Term 4 - Week 4

Message from the Principal

Dear Parents and Carers

Term 4 Week 4 already!

We have had another busy fortnight at St Pat’s. Our crazy hair and sock day last Friday was great fun and this week we welcomed back our Kinder 2024 cohort for their second transition to big school. The excitement on both the new Kinders and the Year 4 buddy’s faces is a pure delight.

We have quite a few events happening this term, so I encourage you to read all of the newsletter and newsfeeds that are sent to keep you up to date. We try very hard not to change dates when they are locked in but unfortunately circumstances can present themselves and we need to switch things around. So, please look out for any updates!

Wishing you all a great week.

Lucy Harvey
Principal

Welcome

We warmly welcome the Batchelor family- Nicole, Shaun, Alex (Year 5) and Casey (Year 4) to our school community.  Thank you for choosing St Pat’s! That is 5 new students this term!

Staffing Update

Term 4 is a busy time as staffing in all schools for the following year is being finalised. We congratulate Mrs Sharon MacNevin who has been appointed to the permanent position of Executive Release Teacher (ERT). Sharon has been undertaking this role on Year 2 this year in a temporary capacity and we are absolutely delighted that Sharon will be continuing this role permanently.

We are also extremely delighted that Mrs Claire Browne will continue in her temporary role at St Pat’s on Kinder for 2024. Claire is a wonderful asset to our entire community.

The permanent position of Assistant Principal for 2024 is currently being advertised. Mrs Janine Schneider has been fulfilling this role this year in a temporary capacity.

Up Coming Whole School Events – Please join us as a community to celebrate.

Colour Run: Friday 17^th November. The students are very excited and are looking forward to the day whilst raising funds for our school. Our wonderful organisers have planned a fun obstacle course around the playground including the fire brigade at one of the stations. See attached flyer. 

Captains 2024: The Year 5 students are currently preparing to undertake the student leadership roles for 2024. On Friday 1^st December at 12pm, the students who wish to be considered for a leadership position will deliver their speech to the school community. Parents are most welcome to join us for the speeches in the hall.

End of Year Christmas Concert and Movie Night CHANGE OF DATE: due to unforeseen circumstances, the date had to be changed to FRIDAY 1^st December. A BBQ sausage sizzle from 5:15pm. Sausage sandwich $3 and drinks $2. Pay on the night – cash or card. Entertainment by students starting at 6pm and movie starting at 7pm. BYO rugs, chairs and insect repellent. See attached flyer.

End of Year Awards: Wednesday 6^th December 9:30am in the Hall. The Annual St Patrick’s Awards will include an Academic Award, Consistent Effort Award and Community Award for each class; an overall Sportsperson on the Year Award and The MacKillop Award. We will also acknowledge our leaving families and have a handover of School Leaders for 2024. All are welcome to this special event. 

Swimming Carnival: Friday 8^th December, Swansea Pool. Compass permission to follow. All students will be attending the swimming carnival at Swansea Pool. We need parent / grandparent volunteers to assist with starting, marshalling, timekeeping and novelties. If you are able to assist in anyway, please contact admin. 

Advent Liturgy: Monday 11^th December 9:30am in the Church. All classes will be participating. We hope you can join us for this liturgically important event.

End of Year Liturgy and Year 6 Rite of Passage: Wednesday 13^th December 10:00 in the Church. Come join us as we farewell our Year 6 students and give thanks as a community for the 2023 school year. 

Other upcoming events

Student Safety

Several staff have expressed great concern for the safety of students, and parents, during our afternoon dismissal. Procedures have been put in place to ensure all students exit from the school grounds in the safest possible way. I respectively ask parents and carers to please follow the school procedures as a shared duty of care of our children.

Students and carers must use the designated crossing to cross the road. Therefore, if you park on the opposite side of the road to the school, you must collect your child/ren from the Church carpark. These students will line up on the Back Gate dismissal lines. Crossing the road outside the designated crossing lines is extremely dangerous especially with the high volume of traffic at this time of day.

