Dear Families and friends of St Paul’s,
On behalf of the entire, and growing, St Paul’s staff can I extend our most sincere welcome to the 2024 academic year. We have had a tremendous start to the year, and we hope everyone, particularly the new students and their families, have settled in well. From what we see and what we have heard this is certainly the case.
Our numbers: staff, students, and buildings (!!) have increased but the most pleasant part and our most sacred part is that the sense of community and the sense of family that permeates throughout the College hasn’t diminished in any way at all. It only gets better! The Primary Family picnic at the end of week one is a classic example of this. Thanks to our Head of Primary, Mrs Marianne Loftus and all the Primary staff for their work preparing for that great welcome.
While speaking of the Primary, Day One of the year will go down in our history as one of our proudest moments with the opening of the new primary building. This wonderful facility will be the home of our whole primary school for decades to come and it is an amazing centre of learning. As is discussed more fully in Marianne Loftus’ article (Head of Primary) the families, staff and students are so grateful for the opportunity of being the first ones to have access to it. We look forward to sharing this with you all and to an official opening later in the term or year.
New Staff: With our continued growth we have had the opportunity to welcome another 30 new staff! A full list is provided in this newsletter and as you will see they represent all areas of the College and indicate our commitment to supporting our students through the significant increases in areas including Inclusive Ed., Counselling Services, Co-curricular, ICT Services, Grounds, and Maintenance in addition to the additional teachers. We are blessed by the exceptional quality and amazing skill sets that the new staff have, and we look forward to helping them enjoy their professional and personal journeys with us.
Walking Our Common Ground: Each year we adopt a theme that provides additional focus on areas of significance and allows us to share with our students and families the strategic aims of the College. Over the last few years, each classroom has had a copy of “Our Common Ground” prominently displayed. The purpose of this document, in one way, sets out to replace a plethora of rules and regulations with a basic set of values that both staff and students undertake to commit to each other. As an example, we all hold each other accountable for showing and living “respect” for every member of the community. We will explain this in more detail at all our parent and family information sessions, inviting families to come on this journey with us.
Walking Our Common Ground is extended to our entire community and will enable all of us to not only talk the talk but to walk the walk more significantly. In addition to this, we know and constantly acknowledge that our beautiful College is built on the sacred lands of the Kaurna people, and we are so grateful for their great commitment to the land over many centuries. The development and implementation of our RAP (Reconciliation Action Plan) this year will provide additional focus on this area also.
Significant Events: Already this year we have held several significant events. Appropriately the most significant has been our Opening Year Mass, celebrated by Fr Joshua Nash and which was attended by all students R-12 and all staff. It was a beautiful celebration of our faith and for our community.
This week we had the first of our Rites of Passage Ceremonies for the year with the Rite of Welcome for the Reception students and families. During this we not only offer our blessing for the beginning of a thirteen-year journey with us, but we also present a special plant (this year a Blueberry plant) to signify the growth that we will share with these very special children and their families.
2023 Yr. 12 Results: Our Year 12 results at the end of last year were particularly pleasing and a very just reward and reflection of all the dedicated and committed efforts of both the staff and the students. There is another detailed report within this newsletter outlining the results, but I would certainly like to congratulate the student and their families on those successes. It is also most important that I congratulate and thank our staff – right across the College from Primary to Senior Secondary for their outstanding efforts. In particular, I would like to thank Mr Matthew Muscat (Head of Teaching and Learning in the Secondary School,) the Secondary Learning Council, all the Leaders of Learning and all subject teachers for their tireless efforts in ensuring all the students reach their full potential. 100% SACE completion for the fifth consecutive year is one of many measures of this wonderful success story.
We hope that all students, families, and staff have a wonderful 2024. St Paul’s is a very special place. It is a wonderful community a wonderfully diverse and accepting community. A community that will work together as one big family allowing us to Walk Our Common Ground for the good of all.
