Term 4 - Week 4

Message from the Principal

Dear Parents and Carers

Welcome to the Term 4 Week 4 newsletter.

Today 29 of our students joined Mr Lockwood and I at the parish mass to remember Charles Gordon O'Neill who established the first conference of the St Vincent de Paul Society in NSW in 1881 at St Patrick’s Church Hill in The Rocks. This area was close to the wharves of Sydney Harbour and known for deep-seated poverty, opium dens, homelessness and addictions. In addition to mainstream assistance such as food, clothing, travel and medicine, Charles O’Neill gained approval from the International Council to provide money for rent for Sydney’s struggling families; a tradition that continues today.

We should celebrate and be inspired by the heroic virtue of Charles O’Neill and place ourselves before others to be for others. Like Charles we do so motivated by love of God and of neighbour. We are grateful for the St Vincent de Paul Society who assists people experiencing poverty and inequality and who work to shape a more just and compassionate society, true faith in action.

Have a great week.

Lucy Harvey
Principal

Colour Run

Our Colour Run was another huge success with fun had by all. What an amazing balloon display and welcoming signage out the front of the school! It was wonderful to see so many families join us as happy spectators and we even had some Kinder 2025 students join the fun. Whilst our day was a community event, we still managed to raise in excess of $4,000 for the school. A massive effort! Thank you again to Elise Moncrieff and to the many helpers for organising such a wonderful event for St Patrick’s.  

Building Update

The Administration refurb is complete, minus a few minor touches, and we have moved back in. We have a very beautiful welcoming space with extra room for student support. Our new sick bay has been a big hit with lots of extra visitors trying it out!

Our boardwalk is taking shape, and the carpet is being laid in Kinder, Year 1 and Year 2 this week. The library and primary classrooms will be completed next week.

2025 Leadership Speeches

Students in Year 5 who wish to be considered for the role of School Captain for 2025 will present their speech on Friday 29^th November at 1:00pm in the hall. Students in Years 2-5 will vote for their preference after the speeches. Parents are most welcome to attend the speeches.

Canteen HELPERS

We desperately need volunteers for the canteen on Fridays this term. If we do not have enough helpers by Wednesday each week, a notice will be sent home to say the canteen will be closed.

Term 4 Week 5

Term 4 Week 6

Message from RE Coordinator

All Saints Day

All Saints' Day recognises those known to God as saints—not only those canonized by the Catholic church.  Therefore, All Saints' Day celebrates all faithful followers of Jesus throughout church history. It’s a feast day remembering those who have gone before us, honoring their lives and faithfulness.  Believers come together to celebrate continued communion with saints through the ages, recognizing their continued participation in the body of Christ.  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. 

Charles Gordon O’Neill

Today, several students represented the school at the parish celebration of Charles Gordon O’Neill, the co-founder of the St Vincent de Paul Society in Australia.  Celebrations like this are a wonderful opportunity to build our connection with the parishioners and support them with the work that they do supporting those in need in our local area.  Thank you to all the students that represented the school by attending mass before school today.

Term 4 Liturgical Celebrations

Monday 11^th November 10.30am – Remembrance Day

Tuesday 10^th December 9.30am – Advent Liturgy

Thursday 12^th December 10am – End of School Year and Rite of Passage

Mr Daniel Lockwood
RE Coordinator

Save the Date

Message from Assistant Principal

Please see below a list of upcoming parent information sessions for Term 4, which you may like to attend.

The information sessions are free to attend and presented by reputable providers covering topics including online safety, mental health, neurodiversity.

Online safety webinars

Parents and Carers webinar ‘Supporting healthy tech use as your child transitions into high school’

Date:               Tuesday 12 November   
Time:               12.30pm-1.00pm
Presented by: eSafety Commissioner and the Council of Catholic School Parents NSW/ACT  
Cost:                Free
Register:          https://register.gotowebinar.com/register/707533969409578587

This 30-minute webinar is suitable for parents and carers of young people in upper primary school (aged 11-12) and Year 7.

