Dear Parents

Happy St Patrick’s Week!  We have had the most fabulous week together celebrating our wonderful school.  It was great to see so many of you able to join us for various parts of the week and we look forward to many more opportunities to welcome you onto the school grounds.

St Patrick’s Day Photos (more photos will be added to this folder over the coming days.

School Improvement 

This year our school will participate in a School Cyclic Inquiry process.  This process will involve surveying parents, as well as our students.  Staff will present to an external panel the many areas for celebration at St Patrick’s, and share with them our hopes for growth into the future.  The panel will then give feedback to the school leadership team on their recommendations and from that will be created our School Strategic Improvement Plan.  This plan will guide areas for improvement over the next four years.

Our current goals for 2023 are:

By the end of 2023, students will have improved their understanding of whole number concepts, through effective mathematical pedagogy.

By the end of 2023 students will be able to self regulate their emotions so that they can engage successfully in their learning.

Changes to Student Reports for NAPLAN

From this year, parents and carers will get earlier, simpler and clearer information about their child’s NAPLAN achievement based on new, more rigorous national standards.

Education ministers have agreed to change the way NAPLAN results are reported to parents and carers, now that all students are taking the tests online, and with the move to an earlier NAPLAN in March. 

The numerical NAPLAN bands and the national minimum standard will be replaced by the following 4 levels of achievement:

• Exceeding
• Strong
• Developing
• Needs additional support

The descriptors for each category will make it clear to parents what their child’s literacy and numeracy skills are at the time of NAPLAN testing, and support discussions with their school on their child’s progress.

Staff Service Awards

This week we celebrated and acknowledged nearly 350 years of dedication to Catholic Education from our staff at St Patrick's!

Congratulations to these wonderful staff:

 40 years - Mrs Duggan, Mr Hoctor, Miss Phillips & Mrs Crotty

30 years - Mrs Popovski, Miss Doro, Mrs Madaschi, Mrs Barnes & Mrs Beuman

25 years - Mrs Hockey

20 years - Mrs Plataniotis

10 years - Mr Mattas, Mrs Carey & Mrs Kapsimallis

      

Attached to this newsletter is a copy of the Playground Behaviour Matrix. The
purpose of this publication is to define for students, through examples,
behaviours which are classified as respectful, responsible, and safe in all
aspects of a student’s day beyond the classroom here at St Patrick’s.
This was advertised in the previous Newsletter as being taught last week
however a conscious decision was made by the staff to spend an additional
week learning the Peer to Peer and IT Domains of the Classroom Behaviour
Matrix because of their significant impact on improving the students
experience here at our school.

In the explicit teaching lessons, the expected behaviours taught will be:
i. Use equipment for its right purpose.
ii. Return all equipment to the correct container.
iii. Return other people’s equipment directly to them.
iv. Return food containers to the class tubs.
v. Tie skipping ropes when returning them.
vi. Walk on the concrete.

Examples of behaviours that negatively impact respectful, responsible, and
safe behaviours when Respecting Playtime to be taught include:
i. Throwing/kicking balls away from the people playing with them.
ii. Hitting people with equipment.
iii. Leaving equipment out on the playground.
iv. Not tying skipping ropes.
v. Leaving food containers on the playground.
vi. Playing chasing games on the concrete.

We would very much appreciate your discussing the Playground Behaviour
Matrix and Week 10 PB4L 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.

Mr Gavan Hoctor - Assistant Principal

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