Week 4, Term 1, 2019

Today is the Feast of the Chair of Peter, you can read all about it above. The Pope carries on the mission of the church today.

Thank you to everyone who attended the Family Mass last week and to our children who participated so enthusiastically.

Our next family mass will be on Sunday 17th March for St Patrick's day. Mass will be followed by a special celebration to reveal and open the time capsule left in the school 25 years ago. We have been instructed to open it on St Patrick's day and will prepare a special celebration for the event. We will keep you informed.

Here is an invitation to join the Parish Family mass choir:
Hello Families,
There is a small choir that leads the singing at family masses.
This is made up of past parents and other volunteers, but we
would love to have some members of the current school community.
It involves only a small amount of time, as in one hour of practice on
an evening of the week leading up to the Family Mass. This is not even
compulsory! If you like to sing or if you play a musical instrument, we'd
love you to join us.They say singing is good for you!!
I hope to hear from you, all you budding musicians and singers!
Cheers from Cathie Nankervis. Ph 0409140332

Parent Meetings/ Open Morning Thursday 21st March 9-10am

Thank you to all of the parents who completed the information forms and attended the parent meetings during the week. 

As mentioned at the recent Connection Evening, there will be an open morning on Thursday 21st March from 9am - 10am. This gives everyone an opportunity to drop in and visit their child's classroom.

Level newsletters and timetables
You can access the class termly newsletters, timetables and much more on our Learning Community site. Just go to the Year Level tab and check the drop down menus. You can also view specialist teacher timetables and term outlines as well as curriculum and other information including details from the Parish Education Board and the Parents and Friends association.

Supervised Eating Breaks

Please ensure your children have a healthy snack to keep them fueled with food especially on the days they have a lunch order. Each day, the children have a supervised eating time at the first break (11:15-11:25) followed by 30 minutes of play and then supervised eating at the second break (1:40-1:50) followed by 30 minutes of play. This term, we trialed the lunch orders arriving earlier in time for the end of the first break. Student preference is to have the lunch orders arrive for the start of the second break. Lunch orders will be delivered in time for the second break starting on Monday. Students without lunch orders may eat lunch at the first break if they wish.

Enrolments 2020 and 2021

Sibling forms are available from the office or please email Jenny to request a form. Enrolment tours have begun for new families. You can view our updated Information Booklet for 2020 at this link.

SCHOOL FEES

All families should have now received their school fees for 2019.

The payment methods include,

            ·               Direct Debit from your bank account straight to the school account.

 School Bank Details                 NAB     083-347

                                        Account Number                                              4864 55418

·            Electronic Eftpos at the school office.

·            Payment by cash directly at the school office.

Please ensure that you use your family name or family code as a means of us identifying who the payment is from.

You may choose to pay your fees by Term, in a lump sum by 30/06/2019, or as a Direct Debit Payment Plan. 

All fees must be paid in full by the end of Term 3 (20/09/2019).

Please contact Jenny directly if you have any questions or worries about the payment of fees.

SCHOOL FEE PAYMENT SCHEDULE 2019

FEES	PAYMENT DUE DATES
FIRST INSTALMENT	01/03/2019
SECOND INSTALMENT	17/05/2019
THIRD INSTALMENT	19/08/2019
Payment in full	30/06/2019

Family Fees
Family Fees $2616.00
Capital Levy $350.00
School Maintenance Levy $75.00

Levies
Curriculum Levy $360.00 (per student)
Sport Levy Yr 5/6 $150.00
Sacramental Levy Yr6 $25.00
Sacramental Levy Yr4 $25.00
Sacramental Levy Yr3 $25.00
Camp Fees Yr 5/6 $400.00
Public Speaking Yr 5/6 (to be advised)
NB School camp is a compulsory part of the school curriculum.

DENDY TENNIS DAY

Congratulations to Sasmi D, Millie E, Lachlan S and Patrick C who represented St Pat's in the Dendy Tennis Tournament today. We are very proud of their efforts and the respectful and sporting behaviour they displayed on the court. They showed some excellent skills and put in a strong and consistent effort throughout the competition. Well done!

