Week 5, Term 3

Principal News Jenny Hawkins

School Mass
We were fortunate that Bishop Elliott celebrated a whole school mass with us on Wednesday for the Feast of the Assumption of Our Lady. During the homily Bishop Elliott asked us to pray for Father Paul. We will continue to keep Fr Paul in our prayers whilst we wait for an update from the Archdiocese.

Family Mass

Unfortunately our RE Leader Anne Mullan has been unwell for the last few days. This has made it difficult to plan and prepare for our weekend family mass. As a result we are postponing this weekend's family mass until further notice. Please don't let this stop you from attending mass with your family. We hope that Mrs Mullan gets well very soon.

Congratulations

Congratulations to our Year 6 leaders, Conor and Ted who were selected to represent St Patrick's at the recent Parliamentary Convention. They travelled into the city with their teacher Mrs Pratt to contribute to a debate on the introduction of the sugar tax.

It's also lovely to celebrate our children's successes with extra curricular activities. Thank you to Abigail and Charlotte for sharing your good news with me. They both performed very well at a recent Cheerleading Competition. Abigail from 2T came second and her sister Charlotte from Prep Y came third. Well done girls. We are proud of you.

Concert housekeeping

Reminder that tickets go on sale at 12 noon on Monday 20th August though TryBooking (see the Flexibuzz notification sent out earlier this week).  Don't forget to return your DVD envelopes if you are wanting to order a lasting reminder!

St Patrick's takes 3rd Place at the Dendy Athletics Carnival
Last Friday, 75 children from Years 4-6 represented St Patrick's at the Dendy Athletics Carnival at Lakeside Stadium. There was great excitement and a few nerves as the children sat in the grandstand waiting for their track and field events. On a particularly blustery day and very challenging conditions, our team's support and encouragement for each other didn't waiver. We are very proud of all the children who 'had a go' for the first time and of those who have consistently worked hard and have been part of athletics events.
We were delighted to finish the day in 3rd place! Congratulations to those who were placed with a ribbon- students who qualified for the Beachside Division Aths will be notified soon.
We would particularly like to thank the parent helpers who volunteered their time and expertise on the day. Your assistance is very much appreciated.

And finally, we thank Michelle Barclay for coordinating our participation in the Dendy Athletics and our staff for their support.

Parent Education Evening

Thanks to the many parents and staff who supported the education evening. There were a number of  key messages from both presentations around the role parents can play in supporting their children's well being and safety. You can view both presentations via the links below.

Thanks to Niels Van Hoeve and our Year 3 teachers Nicole and Sara

Here is a link to Mental Toughness slide show from Niels Van Hoeve  Self- published author Niels Van Hoeve will be our guest author during Book Week. Niels will run a worksop with all classes. Niels will have some autographed copies of My Strong Mind available for sale on Monday morning. They cost $15 each.

Thanks to Marty and Carley McGauran 

Here is the link to the Cyber Safety slideshow from the Marty and Carley McGauran One important message from this presentation was for parents to take charge and set firm boundaries.

Book Week Parade this Monday 20th August

To launch Book Week at St Patrick's, all children are asked to dress up in a favourite book character, or to reflect the theme "Find you Treasure". There is no requirement to spend money - just use whatever you have at home. Weather permitting, the children will gather in the front yard at 9am (or in the hall). Parents are very welcome to attend.

Year 6 started off Book Week on Thursday with a visit from Bernadette O'Brien, self- published author of the Kong Meng Legacy. O'Brien's story evolved from a Master's Thesis she completed about Lowe Kong Meng, a wealthy Chinese - born merchant who lived in Victoria in the 1800's.

The Year 6 focus this term has been Narrative writing and they have spent a lot of time breaking it up and developing the students voice, sentence structure and writer's craft. There are some quite accomplished writer's in Year 6 and they were inspired by author B.T.O'Brien.

