Newsletter 2022/19 ~ 24 June 2022

As partners in Catholic Education and open to God’s presence, we pursue the fullness of life for all.

St. Patrick’s School is committed to the safety and wellbeing of all students.

We respectfully acknowledge the Traditional Owners of Country throughout Victoria and pay respect to the ongoing living cultures of First Peoples. 

This newsletter comes to you from the lands of the Wotjobaluk, Jaadwa, Jadawadjali, Wergaia and Jupagalk Nations.

From the Principal

This week is National Refugee Week.

Refugee Week

He defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and loves the foreigners residing among you, giving them food and clothing.  And you are to love those who are foreigners, for you yourselves were foreigners in Egypt (Deuteronomy 10:18-19)

God of Safety, 

We remember that Mary and Joseph escaped to safety in Egypt when Herod tried to kill baby Jesus and we remember how Mary MacKillop found safe places for homeless mothers and children.

Let our country now find room for the refugees who come begging for safety.

Let our hearts be big enough to welcome them so that they can forget their terror and sadness and find peace here.

Let us give them a home and a good future in our country.

We ask this in the name of Jesus, who knew what it was like to be a refugee.

Amen.

CURRENT & RECENT EVENTS

Changes to Vaccine Mandate

As you would be aware, following advice from the Acting Chief Health Officer, the Victorian Government recently announced changes to the pandemic orders.

There will no longer be a mandated vaccination requirement for staff working in mainstream schools. This change will come in from 11.59pm Friday 24 June, so in effect from the start of Term 3 2022.

With 100% of our school staff vaccinated, this will cause little change to our school.

As part of the changes, from 11.59pm Friday 24 June 2022, parents and carers who have COVID-19 can transport their non-COVID-19 children via private vehicle to their primary or secondary school when an alternative person is not available to assist. 

This means that parents and carers will be able to leave COVID self-isolation to take their non-COVID-19 child to school or school holiday programs via a private vehicle.

The parent or carer must travel directly to and from the school only. They must remain in the vehicle at all times, unless it is reasonably necessary to leave the vehicle to walk the child to and from the entrance of the school safely. They must wear a face mask at all times.

Family members are asked to continue reporting positive COVID-19 cases to the Department of Health.

You must also let the school know if your child is a close contact. Students who are close contacts and want to attend should still take 5 RATs over 7 days and wear a face mask whilst indoors if they are aged 8 years or over.

Students should continue to stay home if they are unwell, even if they test negative on a RAT.

A reminder also that we have RATs available at school should families require them.

Thank you for your support as we continue to make these adjustments.

Website

Please be aware that we are in the process of transitioning to an updated website for our school.  The website is currently unable to be accessed whilst this transition is taking place.  Whilst we anticipate that the new site will be available very soon (if not already), this may be an issue for parents trying to read the newsletter or access the student reports through links in PAM. 

Hip Hop Dance

Today we welcomed Justin from Freestyle Dance Ministry as he led our students through Hip Hop dance sessions.  This is the third time in 18 months that our school has been able to have Justin engage with our students.  We are very grateful for the support of Hindmarsh Shire who fully funded his visit to St Patrick’s School.

Justin conducted two very energetic sessions today - one for the F-3 students and then a second one for the 4-6 students.  It was great to see how enthusiastic the children were as they displayed their dancing skills.

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Student Reports

Please remember to check for your child's report today.  All students have been issued with their end of Semester report.  These will also be accessible on PAM as well from next week.

The Push-Up Challenge

Today was the last day of The Push Up Challenge.  The challenge was for each registered person to complete 3139 push-ups over 24 days in June. This is to raise awareness about mental health and the impact of suicide on our communities.  The number of push-ups, 3139, tragically represents the number of lives lost to suicide in Australia in 2020.  

It is pleasing to note that the four staff who have been doing the push-ups have all achieved their target for a collective total of 12,556 push-ups. Well done team!!!

If you would like to recognise our achievement and provide financial support to Lifeline and their mental health and crisis support services, please do so here ...

