St Francis of Assisi | eNewsletter

From the Principal

Dear Families,

As we reach the final newsletter of the year, it’s hard to believe we’ve arrived at this point. Term 4 has been particularly busy, with highlights like our vibrant Colour Run, an engaging Sports Day, and the beautiful Live Nativity. The energy and enthusiasm within our community have been remarkable.

As a leader of this community, 2024 has been an incredible year to establish a firm foundation in the teaching and learning programs at St Francis of Assisi. Above all, the management of how we learn here is my most important responsibility.

At SFOA, we measure success through growth – the holistic growth of each child, academically, socially, and spiritually. I’m proud to share that we’ve achieved significant improvements in our learning data this year. This progress is a testament to our staff's dedication, consistency, and their commitment to professional development. Some of the behind-the-scenes highlights include:

Retraining all staff in our Phonics and Spelling program, PLD (Years 1–6).
Training our Reception staff in the InitiaLit and PreLit programs, including our mid-year Reception class.
Introducing the Reading Tutor program for one-on-one intervention.
Providing coaching and professional development in Explicit Direct Instruction.
Embedding The Writing Revolution program into our teaching practices.
Implementing daily Mathematics Reviews across the school (R–6).

In 2025, our focus will shift toward consolidating assessment tasks to ensure greater consistency in grading while continuing to build on the significant progress made this year.

I’ve enjoyed recent conversations with families about our learning programs and am always available for a chat about how we teach and how our students learn at SFOA. It’s clear we are building something special, and our learning data reflects that.

Initiatives in 2025
On Facebook, we’ve shared some exciting announcements for 2025:

AFL Academies: Led by local players and supported by SANFL players and coaches.
Breakfast Club: Held on alternate Fridays and supported by local businesses.
Language Lift: A new Oral Language program for the whole school.
Playgroup: Due to its success playgroup will run 2 mornings a week in 2025.
‘Positive Me’ Soccer Academy: A Year 3/4 Soccer Academy that focuses on the holistic development of the player.

Perhaps our most exciting announcement is the Strings Immersion Program for Year 3 students. In 2025, each Year 3 student will receive a strings instrument (violin or cello) and participate in small group instruction with trained tutors. They will also join ensemble lessons led by Ms. Therese O’Brien, our Year 3–6 Music Teacher. This innovative program reflects our commitment to fostering a love of music and will set SFOA apart as a leader in music education.

Capital Works
At the beginning of 2024, we hosted a Launch Night where I shared our vision for developing a Master Plan. This 10–15-year architectural roadmap will guide all capital developments at SFOA.

The Master Plan has been completed and is progressing through Catholic Education South Australia committees. It will be shared with the community at our 2025 Launch Night. It’s an unbelievably exciting vision which will position St Francis of Assisi where it should be – a place with an incredibly tightknit community but also innovative, contemporary and system leading facilities.

The first stage will include:

Major refurbishments of classroom spaces.
Transforming the piazza into a more versatile, student-centred space.

We expect this work to begin in the third quarter of 2025.

Office Refurbishment and Holiday Works
While awaiting Master Plan approvals, several smaller projects will be completed over the holidays, including:

Refurbishing the Front Office with new carpeting, cabinetry, and an updated Admin desk.
Refurbishing and adding new shade to the Junior Primary Playground.
Installing new drinking fountains across the site.

We anticipate the Front Office work will be finished during the summer holidays, but if delays occur, we’ll notify families about a temporary office setup for the start of Term

Thank You
As I reflect on this year, I want to thank you all for the warm welcome I’ve received. Just 12 months ago, I was farewelling the Yorketown community, uncertain about what lay ahead. Now, I feel immense pride leading this incredible community at St Francis of Assisi.

With our 60th anniversary in 2025, we will celebrate this school’s rich history while embracing a future full of potential.

SFOA is going places, and 2024 was just the beginning.

Wishing you all a blessed and Merry Christmas.