Teeth on Wheels
Exciting news Teeth on Wheels will be coming out to our school and conducting children’s dental visits. Please note this service is optional and is not a free service. Children will only visit Teeth on Wheels if you complete the consent form. It is an opportunity for the children to have a convenient, educational and positive dental experience during the school day.
Please follow the link below to complete your child’s consent form. It only takes 5 minutes to complete and by reducing the amount of paper being used we are helping the team out by being more environmentally friendly.
https://teethonwheels.com.au/consent-eform
The date of the children’s dental visits will begin on Monday the 3rd of September 2018, so please ensure you have submitted your form by the 22nd of August 2018.
If you have any questions regarding the consent form or your child’s dental appointment please don’t hesitate to contact the Teeth on Wheels team on (03) 9338 1191.

Team Kids

Feedback so far about Team Kids is overwhelmingly positive. They will be open on our school closure day this Friday 24th August. They will also run the holiday programme at the end of the term.

You can access a flyer with full details about the exciting holiday programme at this link.

Preloved baby PJ's supporting families in need

One of our school mums, Lisa Gordon, is co ordinating donations of baby and children's PJ's for the St Kilda Mums Charity. Lisa will leave a collection box in our office. You can contact Lisa on her mobile 0414 586 708

Important Term 3 Dates:

Book Week commences            Mon 20th August - Book Character Dress up day

School Closure Day                  Fri 24th August

Fathers/Special Friends Breakfast   Fri 31st August

Full dress concert rehearsal      Wed 5th September

Dendy Hoop time                      Fri 7th September

SCHOOL CONCERT               Mon 10th September

P&F Disco Bingo Social Event Fri 14th September

End of term 3                            Fri 21st September

Week 4 Term 3

Principal News Jenny Hawkins

School Mass Wednesday 15th August

Thank you to Bishop Peter Elliott who will celebrate a special whole school mass this coming Wednesday 15th August for the Feast of the Assumption of Mary at 9:10 am. Parents are welcome to join us.

Assembly

This Monday 3N will be presenting their learning at assembly at 9am. We will also be having a visit from the Teeth on Wheels team to tell us about their clinic on wheels coming to our school in September. You will have access to the online consent forms next week. Meanwhile you can learn more on their website www.teethonwheels.com.au

Parent Education Evening - Mental Toughness 6:15pm 
and CyberSafety 7pm this Thursday 16th August
You will have read the details around the Parent Education Evening in the last few Shamrocks. Please keep this Thursday 16th August free to come along. You can read more if you scroll down at this link.

Learning Community Site

You can access class timetables, newsletters, curriculum plans for Term 3 and Semester 2 on the Year Level and Curriculum tabs at this link on our Learning Community Site. Click on the arrow to the left of each Year Level to view details.

School Concert Details

Thanks to all of our parents who are helping to prepare the costumes for our school concert on Monday 10th September. Tickets will be on sale on Monday 20th August.

P & F Semester 2 Update from Bree and Annie

Hi Everyone, here’s what is going on, we have an exciting second half of the year! We would love some help to get some of these great ideas up and running… so if you have been waiting for the opportunity to get involved….. here it is! Looking forward to creating fun and laughs for the kids (and the parents) over the next few months 😊. Bree and Annie

 Disco Bingo

Get ready to dance the night away………. Friday September 14th. Try bookings is up and running so book your ticket to the major fundraiser of the year. It will be a brilliant night! Here is the link https://www.trybooking.com/XFEF

Kids Disco 

We didn’t think it fair that the parents have all the DISCO FUN….. so….. we are in the planning phase of the KIDS DISCO. It will be on Thursday 20th September in the school hall. We need some amazing people to help with this event…. most of the hard work is done so here is your chance to take all the glory!! If this is an event you would like organise/run/develop please come and chat with us and we will hand over the planning folder (from Janine Moulton so you can be assured it’s seriously well organised!)

Footy and Fairy Day 
The kids love this day! It will be on the last day of this term, Friday 21st September. We will be having Pies/Pasties and the Grade 6’s will be creating an afternoon of fun activities for the rest of the school. Details will be sent out shortly.