Important Term 1 Dates

                   

Wednesday 13th March           Multicultural Dress Up Day

Friday 15th March                   St Patrick's Day Colour Run

Tuesday 19th March                Reconciliation Sacramental Workshop Year 3

Wednesday 20th March           Parish Education Board Meeting AGM
Thursday 21st March               Open Morning 9-10am

Wednesday 3rd April               End Term 1 for the children

Thursday 4-5 April                  Staff Conference Schools That Deliver Network

Community Notice Board

Click here for Cabrini ED kids’ discount 

Week 3, Term 1, 2019

Family Mass Sunday 17th February
This Sunday we will be celebrating our first family mass. Thank you to the families and the children who are participating with readings and the offertory. We look forward to welcoming you all to mass at 9am on Sunday morning.

Living the Word
The tree in the corridor is slowly growing as every child is represented by a butterfly with gospel quotes for every class.
May God be gracious to us and bless us and make his face shine on us Psalm 67:1

Year 5 and 6 Camp
Our Year 5 and 6 children spent a wonderful few days participating in the activities at the ADANAC CYC Campsite in Yarra Junction. Special thanks to Mr Paul Jones who coordinated the camp and to all of the staff who supervised and ensured the camp was a great success. Photos will be available to view shortly.

Calligraphy Incursion

During art lessons on 19, 20 and 20 February, students from all year levels will be enjoying a wonderful experience with calligraphy artist, Kerry Lucas from “Le Petit Moineau”. Kerry is a former teacher with a passion for calligraphy. Each class will learn about the history of calligraphy and have the opportunity to experiment with new tools and materials, to create designs and lettering. It would be fun to get them to show you their new skills when they come home and practise some new lettering styles.

School Photos
A reminder that school photos will be taken on Monday 18th February. All students need to be in full school uniform- no runners- and hair tied back if below the shoulders. Please do not send your child in oversized (JoJo) bows for the school photos. Ribbons should be white or navy.

Siblings ONLY envelopes are available from the office and must be returned to school with your children on Monday.

Children will give their order envelopes to the photographer on Monday.  If you have sent yours to school, they will be handed back to your child on Monday.  If you have ordered online it is still good for the children to have the envelope because they like to hand something over.

Because photos will commence at 9am, there will be no assembly next week.

Parent Teacher Meetings Wednesday 20th March - School finishes at 1PM
Bookings for Wednesday 20th February are now open to meet with your child's teacher.
Please click on the quicklink "Interviews" tab on Flexibuzz
Alternatively follow the following link https://www.schoolinterviews.com.au/code?code=9n995
Meetings will be held in the school hall. Timeslots are 10 minutes.
Parents are reminded to bring the blue information sheet that went home last week, along to the meeting.
Children will be dismissed at 1pm. Lunch orders will operate on this day and Team Kids will be open early from dismissal time.
NB: For those parents who have already booked in for PSG meetings, you will not be required to book another meeting this round.

Parent and Friend Pink List Each year the St Patrick's P&F distribute a parent contact list known as the pink list. The list includes contact names, emails and phone numbers of parents at the School and is a great way for our community to keep in touch. It puts names to faces and helps you to get to know other parents. It is also great for organising playdates, birthday parties, holiday catchups etc.

This year we are changing our data collection process and moving to an 'opt out' procedure. There are multiple ways to update your family details:

* A draft copy will be available to for you to check at the parent teacher meeting on Wednesday night (preferred)
* a direct email to parents will be sent to confirm individual details
* an updated contact form will be available at the office
* direct email to: christiemalexander@gmail.com

If you have any queries, please contact Christie Alexander via the email address above.

Thank you for your support of this useful communication tool.

