8 March 2024

From the Principal

Newsletter Week 6 Term 1 2024.

Dear Friends and Families of St Paul’s,

It is Week 6 of Term 1, we are in March and yet we seem to be having the summer heat we normally have in the first two weeks of the school year! When this coincides with the normal building academic pressures of this reporting period, it makes life interesting.

Nevertheless, the College continues to provide a plethora of celebrations and activities to give each student the opportunity to shine.

Sports Days

Last Thursday and Friday we held the two annual College Sports Days. These magnificent community celebration days are a wonderful opportunity for students to show their outstanding abilities and for everyone to become involved and contribute to the overall accumulation of points for their Houses. A full report is provided in the newsletter and on our Facebook pages, but it is my absolute pleasure to sincerely thank and congratulate the key personnel involved in what is quite literally a mountain of work. Mr Nick Gillard our Co-curricular Coordinator, his newly appointed 2-I-C Mr Marcu Deluca and Mr Chad Wood (Primary PE teacher) need our sincere thanks and congratulations for producing what were outstanding events. They are amazingly successful on many levels but for me personally their greatest success is in the continued growth in community building, involvement, and celebration.

Parents and Friends Support

While congratulating staff in relation to these days I must also thank and congratulate the work done by Ms Claire Di Carlo and Ms Natalie Davey for their amazing work on sports days in providing tremendous support for the College and the students at the food stalls. Both ladies gave up workdays to come and support the College and their efforts were and are enormously appreciated by us all.

New Staff Member

I would like to introduce you to a new member of our staff, Ms Claudio Lamberto. Claudio is our Community Support Officer and while she has only been with us a short while she has already made a significant impact. Claudio’s role is to support our Catholic Identity Team particularly in helping members of our community with any specific needs that they may have. Claudio has provided students and families with necessities and has also joined with students in promoting International Women’s Day and cooked a BBQ for staff and students. If anyone in our community needs our support or knows of individuals or families who likewise need us, then please feel free to reach out to Claudia and she will be more than will offer some assistance on our behalf.

Yr 8 and Yr 4 Camps

This week we held our annual Year 4 and Year 8 camps. The year 8’s ventured, in two separate groups to Hindmarsh Island and the Year 4’s ventured to AFL Max at West beach.

Both events have been extremely successful and so well received by students and families alike. They are such an important part of all students’ education and provide the opportunity to develop both deep personal skills and very much needed resilience skills. I thank the staff who give up the time away from families and friends to make these events so successful.

Personal leave

On Thursday afternoon all the families received correspondence from the CEO of EREA College Ltd, Mr Chris Wooley, as well as from myself explaining arrangements regarding the Principal and Deputy Principal positions for Terms 2 and 3 of this year. As a part of this announcement, I would like to congratulate Mr Josh Foulis, our extremely diligent Deputy Principal who will step up in my absence and add our community’s welcome to Mr Frank Renaldo who will join us as Acting Deputy during that time. Frank is an extremely experienced Deputy from our fellow Edmund Rice College, Rostrevor, and I’m sure you will all welcome him into this amazing friendly and welcoming St Paul’s community.

Take care over the upcoming long and hot weekend.

God Bless

Paul Belton

From the Secondary Years

Secondary Sports Day 2024

On Friday, March 1, the College held its annual Secondary Sports Day, which was once again a terrific success. The school oval was awash with colour as staff, students and families embraced their House spirit in support of their House, with record levels of participation and involvement in events across Years 7 to 12.

Students are to be commended for how they conducted themselves throughout the day, whether it be through participation, cheering on their peers, or general behaviour and conduct. A big thank you to all parents and families who also came out to cheer on their sons and daughters throughout the day, which is a testament to our collaborative sense of school community and support.

Tremendous thanks to everyone who was involved in putting on such a terrific event, including our Maintenance Team, Parents and Friends Committee, all staff, and students, and in particular, our Sports and Co-Curricular Development Coordinator, Mr Nick Gillard, and his Assistant, Mr Marcus De Luca.

NAPLAN Testing

In Weeks 7 and 8, our Year 7 and 9 students will be participating in NAPLAN testing. Such data assists the school in determining the effectiveness of our current Literacy and Numeracy programs, areas for improvement, and where further interventions may be needed to further support our students to improve learning outcomes. Students are required to ensure their laptops are fully charged, bring their chargers with them to testing, and complete any software updates the night before testing.

International Women’s Day

International Women’s Day (March 8) is a global day celebrating the social, economic, cultural, and political achievements of women, while also shedding light on issues such as gender equality, reproductive rights, and violence and abuse against women.

This year's theme is #InspireInclusion providing an opportunity to share appreciation and gratitude for the important women in our lives. This is a particularly important message and theme for the St Paul’s community as we continue our transition to co-education.

