Term 3 - Week 2
Message from the Principal
Dear Parents and Carers
Welcome to Term 3 Week 2 newsletter.
Last Monday, the staff participated in a spirituality day led by Mr Steve Todd, a former Catholic school principal and Assistant Director at the Catholic Schools Office for our Diocese. The purpose of our day was to gain a broader and deeper insight into both the story and inspiration of our patron saint – St Patrick; and to set an agenda for the cultural richness of life and spirit at St Patrick’s, as a Josephite school. Steve provided a day rich in experience and wisdom, sharing his vast knowledge and passion for both St Patrick and the Josephite charism.
The challenge for our school community is: who do we say we are? What is our identity and what drives the culture of our catholic school? Our day with Steve challenged the staff to craft our Josephite Heart here at St Patrick’s – to find ways to take our school identity forward, to honour the past, the present and the future. We look forward to working with our school community to further enrich our identity so all will know what we stand for here at St Patrick’s Swansea.
Have a great week.
Lucy Harvey
Principal
Farewell
Today we sadly say farewell to Oscar Claydon from Year 6 as the family relocates to Sydney. We congratulate Oscar on his leadership as our School Captain and for being a wonderful role model for all. We wish Oscar, Georgina and Brent all the very best.
Renovations to the Admin
The planned renovations to the Administration area will commence on MONDAY 12th August. The renovations will see the verandah space at the back of the Admin block closed in to create 2 more toilets for staff, a larger sick bay, new storeroom and new meeting room. During this time, which will be the remainder of Term 3, Mrs McKenzie will be relocated to the current meeting room in the foyer. Sick bay will also be in Mrs McKenzie’s office space. The staffroom will be relocated to the Learning Centre (the demountable) and a teacher workspace set up in the MacKillop Room.
The contractors will be fencing off part of the pathway and drive along the verandah. Parking in the Church grounds will be strictly limited to staff and parishioners. Please be aware that the site will be a construction site and extra care will need to be taken with supervising siblings at drop off and pick up time.
NAIDOC
On Wednesday, the 3 parish schools of Swansea, Windale and Belmont celebrated NAIDOC Week together at St Francis Xavier’s. The day was a huge success where all students participated in culturally rich experiences. From trying bush tucker to dancing to weaving, the students had a wonderful time. Many thanks to Mrs Anne Turner and Mrs Karen Devlin for their organisation along with Mrs Shaw from Belmont. A massive day!
School Photos
School Photo Day is Monday 26th August 2024.
Compass is now set up and ready for parents to order online, correspondence from MSP Photography was sent to all compass users on Tuesday 23 July 2024.
MSP will send out a reminder email before photo day and another one after photo day.
Please also note that family ordering cuts off at midnight the day before photo day and no family orders can be placed online after this time.
Single Parent families on line orders, parents are to call MSP so they can mark the order “Mum’s Copy” or “Dad’s Copy”, so upon delivery the correct photo order is returned to the correct parent.
Grandparents Day & Book Week
Father's Day Breakfast & Father's Day Stall
Term 3 Week 3
Term 3 Week 4
Message from the Assistant Principal
Public Speaking Competition
Next week students from Years 1-6 have the opportunity to participate in a public speaking competition. Speeches have been written during English lessons this week and 2 students from each grade will be selected to present their speeches to their Stage peers. From these 4 students, one will be selected to move onto the Regional competition which will be held at St Joseph’s Primary School, Kilaben Bay on Friday 16th August. That means, one student from Year 1 and Year 2, one student from year 3 and Year 4, and one student from Year 5 and Year 6 will represent St Patrick’s at the Regional competition. See the Diverse Learners section of this newsletter for further information.
Year 1 Phonics Screener
All Year 1 students will be participating in a Year 1 Phonics Screening Check on Wednesday 14th August. This is an opportunity for students to demonstrate what they know and can do when blending sounds together to read words. It is a short assessment that provides teachers with an overview of a student’s progress in phonics. This information assists teachers make decisions that will help inform the next steps to meet a student’s individual learning needs.
Please see the flyer below for further information.
eSafety parent webinar
Every child should be supported with appropriate knowledge to know how to make positive choices around consent and boundaires, including when online.
Accordingly, the eSafety Commissioner will be hosting a FREE, 30-minute webinar on Tuesday 20 August, aimed at parents and carers of primary school aged-children.
The webinar will outline useful strategies for you to guide your children, including ideas on how to have those hard-to-have conversations.
