Issue #6

Meet and greet

Thank you for the warm welcome that you have offered me since starting at the beginning of the year. For those I have not yet met I welcome you to introduce yourself or just say hello on the first Friday of next term (May 2nd at 8:30AM). This is just a casual opportunity to say hello and I will provide the coffee for you. Stay tuned for further information at the beginning of next term.

Click the link below for the flyer:

Coffee With The Principal Flyer

Traffic Safety and your child

During this term, we have been assessing the safest and most efficient way to manage the kiss-and-drop on Barrington Street particularly in the afternoons when this has been the busiest. The chair of the board Andrew Aldridge and I have had several discussions with the Port Adelaide and Enfield council who have been supportive during our discussions with them. We have now finalized our preferences and have submitted them to the council, and they will manage a consultation process with the residents. If successful, we will have safer and more effective zones for parents and caregivers collecting their children and improved signage. We will then embark on an education process to ensure that our students understand safe practice. I will keep you informed as this progresses. In the meantime, for your convenience, please find attached a Safety Around Schools brochure from the City of Port Adelaide and Enfield that they have asked me to share with you.

Click the link below to read the brochure:

City of Port Adelaide Enfield Safety Around Schools

Updating our website

We have been updating our website and continue to seek the best ways to utilize social media to share with you what is happening at the school and your children, Stay tuned for more improvements next term.

Click the link below to view our website:

https://sgs.catholic.edu.au/home

Visit from local MP

Thank you to our local member of parliament, the Honourable Andrea Michaels MP, Minister for Consumer and Business Affairs, Minister for Arts, Minister for Small and Family Business for visiting our school last week. As our local member, Andrea has been an active supporter of St Gabriel’s and we are grateful for her support.

Zara from Year 2K has won award from an Easter colouring competition! We were lucky to get a special visit from Andrea Michaels and she presented the award to Zara.

Happy Easter!

Yes, it is still Easter. The season of Easter in the Catholic Church extends over seven weeks until May 18th this year. It is a time of celebration and jubilation. The Son of God has risen from darkness into light. This metaphor is a sign for us to walk in the light of Jesus and God, responding to the call of God in our lives to live as people of peace and generosity. 

Thankyou to everyone who supported Project Compassion in the lead-up to Easter, your kind donations will help bring light into the world of many people in need. 

A common mantra we hear during Easter from Pope John Paul II is, “we are Easter People and Alleluia is our song”. This mantra suggests that in preference to a superficial joy which may be fleeting, we bask in the joy that comes from faith. We know that all life isn’t easy, there are pain, sin and hardships. Jesus suffered and experienced his own pain and humiliation, but he passed through this suffering to the glory of the Resurrection. We live in the Pascal light of his Resurrection and are able to experience joy, love, and forgiveness in this light. 

The joy we discover when we offer unconditional love, and respect our duty to love our neighbour as ourself, is life giving and a font of peace in our lives. If we can do these things we will know true joy and alleluia will be our song.   

Alleluia means ‘God be praised’ and at this time in the church calendar we praise God for the blessings we have in our life and the care shown when things get difficult. 

Happy Easter everyone. 

In HASS, we have been learning about cultural events and celebrations, one of which was the Lunar New Year. To integrate our learning with Visual Arts, students created a piece of artwork inspired by 2024 - the Year of the Dragon.  

To celebrate Mother Language Day, and to embrace the multiculturalism in our classrooms, the Year 3 students used cultural flags as a backdrop to display some of the ways we can say ‘hello’ in different languages. It was a great way to explore diversity in our classrooms and embrace our different cultures!

To celebrate our uniqueness and individuality we created Name Designs. We all had a lot of fun experimenting and writing our first names using block lettering.  This activity also developed our Growth Mindset of ‘giving it a go’ and ‘mistakes are a part of learning and are OK.’

Our All About Me Backpacks were created to highlight each students individuality. Students used visual art and drawing skills to share their self-portrait, age, year level, cultural background, cultural flag, favourite sport, favourite items and the year they were born.

As part of our Holy Week learning, 3B watched and responded to videos portraying Jesus’ journey in his final days. To reflect on our learning, students used oil pastels and blending techniques to create artwork depicting three crosses and a horizon, inspired by Jesus' sacrifice.

Each class is choosing the vegetable they will plant in their class planters. When the soil arrives from Bunnings Prospect, we will begin planting our winter vegetables. 

Please consider the environment when packing lunches. Is it possible to reduce the amount of wrapping and packaging in lunchboxes?

Thank you to the Community Group for organising such a wonderful send off for Mr Hill. Mr Hill was thrilled with the coffee morning and enjoyed catching up with parents and students. 

The gifts from the children, parent community and staff were well received by Sean which we are sure he will treasure for years to come. 

Thank you to the Community group for all their help this term with Harmony Day donuts, Hot Cross Buns, Welcome mornings, cleaning and sorting that has happened this term. 

Read more about what is happening at OSHC!

To find out more about the School Fees and School Card, click the link below:

School Fees & School Card 2024

Fee Remission for 2024

Parents/caregivers experiencing financial difficulties are encouraged to apply for fee remission ASAP.  Please email accounts@sgs.catholic.edu.au for a fee remission form or collect from the School Office if you wish to apply. 

We assure parents/caregivers that all details provided will be kept strictly confidential.  

If you are having difficulty with meeting your fee obligations or have any queries, please do not hesitate to contact Alison Boyce (Bursar) or Mark Simpson (Principal) on 8216 9900. 

Thank you,

Alison Boyce

accounts@sgs.catholic.edu.au

Direct Ph: 8216 9902