News & Events

From January 2023 St Pauls College OSHC provider is changing to EXTEND.

EXTEND is Australia’s largest family owned and operated Outside School Hours Care provider.

The 2023 St Paul’s service will feature before and after school care together with a new vacation care program.

Registration and service information is now available via the Extend website. For further details please visit: https://www.extend.com.au/school/st-pauls-college/

Extend’s customer service team is on hand to help with all enrolment, booking and school holiday program enquiries.
Email: support@extend.com.au or call 1300 366 437.

We look forward to our new OSHC partnership with EXTEND.

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 Friends and families of St Pauls,

Is it only two weeks since the last newsletter? What has happened at the College seems it could have filled two months’ worth!

Life in a school, as I’m sure it is for you all nowadays, is extremely busy. Some may think that in term four we are all slowing down. Whether we like it or not nothing could be further from the truth.

Since the last newsletter college events include:

• We held the official opening of our new St Mary of the Cross MacKillop building. This was a momentous occasion for the College, attended by our Archbishop Patrick O’Regan, Acting Executive Director of EREA Ray Paxton, Director of Catholic Education SA and other distinguished guests. It was a wonderful occasion added to by our formidable primary Liturgical Dance Group under the direction of Ms Amy Barone
• Yr. 12’s on their Swot-Vac but coming to school to finish major assignments and being supported by our dedicated staff with their revision.
• Yr. 12 exams have started.
• An amazing Year 7 camp. Thanks Mr. John Grave and all the staff who attended.
• An amazing Year 5 Camp. Thanks Mr Jake Stewart and staff who attended
• Our 2023 Reception students having their first transition visit – such excitement and fun.
• A significant Inclusive Education transition visit for students who may need some extra support in 2023.
• The 2023 Prefects Camp – from Sunday to Tuesday. An excellent group of talented and inspired young men willing to take on the mantle of senior student leadership in the College. Thanks to Messers. Nick Callary, Josh Foulis, Joe Hicks, and Leaders of House. What awesome staff and students we are blessed with.
• A Year 8 Retreat. More awesomeness!! Thanks Ms Maria Girolamo-Corbo and the Catholic Identity Team. These experiences enrich the lives of our students in so many ways.
• Continued work on our 2023 school timetable (thanks Mr Michael White, Mr Matthew Muscat, and Mr Josh Foulis.) An enormous task undertaken with such desire to achieve what is best for the students and families.
• More interviews to employ more great staff for the College.
• A hugely successful Parent Information Evening for new students in 2023 and those progressing to the Middle Years. Thanks to our wonderful Parents and Friends for the BBQ and your amazing and ongoing support of the College, and to Ms Donna Nguyen for her coordination of the evening, together with all the staff who presented and supported the evening – it was a tremendous success.

On Friday, the 11th of the 11th. A wonderful Remembrance Day Ceremony. Thanks Ms Joanna D’Angelo and all for creating such a respectful and unifying learning and spiritual experience.
More learning experiences for the students – isn’t that our normal life?

So, all this is pretty normal for us! Our staff have an amazing desire to provide the absolute best experiences for our students, families, and community. The College is and will continue to do just that – our best – for you all. It is a pleasure and blessing for us to not only work here but to serve this wonderful community. The weeks and activities fly by, staff work so diligently and together we live a life of gratitude for being able to do it all – together.

God Bless
Paul Belton 

Dear Families and Friends of St Paul’s,

Week two in term four of an academic year is always a very special one in the life of the college. It is the last week of formal lessons for our Yr. 12 graduating class and includes several extremely important celebrations. These celebrations, in many ways, help us to put our life in perspective, acknowledge how important the college is in the lives of our students and their families, and allows the younger year levels to see and understand what we are all committed to doing – in partnership together.

A great highlight for us all at the Senior Years Presentation was the “debut” of our giant new screen and audio system in the gymnasium. The work done by the “Big Screen Video” and AJS Lighting, Sound and Events companies has been amazing, and we have finally now got a system that does justice to all the amazing work done collectively by the staff, the students, and the families. Everyone present was delighted with the ceremony and the quality of the presentation. Personally, I am so pleased to be able to now offer the St Paul’s community the very best of what is available in this area and what you all so very much deserve! I know how much our music department appreciates it! We are so grateful to them for their professionalism and support of our dreams.

We again enjoyed this facility at the Year 12 Graduation Mass. It will enable us all to participate more fully in the celebrations, the prayers, the formalities, and our ability to engage and celebrate together.

Great Building News

This week our families would have received a letter from the College outlining the most recent success story regarding our building program. While it now seems to have progressed quicker than first expected, and will bring some disruption to our normal structures, the news is awesome.

