Hello friends and families

We have successfully reached another term break and we wish everyone a well deserved rest after all your achievements. Semester One student reports will be electronically sent home today. In week three of term three, you will have an opportunity to meet with your child and their teacher to celebrate their learning thus far and set learning goals for the remainder of the year. This conversation is important and we ask you to make it a priority please.

During the school break we remind you to have a chat with your child/ren about safety. Each student has a trust network of adults they feel will support them to feel safe which they update regularly at school. The adults nominated may be from school, home, sports, dance or community clubs.  

Important Dates:

Please note that school finishes for term two, tomorrow Friday 2 July at 12:30 pm.

Term three commences on Monday 19 July and there is a Pupil Free Day in week one, Friday 23 July. Staff will be participating in professional learning with the Primary Maths Association so we can continue to bring contemporary and well researched, best practice to learning. OSHC is available on that day, please contact Tanya or Valerie on 8254 4198 to book. 

We wish Librarian Maureen Nicholls a wonderful new adventure in retirement and have had a great opportunity to thank her and farewell her with great love.

We also wish Belinda well in her new position in Catholic Education SA for the remainder of the school year. 

Happy holidays to you all.

Yours in Faith, Growth and Unity

CMS Leadership Team -

Belinda, Angela, Linda and Courtney

You can check the latest advice and alerts relating to COVID-19 at the Catholic Education SA's news page.

Have you enrolled your child for Reception in 2022? We are starting to fill our class lists and urge all families with younger siblings not yet enrolled with the school to return their Application for Enrolment forms as early as possible.

Siblings are not automatically added to our class lists unless parents/guardians have completed an Application for Enrolment and returned the associated paperwork such as birth certificates.

Our 2022 Term 1 and Term 3 places are filling fast.

To discuss your child's enrolment or to collect an Application for Enrolment form contact the front office.

Reconciliation is one of the Sacraments of Healing. On the June 18, 19 and 20, our sacramental candidates completed their Sacrament of Reconciliation at St Thomas More Church. Fr Pat and Fr Germano, on behalf of God, passed on forgiveness to each candidate individually, as the candidate spoke (confessed) privately, to either Fr Pat or Fr Germano, about their wrong doings. The act of confession is important because it allows us to put things right with God and to know that we have been forgiven. The sessions were very calm and graceful: each candidate presenting in a very reverent manner.

As expressed to the candidates, the starting point for reconciliation is not thinking about their own life but thinking about the words of Jesus. It is Jesus’ life and words that give meaning to our own. Therefore, it’s a good idea, before receiving the sacrament, to spend time thinking about Jesus: the kind of person he was, the things he did, and the way he treated people. It is helpful, at times, to remind ourselves of Jesus’s death and resurrection and what these events mean for us today.

Living the Resurrection

This year we were fortunate enough to celebrate the Resurrection of Christ with our students. Easter was observed and celebrated during the school holidays. It was a wonderful celebration of students observing the devastation and aftermath of Holy Week as a joyous occasion. To continue the theme of Resurrection, this term we have ‘challenged’ our community to live the Resurrection, living the risen Christ, in their daily life. When we speak of the Resurrection of Jesus, questions arise. How do we practice the resurrection? What difference does it make in you and me? How do we live this new, or raised, life? Deep...YES. Hard to comprehend….NO!

Then the 11 disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. Then Jesus came to them and said: “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely, I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” - Matthew 28:16-20

The seed of God’s word is sown in every heart, for everyone is a child of God, made by God and made to experience communion with God and, therefore, with others in love. The risen Jesus is the Sower, and it is the breath of His spirit, the spirit of God that He welcomed so beautifully, that breathes the life of God throughout the world. Knowing this keeps alive the memory of Jesus, His words and deeds. We are all Jesus’ disciples forming the community of the church whose mission is to keep Jesus alive and for all to see - IN ALL OF US, in our words and deeds. In essence, we listen to what Jesus says, by reading His teachings and we follow what He says by lining our lives up with His teaching.

200 Years of Catholic Education in Australia

On Monday 24 May, Mrs Bennett and I took a group of students to St Francis Xavier Catholic Cathedral in Adelaide to celebrate Mass with our Archbishop Patrick O’Regan. More than 550 students and staff from Catholic Education SA gathered in a simultaneous celebration with schools around the country to mark 200 years of Catholic education in Australia. For the first time ever the event was livestreamed. It was a wonderful experience to participate in and a blessing to have been invited to attend.

