Week 4 Term 2 2021

This week is National Volunteer Week. During the past two weeks I have been reflecting on the wonderful community here at Rosary and all the exciting things that happen – many of which wouldn’t be possible without the support of parents and volunteers.

Since the last school newsletter, the Parent’s and Friends hosted a Mother’s Day Morning Tea, parents have volunteered on excursions, listened to reading, supported student leadership by transporting Year 5/6 children to welcome possible new families during the Principal Tour, attended School Board Meetings and Sport’s Committee Meetings, coached and team managed our after-school sports teams. It is only through the generosity of our volunteers that all this is possible. Thank you.

I have had many highlights over the past two weeks.  I was extraordinarily impressed with the Year 5/6 Welcome Leaders who attended an evening Principal Tour. They confidently spoke to prospective families about the school and their learning.  I thank them for their preparation and willingness to return to school at night. I was a very proud new Principal!

During Week 3 children had the opportunity to share their learning and goals with their parents at Learning Conversations. The feedback received from children, parents and teachers has been very positive. Learning is life-long and an important skill is to clearly identify what you are able to do well and what a future challenge or area of improvement may be.  In education we refer to this as Learner Agency. It is a skill for all children to learn and practice as they grow and develop. If you were unable to meet with your child and their teacher in Week 3, please contact your child’s teacher to arrange an alternative time.

Friday night the Year 2 teachers, Lisa McCormick and I were able to attend the opening of the Local Schools Exhibition and view the Year 2 Art at the Newmarch Gallery – the quality of the students’ work was outstanding. Congratulations to all our Year 2 artists and their teachers.  On Saturday I was able to be present at the school soccer. It was wonderful to be able to chat with parents and watch the children play. I learnt a couple of soccer rules – offside is very tricky rule for young children.

This week our Year 5 and Year 6 classes have each been on an excursion to Illumination. I attended the excursion with the 6SC class. I have had limited exposure to VR technology and was very impressed with the work the children were able to achieve in one day. Using Design Thinking methodology the children used their developing technical skills to create a solution to a real world sustainability problem. The children imagined a solution and were able to build a virtual world in CoSpaces to model their thinking. They coded movements and were then able to view these using the VR equipment. We have some VR equipment in the 5/6 Unit and I look forward to watching the children engage with this technology in their learning.

I am looking forward to Sports Day tomorrow where again we have numerous volunteers supporting this wonderful community event. I would like to thank Mr Brenton Campbell for all his preparation and organisation.

How many times can I write thank you in a school newsletter? I am extremely thankful to be part of the Rosary School community.

Regards

Susan

Last week Mrs McCormick 'slept out' to try and learn more about and experience what it means to experience homelessness.  She had a piece of cardboard to lie on and a sleeping bag.

The amazing year 5/6 leaders have organised a 'Crazy Clothes' day and a sausage sizzle to continue to support Mrs McCormick and the great work Vinnies do for others.

• It will be on Friday 28th May
• Crazy Clothes - bring gold coin donation
• Suasage Sizzle - $2 via the QKR! app (orders close 5pm Tuesday)

So far, $2,380 has been raised by Mrs McCormick with 

$47,518.61 

in total from the School Leaders involved in the sleep out.
The support from this community has been awesome so far and we invite you to support Crazy Clothes day and the sausage sizzle.  Thank you.

Gates will be open to the stadium from 9am.

As per Government regulations, all adults entering the stadium must complete the COVID check in either by scanning the QR code or completing the manual sign in at the entrance.

Physical distancing (1.5m) in all areas is expected.

To comply with the Stadium's COVID Safe Plan, spectators for Years 3- 6 track and field events must cheer and support from behind the track arena fence. Spectators of R-2 events will be permitted on the grassed area inside the track.

The school will have COVID Marshalls in attendance.

No hair spray or coloured zinc/paint.

School hats and sunscreen please.

Thank you in advance for adhering to these requirements and helping to keep everyone safe.

