Week 6, Term 2 2017

Family Mass
Thanks to our families who supported our Family Mass on Sunday. It was great to see Fr Paul back leading the mass as he continues to recover from his accident.
Wednesday the 24th May was the feast of Our Lady, Help of Christians, the patron saint of Australia.

Image source: www.ourladyhelpofchristians.org

Here is a special prayer to say with your family to Our Lady Help of the Christians during the month of May.
Creator God, you made this great land of Australia and placed us under the patronage of Mary. May we look to her for inspiration so that we might create a community based on justice, compassion and mercy. We ask this prayer through Jesus, your Son. Amen.

May we also pray for the families who lost their loved ones in the tragic Manchester Arena attack.

Engaged and motivated learners: Fabulous Felting
Our Year 6's were busy making felted wool in art with our Art Specialist teacher Karin Dornbierer during the week. The felting process requires heat, moisture and friction as well as patience and expertise. Karin will be going on leave towards the end of June and will be going to Uganda. She will be taking the felting with her as part of a special project. Karin will work with children from a Disabled Community School to create necklaces from the felt. The necklaces will be brought back to sell and the proceeds will go back to the Uganda to support future art programmes at the school. While Karin is on leave, Di Tarranto will be filling in as the specialist art teacher

Engaged and motivated learners: Heritage Victoria
Our Preps and Year 1's were fortunate to work with Heritage Victoria who were trialing their newly designed primary school Artifact Kits with our children. This connects with the history unit the children engaged with last term. Heritage Victoria will donate some of the Artifact Kits to our school as resources to be used in the future.

Working Bee
The next Working Bee will be Saturday 3rd June from 12 noon to 4pm. Thanks to Danny Egan for coordinating our Working Bee. There are more details in the recent P & F Newsletter. We appreciate your help and support for our school.

Information from Catholic education Melbourne around future funding of Catholic Schools
Over the past few weeks, there has been a lot of information in the media about the Turnbull Government’s Quality Schools funding package and its impact on Catholic school fees.
The package proposed by the Government is a 10-year funding model, which will see significant changes to how Catholic schools are funded in the future.
Like the majority of Catholic schools, our school aims to be open and accessible to all families seeking a Catholic education. That means we aim to be affordable as well.
One of the big impacts of the Turnbull Government’s funding package is that Catholic school fees will have to rise.

This won’t happen tomorrow, but over the next 10 years, cuts to school funding will mean fees will gradually increase.
Catholic education leaders across Australia have been working hard to make sure the Government and the Opposition understand that our students will be disadvantaged by the funding model.
Everything is being done to make sure the Turnbull Government’s funding package does not become law.

That’s where our community comes in. In coming weeks, please keep an eye out in the school newsletter  for information about how you can add your voice to help prevent unreasonable fee increases.
We need to step up. Unreasonable fee increases are only a possibility at this stage – not a certainty. Parents in nearly 500 other Catholic schools in Victoria have also been asked to get ready and join the campaign.
With your help, we can make sure our politicians in Canberra are listening to Catholic schools.

ENTERTAINMENT BOOK 2018

Don't forget to order the new Entertainment book  for 2017-2018. Purchasing the book through school is a great way to help with our fundraising. The latest edition is available to view at the school office and all orders can be placed through Mary Hogan (Charlotte in 5M) via email maryhogan@optusnet.com.au or 0414 707 398

UPCOMING DATES for TERM 2

Fri 16th June Dendy Football Lightening Premiership

Wed 21st June School Closure Day

Fri 23rd June Reports home

Thur 29th June Parent/Teacher Interviews

Fri 30th June End of term 2. Children dismissed @ 2pm.

COMMUNITY NOTICES

Week 5, Term 2, 2017

Yr 5 Social Skills Program

Unfortunately our Parent Education Evening on Tuesday evening was cancelled due to insufficient interest. We will try to re-schedule this later this year. Thanks and apologies to those parents who replied.

ARRIVING AT SCHOOL

Reminder that children should not be arriving at school prior to 8.30am, OSHC is provided for children who need to arrival earlier than 8.30am.

YEAR 5 CAMP

On Monday our Yr 5s leave for Camp to Queenscliff. We wish all the children and their teachers a wonderful experience. We look forward to hearing all the stories and sharing the photos. A TIQBIZ message will alert parents to their safe arrival at camp.

