Xavier College Gawler Belt eNewsletter

DECD Bus Update

Gawler and District College B-12 have two student free day's scheduled for Monday 5th and Tuesday 6th September, therefore no DECD buses will be running on these days. If your child utilises this service, please make alternate arrangements on these dates.

House Cross Country

Earlier this Term, students at both our Two Wells and Gawler Belt Campuses participated in Cross Country within their respective Houses. It was wonderful to see so many of our students demonstrating team pride, encouraging those who were finding it tough and embracing the overall spirit of the event.

Despite a challenging new course and some cold, wet weather for our Two Wells students, everyone participated with great enthusiasm and effort.

Congratulations to all students who finished knowing they had done their best. Thank you to all staff who helped with the individual events, whether it was marshalling, setting up the track or running with the students to encourage them to be their best.

Handley took out the win for Two Wells Campus, and Mazzarello came out on top at Gawler Belt Campus.

Gawler Show

The Gawler Show was back in full swing this year after a break in 2020 and a modified program in 2021. Xavier College has attended the Gawler Show for the past 5 years. It is a wonderful opportunity to engage with our community and to support this iconic event. This year we collaborated with St Brigid’s Catholic Primary School to showcase Catholic Education in the area. A big thank you to Dean and Phil from Property Services who helped set up our trade site, as well as staff from both Xavier and St Brigid's who made themselves available over the weekend. Two of our music students, William and Cohen, gave a fantastic performance on the main stage on Sunday, the Xavier Community is very proud of them both. Thank you to our student leaders who came and supported staff over the weekend, your support was invaluable and we hoped you all took something valuable from the experience.

Two Wells - Head of Campus

Our wonderful Tammie Haythorpe has been in overdrive for the last few weeks, as she celebrated one of her favorite times of the year – Book Week! Friday saw the culmination of celebrations with our Book Week Parade, which was held in the morning amongst glorious sunshine, and the company of family and friends. We thank Tammie and her helpers for making this week a memorable one for our students, with a variety of activities, games and events held all week. Thank you to all our families who helped with costumes and came out to support our students.

Our Year 8 cohort recently participated in an incursion with the Lumination Lab. This is an immersive technology company that uses artificial intelligences to create some exciting learning experiences. The second stage of the new building will host a VR space, so this has been a great warm up.

Congratulations to our students and staff who have participated in a variety of sporting events, such as cross country, and basketball. I am incredibly proud of our community, and felt exceptionally delighted to hear reports of our students’ sportsmanship, manners and considerate behaviour.

A reminder that we have our Athletics Carnivals coming up, as well as our subject interviews. Please watch for information about these events, and do not hesitate to contact us at any time if you have any queries or concerns.

Janet Coomber
Head of Campus - Two Wells

Two Wells - Book Week 2022

Last week we celebrated Book Week with the theme of Dreaming With Eyes Open. The Breakout Space at Two Wells Campus was magically transformed into the Xavier Zoo with loads of Australian animal displays. The student volunteers did a wonderful job of helping to make and create the displays.

Each class and OSHC room selected a Book Week book from which to create an activity or display for their classroom. Competitions and activities were run throughout the week and included creation of pet rocks and animal masks, snake visits, designing a book cover, writing a short story and concluding with the Book Week Parade on Friday.

Thank you to our staff, students and caregivers for all the hard work to ensure we had a wonderful celebration of Book Week.

Xavier College would like to acknowledge Year 8 student Jack Davey from our Two Wells Campus who has been selected in the U13 State Hockey team. He will represent South Australia at the Hockey Australia U13 Carnival held in Hobart from 28 September through to 4 October. We wish Jack and his team all the best.

Two Wells - SACPPSA Cross Country

Students from our Two Wells Campus participated in the SACPSSA Cross Country Carnival at the PAC parklands in Adelaide. This is the biggest carnival on the SACPSSA calendar, with 2500 participants competing from Catholic schools across metropolitan and regional South Australia.

