Newsletter 23/5/2022 Term 2 Week 5

Our Prayer

Loving God,

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. 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.

From the Principal

Dear parents, carers and community members,

We will reach the half way mark of the term this week and we have settled into the rhythm of learning and working together amid the constant impact of covid and the flu. Teachers are gathering evidence of learning to form the basis of our first semester school reports and parent/teacher interviews. Parent Teacher Interviews will be available to book on PAM soon. Please keep an eye out for the request to nominate a time and format to meet with your child's teacher to discuss their learning. 

Parent Teacher Interviews will be the as follows:

• Foundation - Grade 2 Tuesday 21st June
• Grade 3/4 Wednesday 22nd June
• Grade 5/6 Thursday 23rd June

HCSN Activity Day

As part of the celebrations of Catholic Education Week and as a transition opportunity for our students, we will conduct an activity day on Friday where we join with the other primary schools in our Hampden Catholic Schools for some fun activities. Foundation and grades 1 and 2 will be coming to St. Patricks, grades 3/4 will be going to St Colman's and grades 5/6 will be going to St Thomas’. This is always an exciting day for all of our students. Please complete the permission form on PAM.

Grade 6 Camp

The experiences of our Grade 5 camp to Portsea and our Grade 4 camp to Ballarat have caused a review of the plan for the Grade 6 children to visit Canberra later this year. With the health concerns we are facing at the moment and the expectation that students are to be picked up from camp if unwell, we have decided to adjust our camp from Canberra to Melbourne for the 2022 Grade 6 camp. The same company who organise the camp will adjust the program to Melbourne and fully plan the event. With reduced costs, we anticipate a rebate on the amount charged and this will be passed on to families when it is made clear. 

Feet

Many of our Foundation "feet" have been returned and put up on display at school, however, there are still many that have not been returned to school yet. If you have misplaced the foot that was sent home earlier this year, please contact the school office. We would love to have all these in as soon as possible. 

Fr Neville

We ask for the prayers of our school community for Fr Neville as he has travelled back to Sri Lanka for the funeral of his brother-in-law who passed away recently. We wish him well and look forward to his return soon.

Illness

At St Patrick's we are currently experiencing a high level of illness in our school community. 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.

National Simultaneous Storytime

St Patrick's School is once again looking forward to being part of the National Simultaneous Storytime this Wednesday May 25 at 11am. This event sees over 1 million Australian children reading the same book at the same time to promote the benefits  of sharing a book. This year's story is Family Tree, a beautiful tale told by Josh Pyke about the connection between family, community  and the seasons of life.

NAPLAN

NAPLAN Testing for students in Years 3 and 5 was completed last week and all eligible students who were here completed the assessments. The children handled the process very well and many enjoyed the opportunity. Thank you to Mel Fox for coordinating this activity and for establishing a very relaxed and comfortable tone for staff and students with these assessment tasks.

Division Cross Country

The Division Cross Country is being held at Deakin University in Warrnambool today, 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.  

Congratulations to Harry Sinnott, Maddison Mitchell, Madison Lucas and Gus Fryers who will proceed to Regionals.

Catholic School Culture

Catholic Education Week

This week is Catholic Education Week where we celebrate the uniqueness of our Catholic schools with the theme, Share the Good News. On Friday we will join with the other primary schools in our Hampden Catholic Schools Network to celebrate Network Day.  On Wednesday we will have a Casual Clothes Day with the theme of ‘Winter Woolies’. Children can wear warm casual clothes on this day and bring a gold coin to donate towards the Mini Vinnies Winter Appeal. 3CS Radio Station will also be broadcasting from our school on Wednesday as part of our Catholic Education Week celebrations and it is also National Simultaneous Storytime Day. What a great week to look forward to!!

MIXX FM Broadcasting

In conjunction with celebrating Catholic Education this week MIXX FM will be broadcasting on our Winter Woolies Casual Clothes Day on Wednesday May 25 from St. Patrick’s School for the Old School lunch from 12-1pm.  During this time hosts James Thwaites and Matthew Lipiarski will be on air, with students and staff able to engage with the guys through playing the feud and other activities. 

Prayer for Catholic Ed 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.

Mini Vinnies Winter Appeal

Thankyou to all families who have washed and sent in items for the Mini Vinnies volunteers to collect for the Winter Appeal. These collections will continue throughout this term so please feel free to send in washed winter items such as blankets, sleeping bags, coats etc. It will go a long way to assisting people to keep warm this winter. Thankyou.

First Holy Eucharist

A note has gone home to all of the children who are making the Sacrament of First Holy Eucharist. Families will need to advise of their chosen date and the mass that they will be attending; 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. Please reply as soon as possible via the link emailed to you. Preparation at school will begin in June and a home preparation pack will also be coming home.

Student Free Day and Staff P.D.

There will be a Student Free Day on the last day of term, Friday 24th of June. Staff will be involved in a Professional Development Day on the Catholic Education topic of Scripture. This day will be presented by Liz Dowling, a highly regarded academic teacher in this subject.

HCSN Combined Schools Dinner

This Tuesday the 24th of May, is 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 Macs Hotel in Mortlake beginning at 6pm.

MERCY REGIONAL COLLEGE - 2023 ENROLMENTS

The Mercy Regional College enrolment applications for Year 7 2023 are closing on Friday 24 June. 

The College would like to invite prospective Year 7 families to complete an enrolment application form through the new enrolment portal - Enrolment Information. If you require any further assistance completing the form please do not hesitate to contact MRC Registrar Nicole Darcy at ndarcy@mercy.vic.edu.au or 03 5593 2011.

Our Junior O’Keeffe Campus will be open for tours throughout Term 2, to welcome those families who could not attend the MRC Open Day and O’Keeffe Afternoon in March.  Please visit the following link to register - O'Keeffe Campus Tours.

Mercy Regional College understands that choosing a school is one of the most important things you will do for your child’s education and welcomes all enquiries about enrolment at Mercy.

Birthdays

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

Addison, Stella, Finn & Tatum

AbracaDABra!

This year St. Patrick's School will be undertaking and performing a school production called 'AbracaDABra!'

Production auditions with be next Monday 30th May 

• Scripts have gone home with those grades 5\6 students who have expressed an interest in auditioning for a role.

AbracaDABra is a play about friendship, resilience and finding the power within, with hip-hop dances set to a soundtrack of popular songs. While it is a smaller scale production than previous years, it offers the same opportunities for learning, engagement and fun.

AbracaDABra has 12 unisex speaking roles for year 5/6s and opportunities for vocal soloists. Senior students will be provided with a short script prior to auditions, and this will be used during auditions for a role or solo. Each class will be assigned a dance. Artist-in-residence Kristy McKenzie will visit the school throughout Term 2 and 3 to work with all students on the production.  Scripts have gone home today with those grades 5\6 students who have expressed an interest in auditioning for a role.

Parish Bulletin

Student of the week

COMMUNITY EVENTS

Warrnambool Library is running a FREE one day early years development forum on 25^th 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