Week 6 Term 2 2019

National Reconciliation Week

National Reconciliation Week (NRW) is celebrated across Australia each year between 27 May and 3 June. The dates commemorate two significant milestones in the reconciliation journey—the anniversaries of the successful 1967 referendum and the High Court Mabo decision.

Lord, open up our hearts so that we may hear the message you teach of a world in which the wrongs of the past are recognised - a world in which a reconciled people walk and talk together sharing stories; a world in which all burn with the desire to have your peace and justice reign. We ask this in Jesus’ name.

Amen

At assembly on Monday, we watched a video that captured the meaning of National Reconciliation Week in a succinct and powerful way for the children understand. Here is a link to the video the video.

Down Syndrome Day at St Pat's
A big thank you to Grace, Olivia and Tess Hartnett for sharing their story at assembly on Monday. Thanks to all of the children and families who supported the day on Thursday.

Family Fun Fair Meeting
Thanks to everyone who supported the fair meeting last night. Nadine Power chaired an excellent meeting of volunteers from our community, all keen to make our new look fair a big success. We will keep you updated with ways you can support the fair in the coming weeks and months. Save the date - October 26th.

Some of the wonderful parents at the Family Fun Fair meeting

 School Closure Day
Just a reminder that the school will be closed on Friday 7th of June. Team Kids will be operating for this day.  Bookings essential.

Walk to School Day

Thank you to our Year 6 Leaders for coordinating Walk to School Day today.  Thank you to all the families who walked this morning. It was very well supported despite the dreary weather.

PARKING around the school 
Please Respect and Value our neighbours
We have had several complaints recently from local residents regarding our families not observing  parking restrictions, parking too close to Murrumbeena Road blocking access into Dalny Road and also parking over, or too close to driveways which prevents residents from accessing their properties.  They have reported the incidents to the local council including submitting photographs.  The council will no doubt react by sending traffic inspectors to the school over the next few weeks.  Please pay attention to the parking restrictions (which are there to protect our community and especially our children) and also be respectful of our neighbours by not impeding their access to their  homes.

Term 2 Dates

Mon 3rd June                           5H Assembly

Friday 7th June                        School Closure Day
Monday 10th June                   Queen's Birthday Holiday
Tuesday 11th June                   Child Safe Team Meeting
Friday 14th June                      5/6 Interschool Sport
                                                 5/6 Level Mass
Mon 17th June                          3D Assembly
Thu 20th June                           Parent/Teacher Interviews
Friday 28th June                       Last Day of Term 2

Community Announcements

Week 5 Term 2 2019

CULTURAL MEETING/WORKSHOP
Thanks to all of the parents and staff who joined us for our workshop on Tuesday. Our meeting was an opportunity to respect and value the voice of our parents and celebrate the diversity of our school community.
Here is the prayer we shared at the meeting.

This is the agenda from the meeting.

AGENDA

6:30 Welcome & context with the value focus,Welcome to country,Prayer
6:40 Introductions/ Apologies, Flowchart procedure for personal concerns
6:45 What are we already doing well ? Discuss with neighbour.
6:55 Dialogue Activity : Leadership Paper Enabling Diverse & Inclusive Communities - Read yourself.Triad activity dialogue/ sticky notes - What is important for your child at St Pat’s ? Suggestions/Ideas for ways we can celebrate diversity.
7:10 Discuss potential ideas going forward
7:20 Cultural working group
7:30 Conclude

Some of the outcomes of our dialogue.

Parents and staff participated in the cultural workshop.

DOWN SYNDROME DAY
Earlier this year, I received a letter from the Hartnett girls asking if we could recognise Down Syndrome Day. On Monday at assembly, the girls will share their story with the school. On Thursday, all children at St Pat's are invited to wear coloured socks and bring a gold coin donation for Down Syndrome Australia.