UPCOMING EVENTS

Start of Term 3

Term three will commence for students on Tuesday 12 July as staff members will be participating in a Professional Learning day on Monday 11 July.

Sunday's Gospel Reflection

Today is the Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.  The heart of Jesus is a symbol of his love for us.

Jesus’ generous love for us was sometimes shown in paintings and statues with his heart crowned with thorns, bringing to mind his suffering. It reminds us that love and suffering often go together.

This feast is an opportunity to remember in a special way those who suffer because of lack of food, clothing or shelter. We often have special Masses on this day and bring gifts of food and clothing to be shared among these people.

Our Josephite Heritage

The Sisters of St Joseph of the Sacred Heart, often called the "Josephites" or "Brown Joeys", were founded in Penola, South Australia, in 1866 by Mary MacKillop and the Rev. Julian Tenison Woods. In 1949, three Josephite sisters arrived in Nhill to open St Patrick’s School. In 1978, the Sisters of St Joseph informed the Nhill Parish that they would no longer be able to maintain their role within the school.

We endeavour to honour our Josephite heritage through the regular presentation of the Little Joey awards at our assemblies. In support of this we also include a reflection from Mary MacKillop on our newsletter each week.

Classroom and Student News

Collaborating ...

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Junior Class

Yes, it is the last week of Term 2. Some of my students are so excited about going on holiday, as they are visiting places outside of Nhill.

That aside, we have consolidated our learning for Term 2. Our shared fun story was titled Dinosaur Disco. The different dinosaurs are dancing in the disco. They are all dancing different moves. Some are stomping, some are jiving and some are doing rhythm. Suddenly they stop. WHY? My class loves to ROAR like the T-Rex, who is the uninvited guest to the dance. Our scaffolding literacy approach book was Rumble in the Jungle. Mrs Hamilton and I acted out the story with puppets and the monkey’s vine, which became a tug of war in the story. SNAP! I’m sure you can guess what happened. Our pattern writing sentence from the book was His friends and family lined up to help him pull.

Money for Maths  -At home, you could make your child aware of the value of everyday items. Someone in my grade said an ice-cream would be worth $200. And I said I wouldn’t be buying that ice-cream because it would be too expensive!

Have a great mid-year holiday everyone.

Middle Class

This week in the Middle Classroom we have been winding down ready for the end of term, and we can’t wait for a well deserved rest. We have had some great drawing and colouring happening and even a few competitive games of Rummy-O and UNO!

In Reading we have been working on the scaffolding literacy approach for our book Light the Lamps by Margaret Wild. We have been identifying the elements of love in the book to relate to Religion. It is symbolised through the darkened rooms by a stepmother not being able to show love to her full capacity due to the want of having her own child. The book ends in her realising how much love she has to give to the child, although not her own. She is now showing love to her full capacity and the rooms of the house are blazing with light and warmth once more.

In Writing we have been working on producing patterned sentences from our shared book as well as pulling all the information from our information reports together to present as a poster.

In Maths we have continued to work with fractions and identify different types of fractions. We have been colouring, ordering and making fractions using many different things. One of our favourite activities was using playdoh to make a pizza, which we cut into eighths and then shared them around the room, identifying how much of our new pizza we swapped with different people. We also cut a playdoh pizza in halves, quarters and eighths and had to decorate the amounts of the pizza in different coloured toppings to show how much each fraction of the pizza is.

In Religion we worked with the Junior Class to present the posters that we worked on together last week. We learnt a lot about each other and how we can work together with others that have a different understanding of a topic.

In Art we have created a dragonfly and a ladybug using a how to draw tutorial. We had to follow the directions and try to keep up. The bugs look great and we used our knowledge of bugs from last week's book to have a discussion and talk about them as we drew and coloured them. 

Have a wonderful and restful break with your families and we can’t wait to see you all refreshed for a new term in a couple of weeks!

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Last week we were busy crafting in between all of our learning. We have almost finished our door display that will be shown around town during August. We also hosted assembly and loved presenting some of our work.

