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Heavenly Father,
We come before You to praise You
and to thank You for the great gift of the family.
We pray to You for all families
consecrated by the Sacrament of Matrimony.
May they rediscover each day
the grace they have received,
and as small domestic Churches,
may they know how to witness to Your presence
and to the love with which Christ loves the Church.
We pray to You for all families faced with difficulty and suffering
caused by illness or circumstances of which only You know.
Sustain them and make them aware
of the path to holiness upon which You call them,
so that they might experience Your infinite mercy
and find new ways to grow in love.
We pray to You for children and young people:
may they encounter You and respond joyfully
to the vocation You have in mind for them;
We pray for parents and grandparents: may they be aware
that they are signs of the fatherhood and motherhood of God
in caring for the children who, in body and spirit, You entrust to them;
and for the experience of fraternity
that the family can give to the world.
Lord, grant that each family
might live their specific vocation to holiness in the Church
as a call to become missionary disciples,
in the service of life and peace,
in communion with our priests, religious,
and all vocations in the Church.
Bless the World Meeting of Families.
Dear Parents,
During the week I was able to meet with a small group of parents for afternoon tea. It was lovely to gather face-to-face and engage in conversation. I hope to be able to have one of these gatherings each term moving forward.
You may like to mark Tuesday 26 July in your diaries. On this day we will celebrate Grandparents Day. All families will be invited to join us for a liturgy and open classrooms on this day. It’s been a long time since we’ve been able to have such a large gathering and we are looking forward to welcoming you to the school on this day.
Staffing Changes
From Term 3, and for the remainder of the year, the following changes will occur: Kindergarten will be taught by Miss Casey Figueira and Year 1 will be taught by Mrs Julie Beuman. Mrs Kim Crotty will remain at the school in an indentured position, meaning she will teach across K-6 as needed.
Athletics Carnival
I would like to extend a huge thank you to all the staff and parent volunteers who generously gave up their time last Friday at our Athletics Carnival. We were blessed with perfect weather and I was very impressed with the way the students encouraged one another.
Photo from the event can be viewed here:
Reports
Next week the Semester 1 reports will go home via email. Kindergarten students do not receive a Semester 1 report, but they will receive a Yearly report in Term 4. I'd like to thank the teachers for the time they have put into writing the reports this term. While you will obviously be interested in your child’s achievement, can I also encourage you to focus on your child’s effort in their learning. If you have any questions regarding your child’s report, please contact the office in week 10.
Flu season
Just as the broader community is currently feeling the effects of the flu season, our school has also been impacted. Thank you for ensuring that your child is closely monitored for any flu symptoms and given the chance to recover at home. If COVID has taught us anything, it is that the best way to reduce the spread of illness is through isolation and good hygiene.
Of course, like many industries, our staffing continues to be impacted by flu and COVID. Wherever possible, we are able to use casual teaching staff to cover classes. However, there are days when this is not possible and so a class may need to be 'split' across other classes for a day. We carefully consider the age of the children in doing this and the impact it may have, and we also aim to not have the same class split too many times. Rest assured we try very hard to reduce the impact of this for our students.
Before and After School Care
Due to the small number of students currently attending before and after school care, the decision was made to supervise the students at St Francis of Assisi Primary School, Warrawong. Children are dropped off and collected from this school, then a mini bus drops the students off at St Patrick’s after 8.15am and picks them up from the school at 2.55pm. For more information please phone ASPIRE Program Manager Kylie 0499 018 351.
The current rates at ASPIRE are:
Before School Care: $25 (permanent) $29 (casual)
After School Care: $30 (permanent) $35 (casual)
For information on child care subsidy
please go to the following site:
All parents of primary school students can access a $500 voucher that can be used for before and after school care before 30 September 2022. More information can be found here:
Movie Night
A big thank you to Mr Hoctor, Miss Casey and Mrs Carroll for the numerous hours that went into organising the Movie night. Based on the smiles after the movie, a fun night was had by all!