Kiss & Ride is only for students being collected by car in the designated zone. There are strict rules regarding these zones and families risk not only heavy fines when in breech but also the safety of students and teachers. Mr Lockwood sent home a Compass reminder about this zone yesterday.

If you park on the school side of the road up from the Kiss & Ride area (ie Tenison Apartments onwards), students need to be collected from the staff and escorted to your car. The Tenison Apartments is private property and students should not be entering / playing in their grounds.

Help us keep our kids safe.

Term 1 Week 5

Term 1 Week 6

Message from RE Coordinator

All Saints and All Souls Day

November is a special month dedicated to praying for those that are no longer with us.  On Wednesday we celebrate All Saints Day, a day that we remember and pray to all the saints who have gone before us, whether they are officially titled saint of not.  On Thursday, All Souls Day, we take time to pray for our loved ones who have passed.  November is a profoundly hopeful month where we dedicate time to remembering that Jesus conquered death and we will have new life with him in heaven as saints. 

Socktober Crazy Hair and Sock Day

Socktober for Mission Month encourages us to engage with mission for children by using our heads to enquire about the reality of the world around us, using our hearts to feel empathy for those in situations of great need, and using our hands to take action for them in whatever way we are able.

Last Friday, students were encouraged to wear their hair in a fun and unconventional way and wear bright and colourful socks for a small donation.  Thank you to all the families that contributed to the day.  St Patrick’s raised $150 that will be donated to helping the people of Timor-Leste, especially the Salesian Sisters in Venilale who are supporting the children of the area with their health and wellbeing needs. 

Term 4 Liturgical Celebrations

Friday 10^th November 10.40am – Remembrance Day Liturgy

Monday 11^th December 9.30am – Advent Liturgy

Wednesday 13^th December 10am – End of School Year and Rite of Passage

Mr Daniel Lockwood
RE Coordinator

Assistant Principal Message

ACER PAT Online Testing

The CSO diocesan wide assessment schedule includes all students in Years 1-6 completing online tests for Reading and Mathematics and one other test of the school’s choice. We have chosen to have students also complete the Spelling test. The frameworks for PAT Maths and PAT Reading assessments are adaptive, which means questions will increase or decrease in difficulty depending on student responses, providing valuable information about students’ achievement, and learning progress. All students in Years 1-6 have now completed these tests.

New 3-6 Syllabus – Mathematics and English

This week all St Pat’s Primary 3-6 teachers took part in a professional learning course on the new 3-6 English syllabus to be implemented in 2024.

The aim of English in Years K–6 is to enable students to understand and use language effectively. Students learn to appreciate, reflect on, and enjoy language, and make meaning in ways that are imaginative, creative, interpretive, critical, and powerful.

Students develop foundational literacy skills in the early years and progressively build on these skills. This enables them to learn about and control language in a range of increasingly sophisticated contexts.

Through interrelated practices and experiences in understanding and creating texts, students learn about the power, purpose, value, and art of English. The development of these interconnected skills and understandings supports students to become confident communicators, critical and imaginative thinkers, and informed and active participants in society (Rationale, NSW English 3-6 Syllabus).

In the coming weeks we will be working collaboratively to develop new scope and sequences and programs for English and Mathematics which reflect the changes in the new curriculum, and we look forward to implementing them in 2024.

13 November  – World Kindness Day

https://www.randomactsofkindness.org/world-kindness-day

World Kindness Day – Have you considered volunteering?

Monday 13^th November is World Kindness Day.  Kindness has the power to change the world.  We all have the power to make people happy.  We do this in our actions and our words.  Examples include giving someone a compliment, saying hello and genuinely asking people how they are going.

Volunteering our time is another way of being kind, and having our parents volunteer at our school is one way to make your children (our students) very happy.  You could volunteer in our canteen, our uniform shop, at athletics and swimming carnivals and on school excursions.

