Term 1 - Week 4 (belated)
Message from the Principal
Dear Parents and Carers
Welcome to the Term 1 Week 4 newsletter.
Thriving schools are built on positive relationships and partnerships between and among members of its community. When home and school, work side by side, collaboratively supporting the needs of our students, we achieve great things. I am proud to say that St Patrick’s is a thriving school community. Within the first 4 weeks of this year, our staff have engaged with parents during the start of year information evening as well as through parent teacher conferences. A massive thank you to all those who attended these engagement opportunities. At last week’s P&F meeting, over $32 000 was committed to student learning. These funds, so generously raised through your efforts, assists the school in improving the learning environment for our students. We say THANK YOU for our new hall TV and new learning walls in each room. We thank you for your commitment to purchase iPads, outdoor seating, library and maths resources. Together our community continues to grow in hope and gratitude.
Lucy Harvey
Principal
2025 Enrolments
The enrolment period for 2025 opens on 1st March. Please help us get the word out there what a wonderful school St Pat’s is! We have 3 open days planned as well as 100 brochures ready for a letter box drop. If you would like to get your steps up and help us with the letter box drop in the Catherine Hill Bay, Murray’s Beach and Caves Beach area, we would love to hear from you!
St Mary's Year 7 2025
Information regarding Year 7 2025 enrolments for St Mary's will be sent home with your child tomorrow.
Parents & Carers are invited to attend an information evening on Tuesday 12th March.
Bus Safety
Please note, if a student is disruptive or misbehaves on public transport, the operator concerned will contact the parents and the school.
Message from RE Coordinator
Lent / Ash Wednesday
Last Wednesday we celebrated the beginning of the Season of Lent with Ash Wednesday. Lent is a time put aside to prepare ourselves for the celebration of Easter. For children a simple way of explaining Lent is about making Lent a time of focus on being a better person by:
- Praying more
- Fasting, which may mean giving up something we do not need. This may be food such as chocolate or could include time in front of the television, iPad, electronic games etc
- Almsgiving, which could include putting aside some of their pocket money to assist in a worthy cause such as Project Compassion.
At our Ash Wednesday liturgy, we were sprinkled with ash on their forehead. These ashes are made from the blessed palms used in the Palm Sunday celebration of the previous year and symbolise the dust from which God made us. As the ashes are applied the words are spoken, “Repent and believe in the Gospel.”
These words and actions are a symbol of our penance, and they help us develop a spirit of humility and sacrifice, particularly during Lent.
Project Compassion
Lent also marks the beginning of the annual Caritas Australia Project Compassion Appeal. Donations to Project Compassion allows Caritas Australia, the Catholic Agency for International Aid and Development, to work with local communities around the world to end poverty, promote justice and uphold dignity.
The theme of Project Compassion 2024 is ‘For All Future Generations’ and reminds us that the good that we do today will extend and impact the lives of generations to come. It invites us to make the world a better place by working together now and finding long-term solutions to global issues. We encourage you to put your compassion into action this Lent through your prayer, fasting and almsgiving by supporting Project Compassion. Each family should have received a Project Compassion box or you can donate online via the Caritas Australia website at: https://schools.projectcompassion.org.au/st-patricks-primary-school-swansea
Heartfelt Handbags
Last year Margaret Parry (Eastlakes parish choir mistress) and Nicki Graham visited the residents of Coraki and Wardell to deliver presents loving made and donated by members of our parish.
Many of these people have been displaced from their homes following the floods that occurred in the area more than two years ago. We are hoping to deliver handbags to the women of the region and we are asking for your donations of handbags in good condition and toiletries that we can fill the bags with. Please place your donations in the boxes provided in the church and school receptions. These will be delivered in time for Mother’s Day.
If you have any questions or suggestions, please call Nicki Graham 0417 773 444.
