Newsletter 26 - August 20th 2021

Prayer of the Week:

Principal's Report:

Seasons of Change

While I was out on yard duty this week I wandered past the trees on the oval and could see some shoots starting to pop out. It is wonderful to start to see the signs of change as we finally come out of winter. The slightly warmer weather is also a welcome change. 

Unfortunately, there have been no real changes in the current COVID situation and related restrictions. This means that for now, we are unable to hold any school community events. However, looking at Melbourne and other parts of the country  I am thankful that our school remains open. I remain hopeful that things may change in Term Four. 

The last lockdown and snap return has been a very difficult time to navigate for many of our children. If you need any additional support please contact me or our Wellbeing Officer Lillie Comitti.  We are able to provide in-school support or refer children to other service providers. 

Earlier in the week, I shared a family survey in regards to remote learning and the school's response. Thank you to all the people who have shared their observations. If you have not yet had a chance, please set aside 10 minutes to complete the survey. As a school, we are continually trying to improve our practice and engagement with families. Here is the link to the survey:  https://forms.gle/3bvhpFhRH9eJRfMR8

Parent-Teacher Interviews 

Our parent-teacher interviews earlier in the term were postponed due to Lockdown number 5. We hoped that restrictions would have been eased and we would have been able to hold the interviews face-to-face at some point this term. Unfortunately, this has not happened and we have since had another lockdown. I am aware that there was lots of communication between home and school during the periods of remote learning this term. However, as a school, we still want to offer a chance for parents to have an interview with their child's teacher. We have set aside Week 8 (August 30th to September 3rd) for Parent-teacher interviews. If you would like to book a time please contact your child's teacher. Unfortunately, at this stage interviews will be held via telephone or video conference. 

Mary Mackillop Day 

Yesterday the school belatedly celebrated the feast of Mary Mackillop. It was great to be able to attend mass with our Grade 5/6 students. The students enjoyed wearing casual clothes and their hot dog lunch. The school raised some valuable funds for the Mary Mackillop Foundation. A big thank you to Ms. Comitti and the Social Justice Team for all their hard work. 

Head Lice

It has come to my attention that some students in the school may have head lice and I seek your cooperation in checking your child’s hair this week. Head lice do not transmit infectious diseases – they are transmitted by having head-to-head contact with someone who has head lice. Head lice are common in school-aged children and are the most adaptable of creatures. They have survived living solely on humans for 10,000 years!!!!

I seek your cooperation in checking your child’s hair and in those instances where head lice or eggs are found, treating your child’s hair. Please visit www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au and search for “head lice (nits)” for advice on finding, treating and preventing head lice. 

With Faith in our Future 

Chris McAloon 

Living in Faith:

What is the Great Book Swap?  August 24th & 25th, 2021. 

The Indigenous book swap will take place on Tuesday 24^th August and Wednesday 25^th August 2021.  The Social Justice team will be conducting the book swap. Students are invited to bring a gold coin to purchase donated books. 

All money raised will be donated to the Indigenous Literacy Foundation.  

Thanks so much for all the donated books we have already received.

The Social Justice team are working on our School and Parish community taking part in The Great Book Swap in support for Indigenous Literacy 

The idea is that our school/parish community would donate any quality-unwanted children’s books, Social justice will then conduct a Book swap where students are able to purchase any of these donated books for a gold coin donation.  All money raised will be donated to the Indigenous Literacy Foundation.  

We would be grateful for any donations of quality used books.  Please drop them off at the office or with your classroom teacher.  Many thanks to those who have already donated. 

Mary Mackillop Day:

Thank you so much for your support of our Mary Mackillop fundraising day.  The Social Justice team did an awesome job of co-ordinating the hot dog lunch.  We look forward to letting you know how much money was raised on the day next week.

Why do we raise money for various charities at St Patrick's?

As a Catholic school, we are part of the mission of the church, we therefore encourage engagement in social action and social justice activities which are both educative and practical in outcomes. 

Teaching and Learning:

Book Week Dress Up Day 

This year, we are celebrating Book Week from Monday 22^nd August till on Friday 27^th August.

Each year, schools and public libraries across Australia spend a week celebrating the joy and value of books, reading and Australian authors and illustrators.

On Friday 27^th August, we invite students to come to school dressed as their favourite book character, author and something linked to the book week theme.  Unfortunately, due to COVID19 restrictions, we are unable to invite our community into the school; however, we will be posting photos via dojos.  Thank you for your understanding.

Wellbeing:

Welcome back to another week of wellbeing, I am so pleased that you’re still following along and are committed to improving your own wellbeing.

