24 November 2022

Dear Families and Friends of St Paul’s,

While the 2022 school year is rapidly ending there is still a great deal of activity occurring and many more essential tasks to be completed before we sign off for Christmas.

Over the last fortnight we have again been kept busy with the following:

• Year 6 Rites of passage celebration
• Year 10 retreat
• We welcomed all Catholic Education SA Principals, Deputy Principals and senior leaders for meetings and a dinner in our new MacKillop building
• Year 11 Final Year Liturgy, where we farewelled some students who are leaving to joining the workforce and challenged the returning students to step up into the position of college leaders for 2023.
• Transition day for all new students from Reception through to Year 7. This was a student free day for our Year 7 – 11 students, the Year 11’s preparing for their exams.
• Year 11 Exams this week.
• The final parents and friends meeting of the year where we farewelled and thanked two outstanding mothers who have committed many years of service to the college. Mrs Bec Verrall and Mrs Felicity Bylhower. We will thank them more formally at an upcoming school function but from a personal point of view and on behalf of the College I would like to sincerely thank and congratulate both ladies on what has been an outstanding level of commitment to our community. Their servant leadership and desire to see St Paul’s flourish, while supporting all families new and long term, has been nothing short of amazing. Thank you both so much.
• Extra transition visits for students with additional needs.
• Another successful College Tour
• And last but by no means our all-important year 12 Graduation Dinner.

This function is so important in the life of the College and symbolizes yet another Rite of Passage where our students attend their last official school function and well and truly become members of our old scholars fraternity. For many parents it symbolizes the completion of much sacrifice and commitment to both the students, the families, and the College. For some this has spread well over a decade and with a number of children. We thank them all for their contributions to the college and wish them all well in the future. Hopefully, we will catch up with many next year when they have the first of hopefully several reunions.

Staffing appointments

We have continued with our staffing processes for 2023. There is a lengthy list of staff movement and welcomes, given our continued growth and I will announce all of that in the last newsletter of the Term. But a recent appointment I would like to highlight this week is the announcement that our outstanding Head of Wellbeing in the Secondary Years, Mr Nick Callary, has been offered the opportunity to work at St Joseph’s College in Port Lincoln as Acting Deputy Principal for 2023. We congratulate Nick and wish him well for this new experience.

Hence, there is still much to do, still much happening and still very much to celebrate. Enjoy the last few weeks of the term.

Take care and God Bless

Paul Belton
Principal

Photo: Primary Years Precinct ground works have begun

Dear Families,

I know, I say it all the time, but it’s crazy how time is passing at such a rapid rate. In reflecting on this year, the one word that continues to come to mind is gratefulness. Our entire College community has so much to celebrate this term and this year as a whole. As we approach the end of the 2022 school year, we can reflect on so much growth and success for our Primary Years students and there have been so many memorable moments!

I am grateful that this week, many of our Primary Years students attended the SACPSSA Athletics Carnival and it was another great sporting success for participation and achievement.  They came away with 33 ribbons from 21 students!! A huge thank you to Mr Chad Wood and Mr Nick Gillard for their organisation and support which made the day run so smoothly. I believe a great experience was had by all.

I am also grateful for attending the Children’s University Graduation at Bonython Hall. Many of our Primary Years students, who participated in the co-curricular area, received certificates for their hours of hard work and commitment.

Gratefulness also abounds with the Year 6 Rite of passage last week. It was a beautiful celebration recognising our amazing Year 6 students completing their Primary schooling and and their transitioning into the next educational phase, Middle Years.

The next thing I am grateful for is our Reception Transition Days which have now concluded.  These were an important chance for our new children to gain a snapshot of school life at St Paul’s and for us to get to know them. They have had a wonderful time and we look forward to welcoming them formally next year. We also had our Year 1 – 6 Transition Morning last Friday, where the students, both new and old, met their teachers and engaged in fun activities whilst making new friends with their peers. 

Nearly there; I am grateful for the people here; students, staff and parents. I had the privilege of being told by a family on our school tour this week, who are considering enrolling here, that there is ‘something special’ about our College. I know that what creates this ‘special’ feeling is you all.

Lastly, I am grateful for your support of our Primary Years school community, in ensuring our children continue to follow Our Common Ground in making positive behavioural choices. We have some very special events planned over the next couple of weeks. As we head into these final weeks of the year, I hope we can all celebrate how special St Paul’s really is and enjoy this time together and finish 2022 on a positive and memorable note.

We truly are blessed in our community and these many blessings are enhanced by our values and connection. Each of us brings with us a story, every day. These stories show our humanness and impacts those we encounter. I love being here and the ‘why’ will always be the students and the importance of connection and relationships made each day with families. I thank you and feel extremely grateful to be here!

I wish you all a wonderful fortnight ahead and may good things come your way. Continue to look after yourselves as we head into the busy but fun last couple of weeks.

