12 August 2021

From the Deputy Principal

Term 3 Update!

With the term underway and the winter months diminishing, our community moves towards the latter parts of the school year with increasing excitement on many fronts:

Co-Education Preparations

Now finalizing enrolments for 2022 (and while 2023 enrolments also near completion), our College is preparing more information for our community about the co-education specifics next year. Such specifics include the 2022 College Uniform Policy, total student numbers, and the ratio of boys and girls.

Staff continue Professional Development with Dr Michael Nagle (www.michaelnagel.com.au) and our student voice informs our finishing touches to extensive work done to prepare for our College’s new journey from 2022.

Building Works

As you will have noticed from our College’s social media, the construction throughout the College is rapidly developing. While this development has been mostly at ground level (or below), students and staff have enjoyed the fascination of building works in our main courtyard, Resource Centre and our Sports and Senior Centre.

From junior primary students sketching the enormous earthworks, to the intrigue of Middle Years students constantly querying the progress of the facilities they will use throughout their remaining years, the process of construction has itself generated fascination and learning experiences.

In coming months, above-groundworks will take shape with great speed, ahead of our Courtyard and Resource completion later this year and the opening of our major Sports and Senior Centre early in 2022.

Career and Subject Counselling

An integral component of a student’s journey through schooling, particularly senior years 10-12, all secondary students are currently captivated by rigorous subject and career counselling. Who we are as a person, who we aspire to be, our strengths and our passions, combine in equal measure to inform these counselling processes.

Furthermore, our College embraces our responsibility to manage natural apprehensions about committing to a vocation in teenage years, alongside the need for a young person to experience learning most suited to most suitable pathways. Especially on this front, the involvement of families is crucial.

In coming weeks, we thank our staff for their tireless support of students in this crucial aspect of their work and encourage families to engage with staff as much as possible to help our young people in these processes.

As a reminder:

St Paul’s College VET and Careers Coordinator is Ms Jo-Anne Williams: jwilliams@stpauls.sa.edu.au
St Paul’s College Careers Website: https://www.stpaulscollegecareers.com.au/

College Musical

An array of experiences are demanded by our commitment to help young people realise excellence for them. Our College Musical again provides a valuable experience in 2021, with ‘In Your Dreams’ over three matinée and three evening performances.

Students and staff have exemplified effort and hard work with their preparations and are commended for their opening night success on Wednesday 11 August in front of a capacity audience. We encourage them to ‘Break a Leg’ in coming nights!

Mr Josh Foulis
Deputy Principal

From the APRIM

Last Sunday was the Feast of Mary MacKillop, Australia’s first Saint. An amazing woman who did a great deal for education in Australia. I’m sure Mary MacKillop and Edmund Rice would have been able to share many a conversation about the importance of educating those who otherwise would not be granted this opportunity. In listening to my priest speak during the homily I was struck by the first thing he said about St Mary, that she lived her life consistently holy in all she did. He went on to clarify how this is actually one of the challenges of today – this consistency. That we need to maintain our faith and desire to be holy in all facets of our lives, not just in some. A challenge indeed, and one to which we certainly can draw inspiration from the example of Mary MacKillop.

We hail Mary as Australia’s first Saint and hope that we will name others. Interestingly enough in this great land it was a woman unafraid of rising to the challenge and standing her ground with grace and dignity that is first acknowledged in this way. Fingers crossed many of our young people will be affirmed in their convictions and strive for faith and honour.

This week we walk towards one of the most important celebrations in the Church – The Assumption of Mary. In morning Homegroup classes have engaged in prayer focused on Mary. This is the only feast in Australia that is a holy day of obligation outside of Christmas, which surely reinforces how significant it is. The amazing mystery of Mary and her goodness is so inspirational and confounding at the same time. How fortunate are we to have Mary as the Mother of the Church and the Queen of Heaven! Mary has much significance to us as Catholics and it is her beautiful yes to God, so absolute and without condition, that is something aspirational, how many times do we say ‘yes, but…’ or ‘yes in a little while …’? Do we need to seize the moment a little more confidently and act with determination to be the people we are truly called to be?

In the religious dimension of the school we have a few events coming up. Next week we have our Years 5 and 6 Retreat with a focus on sustainability and the environment. This is promptly followed by our Year 6 Mother and Son Dinner. This Rite of Passage has become a wonderful part of the fabric of our identity and we look forward to our Year 6s spoiling their mums on this night.

Angela Collins
APRIM

Primary School News

Staffing ‘Baby’ News

It is with much excitement and anticipation that our Reception teacher, Mrs Elise Theodoulou and her husband await the birth of their first child in the coming weeks. Elise has soldiered on bravely and will begin her maternity leave at the end of Week 5. We wish Elise all the very best and look forward to seeing ‘Baby T’ very soon.

More Staffing news

This term, we have welcomed two new staff members to our amazing Primary Team.

Ms Olivia Andrew has joined our ESO Team and will continue to support the primary students and staff for the remainder of 2021. Olivia is currently completing her teaching degree and has been an incredible asset to our primary school already.
Mrs Grazia Lustri has also joined us as our new Italian teacher. Grazia has worked at St Paul’s in Term 1; teaching Italian in the Middle School and has now found her calling working in the Primary space – Welcome Grazia!

Thank you!

I want to recognise and thank our College Captain and Vice-Captain for their efforts in making a ‘post-lock-down’ video specifically for our Primary students. Caleb Rodgers and Ethan Sampson saw an opportunity to thank the primary students for their efforts during lock-down and help them realise all the positives that come from being a St Paul’s student. They took time out of their busy Year 12 schedule to film, edit and publish this video – Well Done!