PARKING CONDITIONS for MONDAY 22nd MAY

We would appreciate your cooperation by not parking in the "KISS & GO" Zone outside the front school playground to allow access for the camp bus to park and load our students safely.

FAMILY MASS THANK YOU

A huge thank you to all the families who offered to help and have confirmed that they will be attending our Family Mass this Sunday.  We had a huge number of responses this month and look forward to similar responses next month.

ENTERTAINMENT BOOK 2018

The new Entertainment book has landed for 2017-2018. Purchasing the book through school is a great way to help with our fundraising. The latest edition is available to view at the school office and all orders can be placed through Mary Hogan (Charlotte in 5M) via email maryhogan@optusnet.com.au or 0414 707 398

UPCOMING DATES for TERM 2

Fri 19th May Dendy Cross Country years 4-6

Mon 22nd May Year 5 Camp until Wed 24th May inclusive

Fri 16th June Dendy Football Lightening Premiership

Wed 21st June School Closure Day

Fri 23rd June Reports home

Thur 29th June Parent/Teacher Interviews

Fri 30th June End of term 2. Children dismissed @ 2pm.

Week 4, Term 2, 2017

A Mothers Day Blessing

With joyful love and gratitude we celebrate our mothers, and all who are like mothers to us. We remember our mothers who are still with us, those who live in distant places, and those who have died. Through the love they have shown us, and the way they nurture and care for us, mothers help us to know something of the heart of God. We especially remember, Mary, the blessed mother of Jesus (adapted from CEO).
Thanks to our Parents and Friends association for running the annual Mother's Day stall this year. The time and effort that goes into the thoughtful gifts is well worth it for our children and families.

Image source attributes to mothersdayshrine.com

What is PATCARE ?

Patcare is an initiative from our P & F to help out and support our families who are going through tough times (for example, an illness in the family). The P & F organise meals to be dropped off for these families.We are always looking for parents to help by cooking a meal or through if you haven't got time to cook, for a donation of $20, Laurel and Hearty will make a meal to support this initiative. Lucy Bremnar is the present coordinator for the P & F. Please contact the office or Lucy if you wish to cook some meals. Special thanks to our P & F parents who help to support our school and families in so many ways.

Cadbury Fundraiser

Congratulations! You’ve helped us turn our Cadbury Fundraiser into a huge success.

Thanks to your hard work, we have raised over $4000 to put towards the planned playground and the hall kitchen upgrades at St Patrick’s. It’s a tremendous effort and you should all be very proud of yourselves.

The winners of the special prizes awarded at assembly were:

5kg box of Favourites - Luke and Madison Foley

$50 Coles Myer Gift Voucher - Ollie and Emilia Migliorati Family

Most amount of boxes sold - McIntyre Family (6 boxes) winning the $50 Coles Myer Gift voucher.

On behalf of St Patrick’s, we would like to thank you all for your efforts. It has been very rewarding to see such enthusiasm and support from you all. 

A special thank you to Christie Alexander who worked tirelessly to coordinate this successful fundraising event. Christie spent a great deal of time researching other potential fundraisers and found the Cadbury Fundraiser to be one of the most successful.

Child Safety Standards

As part of the Child Safe Schools, Catholic Education, we are committed to the care, safety and well being of every child at St Patrick's school. You can read more about Child Safe Schools at this link. At our meeting on Wednesday night, the Parish Education Board approved the inclusion of a Child Safe Code of Conduct for visitors / parents when signing in and an Alcohol Consumption Policy.

As a result of the changes to protocols, parents coming to collect their children during the day will inform the office staff. Deb or Sandra will ring through to the classroom for your child to come to the office to meet you to be signed out. You can read the Code of Conduct on our Learning Community Site at this link.

As part of the national Child Safe Standards, our school has an Alcohol Consumption Policy. You can read the full policy in the Parish Education Board section of the Learning Community Site at this link. Here is a copy of the matrix table from the policy to help understand the way the policy supports a safe environment for our children.

School Concerns Procedure

From time to time, parents will have a worry or a concern about something at school. In order to help clarify the correct process for parents to follow if they have any worries or concerns, we have prepared a flow chart. This was approved at the recent Parish Education Board meeting. Here is a copy of the flow chart. You can also access a full sized chart on the Learning Community Site at this link.