 Christmas Trees 

We are selling Christmas Trees this year! They will be available to pre order in the next few weeks and will be ready for your collection (or delivery) early December. Please look out for the forms in your kid’s school bag in the coming weeks.

Election Sausage Sizzle and Car Boot Sale 
We are running an Election Day Sausage Sizzle, Cake Stall and Car Boot Sale this year. It’s a great opportunity for our school to raise some funds. We would love to create a committee for this. If you would like to get involved, please email pandf@spmurrumbeena.catholic.edu.au and we will facilitate a meeting/coffee to get things up and running!

 Buddy Bench 

The Buddy Bench has been ordered and should arrive at school soon. Congratulations again to 1M for raising the most money in the coin challenge and winning the prize of decorating the bench. If you have some ideas on how we could decorate, please come and chat with us.

Movie Night 
We wanted to get together as a school community for a movie night. This will be in T4 when the weather is a little warmer. We would love someone/some people to take on the organisation for this event. Who’s up for organising the movie night? pandf@spmurrumbeena.catholic.edu.au

 PatCare 
We need a few more people on the PatCare list. This is a community initiative that provides a meal to members of our school community who are suffering. It’s such a beautiful component of our caring community. If you would be willing to cook a meal (one once or twice a year!) please email pandf@spmurrumbeena.catholic.edu.au and we will pass on your details to Paula Sanders our PatCare leader.

Important Term 3 Dates:

Dendy Athletics                        Fri 10th August

Parent Education Night            Thurs 16th August  6:15pm Mental Toughness & Cyber Safety

Book Week commences           Mon 20th August (book character dress up day)

School Closure Day                  Fri 24th August

Special Friends Breakfast         Fri 31st August (please note the change of date) 7:30-8:30am

Full dress concert rehearsal      Wed 5th September

Dendy Hoop time                      Fri 7th September

SCHOOL CONCERT               Mon 10th September

End of term 3                            Fri 21st September

Week 3, Term 3, 2018

Principal News Jenny Hawkins
Reconciliation
Special thanks to Bishop Elliott and the visiting priests who ensured that the combined 3N and 3O Reconciliation evening went so well. Bishop Elliott spoke to me afterwards and commended the teachers and the children on how well prepared the children were. Thank you to all of the families who participated and supported their children. Thank you to Mrs Mullan and the staff who contributed to such a beautiful celebration of the Sacrament of Reconciliation.

Thank you and POPE (Parents as Open Partners in Education) feedback opportunity
A HUGE thanks to our parents who continually show their support for all that we do at school. We appreciate you taking the time to come and talk to us whenever you have any questions or concerns. We are grateful for the positive feedback we receive. Our staff are continually reviewing practices to ensure our children are: Engaged and motivated learners always faithful to our loving God.

Based on best practice research around collecting feedback (see Schools That Deliver Conference information and video at this link ), I will be getting in touch with parents to arrange a one to one meeting time linked to our vision narrative “We value rich, regular, quality feedback...”

I will be asking, “What is going well at St Pat’s for your child/children ?" This will be personalised according to the year level of your children.

Child Safety at St Patrick's
This is the first of a series of videos I am preparing with our Year 6 leaders. We hope that parents will watch these videos and discuss them with their children as we focus on our role as a Child Safe school. Our aim is to share the systems we have in place at St Patrick's school. Please come and speak with me if you have any worries and concerns or follow the flowchart link below.
You can access our concerns flowchart at this link on our learning site.

Request for parent support with our Nude Food programme
Last year, the children began a compositing programme at school. Unfortunately the parent who was helping us is unable to continue to support this initiative. We would be grateful for any further support from our parent community. Please let me know if you would like to help us.

Special Assembly for semester 2 SRC Representatives
At assembly on Monday 6th August, the Semester 2 Student Representatives will be presented with their badges.  All parents welcome.

Sickness
Recently we have had a few instances of gastro so we have been encouraging the children to follow healthy hygiene habits, especially washing their hands regularly.  If your child feels unwell in the morning, please keep them at home to rest and recover.

