Newsletter 21/10/2024: Term 4, Week 3

Week 3 Prayer- Safety for Our Campers!

From the Principal

Greetings everyone and welcome to a new week.

Grade 6 Camp: Our Grade 6 students have excitedly departed Camperdown this morning as they head to Melbourne for 3 action packed days- we hope they all have an amazing time.

My thanks to the staff attending who put their lives on hold and take on great responsibility when attending camp- it is greatly appreciated. 

Welcome Liam: This week we welcome Liam Bishop to staff as he commences in Gr 5/6 replacing Georgia Copeland. Having previously worked here, Liam will be familiar to many in our community and we look forward to his presence amongst us.

Good Luck Hooptimers!: Today we have 2 Gr 3/4 teams competing in Hamilton- we hope they all have a highly enjoyable day.

Right to Disconnect Legislation: The Fair Work Act 2009, was recently updated to include provisions that give employees the right to disconnect from communication received outside of their designated working hours. This new rule takes effect from 26 August 2024. For schools, this includes communication from parents, students, colleagues, or others within the school community. 

Staff access their work emails normally between 8:00 am – 5.00 pm when possible and will endeavour to respond to emails within 24-48 hours. This applies to other forms of communication also. Staff are not expected to respond in this time frame during weekends, public holidays, and, for teaching staff,  during term breaks.

We ask all members of the school community to be aware of this new provision and to restrict communication with school staff to school working hours. If you communicate outside of these hours, please be aware staff may choose to but are not expected to respond outside their work hours.

End of Year Arrangements: As part of the 2022 CEMEA schools are now required to award Time in Lieu for staff who perform various functions outside of their designated working hours, this would include events such as camps, excursions, meetings etc. In a bid to alleviate the costs associated with this, DOBCEL as our governing authority, has instructed schools to close 1 day earlier at the end of this year to help acquit Time in Lieu debts to staff.

Therefore, students will conclude the 2024 school year on Wednesday December 18th with staff concluding on Thursday December 19th. Theircare will be available on Thursday the 19th & Friday the 20th of December for bookings.  

Enjoy the week ahead, Ben.

Administration of Medication

Our governing body DOBCEL has advised that we are no longer able to administer non-prescribed medication at school.

If your child requires medication during school hours, we will need to ring you to either take your child home or come into school to administer the medication yourself.

School and CEB staff are not permitted to store or administer any non-prescribed medications including analgesics (paracetamol and aspirin). This is because analgesics and other non-prescribed medications can mask signs and symptoms of a serious illness or injury.

Food Bank

We are asking our school community to provide meals for our Food Bank.

If you are able, it would be much appreciated if you could send some meals into the school office for the freezer.

This will help our families that are in need at this point in time.

World Teachers Day

This Friday the 25th October we will help celebrate World Teachers Day.

We ask all students to wear their favourite hat to school on this day.

Please wear your normal school uniform.

Grade 6 Graduation

Please save the date for our Grade 6 Graduation which will be held on Tuesday the 17th December 2024.

More details to come.

3/4 Hooptime All Stars

After success in the first level of Hooptime Basketball at Terang in August today we had 1 girls team and 1 boys team travel to Hamilton to compete in the AllStar basketball.

The girls had 1 win, and the boys had 2 wins.

Thank you to Carley & Pru who went with the students today.

Well done to all the students who participated!

Grade 6 Camp

Our Grade 6's are currently enjoying camp in Melbourne for the next three days. 

Today the students were visiting Parliament House and the Old Melbourne Gaol. 

We hope you all have the best time!

LEARNING AND TEACHING

The Week Ahead

Wellbeing

Parish Bulletin

CATHOLIC SCHOOL CULTURE

LEADERSHIP AND STEWARDSHIP

Uniform

After a long and thorough process, our new school uniform has been established and Noones have been awarded the contract to produce and sell our new uniforms. Production has commenced and we hope to have these available for sale this term. 
Once finalised our new uniform will be available to be purchased at the Mercy Regional College Uniform Shop. We will advise asap when the uniform is available for purchase.

The opening hours of the MRC uniform shop are:

Terms 1 & 4
Monday 12.00pm – 4.00pm
Tuesday 8.00am – 12.00pm
Thursday 8.00am – 12.00pm

Terms 2 & 3
Monday 12.00pm – 4.00pm
Thursday 8.00am – 12.00pm

Known Dates

Below is a list of known dates at this stage for the rest of this year.

COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT

TheirCare

Theircare has now commenced at St Patrick's School and it's not too late to enrol.

We are excited to announce that we have now partnered with an independent Outside of School Hours Care (OSHC) provider called TheirCare.

TheirCare provides a stimulating and safe environment for all children. During sessions, children develop life-skills, friendships, confidence, and creativity through play-based programs.

For further information, visit www.theircare.com.au or call our support office on 1300 072 410

Community Events

Birthdays

Happy Birthday to the following students who will celebrate their birthday this week.

Aiden L

MRC Car Raffle

Buzztech Tools 4 Schools

Cricket Blast - Pomborneit

Cobden Tennis

Warrnambool Summer Football