Term 3, Issue #10, 2023

Dear Families

It has been a busy Term 3 with lots of exciting events happening - Book Week, Excursions, Sport Carnivals, Sports Expo, School Disco and many more!

Newest Receptions:

We are constantly amazed at the development of our newest Reception students and to witness their energy and excitement to learn has been extremely rewarding. Our newest Receptions have been settling in well to their daily routines at school over the Term. They appear to feel comfortable, relaxed, and ready to learn as they pass through the school gates each morning. Ms King has been instrumental in ensuring our students have become familiar with their school environment and some of the routines.

NAPLAN Results:

This year we have had some extremely pleasing NAPLAN results with an improvement in nearly all areas with many students achieving in the upper bands. Our Year 3 results in Writing, Spelling, and Grammar all scored above the national average this year. This is a fantastic achievement for our Year 3s and their learning over the past few years of their schooling. Our Year 5s also achieved a positive result in the Northern region, in particular Writing and Grammar. Teaching staff will use this NAPLAN data to further improve practices and teaching across the school. We would like to acknowledge the hard work and preparation of the students and staff in anticipation for NAPLAN this year, in particular the anxiety and uncertainty we know some children may experience. We are extremely proud of our students and their efforts – well done!

3 Way Conversations:

Families have been given the opportunity to discuss any report information or their child’s progress during Week 9 Term 3. These meetings have proven to be vital to our home-school partnership. If you have not been able to connect with your child’s class teacher, please do so. Keeping you in touch with your child’s learning progress is important to us and this is one of the many ways available to you to discuss your child’s learning achievement and individual progress.

Catholic Festival Choir:

2023 Theme – ‘Where Dreams Begin’. Come along to celebrate and support South Australia’s talented youth on one of four evenings presented by the Catholic Schools Music Festival – Tuesday 26, Wednesday 27, Thursday 28 and Friday 29 September. The night features soloists, big bands, cappella vocal groups and an astonishing ability of musicianship and the 370-voice choir.

Catherine McAuley students will be performing on Wednesday, September 27th at 7:30pm at the Festival Theatre. Mrs Pollard has been the driving force behind our Catherine McAuley choir, and together they have spent the entire year practising the many songs and dance moves to bring the dream alive to entertain the audience. It is a most spectacular evening.

AOB:

Congratulations to the Masumba family, becoming Australian Citizen’s recently. Australian citizenship is a privilege offering enormous rewards. It’s an important step in your migration story. We trust your lives here will be as exciting as it is rewarding.

Reminders:

Term 3 concludes – Friday 29th September 2023 at 12.30pm
Term 4 Commences - Monday 16th October 2023 at 8.50am

We would like to update you on the opening of the stairs into the Evangalista Centre, where the Reception and Year 1 classrooms are.

The has been an extensive review of these stairs, and we have been advised that they are safe to reopen. Each step is painted with a non-slip material, and we strongly encourage people to use the handrails when using the stairs.

For those who do not want to use the stairs, the ramp and alternative routes will remain open and accessible for use.

As we head into the Term 3 school holidays, we would like to wish all CMS families a safe and restful break.

Yours in Faith, Growth and Unity

The Leadership Team
Marc, Eleni and Linda

Linda Caldinez
APRIM

Click HERE to view the Southern Cross Online

Year 3 this term, our theme in Literacy and Science is Living Things – Minibeasts. We are learning about the different types of animal groups with a specific focus on invertebrates. We have even had a few invertebrate guests in our classrooms to help us observe their features and behaviours.  

In Mathematics, students have learnt about fractions and decimals and how we use them in everyday life, like cutting a cake! In small groups, we worked together to match different examples of fractions and pictures.  

In English, we have been focusing on information reports and also sharpening our writing skills each week during our weekly writes.  

In art, we are learning about famous artists and their style of artwork. We have started creating our own artworks inspired by these talented artists to develop a portfolio of our own creations. So far we have learnt about Georgia O’Keefe, Pablo Picasso and Henry Matisse. 

In Health, we have been learning about all the things our bodies need to stay healthy. 3R worked in small groups to create a Healthy Eating Pie chart to show what food groups we should be eating plenty of each day.  

Science Week took place in Week 4. This year’s theme was ‘Inovation: Powering Future Industries’. We had the opportunity to explore some of the modern technologies used for powering our world today and discussed creative ideas that could one day land us on an episode of Shark Tank. The Year 3’s took this week as an opportunity to deep-dive into our Science unit on Minibeasts. 

Week 5 was another busy week with Book Week celebrations where we dressed in our favourite book character costumes and participated in a whole school parade. 

Ashna Kenyon, Sam Turner, Jemma O'Neil
​Year 3 Teachers

Term 3 is coming to an end and it is that time of year when posting orders are received. If you are a defence family that is leaving us at the end of this year, please let me know. I am able to help transition your child into their new school prior to their arrival. We send emails to their new school to make buddies before they arrive, we do some research on Google Maps and we can also be lucky enough to meet their new teacher! This makes everything seem a bit more familiar for your child on the first day of their new school.

Jacqui Langstreth
Defence School Mentor
mailto:jlangstreth@cms.catholic.edu.au

This term, students in Year 4-6 and all parents were invited to attend a presentation held by The Carly Ryan Foundation. The CRF have kindly shared some information sheets about applications frequently used by the children in our school community. Please take time to read over the fact files that relate to your child to understand why the application is used, how to increase your child's safety while using the application and what to do should your child experience any bullying or harassment.