Newsletter 16/5/2022 Term 2 Week 4
Our Prayer
From the Principal
Dear parents, carers and community members,
We are facing our next health challenge with many colds and flu around at the moment. Thank you to the parents for your support with this and to the staff who are adapting each day to combined classes and absent students.
Illness
At St Patrick's we are currently experiencing a high level of illness in our school community. We have several staff absent and last Friday we had 116 students away sick. We would like to break this infection cycle as quickly as possible so we are asking parents to monitor their children closely and if they display any symptoms, please keep them home until they are well again. When children appear sick at school we remove them from class and call their parents immediately. Rather than have these children wait in the sick bay for extended periods, we ask parents to organise for someone to pick them up as soon as possible to prevent further infection.
We are still asking parents to continue our COVID 19 precautions as there are still cases in the school community.
Grade 4 Camp
The Grade 4 camp to Sovereign Hill last Tuesday and Wednesday was a fantastic event with great fun and learning for the children involved. Thank you to Mr Kingston and Miss Lee for all their work coordinating this opportunity and creating such a valuable experience.
Vaccination Opportunity This Wednesday
St Patrick's will be hosting a COVID 19 vaccination clinic for primary school children on Wednesday 18th of May. South West Healthcare have asked us to provide an opportunity for families to access this free service on site. As a parent/guardian is required to be present at the time of vaccination, this will begin at 3:30pm until 5:30pm for children aged 5 to 15 years. Forms to book an appointment are available below or can be emailed out on request from the office. Bring your completed form with you to the Multi Purpose Area at Mercy, where the clinic is being held.
NAPLAN
NAPLAN Testing for students in Years 3 and 5 will continue this week.
You can support your child by reassuring them that NAPLAN is a part of their school program and reminding them to simply do their best. Students have had some sessions for familiarisation and explanation of NAPLAN so that they understand and are comfortable with the format of the tests. If you have any concerns at all before or during NAPLAN please contact your child's classroom teacher or Mel Fox so that we can help.
NAPLAN Numeracy - Assesses number and algebra, measurement and geometry, and statistics and probability. All numeracy assessments will be done today Monday 16th May.
Grade 3 Numeracy - 45 minutes online
Grade 5 Numeracy - 50 minutes online
If students are absent from school during these times they will be provided with the opportunity to participate in Catch Up sessions before Wednesday the 18th May.
Division Cross Country
The Division Cross Country will be held at Deakin University in Warrnambool next Monday the 23rd of May. We have 13 students who have qualified for the event and we wish them every success at this level of competition.
Catholic School Culture
Catholic Education Week
Catholic Education Week begins on Sunday and will continue into next week. It is an opportunity to celebrate our identity as a school within the Catholic faith tradition and will be the 201st year of Catholic Education in our country. The theme this year is Share the Good News. We will acknowledge Catholic Education Week by celebrating with St Thomas’ and St Colman’s at our Hampden Catholic School’s Network Day next Friday the 27th of May.
Prayer for Catholic Education Week
Loving God,
As we prepare to begin Catholic Education Week, we thank you for our Catholic school communities in the Archdiocese of Ballarat. We pray that we may walk ‘the way of the gospel’ together, as we accompany each other in our learning this year. May the Holy Spirit guide us and give us new eyes, new ears and open hearts, helping us to bring your love to all we encounter. Mary, mother of the living gospel, pray for us.
We ask this prayer through Jesus our Lord and teacher,
Amen.
First Holy Eucharist
Preparations for the Sacrament of First Holy Eucharist will begin soon. Families of children making this sacrament will need to decide the date and place of the mass that they will be attending. This will be either Saturday 16th of July at 6:30pm in Cobden at St Brendan’s Church or Sunday 17th of July at 11am in Camperdown at St Patrick’s Church. Home preparations and a note will be coming home soon.
HCSN Combined Schools Dinner
Next Tuesday will be the HCSN combined schools board dinner for the School Advisory Council members of the four schools in our Hampden School Advisory Network (HCSN). This will be held at the Mt Shadwell hotel in Mortlake beginning at 6pm.
Birthdays
Happy Birthday to the following students who celebrate their birthdays this week.
Sophia PS, Ava L and Chloe Anderson
I CAN Program
I CAN Imagination Club: Information Night & student enrolment link
The ‘I CAN Imagination Club’ information night has been confirmed for tonight Monday May 16 with founder Chris Varney and other I CAN Network personnel in attendance. We are hosting this night in conjunction with Mercy Regional College in order for families from both schools to access this event. Our information night will commence @7:30pm in the St. Patrick’s School library.
The I Can Imagination Club Program is a program for students who are either on the autism spectrum, have learning differences or experience social anxieties or lack of social confidence. The beauty of this program is that it can be used by the school to engage a broad range of students that require some extra social skills assistance. Classroom teachers of grades 1-6 students who they believe would benefit from participating in this program have been contacted last week or will do this week. In the past parents and caregivers have taken advantage of this opportunity to hear firsthand what the ‘I CAN Imagination Club’ can offer for their children so we encourage you to attend the information night.
Student enrolments are to be completed online by parents and caregivers by using the following link. https://tinyurl.com/SW-
The St. Patrick’s School starting date for the ‘I CAN Imagination Club’ student sessions is next Monday May 23. They will be held weekly for 15 weeks through terms 2-4, in grade 1/2, 3/4 and 5/6 cohorts with Tim Bourke or Annie Judd attending in a supervisory role.
Parish Bulletin
Student of the week
COMMUNITY EVENTS
Warrnambool Library is running a FREE one day early years development forum on 25th May. This forum is open to all.
Please use the link below for booking.
https://warrnamboollibrary.spydus.com/cgi-bin/spydus.exe/ENQ/WPAC/EVSESENQ?SETLVL=&RNI=375553