New Zealand Visitors

We welcomed a group of principals and leaders from Catholic schools in New Zealand to our school today. Thanks to all of our students, staff and Fr Paul who helped prepare and support the visit, especially our Year 6 captains who gave our visitors a guided tour. Our visitors were impressed with the warm welcome they received. They will be attending the Dominican Education Conference over the next couple of days.

NAPLAN

Our Year 3 and Year 5 children have completed their three consecutive days of national assessments. All children participated in tests in Reading, Writing, Language Conventions (spelling, grammar and punctuation) and Numeracy.

It's important to understand that NAPLAN tests are only one aspect of the school's assessment and reporting process and do not replace the ongoing assessments and understanding of the children's progress made by teachers. All children will receive their regular school mid year report in June. This gives a rounded picture of how children are progressing and is a chance to focus on the personal qualities and gifts of your children. You will also be able to learn more about your children's progress at the Parent/ Teacher interviews on the 29th June.

UPCOMING DATES for TERM 2

Fri 12th May Mother's Day Stall

Fri 19th May Dendy Cross Country years 4-6

Mon 22nd May Year 5 Camp until Wed 24th May inclusive

Fri 16th June Dendy Football Lightening Premiership

Wed 21st June School Closure Day

Fri 23rd June Reports home

Thur 29th June Parent/Teacher Interviews

Fri 30th June End of term 2. Children dismissed @ 2pm.

Week 3 Term 2, 2017

Thanks to our Foundation class for this display.

Did you know that Eastertide is the period of the fifty days from Easter Sunday to Pentecost Sunday ?It is celebrated as a single joyful feast. Let's be joyful Easter people and continue to share the love and mercy of the risen Christ.

Fr Paul

We welcomed Fr Paul back to school on Friday. He talked about his mountain bike accident and the importance of wearing a helmet. Fr Paul explained that the helmet had saved him from serious head injuries. Please continue to keep Fr Paul in your prayers as he heals and recovers.

Staff Profile

At the Connection Event earlier in the year we introduced our large team of staff to the parent community. Feedback from parents afterwards was that they weren't aware we had such a large leadership team and that they didn't know all of our staff.  As a result, we will profile some of our teachers and leaders in the Shamrock over the coming weeks.

Mr Matt Hale

Matt is one of our year 6 teachers, as well as the school’s Digital Technologies Coordinator. In his roles, Matt is fortunate to work with a range of teachers and students across St Pat’s, both while assisting with the year 6 leadership program and providing technology support. He is constantly impressed by the respect and maturity shown by our students and Matt can regularly be heard to say that, in all the schools he has worked in, he has never seen a friendlier or better-behaved group of kids than we have here at St Pat’s.                                          

Thanks to Annie and the Year 10 VET Sport & Recreation Group

We wish to thank Annie Carrie and the girls from Presentation Ladies College for their efforts to initially help with our cancelled  Sports Day last week. Annie and the girls were still able to come to St Patrick’s and work with some of our students in their PE lessons during the day. 

The girls were great role-models and represented their school well, making a big impression on our students. Being able to adapt to the changed plans at such short notice demonstrated flexibility and maturity as well as initiative and leadership skills.

Thanks to all parents who were going to help us on our Sports Day. We are planning to have another special day towards the end of the year. Thanks to Michelle Barclay for all of her organisation 

Yr 6 Digital Museum

Thanks to the Year 6 students who launched their digital museum to parents on Friday. There were several travelling exhibits visiting classes this week. Well done to all students.

WINTER UNIFORM

The chilly weather is definitely upon us so all children should now be in their winter uniform. It is important to make sure that in particular, jumpers and bomber jackets, are clearly named because these do tend to be shed during exercise and play.
For those children requiring a little extra warmth when wearing their sports uniform, it may be worth investigating purchasing one of the new (super) polar fleece bomber jackets available through PSW.

MOTHER'S DAY 

A SPECIAL REQUEST FROM ST PATS' ENVIRONMENT GROUP

UPCOMING DATES for TERM 2

Fri 5th May P & F Meeting 9am
Fri 12th May Mother's Day Stall
Fri 19th May Dendy Cross Country years 4-6
Mon 22nd May Year 5 Camp until Wed 24th May inclusive
Fri 16th June Dendy Football Lightening Premiership
Wed 21st June School Closure Day
Fri 23rd June Reports home
Thur 29th June Parent/Teacher Interviews
Fri 30th June End of term 2. Children dismissed @ 2pm.