The canteen will be open from 10am.  We are very grateful to Rita for opening up for us.

Attached is the list of food and drink available.

CANTEEN-PRICE-LIST

All children need to be collected from the stadium at 3pm.  Parents must collect their child directly from the child's teacher.

OSHC children and staff will be returning to the school by bus.

PENTECOST

This weekend, the Church celebrates Pentecost, one of the most important feast days of the year that concludes the Easter season and celebrates the beginning of the Church. Pentecost always occurs 50 days after the death and resurrection of Jesus, and ten days after his ascension into heaven.

In the Christian tradition, Pentecost is the celebration of the Holy Spirit appearing to the Apostles, Mary, and the first followers of Jesus, who were gathered together. A “strong, driving” wind filled the room where they were gathered, and tongues of fire came to rest on their heads, allowing them to speak in different languages so that they could understand each other. It was such a strange phenomenon that some people thought the Christians were drunk - but Peter pointed out that it was only the morning, and said the phenomenon was caused by the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit also gave the apostles the other gifts and fruits necessary to fulfill the great commission - to go out and spread the ideals of Christianity and to preach the Gospel to all nations. 

Pentecost is also considered the birthday of the Church - Peter, the first Pope, preaches for the first time and converts thousands of new believers. The apostles and believers, for the first time, were united by a common language, and a common zeal and purpose to go and preach the Gospel.

I am pleased to be able to share some preliminary details about the Sacraments of Confirmation and Eucharist to be held in the North Adelaide / Prospect Parish this year. More information will be provided on the compulsory ‘Family Information Nights’ and via communication from the parish office.

Compulsory Family Information nights:

Dates: Wednesday 26th May (Confirmation) and Wednesday 9th June (Eucharist)

Time: 6pm - 7:30pm

Location: Frassati Hall, Blackfriars Priory School, Prospect (entrance via Te Anau Avenue).

Confirmation Liturgy

Date: Sat. 26th June

Time: 10am (for Rosary families)

Location: Rosary Church

Eucharist Masses

Dates: Weekend of 26th/27th June and 3rd/4th July

Times: 6pm (Sat night), 10am (Sunday), 5:30pm (Sunday)

(You will be able to choose which session is the most suitable at the time of booking though numbers will be limited)

Location: Rosary Church

If you have any queries at this stage, please come and see me or contact me via email - caroline.price@rosary.catholic.edu.au

At the School Board meeting on Tuesday evening, Mrs Annabel Parletta, Leader of Learning, was able to share information about our new data management software Scorelink. It is a web-based product that is used for storing and analysing student assessment results, particularly focussing on English and Mathematics standardised testing. Using this product we can identify children are reaching year level benchmarks, monitor student growth, identify students who may need careful monitoring or additional support and watch for school trends.  It also identifies those children who are achieving beyond expected levels and may require additional challenge in their learning. Teachers are beginning to enter their data and we look forward to sharing student growth with families in the future.

This Year the 5/6 students are lucky enough to be part of Wakakirri in 2021 for the first time in the school's history! The symbol of Wakakirri this year is a monkey. We have incorporated this into our storyline and connected it to a theme we feel passionately about, 'Sustainability'.  

Our journey so far in Wakakirri has been amazing. We are looking forward to completing the technical performance that Ground Force has choreographed for us. 

Currently, we are working on the end part, and it is coming along fabulously. Each class will be allocated a character or role in the performance. The roles are Tribal People, Lumber Jacks, City People and Animals.  

All 5/6 students are rehearsing each day in their classes to become more confident with the choreography, ready to learn new choreography the following week. We are so excited to compete against other schools, but we are also excited to see their performances too. 

Stay tuned as we will need your help in the lead up to our performance, especially if you have an artistic flare! 

We can’t wait for you all to come and see us perform! 

By Lily, Giselle, and Scarlett  

On behalf of all Year 5/6 Arts Leaders 

School fee statements were posted to families last week and the expectation is that school fees are paid on a regular basis.  Accounts are to be finalised by the end of Term 3.  If you have not commenced payment of your school fees, are unable to pay by the due date or are have difficulty in making payments please contact Melanie Fazio (Business Manager) to discuss a personalised payment plan.

