Dear Parents, Friends, Staff and Students of St Catherine’s,
Here we are just over the half way mark of Term 2 and it seems the Adelaide Hills winter has arrived! Great to have some much needed rain recently.
Thank you to those families who were able to join our Term 2 Family Mass at St Matthew's Church in Bridgewater last Sunday. It was wonderful to be able to gather as a parish and school community to acknowledge and support those students participating in this year's Sacramental Program.
It has been an action packed term with lots of excursions and events taking place. The year 5 students spent two nights at Mylor Adventure camp last week and I was glad to be able to visit and spend some time with the students, seeing them challenging themselves with a range of individual and team building activities. We certainly saw students demonstrating the character strengths of courage, curiosity, teamwork, fairness and leadership throughout their time away. Thank you to Mr Butler, Miss O'Connell and Mrs Dawe for supporting the children during this camp experience.
Our Reception to Year 2 students have been on an excursion to Monarto Zoo , giving them the chance to see up close a range of wild animals. The students had a great day exploring the zoo and learning about the various animals and their habitats. Thank you to the parents who were able to volunteer their time to help out on the day.
Our debating teams participated in their second debate as part of the Debating SA competition held at Pulteney Grammar School this week. All debates were close this week, either winning or losing by a point or even half a point. The students are to be commended for the way they have worked together in their teams to create strong arguments and rebuttals and for presenting these articulately and with growing confidence in front of an audience.
Enrolment for 2025 and 2026
It has been a pleasure showing prospective families through our school over the past few weeks, showcasing our warm and nurturing learning environment. I am always very proud of how our students engage with their learning, and how they make any visitors feel very welcome.
We are currently accepting enrolments for 2025 and 2026. If you have a child that is due to start school next year or the year after and are yet to enroll them, please contact our Enrolment Officer, Cathy Fischle (firstname.lastname@example.org) as soon as possible.
There is significant research around school attendance and future life outcomes. Children and young people who do not attend school regularly miss out on planned learning experiences, sequences of instruction and class participation and the impact of this loss is compounded with each absence. Attending school every day improves a child’s future life outcomes and it supports their learning and wellbeing. Our reporting mechanisms on student attendance classify 5 - 9 days absent a term as 'Habitual' and 10 or more days a term as 'Chronic' absenteeism, which are indications that a child's learning progress is compromised. As always, we understand that children become unwell from time to time and ask that children that are unwell, do not attend school. Mindful, however of the impact several days away from school each term can have, I ask families to consider carefully ways to minimise absenteeism.
Semester 1 Student Achievement Reports
This year our Student Achievement Reports will be made available via the SEQTA Engage App which you would have received information about. Teachers will be finalising student assessments for Semester 1 over the coming weeks, allowing them to produce student reports which will be available via the APP in the last week of term.
Monday Tuck and Friday Lunch
We are so grateful to our dedicated P&F and parent volunteers who organise Monday Tuck and Friday Lunch each week. The students very much enjoy being able to purchase items such as cupcakes, muffins, biscuits or hot chocolates and we couldn't provide this service without the generous donations from our families - Thank you!
I hope you enjoy a little break from the routine with the long weekend ahead!
Together in Faith, Learning and Community