News
From the Principal
Dear Friends of St Paul’s,
This week around Australia we are celebrating Harmony Week.
From an official Australian Government website.
“Harmony Day is observed annually on 21 March in Australia. Harmony Day is intended to celebrate the cohesive and inclusive nature of Australia and promote a tolerant and culturally diverse society. Initially celebrated in 1999, Harmony Day coincides with the UN's International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, which was established in 1966 with the aim of eradicating racism and racially fuelled hate crime.
The continuing message of Harmony Day is 'Everybody Belongs' and its annual observance aims to encourage inclusiveness, respect and belonging for all Australians, regardless of cultural background, and celebrate core Australian values.”
An interesting statistic is that almost half of all Australians were either born overseas themselves or have a parent who was. At St Paul’s we would have an even greater percentage. Harmony Day is a celebration that we warmly embrace here at St Paul’s, primarily because, for us, it is formal recognition of what we do – day in and day out!
Our four core school values; Faith, Relationships, Excellence and Diversity, clearly articulate our passion for being known as, and living daily, a school grounded in diversity and inclusivity. Our College theme for 2021 “Valuing Diversity” has been specifically chosen to not only recognise cultural diversity, but every single different form of diversity, from gender, to culture, to religion, to academic or sporting ability, to interests, to family structures etc and to celebrate them all.
As a College we want no more than to provide every member of this awesome community the opportunity to maximise their God-given potential and living in harmony is paramount to the success of that vision.
Sacrament of Reconciliation
On Tuesday 11 March our Primary students and 6 of our Secondary students celebrated the Sacrament of Reconciliation for the first time in our College Chapel with Fr Matthew. This is such an important event for St Paul’s and for these young boys. With the decline in active church-going families it is so lovely seeing the families and the boys themselves wanting to continue their Catholic faith journey together with us. As a Catholic College we fully understand that for many of our students, the College provides the only real connection to “Church” and we take that responsibility very seriously. We are very happy to continue to work with families to enhance and encourage them in their spiritual journey, through the celebration of the Catholic Sacraments.
We had 20 parents/grandparents visit us to share in this celebration. The next Sacramental celebration will be a combined Confirmation and Eucharist in late May which will be held at St Pius X Dernancourt.
College Events
Over recent weeks we have continued to celebrate Year level camps (Yr 4 Zoo Snooze and Yr 8 Camp), Vinnie's lunches, Dental Clinics, College Tours (still being booked out), Enrolment Interviews and this week we are preparing for one of the highlights of the year – our Sports Day. Thankfully, we can once again welcome families back into the College to witness a great day of community spirit and fun. Our Co-curricular Coordinator, Mr Nick Gillard, has done an enormous amount of work to make sure both the Primary and Secondary events run smoothly.
Congratulations to Mrs and Mr Foulis
As a community we are all excited and very happy to share with you all the wonderful news of the safe arrival of Owen Nicholas Foulis on Tuesday 16 March at 8.19pm. Owen is Josh and Irene’s firstborn and both mum and baby (and even dad) are doing well. Josh is having a short break from school to both celebrate Owen’s arrival but more particularly to help with the transition home for Owen!!
God Bless
Paul Belton
Master Chef Cooking Club
St Paul’s College is excited to announce that the ‘Master Chef Cooking Club' will be offered as a co-curricular activity in 2022 in preparation for the introduction of Hospitality as a senior subject in the upcoming years.
This co-curricular activity will help students to develop their cooking skills, practise food preparation and planning, broaden their knowledge of different cuisines and learn about the importance of a healthy and balanced diet. Students will expand their culinary appreciation by cooking a variety of foods from around the world. Most importantly, students will discover that cooking is fun!
We look forward to the Master Chef Cooking Club next year. Stay tuned for exciting updates.
From the Principal
Dear Friends of St Paul’s
We are finishing up week 6 of the term and as seems so normal it is flying past. So many wonderful events have occurred, and the atmosphere of the College is extremely positive. As has been mentioned several times we are being inundated with enrolment enquiries and our planning for our transition to a coeducational College continues in earnest. The College tours have been booked out and the level of interest in St Paul’s is so overwhelmingly positive. It is a very humbling experience hearing so many positive stories about the College and we all sincerely hope that this growth continues in such a way that we remain faithful to our mission and vision as a Catholic College in the Edmund Rice Tradition.
It is with much pleasure that I inform you all some staffing news. Our exceptional Deputy Principal, Josh Foulis and his wife Irene are expecting their first baby any day now and so Josh will be taking some leave to help the family settle into their new way of life. As a result, Mr Nick Callary (currently the Head of Student Development) will step up into the Deputy Principal’s role and Mr John Grave (Leader of O’Loughlin House) will become the Acting Head of Student Development. To assist us with backfilling the teaching of some classes we will welcome Ms Christabella Iuliano who will help us for the next five weeks. This will include some cover for Mrs Maria Gioralamo-Corbo who will be taking some Long Service Leave too. We wish them all well.
