Dear Parents

Thank you for your patience and flexibility as we end the term with our highest number of COVID cases in the school so far in both our staff and students.  Although we currently have a number of staff isolating, we have been fortunate to have avoided any significant impact on our staffing this term.  There are numerous schools in our diocese who have really struggled to have adequate teachers in classrooms.  I am really hopeful that we are going to turn a corner and have less interruptions to school life next term.

After great deliberation we have made the difficult decision to postpone the cross country and end of term assembly until next term.  This is due to the number of COVID cases in our community and the wet weather forecasted for the remainder of the week.  The P & F Easter raffle will still go ahead and we will live stream it on Facebook.  

We will also continue to hold our Holy Week liturgies in the church.  Parents are welcome to attend, however, you will need to sit separately from the students and we strongly recommend that you wear a mask while in the church.

I want to thank you all for making my first term at St Patrick’s such a wonderful experience.  I look forward to greater opportunities to connect next term and wish you all a happy and holy Easter break.  

Principal, Shamrock and St Patrick Awards

On Friday 29 April (Week 1, Term 2) we will hold our postponed End of Term Assembly. At this assembly we will present all the Principal, Shamrock (previously known as Gold) and St Patrick Awards.  We have given our award system a mini makeover which we will share with you next term.

Our records show that the following students will be receiving a Principal Award:

Bella-Rose Burns, Eleni Michaloudakis & Alani Tanevski.

Our records show that the following students will be receiving a Shamrock Award:

Emelia Connor, Ashton Kotevski, Meila Kusa, Audrey Woods, Rory Meizer, Citrine Nguyen, Eva Zafiropoulos & Kaitlyn Mitrovska.

Our records show that the following students will be receiving a St Patrick Award:

Delilah Calleja, Sofia Mineeff & Bede Woods.

If you believe your child’s name has been left off these lists please contact the office ASAP so that we can ensure they are not missed on the day.

Easter Hat Parade

We will hold a whole school Easter Mass, followed by an Easter Hat Parade and our postponed End of Term Assembly on Friday 29 April.  All parents and family members are welcome on the school site for this event.

Students are invited to make an Easter hat at home that can be worn on this day.  This isn’t a competition, so I hope this does not cause any angst for families.  It is simply a fun way for us to celebrate the Easter Season together as a school community.

Winter Uniform and Girls Green Pants

When we return all students may wear either Summer or Winter Uniform for the first two weeks of the school term.  We ask that they wear one or the other, not a combination of the two.  Girls now have the option of wearing bottle green pants with their winter shirt and tie, rather than the tunic.  They can either wear the elastic waist option or a button and fly - both options will be available at Lowes Warrawong.  Leggings or yoga pants are not acceptable options.

P&F Comittee 2022

PRESIDENT – Victoria Harb

VICE PRESIDENT – Tania Fonoti

TREASURER – Kelly Pucillo

SECRETARY – Laurinda Poeira

FUNDRAISING COORDINATOR – Alisa Stojanovski & Danielle Lukarovski

CANTEEN COORDINATOR – Kelly Pucillo & Natasha Treneska

Ms Gabi Tobin - Principal

We take this opportunity to thank you all for your support throughout Term One. We will continue with our Weekly focuses in Term Two.

AFTERNOON DISMISSAL

Please be advised that there are now two points of dismissal for families collecting students from the Kembla St Entrance. To reduce congestion at the Kembla St entrance families who wait at the gate to walk their child/ren home or to a parked car will meet the child/ren at the single gate nearer to the convent.

REC Update - W10 - T1

St Vincent de Paul Flood Appeal – THANK YOU!
We have now closed our St Vincent de Paul NSW Flood Appeal fundraising page. In total, including the donations made to the website directly ($2274.50) and money raised from the mufti day and photos with Paddy the Leprechaun ($369.50) we have raised $2644. Considering the currentfinancial burdens placed on families caused by the pandemic, huge increases in the cost of groceries and food prices, the fact that so many people still contributed to the NSW Flood Appealis genuinely inspiring. On behalf of the school, I wish to say thank you. We are very grateful!

