Dear Parents & Caregivers,

Welcome back to school for term 3! The term ahead promises to be very busy and rewarding. In addition to their classroom learning, the children are enjoying the opportunity for some fun and physical activity as they participate in the Footsteps dance program.

Classes have been busily preparing their Artwork for our Exhibition on Tuesday 13 August. This year we have entered our exhibition as part of the SALA (South Australian Living Arts) Festival and as such it will be open to the public on Wednesday 14 August. Along with other schools we are in the running for the best schools entry in the festival. Our theme is ‘One Small Step for….Art!’ and this is to coincide with the celebrations for the 50^th anniversary of the Moon Landing. Our individual and collective pieces will reflect this momentous occasion.

Book Week will be celebrated during week 5 of this term, from 19-23 August. Classes will be celebrating all things ‘books’ throughout the week, culminating in our annual parade and dress up day on Friday. 

There are many other significant events and activities happening this term, and I encourage all families to check in with notifications on the SZapp on a regular basis.

 Generally speaking, our students wear their uniform correctly and with pride. I want to remind you of some important aspects of our uniform:

• Sports uniform is worn on the days students have their Sports lessons (either with Mr D or with their class teacher). Additionally, if a child has a sports training that occurs at school, they may wear sports uniform on that day
• Students should wear their full and correct formal uniform at all other times
• Ties are a compulsory part of the uniform and need to be worn
• Students should wear white socks with their sports uniform – black socks are not acceptable
• A hat is to be worn for play, at all times
• Shoulder length hair should be tied back at all times

One aspect of our school uniform that causes some ongoing conversation is the colour of sneakers. I advise that, from the commencement of the 2020 school year, it will be an expectation that students wear sneakers that are predominantly either white or black. Other colours will not be permitted from next year. Whilst this is the current policy, it has not been strongly enforced in recent times. It will be enforced from the beginning of 2020. This gives families six months to address this directive. 

Families are advised that the due date for Return to School in 2020 has now passed. We have commenced planning for the 2020 school year on the assumption that families who have not advised otherwise, are returning. Parents are reminded that St. Joseph’s Kingswood School Board policy is that two terms notice is required if children are not returning to school the following year and two terms school fees are applied.

On 8 August, Catholics in Australia celebrate the feast day of St. Mary of the Cross Mackillop, our first and Patron Saint. This is a very sacred and important celebration of St. Mary Mackillop, whose story is so much intertwined with that of our school community, which was originally founded while Mary was working in Adelaide. Students have been engaging with the life and story of Mary Mackillop and as a school we will celebrate her feast day with Mass on Friday 9^th August. All families are warmly invited to attend Mass with us, in honour of St. Mary of the Cross Mackillop. The following prayer is inspired by the life and legacy of Mary:

Mary MacKillop Prayer

Ever generous God,
You inspired Saint Mary MacKillop
To live her life faithful to the Gospel of Jesus Christ
and constant in bringing hope and encouragement
to those who were disheartened, lonely or needy.
With confidence in your generous providence
and through the intercession of Saint Mary MacKillop
We ask that you grant our request……………….
We ask that our faith and hope be fired afresh by the Holy Spirit
so that we too, like Mary MacKillop, may live with courage, trust and openness.
Ever generous God hear our prayer.
We ask this through Jesus Christ. Amen.

God bless,

Phil Schultz.

Hi all, and welcome back to Term 3. I hope you all had a great holiday period and were able to share some rewarding times with your children during the break. We ended up going to Melrose for the third year in a row. We love being away from the day-to-day distractions and the kids love making new friends and riding their bikes around each day. I was even able to head up the hill a couple of times on my own mountain bike which was nice.

On Monday of week 1 our staff continued their conversations with Matt, our Apple Specialist, on how to best use our Apple products. Our staff have implemented many new initiatives to enhance their own development and the learning in their classrooms over the past two years. Matt has been so impressed he has developed a Professional Development opportunity for fellow educators from around Australia to come and visit our school to see what we’ve been doing. This event is called ‘Apple Bite’ and will occur on Tuesday the 10^th of September. On this day we will have visitors come into classrooms and view some of the exciting things that Matt has been supporting our staff with. These fellow educators may then take some of our ideas back to their schools and implement these strategies with their students.

Over the past 2 weeks we had visits from Jason and Pete who work with schools to develop and design new nature play spaces. As you may have heard we are in the process of updating the playground in the North East corner of our school. This process started with a meeting with staff on Tuesday of Week 1 and discussions with students and parents on Wednesday of Week 2. These meetings were highly successful and highlighted the importance of play and how beneficial this is to children. We are very much looking forward to seeing what they come up with after the consultations. We are hoping to have some kind of concept drawings before the end of the term. We will keep you posted.