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.