Newsletter 113 - October 26th 2023
Prayer of the Week:
St. Francis of Assisi: Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
and where there is sadness, joy. Amen.
Interim Principals Report:
Dear St Patrick’s community
It was so nice seeing all our excited 2024 Foundation students for their first transition session on Monday morning. The children were engaged in their learning and were all keen to stay on, which is a great sign. We look forward to three more transition sessions this year. As always we thank the families for entrusting us with the privilege of being a part of their child’s educational journey.
A special shout out to Mrs Cox-Hayward who has been busy collating and displaying our students' work (at least one for everyone) for the Stawell show. All of this work takes place after the school day and as you can imagine co-ordinating on average 160+ items is a big task. The children love being able to walk around the arts arena and see their learning on display.
How quickly does time go? Mrs Bettina Bird will start with us on Monday 30th October, 2023. We are all looking forward to welcoming Bettina into our wonderful St Patrick’s Community.
I wanted to take a moment to express my gratitude to all of you for the incredible support whilst I have been interim principal. It’s been an honor and privilege to step into this role over the last term and a half. I am continually inspired by the dedication of our St Patrick’s staff, the enthusiasm of our students and partnership of our families. I’m looking forward to getting back into the classroom and working with the teachers and students in my normal role as Deputy Principal.
With faith in our future
Maryanne Comitti
* Please note upcoming school closure days for students:
Monday 6th (Staff PD) and Tuesday 7th November (Vic Public Holiday)
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:
World Kindness Day - Sunday 13.11.2022
November 13th is World Kindness Day! Imagine what the world would be like if each person did one kind thing for someone else.
Get started making a difference with these simple ideas:
- Compliment the first three people you talk to.
- Say good morning/afternoon as you walk past people.
- Pick up litter. Spend 10 minutes cleaning a park or your neighbourhood.
- Dedicate 24 hours to spreading positivity on social media
Suggestions?
The next wellbeing letter will be out in December. If you have any comments or suggestions about what you would like to see in it, please let Miss Comitti know, via: lcomitti@spstawell.catholic.edu.au
Wellbeing Tip: Spend time in Nature!
Why not make the most of what spring has to offer?
Spending time in nature outdoors can help improve your mood and reduce feelings of stress and anger. Try to pay attention to your surroundings and find things to see, hear, taste, smell and touch. Lots of people find that being with animals is calming and enjoyable. You could try pet-sitting or dog walking, feed birds from your window, or visit a local community farm.
You can even bring nature indoors! This can give you the benefits of nature without having to go to a park or public garden. You could buy flowers, potted plants or seeds for growing on your window sill. Or you could collect natural materials from the outdoors, such as leaves, flowers, feathers, and use them to decorate your living space.
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 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: Week 5
31/10 Miss Bonney
1-2/11 Mrs Bird Professional Development Horsham
3/11 Mr Moloney
Middle C:
What a term it has been already! Now that the curtains have closed on the school concert for the year, we are back in the classroom and doing lots of amazing learning. From descriptive writing, to fractions in maths, to binary code in DigiTech, to origins in Religion, it has been full steam ahead in Middle C, even with some learning outside in the sometimes fabulous weather.
The students will now share some of the learning that they have enjoyed doing over the course of this last week:
Archie
I have enjoyed smacking 4s in cricket because I get a lot of runs.
Awuom
I have enjoyed learning about joined writing because it will teach me how to neatly write and do my joins.
Bailey
I have enjoyed sports, religion and origins. I like descriptive writing in literacy like when we describe pictures and use the think - pair - share strategy. It is so fun when we make descriptive sentences using the words we brainstormed. The think - pair - share strategy is where you think by yourself, pair is where you do it with a partner and share is where you share it on the whiteboard with the teacher and the class.
Charles
I have enjoyed joined writing and I enjoyed sport because we have played cricket. I have also enjoyed learning about binary digits.
Charli
I have enjoyed descriptive writing because it is fun to describe different pictures and sport because it has been teaching me to do all different sports. We have been playing cricket as a sport. It was so fun and you got lots of different positions. My favourite position was definitely batter.
Fletcher
I have enjoyed sport because we have been playing cricket. I have also enjoyed maths.
Jack
I have enjoyed sport because cricket is extremely fun.
Kayde
I have enjoyed religion doing our superpowers. I like thinking about the origin of my superpowers and how I would use mine.
