Term 2 - Week 10

Message from the Principal

Dear Parents and Carers

It’s hard to believe that we are halfway through the school year! It has been a very productive semester with continued positive partnerships between home and school. Thank you for all you do to support our St Pat’s community.

Next term is shaping up to be equally as busy. Our teaching and learning begins with a literacy focus on the book week theme ‘Read Grow Inspire’ and developing our public speaking skills. The first part of the term will also see our students explore concepts in science. We look forward to showcasing our learning at our combined Grandparents Day / Book Week celebration in Week 4.

I wish all our staff, students and families a restful holiday. Stay safe, enjoy the sunshine and quality family time together.

Lucy Harvey
Principal

Inservice Day

A reminder that Monday 17^th July is a PUPIL FREE day. The staff will be attending a Lakes Region Day titled ‘Learning for Justice – Empowering through Education’. Students return to school on Tuesday 18^th July (sports uniform).

Mark

Sadly, Mark, our Crossing Guard, remains quite ill. Please keep Mark and his family in your thoughts and prayers. I will continue to keep you updated on Mark’s health.

Mural

During these school holidays, Daniel Joyce will commence our murals of the story of St Pat’s on our canteen walls. The students have contributed their thoughts and ideas on the design and images for the mural and we are all very excited to see the final product. Thank you to the P&F for funding this masterpiece.

Parent Teacher Interviews

This week many parents took the opportunity to meet with their child’s class teacher to discuss Semester 1’s progress. Thank you to the staff for their ongoing commitment to supporting our students in all areas of learning and wellbeing.

Regional Athletics Carnival

Congratulations to all our students who competed at the Regional Athletics Carnival on Wednesday. Our athletes displayed excellent sportsmanship, and despite the cold, a great day was had by all. A HUGE thank you to our Year 5 and 6 students who attended the carnival as helpers. They were extremely busy all day! Congratulations to Mrs Browne, who along with Mrs Treadwell from St Francis Xavier Belmont, organised the carnival for the Lakes Regional schools.

Thank you to Todd Porter for training our Junior and Senior relay teams.

Jump Off

Tuesday saw the culmination of weeks of hard work from our students to improve their heart health through skipping. The Year 6 leaders organised a jump-off where all students participated in a variety of fun skipping activities. It was ‘heartwarming’ to see the incredible improvement in both skill and confidence shown by all. Big thanks to Mrs Walker for coordinating our Jump Rope for Heart focus.

Pie Day Friday!

What a great way to end the term with our Pie Drive. Thank you to Elise, for organizing the drive and to Nat and Carissa for helping to hand out the huge orders. Enjoy!

Upcoming Dates

Term 3 Week 1

Term 3 Week 2

Message from RE Coordinator

Mini Vinnies Winter Appeal

Thank you to all the families that been so generous in their donations to the Vinnies Winter Appeal, donating warm items of clothing, blankets and linen to assist the less fortunate in our community.  If you still have any items that you would like to donate to the Winter Appeal, they can be placed in the clothing collection bin next to the church.  We thank the Swansea Vinnies Conference for their continued dedication to the local community.

Over the past several weeks, a small group of Year 2 students have been volunteering their time to make Loom Bands that they have sold this week.  Congratulations to the students they raised $134.40 from the sale of these bands which will be donated to the Vinnies Winter Appeal.  Thank you to all the students and their families for supporting this very worthy cause, assisting the less fortunate in our community.

Mr Daniel Lockwood
RE Coordinator

Assistant Principal News

Maths Problem-Solving Workshop

Today we welcomed the expertise of Mr James Ireland (father of Colby in Kindergarten) who is an Instructional Leader in the STEM Department at Newcastle Grammar School. James ran a problem -solving workshop for a group of keen Mathematicians from Years 3-6. We thank James for his willingness to share his time and expertise with our students.

NAPLAN

NAPLAN 2023 individual student reports (ISR) will be dispatched to schools at the start of Term 3. These will be sent home as soon as they arrive. Please see the NAPLAN Parent Fact Sheet and a sample 2023 ISR showing the new proficiency standards below for further information.