Work Completion Policy
By now all students and families would be aware of the new Work Completion Policy that was enacted this week. The reason I would like to highlight this again is that as we move into this program, aimed at continuing to assist our students with the development of their personal responsibility and study habits, there will be some failed grades and negative reactions.
While this may bring some significant debate, we believe it is in the student’s best interest and is an important step in the preparation for life beyond school where employers and or universities will demand that people stick to deadlines and adhere to due dates. It will also help develop greater resilience and organisational skills in the students. Parents are welcome to be a part of any of these discussions with their sons’ subject teachers or home room teachers.
As was indicated in the recent letter to all families.
- Work Completion sessions (WCS) provide an environment where students are supported to complete their evidence of learning pieces because:
- all learning is valued and valuable
- assessment tasks are the means through which students can demonstrate their learning; therefore, all assessment tasks are required to be completed to the best of the students’ ability
- to support students to develop skills to be successful at school and post school
- students who complete all set tasks are likely to achieve success in the subject
- completing tasks is not optional
We hope everyone has a great break over the long weekend. It has come at a good time for our staff who have been working very diligently as they always do.
God Bless
Take Care,
Paul Belton
Appointment of Transition Coordinator
We are excited to announce that Ms Donna Nguyen has been appointed to the newly created position of Transition Coordinator at St Paul’s.
Donna will be involved in our working parties and provide leadership in vision, mission and strategic priorities with a focus on our transition to co-education, reporting to Senior Leadership. She will have a particular responsibility for the preparation, transition and well-being of the girls joining us in 2022.
From the Principal
Dear Friends of St Paul’s
Building Community
Over the first three weeks of the College Year, we have held several significant events all of which continue to strengthen our communications with and support for our families. This is, of course, withing the limits of the COVID restrictions.
Our Year 7, Year 8 and Year 12 Parent Information evenings were extremely well attended and provided the College with the opportunity to outline our Middle Years philosophy and programs (to the 7 and 8 families) while the Yr 12 families were offered support with a presentation from Ms Kirrilie Smout from Developing Minds, a company that will work with us and the Year 12 cohort throughout the year.
Perhaps the highlight of the week (for me anyway!!) was the Welcome to St Paul’s / Rite of Passage Ceremony, for our Reception students and their families. This is a very beautiful and special ceremony that has been developed over the last few years to signify the beginning of a 13-year journey and partnership between the boys, the families, and the school. As with all ceremonies and liturgies it was filled with symbolism and our presentation to the boys of a blueberry plant represents the nurturing and growth that we will all experience together.
It was lovely to speak to some families who have an older boy who experienced this ceremony two years ago and to hear that their lemon tree is flourishing – just like the boys!! Our thanks must go to Ms Angela Collins (our APRIM) and Mrs Emily Sayer (Head of Primary) for the preparation and conducting of this inspirational event. We are grateful that Fr Matthew could also attend and offer a very special blessing to the boys and families.
STEM News
St Paul’s College is doing it’s part to advance South Australia as a leader in space technologies. Our Year 7 classes were thrilled that their video entry won them a place in the Seeds in Space program. Our wattle seeds are currently orbiting the earth on the International Space Station and we can’t wait for them to return to Earth in May.
We also were successful in winning a grant to compete in the Space STEM Challenge. We will work with former astronauts and the Houston Space Centre to complete weekly STEM challenges and compete against students from around the world!
What’ll Happen to the Wattle??! (at St Paul's!)
St Paul’s College has been selected as one of 150 schools nationwide to plant Wattle seeds, which are currently travelling in space!
One Giant Leap Australia Foundation sent native golden wattle seeds to the International Space Station in early December, 2020.
In collaboration with the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) the seeds will live in space for six months, returning to Australia in time for Science Week 2021.
From the Principal
Dear Friends of St Paul’s
Week one has come and gone already, and it was a wonderful start to the year for St Paul’s College. Over the past two years we have put much time and effort into re-designing and improving the beginning of year structures and activities to make the transition for all our new students a smooth one. Week one is known as our “Wellbeing Week” and the students of different year levels start the year at differing intervals to give the youngest and the newest time and space to get to know all the environment and all the school routines before the whole population returns.
Year 12 Results
Co-education in 2022
It is with enormous excitement and pride that St Paul's College announces a transition to co-education from 2022.
Following our announcement that St Paul's would become a co-educational College from January 2022, the response has been absolutely amazing. We have received a large number of enrolment applications for 2022 and beyond.
