Week 4 Term 2 2024

Dear Rosary Community

Caroline Price and I are currently at the South Australian Catholic Primary School Principal Association annual conference – “Leading a High Performance Culture Now and in the Future”. Jacqui Bell, ultra-marathon runner and elite sportswomen, was the opening presenter on Wednesday afternoon. Jacqui shared strategies on how to overcome adversity and nurture a high-performance mindset. She didn’t inspire either Caroline or I to commence ultra-marathon running! Her resilience, determination and fearlessness was inspirational as is her commitment to The White Cloud Foundation – raising money for Mental Health. I look forward to sharing more about conference presenters and our learning in the next newsletter.

What a wonderful Sports Day we had last week.Thank you to the many volunteers who supported teachers as they moved from event to event. Thank you to our teachers who work tirelessly all day without designated breaks.Their commitment and dedication to the children is fantastic.
A special thank you to Brenton Campbell for his work in co-ordinating Sports Day and all the other wonderful sporting opportunities.

Our Year 3 students began some Digital Technologies learning in readiness to compete in the 2024 Robo Cup competition. Thank you to Simon Coad for working with us to coach the teachers and children to build their robots and understand the events. I look forward to watching the Year 3 Sumo robots compete later this term.

I am delighted to inform you that both the dry and wet fire tests have been completed and we passed both. We are now ready to move in. We will do this slowly over the next week or two.  Relocating classes may cause a disruption to the usual learning program for a day. I anticipate that classes will be in the new building on Monday, 3rd June – teachers will keep you updated.

Kind regards
Susan

National Reconciliation Week

Next week is National Reconciliation Week. It takes place annually between May 27 and June 3. The theme for 2024 is “Now More Than Ever”. It is a reminder that the fight for justice and the rights of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders people must continue.

National Reconciliation Week is a time for all Australians to learn about our shared histories, cultures, and achievements, and to explore how each of us can contribute to achieving reconciliation in Australia. On Sunday May 26 it is National Sorry Day where we as a nation commit to healing by remembering and acknowledging our Stolen Generations. 

Lord God,

We thank you for calling us to you. May we recall that the act of reconciliation for all people happens in your name. We pray for all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, that they may all find and acknowledge their home, and that they may feel your loving hand throughout their lives. We make this prayer through Jesus our brother.

Amen

Sister Janet Mead Centre for the Homeless

Over the last two weeks, we have been receiving clothes, blankets, sleeping bags and tents from families as part of a collection for the Sister Janet Mead Centre for the Homeless.

We delivered all items to the centre this Monday. It was a huge response, as always from our families and the staff at the Janet Mead Centre were incredibly appreciative of our efforts.

Thank you to all who responded so generously with this initiative. The heart of our community is strong.

Resilience Project Parent Information Session

On Monday evening we hosted a Parent Information Session to introduce families to the work being covered as part of our Wellbeing program with all of our students, in conjunction with The Resilience Project. It was a wonderfully interactive meeting, with lots of lively and positive discussion. Thanks to all those families in attendance. 

I will share materials presented on Monday evening in upcoming weeks to all families on Seesaw.

Rosary School Family Mass

A reminder that we will celebrate our next Parish Family Mass at 10am this Sunday at Our Lady of the Rosary Parish Church. Our students are invited, as always, to be actively involved in the Mass, reading the Prayers of the Faithful and being part of the opening/offertory procession. Please message me to let me know if you are able to join us and if your son/daughter would like to contribute to our Eucharistic celebration.

Stephen Campion / APRIM

On Tuesday of Week 4, the Year 5 cohort were offered a very exciting opportunity to engage with the Prospect Council and Library in a Kaurna language workshop with emerging Kaurna Elder Uncle Tamaru.

This is to support Reconciliation Week from the 27th May to 3rd June and our learning about Indigenous culture and spirituality in Religion and History this term.

We walked as a group down to Eliza Hall at Payinthi and enjoyed listening to Uncle Tamaru talk about the Kaurna language originally being written in German so some of the sounds are different. He told us that Aboriginal people thought that the Germans that visited Australia before Great Brittish settlement were ‘proper’ people because they tried to understand the Aboriginal culture and work with them instead of just taking over.

Uncle Tamaru used role play to show how our understanding of Aboriginal culture and language has changed over time. He shared that he doesn’t like that what Aboriginal culture is referred to has changed so many times over the years.

He talked to us about some traditional Australian plants and foods like saltbush, as well as the names for body parts in Kaurna language.

We learnt the word for “My Respect” in Kaurna language – Ngaitalya and talked about why it is important to respect everyone around us. We learnt an Acknowledgement of country in Kaurna language that we are looking forward to sharing at our assembly coming up.

We really enjoyed learning about Aboriginal culture from Uncle Tamaru and the humour he used to teach us.

After we first spoke to Alexia about the Cut Cancer event in honour of her great aunty 18 months ago, we discussed the possibility of her growing her beautiful hair, long enough for it to be cut and created into a wig for those that have lost their hair due to illness.

From the age of 7, Alexia has been unwavering in her desire to do this and now at the age of 9, she has a even stronger understanding of what it means to support the Cancer Council but also to help someone in need. This is unsurprising to us, as it is naturally in Alexia’s beautiful nature to help others and we couldn’t be more proud of her.

If you wish to support Alexia, please follow the link and donate below :https://www.doitforcancer.com.au/fundraisers/alexiarologas