ST PAT'S SCHOOL CHOIR - A MILLION DREAMS
I was fortunate to listen to our choir rehearse for their singing presentation at assembly on Monday. They are fantastic !! Everyone is welcome to join us for assembly this Monday and hear the children sing their very own version of A Million Dreams from the Greatest Showman. Thanks to our music specialist and Year 3 teacher, Marg O'Dwyer for her work with the choir.

Our choir rehearse for assembly on Monday

THANK YOU
Thank you to Nicole and John Howard for running the barbecue on Election Day and cooking so many delicious sausages. Special thanks to their band of helpers and Year 4 parents who coordinated the cake stall and all of parents who supplied cakes on the day.  The total profit will be around $2,000, a wonderful effort.

Thank you to the P & F for organising the disco for our children this evening.

ST PAT'S SUSTAINABLE GARDEN
On Saturday morning one of our school dad's, Brett Jeffkins (Brett's Gardening) and Robert (our school handyman) will be meeting at school to work on revitalising our school garden next to the bicycle shed in readiness for some winter planting. We look forward to sharing some photos of the new look garden with you next week.

We are fortunate to be the recipient of a Woolworths Landcare Grant which will help us moving forward with this project. Here is a link to the homepage for our grant which shows some before photos of our garden.

SMART SPELLING AT ST PATRICK'S
SMART Spelling is an approach that supports primary school teachers to teach spelling well. It follows a comprehensive ‘Prep – 6 Scope and Sequence’ that supports our current programs and strategies. Teachers start by teaching the meaning of words to expand vocabulary and then break words into syllables, sounds and letter patterns (graphs, digraphs and trigraphs) following a simple routine.

In the spelling classroom, students are explicitly taught spelling patterns, one at a time. Teachers choose a range of words (from simple to complex) from a suggested list. Students are then guided to choose 6-8 words from that list, to meet different needs. Personal words are also a focus in the teaching of spelling. Teachers use their strong professional knowledge to give meaningful feedback to students about their spelling in writing, teaching at the point of need.

St Patrick’s trialled The SMART Spelling program in 2018, and this year have rolled it out across all grades, following a whole school Professional Development Day at the start of the year. Within weeks we were seeing students using the metalanguage of spelling (6 year olds classifying their words as digraphs and trigraphs!). We look forward to second semester when we can begin to measure the success of this spelling initiative on a whole school level. In the meantime, your child should be able to articulate each week’s spelling focus, and once SeeSaw is up and running, we will share with you our current focus.

Please talk to your classroom teacher or to me if you have any questions or comments. Your feedback is always very welcome.

Liz Hills

DENDY DISTRICT CROSS COUNTRY
Last Friday, 50 children from Years 4-6 competed at the Dendy District Cross Country. We are incredibly proud of their efforts and the manner in which they represented themselves and our school. We were particularly delighted to see the respect and support they showed each other throughout the morning. It was very exciting when the final results were announced - St Patrick's came 3rd!!

Congratulations to the following students who finished in the top 20 and received a certificate on the day.
* 9/10 Girls - Millie P, Tara M
* 11 Girls - Lila S, Olivia C, Ella C, Emma M
* 11 Boys - Matt F, Eamon T, Will W, Nico B, Mitch N, Finn P
* 12/13 Girls - Alice M, Luciana D
* 12/13 Boys - Fred H, Angus E, Terrence L, Jack O
Special mention to Alice who came in 3rd place, Tara who came in 2nd and Millie who came 1st in their respective races!! These girls all received medals during the presentation ceremony. The Beachside Division is next week; we wish all our competitors good luck.
We would also like to thank the parent helpers who accompanied our team and assisted the course marshals. Your support is much appreciated.

PARISH EDUCATION BOARD (PEB)

Here is a link from our Learning Community Site to information about our PEB. You can access a list of PEB members, reports and guidelines in this section of our Learning Site.

At the recent meeting, we discussed setting up an Occupational Health & Safety working group. We would like to invite members of our community to support this group. Our Board Chair, John O'Sullivan has written this invitation with details around the role.

