St Patrick's Primary School Swansea eNewsletter

Message from the Principal

Loving God,
You created each of us in Your image,
worthy of love, dignity, and respect.
Help our students and young people to see this truth in themselves and in others.

Fill their hearts with kindness and their words with gentleness.
Teach them to listen with open minds,
to speak with compassion,
and to act with fairness and courage.

May they learn to value differences,
stand up for what is right,
and treat every person with the honour they deserve.

Guide us, as teachers, families, and mentors,
to model respect in all we do,
so that our example may lead them to build a community
of peace, understanding, and mutual care.

We ask this through Christ our Lord,
Amen.

Dear Families

Welcome to the Term 2 Week 8 newsletter.

At St Patrick’s, we believe that developing respectful, responsible and resilient students is a shared responsibility between home and school. When families and educators work in partnership, we create a consistent and supportive environment that encourages positive behaviours and reinforces the values we wish to see in our young people.

Over this term, concerns have been raised by both staff and parents about the choices students are making which are having a negative impact on themselves and others. Together, we need to continue to focus on building a school culture grounded in mutual respect, clear expectations, and restorative practices. Our students are encouraged to take ownership of their actions, reflect on their choices, and learn from their experiences. Through open communication and shared goals, we can guide them to become kind, respectful and thoughtful members of our community.

We invite parents and carers to continue engaging in conversations at home about kindness, responsibility, and respect. Together, we can nurture a strong and respectful learning community where every student is valued and supported to thrive.

Have a great week.

Lucy Harvey
Principal

Inservice Day

A reminder that Monday 21^st July is a pupil free day. The staff will be continuing our work in Wellbeing with professional learning on self-regulation and interoception. Students will return to school for the start of Term 3 on TUESDAY 22^nd JULY – SPORTS UNIFORM.

2026 Enrolment Offers

A reminder that enrolment offers of acceptance for Kinder 2026 are due FRIDAY 27 JUNE.

NAIDOC Fundraiser

HUGE thank you to Mrs Walker for organising a highly successful Maccas Fundraiser this week to support our NAIDOC immersion day. Please see Liz’s report and photos on the night in the Diverse Learners section of the newsletter.

Assembly next week

The Awards Assembly next week will commence at 2:15pm. The Athletics Carnival Certificates will be presented along with Age Champions.

Term 3 Events for the calendar

Term_Planner_2025_Parents.pdf

Week 9

Week 10

Message from RE Coordinator

Please donate to our Flood Appeal

This is a final call to support our fellow Taree Parish community following the recent flooding.

Our parish is collecting donations of non-perishable food. All donated items will be picked up on Wednesday, 25 June, so we encourage you to drop off any contributions as soon as possible.

Donations can be placed in the boxes at the main entrance of each church or in the basket at the school office.

This is a meaningful opportunity to show compassion and assist those in need during a difficult time. Your generosity can make a real difference in the lives of others.

Flyer_Launch_Bishops_Flood_Appeal_Manning_Community_KENNEDY_Bishop_Michael.pdf

Mr Daniel Lockwood
RE Coordinator

Message from Assistant Principal

Reports

Semester 1 reports will be made accessible to parents on your child’s Compass profile on Friday 27^th June. These reports reflect the academic achievement level your child has attained over the last 2 terms of school. Often when students move up to a new Stage grade (Year 1, Year 3 and Year 5) achievement results can vary significantly from their last report. It is important to remember that they are now working at a higher level (in both knowledge and skill) and have 2 years within this stage to work towards high achievement levels. If you are concerned about the achievement levels reflected in your child’s report, the student led conferences to be held in Week 10 are a wonderful opportunity for you to discuss these with your child’s teacher.

Student Led Conferences

During Week 10 this term (30^th June – 4^th July) we will hold 3-way conferences (parents, teachers and students). During these conferences the students will have the opportunity to share their learning strengths and goals for improvement in English (Writing), Mathematics and a subject of choice with you. They will also share with you two ways they are displaying positive behaviours from our Wellbeing framework, and one area they feel they need to work on. Having students lead these meetings gives them the opportunity to show ownership over their learning and celebrate their successes with you. Bookings will open on Compass Monday 23rd June 9am.