Save the Date
- 11th March P&F 6:00pm (Library)
- 15th March St Patrick’s Day Celebrations– Feast Day Liturgy, celebrations & Family picnic
- 22 March Easter Hat Parade and raffle 2:00pm
- 27th March Holy Week Liturgy
- 28th March Inservice Day
- 29th March Good Friday
- 1st April Easter Monday
- 8th April School Cross Country
- 9th April Stage 3 ANZAC service at the CIVIC theatre
- 12th April Last day of term
Assistant Principal News
NAPLAN
All students in Years 3 and 5 will sit NAPLAN (National Assessment Program Literacy and Numeracy) tests during Weeks 7 and 8 of this term. The test window is open from 13th to 22nd March to allow students who may be absent on a test day to catch-up when they return to school. There are 4 tests – Writing, Reading, Conventions of Language, and Numeracy. Students will complete all tests online except for the Year 3 Writing test which will be completed on paper.
NAPLAN is just one part of our school learning assessment program. The tests assess literacy and numeracy skills your child is already learning at school.
In preparation for NAPLAN, our school will undertake activities to help students become familiar with the format and functionality of the online tests. These activities are not an assessment of student ability and will not be marked. Excessive preparation for NAPLAN is not required nor recommended.
The public demonstration site (https://www.nap.edu.au/online-assessment/public-demonstration-site) is available to see the types of questions, tools and functions used in the NAPLAN tests.
Further information about NAPLAN is available on the NESA website (https://educationstandards.nsw.edu.au/wps/portal/nesa/k-10/understanding-the-curriculum/naplan/parent-information).
If you have any questions about NAPLAN, please contact me by phone or email janine.schneider@mn.catholic.edu.au.
Learning Walls
A huge thank you to our P&F for providing funds to purchase pinboards for all classrooms. These pinboards will be used to build learning walls throughout units of work. Learning walls act as “The Third Teacher” in classrooms, displaying co-constructed learning intentions, success criteria, anchor charts and student work samples as learning progresses. They give students a place to go if they need help with their learning and are a space for teachers to review learning concepts taught throughout a unit of work. Here are some examples of the beginnings of our learning walls for Term 1.
Mrs Janine Schneider
Assistant Principal
From the Diverse Learners Team
Learning Support – Story Dogs
We excited to announce that we are partnering with Story Dogs.
We will have a new regular visitor to our school starting first term 2024 to help our students with their reading. ‘Jinx’ and Sharon will be visiting for two hours on the same day every week to help our year 2 classes with their reading.
The Story Dogs program works with the classroom teachers to help students with their reading. ‘Jinx’ and Sharon will help the same 5-6 students each week. The students will come out of their classroom and sit one-on-one with ‘Jinx’ and Sharon and read to ‘Jinx’. ‘Jinx’ loves to listen and will not mind if the student makes a few mistakes, she just wants to have a fun time so that books and reading become a joyful experience.
‘Jinx’ is a gorgeous black German Shepherd. She loves running fast, playing with balls, swimming and tricks.
‘Jinx’ has been practicing at home with her new reading rug and books so that she will be ready to help the students. She is super excited about starting.
Gifted Education
This term we have started Chess Club on Wednesday in the Learning Centre at recess. A few students were already familiar with the rules, but plenty were keen to learn!
Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Education
A belated celebration of our School Opening Smoking Ceremony, held on the first day of school! We were honoured to have our respected Elder and CSO Education Officer, Aunty Louise Campbell, lead and guide us through this welcoming ceremony. Students, staff, parents and carers all participated, ‘washing’ themselves gently with the smoke, to support a fresh start to the new year.
Mrs Jo Simes
Learning Support Teacher
Mrs Anne Turner & Mrs Karen Devlin
Aboriginal Education Teacher
Year 5 News
It has been a very busy start to the year for Year 5. The students have enjoyed being buddies for our new Kinder students and are enjoying reading with them every Monday and Friday morning. Last week Year 5 did a great job leading the Ash Wednesday Liturgy. They are learning to use their own devices and are working hard in all learning areas. In English the students are enjoying reading The Wild Robot and writing their own orientations. In Maths Year 5 have been learning about prime and composite numbers, reading large numbers, identifying place value including decimals as well as how to use the area model to solve two digits by one digit multiplication. Congratulations on a terrific start to the year and keep up the amazing work Year 5!
