Newsletter 116 - November 16th 2023
Prayer of the Week:
Prayer for families
God, Our Father, loving and merciful, bring together and keep all families in perfect unity of love and mutual support.
Instill in each member the spirit of understanding and affection for each other.
Keep quarrels and bitterness far from them, and for their occasional failures instill forgiveness and peace.
May the mutual love and affection of parents set a good example.
Instill in children self-respect that they may respect others and grow in mature independence.
May the mutual affection and respect of families be a sign of Christian life here and hereafter, through Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. Amen.
Principals Report:
Dear St Patrick’s community
As always with this time of the year, we begin to look forwards to 2024.
Interviews for the position that Georgia vacated are ongoing this week and next. We are excited to have received numerous applications which places us in an excellent position to appoint very good candidates. Once the appointment is finalized, information on teacher placements for 2024 will be released.
Discussions are also in progress to find a replacement for the school counselor who departed unexpectedly in Term Four. In the upcoming weeks, class groupings for 2024 will be determined, prioritizing the students' needs. A transition day is scheduled for Tuesday, December 12th, allowing all students to spend the day in their 2024 class with their assigned teachers.
Throughout this year, we've seen an escalation in technical issues with the Chromebooks for our grade 6 students. It has become apparent that the initial assumption of these Chromebooks lasting from grade 3 to grade 6 was inaccurate, leading many to face issues with screens and battery life. Some are barely meeting the minimum requirements, and others are not poised for continued use in the students' secondary school years.
In response, 2024 will be dedicated to exploring alternative device options for the future. We aim to rectify this by not expecting Grade 3 parents to purchase a device at this time. Instead, Grade 3 students will be provided with Chromebooks from our existing pool of devices until we formulate a comprehensive plan for our ICT strategy, determining the most suitable devices and which year level is best suited for families to purchase a device that will continue to have life after St Patricks.
Foundation to 2 students will continue to utilise school provided iPads- a brand new bank of 45 will enter the school in 2024 providing the most up-to-date technology for the students.
With Kind Blessings,
Bettina
A word from the office:
2024 Planning
As we approach the end of the school year, not only are we busy preparing for all the fun and festivities that happen during Term 4 but we are also right in the thick of planning for next year!
Our 2024 Foundation Transition program has kicked off, and we are also preparing to welcome new students across other year levels in Term 1 next year.
*With this in mind, we ask that any current families whose children will not be returning to us in 2024 notify the office as soon as possible. Much of the School’s resources for 2024 are ordered this term and we are grateful for your early notice which allows us to plan our classrooms accordingly.
Please review your School Fee Account
A friendly reminder to families as we approach the end of the school year to please review your current school fee account balance.
For those paying via Direct Debit or recurring Electronic Funds Transfer, please ensure your current contribution is adequate.
School managed fortnightly Direct Debits will continue to run throughout the holiday period and any credit accumulated will be applied against next year’s school fees. *If you have paid off your account and would like to stop or reduce your direct debits over the holidays, please notify the office before Wednesday 13th December 2023.
If you require a copy of your Statement or have any account queries, please do not hesitate to contact me.
Anna Wadge
Business Manager
Wellbeing:
I would like to draw attention to a crucial aspect of your child's education.
We are closely monitoring our attendance data and have noticed that we are currently tracking below average compared to both state and regional schools. It's imperative to recognise that even seemingly small gaps in attendance can lead to significant learning loss over time.
To illustrate this, take a moment to see the visual representation of lost learning days due to attendance differences.
We aim for a minimum of 97% attendance across the board as anything less can impact your child's academic success.
If you’re struggling to get your child to school please don’t hesitate to reach out to me (Lillie Comitti) and I can organise a meeting with you to see how we can best support you and your child. We are always here to support anyone who needs support no matter what.
Please check the link attached for further information: School Attendance
Teaching and Learning:
School Assemblies: Our assemblies are led by a different class each week and tomorrow's assembly begins at 2:50pm. Students will be dismissed from the hall at 3:15pm. We invite all our community to come along.
Week 7: Senior H
Week 8: Foundation
Week 9: Middle B & C
Week 10: Junior R & F
Week 11: Grade 6
Week 12: No assembly
Professional Development:
At St Patrick’s Primary School we are committed to Professional Development of our team. At various times staff members will be working off site or online which may result in classroom teachers being out of the classroom.
Term 4:
Week 8 20/11 Miss L Comitti Mrs Fraser/Ms Comitti in Offsite
23/24/11 Mrs Bettina Bird Diocesan Principals Mtg
Senior H:
As we begin to approach the end of the year, lots of assessments have been taking place. It’s been wonderful to witness the wonderful growth students have made. It's also been a time for us to reflect and celebrate our wonderful personalities and the growth made in terms of confidence and social maturity.