Until next fortnight.

Together We Grow!

Marianne Loftus
Head of Primary Years

Congratulations to Martin T (Year 10) who was selected as a State Finalist in the National History Challenge. Martin finished runner up in the 'Australia's Wartime Experiences' category for his video about the Kokoda Campaign in World War II and received the Young Historian Silver Award. Well done, Martin!

The year 10 students participated in a day where the focus was ‘going beyond your comfort zone’. The day commenced with a Liturgy reflecting on the possibilities available to students when they go beyond their comfort zone. Followed by a day going beyond their comfort zone as the boys tried rock climbing at Vertical Reality and completed various scenarios at school pushing students to extend their comfort zones.  

On the 4th of November, the Year 11 cohort consisting of Ms Hoffman and Mr Hrycek’s Mathematical Methods classes and Mr Elliot’s Physics class attended the Ingenuity Exhibition hosted by the University of Adelaide at the Convention Centre. The purpose of this excursion was to develop an understanding of the different possible future pathways available in the STEM field and obtain a perspective from current university students’ field of study and their experiences. University students had their collaborative projects on display, ranging across 6 different main categories within the STEM field, of which students were able to view and ask questions about with the creators.

There were many valuable lessons to be learned from this excursion, and a lot of information to consider in relation to future pathways, along with developing an understanding of the university experience. St Paul’s students found a stall they found interesting, asked the university students questions about the stall, and obtained relative information about their research topic. For example, William, Luke, Jesse, and Liam found interest in the energy, mining, and resources stall describing land movement, sustainable mining, and the use of technology rather than human labour in this industry.

Overall, the excursion to Adelaide Ingenuity was a positive learning experience, posing many opportunities to learn something new and understand what our future in the STEM industry will hold.

Written by William M

We congratulate Mr Troy Kingham who was nominated by his SPC PE Colleagues and successfully shortlisted as a finalist for the ACHPE SA PE Teacher of the Year Award. Mr Kingham was named runner-up and was recognized for his exemplary work in the HPE curriculum, wellbeing, co-curricular and personal and professional commitment. Congratulations Mr Kingham. Well deserved!

Students in year 4-6 went down to Salisbury Athletics Centre to compete against other Catholics Schools in SA. We had a brilliant day and some incredible results. We finished the day with the following placings: 

1st place – 9
2nd place – 8
3rd place – 7
4th place – 8 

That is a total of 32 placings out of 54 events which is phenomenal. Some individual mentions go to the following students: 

Jonathan – Long Jump 3rd, 100m 1st, 200m 1st and Relay 1st.

Venesa – 100m 4th, 800m 4th, 400m 3rd, 200m 3rd and High Jump 1st.

David – 100m 1st, 200m 2nd, Long Jump 2nd and High Jump 3rd.

Giordana – 100m 3rd, Long Jump 4th, 200m 4th.

Daniel – 100m 1st, 200m 1st and Relay 1st.

To round off a great day the year 6 boys won the age group pennant. 

Congratulations to all involved.  

As I mentioned in previous communication on 9 November, over 30 of our Primary students graduated from Children’s University in 2022. This number more than doubled from our 2021 graduates. Well done, St Paul’s! Children’s University is an innovative program that engages children and young people in exciting, out-of-school learning opportunities to increase their chances for educational achievement and rewards them for taking responsibility for their learning.

Students from Reception to Year 8 participated in activities and learning outside school hours over the last few terms. The University of Adelaide formally recognised them in a graduation ceremony held at Bonython Hall. We celebrated the evening with over 300 other students from around Adelaide.

I strongly encourage more families to participate in the event next year. 

Jake Stewart
Head of Wellbeing

During week 5, primary students took part in activities at recess and lunch to consolidate their learning from PE and to celebrate PE week!

R-3 students took part in a circuit composed of 4 games/activities. This was very popular with the little ones; it was awesome to see students in year 3 mentoring and supporting the younger students. This encapsulated what PE week is all about!

4-6 students participated in a lunch time basketball tournament to finish up our basketball unit in PE. All students played fairly and demonstrated respect and sportsmanship towards their peers and the umpires. A special mention to the orange team on the day who finished with 3 wins and 0 losses (Kobe Z, Kobi W, Luca F, Seb G, Kodey O and Hayden B).

Mr Chad Wood

• Monday 5th to Friday 9th December 9am to 4pm
• Monday 12th December 9am to 4pm
• Tuesday 13th December 9am to 3pm

• Monday 16th to Friday 20th January 9am to 4pm
• Monday 23rd to Friday 27th January 9am to 4pm

Despite the result, students had a great morning watching the Socceroos first World Cup game!
We had 65 keen students here at 5.30am to watch the game and share some pancakes, before finishing off the morning with an indoor soccer tournament.

Mr Nick Gillard