Pupil Free Day Information

You are invited to the Mr Maker Day at Rosary OSHC!

When: Friday 11th of June (wk 7)
Where: OSHC room in the school hall
What: Mr Maker Day (pupil free day)

On this day we will be open from 6.30am – 6.00pm and will be engaging in activities from the Mr Maker show. Students will have opportunities to make their own craft creations from our lucky dip craft box.
We ask that students bring their recess and lunch as normal and we will provide afternoon snack from 3pm.

Please visit our website for booking and enrolment information or contact our team for more information:

Ph: 0447772195
Email: rosaryoshc@ymca.org.au
Website: https:///www.rosary.catholic.edu.au/community/oshc

On Wednesday of Week 3, the Year 4s participated in a Podcasting Workshop run by Matt Richards. The workshop was an introduction in making our very own podcast. All the students participated keenly using Garage Band to learn how to make our introductory music for our Podcast. Then we worked in groups to create a topic which we thought would be interesting to talk about.

We created a script and used Garage Band again to complete our voice over, introducing who was presenting and their topic. We were reminded to talk with expression and enthusiasm to engage the audience. Matt taught the students how to change the volume of the music to play quietly while we talked and then increase the music again once we finished the voice over.

Students also learnt how to use Keynote to create a cover for their Podcast. The students had an awesome time and learnt so much.
We were very keen to create some more Podcasts.

The P&F were thrilled to be able to organise Mother’s Day Events this year without the COVID restrictions imposed last year. The stall was a huge success, and we hope all the Mother’s/Grandmother’s/Special People enjoyed their gifts chosen by the children. We had a large turnout to the Morning Tea. Thank you to everyone that attended, your extremely kind generosity was able to raise $317 for Catherine House. A special mention must go to Jake Graziani at Saluti alla Famiglia for his efforts waking up at 3am to make and kindly donate the zeppole that were enjoyed by all. Thank you to Fresh Bean for supplying the coffee and sweet treats for the gluten free treats.

Just a reminder, hot chocolates will not be sold this Friday 21st May or Friday 28th May but will resume on 4th June. All sales are the Qkr! App by Friday at 8:15am, no cash sales will be accepted. Reception and year 1 students will have their hot chocolates delivered to their classrooms. All other year levels will need to collect their drinks once they have been given a ticket with their name from their teacher. If you have any issues with the app, please contact the School, as the P&F have no access to the App.

The P&F are in the process of finalising two social events. The first will be a family movie day on a Sunday afternoon at Palace Nova Prospect, late Term 2. The other event will be a Quiz Night on a Saturday Night in August. Next newsletter, we will be able to provide you will all the details. WATCH THIS SPACE!!!

Year 2 Students worked with resident artist Leah Grant to explore their thoughts around the theme of “Families and Curious Creatures” using mixed media.

Last Friday we were all invited to attend the opening of this art exhibition at Payinthi Art Gallery, where all their artworks were displayed.

It was wonderful to see so many of our families present sharing our students love of art and encouraging their creativity.

Our Year 5/6 leaders were successful in winning a $500 grant for our Veggie and rose gardens. 

We met as a group last week to discuss this and have a look at the garden and see what utensils we have. They are very keen to get moving.
We invite any interested parents who may be willing to help with any of the following:

• supervision
• purchasing soil (the grant money will cover this)
• purchasing plants (the grant money will cover this)
• tilling some soil
• ongoing maintenance

Please let me know.  You will need to have completed our volunteer process:

1. Completed Volunteer Application Package
2. Provided evidence of WWCC check
3. Present Catholic Archdiocese of Adelaide Clearance
4. RAN training certificate
5. Complete onsite Volunteer induction

Thank you
Lisa McCormick (Deputy Principal)

To download this week's Dominews, click on the link below:

Ascension