Our students represented the college exceptionally well, trying their absolute best while competing, and while waiting for their races they were encouraging their peers and students from other schools to do their best.

Two Wells - Reception Liturgy

Recently the Reception classes at our Two Wells Campus participated in their very first Liturgy Service with Fr Chris. The Liturgy offered students the opportunity to reflect on how ‘Gods Light Shines Through Creation’. Students sung, prayed and offered their own reflections. They displayed RUAH throughout the Service.

Two Wells - Humanities

Caring for Special Places - Reception students have been learning to identify places that are special to them. They thought about where their special places are, how they make them feel, and how they can be cared for.

Maps - Year 1 students have been learning to sort and interpret information displayed on maps. They explored a world globe as a round model of the Earth and created a 3D model of our world using a balloon.

Adele Taylor
Junior Primary R-2 Coordinator

Two Wells - CFS Visit

This Term our Year 5 students are exploring natural disasters as a part of the HASS unit. On the 30 August, the Year 5 cohort were lucky enough to have the CFS come out to have a chat about bushfires and what we can do to prevent them. Students had the opportunity to ask questions, sit and climb through the fire trucks and even got a turn using the fire hose. Our Year 5 students now have a better understanding of how dangerous bushfires can be, how easily they can start and spread, and the strategies that we can take to prevent them.

Kayla Carbone
Teacher

Gawler Belt - Head of Campus

The significant challenges that we have collectively had to navigate over the past two years have clearly highlighted the importance of each of us being connected to each other and the importance of belonging. At Xavier a core part of our Salesian Charter is to be ‘A home that welcomes’ and a school in which each and every student is known and belongs. At the centre of our Salesian education is our Oratory system. The Oratory provides the ideal supportive environment for students to develop their social skills, establish lifelong friendships, and to grow and to develop into competent and confident young adults. Xavier College is proud to be one of the only schools in the State that has such a highly structured vertically grouped pastoral care system that at all times has the students’ interests and personal wellbeing of central importance to everything we do.

SPECIAL SCHOOLTV REPORT: Building Belonging Post Pandemic

Having a sense of belonging involves more than simply knowing other people. It is also focused on gaining acceptance, attention and support from others, as well as having the opportunity to provide the same to other people. When the pandemic interrupted our lives and changed the way we live, this meant that suddenly many of our young people’s main sources of connection with peers and extended family members was removed overnight without warning. As human beings, we have a basic emotional and biological need for connection. It provides us with feelings of identity, security, support, acceptance, and community.

Students who have a sense of belonging will experience these feelings which in turn supports their academic, psychological and social development. When young people come together again after a period of instability, there is a period of adjustment. Whilst the rules of the group may be established, acceptance remains paramount and can result in some behaviours that are far from rational, making it difficult for their brain to focus on things such as learning. All these factors combined, leave young people open to being vulnerable. It can sometimes tempt them into making choices or becoming involved in situations they might not ordinarily consider. As a result of the pandemic, there are still many young people struggling to connect and regain their sense of belonging. This Special Report provides guidance to families who find themselves in this situation. We hope you take a moment to reflect on the information offered, and as always, we welcome your feedback. If this raises any concerns for you, a loved one or the wellbeing of your child, please seek medical or professional help.

John Cameron
Head of Campus - Gawler Belt

Click here to read the specialist report

Gawler Belt - Campus Captains

Congratulations to Stefanie Cirillo, Zachary Sadiwnyk and Keeley Hurst on being elected as the Gawler Belt Campus Captains for 2023.

This year Xavier College has changed the student leadership structure to have three Captains, all of whom must be Year 12 students, there is no longer a male and female section.

Stefanie, Zach and Keeley were all chosen by their peers and members of staff. We would also like to acknowledge all students who ran for captaincy and the stellar effort made as they delivered their individual speeches to both College leadership and their peers.