Fire & Rescue New South Wales Competition

On Saturday the 28^th and Sunday 29^th of June 2025 Fire & Rescue New South Wales will be holding a weekend of competition, known as the 'Regional firefighter championship'. This will be held at Quinn Park, Swansea.

The mission of the championships is to develop, maintain and enhance the operational skills of firefighters as well as to promote a professional image of Fire & Rescue NSW to the community.

The Championships consist of 11 events over 2 days that are designed to increase the capability and skills of fire fighters across all relevant operational areas as well as to showcase to the community the capability of Fire & rescue NSW.

See flyer below for further information.

Championship_A4_flyer_2_.pdf

Visit from our local Firefighters

On Friday 27th June some of our local firefighters will be visiting St Pat’s to share fire safety and prevention education to our students.

Mrs Janine Schneider
Assistant Principal

Diverse Learners Team News

Learning Support – Speech Therapy

In the previous newsletter, I provided some information about the work of an Occupational Therapist in supporting the needs of children. Unfortunately, we do not have access to a Diocesan OT yet, but we do have a great team of Speech Pathologists! Megan Piper presented to our new Kindergarten parents last year at the information evening, providing some great advice for developing language with young children. Megan has also worked with a number of students at St Patrick's. We are able to make referrals to her for speech and language assessments when we have concerns around a child's communication or understanding of language. She has also provided us with advice on programs we can implement to address these concerns and training for our staff on how to accommodate these needs in the classroom.

Around 10% of all children have long term speech, language and communication needs. Many more have delayed speech, language and communication, where their skills are developing more slowly than expected. A Speech Pathologist can help children who have difficulties with understanding language (comprehending words and sentences), spoken language (use short utterances or muddled sentences), speech sounds (difficulty with pronunciation or missing some sounds altogether), fluency (lots of pauses or hesitations, stammering) and social use of language (difficulty starting a conversation, taking turns, making friends, engaging in play).

If you are worried about your child's language and communication development, speak with the class teacher or seek the advice of a speech pathologist. Your GP will be able to provide some guidance around services that are available.

Mrs Jo Simes
Learning Support Teacher

High Potential & Gifted Education – 📚 WriteOn Competition Success! ✏️

We are thrilled to share that our students have once again shone in the annual WriteOn competition! This prestigious writing challenge invites students from Years 1 to 6 to craft an imaginative text based on a given image stimulus, and our young authors truly rose to the occasion.

Congratulations to all students who entered — your creativity, effort, and love of storytelling were evident in every piece. We are especially proud to announce our stage winners.

✨ Stage 1 Winner: Evelyn Johns – for a heartfelt and beautifully detailed imaginative text that captured the beauty in how change can be scary but also wonderful.

✨ Stage 2 Winner: Egan Joyce – for an imaginative and well-structured narrative that showed impressive vocabulary and voice.

✨ Stage 3 Winner: Jaymie Tisdell – for a powerful and creative diary entry written from the perspective of the Big Bad Wolf.

Well done to all our budding authors! We encourage everyone to keep writing, dreaming, and sharing your voice with the world. You never know where your words might take you! 📝🌟

Mrs Cathy Curk
Gifted Education Mentor

Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Education

Swansea McDonalds Fundraiser for NAIDOC

A huge thank you to every family who supported our fundraiser on Tuesday evening at McDonalds. Lots of families were able to visit the restaurant where the atmosphere was one of excitement and friendship. The drive thru was also busy with lots of St Pat’s customers. Some families who were unable to attend have kindly donated to our wonderful cause.

Your generosity will ensure that our students are able to participate in an excursion to St Francis Xavier, Belmont on the 30^th July in Term 3. Our students will spend the day exploring Aboriginal Culture and rotating through wonderful hands-on workshops.

The community spirit is alive and thriving at St Patrick’s, thank you for your generosity.

A big thank you to Bunnings at Bennetts Green for kindly donating a large range of plants for our Bush Tucker Garden. I will be picking them up next Thursday and we will plant them in our gardens on Friday, under the expert guidance of Nathan Moran, an educator and local indigenous bush tucker expert. Our students will experience some wonderful hands-on learning from Nathan.