In Religion our topic has been transformation, where we learnt about the conversion of Saul. We have been able to connect our learnings with transformations and changes we can make in our day to day life.
Our recent Reading focus has been based around finding word meanings in context by using other words or phrases in a reading passage as clues. We have explicitly learnt about this during cars and Stars. We also read the final chapter of our class novel, Detention. Wow! What a heartfelt ending.
During Writing, we just finished our last narrative for the year, and now we have begun transactional (letter) writing where the Grade 5s have been writing their leadership application letters to Mrs Bird. The Grade 6s are writing personal letters. The explicit teaching of complex sentences has been a major part of this semester and it’s been wonderful to see the improvement this has made to everyone’s writing.
In Grade 5 Maths our recent modules have covered decimal fractions up to thousandths, 3 dimensional shapes and just recently we have started learning about fractions. Mr Moloney in Grade 6 Maths has been exploring order of operations.
In Science we have been learning about forces, in particular electrical forces. We are just about to embark on electric circuits. It’s been interesting learning about continents and natural landmarks in the world during our Geography lessons. Our unit on ‘Relationships’ during Inquiry have been beneficial for all, and our students entered these lessons with maturity and respect which has been very impressive.
Congratulations to the students who travelled to Ballarat on Wednesday to compete in the next level in cricket. There were no wins on the day, but what a great achievement to get to the next level. A big thanks to Mr Moloney for organising and driving our students there.
Let’s have a wonderful last few weeks together!
Benji working his magic.
As we have previously mentioned St Patricks has been on an exciting Professional Development journey involving Visible Learning. We are learning and implementing Visible learning which is a research based approach to developing life-long learners. It is based on the research of Professor John Hattie and his metastudies involving over 300 million students and what has the most impact on student progress at school. Visible learning research explores seven core strategies for learning success: working together as evaluators, setting high expectations, measuring learning with explicit success criteria, establishing developmentally appropriate levels of learning, viewing mistakes as opportunities, continually seeking feedback, and balancing surface, deep, and transfer learning.
Our Visible Learning aspiration statement for St Patrick’s is:
All students at St Patrick’s Primary School will articulate and demonstrate the dispositions of a visible learner and use the language of learning. They will understand what they are learning, how they are progressing and where they are going to next to show a minimum of one year’s growth.
The three key focus areas we are looking at over this time are the following:
Our focus areas are:
- To develop consistency and confidence in using Learning Intentions and Success Criteria across all learning areas.
- To make the Learner Powers ‘live and breathe’ in all aspects of school life.
- Articulate a clear picture of the types of feedback practices the school aspires to have.
What do our students think about Learning Intentions and Success Criteria:
"LISC help let me know what we are going to do and what we need to achieve by the end of the lesson. They help me in my learning because it’s like a to do list."
Jack 5/6H
"It gives me an idea of what we are doing. It’s just helpful. If you are late and you are not sure of what you're doing you can look up on the board to see."
Emily 5/6M
"I think the LISC helps me set a goal on what I need to achieve by the end of the lesson."
Mia 3/4C
"They help me because you can see if you forgot a step, you can look back at them."
Bailey 3/4C
“They help me know about the lesson. It makes it easier knowing what I’m doing.”
Oscar JF
"It helps me in my lessons so then I know what I am doing and then I can know what we're supposed to completing.”
Isaac JF
"They help me with hints about what we are learning about. The Success Criteria helps me complete the tasks and get them correct."
Sav JR
"It helps me learn all my stuff. It helps with an idea of our learning."
Hunter JR
"It helps me to learn and grow up."
Mackenzie F
"They tell me what I have to do. They tell me what I need to do."
End of school celebrations:
End of school whole school mass:
When: Wednesday 13th December
Time: 9:15am
Where: St Patrick’s Catholic Church - Community cuppa to follow in the school hall. All Welcome
End of Year celebrations - Grade 6 graduation liturgy
When:Thursday 14th December, 2023
Where: St Patricks School Hall for Grade 6 families only. Details to follow.
Time: 5:30pm
Followed by -
Whole school - Family Carols on the Green:
When: Thursday 14th December, 2023.
Where: St Patrick's Primary School Oval
Time: 6:30pm Gates open
Catering: To be advised
BYO: chairs/picnic blanket
Carols: Each grade will present a Christmas Carol throughout the evening
Our end of year celebration is where we can come together to celebrate our school year and the Grade 6 Graduation. It will be an evening to celebrate our learning, our achievements and our personal growth. It is also a chance to say goodbye to our Grade 6 students and families that will be leaving at the end of 2023. We hope you can join us in celebrating a terrific year of learning, teaching and growing together as a community of learners.
