Newsletter 112 - October 19th 2023
Prayer of the Week:
God of peace and justice, we pray for all the people living in the uncertainty of war, we pray for peace and the laying down of weapons. We pray for all those who fear for tomorrow, that your Spirit of comfort would draw near to them. We pray for those with power over war or peace, for wisdom, discernment and compassion to guide their decisions. Above all, we pray for all your precious children, at risk and in fear, that you would hold and protect them. We pray in the name of Jesus, the Prince of Peace. Amen.
Interim Principals Report:
Dear St Patrick’s community
Thank you to all for another lovely week at St Patrick’s. Spring is such a great season where the weather allows us to take some of our classes outside for learning. It brings a smile to our faces to see the children playing and enjoying the beautiful spring weather. As we see our children happily playing it has certainly made me pause and reflect on those children and families around the world less fortunate who are experiencing the destruction, chaos and suffering that war brings. We pray for peace and wisdom of our leaders to find a peaceful solution to all conflicts around our world.
Next Monday is our first transition day for Foundation 2024. Foundation transition days are designed to help students entering school to acclimate to the school environment, meet teachers, peers and become familiar with the school’s routines and expectations. Transition days help ease anxiety and build connections to set a positive tone for the upcoming school year. Our whole school transition day will be Tuesday December 12th, 2023.
On Tuesday students in Grade 3-6 will take part in a Cyber safety session delivered by Susan McLean. 3/4 - 9.30-11.30am and 5/6 - 11.30 - 1.00pm will attend a day session.
Students from Concongella, Stawell West, Stawell 502, Halls Gap and Marnoo will also be involved. Teachers will then take part in a professional development session after school. At 6.30pm at North Park Parents and carers are invited to an informative session where Susan will discuss the positive benefits of technology, as well as what we need to be aware of.
It is vital that parents/carers are aware of their children’s use of social media and the internet. Equipping ourselves with knowledge helps us to be able to guide our children through the complexities of the digital world while safeguarding their physical and emotional well-being. I strongly encourage all parents/carers if they are able to attend this session. Susan is an expert in her field and we can learn so much from her. Please see further information on Susan’s session in the Wellbeing section of the newsletter. If you would like more information on what Susan delivers, it can be found on her website: https://www.cybersafetysolutions.com.au/
With faith in our future Maryanne Comitti
A word from the office:
* Please note upcoming school closure days:
Monday 6th (Staff PD) and Tuesday 7th November (Vic Public Holiday)
Wellbeing:
Teaching and Learning:
School Assemblies: Our assemblies are led by a different class each week and tomorrows assembly begins at 2:50pm as students will be dismissed from the hall at 3:15pm. We invite all our community to come along.
Week 3: Junior F
Week 4: Middle C
Week 5: Junior R
Week 6: Senior M
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:
Tue 24th - Miss Ryan
Wed 25th - Mr Moloney and Miss Comitti
Junior F:
Maths: We have been learning about place value and have been looking at which numbers are greater and less. You have to look at the hundreds, tens and ones to find the bigger number. We have also been learning about place value and we have been having to circle groups of tens to show numbers. For 562 you need 56 tens and 2 ones or 5 hundreds, 6 tens and 2 ones.
By Edie and Henry
IniatiaLit:
In comprehension and fluency we have been learning the strategy monitoring. Monitoring help understand what we are reading. There are four steps to monitor reading
- Read
- Stop and retell in your own words
- Check if it makes sense
- Fix
If we are not sure of a word we have to use the inferring strategy or we can look in a dictionary or search it up. In InitaLit we have been learning about the sound /or/. There are four ways to make the sound /or/ they are ‘or’, ‘au’, ‘ore’ and ‘aw’. Some words with the /or/ sound are sport, haunted, more and hawk.
By Jack and Edwina
Writing:
In writing we have been learning about persuasive text. A persuasive text is to convince someone of an opinion. You need to have reasons and facts, strong words and pronouns. In writing we have been learning about prepositions, a preposition is a little word that tells us time, place or position.
By Emila and Marianne
Sport:
We have been learning about cricket and how to bowl.
By Curtis and Mason
Science:
In science we have been learning about forces, the forces we have learnt are pull and push. We also watched two videos. One was called traintastic teamwork and in it three trains had to pull out one big train when it was stuck in a tunnel. The other one was a giant Rube Goldberg machine, it was really entertaining and there was lots of pushing and pulling to keep the machine moving.
By Mac and Oscar
Religion:
In religion we have been learning about how we have one God but God can come in three different ways, God the father, God the son and God the holy spirit. We learnt this was called the trinity. We also had a go at writing a little song about the trinity.