Mrs Janine Schneider
Assistant Principal/Pedagogical Mentor

Save the Date

Aboriginal Education

Mrs Turner & Mrs Devlin
Aboriginal Education Teachers

Wellbeing News

Martial Arts Program             

Over the past ten weeks, Years 3-6 have been fortunate to participate in the Martial Arts Therapeutic (MAT) Program. This is an evidence-based life skills program that combines teaching principles of mental wellbeing and emotional regulation through martial arts training techniques, games, metaphors and stories. Students have been highly engaged in these weekly sessions and have learnt a range of self-awareness, self-management and social management skills through movement, breathing and cooperative tasks. Below is an outline of what the program covered and how it aligns to the Personal Development and Health curriculum outcomes.

Thank you Miss Harvey for providing this worthwhile opportunity for our Primary students. Here’s what some of our students had to say about the program:

“It taught us how to control our emotions better and how to stay calm and focused. It was also really fun.” Blake Year 6

It was fun trying to break the boards. The push ups and sit ups we had to do made us stronger in our mind and body. We made new friends because we had to work with different people.” Billie, Year 4

“It helped me learn about my emotions and calm myself. I liked the code- be strong, be calm, be kind and try hard.” Eloise, Year 4

It taught us a lot about our bodies and how to become fit and strong. We all had lots of fun and I’d love to do it again.” Archer, Year 3

Bricks 4 Kids

Bricks 4 Kids will be running an After School Program at St Patrick’s every Wednesday in Term 3. This is a fun, interactive workshop where students use Lego to explore architecture, engineering and technology concepts. The theme for these workshops will be “Amazing Animals”. During this unit, students will build models of a spider, snake, monkey, and more. Each week they’ll discuss fascinating facts about the animals they build, from the chameleon that changes colours to the seal model that waddles across the table. For further information and booking details please click the link below. Book before 30^th June to use your child’s Creative Kids Voucher before it expires. Places are limited.

St Patricks After School Workshop | BRICKS 4 KIDZ Lake Macquarie, NSW

Jump Off Day

Our Jump Rope for Heart “Jump Off Day” was a huge success! Year 6 did a wonderful job planning and implementing their health promotion strategy through a fun skipping activity. Students learnt about ways they can have a healthy heart through healthy eating, healthy friendships, healthy mindsets and healthy lifestyles. All students were able to show off their impressive skipping skills and the leadership on display by Year 6 was outstanding. A special thank you to Woolworths, Swansea who donated a box of apples and bananas as well as a $50 Woolworths voucher to help promote our cause. Congratulations Kindergarten who won the voucher for their participation and commitment to learning new skills!

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Mrs Fiona Walker
Wellbeing Support Teacher

Library News

Term Three is always an exciting and busy time in the library because it is when we celebrate Book Week. The theme of Book Week this year is “Read, Grow, Inspire”. Each week the students will read a book from the Children’s Book Council of Australia Shortlist https://cbca.org.au/shortlist-2023 and complete activities associated with those books. We will be having an illustrator, Kirrili Lonergan, https://www.kirrililonergan.com/ visiting us to run some workshops, we have our Book Fair and Book Parade and the opportunity to share much of this with families during Grandparents Day. The excitement will continue as the children participate in activities for Science Week and share their experiments and findings with you.

Mrs Devlin, Mrs Phillips & Mrs Kearney

Sport News

Regional Athletics Carnival

A team of 35 Athletes braved the elements to compete in Wednesday’s Lakes Region Athletics Carnival. St Patrick’s was well represented, placing in numerous events. Every competitor displayed courage, resilience and sportsmanship. It was especially heart warming to hear the resounding cheers during the relay events.

The day wouldn’t have been such a success without help from our Years 5 and 6 student helpers. They displayed leadership and initiative during the opening ceremony, assisting officials at shotput and high jump, selling programs, delivering snacks and water and running messages all day long! Thank you to Spencer Atkins, Oscar Claydon, Sophie Dawson Angeli, Shyanna Henderson, Ava McCullough Hendriks, Alyssa Moore, Sienna Parker, Max Summers and Sophie Hill.

Thank you also to Miss Harvey, Mrs Ogden, Mr Lockwood, Miss Bernasconi and Miss Sciara- D’Andrea for officiating and supporting St Patrick’s athletes.

Congratulations to the following students who will be part of the Lakes Region Team for the Diocesan Athletics Carnival:

Khloe Hansen, Chloe Fitzgibbon, Layla Watkins, Sienna Reddie, Mia Porter, Skye Porter, Jaymie Tisdell, Aiden Bowmaker, Egan Joyce and Evie Buchanan.