Living in Faith:
Fundraising activities this term: Non Perishable food drive: The Stawell Inter Church Council welfare Cottage is struggling to keep up with the demand for help and they are seeking grocery donations to help them help those in need. They are particularly looking for donations of canned items like stew, soup, tuna, vegetables, spaghetti sauce, soaps, toothbrushes, shampoo, clothes washing powder and dishwashing liquid. We realise there is significant extra pressure on our families with cost of living prices, however if you feel able to, could you please buy an extra item or two when you go grocery shopping. Donation tubs are in each classroom and we will present our donations to Mary-Rita Thomas (St Vincent de Paul rep) at assembly in a few weeks. There are many in our town and region who are having a hard time making ends meet.
Fundraising: Each Friday till the end of Term our MiniVinnies group will be selling Zooper Doopers for $1.00each at lunch time under the shade sails. The money raised will go towards Stawell Inter church Council Welfare Centre and St Vincent de Paul Sponsor a student program. As always we thank our St Patrick’s community for your support.
Students of the week:
Hariklia Kloufetos - For being a resilient and respectful learner. Keep up the great work Klia. We love having you as part of our class.
Mia Ampt - For being a curious and cooperative learner. We admire your curiosity Mia, keep it up!
Evie Field - For the focus and effort you have put into your reading. You are reading fluently and your comprehension is spot on! Keep working hard!
Charlie Matthews - For your excellent work when identifying patterns in numbers. Your explanation of how you solved the problems was very clear. Keep it up!
Mac Bibby - For being such a self-motivated and collaborative learner. I'm continually impressed by the way you conduct yourself in the classroom.
Arli Werry - For being such a resilient student who never gives up and is working very hard to learn new concepts.
Tahlia Darker - For displaying your risk taker learning superpower while learning how to change direct speech into indirect speech.
Maya Goodes - For using your risk-taker and self-motivated learner superpowers during maths this week. Keep it up!
Bailey Matthews - For the amazing achievement you have made in your reading assessment. You're hard work and dedication is paying off!
Fletcher Thomas - For your hard work and the self-motivation you have put into your writing this week. Keep up the awesome work Fletch!
Jack Sullivan - For being such a self-motivated learner. You give every learning opportunity one hundred percent effort! Well done Jack!
Charlie Sullivan - For being such a positive cricket team member in Ballarat on Wednesday! Well done Charlie!
Mackenzie Farrell - For the amazing detail you put into your cold-write earlier this week. Keep striving to achieve your goals Mackenzie!
Jobe Allen - For stepping outside of your comfort zone to compete at the Cricket 8’s carnival in Ballarat. You are a valued part of our team.
Birthdays:
Congratulations to these students who are celebrating their birthday this week:
Mackenzie, William (Bill), Alfie and Charli.
Mary MacKillop Award:
Mary MacKillop lived a life dedicated to her faith and serving the needs of others. Wherever and however she could, Mary MacKillop did everything possible to improve the lives of others. This award acknowledges the thoughtful actions of the students at St Patrick’s to help others. “True charitable humility is open. It is generous in its motives. It troubles not about either the esteem or censure of people.”
Congratulations to this weeks award recipient Oliver .
For being a kind and caring friend attending the sick-bay
and ensuring your friend got the care they needed. Thank you!
Diocesan/Parish news:
Mass Times:
Ararat Sunday 8.30am
Stawell Sunday 10.30am
Lake Bolac 1st, 3rd, 5th Sundays 6.30pm Vigil Sat
Landsborough 2nd, 4th Sundays 12.30pm
Glenthompson (Hamilton Parish) 2nd, 4th Sundays 8.30am
Parents and Friends news:
The P & F are running a Christmas raffle this year with the multiple prizes totalling a value over $1500. Each family will receive a book of tickets to sell at a cost of $2 each. We ask that all sold or unsold tickets to be returned by the 5th December. We thank all the local businesses/families that have donated to this raffle and ask you support these and other local businesses this coming holiday season. Raffle drawn 8th of December.
A special thank you to all those who have kindly donated to our school raffle. If you can please support the business that supports us.
Thanks also to those who have sold raffle books. If you would like any more raffle books please call into the school office. As always we appreciate your support.
Around Our Community:
Upcoming Events:
Our Vision and Mission:
Vision Statement: St Patrick's School is a community which reflects and celebrates Christ as its centre point: By honoring our story we value our whole community. By coming together our vision is for a loving, just, compassionate and tolerant world. Mission Statement: In the tradition of St Patrick, we are committed to: Promoting and celebrating a love of God, self and community. Recognizing and enhancing the talents and uniqueness of each person through our vision of Prayer, Care and Learning. PRAYER We nurture and grow our relationship with God as members of a faith community. CARE We foster recognition of difference, compassion for others and the strength to act on our beliefs. LEARNING We develop the knowledge, attitudes and skills essential to reaching our full potential as life- long learners.