Cardijn Connect W2, T3 2023

Congratulations to our Marcellin students and staff who took on the incredible feat of walking from McLaren Vale to Adelaide CBD last Friday, with the aim of raising much-needed funds for Hutt Street Centre. The total raised from fundraising efforts was $6869 which will go directly to supporting those experiencing homelessness in South Australia. Thank you to all who supported this cause.

If you would still like to show your support for Hutt Street Centre, the Marian Campus YCS team has also organised a walk to support the Walk a Mile in My Boots fundraiser and to raise awareness and funds for the 7,000 people experiencing homelessness in South Australia. You can make a donation at the following link: https://www.walkamile.org.au/fundraisers/ycs11307/walk-a-mile-challenge-23

This week, Marcellin staff and students put on a hot breakfast of bacon and eggs as part of Tradies National Health Month. We had a great turn out with staff and students sharing in a wonderful event that helped to deepen their connection and promote awareness.

Galilee's Year 9 Passionate Permaculture students learnt about the first permaculture principle, observe and interact, and worked together to move soil into our new raised, round garden beds. The purpose of the garden beds is to connect families, Middle School students and the parishioners through growing and harvesting.

Thank you to our Maintenance team, SA Composters and Dingo Tanks for supporting Galilee with the materials for this project.

On Friday of Week 1, we celebrated our inaugural Galilee Campus Academic Assembly where 31 students received awards. 

There were 29 students who received an Academic Endeavour award. These students demonstrated outstanding endeavour in the subjects studied in Semester 1. 

There were two students who received an Academic Excellence Award. These students achieved As in both their academic endeavour and academic grade.

To achieve at the highest level a student must be committed to their studies and strive to achieve to the best of their ability. These students have demonstrated diligence, work ethic and perseverance in their learning and have fully embraced the Marist charism of Love of Work. 

Congratulations to all our award winners. 

Last week we celebrated National Out of School Hours Care (OSHC) Educators' Day with a special morning tea to acknowledge the important contribution of our OSHC staff at Galilee.

This year's theme was “At the Heart of the Community” and we feel this couldn't be more fitting for the important work they do and support they provide to our OSHC families.

Galilee's Stage 2 Magic Harvesters have begun the term by learning about sowing and raising seeds for the Spring/Wirltuti (Kaurna) and Summer/Warltati (Kaurna) planting season. Tomato, cucumber, basil, pumpkin, and eggplant seeds were sown into seedling trays and placed in a sunny position in the hope they will germinate! Students had a sunny day to do an observational drawing of their homegroup's garden plot and noticed the many changes and many pollinators. They harvested the mandarins and enjoyed eating the delicious, juicy fruit!

During the school holidays, we held our first YCS camp of the year, which saw over 40 students participate, including members from our new YCS group at Galilee. As always, the camp provided an exceptional opportunity for personal growth, peer connections, and purposeful reflection, all while fostering a sense of community and joy. 

Across three days this week, our entire Year 7 cohort participated in a half-day excursion to the Museum of South Australia. This interactive learning experience was timed to coincide with the start of the unit on Ancient Egypt. Students visited the Egypt Room which is filled with authentic artifacts including mummies, day to day objects and a sarcophagus. There was also a replica of the Rosetta Stone – an important artifact that students have been learning about. Following the excursion to the Museum, students will be linking their experience with an opportunity to further their knowledge through an inquiry and presentation task on one aspect of Ancient Egypt.

On Monday, Year 7s and 8s at the Marian Campus were visited by author and comedian Oliver Phommavanh. Oliver presented an engaging and entertaining talk in which he shared stories about his own journey as a writer and advice for students writing either for school or for pleasure (or both!). Oliver also met with the Book Club students who enjoyed talking to him about their activities and some of their particular reading and writing interests.

Below are some comments from students about the presentations:

“I really enjoyed this visit because I thought he was funny, and it was interesting learning about him and his writing. He told us how easy it was to publish books and tips on how to write and start writing books. He explained what some of his books were about and how he wrote them for example to write Con-Nerd, and Super Con-Nerd he interviewed actual cosplayers and people who attend events such as Comic-Con and Vid-Con. Oliver has written 11 books and most of them are based on what he was like when he was younger with some embarrassing family stories.” – Kayden

"Oliver was very funny and had some great opinions. I loved how he reached out to the audience. All his jokes were funny and I am glad I got to see him and hear him speak. Thank you, Oliver, for your time, it was great to see you in person." - Tom 

"I liked how he made jokes and was funny about the things he wrote but also linked it back to writing. He told us different ways to create books with using everyday things as inspiration. I also liked how he brought in real life examples about the things he wrote, told us how he thought of the books and what inspired him to write books. He was very good and funny." - Victoria

"Oliver loves to make people laugh and to pass on his knowledge of writing. When he was little he loved writing and discovered he wanted to be a professional writer. His love of writing started when he wrote his first story on going to the zoo, his love of writing developed and now his books are read world-wide. He taught us to follow our dreams and that anything we desire is possible. His writing development is an inspiration to many. I really enjoyed learning about his stories of becoming a well know children's author."  - Elijah 

"We thought it was funny and the crowd interaction and communication was really cool. He used personal experiences and jokes as well as toys to engage the crowd. We thought it was inspirational and we really liked it." - Zoe, Georgia, Lucy and Bethany