Xavier College Gawler Belt eNewsletter

Principal Welcome

As the third term comes to an end, I would like to thank all staff and students for their efforts over the term and wish everyone a safe and enjoyable break.

Please note school will finish early (2pm) for the last day of term, Friday 24 September.

Year 12 Term 4

For our Year 12 students Term 4 is short but very busy.

Year 12 Penultimate Day Tuesday 19 October 2021

House Assemblies

Year 12 Final Day Wednesday 20 October 2021

College Assembly

Evening Graduation Ceremony and Presentation

Year 12 Graduation Dinner Wednesday 1 December 2021

I would also like to congratulate all of the 2022 Student Leaders:

UNIFORM SHOP SCHOOL HOLIDAY OPENING TIMES

The Uniform shop will be open in the school holidays on October 7 from 9am to 1pm.

Two Wells - Junior School

It has been a busy but fantastic third term at our Two Wells campus. Amongst some excellent teaching and learning we have also held events such as our 100 Days of School, Father’s Day and Special Person’s Day Liturgies, Book Week, Italian Day, Cross Country, and Gymnastics.

I take this opportunity to acknowledge our incredible staff, who go above and beyond for our students and community.

Our Father’s Day and Special Person’s Day liturgies were held in class, and had a focus on family, love and belonging, and acknowledged that all families are different. We were thrilled with the way our students engaged with the different parts of a prayer service, and were able to articulate what they were grateful for in their own families.

You will have noticed that our temporary transportable classrooms have been located on site in preparation for Stage 2 of our building. This is an exciting time in the development of our campus, and one we are looking forward to sharing with you as our campus continues to grow.

As the term draws to a close, the holiday break is a good time to prepare for the final term by ensuring your child has a college hat, and that any action plans and medical information is up to date. Please contact us if you need to check any of this.

I wish you all the best for a wonderful term break, and already look forward to seeing you all in Term 4.

Janet Coomber
Head of Campus Two Wells

Reception Jefferys and Reception Monticelli held a class Prayer Service to celebrate our father’s/special people in our lives. The students drew a picture of their dad or special person then placed it around our prayer space. Students engaged in wonderings, readings, songs, reflections, and prayers during the service.

Two Wells - Breakout Space

What an exciting Term, during Week 6 we held our first Book Week!! Each year across Australia, the Children’s Book Council of Australia (CBCA) celebrates the joy of reading by celebrating Book Week. The 2020 theme was Old Worlds, New Worlds, Other Worlds. The Breakout Space was transformed into a magical environment that represented the different worlds. Book Week was full of excitement whilst students joined in with class and lunchtime activities and games centred around the Short-Listed Books of 2021.

For the Book Week parade students dressed as their favourite Book Week character, and WOW the families and students were very creative. We were delighted to see smiles on everyone’s faces, and I would like to thank our community for their support. It was a time that we all joined together as one, a memory that will last with us for ever.

The Student Library Volunteers were very busy during recess preparing displays and activities for Book Week. I am very proud of our Student Volunteers.

I asked the following Student Library Volunteers What did you love about Book Week?

Jasmine Year 6 - “I loved the Library Lessons because it had lots of fun activities to do. I loved the Filter character game, What Book is That?"
Chelsea Year 6 - “I loved Book Week because all of the kids came happy to school in their costumes, and I loved wrapping the books for the activities and getting the displays ready.”
Reach Year 6 - “Dressing up was great fun and the costumes were very creative."

Two Wells - Excursion to see Shrek the Musical

On the 10 September the whole Two Wells Campus went to see Shrek the Musical performed by the students from the Gawler Belt Campus.

The Premier’s Reading Challenge is a literacy engagement program that was introduced by the Premier in 2004 to encourage students to read more books. Reading not only improves literacy skills, it keeps your brain active. Knowledge is a powerful tool that will assist our students with their study, and with everyday life.

Every week all classes have a regular Library Lesson, and all year levels have the opportunity to participate in the Challenge. Students are required to read 12 books between the beginning of the school year and early September. So many students discover new genres and read more than 12 books.

