“Do not think of the present but of the great future.”

(St Mary of the Cross MacKillop, 1876)

Whitefriars Catholic School

Newsletter

10 March 2021 Term 1, Week 7

Dear Parents and Community Members,

Learning Conversations with Child/Parent/Teacher

At Whitefriars Catholic School, we believe that the child is at the centre of the

learning process and, consequently, we ask that the child is present during

learning conversations. This empowers the children to talk about their own

learning and be an active member in the conversation.

On occasions, parents may wish to speak with the teacher without the child

present. In these situations, I ask parents to make a separate time to see the

teacher.

Learning Meetings will predominantly occur in Week 9 Term 1 (Monday 22

March to Friday 26 March). Our late evening will be Wednesday 24th March.

An invitation to book for a Learning Conversation will be sent out shortly.

As we work in partnership with you, I ask all families to ensure that you make a

time for these learning conversations. We know from research that your

engagement in the learning process improves learning outcomes.

Yellow lines on the side of driveways

To best guide the school community to ensure that cars do not partly block

driveways preventing local residents from exiting their homes, the council is

currently consulting with the residents in Beaufort and Ranelagh Streets close to

the school in regards to short yellow lines on either side of the driveways. If it

goes ahead, we hope that we can avoid any future issues.

In the meantime, please ensure that you speak to any family members that come

and collect children from school to ensure that their park does not encroach any

driveway.

Parent Business Directory

Parents in our school often share with me that it is a good idea to know what

businesses are owned by other families in our school community to enable

greater opportunity to support one another. The importance of this has been

certainly accentuated by COVID-19 pandemic.

We regularly update our ‘Parents Business Directory’ and we make this

available on our school website and as a hard copy in the front office. If you

wish to add your family business when the Directory is next updated, please

email amattiazzo@whitefriars.catholic.edu.au

Current COVID-19 Guidelines

Thank you to all community members who diligently scan our QR Code each

time you come into the school.

As we cannot hold an outdoor event with more than 200 people, we have had to

place a restriction to Family Picnic numbers. Thank you for your

understanding.

45 Beaufort Street,

Woodville Park, 5011 Phone - 8178 7700

Email address:

info@whitefriars.catholic.edu.au Our website:

www.whitefriars.catholic.edu.au

Principal: Frank Congedi

Deputy Principal: Catia Frasca APRIM: Joshua Page

OSHC & Vacation Care Phone: 8244 4155 or 0459 988 149

Croydon Park Parish Office Phone: 8346 0944

For your diary…..

Term 1 Friday 12 March - Mass, 4B, 9.15am Wednesday 17 March - Swimming Carnival - Assembly, 1M, 1NK, 1RK, 1V (parents invited), 2.15pm - School Board, 7pm Thursday 18 March - Carnevale Day Friday 19 March - St Joseph’s Day, whole school Mass, 9.15am Sunday 21 March - Family Picnic, McInerney Reserve, 12—3pm 22 March—26 March - Learning Conversations Week Monday 23 March - Sacramental Parent Meeting, 7pm in Hall Friday 26 March - Mass, 4L, 9.15am Wednesday 31 March - Parents & Friends Meeting, 7pm Friday 2 April - Good Friday Sunday, 4 April - Easter Sunday Monday 5 April - Easter Monday Tues 6—Thurs 8 April - Year 5/6 Camp Friday 10 April - Last day of Term 1, students dismissed at 12.30pm

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Third Week of Lent We are now in the third week of Lent with the Project Compassion story of Oliva, a

22-year-old woman from Tanzania. She did not have the opportunity to go to school and

was embarrassed that she was unable to read, write or count. As an adult, her business was losing money because

she couldn’t add up her money and give the right change to customers.

Then Oliva enrolled in Caritas Australia’s literacy and numeracy classes. She also set up a home classroom to

teach her neighbours, for free, because they were too shy to attend larger classes.

Oliva has now graduated, attendance at her classes are growing, her kiosk is thriving and she is helping her

children with their homework. She aims to become a pastor and run for leadership in the next local election - to

help her community to ‘Be More.’

“Aspire not to have more, but to be more.” Please support Project Compassion: lent.caritas.org.au

St. Joseph’s Day – Whole School Mass – Friday 19th Marc

Next Friday (19th of March) we will be celebrating the feast day of St. Joseph, the Father of Jesus, with a Whole

School Mass for students at 9:15am in the Mary MacKillop Hall. Unfortunately due to COVID-19 restrictions we

are unable to invite parents, and parishioners at this time – we hope to be able to invite the wider school

community to our liturgical events in the near future.

We also cannot invite the Sisters of St. Joseph’s, as we would normally to thank them for their trailblazing work in

establishing our school in the past. We look forward to acknowledging the Josephite Sisters in the near future

when restrictions allow.