Mrs Liz Walker
Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Education Teacher

Wellbeing News

Peer Support Groups

At St Patrick’s we understand the interrelated nature of learning and wellbeing. Research shows that positive outcomes in learning and wellbeing are firmly linked to student connectedness and student voice. A sense of connection or belonging to school is enhanced through positive relationships with teachers and peers, both within their own class and across the whole school.

One way we aim to enhance positive relationships and create a safe, inclusive environment is through our Peer Support program. Students are placed into groups comprising of children from K-6 and meet three times a term on a Friday afternoon. During this time, students will be guided through a lesson and activity related to elements of St Patrick’s Learning and Wellbeing Framework and the school’s Positive Behaviours for Learning and Wellbeing matrix. Our Year 6 leaders help facilitate these groups to promote peer mentoring skills and build leadership skills.

Today, students participated in a lesson based around the framework element ‘Social Justice’ and our PB4L skill of ‘See a need and do something about it.’ They discussed the impact of the recent floods on the lives of people in the Upper Hunter and how we can help do something about it by donating food to the flood appeal. Please support us in promoting social justice by donating non-perishable food items by Wednesday next week.

SchoolTV Article: Respectful Relationships

Initiating conversations about respectful relationships with children is crucial for their emotional and social development. By addressing topics like kindness, empathy, and communication, parents create a foundation for healthy interactions. These discussions promote awareness of boundaries, consent, and mutual understanding, fostering a safe environment where children can thrive. Teaching respect from an early age equips kids with essential skills to navigate friendships and romantic relationships, building a future based on empathy and equality. Open dialogues about respect empower children to recognise and value their own feelings and those of others, cultivating a positive and harmonious approach to all relationships.

Full SchoolTV Article

SchoolTV Article: Respectful Language

In today's world, it is becoming apparent that some young people are being influenced by the language around them. It is becoming more common for them to hear derogatory terms or offensive language on the streets, on social media channels, streaming services and in some forms of modern music. Proliferating the use of such language can sometimes normalise, glamorise and sanitise their impact, taking their meaning out of context. Words can be misconstrued to be hurtful, racist, homophobic, mysogynistic or even discriminatory. Using disrespectful language is considered socially unacceptable, and if not addressed early, can become a serious problem. The use of derogatory language or the act of swearing at someone, or about someone, is actually a form of verbal violence. It transgresses the usual rules of social interaction by impinging on an individual's self-image and sense of dignity. Therefore, many schools enforce a zero tolerance policy when it comes to such language. Parents and carers also need to play an important role in enforcing this approach by proactively monitoring what their children are viewing or being exposed to and discussing the use of words or their origin. This can help prevent inappropriate or disrespectful language being used in the classroom, school yard or other situations. Whilst some students may use swearing or derogatory terms for attention seeking purposes, others may use it simply because they are still learning how to moderate their language. As young people develop their language skills, it is important for them to have a clear understanding of the impact of their choice of words on others and how their words can impact other people's perspective of them - an important and essential skill to learn as they progress in their personal and professional development.

Full SchoolTV Article

Year 5 News

This term Year 5 have been highly engaged with their learning. Some highlights of the term for Year 5 have included:

We enjoyed presenting the play of the Gospel for Catholic Schools Week.
In Religion we have learned about the different types of prayers, such as praise, blessing and petition.
In English we have been learning about Macquarie Island, and we have worked hard on our research and presentations about a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
We loved playing a Kahoot in Maths for 3D shapes and nets as well as creating the shapes from the nets.
We eagerly participated in the school athletics carnival with enthusiasm and great teamwork.
In Science we have been learning about the adaptations of native Australian animals and plants. Did you know a Banded Archer Fish likes to stay on the surface of the water because it likes to wait for an insect and then jump out of the water to catch it? The Tasmanian Tiger can walk on 2 legs and King Penguins sometimes carry eggs on their foot.
In art we have enjoyed making our animal collages. First, we tore some magazines and created a circular background. Then we added eyes, a nose and mouth/beak to create our amazing artworks.
We are extremely proud of our Kinder buddies as they are now reading to us!

As you can see it has been a very busy term.

Congratulations and keep up the amazing work Year 5!