The webinar will explore:

• the social pressures, peer influences, and technological challenges young people face as they transition into high school.
• practical strategies for navigating online friendships and connections to help minimise negative experiences.

Mental health webinars

Parents and Carers webinar ‘Strengthening teens against anxiety’ with Karen Young  

Date:               Wednesday 11 December   
Time:               7pm-8.30pm
Presented by: The Federation of P&F Associations
Cost:                Free
Register:          http://mn.shor.tn/KarenYoung

If you are unable to take part in the webinar at the designated time, you are still encouraged to RSVP. Approximately one week following the webinar, a recording will be made available to everyone who has RSVPd and they will have two weeks to watch it.

Anxiety can be tough for anyone but add in the whirlwind of changes that come with adolescence, and anxiety can intrude on young lives more than it deserves to. If left unmanaged, anxiety can limit their reach into the world and their discovery of their very important place in it. It can also leave the adults in their lives who care about them feeling helpless - but it doesn’t have to be this way. Anxiety is manageable, and our teens have a profound capacity to shift anxiety out of their way and move forward with strength.

In this presentation, we will discuss:

• A new, empowering way for adolescents to think about anxiety and how to use this to manage anxiety;
• How anxiety can interfere with learning and performance, and how to get anxiety out of the way;
• The changes in the adolescent brain that can make teens more vulnerable to anxiety;
• Proven, practical ways to calm and strengthen an anxious brain;
• The power of parents to move young people towards brave, and how to do this
• How to build solid neural foundations that will strengthen the adolescent brain against anxiety, and how to engage young people in the conversation and behaviours that will make a difference;
• Why new behaviours take time, why old responses can feel tough to change, and the simple explanation for teens that can build resilience and grit.

Please see attached flyer for more information.

Neurodiversity information sessions

Parents and Carers webinar ‘Converting neurodiversity into neuro-advantage’ with Andrew Fuller 

Date:               Wednesday 20 November    
Time:               7.00pm-8.00pm
Presented by: The Federation of P&F Associations
Cost:                Free
Register:          mn.shor.tn/AndrewFuller

Everyone’s brain processes information differently, it is as unique to an individual as their fingerprint. 

In this session, parents and carers will learn the superpowers and learning strengths of brains with:

• Autism Spectrum
• Oppositional Defiance
• ADHD
• Dyslexia

Andrew will also cover the methods, interventions, apps and tech that can help these young people to not only survive in school but thrive in life.

To increase your learning from this event, you are encouraged to complete an analysis of your own learning strengths ahead of time at www.mylearningstrengths.com

Please see attached flyer for more information.

About the presenter: Andrew Fuller is an Hon. Fellow at the Uni of Melbourne, a scientific consultant for the ABC and a regular presenter on Radio National. He has established programs for neuroscience and education, neurodiversity and the promotion of mental health in schools, substance abuse prevention, and the reduction of violence and bullying, suicide prevention programs and for assisting homeless young people

Online Training (OLT) Parent Courses

OLT offers self-paced e-learning Short Courses. These short open courses are free to any interested parent/carer. See link for further information: https://aus.oltinternational.net/courses#parent-courses

• ADHD for Parents
• Autism for Parents

Mrs Janine Schneider
Assistant Principal

From the Diverse Learners Team...

Learning Support –  Colourful Semantics

This term, I thought I would share with you some of the resources that we use to support students with their learning here at St Pat's.  Many programs are written specifically to address the needs of individual students, but we always utilise evidence-informed resources and strategies.  One of these resources is Colourful Semantics, a framework for developing children's spoken and written language skills.  It provides a visual approach to constructing sentences by colour coding parts of a sentence.  It aims to develop vocabulary (for example, by increasing the range and complexity of verbs) and to scaffold sentence structure.  The program can be used at a whole class level - as Kindergarten are currently doing - or as an intervention for small groups and individuals.  Students can compose a sentence by selecting from a bank of words and putting them in an order that makes sense.  This might result in a silly sentence such as:

The postman is eating the television.

Or can be more carefully crafted to recount part of a narrative:

Goldilocks is sleeping in the bed.

Students can practice their writing by copying the phrases in the correct order to make a whole sentence.