God Bless
Paul Belton
Dear Families and friends of St Paul’s,
On behalf of the entire, and growing, St Paul’s staff can I extend our most sincere welcome to the 2024 academic year. We have had a tremendous start to the year, and we hope everyone, particularly the new students and their families, have settled in well. From what we see and what we have heard this is certainly the case.
Our numbers: staff, students, and buildings (!!) have increased but the most pleasant part and our most sacred part is that the sense of community and the sense of family that permeates throughout the College hasn’t diminished in any way at all. It only gets better! The Primary Family picnic at the end of week one is a classic example of this. Thanks to our Head of Primary, Mrs Marianne Loftus and all the Primary staff for their work preparing for that great welcome.
While speaking of the Primary, Day One of the year will go down in our history as one of our proudest moments with the opening of the new primary building. This wonderful facility will be the home of our whole primary school for decades to come and it is an amazing centre of learning. As is discussed more fully in Marianne Loftus’ article (Head of Primary) the families, staff and students are so grateful for the opportunity of being the first ones to have access to it. We look forward to sharing this with you all and to an official opening later in the term or year.
New Staff: With our continued growth we have had the opportunity to welcome another 30 new staff! A full list is provided in this newsletter and as you will see they represent all areas of the College and indicate our commitment to supporting our students through the significant increases in areas including Inclusive Ed., Counselling Services, Co-curricular, ICT Services, Grounds, and Maintenance in addition to the additional teachers. We are blessed by the exceptional quality and amazing skill sets that the new staff have, and we look forward to helping them enjoy their professional and personal journeys with us.
Walking Our Common Ground: Each year we adopt a theme that provides additional focus on areas of significance and allows us to share with our students and families the strategic aims of the College. Over the last few years, each classroom has had a copy of “Our Common Ground” prominently displayed. The purpose of this document, in one way, sets out to replace a plethora of rules and regulations with a basic set of values that both staff and students undertake to commit to each other. As an example, we all hold each other accountable for showing and living “respect” for every member of the community. We will explain this in more detail at all our parent and family information sessions, inviting families to come on this journey with us.
Walking Our Common Ground is extended to our entire community and will enable all of us to not only talk the talk but to walk the walk more significantly. In addition to this, we know and constantly acknowledge that our beautiful College is built on the sacred lands of the Kaurna people, and we are so grateful for their great commitment to the land over many centuries. The development and implementation of our RAP (Reconciliation Action Plan) this year will provide additional focus on this area also.
Significant Events: Already this year we have held several significant events. Appropriately the most significant has been our Opening Year Mass, celebrated by Fr Joshua Nash and which was attended by all students R-12 and all staff. It was a beautiful celebration of our faith and for our community.
This week we had the first of our Rites of Passage Ceremonies for the year with the Rite of Welcome for the Reception students and families. During this we not only offer our blessing for the beginning of a thirteen-year journey with us, but we also present a special plant (this year a Blueberry plant) to signify the growth that we will share with these very special children and their families.
2023 Yr. 12 Results: Our Year 12 results at the end of last year were particularly pleasing and a very just reward and reflection of all the dedicated and committed efforts of both the staff and the students. There is another detailed report within this newsletter outlining the results, but I would certainly like to congratulate the student and their families on those successes. It is also most important that I congratulate and thank our staff – right across the College from Primary to Senior Secondary for their outstanding efforts. In particular, I would like to thank Mr Matthew Muscat (Head of Teaching and Learning in the Secondary School,) the Secondary Learning Council, all the Leaders of Learning and all subject teachers for their tireless efforts in ensuring all the students reach their full potential. 100% SACE completion for the fifth consecutive year is one of many measures of this wonderful success story.
We hope that all students, families, and staff have a wonderful 2024. St Paul’s is a very special place. It is a wonderful community a wonderfully diverse and accepting community. A community that will work together as one big family allowing us to Walk Our Common Ground for the good of all.
God Bless
Paul Belton