Introduction: The safety and security of all students and teachers at our school is paramount. Our school Parish Education Board wishes to set up an Occupational Health & Safety working group. This OH&S working group will have representation from teachers and parents. We are looking for expressions of interest if you are a parent who would like to join this newly forming OHS working group.

Key responsibilities and duties: Jenny as principal of the school is responsible for ensuring Occupational, Health and Safety standards are maintained. However, this working group will prove a very useful collection of people with diverse experiences and skills, to assist Jenny with this responsibility. Some of the responsibilities of the working group will include:

• Conduct walkarounds of our school premises and buildings to identify any OH&S risks or concerns, and consider mitigating activities. This will contribute to the school goal of having a safe and secure environment for all children, staff and visitors to our school.
• Implement any OH&S audit findings made by the Catholic Education Office
• Consider the good practice suggestions in place from Federal and State government bodies (e.g. Worksafe Victoria) as well as suggestions from our Catholic Education Office and implement these, where appropriate
• Assist the school implement new OH&S initiatives
• Foster and develop an OH&S Culture across the school

While OH&S experience would be desirable, we are more interested in having parents join this working group who have genuine interest in ensuring the ongoing safety and security of our children when at school. 

Time commitment :We envisage the OHS working group meeting once per month/twice per term with each meeting lasting no longer than one hour. Time of that meeting can be scheduled to work around your availability. Goal is to have all OHS to provide a brief written update to the PEB for their full Board meetings.

What to do next? If you are interested in being considered for joining this working group, please call Sandra in the school office or email Jenny directly at jhawkins@spmurrumbeena.catholic.edu.au.

DOGS
This is a reminder that due to health and safety reasons, dogs are not to be on the school grounds unless with approval for a special class visit.

Thank you from the P & F 
The P & F would like to thank the mums who attended the Mother's Day afternoon tea and would like to advise that the funds raised ($51.00)  have been donated to the LOVE YOUR  SISTER charity.

FAMILY FAIR MEETING
All welcome to join the Family fair meeting at 7:30pm in the staff room.

HELP REQUIRED
56 year old lady with a disability living in Carnegie (close to St Pat’s) seeks a cleaner to support her with cleaning her small unit twice a week for one hour. Potential cleaner must have their own ABN or work for a registered cleaning company and be prepared to charge the NDIS rate for cleaning ($41.43 per hour). For more information please contact Hans van de Graaff on 0418 352 706.

Term 2 Dates

Monday 27th May                    Assembly - Choir performance
Thursday 30th May                  Down Syndrome Day at St Pat's - wear coloured socks/gold coin
                                                  Family Fair Meeting 7:30-8:30pm

Friday 31st May                       5/6 Interschool Sport

                                                 Years 3/4 Level Mass

Mon 3rd June                           5H Assembly

Friday 7th June                        School Closure Day
Monday 10th June                   Queen's Birthday Holiday
Friday 14th June                      5/6 Interschool Sport
                                                 5/6 Level Mass
Mon 17th June                          3D Assembly
Thu 20th June                           Parent/Teacher Interviews
Friday 28th June                       Last Day of Term 2

Secondary Schools for 2020

Click here for information regarding forthcoming De La Salle College tours

Week 4 Term 2 2019

May - The Month of Mary

We continue to pray to Mary, the mother of Jesus during the month of May.

Hail Mary, full of grace. The Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou amongst women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death, Amen.

We Value and Respect Others
Well done to Miss O'Halloran and 2O for a fantastic celebration of mothers at assembly on Monday. They showed how much they value and respect their beautiful mums.

2O celebrated their mums at assembly on Monday.

Many of our staff are mothers and other staff enjoy spending precious time with their mums too. Family is important to all of us at St Pat's. Our staff family got together during the week to celebrate time with each other. We are truly blessed at St Pat's with a dedicated and enthusiastic staff who share their gifts and talents with our children. We value and respect all of our wonderful staff.

