Term 1 Week 2 Newsletter 2025

Dear Parents, Friends, Staff and Students of St Catherine’s,  

Welcome to our first newsletter for the year.  

A good start-some highlights 

It has been great to see the students settle into a routine and I acknowledge especially the hard work from the parents and staff of the students in Reception for whom separating from parents and transitioning into school at the beginning of the day can be daunting.  

I have been pleased also with the way many of our students Yr. 6 have displayed the care and kindness towards younger students that we have discussed.   

Welcome again to the new staff Ms Silver (Reception), Mrs Thompson (Yr.6), Di Cook (Office Administrator), Mrs Sweet (ESO). 

We are growing

Enrolments have grown by 10% compared with the same time last year and it is good to have an additional Reception class this year.  

R-4 Water Safety Program 

Thank you for your support of our Reception to Year 4 students participating in Water Safety lessons at the Woodside pool. We know the overwhelming research that emphasizes the importance of children learning to swim and be safe in the water. It has been good to see the students enjoy this experience and their time at the pool. Thank you to all the parent volunteers who were able to assist throughout the week. 

Whole School Mass prepared by 5AW 

Thanks to the students in Mrs William's class who hosted the first Mass of the year this week. Pope Francis has reminded us that 2025 is a Jubilee Year and asked us to be “Beacons of Hope” and I encourage you to read more about this in Carla Thomas’s article below. All parents and relatives are always welcome to attend our Masses and Liturgies throughout the year. These are generally held on a Tuesday morning, but further details are in the calendar. The children always appreciate seeing their families attend these events.  

Parish and School Picnic - Sunday 23rd February at 10AM 

We are part of the Adelaide Hills Catholic Parish, and we value our partnership with the Parish and with Fr Fred (Parish Priest) who visits our school weekly to celebrate Liturgies and Masses with the students. We work together with the Parish in our mission to be Church together including combined events and I strongly encourage you to join us at the annual Parish School Picnic on Sunday 23rd February. This will our first and one of our most important events for the year. The Picnic is held at the Oakbank Racecourse from 10:00am - 12.30pm and is a wonderful opportunity for families to gather, meet new people and enjoy a range of activities. I hope to see you there. 

Parent Teacher Information Sessions 

Thank you to the many parents who made time to attend our parent teacher information sessions held on Tuesday. These sessions are an important part of supporting your child/ren to be set up for success with their learning for the year.  

Our formal communication about student achievement in 2025 is as follows: 

• Term 1 Week 2: Parent Information Sessions 
• Term 2 Week 2: Parent/ Teacher/ Student Learning Conversation meetings
• Term 2 Week 10: Semester 1 Student Achievement Report
• Term 3 Week 8: Parent/ Teacher/ Student Learning Conversation meetings 
• Term 4 Week 9: Semester 2 Student Achievement Report 

Additional meetings can also be requested throughout the year by teachers or parents/ guardians as required on an individual basis. 

Child Safeguarding 

As a school we are mandated to follow child safeguarding policies and guidelines. These documents are available via our school website: 

Catholic Archdiocese of Adelaide Safeguarding Children and Young People Policy  

Keeping Safe: Child Protection Curriculum information for parents and carers 

Student Safety Before and After School 

It is important that children are not dropped and left to wait unsupervised at the front of the school prior to 8.30am. The school has a duty of care which commences with supervision from 8.30am when students can enter the school grounds and be supervised by school staff. Similarly, we have staff on duty after school until 3.30pm. Camp Australia provides before and after school care for those families that require it. If your child/ren needs to be at school prior to 8.30am, or after 3.30pm, for their own safety, please ensure they are booked into the OSHC service. https://www.stcaths.catholic.edu.au/community/oshc  

Annual General Meeting (AGM) 

The AGM will be held on Tuesday 25th February at 6pm. The AGM provides an opportunity each year for our community to hear from the School Board about achievements and challenges from the previous year. It is also at the AGM that any new nominations for positions on the School Board are presented. I will send details regrarding nominations for the School Board in a separate email on Monday. All parents and guardians from the school community are invited to attend. Please register your attendance via our website: https://www.stcaths.catholic.edu.au/community/parent-attendance-registration-form   

Parents and Friends 

We are fortunate to have a very active Parents and Friends team at St Catherine's. Thank you to Lucia Clements who will oversee the work of the P&F as Coordinator again this year. Our Monday Tuck and Friday Lunch rely on the support of our parent volunteers, so I encourage you to consider being involved in whatever capacity you have to support this service for our students.  P&F meetings generally take place twice a term and parents can volunteer for particular events throughout the year that fit with their own schedules. 