Year 7 2020
Applications close for Year 7 2020 at all Catholic Secondary Colleges soon.  If you have child in grade 5, please ensure you have lodged their application.

Social Night

Important Term 3 Dates:

Dendy Athletics                        Fri 10th August

Parent Information Night         Thurs 16th August      "Cyber Safety"

Book Week commences           Mon 20th August

School Closure Day                  Fri 24th August

Special Friends Breakfast         Mon 27th August

Full dress concert rehearsal      Wed 5th September

Dendy Hoop time                      Fri 7th September

SCHOOL CONCERT               Mon 10th September

End of term 3                            Fri 21st September

Community Notices

Week 2, Term 3 2018

Principal News Jenny Hawkins
Reconciliation

Our Year 3 children are ready to make their First Reconciliation on Tuesday 31st August at 7pm. Bishop Elliott and at least two other priests will be meeting with the children and families of both Year 3 classes.
Please keep the children in your prayers.

Parent Education Evening - Mental Toughness and CyberSafety Thursday 16th August
In last week's Shamrock, you will find the details around the Parent Education Evening. Please keep Thursday 16th August free to come along. You can read more if you scroll down at this link.

PLAY Positive, Leadership and Activated Youth
Miss Marischiello and some of our Year 6 leaders trained a group of 30 Year 5 children to take on the role of PLAY leaders.
As an outcome of participating in the Glen Eira Resilient Youth Project last year, our current Year 6 leaders were trained to be PLAY leaders. PLAY is student - led creative play and helps to enhance resilience and a range of life skills for our children.
Training children to become PLAY leaders develops greater responsibility and self-worth in a leadership capacity.
PLAY supports all students to enjoy their break times and it contributes to safe playground behaviours by engaging children across year levels to interact positively with one another.

Playground Safety Videos
I am currently working with a group of Year 6 leaders to create a range of short videos for our children with messages around child safety in the playground. This follows on from the Peer Mediation training with the current Year 6's last year. We will share the videos with you over the coming weeks.

Science Club

Following on from the success of the Year 6 Science Expo, these Year 6 girls will run a Science Club during the term. They are keen to share their learning with other children from across the school.

Thankyou to the many parents who attended the Year 6 Chemical Science Expo last week and witnessed the amazing work the students have done in this field. The Yr 6s also presented to grade levels across the school, and were enthusiastically received. As a result, a Yr 6 group has initiated a Science Club at lunchtimes- further testament to their confidence, skills and initiative.


Today, 7 of our Yr 6s are attending the Full STEaM Ahead program at Melbourne University. We were lucky to be one of the selected schools, and a grant was provided by CEM to further develop our STEaM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) initiatives. The focus on the day is Designing for a Disability. Look out for a report from the participants next week.

Parish Education Board News
Andrew Cerres, the Director of Learning for Team Kids at St Patrick's spoke to the board about his  role. Team Kids has got off to a great start with positive feedback from both children and parents. They will be running a holiday club and will open on school closure days too.

John O'Sullivan, Stephen Peters and Jenny Jones will join me to form a Grants Committee. This will help plan and prepare grant applications in relation to our masterplan.

The board are taking the initiative to develop a register of parent skills. You will hear more about that very soon.

As part of the staff professional learning in relation to the Schools That Deliver network, three of our leadership team and I attended the Delivering Innovation conference. You can learn more at this link.

Secondhand Uniform Shop
Please note change of day for the secondhand uniform shop.  It is now WEDNESDAY from 3 - 3.30pm.

Important Term 3 Dates:

Assembly 2M                           Mon 30th July

Reconcilation                           Tues 31st July @7pm

P& F meeting                           Fri    3rd August @2:30pm

Dendy Athletics                        Fri 10th August

Parent Information Night         Thurs 16th August      "Cyber Safety"

Book Week commences           Mon 20th August

School Closure Day                 Fri 24th August

COMMUNITY NOTICES

Heartlinks is a social enterprise of Family Life.  As a local community not-for-profit organisation

Week 1, Term 3, 2018

Principal News Jenny Hawkins

Welcome to Term 3. We are looking forward to a busy term, especially as we prepare for the school concert on Monday 10th September.

