Newsletter 127- March 14th 2024

Prayer of the Week:

A prayer for St Patrick’s Day:

May your days be many and your troubles be few.

May all God’s blessings descend upon you.

May peace be within you, may your heart be strong.

May you find what you’re seeking wherever you roam.

May the strength of God pilot us, may the wisdom of God instruct us.

May the hand of God protect us, may the word of God direct us.

May thy Salvation, O Lord, be always ours this day and for evermore.

Amen.

Written by St. Patrick

Principals Report:

Dear St Patrick’s community

As we approach St. Patrick's Feast day this Sunday, let us celebrate the legacy of Ireland's patron saint and the rich cultural heritage he represents. St. Patrick's Day is not only a time for revelry and festivities but also a moment to reflect on the values of perseverance, faith, and unity that St. Patrick embodied. We will wear green on Monday and hold a liturgy at 8.50 am in the Hall to honor the spirit of St. Patrick and the enduring contributions of Irish culture to the world. Happy St. Patrick's Day to all!

Something new that has started this term…
We have implemented the innovative platform Pulse by Educator Impact: This is a wellbeing survey tool that students complete usually each Wednesday or during their wellbeing classes. 
For the staff in our Student Wellbeing and Leadership teams, this survey enables us to gain a quick snapshot of our students’ overall health and stay ahead of wellbeing issues within our student body. Our dedicated Wellbeing team can access comprehensive data on whole school or classroom sentiment, along with historical student check-in data. This enables us to identify patterns and address any emerging issues before they escalate into larger problems. Our classroom teachers benefit from a super simple way to connect with students who may require early wellbeing intervention. By utilizing this platform, our staff can use their time more effectively, ensuring that every student receives the support they need to thrive socially and emotionally.
The platform provides students with a safe and accessible way to reach out for help. When a student flags that they need help, E.I Pulse will connect them with a trusted teacher, school leader, or administrator of their choosing. The platform also encourages students to be supportive of each other and lift each other up with the E.I Pulse gratitude feature.  After students complete their check-in, the platform prompts them to give a shout out to a fellow student or a staff member.

It is a great platform that is assisting us understand the social and emotional wellbeing of our students. 

Thank you to all the parents who joined us at the Foundation BBQ—it was wonderful to see familiar faces and meet new ones. Your presence made the event truly special. A big shoutout to our dedicated staff for taking the time to welcome and connect with new members of our community. Your efforts help make our school a warm and inclusive place for everyone. 

We look forward to our upcoming Harmony Day gathering to continue to strengthen our bonds.

With Kind Blessings, 

Bettina

A word from the Office:

Dear Parents & Guardians,

School Photos - Monday 25th March 2024

Book in your haircuts - School Photo Day is happening on Monday 25th March 2024!.  

This year, we have moved to MSP's online ordering platform, meaning no envelopes will be sent home with students.  Please see the attached flyer for further information and instructions on how to place your online order.  Should you have any questions, please contact MSP directly.

The photographers are working to a tight schedule with the first class group photos starting at 9.00am so please make sure your children are at school on time on this day. Your assistance with ensuring photo day runs smoothly is greatly appreciated.  

Foundation 2025

Do you have a child due to start Foundation in 2025?  If you have not already done so, please contact the office as soon as possible to ensure their details are registered on our waiting list.  Whilst the enrolment process will commence in Term 2, siblings of current students are prioritised and this early information assists the School in forward planning for the 2025 school year.  

With kind regards,

Anna Wadge
Business Manager

Wellbeing:

What is happiness, and how can we all get some? Buddhist monk, photographer and author, Matthieu Ricard, has devoted his life to these questions, and his answer is influenced by his faith as well as by his scientific turn of mind: We can train our minds in habits of happiness.

Matthieu Ricard has been called the "happiest person in the world" by several popular media. He was a volunteer subject in a study performed at the University of Wisconsin–Madison on happiness, scoring significantly above the average of hundreds of volunteers.

Video Link - The Habits of Happiness           Lillie  Marshman - Wellbeing Co-Ordinator

Teaching and Learning:

School Assemblies:  Our assemblies happen each Friday afternoon starting at 2:45pm in the school hall.   Please note change of time due to school now finishing at 3:10pm.  Students are dismissed from the hall on this day.  We invite all our community to come along.  Whole school community invited to attend.                                                                                            

Week 7: Junior FB                                                                                                      

Week 8: No Assembly - Harmony Day

Week 9: Stations of the cross Thur 28th March 1:45pm

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.