2025 Learn to Play After School Sports Program (Reception to Year 2) 

Children in Reception to Year 2 have the opportunity to participate in various after school 'Learn to Play' sports. There is a different sport focus each term held on Tuesdays: 

• Term 1 R-2 Jump Start Basketball 
• Term 2 R-2 Learn to Play Net Set Go Netball  
• Term 3 R-2 Learn to Play Jump Start Basketball  
• Term 4 R-2 Learn to Play Super Soccer Skills  

Further information regarding cost and times will be shared via Audiri throughout the year. For any questions about the program please contact Steven DeGiovanniello (PE teacher): sdegiovanniello@stcaths.catholic.edu.au  

2025 Instrumental Program 

If your child is interested in learning a musical instrument, details of the tutors who come to St Catherine's are available on our website. For any queries, please contact Kathryn Thomson (Performing Arts teacher): kthomson@stcaths.catholic.edu.au     

Term 1 Calendar 

Our calendar of events for Term 1 was sent to all families via Audiri last week. If you have any queries about particular events, please contact Cathy Fischle: cfischle@stcaths.catholic.edu.au  

Warm regards, 

Mark Simpson
A/Principal

St Catherine's School: Illuminating Our Path for 2025 

As we start this exciting new year, we are looking forward to the opportunities to reconnect,  strengthen our community bonds and deepen our relationships with each other and our loving God. 

Celebrating the Jubilee Year  

As we embrace the church's Jubilee year, St. Catherine's School is lighting the way for our community to become beacons of hope. Each class has been gifted a special candle, signifying the passing of the light of hope from the Easter Candle to each of us. This act reminds us of our mission to spread love, kindness, and hope throughout our community. 

Continuing the Kitchen Garden Program  

Our commitment to sustainability will continue to shine through our ongoing Kitchen Garden program this year. At the end of week 1, our Year 6 students were excited to start the first produce market for the year. We are hoping to make this a regular event as we harvest produce from our garden. We are also excited to start collaborating with the Parish Ecology group to explore new ways of living our sustainability values together.   

The classes engaging in the Kitchen Garden program this term will be Ms Williams' Year 5 group and Mrs Bennett and Mrs Tsouvallas' Year 1/2 group, starting next week.   

We welcome volunteers to assist with the Kitchen Garden program. Please let Andrea, Bianca or Teresa know if you are available to assist. 

Meet the Sacramental Team  

In our mission to support the spiritual growth of our students and their families, St Catherine's has formed a dedicated sacramental team including Jenna Coates (3/4 Teacher), Andrea Williams (Year 5 Teacher) and Carla Thomas (APRIM). We will work closely with the Parish to guide children and families from St Catherine's and the wider parish community in completing their sacraments this year.  

For those families curious about the sacramental program and would like to know more, we will be holding an information session at St Matthew's Parish Hall next Tuesday 11th February at 6pm. All are welcome. 

Upcoming Dates and Events 

Term 1 is such an exciting time with many events taking place. Please save the date for the following key events happening in just a few short weeks 

• Parish Picnic Sunday 23rd February   
• Shrove Tuesday 4th March  
• Ash Wednesday Liturgy and Mass Wednesday 5th March 

If you are available to assist with the preparations for the Parish Picnic or if you and your child/ren would like to be involved in Mass, please let me know: cthomas@stcaths.catholic.edu.au    

Lunch boxes 

As part of our ongoing commitment to reducing waste and maintaining a clean school environment, we kindly ask for your support in encouraging your children to take any general waste from their lunch boxes home each day. By doing so, we can collectively reduce the amount of waste generated at school. 

Some tips that may help minimise general waste in lunch boxes: 

• Using reusable Containers 
• Choosing whole foods instead of pre-packaged snacks  
• Purchasing foods in bulk to minimise packaging of single serves

Your cooperation and efforts in promoting these practices are greatly appreciated.  

We are all very excited to embark on this journey with hope, sustainability, and faith as our guiding lights, and look forward to sharing many stories with you throughout the year. 

Carla Thomas 
(Acting APRIM) 

On behalf of the St Catherine’s Parents and Friends, I warmly welcome you to the 2025 school year!
If you haven’t met me already, my name is Lucia. My husband Ben and I have 3 children who attend St Cath’s. James in year 6, Mary in year 5 and Jack in year 2. 
I am continuing as the Parents and Friends Coordinator for 2025.

