Contents
- Acknowledgment of Country
- From the Principal
- Leader of Learning
- College Community Wellbeing
- Wellness Hub
- Laudato Si’ Action Group
- Wellbeing Focus Article
- Current and New Family Information Sessions
- Principal’s Twilight Tour
- Year 8 & 9 Rowing Day Camp
- Important Message: Missing College Sports Tops
- Year 7 & 8 Knockout Football
- Relay for Life - Quiz Night
- Softball & Baseball Come n Try
- Employment Opportunity - Bus Drivers
- Stay Connected
- G1 Youth - Riverland Central Church
- RYT
- Rotary Youth Program of Enrichment (RYPEN)
- Renmark Paringa Council Youth Sponsorship Program
Welcome Back!
As another new term gets underway, it has been great to see our College community grow as we welcome eight new students and their families. It has been rewarding to see our College values of Faith, Compassion, Integrity, Acceptance and Care put in action by our students in their approach to welcoming our new members to the College.
We have hit the ground running, with outstanding experiential learning opportunities underway such as the year 7 and 8 Knockout Football this week, and our Rowing Squads first full day coaching clinic at the Renmark Rowing Club, facilitated by our Coach, Mrs Stephane Turnbull.
Stage 2 of our Building Program has been in full swing over the holiday period, with work on the framework for the year 10-12 building underway in earnest.
As students re-engage in their curriculum, please don’t hesitate to contact any of your child’s teachers if you have any queries about their learning.
The Season of Creation
The Season of Creation runs for September 1st until October 4th, and with our College ethos of Laudato Si’, this period in the Liturgical Season of the Catholic Church has particular importance to our school community.
The Season of Creation is a time to renew our relationship with our Creator and all creation through celebration, conversion, and commitment together. During the Season of Creation, we join our sisters and brothers in the ecumenical family in prayer and action for our common home.
In recent years, statements from religious leaders around the world have also encouraged the faithful to take time to care for creation during the month-long celebration.
CESA Community LLL Perception Surveys
CESA Community LLL Perception Surveys by the conclusion of Week 5 of Term 3 all Catholic Schools in South Australia will complete the CESA Living, Learning, Leading Perception Surveys. The surveys are a product of a collaboration between Catholic Education SA (CESA) and Curtin University and are focussed on the development, validation and use of a system-wide survey to examine the understanding of the vision and extent to which Catholic Education SA's Living Learning Leading Framework is taking place in schools as perceived by students, family and staff.
Teacher and student surveys will be conducted at school between Week 1 and the end of Week 3, Term 3. Parent surveys can be conducted anytime up to the end of Week 5.
There are 4 relevant surveys for the St Francis of Assisi College community:
1. Middle School Years 7, 8 and 9
2. Teacher survey
3. ESO staff
4. Parent survey
The surveys will be deployed to all schools ready for completion by the end of Week 3 in Term 3. Each survey has been trialled, refined and piloted in a range of CESA school settings and the development team is confident that schools will derive very useful information for planning and improvement. To administer the LLL Parent and Caregiver Survey at St Francis of Assisi College in 2023: Parents go to www.NSIPartnerships.com.au and enter the code SFARLLLP in the ‘Start Questionnaire’ field.
2024 Enrolments
I am very pleased to see that the College continues to experience significant demand in relation to enrolments. Current projections indicate our two year 7 classes will fill to capacity and parents planning to enrol their child are encouraged to do as soon as possible.
To assist with our medium and long-term planning I encourage parents to lodge an enrolment form with the school as soon as they have decided to enrol their child at the school.
There remain places for enrolment open in years 8, 9 and 10 for 2024.
Should you wish to discuss this further please contact our College Registrar, Claire Smith (phone 8595 4500, or email claire.smith@assisi.catholic.edu.au).
Nathan Hayes, Principal
NAPLAN Reports
Individual NAPLAN reports have arrived at the College for year 7 and year 9 students and will be distributed in envelopes to families via students early next week. NAPLAN individual student reports provide information about what students know and have achieved in reading, writing, conventions of language and numeracy.