This week at assembly, we watched this video about the letter from Pope Francis to all of us to take care of our world. Please read the letter below from the staff and our children about how we wish to make a difference for caring for creation at St Patrick's School.

Catholic Social Teaching leads the call for a sustainable and just future with its emphasis on the dignity of the human person, solidarity, the common good, the preferential option for the poor and our responsibility to be stewards of creation.
In the Shamrock on the 11th May, the Yr 1 classes shared how they were piloting 'nude food' as part of their science learning around sustainability. You can read more if you scroll down at this link. At the end of last term, the SRC asked the whole school to trial 'nude food'.

Dear Parents,

This year, many classes have been learning about sustainability in Science. Through classroom activities, our Monday morning assembly and the Pope’s message on caring for our Earth, the children have learnt how the decisions we make can impact our world, particularly our environment and animals.

Children identified the actions they can take at home and school to conserve resources, for example, turning off dripping taps, switching off lights when they are not required and the 3R’s (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle).

As a school,we want to take action! We have decided not to contribute to the waste generated at school, by having a waste free lunch box, otherwise known as ‘nude food’. This entails food not being in disposable wrappers, but rather in reusable containers. If this is not possible, children will be asked to take all their rubbish and food scraps back home in their lunchbox. This is also an ideal opportunity for parents to see how much of the fruit/ sandwich the children are eating, as currently our bins are full of half-eaten lunches. Please do not admonish your child for failing to eat all their food. If they do not eat it all it is not due to lack of time. It may be that it is too much, or they do not like it, or they are simply not hungry.

Thank you in advance for your support in helping our children to learn how to play our role in caring for our environment.

The St Patrick's Staff and SRC

Reconciliation 

Year 3 parents have already been notified of the request to combine both 3N and 3O classes on the evening of Tuesday 31st July. This is due to the Liturgical Reception and Solemn Mass for the

Ninth Archbishop of Melbourne, Most Reverend Peter A Comensoli. Bishop Elliott will lead the Reconciliation with supporting priests.The children will wear their school uniform with their stoles.

100 days for our Preps 

Congratulations to our Preps who celebrated 100 days at school on Wednesday !!

Safety in the Playground

Please be aware that we have a number of systems and actions in place to support our children to be safe in the playground during morning play and lunchtime. We have a minimum of four teachers on duty. The teachers wear hi-vis vest and carry clipboards and medical kits. The clip boards are used to track and monitor different children at different times with photos and notices for teachers and relievers to be aware of. We encourage children or their friends to let the teachers know of any concerns as soon as possible to ensure they can be actioned and dealt with at the time that they happen. Our Student Support Policy is available to read on our Learning Community Site at this link. Please contact me directly if you wish to understand more about how we keep our children safe in the playground.

Parent Education Evening - Mental Toughness and CyberSafety Thursday 16th August

We have two informative sessions planned for parents on Thursday 16th August. The evening will commence at 6:15pm with a presentation from Mental Toughness Coach and children's author Niels Van Hove. Neils has been working with our Year 3 teachers around a St Patrick's pilot mental toughness/ resilience programme for the children. Neils is the author of My Strong Mind, a children’s book he wrote and illustrated to teach 5-8 year olds about confidence, resilience and a growth mindset. Neils is also our guest author for Book Week.

James Peterson Psychologist and CEO of Stress Master International says in response to the book:
"I believe you’ve created a real “gem” of book that is a must read for any child but in particular for those who are struggling with the challenges of growing up. It communicates the principles of how to be psychologically hardy and resilient under any stressor situation". 