End of Term Assembly
Please join us for our End of Term Assembly on Friday 1 July at 11.30am. We will present our Excellence Awards for Term 2 at this time, as well as our Principal, Shamrock and St Patrick’s Awards. If you believe your child’s name has been missed off the list below please notify the school office by Friday 24 June.
Principal Awards: Evie Agius, James Dos Santos, Hannah Dray, WIlliam Ernst, Zion Friesen, Aneira Hogg, Sasha Naumovski, Alice Ryan, Rixon Vanderburg, Lucy Wiliamson, Luka Batur, Chloe Dimitrijevic, Jackson Harb, Oliver Meta, Ebony Rogers, Judah Friesen, Jacob Markovski, Amelie Mineeff, Lesina-Rose Fonoti. George Michaloudakis, Georgia Stojanovski, Leena Carolan, Clara Dray, Joseph Habak, Alexis Krstevski, Milla Lokys, Kimora Markovski, Leyly Medina, Fiona Meta, Dyan Capocchiano, Teo Coupe, Paige Lukarovski, Sonny Santosa, Emma Usljebrka, Nathan Harrison, Jacob Markovski, Stephanie Saliba and Issac Spinelli.
Shamrock Awards: William Calleja, Emelia Connor, Gabriel Hill, Ashton Kotevski, Meila Kusa, Leo Reiher, Zac Usljebrka, Veronica Carolan, Mikayla Dimovski, Tori Fogarty, Jake Jovanoski, Aurora Leite, Zarra Mauriello, Rory Meizer, Zoe Naumovski, Citrine Nguyen, Eva Zafiropoulos, Matilda Hill, Sean Timbs and Riley Fogarty.
St Patrick’s Awards: Marco Alves, Imogen Aquilina, Sienna Fargnoli, Mila Manevski, Eleni Michaloudakis, Sofia Mineeff, Vivianne Theodosiadis and Bede Woods.
Ms Gabi Tobin - Principal
Positive Behaviours for Learning (PB4L)
Our PB4L focus for next week (Week 9) is Covered Areas
In the explicit teaching lessons the expected behaviours taught will be:
- Walk when in the covered areas
- Passive Play
- Handball only
- Clean up after myself
Examples of behaviours that negatively impact Respectful, responsible and safe behaviours in our Covered Areas to be taught include:
- Running and chasing
- Playing outside the toilets/bubblers
- Yelling and Screaming
- Leaving my possessions behind
Our Week 10 Social and Emotional Wellbeing Focus to develop relationship skills is:
Disagreeing Appropriately
- In the explicit teaching lessons the expected behaviours taught will be:
- Look at the person.
- Use a pleasant voice.
- Tell why you feel differently.
- Give a reason.
- Listen to the other person
We would very much appreciate your discussing these PB4L/SEL weekly focuses 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 over the last two weeks 35 students were given Citizenship, Merit, Library or Playground Affirmation Awards whilst there were 3 incidents of Inappropriate behavior recorded.
Mr Gavan Hoctor - Assistant Principal
REC Update – W8 – T2
GRANDPARENTS DAY – HOLD ON TO YOUR HATS!
On Tuesday of Week 2, Term 3, July 26th is the feast day of Sts Anne & Joachim, and as such we will be holding GRANDPARENTS DAY! It has been a few years since we have been able to hold this event, and I can assure you we are thrilled to bits to be able to do so this year after an extended COVID-induced lay off.
More information will be shared in the coming weeks, but please pencil in a 9am start and let any and all grandparents in our community know that this special day is coming up!
FEAST OF THE SACRED HEART MASS
Next Friday, June 24th, we are celebrating a very special day in our parish community; the Feast of the Sacred Heart, which is of course the feast day for our wonderful sisters. We have a whole school/parish mass commencing at 9am, and we would love to see as many parents and family members in attendance as possible. It’s always great to see parents and family members in attendance to support and demonstrate the importance of the spiritual formation of our students!
