the case of an emergency, parents/ caregivers are asked to contact a member of the leadership team via Seesaw or email.

We ask that parents and caregivers be mindful and supportive of the above. If you have any queries, please feel free to contact me.

Finally, I wish you all a very restful term break and hope you get to enjoy some special family time together before the busyness of Term 4. I cannot believe we have just over 8 school weeks of school left!

We will also welcome Mrs Hennessy back in Week 1 of next term and look forward to hearing all about her adventures whilst on leave.

Caroline Price

Acting Principal

Mass of the Roses 2024

A reminder that on Thursday, October 17 we will celebrate Mass of the Roses at Our Lady of the Rosary Church with mass at 9:30am. 

This is always a beautiful community celebration and as always, we positively encourage students and family members to bring roses and other flowers to our mass. These will be blessed during the course of our mass. 

In addition, we especially welcome grandparents to this mass. 

Following mass, we will have a special morning tea for grandparents and their grandchildren at the Rosary Jubilee Centre from 10:40am-11:15am. We will then try to visit the classrooms of grandchildren, after the morning tea. We hope that many grandparents in our community can join us for mass and for morning tea on October 17.

Mid-Year Reception Church Visit

On Thursday, our Mid-Year Reception students made a special visit to Our Lady of the Rosary Church. As the youngest and newest members of our school community, this was only their second visit to our Parish Church.

We had an enjoyable walk in the sunshine and then they were given a tour of the church by Fr Mark O' Brien and Mr Campion. The students were made aware of many aspects of the church, with special focus given to explaining the altar, the tabernacle, the baptismal font, the holy water font, the stations of the cross and the statues at Our Lady of the Rosary Church.

Our students had lots of questions which we answered. It was lovely to introduce them Fr Mark and also to the many different aspects of our local church. 

Term 3 Learning in 2NT

Term 3 has been a busy and fun term for 2NT, filled with lots of learning and other activities.

In Science, we have been busy learning about sound and how we make sound. We completed experiments to listen to sound and record the decibels for each instrument. We also made our own instruments that had to make 2 sounds.

We enjoyed our swimming lesson at Thebarton Swimming Centre where we learned different strokes and survival skills. We really enjoyed the last day, splashing and dancing in the pool.

In writing, we have been learning how to write a persuasive. Thinking of arguments to support our opinion on a topic and including high modality words to make our arguments strong and interesting. We have each created our own donut and have written a persuasive to convince a “bakery” to choose our donut as their next donut.

Other learning this term includes, our Floral Friends inspired by Mia Charro, MITIOG where we created our button family, using fractions to create our lunch box and investigating measurement for length, mass and capacity using informal units.

Some of our favourite moments for Term 3 are:

Jai – Book Week because the whole school gets to wear costumes.

Emily – Swimming because we got to learn how to survive in the water and we learnt lots of strokes.

Ella – Rosary’s Got Talent because we can watch people perform at the front of the whole school in the gym.

Lily – Swimming because at the end you get to have some fun and because I like being in the water.

Lucy – Book Week because you got to dress up in costumes instead of boring school uniforms.

Sarah – Swimming because then you can play at the end.

Alexia – Book Week because you get to have fun and wear different costumes and read different books.

Ernie – Rosary’s Got Talent because we get to see other people’s talents.

Max – Book Week because you get to dress up and have fun with your friends and celebrate the assembly for Book Week.

Mac – Book Week because you get to dress up and play with your friends and join in the parade.

Amelie – Book Week because you get to dress up.

Quinn – Book Week because you get to dress up.

Jasper – Rosary’s Got talent because we got to see other people’s talents.