Phonological and phonemic awareness is a significant component in reading development. Phonological awareness is the ability to hear and manipulate units of sound in spoken language such as rhyme, syllables, and letter sounds. Phonemic awareness is sub-skill of phonological awareness. It is the ability to identify, say and manipulate the smallest sounds in words (phonemes).

At McAuley Community School, Educators use the Heggerty Phonemic Awareness curriculum to develop all learners phonological and phonemic awareness skills. This learning occurs daily as part of our Word Study Lessons.  We assess learners’ phonemic awareness skills using DIBELS in reception and year 1.  For learners in our literacy intervention program, we use DIBELS progress monitoring and the PAST (Phonological Awareness Screening Test) to identify the specific phonological and phonemic awareness skills that require development. We then use activities from ‘Equipped for Reading Success’ by David Kilpatrick to develop these.

Please support our community in not bringing dogs onsite and onto the school grounds.

The Project Manger will be onsite on August 24 to discuss the work to be undertaken including timing and logistics. The installation is due to commence on October 30 and will take approximately 10 days.

To celebrate Catholic Schools Open Week, it is our pleasure to invite you to visit our school during learning time... It will be held on Friday 25 August 2:20 – 3:05pm. Join in our regular lessons, view the learning and celebrate the love of learning with your child. Pop in for 5 minutes or stay for the whole session. Our timetable will run as usual including our specialist lessons. Please see Audiri for further information about where to enter the school grounds and signing in.

SAPSASA Knockout Basketball for 5/6’s

In week 3, SAPSASA Knockout Basketball for 5/6’s, SAPSASA Knockout Soccer for year 5/6’s and the Cross Country Carnival for year 3-6s were held. The Knockout Basketball was on Monday, and the learners were playing at the State Basketball Centre at Wayville Showgrounds. Both the boys and girl’s teams were in this round. All learners had a great time and represented McAuley proudly. The boys team moved on to the SAPSASA Statewide Finals, and the whole school will be wishing them lots of luck in their journey. Congratulations to a valiant effort from the girls as they tried their best to win but unfortunately fell short of advancing.

Boys SAPSASA Knockout Soccer

Boys SAPSASA Knockout Soccer was also held recently. After winning in the first round in term 2, the team was set to play three games to determine if they would advance once again. Their first game against West Torrens Primary ended 6-0 in favour of McAuley. This win gave them confidence in the second game, as they also won 6-0 against Glen Osmond Primary. The final game against SDOA was a must-win, as whoever won went through to the next round. After 30 minutes of playing time, the game went down to penalties. Unfortunately, SDOA outmatched them and won the shootout 5-4. This experience must have reminded the boys of the Matilda’s penalty shootout in the Women’s World Cup!

Cross Country Carnival

The final McAuley sport event of week 3 was the Cross Country Carnival. All learners had an amazing time running and supporting with their friends and represented MCS very well. Each learner ran a 2-kilometre race in their year level and got a time to try to beat next year. What a wonderful week  of sport!