Important Term 1 Dates

           

Sunday 17th February             Family Mass 

Monday 18th February            School Photos

Wednesday 20th February       Parent and Teacher Meetings, Parish Education Board Meeting  

                                                 Children dismissed at 1pm
Tuesday 12th March                Open Morning 9-10am

Wednesday 13th March           Multicultural Dress Up Day

Friday 15th March                   St Patrick's Day Colour Run

Tuesday 19th March                Reconciliation Sacramental Workshop Year 3

Wednesday 20th March           Parish Education Board Meeting AGM

Wednesday 3rd April               End Term 1 for the children

Thursday 4-5 April                  Staff Conference Schools That Deliver Network

Community Notice Board

Click here for Cabrini ED kids’ discount 

Week 2, Term 1, 2019

Beginning of Year Mass
The whole school celebrated a beautiful beginning of the year mass in the church. Father Leenus invited the staff forward during mass to read a special commitment prayer for the new year school year.
....May we grow together as a school community filled with hope and joy and be a place of welcome everyone feels included and valued.
We make this commitment and ask our Creator God, Jesus, his loving Son, and the life-changing Holy Spirit to be with us as we journey into 2019.

Amen

Family Masses
On the 3rd Sunday of the month in the school term, St Patrick’s Parish has a Family Mass at 9am. All families are encouraged to attend and a notice will either be sent home with the eldest or a Flexibuzz notifying you of the Family Mass and asking for children to assist with readings and/or bring up the gifts. Our first Family Mass for 2019 is Sunday 17 February. Could any families who are going to attend this Mass and your children are happy to have a role in the Mass, please email Anne Mullan with their name and class. Mrs Mullan's email is annem@spmurrumbeena.catholic.edu.au

Year 5 & 6 Camp
On Monday our Year 5 & 6's will be away attending the ADANAC camp. You can more about the camp at this link. We are looking forward to an engaging and active few days and thank Mr Paul Jones for coordinating the camp. We will return to school on Friday.

Choir

A large number of children chose to join our new St Patrick's school choir for the first session this morning. The singing was beautiful ! We are looking forward to our children enjoying this opportunity to sing in our very own choir under the expertise of our music specialist, Mrs O'Dwyer, every Friday morning.

Year 6 Leadership Information
During the week, our Year 6 leaders focussed on their leadership roles for 2019. The theme they agreed on is: “Aspire not to have more but to BE MORE” Oscar Romero
Here is a link to the work they have done so far and their leadership groups for this year. We are looking forward to the Year 6's stepping into their leadership roles when they return from their school camp next week. Thanks to Ms Walsh and Ms La Fontaine for working with the children to design a leadership programme unique to St Patrick's for 2019.

The Year 6 students collaborated to design leadership roles for 2019.

Connection Evening
Thank you to our staff and parents who were able to attend the connection evening on Wednesday night.
The slideshow from the evening is below. Slide 4 has a link to the school vision and the values we follow as a school community to bring our vision to life. We spoke about the importance of completing the blue information form in readiness for the parent meetings on the 20th February. Reference was also made to the wealth of information available for parents on the Learning Community Site. You can access it from the link on Slide 5 below or by clicking the image in the right hand column of the Shamrock newsblog.

Bree from the P&F and Kylie from the Parish Board cut the cake for our celebration.

Learning and Teaching Information 
The Learning Community Site is the portal used to access the curriculum content your child will be undertaking each term. The teachers began planning for 2019 in November last year and aim to provide engaging and motivating opportunities that take into the students interests, needs and academic challenges.

As a school we are not fixated on NAPLAN, however it is one indicator of the academic performance of our students.

NAPLAN data consistently demonstrates we are a high performing school, and have outperformed “like” schools in reading and numeracy for the last 7 years. We now consider our teaching and learning practices as embedded in the culture of the school.

Further assessments indicate that 50-80% of our students are operating a year or more above their year level- therefore our challenge is to address the range of abilities- to provide differentiated learning activities for students operating 5 or more years apart in one space. One way of addressing these challenges is by providing extension groups as well as intervention for students experiencing difficulties.