By Johanna and Isaac
Wellbeing:
In wellbeing we are learning about teamwork. Teamwork means thats you help people by making friends and if someone has fallen over you can help them.
By Lucas
Art:
In Art we have been learning about crazy camel and we have been doing colouring ins for the Stawell show.
By Arli and Johanna
Inquiry:
In inquiry we are going to be learning about Geography this term. Last tuesday Miss Fleming told us that we were learning about Geography and we were both ‘what’s Geography?
By Lexie and Alivia
Progressive Achievement Tests (PAT)
All grades will be taking part in their PAT reading and maths tests over the next three weeks. Progressive Achievement Tests, commonly known as PATs, are one of the main sets of assessments schools use. PATs are multiple-choice tests designed to help teachers determine achievement levels of students in Mathematics and Reading Comprehension.
Our Year 1-6 students complete PAT Reading and Maths tests online using Chromebooks or iPads. Foundation will complete a paper test.
Data gathered will inform teachers of students’ current strengths and areas for improvement which can be used for planning teaching and learning, and monitoring progress over time.
Sustainabilty: This week is national water week and on Monday morning the team, including Phil The Bucket, from GWM water attended a special assembly to present this year's Water Week poster winners. Once again St Pat's students gained two of the major prizes in the local area and 1st prize at the state level. As well as several honourable mentions.
Ruby Foundation - 1st prize and 3rd prize at State level, Emila grade 2 - 1st prize. Marianne grade 2 - honourable mention, Oliver S grade 3 - honourable mention, Molly grade 6- honourable mention, Valeria Foundation - Honourable mention. Thank you to all of the students who worked so enthusiastically on their water week posters. Mrs Lynette Cox Hayward
Our Grade 3/4 sustainability students started harvest this week. Leafy greens were harvested, broad beans were picked, cabbage was checked for caterpillars ;) and the sunflower is almost as tall as the students.
Great Book Swap - happening at St Patrick’s Primary School,2023. Literacy is a major issue facing remote Indigenous communities. Tuesday 24th and Wednesday 25th October.
This term Social Justice will finalise working on The Great Book Swap in support for Indigenous Literacy. The idea is that our school would donate any quality unwanted children’s books, and 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. *Please send any donated books (in great condition) into school, thanks to those who have already donated.
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 your celebration is where we can come together to celebrate our end of year and Grade 6 Graduation. It will be an evening to celebrate learning, strive for personal excellence and celebrate our achievements. It will also be 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 and teaching and growing together as a community of learners.
Living in Faith:
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 will be 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.
Please follow us on instagram; stpatsstawell
Students of the week:
Harry Devery - For the phenomenal work you’ve been putting into improving your writing! Keep up the super work Harry.
Allyshia Bourke - For the resilience you’ve been showing towards sounding out words and putting them back together.
Jai Hine - For always being a curious learner. You ask excellent questions to expand your learning. Keep up the great work!
Beau Cullen - For the amazing effort you have been putting into your reading. Mrs Barber and I are so proud of you. Keep up the hard work!
Daniella Parkin Alamo - For your collaboration in our reading group when talking about comets and asteroids. Keep up the super work.
Lexie Bailey - For the self-motivation you have been using when building a picture of 1000 and your place value knowledge, you should be so proud of yourself.
Beverly Parkin Alamo - For the highly descriptive and entertaining sentences you have written as part of your magical setting writing. You have really painted a picture for the reader.
Ethan Prydderch - For being a collaborative learner and always being willing to help out your classmates. You are a valued member of our classroom.
Willow Boylan - For your great work learning about binary code in Digitech. Keep up the amazing work Willow!
Kayde Werry - For the amazing detail you have put into creating your magical setting description in writing. Keep up the wonderful work!
Andy Papadopoulos - For the way you treat others in our classroom with respect and fairness!
Kobe Power - For the persistence and reslience shown during mathematics. Your problem solving skills are very impressive!
Ethan Parker - For the detail you are adding to all your writing samples. It is great to see how proud you are of your writing pieces.
Jackson Notting - For always seeking out and taking on feedback to take your learning to the next level. Well done Jacko!
Birthdays:
Congratulations to these students who are celebrating their birthday this week:
Evie F, Thomas T and Jarli.
Mary McKillop 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. “We have much to be thankful for.”
This weeeks award recipient is Jack.
For being positive and listening well throughout the concert and kind
and encouraging to the younger students.
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. More information to follow.
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.