Janine Schneider
Assistant Principal
Message from RE Coordinator
Feast of St Mary of the Cross MacKillop
Next week, Thursday the 8th August, we celebrate the Feast of Saint Mary of the Cross MacKillop. Mary MacKillop holds a special part in our hearts, as she is Australia’s first saint and the founder of the Sisters of St Joseph. Who in turn were the founders of our school, St Patrick’s in 1952.
Mary MacKillop lived by the saying’ “Never see a need without doing something about it.” (1871) Today, Mary MacKillop’s legacy continues with the Sister of Joseph. They continue their work worldwide, tending to the needs of the poor, sick and elderly and we thank them for all the work they do.
Mary MacKillop challenges us to identify how God speaks to us in our everyday life. God is to be found in the everyday, ordinary workings of our lives and is never far away.
To celebrate St Mary MacKillop, we are holding a short liturgy on Thursday in the Hall at 9am.
Term 3 RE Curriculum
During Term 3 the students will be focusing on the following topics:
Kinder: Knowing God and the Holy Spirit
Year 1: Belonging to the Christian Family
Year 2: Belonging to a Caring Community
Year 3: Encountering God’s Forgiveness and Healing
Year 4: Liturgy as a Celebration & Justice- Called to Serve
Year 5: Hebrew Scriptures & Sacraments of Healing
Year 6: Beliefs & Liturgy
I encourage you to discuss the concepts that your child is learning in RE. Ask them to explain what it is they are learning about and how these lessons can be applied to their lives.
Grandparents Day & Father’s Day Photos
Our Grandparents and Father's Day Liturgy will be held this term.
- Grandparents Day Liturgy 23rd August
- Father’s Day Liturgy 30th August
For these special events we would like to put together a photo presentations of our students with their grandparents and fathers. If you would like to send in a photo for either of these celebrations, please email directly to: daniel.lockwood@mn.catholic.edu.au no later than 5pm Friday 16th August. Can you please title the email, Grandparents Day Photo or Father’s Day Photo.
To ensure that all photos are received, a receipt email will be sent acknowledging the delivery of your photos. If you don’t receive a receipt email within 48hrs of sending your photo, can you please contact the school office.
Mr Daniel Lockwood
RE Coordinator
Save the Date
- 5th August P&F 6.00pm
- 7th August DIO Athletics
- 14th August Library Incursion Book of Magic
- 16th August Regional Public Speaking
- 19th Year 6 Religious Literacy Test
- 23rd August Grandparents Day & Book Week Celebration starting at 9am
- 26th August School Photos
- 30th August Father's Day Breakfast 7.30am & stall
- 2nd September P&F 6.00pm
- 11th September Kinder 2025 Parent Information Night 6.00pm
- 16th September Kinder Excursion to Shark & Ray Centre
- 27th September Last day of Term 3
From the Diverse Learners Team...
Learning Support – Sensory Processing
When parents notice that a child has an unusual aversion to noise, light, shoes that are deemed too tight and clothes that are irritating; or they observe difficulty with fine motor skills like using scissors or a pencil and fastening buttons; or the child chews or sucks clothing / hair or puts inedible things, including rocks and paint, into their mouths… it could be that the child has an sensory processing issue, which can make things very overwhelming at times.
Sensory processing difficulties were first identified by occupational therapist A. Jean Ayres. Along with touch, hearing, taste, smell and sight, Dr. Ayres added the “internal” senses of body awareness (proprioception) and movement (vestibular). When the brain can’t synthesize all this information coming in simultaneously, “It’s like a traffic jam in your head,” Peske says, “with conflicting signals quickly coming from all directions, so that you don’t know how to make sense of it all.” From <https://childmind.org/article/sensory-processing-issues-explained/#a-sensory-checklist>
If you would like to find out more about sensory processing and related difficulties,
Positive Partnerships | Parent and Carer Workshops offer free workshops and information.
Gifted Education - Public Speaking
This week has seen the start of students preparing for their class public speaking competition. Students have time to prepare a speech on a given topic and then present it to the class. The speeches are judged using the following criteria:
- Eye contact
- Pace and expression
- Volume
- Use of gestures
- Content and structure
- Length of speech (1.5minutes for stage 1; 2minutes for stage 2; 5minutes for stage 3)
Class winners will enter the school competition, so that we can select a champion from each Stage to represent St Patrick's at the regional competition in week 4. Public speaking develops skills in planning and communication as well as building confidence. It falls under a number of educational outcomes, but most obvious is the English outcome in the new syllabus for Oral Language and Communication. If you would like some guidance on how to support your child to achieve this outcome or develop their public speaking skills, please contact their class teacher.
