Kindergarten and Year 1 students have been engaged in some exciting learning so far this term. Read about it on our website here.
This term in LOTE (Italian) students have begun exploring the interrelationship between language and culture. As part of our project launch students reflected on the topic of “The Relationship Between Language Culture and Identity”. Students had the choice of writing about the Australian culture, the Italian culture, or their own culture. In this website article are some student responses to this reflection.
We ended Term 2 with a Reading Bonanza Day with activities in Secondary and Primary. Read about it on our website here.
Our Music teacher Phil Rooke, is providing music outreach to a community-based school in Kenya and has involved our Year 9 students in this project. This was featured recently in the National Catholic Education Commission newsletter which you can read about here: https://ncec.schoolzineplus.com/newsletter/article/167
Dear Friends in Christ
My name is Fr Carlos Walker, the new Parish Priest of Our Lady of Angels. I only arrived a few weeks ago and have already met so many wonderful groups and people of this vibrant Church community.
A native of Argentina, in previous assignments I have been parish priest in New York, have been several years in Rome working on behalf of my Religious Order, and have also spent some time in Taiwan, studying the Mandarin language. I now have much to learn from the local customs, culture and ethos of this portion of God’s flock on this beautiful side of the world.
I have been also introduced to Santa Sophia College, its Principal Mr Mark De Vries and staff members as well as its students. I have heard truly wonderful things about Santa Sophia College, its vision for education and the high degree of commitment of its leadership and teachers. Together with Fr Omar Mazzega, serving with me at the Parish, we will be visiting the College on a weekly basis.
Needles to say, Santa Sophia College together with OLA School are a particularly important part of my mission. I do want to make myself available to help in anyway I can. Looking forward to meeting you,
Fr Carlos
If you would like to organise a time to meet with Fr Carlos you can make an appointment using the Parish Office number: 8883 4063
by Mrs Anoushka Houseman
New StudentsWe were very pleased to warmly welcome five new students and their families to our College at the beginning of this term. Great to see them settling in well and getting to know the staff and students of our wonderful community.
Group Programs
We have now completed our social skills group but continue to work with some of our secondary students around managing anxiety and stress and we are planning to commence our second anxiety group in a couple of weeks.
Given our 1 2 3 Magic and Emotion Coaching Parenting program for parents of primary students only had 1 of 3 sessions go ahead (we could not complete the course due to COVID-19 restrictions), we are currently reviewing options to provide the content of this course online since it does not appear likely that we can re-commence this face-to-face. We will keep you posted when this becomes available.
Positive Behaviour Support for Learning - PBS4L
We have been working on further refining our behaviour expectations matrix aligned to our four school values of Faith, Hope, Love and Wisdom so that we have one matrix for the entire school.
Although the original primary and secondary versions were aligned in content, we felt it was important to have language that was understandable to all and consistent K-12 (see attached).
Of course, when we explicitly teach each of these behaviours, the lesson plans themselves remain different as they reflect the different developmental stages and needs of the students.
As you have also been made aware through the Skoolbag app, we have also refined our award system with the PBS4L certificates leading to the Bronze, Silver and Gold Awards.
When a student has received a Gold Award (at 15 certificates), they will also receive a small Gold Award badge that they can then commence wearing with pride on their uniform. We're excited to see who will be the first recipient of this prestigious award for our College.
