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Dear Parents and Caregivers,
Holy Year of Jubilee
Pope Francis has proclaimed that 2025 will be a Holy Year of Jubilee, a special year of grace and conversion, involving prayer, pilgrimage and sacramental repentance, ordinarily held every 25 years. The goal of a Jubilee year is to inspire and encourage holiness of life among the faithful and therefore to strengthen the Church’s witness to God’s loving mercy in and for the world.
The spiritual theme for the 2025 Holy Year of Jubilee is ‘Pilgrims of Hope’.
In choosing the motto ‘Pilgrims of Hope’ for the Jubilee, Pope Francis noted that ‘We must fan the flame of hope that has been given to us and help everyone to gain new strength and certainty by looking to the future with an open spirit, a trusting heart and far-sighted vision.
Grade Information Nights + Grade Newsletters
Thank you to all the parents and caregivers who attended our recent grade information nights. These evenings are important in strengthening the relationship between home and school and keeping you informed of what your child will be learning about and how. This empowers families in supporting the learning and wellbeing needs of their children. Equally important, is the ability to meet face to face and introduce ourselves as staff to you and vice versa. The atmosphere on the night was positive and we look forward to all that is to come in 2025.
P&F Annual General Meeting
Wednesday evening saw the annual general meeting of the P&F followed immediately by a general meeting. The night was very well attended and I would like to thank every parent who came along to volunteer their time to assist the school in making St Patrick’s the very best place for children to learn and grow. Of particular note I would like to thank the outgoing executive team from 2024 Victoria Harb (president) Laurinda Poeira (Vice President) Jess Blacker (Secretary) and Kelly Pucillo (Treasurer) as well as all the parents who volunteered in many ways for their hard work and ongoing support of the school. It is because of these generous individuals the students are afforded many fun filled opportunities and provided with some excellent resources.
I am pleased to announce out 2025 executive team and look forward to working closely with them:
Laurinda Poeira - President
Kate Pryor - Vice President
Alyssa Stojanovski - Secretary
Treasurer - Tanya Fonoti
Committee Leaders:
Fundraising: Victoria Harb
Canteen: Louise Ruprecht & Kelly Pucillo
The P&F team will share some fun community building initiatives and fundraising projects for the year ahead.
NAPLAN 2025
NAPLAN 2025 is fast approaching. Below are some dates we would like to share with our parent community of Year 3 and 5 students. At school we are working with our students so they feel prepared and well equipped for the upcoming assessments.
- Wednesday, 12 March: Year 3 & 5 Writing
- Thursday, 13 March: Year 3 & 5 Reading
- Friday, 14 March: Year 3 & 5 Language Conventions
- Monday, 16 March: Year 3 & 5 Numeracy
Kind regards
Mr Mitchell Elks
Principal
Our PB4L focus for next week (Week 5) is Respect for Adults
In the explicit teaching lessons the expected behaviours taught will be:
- Greeting adults with their name
- Looking at adults when they speak to you.
- Holding the door open for an adult
- Offering to assist adults
- Speaking politely to adults eg: asking, ‘May I’ and saying ‘please’ and ‘thank you’.
- Cooperating with adults
Examples of behaviours that negatively impact on Respectful, Responsible and Safe Respect for Adults to be taught include:
- Ignoring adults
- Pushing past adults
- Interrupting adults who are talking
- Playing ball games when adults are walking through the game
Our PB4L focus for Week 6 of this Term is Respect for Others
In the explicit teaching lessons, the expected behaviours taught will be:
1. Looking at others when they are talking.
2. Speaking courteously to others
3. Accepting other people’s differences
4. Listening to other people’s opinions
5. Encouraging friendships
6. Keeping personal space
7. Accepting ‘No’
Examples of behaviours that negatively impact Respectful, responsible, and safe Respect for Others to be taught include:
1. Minding someone else’s business
2. Taking someone else’s belongings
3. Speaking unkindly to someone or about someone
4. Bossing people around
5. Physical aggression
6. Invading someone’s personal space
7. Keeping friends to myself
We would very much appreciate you discussing this weekly focus with your children and reviewing the expected and non-acceptable behaviours in our endeavour to see that St Patrick’s is a more respectful, responsible, and safe learning community for all.
PB4L Data
It is with pride that I inform you that since school has begun 20 students were given Citizenship, Merit or Library Awards whilst there were 4 incidents of Inappropriate behaviour recorded.
Thank you for acting respectfully, responsibly, and safely girls and boys.