Our staff enjoyed a fun get together outside of school during the week.

Fair Funding For Victorian Catholic Schools

Federal Election Update 16 May 2019
Fair Funding for Victorian Catholic Schools

It is important that we are informed about where our Catholic Schools sit when it comes to fair funding in the election. Please find a link to a letter regarding the education funding policies of the major parties that the Catholic Education Office have asked us to share with our school community. Here is the link.

Please support the P&F & the Year 4 parents as they run the cake stall and the Howard family who coordinate the Election Day barbecue for us at St Pat's tomorrow.

Cultural Meeting 
Following on from Term 1's Harmony Week celebrations and Term 2's introduction of core values we invite interested parents to a cultural meeting on Tuesday 21st May 6:30 -7:30pm.

We want to make sure our core value of respecting and valuing one another is authentic and real for every family at St Pat's school. The meeting will be an opportunity to share ideas for celebrating our diversity and make plans going forward.

In order to arrange seating, add your name to the list at this link or email principal@spmurrumbeena.catholic.edu.au by Monday 20th May.  The meeting will take place upstairs in the Year 6 classrooms.

Disco
The P& F disco is next Friday 24th May. Here is the link to the Disco flyer.

Secondhand uniform shop

The secondhand uniform shop is open on Tuesdays 3-3.30pm. 

We now accept payment via EFT (payWave). 

Term 2 Dates

Saturday 18th May                   Election Day BBQ & Cake Stall
Tuesday 21st May                    Cultural Consultation 6:30pm - 7:30pm

Friday 24th May                      5/6 Interschool Sport

                                                 Year 2 Level Mass
Thursday 30th May                  Down Syndrome Day at St Pat's

Friday 31st May                       5/6 Interschool Sport

                                                 Years 3/4 Level Mass

Mon 3rd June                           5H Assembly

Friday 7th June                        School Closure Day
Monday 10th June                   Queen's Birthday Holiday
Friday 14th June                      5/6 Interschool Sport
                                                 5/6 Level Mass
Mon 17th June                          3D Assembly
Thu 20th June                           Parent/Teacher Interviews
Friday 28th June                       Last Day of Term 2

Week 3 Term 2 2019

Month of Mary
In the Catholic church, May is recognised as the month of Mary. Mary is our greatest role model as the loving mother of Jesus. As we prepare to celebrate Mother's Day, we recognise all mothers, grandmothers and special friends who constantly shower us with love, care and kindness.
Let's pray for all mothers as we say the Hail Mary.
Hail Mary, full of grace. The Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou amongst women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death, Amen.

Special thanks to our school mothers and grandmothers who supported the Prep pampering morning, the Team Kids breakfast, the Mothers Day Stall and the Mother's Day afternoon.
We wish all of you a blessed Mother's and special friend's day.

Seesaw Launch and our Core Values
Thank you to all of our school families who have agreed to register with SeeSaw. We have uptake from 100% of our families. Outstanding !!!
Please check in you child's bag for the hard copy letter to all families with directions on how to download the Seesaw app with your special family details.
Keep an eye out for the first post from your child's class in relation to our Core Value focus on respect and valuing one another.

Praise for our staff
We are fortunate to have such a committed staff team at St Pat's who are valued and respected by us all. At the end of last term, Mrs Maria Lucas, generously extended her teaching hours from two days to four days a week in 3L. Mrs Marg O'Dwyer, our current music specialist and class teacher, also partnered with Mrs Lucas to work an extra day in 3L.
Last week, we welcomed Ms Jo Guscott to our staff. Jo has relocated back to Melbourne from Brisbane and has 20 years of extensive teaching experience. Jo is passionate about literacy, PE and performing arts and has already begun to build strong connections with the Year 6 leaders in 6G.

Welcome to Jo Guscott with 6G

I often receive wonderful feedback from parents about our staff. Our Preps pampered their mums, nans and special friends this week. You can access photos of the children in action on our school Facebook Page at this like and read the supportive comments from parents.

Here is a lovely email I received from a parent:

I just wanted to email to tell you what an amazing job all the Prep Teachers and of course the children did today with our 'Pamper Session.' From the moment I walked down the hall and was sprinkled with confetti I truly felt so special and loved. My manicure is fabulous and I won't be removing it anytime soon. The morning tea with all the pink biscuits was so wonderful! 

I can't thank the teachers enough for this incredible event-it was the best!!!

Prep Enrolments 2020

Just a reminder that sibling enrolments need to be at the office asap please. You can also email me at jhawkins@spmurrumbeena.catholic.edu.au with your child's name to ensure we allocate a place.

Cultural Meeting
Following on from Harmony Week and this term's introduction of core values to develop a sense of student belonging we would like to invite interested parents to a cultural meeting.

Our cultural diversity at St Patrick's has grown in the past few years and we wish to ensure we are welcome and inclusive of all. We want to make sure our core value of respecting and valuing one another is authentic and real for everyone.

The meeting will be an opportunity to listen to each other, share ideas and make plans going forward.
We are open to ways we can celebrate and strengthen the richness of cultural diversity at St Patrick's from a family perspective.

St Patrick's display in the Year 1 corridor

Hayden's Helping Hands

The collection box for Hayden's Helping Hands is back in the school office. 

There's been a rapid increase in homeless attending the Sunday outreaches and demand is high for toiletries, clothes, underwear, non-perishable food, blankets and first aid items. Second hand Winter woolies and coats are always very much appreciated too.

Thanks for your support.

The P & F are calling for some Volunteers to man the Election day BBQ.
There will be a roster up on the hall doors this week and ideally we would need about 10-15 volunteers to make it through the day.

Term 2 Dates

Sunday 12th May                    Mother's Day/ Afternoon Tea

Monday 13th May                   NAPLAN week, 3O Assembly

Friday 17th May                      5/6 Interschool Sport

                                                 Year 1 Level Mass
Saturday 18th May                   Election Day BBQ & Cake Stall
Tuesday 21st May                    Cultural Consultation 6:30pm

Friday 24th May                      5/6 Interschool Sport

                                                 Year 2 Level Mass

Friday 31st May                       5/6 Interschool Sport

                                                 Years 3/4 Level Mass

Mon 3rd June                            5H Assembly

Friday 7th June                        School Closure Day
Monday 10th June                   Queen's Birthday Holiday
Friday 14th June                      5/6 Interschool Sport
                                                 5/6 Level Mass
Mon 17th June                          3D Assembly
Thu 20th June                           Parent/Teacher Interviews
Friday 28th June                       Last Day of Term 2

Week 2 Term 2 2019

First Reconciliation
Congratulations to our Year 3 children who made their First Reconciliation on Tuesday evening. The church was full of children, families and friends supporting this special occasion. Thank you to our RE Leader Mrs Mullan and the children's teachers, Mrs Lucas, Mr Daidone and Mrs O'Dwyer for helping to prepare the children so well. We were fortunate that Fr Leenus, Bishop Elliott and Fr Patrick were available for Reconciliation.
Our children demonstrated the core value of respect by participating reverently in the sacrament of reconciliation. Families attending with their children showed how they respect and value the importance of the sacrament for the children.

If any of our wonderful parents have a photo that includes everyone please send it to principal@spmurrumbeena.catholic.edu.au

Core Value Focus

We introduced the core values at assembly on Monday

Our focus on the core values began at assembly on Monday. We will spend about eight weeks focusing on each of the core values beginning with We respect and value one another, followed by We are positive. We will develop shared meanings of the values and  be explicit about what they look like in action. This will help to strengthen them and bring them to life in our community. Staff and children will be able to be "core value detectives" and gather real life examples of children demonstrating the values happening in a positive way in the playground and in the classroom.
During Term 2 and the first half of Term 3 we will review the way the core values are maximising impact for the learner by gathering evidence of the values in action through:

• Stories and feedback from conversations with parents
• Academic data through NAPLAN and assessment reports
• Insight SRC data
• Resilience Survey Data
• Stories from children at school
• Newsletters, website, social media, staff meetings and board meetings 
• Personnel around the school such as teachers, office staff, LSO's
• OSH Team Kids will use the values too
• Awards recognising the core values in context
• Seesaw across the school
• Explicit reference of the values during dialogue and meetings with each other, children and parents.
• Linking the values to school wide displays

It will be important to share what we are doing with our community and encourage parents to let us know if they see something that doesn't align with our core values.

We aim to ensure we have authentic, real, caring, compassionate human beings in the classrooms, in our school and within our community.  The core values are our "soul stuff". We will use the core values as a lens for our school review. As a result, we will be able to enhance our school performance for the benefit of our whole community. You can read more about our school review at this link.

Seesaw Update

As mentioned last week, our school will be using Seesaw (http://seesaw.me), a secure online journal where students can document and reflect on what they are learning in class. Seesaw was successfully trialled in Year 1 last year and as a result of very positive parent feedback we will be using Seesaw school wide.

Your child will be able to add the things we work on (including photos, videos, worksheets, drawings and voice recordings) to their Seesaw journal and we can share them privately with you and other family members to view and comment on throughout the school year.

Family members are only able to access their own child's journal, not the journals of other students in the class.

As a school we have family sharing disabled. This means when family sharing is disabled, families will not have the ability to download any posts onto their device or share any posts over social media.

In the coming weeks you will receive a letter explaining how to connect to your child’s journal.

You can read more about their strong privacy promises here: https://web.seesaw.me/privacy.

We hope that your child will enjoy using Seesaw to document and share their learning this year.

Year 5/6 Great Australian Expo

Well done to our senior children for sharing their Great Australian Expo projects with our community during the week. It's wonderful to celebrate the effort that our children put into their work. The core value of respect was demonstrated by visitors who genuinely valued interacting with the children during the expo.

Cultural Meeting
Following on from Harmony Week and this term's introduction of core values to develop a sense of student belonging we would like to invite interested parents to a cultural meeting.

Our cultural diversity at St Patrick's has grown in the past few years and we wish to ensure we are welcome and inclusive of all. We want to make sure our core value of respecting and valuing one another is authentic and real for everyone.

The meeting will be an opportunity to listen to each other, share ideas and make plans going forward.
We are open to opportunities to celebrate and strengthen the richness of cultural diversity at St Patrick's from a family perspective.

St Patrick's display in the Year 1 corridor

Mother's/Special Friends Day Stall and Afternoon Tea

The P& F parents have been preparing for the Mother's/ Special Friends day stall at school. There will also be an opportunity for mums to come together for a cuppa before pick up on Friday.

Term 2 Dates

Monday 6th May                     4V Assembly

Wednesday 8th May                Parish Education Board meeting 7pm

Friday 10th May                      Mother's Day Stall Prep/Year 6 Level Mass 

Sunday 12th May                    Mother's Day/ Afternoon Tea

Monday 13th May                   NAPLAN week

Friday 17th May                      5/6 Interschool Sport

                                                 Year 1 Level Mass
Tuesday 21st May                    Cultural Consultation 6:30pm

Friday 24th May                      5/6 Interschool Sport

                                                 Year 2 Level Mass

Friday 31st May                       5/6 Interschool Sport

                                                 Years 3/4 Level Mass

Mon 3rd Jun                             5H Assembly

Friday 7th June                        School Closure Day
Monday 10th June                   Queen's Birthday Holiday
Friday 14th June                      5/6 Interschool Sport
                                                 5/6 Level Mass
Mon 17th Jun                           3D Assembly
Thu 20th Jun                            Parent/Teacher Interviews
Friday 28th Jun                        Last Day of Term 2