We focus on extending children's thinking, problem solving skills, use of a variety strategies, developing confidence to voice an opinion and back it up with data or facts.We have moved away from the use of worksheets and text books, and these are rarely used in classrooms.

Feedback from secondary schools is that our students are academically confident and capable, and willingly step up to leadership roles.We would like to acknowledge the role parents have in these exceptional results, along with our dedicated and committed teaching staff.

We concluded the evening with the cutting of a special cake from 3 Little Bakers to celebrate our outstanding academic results from 2018 and our plans for a wonderful 2019. Our parents were invited to cut the cake. Thanks to Bree for representing the Parents and Friends and Kylie for representing the Parish Education Board. After the cutting of the cake, there was a chance for parents and teachers to chat together.

 

Enrolments for 2020 and 2021
Enrolments have opened and personalised tours have already been booked. Please pass this information on to families and friends planning to join our school community. Sibling enrolment forms will be available to pick up from the office in Week 4 (from Monday 18th Feb) or email principal@spmurrumbeena if you would like an enrolment form emailed to you.

Parent Helpers Course
A number of Prep parents signed up last year for the Parent Helpers Course.
Our first session is next Thursday Feb 14th from 9-10am. Please sign in at the office and I will meet you there at 9am.
Liz Hills lizh@spmurrumbeena.catholic.edu.au

Parents and Friends P&F
We had a great turnout of about 20 parents to our first P&F meeting for the year ! Thanks to everyone who joined us, especially our new Prep families. Save the date -  October 26th, will be our new look Family Fun Fair. First we have the Colour Run and the Easter Raffle. We are looking forward to an exciting 2019 and special thanks to Bree and Annie for their commitment, passion and enthusiasm.

Some of the parents at the P&F meeting today

Information about casual clothes on birthdays
At the end of last year, Sharni, one of our current Year 6 leaders put forward a special request to wear casual clothes to school on their birthday. This was discussed with the leadership team and shared with the children at assembly.
We have agreed that the children can wear casual clothes with runners on their birthday. This will start tomorrow. Here are the guidelines:
1. This is optional. Your child can still choose to wear their school uniform.
2. Birthdays that fall in the weekend (celebrate it on the first day of the school week) or the holidays (birthdays in January and early February choose a day during Week 3 or Week 4, term holidays choose a day in Week 1 or 2 of the following term).
3. If the birthday falls on an excursion day, for safety reasons, they must wear their uniform and choose a different day during the week of their birthday to wear casual clothes.
4. If the birthday falls on a PE Day then they must wear suitable casual clothes for PE.

Sharni with her letter

Important Term 1 Dates

              

Monday 11-13th February      Year 5 & 6 CAMP
Sunday 17th February             Family Mass 

Monday 18th February            School Photos

Wednesday 20th February       Parent and Teacher Meetings, Parish Education Board Meeting  

Wednesday 13th March           Multicultural Dress Up Day

Friday 15th March                   St Patrick's Day Colour Run

Tuesday 19th March                Reconciliation Sacramental Workshop Year 3

Wednesday 20th March           Parish Education Board Meeting

Wednesday 3rd April               End Term 1 for the children

Thursday 4-5 April                  Staff Conference Schools That Deliver Network

Star of the Sea College will be conducting a series of tours from March through to August for families who wish to apply for a place at the College in Year 7, 2021.  

Tour bookings are now open and are made via our website - go to:

http://www.starmelb.catholic.edu.au/new/enrolment/tours

It is important for your families to also visit: 

http://www.starmelb.catholic.edu.au/new/enrolment/enrolment-criteria  for the Year 7 Enrolment Criteria list and there are Enrolment FAQ to assist your families as well.

The Key dates in the application process are listed at:

http://www.starmelb.catholic.edu.au/new/enrolment/key-dates

Week 1 Term 1 2019

WELCOME BACK TO OUR 2019 SCHOOL YEAR !!

