Newsletter 06/09/2021 Term 3 Week 29

From the Principal

Prayer Reflection

Assembly

Assembly this week will once again be out on Facebook by early afternoon on Friday.  

Lockdown Update

We are into the third week of Lockdown 7.0. We are not sure what changes, if any, may occur this week. The optomist in me hopes we will be back at school, so I will go with that & hope, however the reality is that we will probably be remote learning for the next 2 weeks. 

A few reminders of where we are at:

• If School supervison is required please fill in the request form (link below) and provide the necessary permits (link below) by 4.00pm the day before supervision is requested. All requests need to come by this link please. 
• If nothing changes next week, then bookings for school supervision for next week will open on Thursday afternoon. Even if you have booked in for previous weeks, can you please re-book through the school link. New permits will only be required for those booking for the first time, you are a shift worker & things have changed. Note: we need permits with current dates. 
• The schoolzine app, WEB page & emails are our main form of communication. If you haven't been receiving any emails, please contact the school to double check your email address. 
• We are still restricting non essential staff coming into the school.
• Please keep children home if they are not well.
• There has been a recommendation that primary school children wear masks when they are not at home. This is a recommendation only and is therefore not mandated, however children are encouraged to wear a mask. I understand the difficulties associated with this, so please talk with your family as to the decision you are comfortabe with. 
• Ensuring we are moving away quickly after school pickups. During supervised learning all pick ups are from the Dimora Avenue entrance. 
• Maintaining COVID rules & cleaning regimes.
• If a computer is required can you fill in a form request.  These are ready to be picked up from the school.
  

As usual if anything changes I will let you know. 

Remote Learning Update this week.

Hopefully everyone is catching up with teachers & completing the online Google classroom work.

If you have any concerns please let your teacher, Mick, Annie or Mel know

The week looks a bit like this: 

• Monday: A Google classroom day
• Tuesday: A Google classroom day.
• Wednesday: (A specialists day timetable)
• Thursday: This Thursday is RU OK? Day and we would like to start the day with a Google meet between buddy classrooms @9.00 just to give the children the opportunity to touch base with some students across classrooms. This will be followed by a shorter Google Classroom day.
• Friday: A Google Classroom day

Remote Learning: Last week of Term

Next week we are going to provide a school wide family work timetable for the last week.

We are very conscious that if things were normal we would have had excursions for grades 1, 2, 5, 6, Fun Day for all, community meal & other fun activities here at school.

In light of this, we will be looking at an activity based grid for the week for the whole school with a different focus each day. The activities will hopefully provide some fun, as well some educational aspects and give everyone a break from the regular routines.  We would still like students to be engaging in reading, spelling and counting daily practice as per their classroom expectations and staff will be still holding short Google Meets to check in.

Last Day of term

Our last day of term was supposed to be a PD day, however we have had to postpone this until later in term 4.

This now means that the last day of term will be a remote learning day for children completing the activity grid that we will be completing for the week. 

It is always an early finish on the last day and this will still be the case with 2.30 being the end of school on that day. For most people that will not effect them much, however for those onsite it will be an early finish & early buses. 

Farewell Gooden family

This Thursday we farewell Jade, Annabelle, Claire, Tom and family as they move to a new position at Kilmore. We wish them the very best for the future and hope they have enjoyed their time here at St Patrick's.

New 5/6 Building

I have attached a copy of the latest drawings for our new 5/6 wing for you to have a look at. The drawings look great and it will be very exciting to get this project underway. 

After discussions with DOBCEL, we have been given the green light to add a new art room and a new science room to the build as well.  This is now a 2.5 million dollar project that will begin in 2022 & complete in early 2023.

We are still working through the final design so if you have any thoughts,  please feel free to let me know.  

Parent Teacher Interviews

We will be implementing these parent teacher chats in the second week of term 4 to give staff a little longer with children when they return from the current lockdown. The interviews will be based around what the goals or areas for improvement are for each child, so that 4th term can be more focused for everyone. I will let you know when & how these will go over the coming weeks. 

The end of the year chats will then be an optional opportunity for a catch up.

Fathers Day

Hopefully all of our fathers had a good day yesterday for Father's Day. I'm thinking that there were probably lots of online meets between families as a way of catching up. I'm looking forward to being able to see my parents at some stage over the next few weeks as restrictions ease. 

School Wide Positive Behaviours Systems (SWPBS)

W will continue to work though manners for the remainder of the term. I am sure that parents are still also reinforcing good manners at home. 

Some of the things we will be targeting: Say excuse me for interruptions, in class, at the office, people on the phone, adults talking etc. I will attach a copy of the latest video that staff will be sharing with children.

Grade 6 Camp

Our Grade 6 camp to Canberra has had to be cancelled for 2021. We have booked Halls Gap as an alternative venue for the second last week of term 4 at this stage from Tuesday 7th to Friday 10th Dec.

We will be leaving late afternoon on Tuesday 7th (time to be confirmed) as it is Move Up day & grade 6 transition day that day so we cannot go any earlier. By leaving late afternoon we will be able to have an extra night and more importantly do some extra activities on the Wednesday. 

More details will come home early 4th term. 

Cyber Safety

This is a warning to parents with children who have electronic devices, to please check the apps that are in use. A site called ‘Talking Angela’ asks questions such as where they go to school and also to take pictures of their faces by pushing a heart on the bottom left corner of the screen without any notices. Please check iPods, tablets etc. to ensure that your child does not have this app. This is also a timely reminder to check the security of your devices.

Stay involved in your child’s digital world

• Keep up-to-date with the sites, apps and online chat services they are using, and explore them together.
• Consider whether you are comfortable with the content of these sites and the potential for contact with others, including adults.
• If you are concerned they are visiting sites they have not told you about, talk to them about your concern. As a backup, you could look at your child’s internet browsing history — but this should be a last resort. The aim is to establish trust and open dialogue.
• Try to be aware of who they socialise with in the real world and who they know only in the virtual world. 

Help your child to protect their privacy

• Guide your child to use their privacy settings on social media sites to restrict their online information to known friends only. Advice on privacy settings is available in the 
• eSafetyGuide. https://www.esafety.gov.au/key-issues/esafety-guide
•  https://www.esafety.gov.au/parents/skills-advice/taming-technology
• Encourage them to use only a first name or nickname to identify themselves in online chat and on social media, and never to disclose their phone number, address or school.
• Explain that they should not send photographs of themselves that clearly show their identity. 
• For younger children, ask them not to post or text images or videos without your permission.
• Explore our guide to privacy for parents and carers visit
• https://www.esafety.gov.au/parents/big-issues/unwanted-contact#how-can-i-protect-my-child 

And remind children to always

Be safe, Be kind, Ask for help and Make good choices.

Catholic School Culture

Social Justice: Mini Vinnies

This term the Mini Vinnies children will be conducting a toy drive. They will be collecting clean toys in good condition which will be donated to St. Vincent de Paul at the end of this term in readiness for Christmas.

• If you have any toys that are no longer used or the children have grown out of, please wash them and send them into school to donate to the Mini Vinnies volunteers.

They will be collecting from the classrooms every week or alternately, toys can be left at the office. This will greatly assist in bringing joy to children at Christmas time. Thank-you in advance. 

Students of the Week

Birthdays

From St Patrick's 

To the following students that celebrate their birthdays this week 

06/09/2021  Monday - Meg Nolan

07/09/2021  Tuesday - Olive Wills

08/09/2021 Wednesday - 

09/09/2021 Thursday - 

10/09/2021 Friday -  

11/09/2021 Saturday - Harry Sinnott

12/09/2021 Sunday - 

COMMUNITY EVENTS