First Reconciliation
A number of children are receiving the sacrament of First Reconciliation with Father Mark this weekend. Please remember to keep these girls and boys in your prayers during this most special and sacred time in their journey as Catholics. Thank you to Mr Mindzas for helping to prepare these children through the sacramental workshops over the past month. The Sacrament of Penance frees us from sin and challenges us to have compassion and forgiveness for those who have sinned against us.

Vision and Mission Launch
I’m thrilled to be able to reveal with our community our renewed Vision and Mission statement, as well as a set of school values. The process for renewing our Vision and Mission statement began during our school’s Educating with a Mission Lens journey, where part of the process asked us to reflect on our identity and discern whether or not our existing statement accurately represented our school community. It was determined that our existing statement, written in 2014, did embody who we were, but that it required a fresh perspective, and some changes to represent who we are in 2023. With invaluable feedback from Fr Mark, as well as vital input from the school staff, students and the parent community, we made a number of subtle changes to our Vision and Mission statement and created four school values that we feel reflect who we are at St Patrick’s Catholic Parish Primary School Port Kembla:

As you can see, our vision and mission statement maintains much of the same content and structure of the previous iteration, however it has been renewed to reflect our community more fully today.
Our patron saint, St Patrick, features first and foremost through the Celtic Cross at the top of the banner, but also subtly through the three virtues of ‘Live’, ‘Love’ and ‘Learn’, nuancing the Trinitarian God of The Father, The Son and The Holy Spirit, and also through the inclusion of ‘Hope’ in our values, a strong theological virtue of St Patrick.
Our Josephite charism is represented through acts of Mission in the statement, and also through the values of compassion and inclusivity - values which are evident constantly in our diverse community.
Our Franciscan charism is represented through the love of all Creation, and the value of environmental stewardship. We are leading the way in the Diocese of Wollongong as stewards of creation, particularly with our Living Classroom. Our renewed vision and mission statement is more Christ centric, reminding us that as disciples of Christ, we love God, our neighbour, ourselves and all of Creation, and we follow the example and teachings of Jesus.
Lastly, we have renewed our vision as a proud, high quality Catholic community who is strong in faith, learning and wellbeing.
I’d like to say thank you to everyone involved for your contribution to the renewal of our vision and mission statement, and to the creation of our school values. We are blessed in our community to have such compassionate, caring and hopeful people who make our school such an amazing place to be, and I’m proud to have this statement to represent who we are.

All the best,
Mr Sam Mattas
Religious Education Coordinator