If you have ever considered volunteering at our school, please let us know so we can direct you to the volunteering registration form.  Or you can access this yourselves by going to https://www.mn.catholic.org.au/people/volunteer/

Mrs Janine Schneider
Acting Assistant Principal

Save the Date

From the Diverse Learners Team

Learning Support – Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD)

Autism is a form of neurodiversity – a different way of thinking, behaving, learning and interacting with others.  It is diagnosed by a clinical psychologist, who might also recommend speech therapy or occupational therapy to support the child’s development. 

Children with autism often experience sensory issues.  Too many sounds, smells, light and movement can push the body into “overload” and these kids can feel very overwhelmed and often want to “flee” all the confusion.  Emotions affect children’s behaviour in a number of ways. Young children on the autism spectrum are still learning to notice and recognise their emotions. They need support to understand and manage their emotions in positive ways.  At St. Patrick’s, we might use Zones of Regulation to teach students about different ways to manage their emotions or the Smiling Minds program to learn about emotions and mindfulness.         

These kids love routine and predictability and can get very distressed if they don’t know what’s happening next. This explains their difficulty in play situations where they often like to be the “boss”. Simply because they don’t like change and want to know what’s coming next in a game.  Using timers, visual schedules and social stories can help children with autism to know what to expect.

Children might become overwhelmed by what they are being expected to do, by the demands of the environment, or difficulties they have in expressing what they need. Sensory experiences can be anything from enjoyable to highly distressing for young children, even when they can’t recognise or name how they feel.  We need to ensure that school is a calm, safe and happy space, where all students feel included as a valued member of our school community.

 https://studentwellbeinghub.edu.au/parents/starting-school/

Tip Sheet - Sue Larkey

Mrs Simes
Learning Support Teacher

Year 4 News

Today we welcomed Kinder 2024 back for their second orientation. Our newest St Pat’s community members had fun playing on the playground with their Big Buddies before reading ‘Where is The Green Sheep?’ and exploring the School to find where that cheeky sheep went. Turns out it was in the Kindergarten room all along! Finally, Kinder enjoyed some inside play with their peers and began building friendships and familiarising themselves with the classroom environment. We look forward to seeing our new recruits again in two weeks’ time.

Miss Layne Wiseman
Year 4 Teacher

Sport News

NSW PSSA Athletics Championships

Last Thursday our Junior Girls Relay Team (Jaymie, Evie, Skye and Mia) competed at The NSWPSSA Athletics Championships in Sydney. The students and Staff at St Patrick’s watched on via live stream, on the edge of their seats. Our Relay girls had a blisteringly fast run in their heat, safely securing a place in the semi-final. As we at school cheered and shouted, the Team fought hard to run a speedy time, earning a place in the final. And wow, what a final! Jaymie, Evie, Skye and Mia run a personal best time to cement themselves as 8^th fastest in the State!  We are immensely proud of their achievements, a testament to their dedication and teamwork of the past months. Well done, Team!

Pathways Sport

We wish the best of luck to Tyla Hope (yr5) and Cooper Brown (yr4) who will be trialling for Regional Tennis and Basketball (respectively) today.

Catholic Schools NSW offers many sporting pathway opportunities for talented athletes. If your child is an aspiring athlete, you might like to familiarise yourself with the CSNSW Sport web page here: https://csnsw.sport/ 

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. 

Upcoming Event Stage 1

Years 1 and 2 are registered to participate in a League Tag Gala Day at Parbury Park, Swansea on Wednesday 22^nd of November. The day will be about fun and sportsmanship, our youngest players are sure to have a ball! Please find further details and consent form on Compass.

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 News

P&F Meeting

Rainbow Run

Don't forget to register for the Rainbow Run, Registrations close Friday November 10th to allow us time to prepare supplies before the day.

Christmas Family Night

Recipe Book

Canteen

Uniforms

Uniform Shop Coordinator URGENTLY NEEDED

We are currently seeking interest for a uniform shop coordinator. The uniform shop hours are flexible and can be changed to work in with your busy schedule.

If you have any good condition preloved uniforms please send them in to the office, we would be most grateful.

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.

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

Thank you 
Natalie

Office News

School fees are to be finalised no later than the 30th November.  Please ensure your regular payments will have your fees paid in full by this date.

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