St Augustine's Parish School eNewsletter

Principal & Deputy Principal Message

Dear Families,

We have come to the end of another successful term here at St Augustine’s. We continue to live out our vision of being a welcoming community, united in faith, who value and nurture the dignity of each individual. In our Catholic school, this call to honour the dignity of every child informs how we respond to children and families, how we cater for diversity, the way we design learning for all and the invitation we extend to everyone to explore their faith in a nurturing environment, centred in Christ.

For most of this term, our staff have been engaged in assessment, formal reporting and collecting evidence on how they adjust learning to meet the needs of many in their care. This is important work and we are grateful to our staff for the extraordinary time and effort that goes into this.

Next term we are launching our St Augustine’s Learner Qualities. As a staff we have been developing some common language to describe what qualities we think a learner at St Augustine’s needs to be successful. Eventually, this language will be embedded in our learning design, assessment and reporting.

To start this process, we have developed our Vision for learning here at St Augustine’s. Our learning statement is:

Thriving, capable learners at St Augustine’s are clear on what they are learning and what success looks like. They are motivated to grow and improve by setting goals, taking risks, seeking feedback and persisting when faced with challenges. They can work in a range of settings to develop skills and strategies to support life-long learning in themselves and others.

From this statement we have come up with 5 Qualities that we want all learners in our community to develop in their time here. They are: Curious Collaborative Courageous Resilient Thoughtful.

For the remainder of this year, each quality will be introduced to students. This will include some assembly items, plus exciting activities for in class and around the school. We will continue to share this with you and welcome your engagement and enthusiasm. More to come next term!

Finally, at the end of this term we are saying goodbye to three long serving members of our St Augustine’s Community.

Ms Veronica Cox is taking long-service leave for the remainder of the year. Her plan is to retire at the completion of this leave. Veronica has served our school for over 26 years in her capacity as Principal’s Secretary and other administrative roles. We will formally acknowledge Veronica’s service at the end of the year.

Ms Kathy Martin is also taking leave for the remainder of the year before officially retiring from her permanent teaching role. Kathy is our longest standing staff member and has had an extraordinary career in Catholic Education spanning 50 years. 16 of those years have been here, serving the children and families in our community. We are grateful for all that Kathy has done for our school in particular. Her tireless service and relentless pursuit of excellence for the children in her care is something we all strive for. Kathy is committed wholeheartedly to her profession and we hope she can find ways to relax and enjoy the next phase of her life.

Karin Norrie is leaving us after many years working and volunteering in our school canteen. Karin has been a kind and valuable member of our canteen team for 16 years and is looking forward to enjoying her retirement. We thank Karin for her service to our community in such an important part of the school. Enjoy the time ahead and try not to think of us every morning at 8:30am when the lunch orders close!

We hope you and your children find some time to rest during the holiday break. Thank you for your ongoing support for our beautiful school and community.

Take care,

Dan Cowan, Principal & Michelle Thomas, Deputy Principal

Catholic Identity Updates

Date Claimers:

The Feast of the Assumption of Mary into Heaven

Whole school Mass on Thursday 15 August at 9.30am in the St Augustine’s Parish Church. All are welcome!

The Feast of St Augustine

Whole school Mass on Wednesday 28 August at 9.30am in the St Augustine’s Parish Church. All are welcome!

If you are new to St Augustine’s or to the Catholic Tradition, you might like to know what is meant by the term Feast Day.

Feast Days have been around for a long time in the Catholic Church. Whenever someone lived a life of love for others and for God in the past, they were usually made a ‘saint’ by leaders of the Church. Once declared an official ‘Saint’, other people were then encouraged to learn about these saints and model their own lives on them.

However, not all saints lived perfect lives.

St Augustine was a troubled, headstrong young man who resisted God for most of his youth. This was turned eventually around in his 30’s and we now honour St Augustine as a model for our lives.

What we do know is that saints always had reliance and trust in God and Jesus. Just like St Augustine. With the help of the Holy Spirit, saints brought hope and love into the world. Saints have the ability to see the world as God sees it and to do everything in their power to bring God’s Kingdom to fruition.

This also means that there are ‘saints’ living amongst us. You don’t have to be dead to live the life of a saint. In the small and ordinary acts of love, saints are those people who make a better world. In the trust and hope that saints have for the world, they will bring peace to all.