God Bless,
Scott

APRIM News

APRIM News Week 9

Tomorrow, we have our final End of Year Mass where we farewell our graduating students and any other members of the community who are moving on. This time of the year can bring sadness as we say farewell to friends and colleagues who are moving onto new places. Our Year 6’s are possibly feeling a number of conflicting emotions; happiness at graduating from Year 6, anxiety about what it could be like at High School and sadness at moving away from friends. I hope they all take away fond memories of their time at St Francis and that they will remember that God will always be there for them and to let the wonder of God’s love come through their lives.

Christmas is almost here! What do we think of when we hear such news? Probably, the thoughts that come to mind are those associated with the necessary preparations that go to make the day an enjoyable occasion marked by lots of food, presents, lights and tinsel. But, we know of course that the meaning of Christmas will always be the birth of Jesus, God’s Son. Christmas is an anniversary celebration of when God gave us the gift of Himself without splendour or opulence but in poverty and weakness, in the form of a tiny baby in an animal enclosure. Jesus, Son of God, emptied himself of power, privilege and possessions and was born into the human race in the humblest of manner. We saw this re-enacted in our ‘Live Nativity’ last week. Congratulations to our students who brought to life the Franciscan Tradition of a ‘Live Nativity’ and celebrated the coming of Jesus with beautiful Christmas singing and dancing.

The way that our community has rallied around and supported the St Vincent Christmas Appeal is a wonderful example for us and a great reminder of the real meaning of Christmas; the hope, peace and goodwill as we celebrate the anniversary of our Saviours birth. Thankyou for your generous donations.

Parish Christmas Fest

On Saturday a few of our children took part in the Christmas Fest that was organised by the youth coordinator of the Parish. Mwila won first prize as the best dressed. He was a Shephard along with his siblings Mwape and Leilani who also received a prize.

Below is the Timetable of Christmas Masses for Newton, Hectorville and Athelstone

Saint Francis of Assisi, Newton
Christmas Eve: 6.00pm Vigil Family Mass with Live Nativity Play, 8.00pm, Midnight (Bilingual)
Christmas Day: 9.00am, 11.00am (Italian)

The Chapel of the Holy Name, Athelstone (St Ignatius)
Christmas Eve: Tues 24 December 7.00pm Carols, 7.30pm Mass starts

Annunciation Church, Hectorville

Christmas Eve: 7:30pm (family Mass), 9:30pm and midnight (carols begin at 11:30am)

Christmas Day: 8am, 9:30 (Italian) and 11:00am

Wishing all families and blessed and safe Christmas and New Year.

Melissa Canil

APRIM

Well Being News

Online Safety

With Christmas around the corner and lots of holiday time possibly spent at home, it might be a good time to think about how you will manage devices in the home to promote safe and positive online behaviours.

Children have never been more active online, and it calls for vigilant supervision while they are learning to develop skills and strategies around online safety.

Here are some suggestions of important things to consider when thinking about ways to keep children safe and healthy online.

Set boundaries and balance from the get go and take charge

Rules and boundaries don’t stop children from having fun, they keep them safe and help them to set in place healthy online behaviours. If they aren’t enforced there is no point in having them. You will be challenged every day! Stay strong. This is not about mistrust, this is about understanding that children are learning and they will make mistakes. As they get older they can make decisions with less guidance, but for now make decisions and consider boundaries around the following:

Stay Current and Communicate

Talk to your children and talk often about their online world. Be aware of what they are enjoying, who they are playing with and what risks may present themselves. Best way to find all of this out is by talking to them whenever you can.

One of the key messages is to let children know that if they have a problem online it is always safe to tell a parent and together you will work it out in order for them to continue to play safely. This will help prevent children from keeping dangerous secrets to avoid have devices or privileges being taken away.

Use Management controls available to you

Use monitoring and filtering software to help your children to be safe in their online environment. The important features to consider would be time and curfew controls, monitoring web site visits, limiting downloads of inappropriate apps and blocking concerning websites. Remember management controls are not a ‘set and forget’ solution. Nothing will replace the most valuable safety tool for your family, ongoing and frequent communication.

Ensuring your children are safe online and developing healthy habits is such an additional challenge to the already challenging role of parenting. We hope these tips offer some support to you. A great parent resource to access information on any online safety topic is eSafety Parents.