Week 8:    21/3          Mr  Cunningham                   2yr Graduate PD

Junior FB: 

We have had a wonderful start to the 2024 with Mrs Fraser and Ms Bush.
Everyone has been demonstrating their learning superpowers to do their best work.

Religion 

We are presently learning about ‘right relationships’. 
We read Colossians 3: 12 - 14

As God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved,
Clothe yourselves
With compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience.
Bear with one another and, if anyone has a complaint against and 
forgive each other; just as the Lord has forgiven you, 
so you also must forgive.
Above all, 
Clothe yourselves
With love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.

Initial Lit

We begin every day with our Initial Lit lessons. During these lessons, we learn about spelling, comprehension and  tricky words. We all really enjoy this program and each lesson helps to improve our reading and writing skills. We have got lots of great work books to use which keep us very busy.

Writing

Writing is a very important part of every day at school. This includes formal writing lessons and other opportunities each day to write about our learning. We have written many different types of writing this year - recounts, imaginative texts,informative texts and persuasive texts.

Reading Diaries 

Since the beginning of the school year. We have been taking home a book or books each night to read with our families. All children are expected to read for at least 20 minutes each night, 4 - 5 nights each week. Some children have already read up to 30 nights which is a fantastic effort.

Art

The whole school has been working collaboratively on some Easter eggs with our Art teacher Mrs Cox-Hayward. The Stawell Council asked the local schools to take part in this project. There are four eggs from our school, they are yellow, blue, red and gold. Each student was asked to draw a design related to Easter. It could be something to do with the Christian Easter story, Stawell at Easter time or something to do with their family at Easter time. Each design has been drawn in pencil and the individual designs have then been pasted on and sealed. We look forward to seeing the eggs displayed in the town at Easter time.

Inquiry

As part of our inquiry work, we have been learning about the history of our families. We are so lucky to have children from many different cultures at St Patrick’s from all over the world. 

Science

At the moment our Science topic is  Chemical Science. As part of this unit we mixed different materials to make play dough and then we looked at the ways in which Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people combined different materials to make utensils.

We really enjoyed participating in these hands on activities with Mrs Giles.

DASH 

We visited Eventide Homes as part of the DASH project. We really enjoyed chatting with the residents and getting to know them while we did some different activities together. There were lots of smiles and we feel very lucky to have had this opportunity. 

Sport  

Mrs Bird has been teaching us PE this term. We all look forward to participating in PE on Wednesday afternoons. So far this term, we have been practising our skills for the upcoming school athletics which will be held in Term 2. We have been practising running, relay races and throwing, including shot put, discus and javelin. We can’t wait to show you our skills on sports day.

Maths

We have been learning about place value and how to write 3 digit numbers. We have also been learning to subtract and add multiples of ten as well as how to construct addition and subtraction fact families. E.g 12+3=15 so 3+12=15 and 15-3=12 so 15-12=3. (maybe on a whiteboard) We are about to start learning about time and have been discussing  1 hour, 1 minute and 1 second and what we could do in each of these amounts of time.

Conclusion

It has been a great start to the year for all of us and we are sure that terms 2, 3 and 4 will be just as wonderful.

Naplan

The National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) 2019 for Years 3, 5, 7 and 9 students will be held on 13th - 116th of March, 2024. NAPLAN tests assess student knowledge and skills in Writing, Reading, Language conventions (spelling, grammar and punctuation) and Numeracy.

It is such a great achievement to have 100% of our grade 3 and 5 students completing Naplan.  At St Patrick’s we work hard on ensuring our students recognise we are more than one assessment.  Our teachers ensure that our students are familiar with the test format however we do not excessively prepare our students for Naplan. We aim to help students be as relaxed as possible and to view the NAPLAN testing as part of learning rather than fixating on the results. 

 At St Patrick’s we view this testing as an additional piece of information about a student’s learning.  It should not be viewed in isolation and does not provide a thorough or detailed account of  a child’s abilities. 

Thank you to our families of our Grade 3 & 5 students who have supported their children in preparation for Naplan. 