Yes, sainthood is in reach of all of us.

You just have to reach out to God in trust.

THOUGHTS: The void that many people feel in life, is the lack or loss of love. God only seeks to love us. It is God’s hunger for our love that makes God reach out for us. This is why Jesus came to us: to teach us about God’s love. The good thing about love is that it does not have a use-by date. God’s love for all of us is eternal.

PRAYER: Loving God, thank you for the gift of love. May we use this gift each day towards others. Amen.

Dr Rachele Tullio,
Assistant Principal Religious Identity and Mission

Aboriginal Basketball Academy

On Thursday, week 6 our Reception to Year 6 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students went on an excursion to the St Clair Recreation Centre for a basketball session with the Aboriginal Basketball Academy. The students were taught about the importance of breath and were given strategies to slow their breathing down during times of stress. The session involved small group basketball skills and activities which encouraged teamwork and supported skill development.

The students had a fantastic session and were commended on the way they presented themselves and represented our school.

Well done, Team!

Year 6 AFL Max Excursion

On Tuesday 18 June 2024, the Year 6 cohort went on an amazing excursion to AFL Max where they participated in four fun packed activities throughout the day. These four activities were called Perform, Purpose, Connect and Energy and were all focused around encouraging leadership skills and collaboration.

In the first quarter, Perform, we did rock climbing. The purpose of this activity was to gain confidence in stressful situations. There were two types of walls we could climb on. The first one was normal rock-climbing, and the second one was more difficult where we had to climb poles with grips on them.

The second quarter was called Purpose. For that one we did an activity where in pairs we had to link arms and grab a ball each and run down a mat and put the ball in the hoop at the end. If we were caught unlinking arms, we had to restart. Some pairs restarted 5 times over.

Our third quarter, Connect, was an activity where we had to connect our partner through an easy course of objects. The aim was to connect with our partner and guide them through the course of objects, fostering collaboration.

Our fourth and final quarter was Energy, an activity where we did a relay race against other teams from our class. Our goal was to collect letters that were at the end of the distance that we had to run in the relay. In the end the letters spelt ‘Energy.’ We also learnt how to drain our energy as well as how to gain it back.

This was an amazing day that the year six cohort had at AFL max.

Brianna, Charli-Rose & Jordyn,
Year 6 Student Leaders

'Thriving People' Excursion

On Tuesday, week 9 we attended the Thriving People Event at Carclew Arts in North Adelaide. Thriving People is a CESA run event for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students across South Australia. The day provided culturally rich experiences through a variety of workshops including dance, wood carving , and song writing .

The students designed their own songs and got to record it in the Gig Rig, learnt about wood carvings, decorated a boomerang to take home, and were taught a dance which incorporated traditional indigenous dance with a contemporary hip-hop dance style.

Thank you to the students for making it a day to remember!

Northern Cluster Catholic Schools Footy Carnival

On Friday 28 June St Augustine’s boys’ and girls’ students from year 4,5, and 6 attended the Northern Cluster Catholic Schools Footy Carnival at Ridley Reserve, Elizabeth.

The students played 6 games over the day, which was physically and mentally challenging. The boys and girls conducted themselves well and showed great teamwork and sportsmanship throughout the day.

This was a valuable and memorable experience for these students. Thanks to Ms Sonneman, Ms Spiegel, Mr. Bo, Mr. Baker, Ms Ivancic, Ms Ricciuto, Mrs Lodge and Mr Boutros for your support in providing this opportunity for our students.

Dylan Baker & Bo Roper,
Health & PE Teachers

Wakakirri 2024

This year, the signature item for Wakakirri is 'Belonging'. We are honoured to be able to tell the story of Parisa (from SAPS) & her family, as they journeyed to Australia from Iran in 2010, in search of a better life and a sense of belonging. The title of our item is 'Belonging in Australia'.

Our Wakakirri Team have been working wonderfully this term to prepare our story-dance item and have received our team t.shirts.

We will be having our dress-rehearsal and performing to all classes at school on Wednesday the 7 August (Term 3, Week 3) and going to the Norwood Concert Hall to perform on Thursday the 8 August (Term 3, Week 3). Ticketing information has been provided to families of participating students. Please see Front Office Staff for more information.