Dear Parents and Caregivers,

What a wonderful term we have just had at St Patricks! 

Firstly, I'd like to congratulate all the students who received an award at yesterday's Excellence Awards assembly. It was an absolute pleasure to recognise the effort and achievement of so many students at St Patricks.

This term, saw the return of class items at assembly most weeks and I want to pass on my thanks to the teachers and students in sharing their learning with our community. We have seen wonderful costumes and dramatisations and props, wonderful photos and videos that capture interesting and fun learning experiences, heard beautful songs and hymns, listened to students sharing pieces of writing and poetry and the list goes on.

This sharing of learning at assembly was part of the school's efforts to better include parents and families in the learning agenda that is occurring at school. We couple this with our term newsletters and open classrooms to hopefully ensure that parents and caregivers have a sound understanding of the wonderful things happening our school. Next term, we will revert back to our regular Friday merit award assemblies which will begin later in the afternoon approximately 2:20pm.

Staff have continued their professional learning journey across Term 2, with emphasis on assessment in Mathematics in light of the revised mathematics syllabus. We have worked closely with Mark Boss (CEDoW Education Officer) in crafting learning experiences for staff in the area of formative assessment, working mathematically and creating assessment rubrics in line with Jim Tognolini's research. This learning will continue into semester two, when staff will engage in a professional learning day (Monday 22 July - pupil free day). We continue to strive towards our annual improvement goal:

Thank you to the parents and caregivers who reponded to our request to complete the Tell Them From Me school survey. The school leadership team have read through the responses from parents and I look forward to sharing with you a summary of some of the findings into next term.

I want to thank once again the P&F committee and parent volunteers for their continued support of our school through various means, but particularly the special lunch and snack days for our students. 

We wish Sr Miriam safe travels over the next couple of months as she travels to Rome as part of an international meeting of Srs of the Heart of Jesus. Sr will then take some well deserved leave in Malta spending time with family.

Fr Mark will also take some leave next term, we wish Fr Mark an enjoyable break and some well deserved down time from the busy life of the parish. May God bless Fr Mark and Sr Miriam and keep them safe on their travels.

I will be taking leave in the first week of Term 3 and I thank Mr Hoctor for his willingness to step into the roll of Acting Principal in my absence. I will return at the beginning of Term 2.

I would like to wish you a safe, restful and rejuvanating winter break and look forward to seeing the boys and girls back at school in term three.

Warm regards,

Mr Mitchell Elks
Principal