* subject to government restrictions

New dates

Term 3

• Fri, 9 Sep - Pupil Free Day (Wk 7)
• Sat, 10 Sep - 6pm Family Mass, Mater Dei Church (Wk 7)
• Mon, 12 Sep - Community Prayer - Yr 5/6 (Wk 8)
• Mon, 12 Sep - Yr 6 Journey to Emmaus (Wk 8)
• Wed, 14 Sep - Assembly (Wk 8)
• Wed, 14 Sep - Combined School Board (Wk 8)
• Fri, 16 Sep - 5/6H, RecT Parish Mass (Wk 8)
• Fri, 16 Sep - Yr 2 Pizza and Movie Night (Wk 8)
• Mon, 19 Sep - Community Prayer - Rec (Wk 9)
• Wed, 21 Sep - Special P&F Meeting for Screen on the Green (Wk 9)
• Thurs, 22 Sep - Sports Day at Port Adelaide Athletics Club (Wk 9)
• Fri, 23 Sep - 5/6LF, 1KR, RecDW Parish Mass (Wk 9)
• Mon, 26 Sep - Community Prayer - Yr 1 (Wk 10)
• Mon, 26 Sep - Catholic School Choir Week (Wk 10)
• Thurs, 29 Sep - Full Moon Festival, hosted by Yr 3 (Wk 10)
• Fri, 30 Sep - Last Day of Term 3 (Wk 10)

Term 4

• Mon, 17 Oct - First Day of Term 4 (Wk 1)
• Fri, 28 Oct - Screen on the Green Movie Night (Wk 2)
• Sat, 12 Nov - 6pm Family Mass, Mater Dei Church (Wk 4)
• Wed, 16 Nov - 6pm Children's University Graduation @ Bonython Hall (Wk 5)
• Fri, 2 Dec - Carols on the Green (Wk 7)
• Sat, 10 Dec - 6pm Family Mass, Mater Dei Church (Wk 8)
• Mon, 12 Dec - Reports go home (Wk 9)
• Tues, 13 Dec - Graduation Mass/ Ceremony (Wk 9)
• Thurs, 15 Dec - Last Day of Term 4 (Wk 9)
• Thurs, 15 Dec - Year 6 Party (Wk 9)

Anna Mattiazzo ending her time with us

Recently I let you know that Janine Pearce has decided to retire and, this week, I would like to let you know that Anna Mattiazzo has also decided to end her time with us at the end of this year.  Anna has decided that she would like to explore a new role for the final years of her work life before retirement.  Anna started her relationship with Whitefriars as a parent in 1993 and began working in the front office in 2000.  When Anna finishes here at the end of this year, she would have completed almost 23 years of contribution to this school community.

Covid Cases Reducing

Each week, the South Australian Government asks all schools to report how many COVID cases we have recorded to monitor how we are going as a state.  I am happy to report that the number of cases has been low this term and last week was the first week this year that we have recorded no cases.

Although this is good news, it is important that we continue to be diligent with hand sanitation and with testing for COVID if you are not feeling well.  As you are aware, the health industry is still working hard to keep up with COVID cases putting pressure on the health system, so please continue to be careful.

Fathers’ Day Breakfast

What a lovely Father’s Day breakfast we had last Friday morning!  It is wonderful that we can have these community events after a few years of disruption, and I thank all the dads who were able to join us.  The children absolutely loved having you there.

A huge thank you to our mums who are exceptional in their support of our school.  Many arrived at the school at 7am to set up, prepare and begin cooking and they did so well to feed so many people for breakfast.  

Thank you for your support of the raffle and to Madeline  and Florence's family for donating first prize.  Congratulations to our three winners.  Dhruva’s dad won a great drill to support his handyman work.

National STEM Challenge

Congratulations to Pavly, Jeremiah and Su for winning the National STEM Challenge in the category of ‘Space’.  This is a huge honour for these children, and for Pina Condo, who has guided them to this success. The children are very proud of themselves and this achievement is a great credit to our school and our ongoing efforts to foster STEM learning here. 

