Dear God

                                    Bless our school

                                   Bless our teachers

                              Bless our boys and girls

                                    Bless our families

               Please help us to be kind and always try to do our best

Let us remember as many hands make a house so many hearts make a school

                                       Amen

Dear Parents

Welcome back to 2020. I hope you have had a lovely Christmas and a chance perhaps to have a break. A special welcome to our new families and students. Wishing each and everyone of you a healthy and satisfying year.

Prayers and thoughts are with anyone who has experienced trauma as part of the devastating bushfires and drought. We will continue to pray as a school community for those affected.

Communication

As a school community we try to communicate in various forms. We have emails, compass, facebook and paper. Each fortnight the newsletter goes out on a Tuesday. Please read the newsletter so that you are informed of the school’s events and notifications. An interesting graph below shows the average number of readers of the last newsletter last year.

Uniform

Thank you to you all for the way your children have been prepared for school- neat hairstyles, green ribbons in girls’ hair and wearing correct uniform. Can I please ask again that your information package on enrolment clearly states that boys and girls wear white ankle socks not anklets.

Sport Days

Girls and boys are required to wear their sports uniforms :

SCHOOL FEES 2020 – NEW ARRANGEMENTS FOR PAYMENT BY INSTALMENT

The Catholic Education Office and its system of schools are in the process of a business transformation.  Part of this transformation involves a new administration and accounting package being rolled out to schools.  As you would be aware our school has been introducing Compass as our administration system over a period of time.  It is now fully functioning together with a new web based accounting system called Technology One.

This will allow for school fees in 2020 to be invoiced centrally by the Catholic Education Office under advice from schools.  Additionally, families will still be offered the opportunity of paying their school fees by regular payments over the school year as is the existing practice.  However, the new system also allows for instalments to be calculated and advised to families with a Schedule of Payments and the dates that they are due.  This replaces our current process of School Fee Agreements and the necessity for families to calculate their own payments.

Please note, families may elect to pay school fees by instalment under the following terms and conditions:

• The family must complete a Request to Pay School Fees by Instalmentand present a separate request to each school in which their child/children are enrolled.
• Families may have only one instalment frequency. If the family has multiple accounts due to children at different schools, they may only elect one payment frequency eg fortnightly in both schools. 
• The instalments must pay the school fee account in one school calendar year with an end date of the first week in December.
• On receipt of the Request to Pay School Fees by Instalment, an Instalment Scheduleadvising dates and amounts, will be generated by our accounting system and forwarded to the family by email so that payments can commence.
• The Request to Pay School Fees by Instalmentwill continue year to year until a further notice is received from the family.
• If instalments are not paid as agreed and there is serious default,the school may withdraw the offer of payment by instalment at any time and all fees will be due and payable until such time as a further arrangement is agreed upon with the school. Please note, families will be informed of the withdrawal of instalments in writing by email.

FAMILIES WITH EXISTING SCHOOL FEE AGREEMENTS

If you have an existing School Fee Agreement and are meeting your periodical payments as set out in the agreement, you will automatically be allocated to the instalment process in 2020 with your payment frequency.  Therefore, it will not be necessary for you to submit a Request to Pay School Fees by Instalment.

FAMILIES WITHOUT AN ACTIVE SCHOOL FEE AGREEMENT

If you do not have an active School Fee Agreement in place and would like to pay by instalments, please obtain a Request to Pay School Fees by Instalment from the school office.  By submitting this request you may elect to pay your school fees this year by weekly, fortnightly, monthly or quarterly instalments.  When fees are invoiced and issued in early 2020, you will be provided with a Schedule of Payments and due dates with your school fee statement to enable you to commence payments.  Please note, if you do not elect to pay by instalments, your school fee account will be payable in full 30 days after annual invoicing.  

FAMILIES WHO MAY BE EXPERIENCING HARDSHIP

For those families who are experiencing financial hardship, please do not hesitate to contact the school office to access an Application for Fee Concession, either when your 2020 school fee statement is received, or in the case of an existing Fee Concession arrangement, on the date of your annual review.

SYSTEM REMINDERS

With the introduction of the new system, we now have the ability to generate system reminders for late payments.  Should you default in your payments, reminders will be issued for each payment missed and they will continue to be issued until your account is brought up to date. 

You will also have the opportunity to contact the school, if necessary in these circumstances, to provide explanation and make a further arrangement for payment.

SCHOOL FEE BILLING

Please be advised that all billing and statements are now prepared by Catholic Education Office in Wollongong. 

Miss Debbie Casey - SSS0

Best wishes to all the following students who have celebrated or are celebrating birthdays recently.

Siloh V - Yr 2, Taylah C - Yr 5, Edwin P - K, George M - Yr 1, Ella M - Yr 5, Lily R - Yr 6

Liana M - Yr 3, Riley F - Yr 4, Zac U - K, Toby R Yr 4, Alexis K - Yr 2, Levi K Yr 3

Christian N Yr 3, Lara D Yr 2, Luka B - K, Madeleine G Yr 6, Lesina Rose F - Yr 1

Imogen A - Yr 3.

Catholic Schools Week

A huge thank you to all of the parents and family members who joined us at St Patrick’s for one of the events on Catholic Schools Week! It was great to see so many people filling up the classrooms for the interactive activities, and also to share a scone in the garden for morning tea. Unfortunately, the weather precluded us from completing the class activities in the garden or the unveiling of the time capsule plaque, but I think we celebrated CSW in style nonetheless!

Project Compassion Fundraiser

On Friday of Week 6 Mini Vinnies members held an ‘Ice Cream Creation’ fundraiser, where yummy ice creams with various toppings were sold. It was a hectic time with many hands on deck making over 150 ice creams in under 30 minutes, but the juice was worth the squeeze because we raised well over $300 for Project Compassion! Students and families are still able to donate to Project Compassion during Lent, so I can’t wait until we collate all of the donations and see the final donation total! What a generous community we have.

Kind Regards,

Mr Sam Mattas

Religious Education Coordinator

CATHOLICCARE SCHOOL COUNSELLING SERVICE

My name is Simone Potter. This is my second year assisting students and families at St Patricks in my role as school counsellor. I am available for consultation with parents and to assist students with mental health and wellbeing issues. This year I will be at the school every Tuesday during term time. Common issues that I can assist you and your family with are:

-          Helping parents deal with child behaviour and family stresses

-          Anxiety, depression and other mental health related issues

-          Grief and loss including family separation

-          Social skills

I can also assist you with many other wellbeing and family related issues. I am happy to speak with you confidentially about your concern to see if I am able to help. If I am unable to assist you I will do my best to refer you to the appropriate service who can. Please give me a call any Tuesday during term time or leave me a message so that I can get back to you when I am next at the school.

Simone Potter

School Counsellor

CatholicCARE Wollongong

25-27 Auburn St (PO Box 1174) Wollongong 2500

Phone:  | Fax:

SimoneP@catholiccare.dow.org.au

www.catholiccare.dow.org.au

IMPORTANT NOTICE: