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.
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.
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