Newsletter No.8 - Term 3, Week 6
Principal & Deputy Principal Message
Dear Families,
On Wednesday our school and parish community celebrated St Augustine's Feast Day. In his homily, Fr Shibu spoke to us about the Greek word from the New Testament, "agape" which refers to the love God has for us which is selfless and persists regardless of circumstances or actions. This love extends to the love we share for our fellow human beings and is evident amongst the interactions witnessed daily between our staff, students, families and the wider school community.
At St Augustine's School we encourage our children to be collaborative learners. This occurs when two or more people use one another's resources and skills to work together to solve problems, complete tasks, or learn new concepts. Across our school children have been actively engaged in this process with a focus on being a collaborative learner. A collaborative scavenger hunt was set up for RDR and 6ZB, storybooks and slime were made collaboratively by 4CE and RAS and all children in Year 4-6 worked collaboratively on activities to share for the St Augustine's Fun Fair.
A reminder that our annual sports day will be held off site this year on Thursday 12 September 2024 (Week 8) at Bridgestone Athletics Centre, Frost Road, Salisbury. All students will need to be transported by families and can be dropped off from 8.30am at the venue. The day will finish at 2.00pm and they will need to be collected from the same centre. Please note that school will be closed on this day and there is no OSHC available. We hope to see many of you there.
Dan Cowan, Principal & Michelle Thomas, Deputy Principal
Catholic Identity Updates
The Feast of St Augustine
On Wednesday 28 August our school community celebrated our school Feast Day. Fr Shibu was our celebrant. We are grateful that Fr Shibu is always generously available to celebrate Mass with us.
We also had a ‘visit’ from St Augustine and his mother, St Monica.
Two of our Year 4 children, Vincent and Kalyani, were wonderful as St Augustine and St Monica, and they reminded the children about being collaborative, like a bee.
A special thanks goes to the Year 4MB class for leading the singing as our choir.
After recess, the children all took part in our annual Fun Fair, where they played interactive and challenging games. All in all, it was a wonderful day!
Words from St Augustine:
- What does love look like? It has the hands to help others. It has feet to hurry to the poor and those in need. It has eyes to see misery and poverty. It has ears to hear, to sighs and sorrows of people. This is what love looks like.
- God loves each of us as if there were only one of us.
Here at our school, we try to be the heart and presence of St Augustine of Hippo. His words touch us and shape our work with our community.
Spirituality Day: Friday 13 September
On Friday 13 September, we will have our annual staff Spirituality Day. It is a pupil free day.
Our focus will be about re-discovering and re-claiming our Dominican spirituality at St Augustine’s. We were founded in 1955 by the Dominican Sisters nearly 70 years ago as a small school and the first Principal was Sr Mary Augustine (Anne Howard). We look forward to sharing with you how our Dominican identity will flourish in the future.
PRAYER:
Dear St Monica, mother of St Augustine, we bring before you all of our story as people responsible for children. Help them become the greatest version of themselves as they grow. Help them create great memories of childhood. Help them to glow as God’s masterpiece of creation. For as you cared for your own son, Augustine, help us to grow our own potential saints in our children. Amen.
Dr Rachele Tullio,
Assistant Principal Religious Identity and Mission
Jam Band 2024
Reception to Year 3 students were treated to an incursion on the 26 July by Jam Band (a rock-style band who perform a range of musical genres).
Term 2 Performing Arts/Music lessons were centred around learning a repertoire of songs and musical elements such as beat and rhythm, that were then ‘brought to life’ by Jam Band.
Some Year 1, 2 & 3 students were selected for special roles throughout the performance. The Year 6 Arts Captains (Shabi, Rabinson, Emily & Agnes) also had a starring role and supported with organisation. Many thanks Arts Captains!
A fantastic time was had by all!
Paula Giugliano & Kendall Vivian
Performing Arts Teachers
Wakakirri 2024
We are so proud of our 2024 Wakakirri Team, who performed live on stage at the Norwood Concert Hall on the 8 of August.
The students were professional and absolutely shone as they told our story through dance & drama.
We chose to tell the story of a family who are very important to our school community. Parisa (the mother of the family who our story is based upon) has a daughter (Homa) who attends St Augustine’s, and was in our Wakakirri performance.
Parisa and her family migrated to Australia in 2010, to escape the war in Iran. They were squashed on a fishing boat with no room to sleep and very little food, forced to live on cans of tuna for most of their journey.
Parisa’s story is a powerful one, reminding us how precious life is and how much we can and do take for granted. The simple things in life like feeling safe at night, a comfy bed to sleep and food to feed our family. Parisa’s story reminds us to live our lives through gratitude and appreciate the freedom, boundless opportunities, and sense of belonging that we have in Australia.
Parisa now works at St Augustine’s Parish School in our Community Hub, working closely with and supporting migrant families.
We are so grateful to Parisa and her family for allowing us to share their story in a creative way. We would also like to thank everyone who supported our Wakakirri Team in any way, big or small throughout our Wakakirri journey.
Awards that we won on the night include:
- Story Telling Award for great use of drama
- Ensemble Award for dancing and acting
- Production Award for overall staging
- Lead Cast Award for performance in dancing and acting
Congratulations All!
Paula Giugliano
Performing Arts Teacher
SAPSASA Boys & Girls Soccer Carnival
On Friday 23 August, 38 students from Year 5 & 6 represented St Augustine’s Parish School at the Para District SAPSASA Soccer Carnival.
Despite the windy conditions, our students demonstrated incredible skills, resilience, and teamwork. After playing 5 games on the day, two out of the three teams we took finished the day unbeaten. This meant we took out first place in Boys’ Divisions A & B and Girls’ Division A!
This is a remarkable achievement, and it’s been one of our most successful carnivals! We would like to extend a big thank you to Miss Scalzi and Mr Boutros, this would not have been possible without their support and hard work.
Congratulations to everyone who contributed to this success!
Bo Roper & Dylan Barker,
Health & PE Teachers.
District SAPSASA Soccer Carnival
Congratulations to Summer N, Cahlia S & Adyah M who were successfully selected for the Para District SAPSASA Soccer Team. These students proudly represented St Augustine’s Parish School at the State SAPSASA Soccer Carnival last week.
The students participated in a 3-day carnival competing against other districts, playing against some of the best players across the state for their age group.
Well done to these students on this fantastic achievement!
Bo Roper & Dylan Baker,
Health & PE Teachers
Book Week Parade 2024
Reading is Magic!
Canteen
HELP REQUIRED
If you are available to volunteer in the canteen, your help would be greatly appreciated.
Please contact us on 8182 7900
Uniform Shop
The school uniform can only be purchased from Belgravia Apparel which is located at:
Shop 16 Craigmore Village
170-190 Yorktown Road
CRAIGMORE
Phone: 0499 652 059
Opening times are:
- Monday: 8.30am – 12.30pm
- Wednesday: 1.00pm – 5.30pm
- Friday: 8.30am – 12.30pm
Uniform fittings are by appointment only.
Collections of online orders are available only when the shop is open (see above times).
Please book an appointment or place an online order using the following link:
Diary Dates - Term 3
Week 8
Sport's Day: Thursday 12 September
Pupil Free Day: Friday 13 September
Week 9
Northern Cluster T-Ball Carnival, Year 4 & 5: Friday 20 September
Week 10
Choir Performance (Festival Theatre): Wednesday 25 September
Last Day of TERM 3 - 12.30pm finish: Friday 27 September