This year we had an outstanding result, we received 100% participation. This is an amazing achievement in our first year. During this time a total of 150 Picture books, 420 Non-Fiction books, and 931 Fiction books were read by the students who joined in the Challenge.

Premier’s Reading Challenge Certificates and Medals will be presented to students in Term 4.

Tammie Haythorpe
Student Hub Technician

Two Wells - House Cross Country

On Wednesday 16 September, students from the Two Wells campus competed in a House Cross Country event. This event involved students walking and/or running around a course set up around the school. The goal was to finish as many laps as possible over a 15-minute time limit. Each lap was recorded and counted towards their Oratory team with the final results awarding Mazzarello as the winning house:

1^st – Mazzarello 173

2^nd – Occhiena 164

3^rd – Handley 160

4^th – deSales 149

The event was a huge success! All the students demonstrated their personal best to complete as many laps as they could, and they demonstrated good sportsmanship skills towards peers in other house teams. Mazzarello Oratory leader, Alissa Hazeal was very proud of her team and said that ‘they did pretty good’ and also ‘that it was nice to get outside in the nice weather for a run’. We look forward to this event continuing for many years to come.

Nathan Clarke
Primary 3 – 5 Coordinator

Two Wells - Football

On Thursday September 2, students from Year 4 to 6, and some Year 10’s travelled to Ridley Reserve to compete in the Outer Northern Catholic Schools Cluster Football Carnival. The day was a great success, with all students having fun and giving their best effort over the whole day. The Year 10’s were amazing and performed the roles of coaches and umpires; working well and building positive relationships with the younger students. Blake (Year 4) shared that the day was ‘super fun’ and that he ‘enjoyed working with the older kids’. Amelia (Year 6) thought that ‘it was good to play against lots of schools’ and her highlight was ‘kicking lots of goals’.

Nathan Clarke
Primary 3 – 5 Coordinator

SCHOOL STUDENTS UNDERTAKE A FUTURE FOCUSSED CAREER IN WORLD CLASS MANUFACTURING

This year Xavier College has established a formal partnership with TAFE SA with the view to creating a skilled and diverse workforce for the future shipbuilding industry and the recently announced submarine manufacturing industry which is an integral part of the new AUKUS agreement.

A total of fourteen students here at Xavier are currently in the closing stages of successfully completing a Certificate II in Engineering Pathways. The Certificate course is delivered here on site by a fully qualified TAFE lecturer in the College’s state of the art Metals facility. The course will provide the students with the start of a formal work ready pathway to work for companies such as BAE Systems Maritime Australia which has been contracted to build the next generation of frigates for the Royal Australian Navy, the program here at the College is designed to prepare school students for future job opportunities.

BAE Systems Maritime Australia Managing Director, Craig Lockhart, says programs such as this are important in creating long and rewarding careers in the industry.

“Now more than ever, creating new jobs, especially for young people, is a national priority and we’re pleased to play our part in supporting the nation’s economic recovery,” he says.

Hayden Lyall is a Year 12 student who is part of the first cohort of students enrolled in the Certificate course here at the College. Since joining the program, Hayden has learnt to MIG weld, cut, shape and fabricate metal within set tolerances, reduce stock material within set tolerances on a metal lathe, interpret technical drawings and work effectively in a team.

In 2022 the College also plans to launch a Certificate II in Kitchen Operations. The course once again will be delivered here on site by a fully qualified TAFE lecturer who has extensive experience in the restaurant industry.

John Cameron - Head of Campus

Gawler Belt - Ella Pix - Art Competition winner!

Gifted Awareness Week was celebrated across all CESA school in May this year, with the theme “Thriving as Gifted”. Staff attended professional learning, and many Xavier College students participated in a range of available activities during the week, including an Art Competition and Lego Competition.

Expert judges from Flinders University staff delighted in seeing the abilities of our students. All students received participation certificates signed by Dr Neil McGoran, and the winners received both prize winning certificates and book vouchers to Dymocks. Two first prize art competition students received honourable mention certificates as being overall competition winners.