World Day of Prayer

Last Friday (5th March) was World Day of Prayer, and our 12 Social Justice

Leaders were invited to attend a prayer service in our region at the Salvation

Army Church in Arndale. This prayer service was attended by approximately

50 people from churches of different denominations around the Croydon Park

area, to prayer for the country of Vanuatu using the theme of “Build on a

strong foundation”. Our students represented the Croydon Park Parish at this

service, and we were asked to perform the gospel during the service. The

Gospel came from the book of Matthew (7: 21, 24-27) – and spoke that to

follow in Jesus’ footsteps, a person should build their house upon solid rock,

for those that build their house on sand are foolish. Our students did a

wonderful job of presenting this gospel using a variety of different props, and

performing on the day with only a handful of practices, they represented our

school proudly.

Next year’s World Day of Prayer will be hosted at St. Margaret Mary’s Church in Croydon Park, and we look

forward to working with St. Patricks School and St. Margaret’s Mary School to prepare this service.

Community Prayer

Community Prayer will be led by the Year 1 Unit on Monday March 15th (Week 8)

Upcoming Masses

Week 7 – Year 4B Mass – Friday 12th March – 9:15am at Mater Dei Church

Week 8 – Whole School Mass for Students - St Joseph’s Day – Friday 19th March – 9:15am in the Hall

Have a wonderful week,

Josh Page

APRIM

2

We will be welcoming family members for the upcoming two assemblies for the Reception Unit and Year 1 Unit. This

will be achieved by reducing the number of student audience so we do not exceed 277 people in the hall. This will enable

family members to come and see their child present at assembly for these two year levels.

Thank you your understanding and commitment to the safety of all.

Kind regards

Frank Congedi

The following students celebrate birthdays from 10th March to 16th March:

Kaira Bansal, Olivia Butler, Nicolas Collins, Grace Critchley, Luca Di Mella, Elle Karidis, Aladdin Kosowski, Brock Kilvert,

Renata Rinaldi and Matilda Scholes.

Whitefriars Parents & Friends

EASTER RAFFLE—Families are asked to donate Easter goods for prizes for our Easter Raffle. These can be left at the office by Monday 29th March. This raffle is for the students only (raffle books will not be sent home for sale) with donations of Easter goods received from families being divided into equal prizes per class and drawn on Thursday, 1st April. Tickets will be $1 each and each child is limited to one ticket. They will be sold by class teachers in the classrooms from Monday, 8th April. Funds raised will aid Project Compassion.

AFTER SCHOOL SPORTS RESULTS

Sport Division/Team 1 Score Team 2 Score

Basketball Year 6/7 Whitefriars 38 St Paul’s Suns 4

Tuesday, 4 May, 2021 at Athletics SA Stadium, Mile End

HOUSE COLOURED T-SHIRTS

All students are required to wear T-Shirts (not tank tops) in their house team colours on Sports

Day. Please confirm your children’s house colour with their teachers or the office staff if you are not

sure which team they are in.

These T-shirts can be purchased from Lowes but will need to be ordered beforehand. Samples of

colours and sizes are available at the store until the 3rd April.

Please order your T-shirts during this time (by 3rd April at the latest). Orders will not be able to be

made after that date. This will enable sufficient time for collection of ordered T-Shirts before Sports

Day (possibly in the second week of the school holidays).

More information about Sports Day will be distributed by Aidan Brigden soon.

Can you PLEASE help out in the Canteen? • As we are growing as a school, the Canteen is in need of help from parents and carers to

provide this service for our students. If you have a current Catholic clearance (we are grateful to have had so many applications for clearances recently and for the many parents and carers previously registered to volunteer) and a few hours that you can spare either once per week, fortnight or term, your help would be very much appreciated by the children. If you would like to know more, please see Erica or Iris in the Canteen.

• Please also remember that the Canteen is closed on Mondays and to provide cutlery in

lunch boxes for your children if they need it to eat their lunches, eg yoghurts, rice, pasta.

Single Use Plastic Ban

From the 1st March

the SA Government

has banned single-use

plastics.

The Canteen

will now provide

wooden recyclable

spoons and forks for

lunch orders only.

Please provide your

own cutlery if your

child will need it to eat

their lunches sent from

home.

If your child has

forgotten cutlery, a

reusable cutlery pack

will be available for

purchase at the Canteen

at a cost of $1.00.

March Webinars for Parents and Educators

Further Information and Registration https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/sa-catholic-educator-responding-to-shut-down-and-disengaged-students-tickets-139318606703

Further Information and Registration https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/sa-catholic-caregiver-responding-to-children-who-shut-down-and-dont-talk-tickets-139319445211

Presented by the LBI Foundation in Partnership with the Federation of Cath-

olic School Parent Communities

Dr Ivan Raymond Clinical Psychologist, PhD

www.lbi.org.au

Ms Kylie Agnew Registered Psychologist and Teacher