We are also looking for any parents or family members who would like to bring forward the offertory procession with their child/grandchild etc at Mass. Please contact the school office if you are interested.
St Vincent de Paul Winter Appeal
A friendly reminder that we are collecting donations for the St Vincent de Paul Winter Appeal, and are asking families to please donate canned soup, packet soup and packets of noodles. These items will be stacked in the breakout space for all to see (last year the 'wall of soup' dwarfed the prayer table, so let's go even bigger this year!).
The children can place the items next to the prayer table in the breakout space, however if you have a larger/heavier bag of donations, then please bring this to the office and we will arrange for it to be brought down to the school building. Coupled with this, the 'Vinnies Van' will be visiting our school next week, and the children will get a chance to tour the van and speak with a representative from St Vincent de Paul to learn about how our donations support those who are in need throughout winter.
Lastly, we will be holding a 'pyjama' themed mufti day on Thursday of Week 10, June 30th, where the students can wear their pyjamas to school for a gold coin donation. All money raised will be donated to the Vinnies Winter Appeal.
Many thanks for your generosity!
MAY MISSION STAR!
A huge congratulations to our May Mission Star Award recipient, Kimora Markovski. Please see her nomination profile below for our most deserving of recipients:
Kimora is the May Mission star because she received 6 nominations from the St Patrick’s community for the following reasons:
- “for always displaying care, compassion and empathy with her peers”
- “when someone is hurt, she makes them feel better”
- “for being a good friend and always helping, caring and being kind to others”
- “you have a big heart, and you deserve to be the Mission Star”
Kimora is an example of someone who lives and acts like Jesus. Just like St Joseph, she is protective of her family and friends and always strives to do the right thing. This is evident in her behaviour and attitude all day, every day.
Thanks for being a Mission Star everyday Kimora!
All the best,
Mr Sam Mattas - Religious Education Coordinator
Religious Education Coordinator
2023 1:1 iPad School Managed Program
Dear Year 3 & 4 Parents and Carers,
We are currently into our third year of utilising the ‘school managed’ 1:1 iPad program, where the student iPads go onto our school iPad management system. Currently only the students in Years 5 and 6 have 1:1 iPads, however, from 2023 onwards, we will be including Year 4 students in our 1:1 iPad program. Our decision to include Year 4 students in the 1:1 iPad program include the following reasons:
❖ NAPLAN 2023
From 2023 next year, NAPLAN has been moved forward much earlier to March in Term 1, as opposed to May in Term 2. This means that next year the students will have less time spent on their school managed devices in order to be prepared for the NAPLAN writing test. In Year 5 NAPLAN students produce their writing on the iPad. We believe that a 1:1 device in Year 4 will provide optimal learning opportunities for the children to learn how to create and edit a piece of writing using an iPad. Moving to commencing the program in Year 4 will ensure the students are fully prepared to sit the NAPLAN writing test.
❖ NAPLAN 2023
We believe that purchasing an iPad as a learning device for three years, as opposed to only two years is of greater financial benefit to families.
❖ Cyberbullying
Since changing to the school managed 1:1 iPad program, as opposed to the original parent managed 1:1 BYO iPad program, the number of major incidents related to digital technologies has significantly decreased to next to zero in Stage 3 students. The only incidents related to digital technologies in recent years have come from students in Year 4, prior to commencing the school managed program who were using personal devices at home. We are confident that commencing the school managed iPad program in Year 4 will help to support parents control screen time and inappropriate use of the iPads, as children cannot add/buy apps, so messages, social media or gaming apps are not accessible.
❖ Social Media & Gaming
As mentioned above, on the school managed system, children cannot add/buy apps, so messages, social media or gaming apps are not accessible. This reduces the burden on parents and ensures students are using the iPads effectively and for their intended educational purpose.
Please contact the school office if you have any questions, including any financial concerns you may
have.
Mr Sam Mattas