This week I am sharing with you a clip of Hugh Van Cuylenburg (Resilience Project) appearing on Channel 10’s ‘The Project’ last week. This video shares a range of practical ideas to support our mental health during the challenges of Covid-19. The past 18 months for children and adults have been compromised significantly due to COVID-19 and the many (6) lockdowns we have encountered. Everyone has missed many social interaction opportunities, seeing family and friends but most of all we have missed living a ‘normal’ and safe life. I hope that from this video you can gather some practical ideas to help you support your children and their mental health throughout this time. 

Link:  The Resilience Project on The Project

I encourage you to call the school or email myself if you have any concerns or questions. I am available Monday - Thursday 2.00 - 3.00pm to catch up with any children who may be experiencing some uncertainty in these hard times. 

Remember you are never alone as we will always be in this together. 

Regards, 

Lillie Comitti - Wellbeing Coordinator. 

Classroom News - Grade 1/2

This term has been a little up and down with us all being in and out of lockdown, but everyone has been trying their best and Ms Comitti and I are so proud of all our Grade 1/2 students and their families.  Thank you for all you have done and will continue to do.

In Maths, the Grade 1 students have been learning to share a number of items into equal groups.  We have also been working towards mastering our ‘Ten Friends’ and using the Build to Ten, Count On and Doubles strategies to solve addition problems.  The Grade 2’s have been learning about the beginning stages of multiplication by skip counting, making groups and building arrays.  They had great fun on Wednesday by doing a Kahoot together.  

In InitiaLit, the Grade 1’s have been learning to spell words with split digraphs and the ‘Bossy e’ as well as spelling words with long and short vowel sounds.  They have just finished writing persuasive texts and have moved on to narratives.  Their main focus is making sure their stories have a beginning, middle and end.  Grade 2’s have been consolidating their reading strategies including predicting, visualising, making connections and inferring.  We have been learning about silent letters and when to use a ‘c’ or a ‘k’ when spelling words with a /k/ sound. Our writing focus is persuasive text and we are learning about the difference between a fact and an opinion. 

In Religion, we have been doing a lot of different things.  Most recently we have been reading the story of Noah’s Ark and discussing what a promise is.  We particularly enjoyed writing our names in Hebrew as well.  We are looking forward to celebrating the life of Mary MacKillop on Thursday.

In Performing Arts, we are practising our dance and learning our song for our school concert.  Inquiry ties in with this where we are learning about advertising.  We are working towards completing a display board to have on show at the concert.

Wellbeing this week was all about the importance of mindfulness and being ‘in the moment’ which has been really important for us during lockdown and returning to school.  We know that mindfulness can be done in different ways but we mainly focussed on deep breathing to help us focus.  We are very excited about book week next week. We will read and complete activities based on the shortlisted books and will finish the week with our character dress up day.

Have a wonderful week and weekend! Rest up and take care.

Miss Ryan

Students of the week:

Rosalie Dunn - for giving your best effort in your reading group to sound out words and use your tricky words to read our shared books. 

Lucas Papadopoulos - for doing your best in your special writing task to use your letter sounds when sounding out and writing words.

Archie Coxon - for the brilliant work you have been doing in reading.  You are amazing at making inferences about a text.  Keep up the hard work!

Fletcher Thomas - for the great way you are sharing items into equal groups.  You are a star!

Zarli Nicholson - for always listening and working so hard on all your learning tasks

Abigail O'Donnell - for working so well during your reading rotations 

Shiloh Hollis - for the wonderful expression you have been using for your Readers Theatre.

Mahli Willis - for your fantastic origami cat and retell response to the book ‘The Staircase Cat’.

Milla Woolley - for your excellent work during reading and writing, particularly with your biography and newspaper article.  Keep up the great work Milla!

Liam Cameron - for showing improvement in your concentration skills across the core curriculum areas.  Keep working hard Liam!

Hamish Slee - for the hard work you have put in towards your writing. Well done on your fantastic cold write. 

Laura Martin - for being such a bright and happy member of the classroom and always taking on activities with a positive outlook.

Xavier Larkin - for the amazing detail you put into your narrative cold write.

Kaleb Carlsen - for the effort you put into your narrative cold write on Tuesday.

Upcoming Events

August 24th and 25th     - Book swap - bring along money to purchase new and pre loved books

August  27 - Book Week - Friday will be book character dress up day

September 3rd - School Closure Day

September  17th - End of term

Around the town:

Stawell Leasure complex: 
We are putting the call out to all junior soccer players with the recent success of the Australian Matildas and Socceroos success at the Tokyo Olympics. SSAC is looking to bring indoor soccer back bigger than it’s ever been. 
If you have any questions send your name, date of birth, contact phone number through to Matt via email along with any questions you might have.

Acknowledgement of County

We acknowledge Traditional Owners and Custodians of this land on which our school stands.
We pay respect to Elders past, present and emerging.
We thank them for sharing their cultures, spiritualities and ways of
living with the land in this place we all now call home.