We are very excited to announce that Ella Pix, Year 8 Occhiena student, was the winner of the Years 7, 8 and 9 category in the Art Competition. She created a beautiful piece of art, which received outstanding reviews from the judging panel. The theme of the piece was, “I love my brain because…….”. Ella received a congratulatory certificate and gift voucher at a celebratory afternoon tea with Dr Rebecca Napier, Gifted Advisor: Learning Diversity and Wellbeing, held at Xavier College on Tuesday 21 September. While Ella is very modest about her achievement, the College should be very proud of Ella’s success. Well done Ella!

Jo Bakker
Coordinator - Inclusive Education

Gawler Belt - House Cross Country Shield

House Cross Country:

The Xavier College Interschool Cross Country Competition was held recently, with the top four boys and girls from each group making it through to the final. Well done to all students who gave it their best and made the benchmarks. Big congratulations to the Mazzarello house for winning the House Cross Country shield in 2021. Incredible effort!

Final Standings:

PLACE	HOUSE	POINTS
1^st	Mazzarello	682
2^nd	Handley	680
3^rd	Occhiena	649
4^th	de Sales	587

House Cross Country Champions and Runner up

Gawler Belt - Shrek The Musical

On September 10 and 11 students from the Gawler Belt campus, had the opportunity of performing Shrek the Musical at the Shedley Theatre in Elizabeth. The cast, orchestra and crew shared their amazing talents and artistic flair to excited audience members and performed a total of three shows; all of which were sold out.

After many months of rehearsals and contending with various obstacles, namely the Covid pandemic, the students were ecstatic and relieved to highlight their hard work on the main stage and were thankful for the opportunity to perform.

The performances were thoroughly enjoyed by all and highlighted the professionalism, dedication, and growth the students had developed from this unique and valuable experience.

Many thanks must go to the production team, staff and parents who have worked tirelessly and committed time and effort for the success of this production. We look forward to our 2023 production, which will indeed be another showstopper!

Positive Education - R U OK Week

We recently held ‘R U OK? Day’ here at Gawler Belt, it's a day that aims to inspire every Australian to make time for the ones who matter to them, to encourage others to seek help if they need it and to follow up to ensure support is being provided.

To highlight R U OK? Day, our Student Leaders hosted a range of activities throughout the week to help celebrate and promote wellbeing among students, as well as a BBQ lunch to help raise awareness of R U OK? Day.

We were also fortunate enough to welcome Dr Naomi Rutten, who explained the importance of wellbeing to our Years 10-12, while students in Years 7- 9 participated in activities promoting the importance of connectedness and how to identify when someone is not themselves.

House Directors Pastoral Care

and

Ben Whyte College Counsellor

R U OK? - Video by Student Leaders

Gawler Belt - Pedal Prix

Xavier College Pedal Prix team recently celebrated the 2021 season by a Pizza lunch and presentation of participation certificates. We farewelled our graduating rider, Isaak Eland, who received a trophy created by Plasma Art.

Unfortunately, our three final races for the season at Tailem Bend and Murray Bridge were cancelled, but we were grateful that we were able to compete in two races this year. We welcomed many new members who displayed enthusiasm and the team continues to build with positive relationships and great fitness.

We’d like to thank staff at Xavier College throughout the season for assisting the team by supervising training, assisting with administration, assisting with equipment and general positive support. We are grateful to all the families who have supported the team this year, especially those who have taken on roles to assist and completed the volunteer process.

Thank you to our volunteers who continue to assist with the team on the mechanics squad, despite having no children currently enrolled on the school. Their continued efforts are awesome! The Pedal Prix team is also very grateful to our sponsor for this year, Kylean Business Solutions. It has been great having you on board.

We look forward to the 2022 and hopefully full involvement in all available races.

Jo Bakker and Rob Welsh

Team Managers

Gawler Belt - English - Macbeth

Recently the year 10’s studied Shakespearean texts in their English classes and were visited by Bell Shakespeare who performed Macbeth: The Rehearsal.

The performance for Macbeth was an interesting and helpful way to show us what Shakespeare's play was about. The class gave it a rating and the average rating was around a seven out of ten, so the play was much enjoyed by the class! Overall, I personally enjoyed the show. I found it fun and interesting, and it helped me understand what the story line is through the extra little details that are crucial to the play and some of the language used in it.