It is lovely to see everyone return to school with enthusiasm and energy ready for the new school year. A special welcome to all of our new children across the school and of course our preps and their families.

Thanks to Zoe (Year 5) for designing this special 2019 logo for our school.

                                                                        BEGINNING OF THE SCHOOL YEAR MASS

This Friday 8th February at 9:10am, the whole school will attend our first school mass for 2019. Fr Leenus will also welcome and commission our staff during this mass. Parents are welcome to join us for mass after drop off.

Our RE theme for 2019 is Living the Word

PARENT CONNECTION EVENT WEDNESDAY 6TH FEBRUARY 7-8pm

This Wednesday at 7pm in the school hall, all parents are welcome to join us. You will get an opportunity to meet all of our staff and learn about our plans for 2019. There will be representatives from the Parents and Friends and our Parish Education Board attending the event too. The staff are  looking forward to coming together with the parent community for our first event for the year.

ST PATRICK'S SCHOOL CHOIR

We are pleased to announce that we are starting a school choir from children in Year 3- Year 6.  Our music specialist Mrs. O'Dwyer will be coordinating the choir and will invite any interested children to join. The choir sessions will start this coming Friday.

CHILD SAFETY
As part of the Child Safe Schools 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.
As per our safety 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.

LUNCH ORDERS AND BREAK TIMES

We have two play breaks and two ten minute supervised eating times during the day. The children can eat their snack or lunch during either of the eating times.
The lunch orders are now being delivered at the earlier time of 12:00.
This means that there will not be enough time to ring through any late or forgotten  lunch orders. Children will need to remember to put the order in their lunch order tub.

Nude Food
All lunch rubbish (including food scraps) such as Glad wrap, apple cores, fruit boxes etc will be taken home by the children. We are trying to encourage an awareness of waste and sustainability and your support is appreciated. 

SPORTS NOTICE - DENDY SWIMMING CARNIVAL

We're hitting the ground running... it’s off to a quick start with sporting events in 2019! Children in Years 4-6 are invited to attend swimming trials (Tuesday 5th February at GESAC, 7.15am- 8.30am) for the upcoming Dendy Swimming Carnival. Permission forms, along with the Dendy Code of Conduct have been sent home- please read through these and return asap.

 WEEKLY ASSEMBLY
The whole school come together in the hall every Monday morning from 9:00-9:20 am. This is the time when awards will be presented to children

WORKING WITH CHILDREN CHECKS
During the year there are many occasions when we will request the assistance of parent helpers with activities. These activities may include: inter-school sports events, school excursions, classroom helpers, cooking, etc.
In line with our Child Safe Policy, St Patrick’s requires that any parents who wish to help in this capacity must have a current Working With Children Check. Parent helpers are asked to bring their WWCC card with them when they sign in on the i-pad at the school office. WWCCs can be applied for online at http://www.workingwithchildren.vic.gov.au and are free for volunteers.
We value the contributions of parent helpers across the school and strongly urge ALL parents to apply for a WWCC.

PLAYGROUND SAFETY
A reminder that dogs are not permitted in the school playground.
.

Important Term 1 Dates

               
Tuesday 5th February             Swimming Trials for Yr 4-6 children GESAC 7:15am
Wednesday 6th February        Connection Event for staff and parents 7pm
Friday 8th February                Beginning School Year Mass Celebration 9:10am, 
                                                PARENTS &FRIENDS  Meeting   2:30pm STAFFROOM
Monday 11-13th February      Year 5 & 6 CaMP
Monday 18th February            School Photos
Wednesday 20th February       Parent and Teacher Meetings, Parish Education Board Meeting  
Wednesday 13th March           Multicultural Dress Up Day
Friday 15th March                   St Patrick's Day Colour Run
Tuesday 19th March                Reconciliation Sacramental Workshop Year 3
Wednesday 20th March           Parish Education Board Meeting
Wednesday 3rd April               End Term 1 for the children
Thursday 4-5 April                  Staff Conference Schools That Deliver Network