If you have the opportunity to look back at our educational history, through the lens of Catholic Education, please click the button below:

Thank You

As we now approach the holidays, I would like to take this opportunity to thank you all for your continuous support this term, it is very much valued and appreciated. Enjoy the holidays, and a break from daily routines of school and please stay safe.

God Bless.

Linda Caldinez

APRIM

In Term 2 Miss Philip and Miss Desmond altered our Litter Buster Program. As a way to promote picking up rubbish in our yard, any student who fills a bucket of rubbish during playtime receives a Litter Buster token (printed on recycled paper of course).

At the end of the term the class with the most Litter Buster tokens wins the trophy, extra play and some fruit to share.

Great job to the winners 3 Philip who received top spot! Well done.

Congratulations to 1J and 4/5GC as runner ups - they received a platter of fruit.

The Year 6/7s have had an extremely busy, yet engaging semester!

Our biggest highlight of Semester One was our Year 6/7 sleepover. We continued to build wonderful relationships with our peers. We wrote an affirmation for each of our friends in the unit and it was a beautiful opportunity for us to bond with one another.

This term we were lucky enough to have two pre-service teachers join our classroom, Miss Taylor and Mr Cheng. They brought so much fun to our class and we thoroughly enjoyed having them teach us!

To tie in with all of the learning our school has been doing about being Climate Clever we have been learning about the impact Greta Thunberg has made on our world. Greta is an environmental activist who stands up to world leaders, challenging them to take immediate action for climate change. We are standing up for our environment and being climate activists for our future. We made protest signs as our exhibit in the Catherine McAuley Trash Our Impact Museum.

In Literacy this term we have been planning and collating information and evidence to write a persuasive text. Our persuasive texts coincided with our learning around being Climate Clever and we were all able to write about a topic we were passionate about. Some of the topics we wrote about were:

• How to save our sea creatures
• The importance of recycling plastics properly
• The effect pollution has on our environment 

During numeracy this term we have been working on improving our number skills by completing basic skills activities each day. During these activities students have worked with playing cards targetting all four operations as well as looking at prime numbers. We have been looking at the area and volume of 3D shapes and planned a bird's eye view of our very own dream homes. We used protractors to find specific angles within triangles and found all the angles within our names! We looked at different number patterns and are working towards understanding algebraic sums.  

We are so excited about what's to come in Term 3. Our teachers tell us they have a very exciting surprise for us!

Netball

The past few Sundays I have been very busy as I was lucky enough to be selected to represent the under 13’s Gawler and District Netball Association. We played all June long weekend at Priceline Stadium in the SA Country Championships.

There were 101 teams competing, 526 games played and more than 1000 players. We played teams from all over South Australia. Some of the teams we played included Kangaroo Island, Port Pirie, Roxby Downs, and Naracoorte. My team made it to the grand final but unfortunately lost to Port Pirie.

As a 10 year old playing against people two and three years older it was daunting at first but it was one of the best weekends I have ever had. I was lucky enough to have an awesome coach named Natalie Couzner. She has taught me so much, not just about playing netball but ‘living’ netball.

Playing and representing Gawler and Districts has been such a proud and memorable moment for me and I hope to able to be chosen for selections again next year. Don’t forget my name as you may just see me in the green and gold one day representing Australia! What a thrill that would be.

Logan Schunke

AFL

Congratulations to Nick Watts on making the Playford SAPSASA District Year 6 Football team. Nick represented the Playford District at the State Metropolitan Football Championships at West Beach earlier this month. Congratulations on a fantastic achievement!

From Term 3, 2021 Catherine McAuley School will have one uniform supplier for all unforms. We have partnered with Belgravia Sports to offer a full suite of uniform items to students.* There will be some small changes to the uniform, however, existing families will have a two year grace period to update their current stock for their children.

Uniform purchases can be made online at Belgravia Sports and orders will be delivered to the school. A Uniform Shop will also operate at the school, with days and times to be confirmed with families shortly.

Pre-orders are now open for the sports uniform, jacket, and boss top, with stock available after 26 July.

*Please note a limited range of items will be offered initially as we roll out the full suite throughout Term 3, 2021.

To view the Uniform Collection go visit the school website HERE.

Auskick