STEM Showcase - Save the Date

Early in Term 4 our children are looking forward to sharing their STEM learning at our annual STEM Showcase.  This will be held on Wednesday, 26th of October (Week 2 Term 4).  There will be two sessions, one at the end of the school day and another one in the evening.

Kind regards

Frank Congedi 

Journey to Emmaus – Fundraising for the Hutt Street Centre

This coming Monday (12th September) is Day 2 of the Journey to Emmaus program.  The Year 6's will join St. Margaret Mary’s Year 6's to assemble the toiletry and art supplies packs to be donated to the Hutt Street Centre.  We will collect final donations on Monday morning in readiness for packing them after recess.  Thankyou to everyone who had kindly donated.  Please see below if you would still like to support this fundraiser.

Journey to Emmaus – Making soup for the Moore Street Centre

On Tuesday, the Year 6 students prepared Pumpkin soup and Potato and Leek soup to be donated to the Moore Street Centre (Adelaide Day Centre).  The Year 6 students donated the vegetables, Mr. Page organised the stock and all students were involved in the food preparation.  Their efforts resulted in 7.5L of Potato and Leek soup and 22L of Pumpkin soup being donated to the Centre, which will be used as part of a lunch service for the homeless community in Adelaide. The excess vegetables that were not used were also donated to the centre for use in their kitchen.

Upcoming Parish Family Mass

Mater Dei Church will again be hosting the Parish Family Mass this Saturday at 6pm.  We look forward to students actively participating in these Masses by reading the First Reading, Responsorial Psalm, and Prayers of Intercessions.

This past week we have been in touch with families who have had children read previously to organise readers on the night.  If you are planning to attend on Saturday night, and have a child who is willing to read a part of the Mass (who hasn’t previously) – please email jpage@whitefriars.catholic.edu.au or fcongedi@whitefriars.catholic.edu.au

Mr. Frank Congedi will be commentating at this Mass, and will support the children who have volunteered to read.

Kind Regards,

Josh Page

APRIM

Through Science lessons this year all students participated in the PRC Reading and Design Challenge in Term 2.  Ms Condo and I were so impressed with student entries, it was difficult to decide on our awards.  Students worked in Science lessons and in class to produce pictures and posters to be proud of.  Together Mrs Fairweather and Ms Condo had the difficult task of choosing the best entry from each class and also awarded two students in each class for their effort in class and in producing their best work.  Students were presented their awards in Science lessons during Science Week as part of the week’s celebrations.  A lot of effort was put into the good copy entries that were submitted into the Reading and Design Challenge.  In week 9, Mark Williams from the PRC office will present prizes to the winners and runners up in a special award assembly and certificates will be handed out that week also.

Well done to all the students for their entries and congratulations to those who received awards!

In week 6 the 1M class had a fantastic week of learning experiences.

On Tuesday we visited the Living Kaurna Cultural Centre.  We were shown a traditional method to weave using raffia and a needle.  A Kaurna elder welcomed us to country and showed us around the natural environment.  We saw a tree that was 500 years old and we stood in an old cooking pit.

On Wednesday we celebrated our 100th lesson in our Initialit literacy program.  We made fairy bread, hats and glasses and even had a 100 cake!

On Thursday we took the train to visit Bunnings Warehouse.  We became mini tradies for awhile and visited all the areas of Bunnings.  We also made a present for Father's Day.

Thankyou to the following volunteers assisting in Term 3, Week 8 (12 Sep - 16 Sep):

Please contact Iris Mori, Canteen Manager, if you are able to assist.

We acknowledge and pay our respect to the Kaurna people as the traditional owners of the land of Mikawomma on which Whitefriars Catholic School is located.  We come with open hearts and minds to listen and learn from Elders - past, present and emerging.