We have engaged the services of Sarah Constructions Pty Ltd to build the new Primary Years building and the engagement with the company has been amazing so far. Sarah’s has commenced their establishment arrangements and has actively cooperated with the college to assist us in making our normal operations as smooth as possible. We look forward with great confidence to watching this next stage of our master plan come to fruition. Exciting times!

We do apologise for any disruption this may cause to families, but we are certain we will all reap the benefits of this development in a short space of time.

New Staff

The College continues to grow in all aspects of our life. As we build on the great success of becoming a co-educational school and welcome another 100 new students into our great community for 2023, so too will we welcome a new group of staff.

While we are not able to announce all the appointments, we can assure families that the quality of those people who have applied to work with us has again been outstanding. Our growth has not only allowed us but also driven us to continue to review what structures are needed for us to provide our students and families with the very best structures and human resources we can. In 2023 we will have more emphasis on the pursuit of excellence in our core business of teaching and learning. We have added more senior appointments to positions of Leaders of Learning (i.e. Leaders of Design and Technologies, Health and P.E, and The Arts), and we have added new roles supporting a cross section of services such as the “Head of Learning Diversity” which will oversee Inclusive Education, Gifted and Talented programs and ATSI support amongst other things. We will announce these appointments when we can and with permission of the staff and other schools, from which the staff are coming.

Saint Mary of the Cross MacKillop Building - Official Opening

Next week we can finally officially bless and open the new Senor Learning Centre complex which will be known as the Saint Mary of the Cross MacKillop Building. While this has taken us much more time than we all would have liked, it will be another great occasion for the College and we will welcome several distinguished guests including Archbishop Patrick O'Regan.

We will provide more news and photos associated with this celebration.

Transition visits

Commencing over the last week or so we have undertaken several transition visits for students who will be new to the College in 2023. This is due to the review of all our programs leading into our first year as a co-educational school this year conducted by our amazing Transition Co-ordinator Ms Donna Nguyen and her desire to make the process even better for the new boys and girls as well as their families. Already they are being very well received.

Term four is the most hectic and we have many more celebrations and opportunities to welcome families and guests into our beautiful community. I hope all families take the opportunity to visit and enjoy these celebrations as you are most welcome and so much a part of the reason, we have them.

Take care

God Bless
Paul Belton

We are delighted to formally introduce our 2023 College Captains and Prefect team. The role of Prefect is one of privilege and responsibility and we congratulate them on their appointment.

Dear Families and Friends of St Paul’s

Another term comes to a rapid close! I am not sure if it just because we all get a bit older, but our school terms just seem to by faster and faster every year. Maybe it is that we are so much busier and cannot fit it all into the ten weeks!

In many ways term 3 is the busiest. In addition to all the normal teaching and learning, co-curricular activities, staff professional development, meetings etc we begin the massive undertaking of preparing for the next year! This seems crazy, but has been bigger and more important than ever over the last couple of years as we have grown. We are currently interviewing numerous candidates for teaching and other ESO positions at the College. It has been a pleasure to read so many great applications and interviewing so many terrific teachers who want to join our community because of who we are and what we hold most dearly, the FRED values and EREA Touchstones.

In addition, to keep us on or toes, we are continuing to push on with planning regarding the new Primary Building that we hope to start before the end of the year. We have been to tender and will progress further over the next couple of weeks. More excitement for St Paul’s.

Over these last couple of weeks, the College has held or participated in:

An amazing College Music Night
Catholic Schools Music Festival
Report writing and Parent/Teacher Learning Conversations
Achilles Cup Athletics Carnival
Another college tour
School Advisory Council meeting
A 2023 girls transition evening
A sensationally successful Primary Market Day
And we finish of the term with our spectacular Colour / Slim Run Day and announcement of the winners of the prestigious Shannahan Cup – the trophy for the most outstanding “House” of the year.

Did we say we were busy having fun! These activities cannot happen without the exceptional commitment of our amazing staff who give so much of themselves, for the students. We are sure the families appreciate these efforts.

As term 3 concludes we again ask all students and families have a good round table conversation about school reports and all the efforts associated with the learning dimension of their lives. Hopefully, this conversation is a congratulatory one whereby recognition of the pursuit of personal excellence is the main topic!

I hope the upcoming break is an enjoyable time for everyone, that the weather improves and that you have some quality time with your loved ones.

My sincere thanks to everyone for what has been another wonderful term in this great community.

Take Care,

God Bless

Paul Belton

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

Our Parents & Friends group are running a wine fundraiser. There are some premium wines available at discounted prices. It’s a fantastic way to support the P&F, who contribute funds and event support for our college community. Please see the order form below and return it via email to: stpaulsparents1@gmail.com. Orders are required by Monday 12 September.