Community Update #4.9

 Advent

The season of Advent begins this weekend. Advent is a time of waiting. We wait for the birth of Jesus, who came to show us God the Father's love. We wait for him in our hearts, our classrooms, our homes, our parish community and in the world.

Just as we have spent time during the pandemic waiting to reconnect with family and friends, our appreciation of the joy we feel when we are reunited with our loved ones is precious.

Parish News - There is more information about Advent and the appointment of a new Parish Priest at this link.

Classes 2021 Not returning ?

In order to finalise classes for 2021 could you kindly confirm in writing by Tuesday 1 December principal@spmurrumbeena.catholic.edu.au. if your child is not returning to St Patrick's. Thank you to the families that have already notified me.

Swimming 

GESAC has just confirmed with us that there will be no school swimming programme for 2020. However, we are currently negotiating an extension of our subsidised swimming programme for 2021.

1:1 Chromebook Digital Device Program Year 1-6 2021

Here is a link to the letter that explains in detail our programme for 2021.

Full access to the 1:1 Chromebook portal for purchasing the device is available at this link on our Learning Community Site

Thank you to all of you who have ordered the Chromebooks. This is a reminder that 4 December is the final day for ordering through the LWT portal.

Please contact me directly if you need support principal@spmurrumbeena.catholic.edu.au

Prep 2021 Buddy Time

We are pleased to announce that the Preps for 2021 will all be able to come onsite on Monday 7 December from 12:30 to 2pm to meet their teachers and classes for next year. They will then spend time meeting their Year 5 buddies.

Jenny Hawkins

Principal

Parents & Friends News

The P & F AGM took place on Thursday 26 November. Here is a link to the minutes from the meeting.  

All reports and details can be accessed on the Learning Community Site at this link.

Class Reps 2021

The Parents & Friends Committee are looking for volunteers to be their representatives in each class or year level for 2021. 

The main role of the Class Reps is really to foster a sense of community within the year level by:

 - Welcoming new families who may joining mid year.

 - Being a conduit from the P&F to the families in your class/year in relation to P&F social events or fundraising efforts

- Organising social events for your year level in conjunction with your other year level reps

Given our current inability to socially gather at school it is even more important than ever that each year level have persons who can be a point of contact.

If you would like to volunteer, or would like more information – please email pandf@spmurrumbeena.catholic.edu.au or contact Jenny Jones (0410 470 647).

Thank you in advance for the hundreds of unique ways you each support the school.

Jenny Jones

St Patrick's P&F President

Team Kids News

Term Dates

Term 4 2020

Whole School Transition 2021 (1)              December 4

2021 Prep Transition/Year 5 Buddies.       December 7

Whole School Transition 2021 (2)              December 7

Community Christmas Celebration           December 8

Year 6 Confirmation                                    December 10

Whole School Transition 2021 (3)              December 10

Modified Mini Market                                   December 11

Modified Year 6 Graduation                        December 14

End of Term mass/liturgy                            December 16

School finishes at 1pm                               December 16

Term 1 2021

Staff only return Closure Day                     January 27

All children commence                               January 28

End Term 1                                                    March 30

Closure Day Staff PL  Day 1                        March 31

Closure Day Staff PL  Day 2                        April 1 

COMMUNITY NEWS

MURRUMBEENA COMMUNITY EVENT

We will be creating a row of painted trees and a series of baubles and shapes to decorate and hang on the trees. Come and be a part of creating a mural across the GWS wall, opposite Murrumbeena station. Artists, craftspeople, school kids, families, and all creatives at heart are invited. 

Register your interest at www.trybooking.com/BMZKC 

There are two ways you can get involved:

Come & attend a mural painting day!
Saturday 28th November 11am-1pm & Sunday 29th November 1pm-3pm
Location is behind Daniel Son Cafe, come at any time during these hours.
BYO paintbrushes if you prefer, and your face mask. Hand sanitiser available. 

Come & collect a wooden shape / bauble to decorate throughout the week! 
Register your interest at the link above to organise a pick up/drop off time and location. 

Contact point: Amanda Wyness at awyness@optusnet.com.au

Community Update # 4.8

The children's beautiful memories of Mrs Barclay are displayed on this butterfly tree. 

Karin Dornbierer (our retired art teacher) is coordinating a special project for the memorial garden in the front yard. Karin is getting input from the children and will work on the project over the next few weeks. The project will be finished early in Term 1 2021.

Safety Message

The number of cyclists riding to school has increased significantly this term. This is a great sign ! However, it has led to a need to replace the worn, wooden bike racks with new metal ones which will accomodate the bicycles more easily and safely. The new racks will be installed over the weekend.

Another outcome of the increase in cyclists, is the number of children with bikes waiting on the pavement in the morning outside the back gates. It is becoming a safety hazard for other families and pedestrians walking past. Please note the children can't enter the grounds until 8:45am as per the notice in Community Update #4.3 There is no reason for the children to arrive before that time. A number of children are arriving early and waiting on the street. Starting from Monday, there will be safety cones out in the street and the children waiting will be required to stand on the school side of the cones to allow room for pedestrians to safely go past.

It is also important to remind your children to always cross at the crossing. We remind the children at school but we need your support  in order to keep all children safe. This is vital especially for the children that enter and exit through the back gates.

After school today we will put cones out on the footpath and ask that all parents waiting for children please try to stand on the school side of the cones during peak pick up times especially around the front yard entry gates. Please ensure you enter the front yard to collect your child at the end of the day and immediately exit through the church gate to prevent the bottleneck around the gate entry point. 

We appreciate your support and understanding as we work together to keep our children safe. 

Book Week activities

Thanks to all of the families who supported our dress up day on Monday. The children looked great in their different costumes. The costumes were very creative.

Thanks to Mrs Woods, Miss O'Halloran and Mrs Maddocks who organised the book activities for the week. 

Classes 2021

I have received several email requests with regards to classes for 2021. Due to 2020 being a different year to normal, for consistency and stability, all classes will remain the same for 2021 with some minor adjustments only.

Please email me directly if necessary principal@spmurrumbeena.catholic.edu.au

Children will be able to meet their class teachers for 2021 during our first transition session on Friday 4 December.

We have a number of new families joining our school and they will be able to join the transition sessions too.

Jenny Hawkins

Principal

Parents & Friends - Annual General Meeting - Thursday 26th November

The St Patrick's Primary School Parents & Friends Association will be holding its Annual General Meeting via Zoom on Thursday 26th November 2020 at 7.30pm.

While the P&F has been necessarily quieter than usual this year, we are hoping that circumstances in 2021 will allow us to resume our important work in supporting the school, our children and the wider St Patrick's community. We would love you to be part of our committee in 2021!

Looking for ways to help in 2021?

We are seeking a volunteer to fill the role of Treasurer (no financial background necessary), and we always welcome new general committee members. If you are interested in learning more about these roles, please feel free to contact:

• Jenny Jones - 0410 470 647
• Kim Johnston - 0450 954 223

or email pandf@spmurrumbeena.catholic.edu.au

Anyone from the school community is welcome to attend the AGM, even if you don't want to join the committee:-

Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88097387939?pwd=THRDd0h0LzBCMzkzdmJqWDFhaGIyUT09

Meeting ID: 880 9738 7939
Passcode: 443219

Term Dates

Term 4 2020

Whole school photo                                    November 24

Parish Education Board Meeting               November 25

Parents and Friends AGM                          November 26

School Closure Day                                    November 27

Community Christmas Celebration           December 8

Modified Mini Market                                   December 11

Modifies Year 6 Graduation                        December 14

School finishes at 1pm                               December 16

Term 1 2021

Staff only return Closure Day                     January 27

All children commence                               January 28

End Term 1                                                    March 30

Closure Day Staff PL  Day 1                        March 31

Closure Day Staff PL  Day 2                        April 1 

Community Update #4.7

Do you read the newsletter ? Weekly newsletter views 

Thanks to all of you who read the newsletter and keep informed about our school activities. We are able to track our weekly newsletter views. These have increased during 2020 !! The views are very good considering we only have  241 families. Here are the statistics for Term 4.

Community Update #4.1     916 views

Community Update #4.2     914 views

Community Update #4.3     596 views

Community Update #4.4     409 views

Community Update #4.5     660 views

Community Update #4.6     448 views

Remembrance Day

This week we celebrated Remembrance Day on Wednesday 11 November with a liturgy prepared by our Faith and Community team leaders Ms La Fontaine and Mrs O'Dwyer. You can access the full liturgy to share with your family at this link on our Learning Community Site.

A number of activities and events have been organised for our Year 6's this term. Traditionally, the students prepare special projects to be presented for an award at the local RSL club. Due to the pandemic, the Remembrance Day award ceremony wasn't able to take place. However, an exception was made for a Covid safe visit to St Patrick's by local members. 

Congratulations to Lila S for winning a scholarship to attend Star of the Sea.

Congratulations to the runners up  - Angus Mc,  Hamish B, Bradley J , William W and Eleanor. 

Their projects are on display outside the school hall and their classrooms.

Book Week dress up day reminder

Don't forget to come dressed up as your favourite book character on Monday. We will begin the celebrations with our dress up day and Covid safe parade (sorry no parents can join us this year) on Monday and continue with special activities throughout the week to Friday 20 November. The theme this year is Curious Creatures Wild Minds. So in order to get into the spirit of costume creativity, the children can come up with characters from a book they love or wear anything quirky, curious or wild!!! The idea is to have FUN!  One great website is the CBCA. Here is a link with more information about dress up ideas for families.

Mini House Sports Day Friday 20 November

All children are invited to come dressed in their house colours on Friday ready to participate in a mini sports day with the Year 6 leaders.

Second Hand Chromebook wanted

One of our current Year 5 students requires a second hand Chromebook for their final year in Year 6. Please email principal@spmurrumbeena.catholic.edu.au for further details.

Thank you to one of our school families who generously offered to purchase an extra Chromebook as an anonymous donation for a school family in need.

Parish Education Board News  (PEB)

The PEB met for another meeting via Zoom at the end of October.

• The school accountant presented the annual financial report. Following the challenges of the pandemic year, the PEB have agreed to support the principal's recommendation to freeze the school fees for 2021. This means that the fees and levies will remain the same for 2021 as they are for 2020.
• The school will embark on an internal refurbishment programme aligned to the Masterplan in 2021. The principal is meeting with K2LD (Architects who consulted with the community to design the current Masterplan 2018/2019) and will update the community with plans going forward.
• The transition to the new school governance model is underway in readiness for execution January 1 2021. You can learn more about the model by watching this video.
• Student success during the Flexible Learning period as reported in last week's newsletter puts our children in good stead going forward with their education. Special thanks to the hard work and dedication from staff, parents and of course our students.
• The school is always open to receiving feedback. We thank you for taking the time to give us feedback. Feedback can take place through many mediums :

1.  Verbal in person or via a telephone conversation
2.  Written via email to a teacher or the principal
3.  Most recently, parents have begun to give feedback via social media through google reviews. 

TeamKids

At TeamKids we have been focusing on ‘gratitude’ during the last two terms. We have created a gratitude display and also had daily catchups where the students have been encouraged to share something great that has happened for them during that day or week. We are fostering students’ growth mind-sets and encouraging a positive outlook on life.

 In relation to this, Andrew is participating in Movember where he will be running 100kms for the month of November. This is all about raising awareness around mental health. If you would like to donate to this cause please click below.

 

https://movember.com/m/andycell?mc=1

Term Dates

Term 4 2020

BOOK DAY dress up and activities            November 16

House Colour Mini Sports Day                   November 20

Whole school photo                                    November 24

School Closure Day                                    November 27

Community Christmas Celebration           December 8

Modified Mini Market                                   December 11

Modifies Year 6 Graduation                        December 14

School finishes at 1pm                               December 16

Term 1 2021

Staff only return Closure Day                     January 27

All children commence                               January 28

End Term 1                                                    March 30

Closure Day Staff PL  Day 1                        March 31

Closure Day Staff PL  Day 2                        April 1

 

Community Update # 4.6

Farewell Mrs Barclay

On Monday 2 November, the sun shone down over our school remembrance garden which was filled with golden gerbera daisies. The funeral service to celebrate the life of Michelle Barclay commenced at 10:30am and was a truly moving celebration of Michelle's life. We were blessed to have worked alongside such a passionate teacher and leader who put her heart and soul into everything she did for our children and our community.

Michelle's husband, Mal, described Michelle as a "rock star". Everywhere they went together, whether overseas or locally, they would always be greeted by people who knew Michelle. She touched the lives of so many people, especially our staff, children and parents at St Pat's. Staff members came together at the end of the service to pay tribute to Michelle. We formed a guard of honour to farewell our gifted and much loved colleague and friend.

Our St Pat's children have been decorating butterflies and writing pages for a special book of recollections  in loving memory of their PE teacher. The book will be presented to Michelle's family. I will continue to share some of the children's moving reflections with you in the coming weeks. Please read below a heartfelt prayer written by Rhiannon in 40.

The original live stream of the service was disrupted for some people, however you can rewatch an uninterrupted version of the service at this link.vimeo.com/474493615

Plans are underway with our SRC students to design the Barclay fitness circuit/running track which will become a major fundraiser through the P&F for 2021.

May we continue to pray for Michelle's family and give thanks for her life. She was such a generous, loving person who gave so much of herself and cared deeply about those around her. May we learn from her example.

Parish Newsletter Update Regarding Father Paul Newton

Late on Friday afternoon, Father Leenus shared a letter with me from the Archbishop regarding the resignation of Father Paul. The letter which he received from the Archbishop is being shared with the Parish at 10 am this morning. As we are a Parish school, it is important that our school community is informed of this news in a timely manner especially as reference is made to our school in the letter. 

Here is the link to the Parish newsletter.

Celebrate 96% Student Success Rate Across the School

Our priority since the return to school has been the wellbeing of each student and family. We have facilitated many activities in the classroom, across levels and in the playground to ensure all children feel connected and confident.

Since the children returned to school, they have each been assessed according to the schedule we sent home last term. It was important to determine how our students were travelling, especially given the hype in the media about the impact of home learning on students’ educational outcomes.

The results of our students are a credit to the parents whose support has been overwhelming, along with the targeted, dynamic programs provided by the teaching staff, and the small group and one-on-one support provided to students as needed. We are delighted to share that not one of our students has returned a result indicating a slide in their academic performance. A small number of children have plateaued or made minimal gains, and more than 96% of our students have made significant gains in both reading and maths (some as much as 14 months in a 6 month period). A couple of weeks ago, we commenced extension and intervention programs to again meet the various needs of our students, and ensure a solid, positive end to 2020. All our students, and our teachers, are ready for the challenges of 2021!

Extra school expenditure during Flexible Learning supports successful outcomes for our students

During the home, remote and flexible learning period, our school outlaid in excess of $53,000 on extra resourcing over and above the "non covid" normal operational costs for the school. The school remained open and fully operational and staffed during this period. The extra resourcing included and is not limited to : additional online educational software licenses and programmes, online incursions, upgrading of the school wifi network, printing of workbooks and resource packs, purchasing of Chrome books to loan to families, purchasing of replacement laptops for staff, purchasing of equipment for filming teaching and tutorial videos, employment of additional Learning Support staff to teach small and individual support groups and the employment of teachers to release staff to carry out one to one students assessments.

Celebrate our Leaders of the Future - Higgins Medal Winners 2020

On Thursday evening, two of our hardworking and diligent Year 6 leaders were awarded with the coveted Higgins Medal. The Higgins medal is an annual award recognising local students who excel in their studies, show strong leadership amongst their peers and provide exemplary service to their community. Our warmest congratulations go to Kayley and Jack. You can learn more about the reasons they were nominated for the award in next week's assembly.

Book Week

We are launching Book Week at St Patrick's this year on Monday 16 November, Term 4 Week 7. We will begin the celebrations with our dress up day and Covid safe parade on Monday and continue with special activities throughout the week to Friday 20 November. The theme this year is Curious Creatures Wild Minds. So in order to get into the spirit of costume creativity, the children can come up with characters from a book they love or wear anything quirky, curious or wild!!! The idea is to have FUN! There are fantastic dress-up ideas out there as many schools celebrated Book Week last week.

One great website is the CBCA. Here is a link with more information about dress up ideas for families.

Team kids Newsletter

Term Dates

BOOK DAY dress up and activities       November 16

School Closure Day                                November 27

Community Christmas Celebration       December 8

Modified Mini Market                               December 11

Year 6 Graduation                                    December 14

School finishes at 1pm                            December 16