Holy Week
We are celebrating Holy Week this year with each class (aside from Kindergarten) presenting a short dramatisation of some of the key events of the Lent and Easter period. These will take place during Week 11 and the first day of Term 2, Tuesday April 26. We are happy to inform you that parents are able to join us this year, so if you would like to attend you are more than welcome to do so. We do however strongly encourage you to wear a mask, please sanitise your hands upon entry to the church and please sit on the seats closest to the O’Donnell St side of the church.

Please see the schedule below. If you are joining us, can you please be there 5 minutes prior to the commencement of each dramatisation.

Date/Time: Tuesday April 5 th - 8:55am

Event: Palm Sunday

Class: Year 1 and 2
Date/Time: Wednesday April 6 th - 8:55am

Event: Washing of the feet

Class: Year 3
Date/Time: Thursday April 7 th – 8:55am

Event: The Last Supper

Class: Year 4
Date/Time: Friday April 8 th - 10:15am

Event: The Trial & Crucifixion

Class: Year 5
Date/Time: Tuesday April 26 th - 8:55am

Event: The Resurrection

Class: Year 6

The Emmauns | A Lenten Journey | Week 4
EXPECT TRANSFORMATION
“Sir,” the man replied, & quote ;Leave it one more year and give me time to dig around it and manure it: it may bear fruit next year: if not then you can cut it down.”
Luke 13:8-9

Shirley Smith (known as Mum Shirl) was a social worker and advocate on behalf of Aboriginal Australians who lived and worked in the Catholic parish of Redfern. The Ted Kennedy eulogy unveils a woman with a deep, unique faith “She  welcomed the gospel like a little child. She thirstingly swallowed the Gospel whole, never prepared to  spit out the bits we whites find unsavoury or uncomfortable. …Christian hope for her transcended pessimism and optimism. It called her to expect God to intervene in the face of despair. She woke up every morning expectantly, expecting God to do that. She never had to wait around, because always, always,  some rejected person would come round the corner; who of course was Christ himself.”
Mum Shirl expected God to intervene, not necessarily to change situations or events but to transform herself to then manage challenging situations.
In the Parable of the Barren Fig Tree, the tree depends on the horticultural skill and care of the gardener to improve its flourishing. In our modern world, society is quick to judge and label people based on their ‘output’, society is quick to ‘cut down’ and destroy the weak, damaged and unproductive. Jesus is the gardener who says ‘forget the output’ you are mine, that is enough, let me look after you because if you do, ‘fruit’ or  flourishing will come.  Most of us can recall a time in our school life when a ‘gardener’ and not the ‘vineyard owner’ crossed our path. The ‘gardener’ may have been a teacher who believed in us, listened to us, advocated for us, stood with us and  loved us when others did not - a bullying incident that was ignored by everybody except our ‘gardener’ who noticed and acted for us and enabled us to
continue to ‘bear fruit’. In our Catholic schools, we work every day for ‘thy kingdom come’. We instil in our students this spirit of expectation that as ‘gardeners’ we are transformers who will affect change for the flourishing of all in our communities.  Just as Mum Shirl, sat in the church and expected God to transform her, our students should come to our schools and expect us as ‘gardeners’ to transform them because they are forever fruitful as children of God.  
 

• Identify a 10 minute period every day for the next 7 days for your practice; place it in your diary and commit to it.
• Reflect on a different part of the Gospel reading Lk 8-9 every day.
• Think of one thing each day that you expect to transform in your life example - healthier eating - more daily energy; deliberate quality time with loved ones - improved relationship; daily prayer - more 'steady rewarding flow of day.

Challenge - During this week,our deliberate practice is to expect to be transformed in one area of our relationship with God (eg: we will expect our inconsistent prayer life will be improve with a simple practical schedule of prayer and a 'gardener' to keep us on track).

All the best,
Mr Sam Mattas

Religious Education Co ordinator