Student achievement in NAPLAN for 2023 is reported using proficiency standards for each assessment area at each year level. The standards are set at a challenging but reasonable expectation of what students know and can do at the time of testing. There are four proficiency levels:
- Exceeding: the student’s result exceeds expectations at the time of testing.
- Strong: the student’s result meets challenging but reasonable expectations at the time of testing.
- Developing: the student’s result indicates that they are working towards expectations at the time of testing.
- Needs additional support: the student’s result indicates that they are not achieving the learning outcomes that are expected at the time of testing. They are likely to need additional support to
The aim of the descriptions is not to describe each individual student, but to provide a fair summary of typical skills and understandings for a student at the level. If you have any concerns about your child’s NAPLAN report, please contact your child’s teacher. The College will analyse the data from the NAPLAN reports to inform our teaching and learning, however we understand that the tests are only one snapshot of a child’s learning and therefore we also consider teacher assessment and every child’s needs. We value all students for who they are and the qualities they bring to the college.
Natalie Meuret, Leader of Learning
MFS Education Session
Last Friday, we welcomed Daniel Humeniuk (Community Engagement Officer | South Australian Metropolitan Fire Service) to the College to deliver a Home Fire Safety presentation. The stduents were an excellent audience and even better at contributing to discussion and asking questions. Thank you Daniel for your time!
Additionally, Mr. Prokopec and a colleague from the Renmark MFS walked our stduents through one of the fire trucks filling them in on the roles and tasks of the job!
Keeping Safe in Cyber Space
Scan to View: TOP TIPS in CYBERSPACE
At the end of Term 3, the College invited Susan McLean to speak to our students about Cybersafety. Susan’s extensive background and experience can be viewed at Susan McLean - Cyber Safety Solutions.
In Susan’s presentation, several topics were highlighted and discussed with our students including:
- Fact v Fiction
- Cyberbullying
- Digital Reputation
- Online ‘friends’
- Sexting & Sextortion
- Staying safe online
You can download and access fact sheets here: Fact Sheets - Cyber Safety Solutions
A key focus in the presentation was regarding sextortion with specific examples of this occurring in the last 3 months across South Australian schools. Please use the below infographic to report inappropriate behaviour towards minors online.
Ongoing Support
At St Francis of Assisi College, we have a well-rounded Wellbeing team with broader access to professional support. Please get in touch with Mr. Luke Cotter (Leader of Wellbeing) if you wish to seek support for your child.
Wellbeing Webinars
In exciting news, we have partnered with Wellio this year to support student wellbeing through the delivery of lessons in Pastoral Care.
Wellio helps students proactively improve their mental wellbeing using research-backed habits and techniques. Their programme supports students in improving their sleep, managing social media use, building healthy relationships, improving physical well-being, and reducing anxiety.
Alongside their work with students, Wellio will be delivering a webinar each term to parents. The upcoming webinar next term is titled “Phone Addiction & Social Media”. Drawing on the latest psychological science, this webinar helps you guide your child to better habits and beat back phone addiction.
If you would like to attend, you can register here: https://www.wellioeducation.com/en_au/webinars.
Wellio will record the event, so please register if you can't attend but want access to the recording.
“The behaviours you walk past, are the behaviours you accept.”
– Lieutenant General David Lindsay Morrison
Luke Cotter, Leader of Wellbeing
Current Families Information Session - Berri
Would you like to know more about the College, or would like to get to know our senior staff better? Come along to an information session.
Wednesday 23 August 2023 6:00pm @ Len Mahoney Room, Berri Town Hall , 17 Wilson Street, Berri
New Families Information Session - Berri
Are you considering your child's secondary education and thinking of St Francis of Assisi College? Come along meet our senior staff and learn more about the College at our New Families Information Session.
Wednesday 23 August 2023 7:00pm @ Len Mahoney Room, Berri Town Hall , 17 Wilson Street, Berri
Register: https://www.assisi.catholic.edu.au/news-events-calendar-events/events?eventID=344095
Current Families Information Session - Renmark
Would you like to know more about the College, or would like to get to know our senior staff better? Come along to an information session
Wednesday 6 September 2023 6:00pm @ St Francis of Assisi College
New Families Information Session - Renmark
Are you considering your child's secondary education and thinking of St Francis of Assisi College? Come along meet our senior staff and learn more about the College at our New Families Information Session.
Wednesday 6 September 2023 7:00pm @ St Francis of Assisi College
Register https://www.assisi.catholic.edu.au/news-events-calendar-events/events?eventID=344100
Do you have family or friends interested in having a look around the College? We are inviting the general community to join our Principal on a College Twilight Tour at 6pm Monday 21 August 2023.
To register: https://www.assisi.catholic.edu.au/news-calendar-events/catholic-schools-open-week-principal-s-twilight-tour
On Wednesday, our Rowing Program students took part in their first Day Camp, it was a full day of learning. With the assistance of my former Australian Rowing teammate, Anna Petersen, students were stepped through some of the more technical aspect of rowing. We spent time working through some key drills and introducing them to the universal language used in rowing. It highlighted the need to be mentally switched on throughout a session, working as a crew, reacting to changing drills and how to respond to coach feedback. Tim Pfeiffer volunteered his boat and captaining skills, allowing Anna and I to rotate between our 3 crews. This additional coaching added great value in supporting our young rowers.
Students were based in set quads (4x+) for the day, which really gave them a great opportunity to focus on and develop the skills introduced. After three on water sessions, there were many sore hands and weary bodies. Well done to all rowers and coxswains, it was a great day and sets the tone for what is sure to be an exciting season ahead!
An extra special thank you to Anna Petersen and Tim Pfeiffer for assisting during our day. Thanks, must also go to Mrs Camporeale and Miss Gibbons, whose continued support in the Rowing Program, make any of this possible.
Enjoy a video of the Rowing Day Camp https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IAaOz0N6Vo4
Stephanie Turnbull, Rowing Program Coordinator and Rowing Coach
We are missing a number of the College's sports tops used by students when they are representing the College for a range of different sporting events.
Can we please ask both parents & students to have a good look at home for any St Francis Sports tops.
These can be returned (preferably laundered) to either Mr Sampson or Mr Prokopec in the Staff Office.
With several events coming up these missing tops will be needed.
Any help with this is greatly appreciated.
On Tuesday of Week 2, Mr Sampson and Mr Prokopec took 21 Year 7/8 boys to Lameroo to compete in Round 1 of the Year 7/8 Boys Statewide Schools Football Competition. We faced off against Unity College from Murray Bridge, and a combined team of smaller River Mallee schools. In our first game against Unity College, our boys battled hard but were beaten convincingly by a Unity side that were much bigger and faster! Our boys bounced back well in the next game to be more competitive against the River Mallee side, only going down by a few goals.
The standout players for our College were Samuel DePalma and Jack O’Bryan, who worked tirelessly all day to both attack and defend. It was great to see a handful of players step-up to play without having experience playing football before, ensuring that we had enough numbers to compete in the competition. A big thank you to Henry Dring and Kaiden Nixon, who as part of their Year 9 Sports Academy focus on Football, gained experience as coaches and officials on the day.
“I enjoyed the opportunity to have a go at coaching and taking responsibility of a football team” Henry Dring, Year 9 Sports Academy.
Fraser Sampson, HPE Teacher
Our partners, LinkSA are currently recruiting bus drivers for permanent positions! LinkSA would like to employ someone from our College community and are also open to applications from the broader community. Driving hours are between 7am-9am and 3pm-5pm and the role would suit a semi-retired person. Support will be provided to the right applicant to obtain accreditation and extensive training will be provided.
Requirements –
- As a minimum a MR licence is required
- Applicants need to be willing to get bus accreditation
- Working with Children Check is required
Please contact Paul on 08 85322633 or 0437 860 539
G1 Youth is a passionate group of young people reaching young people.
They run a program for high school-aged students each Friday night from 7-9pm at 11 Mortimer Road, Berri, offering games, dinner and talk about how to navigate being a teenager in our 21st century.
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