Term 4 Week 6 2023 Newsletter

From the Principal

Over the last few weeks, not only have I shown prospective families around the school, I have also had the pleasure to show staff from Catholic Education South Australia (CESA) as well as former staff of Our Lady Queen of Peace School.

Upon invitation, Ms Angela Morrison and Ms Pauline Kinsman of CESA visited the school for a tour. I proudly showed them through the school and highlighted the upgrades. They were impressed with the changes but were more impressed with how engaged, friendly and welcoming our students are.

Regardless of who it is, I love showing people through the school, celebrating the changes that have occurred as well as well as celebrating how amazing our students are!

Camps

In working with the School Board and planning for 2024, it was agreed that we would increase the opportunity for students to have a camp experience. The vision is that we have a:

Year 5/6 Camp – 3 days and 2 nights,
Year 3/4 Camp – 2 day and 1 night.

The camps are designed as learning experiences for students and consequently it is the school's expectation that all students to attend.

It is important that the camps are affordable for families, and this will be taken into account at the time of planning. More information will come out next year.

New Teachers

It was lovely to have both Diem (Ms Savy) and Michael (Mr Mastrangelo) visit the school to be involved in professional learning in preparation for 2024. All 2024 teachers have been working with Rosa CESA Numeracy System Coach in their learning teams. A focus for 2024 is to improve the learning outcomes of students in numeracy. Rosa’s work with staff has included curriculum mapping as well as looking at all the learning spaces in the school; classrooms, nature play, Music Room, Food Technology, etc, and how teaching opportunities can be created in these spaces.

This process ensures that the teaching of numeracy is engaging, practical and relevant, and allows teachers to see all the spaces in the school as learning spaces. I lookg forward to seeing numeracy in action come 2024.

There will be an opportunity to meet both Diem and Michael later in the term as they will be part of our whole school "Moving on up:" transition program. During this program, every child will be with their 2024 teacher, with their 2024 class, and in their 2024 classroom.

Nature Play

Our new main playground area is almost complete. At this stage we will have the final sign off from Kidsafe on Tuesday 28 November 2023. Students will have the opportunity to walk through the play space, not only to see it up close but to also work out how best to use the space safely.

The space has exceeded all my expectations, and the play and learning opportunities are endless. We also worked with a local First Nations artist, Ross, who hand carved four totem poles that have been installed in the play space. Ross will record the story behind the carvings, which we will be sharing with the community and will be part of student learning.

There are also numerous well-sized garden beds. These will be a great opportunity for students to plant, grow, harvest, cook and eat a variety of edible plants, linking the nature play space with our Food Technology area.

Not long to go until the end of the school year. There will be some updates via Seesaw on what is happening in the last few weeks.

Lee Abela
Principal