Mrs Cheryl Ogden
Year 5 Teacher

Library News

Minecraft Club

A lunch-time Minecraft Club started last week with a small number of students who will be working on various projects in Minecraft: Education Edition. Current members range in skills and experience from having never played before to “knowing more than the people who write Minecraft books”.

The group will expand over time as there are many excited students waiting in the wings.

This week, members FINALLY got to play Minecraft as they began working their way through various tutorials like movement, block interaction and using the camera and portfolio to show off their completed projects down the track. We can’t wait to share the results here!

Premier’s Reading Challenge

Don’t forget to keep logging your reading progress on the NSW PRC website. Students can record books they read in class and the library as well as at home. If you have any questions or need your password, please get in touch with Mrs Devlin or Mrs Hale.

Congratulations

A big congratulations to the following students who have finished:
Lillian
Evelyn J
Matteo

Aspire News

Imogen Takes the Stage

Last year, Imogen Walker in Year 6, auditioned to be part of the 2025 ASPIRE theatre production “The Rise of Bozz”. Imogen was successful and has been rehearsing with students from all over the Diocese since February this year.

Imogen said that she is enjoying working and learning alongside other theatre loving students. She loves learning the craft of acting and working with wonderful mentors like Anna Kerrigan, artistic director of ASPIRE.

Our Year 4, 5 and 6 students will be attending a performance of The Rise of Bozz when it opens at the Civic Theatre on the 30^th of July.

Congratulations Imogen, we can’t wait to see you on stage!

Mrs Liz Walker

Sport News

Lakes Region Athletics

We are excited to announce our school squad attending the Lakes Region Athletics Carnival on the 24^th of June. Congratulations Cooper B.T., Daisy B., Casey, Will B., Isaac, Neve, Willow, Cooper B., Evie B., Sawyer, Matteo, Florence, Lucy D., Sophie, Elijah F., Ruby, Charlie, Emily, Evelyn J., Scarlett, Billie, Egan, Nixon, Mila, Madden, Giselle, Esther, Isla, Jude, Bethany, Lucas N., Billy, Reece, James, Emelia, Jaymie, Benjamin, Briseis, Imogen, Vinnie, Layla, Kingston.

School Athletic Champion Medals and place getter ribbons will be presented to students at next week’s awards assembly on Friday.

Cross Country

We are very proud of the achievements of Egan Joyce and Vinnie Walker who recently represented the Maitland Newcastle Diocese and the Polding Cross Country Championships. Congratulations to Vinnie on his top 10 finish.

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

claire.browne@mn.catholic.edu.au 

Office News

Volunteering at St Patrick's

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.

2025 Fee Information

For families that opted to pay annually, school fees are due in full by the 30th June 2025.

Please commence payments as per the preferred frequency (weekly, fortnightly or monthly) prior to 31^st March and then continue on that frequency to erode the fees over the course of each month and be finalised to a $0 balance by 30^th November 2025. In April, any family that has not yet commenced fee payments will be deemed in arrears of the March component of the account.

If you have any queries please contact the office to discuss.

Rachelle McKenzie
Senior School Officer

P&F update

On Wednesday June 11th we had our last meeting for Term 2. With lots of items to discuss about what's happening & goals for the year ahead for our school, students & wider community, we welcomed 10 attendees on the night. Our next meeting will be held Wednesday August 6th in the school library from 6pm.

Our P&F have committed to purchasing some exciting new things for our school including:

- New Outdoor tables & chair setting, to be delivered & installed over the school holidays under the trees near the rear of the canteen.

- New Ukuleles for Mrs Walker's Music classes

- 242 novels to support English primary syllabus (Years 3,4,5,6).

- Music subscription

- Mathematics incursion

Firstly, A BIG thankyou to all of the volunteers that made our Mother's Day stall & school athletics carnival canteen a breeze to coordinate! Together we successfully helped all of the students buy some lovely gifts for all the mums out there, and served up over 200 lunch orders at the carnival, but overall it was so lovely to have a new group of volunteers come & help out!

PIE DRIVE

Our Winter Pie Drive is now live, with orders due this coming Monday, June 23rd. Please ask all your family & friends to get an order in! All profits raised go to helping pay for our Year 6 class of 2025 attend their farewell in December, an initiative we introduced in 2023.

All orders will be delivered to school on Friday the 4th of July and sent home with students in the afternoon.