A little about P&F:
We are run entirely by volunteers, and volunteering in a small school looks very different, and we stand by our motto “Small school, BIG Heart”. Volunteering can be whatever suits your family, it could be joining the committee (it is very relaxed and nobody has to write reports except me), you can show up for 1 meeting a year or you can come to all of them, it’s entirely up to you. It could be donating items for a raffle or fruit boxes for an event, or cooking pancakes on Shrove Tuesday. It could be helping Lyndall in Tuck on Mondays or Cooking the BBQ at sports day. There is a place for everyone.

If you would like to volunteer, please see Di in the front office to sort out the paperwork so that you can be a registered volunteer at St Catherine's.

Have a lovely weekend.

Lucia Clements
P & F Coordinator / School Board Representative

SeeSaw  

This year, we’re excited to continue using SeeSaw as a key tool for communication across our R-6 communities. SeeSaw is a great way to strengthen the connection between school and home by giving parents direct access to their child’s school portfolio. As students become more familiar with the platform, they can independently upload and share their work and achievements with their families. 

For those of you who are already familiar with SeeSaw and have connected in previous years, you’ll be able to log in using the same method. If you’re new to our school, don’t worry! Classroom teachers will be sending home information to guide you through the process of connecting to your child’s portfolio. 

Introducing the New Year 3 and Year 4 Spelling Program: SpellEx 

We’re thrilled to announce the launch of SpellEx, our exciting new spelling program for Year 3 and Year 4 students! The program is developed by MultiLit and is designed to follow the successful Tier 1 InitiaLit program taught in R-2 classes. 

SpellEx provides explicit teaching and instruction in grapheme choices, useful rules and conventions, morphology and key spelling terminology. Incorporating assessment at regular intervals throughout the program ensures that teachers are keeping track of students’ progress, adapting instruction as needed. 

By growing and consolidating their phonological, orthographic and morphological knowledge, SpellEx helps students make the right decisions when spelling words. This will benefit their writing in all curriculum areas.  

NAPLAN 

In March students in years 3 and 5 will undertake the National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN). NAPLAN assesses the literacy and numeracy skills that students are learning through the school curriculum and allows parents/carers to see how their child is progressing against national standards.   

NAPLAN is just one aspect of a school’s assessment and reporting process. It does not replace ongoing assessments made by teachers about student performance, but it can provide teachers with additional information about students’ educational progress.  

NAPLAN also provides schools, education authorities and governments with information about how education programs are working and whether young Australians are achieving important educational outcomes in literacy and numeracy.  

To read more about NAPLAN, please follow this link:  NAP - For parents and carers 

Cyber Safety session 

With the new school year underway, our classes have dedicated time to educate students on digital device safety. Students reviewed their ICT User Agreements with their teachers and discussed codes of conduct to help navigate these responsibilities.  

Cybersafe Families visited our Year 3 to 6 students to present age-appropriate content on digital citizenship, online safety, seeking help, online wellbeing, and managing screen time. 

In our commitment to supporting both families and students, we were delighted to offer our annual Cybersafe Families session again. Todd from Cybersafe Families shared valuable strategies for making home environments cybersafe, including understanding online threats and implementing practices to equip children with self-protection skills. We would like to thank families who were able to attended.  

For those who missed the session, more information is available on the Cybersafe Families and e-safety commissioner websites. 

https://cybersafefamilies.com.au/parents/  

ESafety Parents

Additional resources have also been made available thorugh the eSafety Commissioner via the link below 

Resources for communities and families | eSafety Commissioner 

Kind Regards,  

Narelle Brine and Carla Thomas 
Leaders of Learning – Curriculum and Assessment

Welcome 

It’s been a fantastic first 2 weeks back at school, with students settling in quickly and embracing the excitement of a fresh start to 2025! From the buzz of reunited friends to the joyful energy in classrooms, it's clear that everyone is eager to make this year a memorable one. Teachers have been busy introducing fun new projects and setting positive goals, while students have already begun diving into creative activities, exploring new subjects, and showing off their talents. It’s been weeks full of smiles, new discoveries, and the promise of great things to come in the months ahead!  

PBIS – Positive Behaviour Intervention Support 

This year we are excited to continue our work on PBIS with the students. PBIS is a framework used in schools to promote positive behaviour, improve social skills, and create a supportive learning environment. It involves setting clear expectations for students, acknowledging their positive actions, and providing consistent support. The overall goal is to create a positive school culture where students feel safe, valued, and motivated to succeed. 

Our PBIS focus for Week 1 and 2 has been 'Greeting Others'. It has been a wonderful way to connect with friends old and new. The teachers have explicitly taught their class appropriate greetings and body language when greeting someone. The teachers have also done a wonderful job at modelling this to their students and between staff. Please find the procedure of Greeting Others below to use at home! 

Bianca Foote
Leader of Learning – Wellbeing and Inclusion