Maryanne Comitti   Teaching & Learning Leader 

Students of the week:

School Swimming Sports Awards:

Living in Faith:

This year we will be celebrating our Harmony Day on Friday 22nd March, 2024.  

Harmony Day is a day where we celebrate our cultural diversity, it is about inclusiveness, respect and a sense of belonging for everyone. 

We are thrilled to announce that footsteps, a Melbourne based school dance program will once again be visiting St Patrick’s.  

“Footsteps specialises in curriculum, age-based movement programs for Foundation to Year 12 students. We deliver engaging and relevant dance and drama programs which have been developed around the Australian National Curriculum. Our programs develop students’ social skills, confidence, fitness levels, creativity, expressive skills and coordination, ensuring we provide a safe, positive and stimulating environment for all students.”  https://footstepsdancecompany.com.au/

In the footsteps dance sessions children will explore this idea of belonging through dance.   Students will work with the footsteps dance instructor at an allocated time during the school day to learn their dance.  Students and our St Patrick’s Community are then invited to come together for an evening celebration which will commence at approximately 5:00 pm.  Details were sent home earlier this week.

A detailed timetable will be sent out closer to the date. If anyone has any queries or would like to become involved in our Harmony Day activities please contact me. 

Maryanne Comitti, Religious Education Leader

St Patrick's Day Liturgy 

Students will be gathering in our school hall for a St Patrick’s day liturgy on Monday 18th March, 2024 at 8:50am.  All welcome to attend. Students are encouraged to wear Green.

Who was St Patrick? 

Although many think of Ireland when we talk about St. Patrick, he was actually born in Britain in the 5th century. 

He was snatched by Pirates, thrown in a ship, bound in chains, and taken over the sea to Ireland. He was sixteen years old. For six years, Patrick was a slave in Ireland. He was put to work watching sheep and cattle. 

During those years, Patrick started to pray. He thought about God all the time, and it gave him peace of mind. He knew that no matter how much he was suffering, God loved him.

Eventually, Patrick escaped from slavery and traveled to France.  He then returned to Ireland and spent his life as a Christian missionary credited with converting Ireland to Christianity in the AD 400s. 

His real name is believed to be Maewyn Succat and he took on the name Patrick upon becoming a priest.

During Lent, Christians are asked to focus on ‘Almsgiving’, which simply means donating money or goods to those in need. In every classroom, in the office area and each family will have been sent home a Project Compassion money box from Caritas that we have made available for monetary donations. We encourage students to think of those in need and donate when and if they can. An example of being kind and generous can be when a child donates their money and goes without buying a treat such as a lunch order or an ice-cream that’s Almsgiving

Thankyou for your support.   

A quote from Pope Francis:

"Love and charity, are service, helping others, serving others. There are many people who spend their lives in this way, in the service of others. When you forget yourself and think of others, this is love! "

Each Friday till the end of Term 1 our MiniVinnies group will be selling Zooper Doopers for $1.00 each St Vincent de Paul Sponsor a student program. As always we thank our St Patrick’s community for your support. 

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.”Saint Mary MacKillop

Birthdays:

Congratulations to these students who celebrated their birthday  this week: 

Mia, Akech, Evelyn, Leon, Greta, Marnie, Kayde and Aurie.

Parents and Friends news:

Wow, what a busy term we’ve already had and it doesn’t stop yet. I’d like to thank the staff, committee and the families who kindly donated food, and help prepare it for the very successful catering gig last Thursday. It takes a village to pull events together like this and we appreciate all the help offered.

We’re once again calling upon everyone to help out with the next upcoming event - Harmony Day. A note was sent home on Tuesday detailing the shared Casserole Dinner being hosted on the evening of next Friday, March 22nd. With a tight schedule, we please ask that you return your forms no later than this Monday, so we can prepare accordingly to cater for everyone and know we have enough helpers on the evening. We request that you please bring your casserole warmed up, or in a slow cooker, to the School Hall by 5pm.

Finally, you would’ve noticed we also sent home the Cross Country Lunch Order form. A reminder that both this and your Easter Raffle books are due back to school next Thursday, March 21st.

Thanks for keeping up with us, and our busy Term 1.

Kate Field
President

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

Around Our Community:

Please follow us on instagram; stpatsstawell

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.