Thank you to our wonderful P & F for the new soccer goals. We love them!
Mr Gavan Hoctor
Assistant Principal
World Day of Social Justice
February 20 is known as World Day of Social Justice. This day highlights the need to address global challenges including unemployment, gender inequality, social exclusion and poverty. The theme for 2025 is: Empowering Inclusion: Bridging Gaps for Social Justice.
A PRAYER FOR JUSTICE IN THE WORLD
Loving God, we are all part of your one creation
and it is your desire that we be gathered together as one family.
Fill our hearts with the fire of your love
and with a firm commitment to bringing about greater justice for all beings.
By sharing the many gifts you give us,may we do our part to ensure equality for all our brothers and sisters throughout the world.
With a growing awareness of our common home and of the one web of life in which we live, may we see fresh possibilities for responding each day with compassion and courage.
May there be an end to division, strife and war.
May we renew our efforts to pray, advocate and work for an end to all forms of exploitation, injustice and suffering.
We ask this especially on this World Day of Social Justice in the name of Jesus our Brother and Friend.
Amen.
As we reflect on our Catholic Social Teachings, we recognise that upholding the dignity of each person is crucial. We see the face of Christ in every individual; therefore, all people should have the opportunity to live “life to the full” (John 10:10). How easy it is to observe and comment on the many examples of injustice in our world while remaining comfortably ignorant of the injustices within our own communities, neighbourhoods, workplaces, society, and relationships.
Some reflection questions for you to think about:
- How can we actively uphold the dignity of our neighbours in our daily lives?
- How do we challenge ourselves and each other to always see the person in front of us with their innate dignity and worth?
Prefect Induction and Leadership Commissioning Ceremony
On Monday, February 17 we celebrated and acknowledged our Term 1 prefects, Year 6 leaders and Mini Vinnies members.
Term 1 Prefects
These children have been carefully selected by their teachers as exemplary figures within their respective classes. They acknowledge the significance of being a safe, respectful and responsible member of our school community. We place our trust in them to champion our school's values, Hope, Inclusivity, Compassion, and Environmental Stewardship.
Year 6 Leaders
Our school leaders will demonstrate exemplary behaviour at all times by being witnesses to our Catholic faith and following our school rules. We trust them to uphold and promote our school's values: Hope, Inclusivity, Compassion, and Environmental Stewardship.
Our school captains: Veronika Carolan and Rory Meizer.
Our Yellow House captains: Cleo Capacchiano and Eva Zafiropoulos
Our Green House captains: Lesina-Rose Fonoti and George Michaloudakis
Our Blue House captains: Jake Jovanovski and Georgia Stojanovski
Our Red House captains: Leonardo Medina and Amelie Mineeff
New Mini Vinnies Members
These students have shown incredible kindness, compassion, and generosity by getting involved in Mini Vinnies to make a difference within our school community. These students will be giving up some of their lunch and recess time to get involved and help initiate fundraisers and charity events within our school community. Thank you for putting your faith into action through service to others.
Important Dates to Remember:
- Week 6, Wednesday 5 March- Ash Wednesday. 1st day of Lent.
- Week 8, 17-21 March- St Patrick’s Week
Acting Religious Co ordinators
We’re enrolling now for 2026! Applications are fee-free and can be made online.
Learn more about our school and the enrolment process by clicking the link below.
Kind regards
Mrs Tracy Carey
Library
This term the students in years K-6 will be participating in Tennis Clinics. Their first clinic began on Tuesday, February 18 and will continue for the next 3 weeks. These sessions are led by experienced coaches and provide a great opportunity for students of all levels to improve their technique and practice teamwork.
Wishing all the children celebrating birthdays all the very best wishes.
Oscar Ernst - Year 6
Jacob Spinelli - Year 2
Michael Naumovski - Year 3
Sunday Parkes - Kinder
Izrael Santosa - Year 3
Mia Saliba - Year 2
Tristan Naumovski - Year 1
Anden Kotevski - Year 2
Scarlett-Rose Skurteski - Year 2
Kira Jones - Year 3
Nicholas Mineeff - Year 4
For the safety of our school community we ask parents and caregivers to please adhere to the rules in regards to parking and movement in and around school zones.
Please be mindful and respectful of the residents in the street by not obstructing their driveways.
Council Rangers actively patrol and enforce school zone road rules to ensure the safety of our school community. The school is not informed of the times this may happen.
Schools experience significantly higher traffic volumes during pick up and drop off times so slowing down and scanning the roads, especially around children, is key to keeping our community safe.
