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
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
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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| Sharni with her letter |
Important Term 1 Dates
Monday 11-13th February Year 5 & 6 CAMP
Sunday 17th February Family Mass
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:
It is important for your families to also visit:
http://www.starmelb.catholic.
The Key dates in the application process are listed at:
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