Lilly
I have enjoyed learning about descriptive writing because it will help make my sentences really good.
Mia
I enjoyed our descriptive writing because I got to include lots of similes, alliteration, metaphors and personification. I have also enjoyed Digitech because I got to spell out my name in Binary digits which is how computers process everything.
Nathaniel
In sport we have been playing cricket. In cricket I have been hitting sixes and fours.
Ollie
I enjoyed doing our descriptive writing using figurative language (Alliteration, similes/ metaphors, personification, and expanded noun phrases). I think I have done amazing and so does Mr Cunningham. I enjoyed doing this because I learnt how to do super work with alliteration. It was so fun! I also liked doing inquiry because we have started to learn about geography. That is one of my favourite things. We have been learning about atlases and how they work. We have also learnt about the neighbours around Australia. For example, New Zealand and Papua New Guinea.
Sophie
I have enjoyed learning our handwriting because we have learnt to join our letters.
Texas
I have enjoyed doing Religion because we got to draw a superhero and we got to answer some questions like: “what is your superpower?” My super power was the power to make things grow. We had to write an origin story about our superhero.
Willow
In Religion we have been learning about origins and we have made our own superheroes. My superpower is to flick my hands and onesies appear!
Zarli
I have enjoyed descriptive writing because I can let my imagination flow.
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 the Grade 6 Graduation. It will be an evening to celebrate our learning, our 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, teaching and growing together as a community of learners.
New shade sail:
We have had a new shade sail fitted above the playground outside the Foundation room.
Living in Faith:
Fundraising activities this term:
From now until the end of the year we are engaging in various fundraising activities, each with a purpose of enhancing and sustaining the values that make our school a special place. Through your support and generous donations and participation in these initiatives it makes a significant difference to those in need. We generally try and only do one fundraising activity per term as we acknowledge the sacrifices and contributions you make and continue to make for our school community.
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.
MINI VINNIES - Great Book Swap
It was great to see students browsing and purchasing a book or two from the Indigenous book swap. The Great Book Swap is a fantastic way to celebrate reading whilst raising much needed funds for the Indigenous Literacy Foundation. We will let you know how much money we have raised once we count all donations.
Thank you to our dedicated group of Mini Vinnies students who did a great job sorting/displaying/packing the books for the book swap.
Thank you to our community for your support without your book donations we would not be able to take part in the fundraiser.
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:
Evelyn Christie - For taking on feedback in a positive and respectful manner to help uplevel your writing. Keep up the great work Evelyn. Oliver Prockter - For being a curious learner and taking your skills to the next level. Keep up the fabulous work Oliver! Georgia Aird - For your focus and persistence when completing the PAT-M activity. Congratulations on your wonderful work! Khoor Kur - For taking risks in your writing. I am so proud of the sentences you have been writing. Keep up the hard work! Emila Jones - For your self-motivation of achieving a perfect score on your PAT Maths assessment. We are so proud of you! Isaac O'Callaghan - For using all of your learning superpowers to be the best learner that you can be. Keep up the super work. Bill Lasslett - For a creative, entertaining and well played game of Sprouts. Jack Duxson - For displaying your resilient learning superpower during your recent PAT-M assessment. I am very proud of you! Lilly Hine - For using your collaborative superpower in maths to help other students in their learning. You're amazing Lilly! Jack Wadge - For using your collaborative superpower during whole class discussions and sharing your ideas with your classmates. Great work Jack! Callum Reading - For displaying resilience and persistence during all learning activities. An impressive week Callum, keep it up!! Maya Sanderson - For displaying bravery and confidence when working through challenges! Very impressive Maya, keep it up!! Mahli Willis - For the honesty you showed at our CyberSafety workshop on Tuesday. You should be super proud! Milla Woolley - For the amazing paragraphs you have produced during the Writing block. Keep taking risks Milla!
Birthdays:
Congratulations to these students who are celebrating their birthday this week:
Jayde,Texas, Jack W and Zach.
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. “We have much to be thankful for.”
Congratulations to this weeks award recipient Chloe.
For her quiet and unassuming manner, Chloe is often observed helping others who are finding a concept difficult during Maths lessons. She does this in a patient and kind manner. In doing so, Chloe displays her strong Mathematical knowledge.
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.
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.