Year 6 Mother Son Dinner

As our young men grow ready for the adventure of middle school, we pause to celebrate the joyous and nurturing bond between a mother (or mother figure) and a son. These special women and the bond they share, which has sustained him to this point in his life journey needs to be acknowledged. At an evening meal, prepared by our Year 6 students, under the direction and assistance of staff, we acknowledge and thank the women who have been so vital in the growth of these young men.

We celebrate all that a mother (or motherly influence) brings to a child's development and mark that we move into a stage of growing independence. At the dinner, our boys offer reflections of gratitude to their mothers or mother figures. They will celebrate how they have grown in kindness and understanding over the past few years and reflect on how these qualities will support them into the future.

Next Thursday evening, we look forward in celebrating with all Year 6 students and the wonderful women who have helped them become the young men they are today.

Uniforms

I write to you regarding our uniform expectations at St Paul’s College. I have appreciated your support so far this year and would ask that you continue to work with your son to ensure that he continues to wear the correct uniform for the remainder of the year. Uniforms show that we are part of a community. Wearing it says we’re all in this together!

Several uniform issues have emerged this term, including a prevalence of wearing casual socks with the PE and Winter uniforms. Additionally, I am noticing many students wearing brightly coloured t-shirts under the college uniform. I am happy for students to wear singlets or black/white short sleeve tops under uniforms if they are cold; however, these additional shirts should not be seen underneath the correct college uniform.

Once again, we will follow our regular protocols where students have difficulty complying with the stated uniform and grooming expectations. These guidelines are accessible online from the St Paul’s website. Where students are not in the correct uniform, families will be informed, detailing what needs to be resolved and an agreed date that we expect the matter to be resolved by. Where this does not occur, students will be on restricted play until the issue is resolved.

2022 Class Structures

In the coming weeks, the Primary staff and leadership will begin organising class structures for 2022. This is a significant undertaking that we address thoughtfully and thoroughly. While I can appreciate that many parents wish to have input into their child’s placement for 2022, I am firm in asking that you please refrain from doing so unless there is compelling information you feel we should know.

If you wish to provide information for me to consider around classroom placements for next year, please write to me directly (jstewart@stpauls.sa.edu.au) before Friday 20 August. Instead of requesting a particular teacher, I ask that you describe your child’s needs to succeed, both socially and academically. I will read your responses and make notes about your child. This saves you from having to schedule an individual conference with me or class teachers.

I will work closely with our staff to consider the placement; however, teacher judgement and analysis of every student's social, academic, and well-being needs must be considered in the process.

The creation of well-organised classes is a critical piece of our overall school planning. Our goal is to establish supportive, productive classes where all students can be successful and thrive.

Mr Jake Stewart
Acting Head of Primary

Andy Thomas Space Foundation Mentor Visit

Professor Jenny Mortimer, a plant scientist from the Waite Institute, Nicola Sasanelli, CEO of Andy Thomas Space Foundation, and Imogen, our Challenge Liaison, visited the Year 7 classes Wednesday morning.

Kovid, James, Liam and Kavisha had this to report about the visit:

"It was amazing and I learned so much. She provided her email address so we can ask questions about our project and find out more about plants and space. Professor Jenny became a botanist because of a TV show she watched and liked to look at the weird plants like the Welwitschia mirablis, the bristlecone pine which can grow for 2,000 years, Wolffia arrhiza, duckweed and the very smelly Corpse Plant, which has a giant flower that smells like rotting meat because it is fertilised by blow flies.

She showed us a photo of Zinnias in space taken by Commander Scott Kelly. He took lots of photos in space and they looked really cool and has now liked growing plants in space which is a very challenging thing to do.

It is a challenge to grow plants in space, the plants will need light and there is no sunlight in space, so they use a mixture of LED lights, the main colours they use is blue and red, different colours of the light make the plants grow in different ways.

Another challenge is deciding what plants to grow in space. We could grow many different plants in space but they need to be hardy and small. So far the best plant to grow is The Red Robin tomato because it is healthy, short, fast growing and low waste. Mrs O’Malley explained we will soon be joining the ‘Grow Beyond Earth’ program and we will be working with students around the world to help NASA chose which plants will be the best to grow in space. We will grow plants in a ‘Veggie Unit’ like they use on the International Space Station and our data will go to NASA.

Professor Jenny is experimenting with duck weed in her lab and we were surprised that it could be used as a food. It could be a good crop for space because you can eat the whole plant and it will double every 48hours. One of her friends in another university is experimenting with growing duckweed in flavoured water and has created bacon flavoured duckweed!

Andy Thomas is the only person from Adelaide that has been to space. He studied mechanical engineering at the University of Adelaide, then went on to complete his PhD at the University of SA. Then he went to the USA to study and he became an Astronaut.

Sending someone to space requires a lot of background work and a team of thousands of people. There are many professions involved and it requires a team effort. Imogen, from the Andy Thomas Foundation showed us a list of jobs that are involved in the Space Industry and it included engineering, medical personnel, transport, marketing and scientists, as well as many more.

Our goal is to research space technology and use it to solve daily problems on Earth, and also look at plants and experiments in space. We are going to look at the '17 Sustainability Goals' by the UN and use our research to help improve life on Earth. For this project we will be working with a school in Mangaran, a remote island in Northern Sulawesi. We are going to help them by developing a Hydroponic system made from recycled materials that they can use to grow crops in a small area, create a product to sell and lead to a better life.

As we are learning about how to grow plants in space and Mangaran, we learnt about how different light can affect different types of plants and that there should be no waste because 1kg to take up to space costs $25,000. A good plant would be duck weed because you can eat the whole thing and will double in 48 hours."

Sue O'Malley
Leader of Learning – Middle Years STEM