Mrs Cheryl Ogden
Year 5 Teacher
Sport News
St Patricks Swimming Champions
Last Friday we announced the St Patrick’s School Swimming Champions for 2024. We’d like to extend other big congratulations to our
Senior Girls Champion: Sienna Parker
Senior Boys Champion: Max Summers
11yr Girls Champion: Lilah Ward
11yr Boys Champion: Lachlan Moncrieff
Junior Girls Champion: Sophie Dunn
Junior Boys Champion: William Bevan
Pathways Sport
Swimming
Congratulations to all our St Patrick’s Athletes who competed the Lakes Region Swimming Carnival on Monday. They braved the elements to compete in freestyle events before the carnival had to be halted, due to a storm, for the safety of all competitors. Lakes Region Representatives for the Diocesan Carnival were selected according to times from our school carnival if their race was called off. We are proud to announce that Chelsea Wilks, Sienna Parker, Indigo Ward and Sara Corbett will be representing the Lakes Region at the Diocesan Carnival next week. Congratulations!
Tennis
We are so proud to be in the midst of a top seeded Tennis Player here at St Patrick’s. Last week, at Polding Trials, Tyla Hope (Yr 6) was selected to attend the NSW PSSA Tennis Championships from the 14th-17th May. What an amazing achievement, congratulations Tyla!
Touch Football
We wish the best of luck to Cooper Brown (Yr 5) and Oscar Claydon (Yr 6) as they Trial for a selection to the Diocesan Touch Football Squad next Wednesday. We look forward to hearing of their achievements.
Netball
Well done to all our talented Netball players who attended the School Netball Trial. Imogen Walker (Yr5) and Sienna Parker (Yr 6) were selected to progress to the Regional Netball Trial on the 6th of March. We wish them both the very best of luck!
A special thank you to Coach Kirstie Fuller who offered her expertise to help with the Trial and selection.
Soccer
Expressions of interest are open for Regional Soccer Trials. These trials are strictly for elite athletes in Years 5 and 6 who are currently registered in their chosen sport. If your child fulfills these criteria and would like to trial, please email me the following details:
o Name
o Current Club
o Playing experience
o Representative experience
o Preferred positions
A School Trial will be run from 8:15am next Tuesday 27/2 for students who have submitted an E.O.I. Students may wear football boots for the trial.
If your child attends a Pathways Sport or Trial, we’d love to see your photos and include them in our next newsletter.
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.
Weekend Sports Stars
Sienna Parker (Yr6) recently participated in the Hunter Branch Surf Life Saving Competition at Blacksmiths Beach. After an enormous weekend in the hot sun, Sienna came away winning 3 Gold medals, 2 Silver medals and 2 Bronze medals. We are very proud of her achievements and hard work.
If your child is a Weekend Sports Star, please email details and a photo to so we can celebrate their success in our next newsletter.
Mrs Claire Browne
Sports Coordinator
claire.browne@mn.catholic.edu.au
Office News
School fees have been processed for the year. You can commence making regular payments. Payments must commence prior to 31st March 2024 and your account must be paid in full by 30th November 2024. Please contact the office if you would like assistance with calculating your weekly, fortnightly, monthly deduction amount. Fee statements will be emailed early March. If you do not receive an email please contact the office.
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.
Please remember to complete the 2024 Fee Settlement Option Event in Compass.
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.
Rachelle McKenzie
Senior School Officer
P&F
Our next meeting is Monday 11th March at 6pm in the School Library. Come along and meet the P&F.
Canteen
QKR
Please update your child’s homegroup in the profiles tab so that their correct class is on any order you place for them.
Uniforms
The uniform shop is open on Monday from 2pm - 3pm during the school term.
For any uniform enquiries Natalie can be contacted via email at stpatrickuniformshop1@gmail.com.
Preloved Uniforms
If you have any good condition preloved uniforms please send them in to the office, we would be most grateful.
Community Notices