As part of International Women’s Day, staff and students have been participating in various activities and fundraising events throughout the week. This has included a range of student activities during Pastoral Care to express gratitude and appreciation for important women in students’ lives, and a BBQ sausage sizzle, with all proceeds going towards the Community Engagement Program from the Edmund Rice Foundation, which works with three rural communities in Zambia to ensure women and children live free of gender-based violence and its traumatic effects.

A special thank you to your Community Support Officer, Miss Claudia Lamberto, for all her work in organising these activities throughout the week, and to all students and staff for their engagement in supporting such an important event.

After-School Support Services

A reminder to students and families of the following after-school support services. Please note a minor change to start and finish times:

Support Service	Venue	Time
Homework Club	Resource Centre	3:20pm - 4:20pm
Work Completion	Resource Centre	3:20pm - 4:20pm
Wednesday Reflection (formerly Community Service)	T101	3:20pm - 4:20pm

From the Primary Years

Dear Families,

St Paul’s College has a strong professional learning community of teachers who work in a collaborative culture of high expectations. Our teachers engage in weekly professional learning outside of their teaching workload, that is pivotal to our continued growth as a Primary Years and as a profession. At times our staff attend professional learning opportunities to build their capacity in an area they may be leading within the college, or a focus that supports our college’s strategic directions. This may occur during the school day. At all times, school teaching and learning programs continue with the teacher that we have employed for the day.

Mrs Samantha Hankes, our Head of Wellbeing, recently took our Year 6 student ambassadors to the Halogen leadership conference, a fabulous opportunity for them to connect, be inspired and see the endless possibilities of what they can achieve.

A reminder that NAPLAN commences next week, for students in Years 3 and 5. This is one set of tests at one point of time. We encourage our students to do their best. As parents, if you can ensure they are at school with plenty of time, have had good quality sleep and the equipment they need (fully charged device) then this helps so much with them feeling prepared for the days. You know your child best so consider the positive conversations you can have at home that will support them.

If you have any questions about NAPLAN or other Teaching and Learning queries in our Primary Years, please feel welcome to contact Nadia Morris, our Leader of Teaching and Learning nmorris@stpauls.sa.edu.au and she will be more than happy to speak or meet with you.

As a college, we teach students about the appropriate use of their devices, and parents sign a contract supporting our college to monitor the proper use of devices and home monitoring.

To support the children in our care, St Paul’s College:

Educates students of the dangers of inappropriate use of the internet
Monitors the use of any form of ICT in normal school hours and the use of the school email system at all times, and will deal with anything deemed inappropriate
Refers anything that we believe could be defined as, or could potentially lead to a Child Protection issue, to the appropriate external agencies
Supports parents with advice on how to tackle inappropriate use either by their own child or others

Just like their interactions in person, online interactions require supervision and support from families. What is deemed appropriate, will vary from family to family but the strategies we expect of families include:

Closely monitoring your child’s use of devices for the apps that are downloaded
Enacting parental controls with your internet access at home
Reviewing the messages they send on platforms and apps – making monitoring part of a daily or weekly routine
Setting expectations about which space, preferably communal and not in bedrooms, and also the times they have access to devices
Encouraging them to share or discuss with you what they are doing

We take these matters very seriously and by working together, I trust that we can keep our students safe and protected.

Until next fortnight, take care.

Marianne Loftus - Head of Primary Years

06.04.24

St Paul’s College Announces 36ers High Performance Basketball Program

Mr Paul Belton, Principal is proud to announce St Paul's College is an official partner of the Adelaide 36ers and is an official High Performance Academy school.

“Basketball is an extremely popular sport at St Paul’s College. Through access to the 36ers club’s resources and knowledge throughout the year, this partnership will deliver outstanding opportunities to our students to develop in the sport.” Mr Belton said

The College will benefit from exclusive access to coaches, training sessions, coach education, leadership engagements, match day experiences and clinics.

Mr Paul Belton, Principal is proud to announce St Paul's College is an official partner of the Adelaide 36ers and is an official High Performance Academy school.

The College will benefit from exclusive access to coaches, training sessions, coach education, leadership engagements, match day experiences and clinics.

Adelaide 36ers GM of Social Impact & Community Ross Wait said “the High-Performance Program is a fantastic resource for schools to improve their skills both on and off the court and is thrilled St Paul’s has joined for 2024.”

“The High-Performance Program is a great tool for the schools involved to connect with the club and use our skills and connections to improve their basketball and education programs,” Mr Wait said.

Nicholas Gillard, Sport & Co-Curricular Development Coordinator said, “Our community is so excited about the opportunity to be a part of this High-performance program with the 36ers. Our students and families will get to experience high level coaching and leadership opportunities. We are thrilled to be a part of the 36ers family and are so excited to see where the program will take us.”