Extra-Curricular

St Patrick’s believes in providing opportunities for all students. Not only do we strive for excellence in education, we also want to help all students to succeed socially. We have a well-developed playground that includes a sports field, passive play areas and mud kitchen. We also provide opportunities to develop other non-academic skills and social interactions.

CREATIVE ARTS

The students of Years 5 and 6 have the opportunity to participate in ASPIRE, an initiative of the Catholic Schools Office to showcase the talents of students in music, singing, dance and drama. We currently offer tuition in guitar and ukulele. We run lunch club painting workshops.

DEBATING

Interested students in Year 5 and 6 are welcome to be involved in the selection process for the Lakes Region Diocesan Debating Competition. Students receive instruction and tuition to learn the process and skills of debating before representing our school in the local competition. This competition features an impromptu process where each team is given only one hour to prepare their debates with no assistance from adults. The overall successful school team progresses to the Diocesan competition.

PUBLIC SPEAKING

Students at St Patrick’s are actively involved in activities to develop public speaking skills as part of the English curriculum. Our school takes part in the Lakes Region Public Speaking Competition for Kindergarten to Year 6. Skills are explicitly taught and practised before semi-finalists from each class are selected to participate in stage playoffs in front of stage-based audiences. Two finalists per stage are determined using the same topic under competition conditions. Speeches are prepared at school on the day of competition.

At competition level:

• Speakers in ES1 and S1 present a prepared speech only
• Speakers in S2 and S3 present two speeches - a prepared speech and an impromptu speech.

We recognise that public speaking is a life-long skill and the ability to communicate clearly, effectively and confidently with an engaging presentation style can never be underestimated.

SPORT

St Patrick’s offers a range of sporting opportunities to our students. We conduct our own school carnivals in swimming, cross country and athletics. As part of the Lakes Region, talented sports people are offered opportunities to progress as far as state level through our representative pathway. 

Throughout the year, our students have the opportunity to trial for various representative sports including hockey, rugby league, soccer, netball, tennis, cricket and touch football.

As part of the Lakes Region, our students participate in Gala Days for soccer, netball and cricket.

During Term 1, our students participate in professional coaching in gymnastics and modified sports through Primarily Active. 

Our school is part of the Good for Kids framework that encourages the use of simple equipment and activities to keep students moving throughout the school day. Our spacious playground offers an  oval for games such as soccer and tag at lunch and there is play equipment in our shade area. Our students have a wide range of choices to keep active on the playground.