16 September 2022

Dear Friends of St Paul’s,

We are in week eight of term three already and the year is flying by. As always, the College is full of vitality, energy and experiencing wonderful celebrations. The highlight for us over the last week or so was the Reception Rite of Welcome Celebration that we held this week on Monday afternoon. Over the last few years, St Paul’s has been continuing to develop an overall “Rites of Passage” programme that begins with this Reception Rite of Welcome and ends with our Year 12’s graduation celebrations (which are not far away now.) These celebrations are a significant part of our acknowledgement that students go through several stages in their lives, while here with us, and that we need to celebrate those, acknowledge their importance, and use them to continue both our holistic approach to education as well as strengthening our three-way partnership with students, families and staff.

The Reception Rite of Welcome is both a beautiful liturgy with prayers and readings as well as a symbolic presentation to the students of an incredibly special plant. This year we presented each student and their family representatives with a raspberry plant and hope that they will plant, care for, and nurture this plant throughout their 13-year journey with us, as we will for them. A special thanks must go to Ms Kristynn Ross (Primary Years Religious Identity leader) and our three reception teachers, Ms Victoria Romeo, Ms Amy Barone, and Ms Ashley Bell as well as all Primary staff for their wonderful care of the students.

We will write more of the other Rites of passage as they are celebrated but we have them for our Yr. 3’s, Yr.6’s as they move out of the Primary Years, Yr. 9’s as they move out of the Middle Years and as mentioned in Yr. 12 for Graduation. Each of these has an incredibly significant message for the students, families and of course the staff. It is a blessing to be able to do these from our catholic perspective as well, which highlights the fact that each one of us is made in the image of God, and that is worth celebrating!

2023 – Planning and Preparation

While still in term three of the year we are quite feverishly preparing for 2023. It is the time of the year when we prepare budgets, advertise for staff, and followed all those procedures to make sure we employ the absolute best teachers and support staff we can, to assist us and join us in this amazing vocation we share.

We will share more news about staffing over the coming weeks. It continues to be exciting times at the College

Take care,

God Bless
Paul Belton

Dear Families,

The age-old African proverb states, “It takes a village to raise a child.” The Rite of Passage celebrations at St Paul’s have been developed to provide our students and families with a memorable, rewarding process to support them throughout their school life. Set within our school curriculum, the ‘village’ brings children and families together to celebrate their journey from child to adult.

On Monday night we celebrated with our Reception families, their child’s Rite of Passage and welcome into our community with a beautiful Liturgy led by Fr Mathew. Each child received a Raspberry plant as a symbol of nurturing.  We work together to nurture each child in helping them to grow into being the best version of themselves. Thank you to Kristynn Ross and the team around her, for organising such a wonderful event.

St Paul’s values and celebrates strong, positive connections with parents and families and one way to do this is by becoming a volunteer. Classroom support, excursions, special events and sport activities are all ways we rely on the goodwill, expertise and care of our volunteers.  Parent and community participation can contribute to the life of our college in many positive ways. Now, as our college can open up more and more activities requiring parent volunteers, we would value your commitment in this area.  To become a volunteer, please contact Cindy Talladira, our Risk and Compliance Officer: ctalladira@stpauls.sa.edu.au

One of the four Touchstones of Edmund Rice Education Australia, Liberating Education states that “we open hearts and minds, through quality teaching and learning experiences, so that through critical reflection and engagement, each person is hope-filled and free to build a better world for all.” One of our goals in the Primary Years Team is to develop a culture of our staff learning together to best meet the needs of the students in our care, enabling them to be the best version of themselves. 

Students are at the heart of all we do and a focus at our staff meetings is to develop a deep understanding of how students learn best and how we can meet their learning needs.   Excellent teaching is dependent upon building positive relationships with colleagues, students and their parents and caregivers, and our wider community. Our aim is to develop collaborative approaches where we work smarter together and we look forward to sharing our ongoing learning with you.

As always, I thank you for your constant support and commitment to your children's education. Your involvement makes a huge difference to their success. Remember, together we can achieve great things!

Until next fortnight.

Together We Grow!

Marianne Loftus
Head of Primary Years

On Wednesday 7th September I was very fortunate to accompany our middle years girls at the Female Achilles Cup, despite us all being saturated for most of the day ….

Our girls were super nervous, but it was great to see them get out of their comfort zone against the other Catholic schools.

Some of the many highlights included Eva C 1st in Discus and Angelina L 2nd in Shot Put.

The girls are super keen to return next year with greater numbers and even more success! 

Nick Callary
Head of Wellbeing (Years 7-12)

Last week St Paul’s focused on R U OK Day. This harm prevention charity encourages people to stay connected and have conversations that can help others through difficult times in their lives. The resources provided will allow us as educators to continue to focus on building the motivation, confidence, and skills to talk to our staff and students in an appropriate way.

R U OK? Encourages people to invest more time in their personal relationships and build the capacity of informal support networks, friends, family and colleagues. It helps us to be alert to those around us, have a conversation if we identify signs of distress or difficulty and connect someone to appropriate support.

National Child Protection Week (NCPW) runs from Sunday, 4 September to Saturday, 10 September. The theme is ‘Every child, in every community, needs a fair go’. Every family and community must access the support services they need so their children can grow up safe and supported.  St Paul’s College has used NCPW as a great time to start conversations with students and families about feeling safe. We believe our students are safest when they are listened to, respected, and acknowledged.

As part of our contribution to the week, students in the Primary Years added to the national online pledge, participating in online workshops through the safety commissioner and sharing with the college how their voices are heard at St Paul’s. They have investigated personal safety strategies, The Rights of the Child and how they have a right to speak. Finally, students involved themselves in a deep listening activity centred around Aboriginal culture and history.

WHAT PART CAN YOU PLAY?

We can all play a part by creating stronger, happier neighbourhoods. This can be achieved by talking to your neighbours, checking in with friends, being a good role model, supporting and being kind to parents rather than judging or being competitive, offering to assist where possible and speaking up if you see something that is unsafe.

It is important that we listen to, and value, what children have to say. Where possible, include their voices in decision making and be advocates for their best interest. 

By speaking regularly to children about their personal safety and how they can protect themselves, as well as “tuning into” their worries, children are more likely to trust us and feel comfortable to talk to us when something big is going on.

Make your influence positive; start a conversation today with your colleagues and families about listening to and valuing the voice of children and young people.

CLICK HERE FOR FURTHER INFORMATION

Thanks to the support of Kickstart for Kids, St Paul's College is running a "Breakfast Club" every Tuesday from 8.00am - 8.30am - come and join us for breakfast.

As you are likely aware, there will be a Public Holiday onThursday 22 September. Please note both the school and OSHC will be closed on this day.

Young Endeavour Youth Scheme is pleased to announce that applications for youth development voyages in STS Young Endeavour from January – June 2023 are now open.

Since 1988, more than 14,000 young Australians aged 16-23 have joined national sail training ship Young Endeavour on a life-changing voyage.

The program is delivered by the professional Royal Australian Navy staff crew who ensure that the highest standards of safety are maintained. During the voyage the staff crew encourage youth to pursue personal and team goals and challenges. By the end of each voyage, the youth crew have developed the skills, knowledge, and confidence to elect a leadership team to take command of the ship over a 24-hour period.

Voyage fees and conditions will apply to successful applicants. A limited number of financially assisted berths are available for eligible youth.

Applications can be made online now