Olivia Year 10

When I heard that we were going to have a Shakespeare performance, I wasn’t overly sure on how it would be given Elizabethan English is very different and hard to understand in comparison to modern English. However, the performance from Bell Shakespeare was actually really good; it was quite entertaining and helped explain Shakespeare’s plays in a more modern way because the actors were explaining the storyline in modern English as they performed. Overall, it was a good performance, getting teachers and students involved, and was a good learning experience.

Tommi Year 10

Ciara Ames
Curriculum Leader - English

Gawler Belt - English - Year 8 Webinar with author, Nat Amoore!

As part of their independent reading study in English, the Year 8 students engaged in a Webinar with author, Nat Amoore. Nat spoke about the construction of dialogue to create an authentic character voice. The students then applied this in their assignments, where they produced a script, based on the characters from their independent reading texts.

On the incursion we learned about ways dialogue is said differently, depending on the person you are speaking to.

Samuel - Year 8

Dialogue is not just words and writing. It is more about how different characters act and talk. Many activities were provided which helped us understand what the presenter talked about. For example, there was a table that got our minds thinking, how would a shy girl talk or a dog talk, etc. to answer a specific question.

Grace - Year 8

Ciara Ames
Curriculum Leader - English

Gawler Belt - Music - News

The music department has been busier than ever over the past few months. As well as preparing for the musical Shrek, we have had Little Big Band perform at the ‘Riverside Music Festival’, as well as various students taking part in significant extra curricular learning activities. Elijah Kelly and Jai Carson both passed a highly selective audition process and participated in State Music Camp. Both Jai and Elijah worked alongside professional musicians in an orchestral setting at Adelaide University. Their hard work paid off and they performed a very successful concert program in Elder Hall. Layne Bailey was selected to participate in the JazzSa Superband program. Layne performed brilliantly at the final concert and really enjoyed the experience. Congratulations Elijah, Jai and Layne!

Our next music event will be Xavier in Concert, on Friday 15 October. This is an opportunity to show case our talented music students. There will be a number of solos as well as performances by our class bands and extra curricular ensembles. ***MASKS MUST BE WORN***.

To book tickets, visit: https://www.trybooking.com/BUETB

Leanne Savill

Music Coordinator

‘The SA Music Camp was an extremely fun time for myself, the progress everyone made for the concert on the first to the last day was great and we all learnt our parts very well. For myself I found that I learnt so much that I had no idea about during the tutorials and that one week of music has definitely providing a great amount of knowledge that I will use forever in my life. The auditions were good too as we got a wide range of pieces we could choose that we would like to play. Overall the experience of the camp was very enjoyable and it was also great to make some percussionist friends.’

Elijah Kelly

On the evening of Thursday the 17th of June, I performed with the JazzSA Superband 2 at the Norwood Hotel. I auditioned for the Superband program late last year, and was lucky enough to get into one of the three Big Bands playing 2nd chair Tenor Saxophone. The program runs all year, and we get new music and a new director each school term before performing at the end of said term. Overall, I find the program very beneficial, and I learn a lot from it. It is especially useful to have a wide group of similarly aged peers to play with and learn from that I never would have met otherwise. The performance went fantastically and was a lot of fun. We played a wide variety of 6 pieces, from the bold, intricate free jazz of Egon by Dean Pocra, to the huge, brash, blazing sounds of Charles Mingus' Fables of Faubus and Better Git It In Your Soul. I enjoy playing in the Superband a ton, and really learn a lot from it. I look forward to the rest of year in the program and would highly recommend looking into auditioning next year for anyone keen on playing big band jazz!

Layne Bailey

Inclusive Education

On Friday 17 September we went to the Hewett Community Centre to attend the Inclusive Employment Expo. We found out about how you get a job, work experience and volunteering. Kaine’s favourite thing was the fidget spinners we were given and the joke he told when we played a game. Seth’s favourite thing was getting a pair of sunnies and talking to people. Keegan enjoyed the lollies and listening about what jobs are out there. We found it interesting. It was nice to enjoy the time with Mrs Blesing and Mrs Bakker.

By Kaine, Keegan and Seth