Gifted Education - Debating

Our debating team for 2024 took part in the Lakes Region competition almost two weeks ago at St Joseph’s, Kilaben Bay.  The teams were given an hour of preparation time before facing the first opponents.  Our first debate was against Kilaben Bay as the negative team arguing against ‘animals shouldn't be kept in zoos’.  Although we lost, the team took on feedback for the second debate against Edgeworth, where we were the affirmative team for ‘school holidays should be longer’.  The team did very well, showing great courage speaking in front of an audience and strong thinking skills in putting forward arguments and rebuttals based on what the opposition came up with.  Well done to Sienna, Spencer, Drew and Indigo.

Mrs Jo Simes 
Learning Support Teacher

Mrs Anne Turner & Mrs Karen Devlin
Aboriginal Education Teacher

Year 4 News

Year 4

Year 4 has had a fantastic start to Term 4! We’ve enthusiastically stepped into our new roles as buddies, welcoming future kindergarten students to St. Patrick’s. We enjoyed morning tea with them and guided them on a fun scavenger hunt around the school, already showcasing our leadership skills. We know we'll continue to shine in this program, strengthening our communication skills, patience, teamwork, responsibility and self-confidence along the way.

In English, we are exploring Survivors, a book that shares true survival stories. By reading these accounts, we are learning to write more factual narratives and understand how authors make intentional choices to engage their audience. In mathematics, we've been using different measuring tools to learn about various units of measurement and how to convert between them. In sport we demonstrated our sportsmanship and resilience at the recent soccer gala days, braving the extreme heat!

We have plenty more to look forward to this term, including the Colour Run and our upcoming Year 4 excursion. We’re excited to keep thriving and flourishing in all our learning adventures!

Miss Chloe Murray
Year 4 Teacher

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Sport News

Pathways Sport- Diocesan Basketball

Congratulations to Cooper Brown who has progressed to the Diocesan Basketball Trial to be held on the 29^th of November in Newcastle. We wish him the very best of luck!

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.   

Stage 1 League Tag Gala Day

Last Tuesday, Years 1 and 2 put their Football skills to the test, participating in a League Tag Gala Day in Charlestown. The students had a fun filled day, all happily participating and having just as much fun between games dancing to the background music. Thank you to Mrs Stewart, Mrs McNevin and Mrs K for supporting students to have such a happy and successful day.

Swimming Carnival

Our school swimming carnival will be held on Friday 13^th December. The day is for all students from K-6. Kindergarten will participate in water fun games and Years 1-6 will have opportunities to compete in races or participate in non-competitive events.

Further details will be published via Compass closer to the event.

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

Email: claire.browne@mn.catholic.edu.au 

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.  

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. 

WWCC exemptions apply for volunteers who are a close relative of a student enrolled at the school.  There is a "Statutory Screening Selection Tool" included in the online registration process to assist you with this.

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 News

Year 6 Farewell

Parents of Year 6 students who are planning on attending the Year 6 farewell at Belmont Golf Club on December 16th are asked to RSVP on Qkr by the end of November.  Our P&F have again this year committed to covering the cost of each Year 6 student and their teachers in 2024. 

Canteen Volunteers

WE REALLY NEED YOUR HELP!

We understand we're getting closer to the silly season and our spare time becomes more limited, however our volunteer numbers in the canteen are dwindling this term. If you are able to assist on any Fridays for the remainder of the school term, please reach out to our coordinator Elizabeth via email stpatscanteen1@gmail.com. Canteen volunteers are required to be approved with the front office & have a valid WWCC certificate. The time each week is 9am until 11:30am. 

If we cannot get at least 2 people to assist each week we will close the canteen. 

If you have any questions for our P&F in the meantime, please send them to stpatrickspf1@gmail.com 

Thankyou

Elise Moncrieff
President
St Patricks P&F Committee

P&F Treasurer Update:

Uniforms

We are phasing out school bags and thermal lunch bags.  There is limited stock available on sale for 50% off.  Orders can be placed on QKR. These items are available until stock sells out.

Preloved Uniforms

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.

Community Notices