Mrs Jo Simes
Learning Support Teacher
Mrs Anne Turner & Mrs Karen Devlin
Aboriginal Education Teacher
Wellbeing
Using the Olympics as a Learning Opportunity for Wellbeing
Term 3 kicked off with a flying start thanks to our Green and Gold Day. It was fantastic to see the Aussie spirit on display as students rotated through four Olympic events including basketball, volleyball, soccer and break dancing. Year 6 demonstrated great leadership skills through their organisation and umpiring of the games. Although no scores were kept or medals presented, students earned Paddy Points for displaying our PBLW skills of participating, cooperating, supporting and encouraging others. The Olympics provides a great opportunity to highlight the many ways we use our character strengths in the pursuit of achieving goals. Behind the medals, the wins and losses are great examples of strengths such as teamwork, humility, perseverance, bravery, fairness, hope and appreciation of excellence. There are stories of grit, resilience, goal setting and friendships that can inspire us all. Families may like to use the resources below to explore how we can apply values and lessons from the Olympics to our own lives.
Beyond the Games - promoting sport and the Olympic values in society (olympics.com)
Make the Olympics a Learning Opportunity | Our Children (ptaourchildren.org)
The Twelve Core Psychological Characteristics of Olympians | Psychology Today Australia
The following School TV resources may also be helpful in exploring the topic.
SPECIAL REPORT: Toxic Achievement Culture | St Patrick's Primary School - Swansea (schooltv.me)
SPECIAL REPORT: Dealing with Disappointment | St Patrick's Primary School - Swansea (schooltv.me)
Green & Gold Day
Mrs Fiona Walker
Wellbeing & Pastoral Care Teacher
Year 3 News
Year 3
Year 3 have had a busy start to the term with Public Speaking being our focus. Specific skills and techniques have been explicitly taught so that our students can confidently stand in front of an audience and deliver a well-planned speech. Our students have had opportunities to put their learning into practise to demonstrate good eye-contact, posture, breathing, hand gestures and most importantly how to entertain and hook their audience.
In drama, we are having lots of fun learning the art of puppetry. We have been experimenting with moving a variety of puppets and developing character voices for them. Throughout the term we will create our own play scripts and perform a puppet theatre show for a younger audience.
Another exciting learning experience this term will be diving into the world of photography as part of our Visual Arts program. We will look at examples of excellence from Ansel Adams, a famous landscape photographer, and learn and practice three different techniques: the rule of thirds, make little things large, and how to take great close-up photos. We can’t wait to show you some of our amazing works of art!
Mrs Liz Walker & Mr Daniel Lockwood
Year 3 Teacher
Puppetry Photos
Sport News
School Sport
St Patrick’s has been successful in a Sporting Schools Grant for Term 3. The grant will go towards a whole school Hockey program starting in week 7. Get excited and inspired watching our talented Olympic Hockey Teams!
Regional Athletics
We wish the best of luck to our Athletes competing at the Diocesan Athletics Carnival next week. We’ll be cheering for you and wish you all a P.B. and lots of fun.
Junior Girls Relay Team (Scarlett Jones, Emily Hill, Charlie Hill, Sophie Dunn)
Senior Girls Relay Team (Jaymie Tisdell, Florence DeChamplain, Sienna Parker, Ava McCullough-Hendriks)
Ruby Hansen- Jnr Long Jump
Florence De Champlain- 11yr 800, 11yr long jump
Sienna Parker- Snr Long Jump
Charlie Hill- Jnr High Jump, 9yr 100m
Khloe Hansen- 11yr High Jump
Ava McCullough-Hendriks- Senior 200m, 12yr 100m
Scarlett Jones- 10yr 100m
Jaymie Tisdell- 11yr 100m
Alexander Batchelor- Snr Long Jump
Vincent Walker- 8yr 100m
Egan Joyce- 9yr 100m
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
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
Sport Coordinator
Office News
The Diocesan agreement for settlement of school fees requires payments to commence by 31 March and continue with regular instalments each month until fully settled by 30 November each year. Alternatively, fees can be paid in one payment, due before 30 June.
If you haven't already commenced weekly, fortnightly or monthly payments as agreed, reminder sms, phone calls and letters will be sent home to these families. Please check your monthly fee statement and process payments as required.
Please contact the office if you would like assistance with calculating your weekly, fortnightly, monthly deduction amount.
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 Community Fund website www.myccf.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.
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
Uniforms
Preloved Uniforms
We have some uniform supply delays with our transition to Lowes and we are desperately seeking preloved uniforms in good, clean condition. In particular we are seeking:
* Sports shirt Size 8 & 10
*Sports shorts Size 10
* Girls winter tunics Size 10
All hand me downs welcome. If you have any uniforms no longer being used, please drop them off to the front office so they can be put to good use.