The second part of the evening will start at 7pm and is a Cyber Safety session to inform and empower parents. It is led by Education Consultant & Google Certified Trainer Martin McGauran and Psychologist Carley McGauran. This session will cover social media, apps, trends in online behaviour, managing devices and conflict around these, parent-child communication, balancing screentime and where to find helpful information. You can read more in the flyer below.

School Closure Day

There is a school closure this term on Friday 24th August.

Important Term 3 Dates:

Reconcilation                           Tues 31st July

Dendy Athletics                       Fri 10th August

Parent Information Night         Thurs 16th August

    "Mental Toughness"

Book Week commences           Mon 20th August

School Closure Day                 Fri 24th August

Week 11, Term 2, 2018

Principal's News from Jenny Hawkins

Have a joy filled holiday

Dear Heavenly Father, 

We thank you for the joy that our children at St Patrick's School bring to us all. We ask you to bless them and their families and keep them safe during the holidays. We thank all of our parents for the help and support they have given us at school. We look forward to welcoming our children back to school, rested and ready to be engaged and motivated in their learning, always faithful to our loving God in Term 3.
We ask this through Christ our Lord, Amen

Year 1 and 2 Science Expo
There were many excited and enthusiastic engaged and motivated Year 1/2 learners sharing their Science Projects with us on Wednesday in the hall. Well done to our Year 1/2 and their families for the huge effort made in preparing the projects.

Parent Helper Training
Mrs Hills continued the Parent helper training sessions this week. Thirty-one Prep parents have now participated in the training sessions. The children love learning with our parents. Thank you to all of our parents who are able to support learning at school.

P& F Fundraising Update

On Monday, Annie and Bree presented the school with a fundraising cheque from the 2017 P&F fundraising efforts. The cheque included $4000 from the Chocolate fundraiser. In fact, the total funds raised by the P&F in 2017 were $27,000. We wanted to share with you, what the funds were used for to ensure that our whole community is aware of the benefits to our children that come from the extra funds raised each year.

The funds were used to purchase the following:

Flexible Classroom Furniture                                                                                    $10000

Adventure Playground Upgrade                                                                                $12000

Class set of ICT devices & portable trolleys Prep-Yr 4(Contribution towards)       $ 5000

TOTAL                                                                                                                      $27000

Annie and Bree also presented the school with a Certificate of Achievement for the $10,705.25 raised through the 2018 Colour Run. Congratulations to 5J for being the class that raised the most funds and and an extra special congratulations to Maddy Prep C who raised $600.

Funds from the Colour Run will contribute to the replacement of a number of classroom Epsom Short Throw Projectors for the Interactive Whiteboards and the Teamboard and Projector clean and check of all projectors throughout the school.

Hall Kitchen Update

There will be another meeting early in Term 3 to ascertain progress on the hall kitchen refurbish.

Team Kids

Please find the Team Kids booking information below. Team Kids will commence at St Patrick's as our new OSH provider on Monday 16th July at the start of Term 3.

 

Robert our Handyman

Robert Norman took over as our school handyman this year. Robert has a Working With Children Check and currently works between two schools. Robert has been keeping our grounds tidy and following up with necessary repairs and maintenance around the school. Robert will be doing more work around the grounds and inside the school during the holidays.

School Closure days for the remainder of the year

Term 3 Closure Day   Friday 24th August
Term 4 Closure Day   Monday 5th November

Term 4 Closure Day  Wednesday 21st November

Congratulations

The St Patrick's Emeralds Netball team(represented by 10 of our Grade 5 girls) won the Under 13 Section 7 Grand Final on Saturday  Congratulations to the team; Lara S, Alice M, Mae O, Mia S, Mina T, Catia B, Mimi L, Brigid T, Ella C and Kate R  along with their coach Kate Magnanini for a fantastic win and showing great  team spirit and determination to win a very close game -  9 goals to 8.   

Up coming event

Important school dates:

Monday 16th July         Term 3 commences

Tuesday 31st July          Reconciliation - 3N

Wednesday 1st August  Reconcilation  - 3O

Community Notices

Please come and sign the petition in the school office foyer.