Sport information specific to our Diocese can be found on the Maitland Newcastle Diocese tile on the CSNSW Sport page https://csnsw.sport/maitland-newcastle/primary/home  

Any registrations on these pages must first be approved.

School Sport

Our Primary students thoroughly enjoyed the Martial Arts Program.  Throughout the program they developed their fitness along with lifelong skills of self-control, confidence, resilience, emotional regulation and collaboration.

Our infants students had fun participating in an AFL program, developing team work and fitness along with kicking and throwing skills.

St Patrick's is once again a recipient of a Sporting Schools Grant for Term 3.  This grant will go towards a softball program for all stages.

Weekend Sports Star

If your child is a Weekend Sports Star or extra curricular activity, please email details and a photo to claire.browne@mn.catholic.edu.au so we can celebrate their success in our next newsletter.

Mrs Claire Browne
Sports Coordinator

P&F

Thank you to everyone who participated in our Pie Run for 2023! Together we raised over $700 to go towards our schools fundraising efforts. Thankyou & Well done. We hope you enjoy all your baked goods through the school holidays!

This Sunday (July 2nd) We invite anyone who may have time to help organise our upcoming Spring Fair to join a few of us at Caves Beachside Hotel from 3pm for a casual planning catch up! We need as much help as we can get to make this success an event! We have some great businesses signed up to participate on the day and sponsor the event. More information will be sent out through the holidays if you know of anyone or a business who may like to promote themselves at our event. 

Term 3 has a lot of exciting events happening. School Disco, Book Week Parade, Grandparents Day and our Spring Fair just to name a few! You will also see a few new items in our playground which our P&F have funded and we look forward to telling you about when we return from school holidays.

We welcome all members of our school community to join us for our P&F meeting on Monday August 7th in the school library. This meeting will also be available to watch & participate via zoom. We've been getting a great turn out from a variety of new & existing families within our school. 

Lastly thank you again to our canteen coordinator Alysha and our uniform coordinator Leisha as well as all our wonderful volunteers who put many hours in each week or term for our students. We couldn't do what we do without you! 

Thanks
Elise Moncrieff

on behalf of St Patricks P&F Executive

Our latest snapshot update from our last P&F meeting.

We have so many exciting things in the works for students & families of our school for Terms 3 & 4 but a lot of it is not possible without the help of volunteers. If you are able to get involved in any capacity, please join us for our next catch up on Monday August 7th or send us an email stpatrickspf1@gmail.com

Canteen

Uniforms

The uniform shop is open on each Monday during the school term from 2.00pm - 3.00pm.

Orders can be placed on the QKR app. The cut-off for orders is 12pm on Monday.

Leisha and Natalie can be contacted via email at stpatricksuniformshop1@gmail.com to answer any questions or to make alternate fitting arrangements.

Thank you 
Leisha & Natalie

Office News

If you have indicated you are settling 2023 fees via a lump sum annual payment - this is due and payable by 30^th June 2023.  If your circumstances have changed and you cannot meet this due date please contact the school to make alternate payment plan arrangements.

For those that have settled their fees in full we thank you for your ongoing support.

Our preferred method of payment is either BPay or direct debit. For Fee Payers wishing to establish a new Direct Debit, or adjust their existing direct debit, please complete the form on the Catholic Development Fund website www.CDFmn.com.au.

For those families experiencing financial hardship, or wishing to discuss other payment arrangements, please contact the school office to arrange an appointment with the Principal.

Schools will now commence the school fee management process if there has been no contact with school office or no initial payment received.

An event for the Diocesan Pastoral Contribution has been created, this is a voluntary fee that assists the Diocesan Pastoral Support Programs, you can elect to pay or decline via the Compass Parent Portal.

Rachelle McKenzie
Senior School Officer

Volunteering at St Patrick's

We have many events still planned for the remainder of the year.  Please get in early and register so you won't be dissappointed in missing out.

If you would like to register to volunteer at St Patrick's, can you please complete the "Volunteer Registration Form" by clicking on the link here. 

St Patrick's will be notified by the Catholic Schools Office once you are cleared to volunteer.

If you are unsure if you have clearance, please email the office at admin@swansea.catholic.edu.au to enquire.

Community Notices