Gawler Belt - Citizen Science Project

Recently Old Scholar Ms Laura Hale (class of 2012) visited Gawler Belt Campus from the Australian Wine Research Institute as part of the Citizen Science Project. The project engages school students to act as citizen scientists, isolating yeasts found in the Australian environment and contributing to a significant collection of yeast strains. Students were introduced to real-world scientific research methods and gained an understanding of microbiological and molecular techniques.

Gawler Belt - Handley Cup

Xavier College students recently travelled to St Mark's College in Port Pirie to compete in the Handley Cup. This is an annual event where both College’s strive for the trophy named in honour of the late Fr Dennis Handley, who spent time as Principal at both schools. This year St Mark’s won two out of the three shields for both netball and football with Xavier taking out the shield for soccer. It was a great display of unity and sporting talent from both sides and is always an important addition to the calendar every year.

Gawler Belt - St Columba Open Sporting Exchange

This year was Xavier’s turn to host the annual St Columba Open Sporting Exchange. Our netball, basketball, football, and boys soccer teams all participated, and for the very first time, we were excited to include a girls soccer team. This is a long-standing tradition between Xavier and St Columba, and one which will continue for many years to come. I was so proud of the way our students conducted themselves throughout the day. They displayed a competitive spirit but ensured they were respectful towards their team-mates, the opposition and the referees and umpires. Xavier was very successful, winning 4 out of the 5 trophies on offer. A big thank you to all the staff who took time out of their schedule to coach their respective teams, and help make the day run smoothly.

Dave Savino
Sports Coordinator

During Terms 2 and 3, Year 10 and 11 students were given the opportunity to improve their leadership skills and increase the community feel of Xavier College by running various activities for Year 7 and 8 students. These activities included board games, arts and crafts, a jazz club, tower building, and netball and basketball tournaments. The activities enabled younger students to form new connections and helped to build the leadership skills of older students.

Ben Whyte
College Counsellor and Teacher

Throughout the mentor’s program, students were invited to build the tallest towers out of marshmallows and spaghetti; this was a very popular activity. Over the past seven weeks, students were able to develop great teamwork skills as they were communicating with new peers. At the start of every week, students were so excited and eager to build more towers as they had the opportunity to talk to people that they wouldn’t normally. This program not only lets students express their ideas but allowed them to be more confident, try new things, and be themselves. This also helped them understand how leaders impact their attitudes towards school, which inspires them to be a leader in the future and continue these cool and fun relationships.

Stefanie Cirillo
Year 11 Mentor

Gawler Belt - Youth Parliament

Youth Parliament is a program for youth aged 15 to 25 who are interested in politics, debate, getting involved in their community, or even just wanting to try something new. Youth Parliament teaches participants skills such as public speaking, speech writing, bill writing, and debating whilst also teaching them about the Australian legal and political system. This is my third year as a participant and this year I was involved in the community support and human services communitee. We wrote a bill on supporting families who are carers of those with disabilities. In the second week of the Term 2 holidays, we debated this bill, along with many other bills, in South Australia’s Parliament House where our bill passed in both Houses. The bills that are written at Youth Parliament are sent to actual politicians and are sometimes passed as actual law. Last year I was involved in the gender and sexual diversity committee where we wrote a bill on mandatory consent education in schools and this year it passed in Federal Parliament and will become a part of our schooling as of 2023. Youth Parliament is a fun experience for all and a good way to get connected with other likeminded individuals and politicians from all over South Australia.

Emily Grinter
Year 12 student

Gawler Belt - Year 12 Formal

At the end of Week one, our Year 12 cohort gathered for their Formal at Sfera’s. The Year 12 Formal has always been an important event in the College calendar for students, teachers and caregivers as it signifies the beginning of the transition from formal schooling to the next chapter of study or work. It is a time to celebrate the last year of their schooling, sharing special memories of celebration, dedication and hard work with their fellow students and teachers.