School News
Student Wellbeing
At St Gabriel’s we pride ourselves on the wellbeing of our students. To continue to support our students in these challenging times we are implementing a program called Smiling Minds. Smiling Minds is a mindfulness-based social and emotional learning (SEL) program enabling the development of positive mental health and wellbeing of students. Every Thursday for the remainder of the term and throughout the year students will participate in a 35 min lesson focusing on different aspect of mindfulness. Attached is a document to gain a broader understanding of mindfulness.
Jacki Williams and Anita Marino
Wellbeing Coordinators
Ecological Conversion
Earth Care Squad 2022
The Earth Care Squad has been working hard to manage waste in the school and care for our environment. Food scraps are going to our worm farm and 10 cent recycling containers are being collected to keep them out of land fill.
Last term the Earth Care Squad raised $120 from recycled 10 cent containers.
The students are working to introduce a soft plastic recycling programme to collect empty chip packets which contribute much of the waste in our kerb side recycling bins.
We are also going to establish a market stall at the front of the school on Wednesday afternoons for the produce we are growing in our garden. Look out for our growers stall, coming soon.
Our chooks continue to lay 4 eggs a day and many families have placed orders for a dozen eggs. They are three dollars a dozen if anyone would like to order any eggs.
Here are some pumpkins grown in our garden.
Thank you
Mr Meixner APRIM
St Gabriel’s Sala Exhibition 2021
Resilience, Peace and Hope for the Future
The decision to participate in the SALA Festival was guided by St Gabriel’s aim to provide authentic learning experiences and purposes for their students. St Gabriel’s is a small catholic primary school with approximately 240 students from R-6. We are a proud multicultural community with many students coming from different cultural backgrounds and 33 different languages represented within the school. The theme of 2021 SALA Festival is Resilience, Peace and Hope for the Future and particularly resonates with St Gabriel’s multicultural community and the events occurring around the world in the present time.
All artwork is connected to the theme: Resilience, Peace and Hope for the Future. The centrepiece artwork was created by Adrian Estrellente.
Adrian says:
"The piece of artwork I created incorporates the themes of resilience, peace and hope. In order to display these themes, elements such as the fence and the hand represent the individuals who are in crisis or live in burden."
"The hands escaping from the fence depicts the support that is often given to those in need."
"On the exterior of the fence, the heart, the vines and roses symbolise the world of peace and hope."
Through the artwork presented, viewers will experience different forms that resilience, peace and hope are found in our environment:
Resilience is found in the resilient Australian outback and fauna, the bleak Australian bushfire season, the fight for existence from endangered animals, the impacts of war, the clever strategic problem solving of little ants and our ancestors’ stories of migration.
Peace is present in our Japanese garden, the gentle flight of the dove a universal symbol of peace, the sense of calm from the presence of trees, the beautiful bloom of the cherry blossom as spring approaches and the tranquil stillness of a starry night sky.
Hope is a way of thinking that pushes us to action. When people have hope, they’re more likely to act, needing to fulfil their goals and envision a future different than their current reality. With hope students become better problem solvers. Hope is the future and today’s students are tomorrow’s future.
SALA is a unique South Australian Art Festival that recognises living artists. The success of St Gabriel’s first SALA in 2019, which we not only won one of five prestigious credit union school awards but also saw the huge benefits for our students as they excelled in art, encouraged St Gabriel’s to make this a biannual event where students could showcase their art and creativity. Sean Hill, Principal of St Gabriel’s, spoke on the night saying “SALA is not only an opportunity for students to showcase their talents, but a wonderful way to connect with our local community and celebrate the learning and teaching at St Gabriel’s”