In Reading we were reading Bugs, Bugs, Bugs, an information report that also has a narrative storyline to it. We discovered some incredible facts about bugs.

In Writing we were transferring our knowledge of information reports from reading into our own information reports. We were busy finding and gathering information on our choice of animals and then compiling it all together with pictures and beautiful handwriting to present on a poster.

In Maths we worked on fractions, sharing objects and collections into halves, quarters, eighths, fifths and thirds, and discovering what a fraction is and what denominators and numerators are.

In Religion we worked with the F-1 class to create posters about our unit of Love. We  remembered what we have learnt over the unit and brought this together with the information from the F-1’s to create posters to display our learning.

Senior Class

We are all looking forward to a break and a chance to refresh and recharge during the holidays. The Seniors were very lucky to go on an excursion to the Wheeler farm last Friday as part of our work with Mr Keller on farm safety. Students checked out the machinery, met the farm dogs and explored the shearing shed. It was a new experience to some of the students and we sincerely thank Nathan and Kristie for the opportunity and the hot milo for morning “smoko”.

We take this chance to say good luck to Maddison at her new school next term and beyond. We will all miss you, but know that you are not far away and that you will make many more new friends.

Little Joey

This week we continue to acknowledge the significant role of the "Brown Joeys" in the establishment of St Patrick's School, and recognised Gu Thay Paw with a Little Joey award.

Our Little Joeys receive a certificate, sticker and a voucher/goods donated by a local business.  We are very grateful for the contributions from our local businesses. 

Reading Achievements

The following students were recognised this week for their reading achievements:

 25 nights -  Ma Thay Thay

50 nights - Marnie, Ma Thay Thay

 75 nights -  Kaw Mu, Hannah G, Doh Wah Htoo, Hannah E,  Nelson, Amity, David

100 nights - Xavier, Nile

125 nights - Tyler, Olive

Important Dates and Reminders

Term Dates

Term 3 11 July to 16 September

Term 4   3 October to 20 December

Reminders

Lunch Orders

Lunch orders should be written onto an envelope with correct money sealed inside.  Please don’t use plastic bags or waxed bags.  The writing wipes off these and the staff at the bakery find it hard to read.

Parent Access Module (PAM)

We strongly encourage parents to use the Parent Access Module PAM (SIMON Everywhere) to inform us of student absences. These notes can be set in advance (if, for example, you know that your child will be absent a week in the future). Notes written in the diary are for communicating with teachers. Absent notes need to be directed to the office.

Please speak with office staff if you have any questions about PAM.

Simon Everywhere

The Simon Everywhere app delivers instant notifications to parents' mobile phones, delivering the functionality of PAM (SIMON Parent Access Module) in an easy to navigate app.  

We request that all parents please download the Simon Everywhere app, add St Patrick's School, Nhill and login using your existing PAM credentials.  

We will use Simon Everywhere for all important notifications.  

You will be able to manage all your day-to-day school needs from the Simon Everywhere app - notify us of absences, view the lunch orders menu, read the newsletter ...

Please contact the office with any questions.

Bus notes

Parents of bus travelling students please note that Nhill College has requested that any changes to travel arrangements (e.g. if you are picking up your child after school) be notified before 3.00pm on that day.  You can do this by -

• calling our school office 53911575
• sending an email to principal@spnhill.catholic.edu.au or krintoule@spnhill.catholic.edu.au
• use the Bus Change Notification Form on their website - this is a quick and easy process on your mobile phone (hint: add this as a quick link on your phone's home screen)

Remember to follow us on Facebook

Those who are on Facebook are encouraged to follow our page at St Patrick's School, Nhill.  'Like' our page, enjoy our posts, and share them with your friends.  Stay connected through our Social Media page.

Coronavirus information

Face masks

• Face masks, while recommended, are not required in any school setting. This means students in Years 3 to 6, staff and visitors in primary schools are no longer required to wear face masks. 
• Any student or staff member who wishes to wear a mask may, however, do so.
• Everyone over 8-years-old must wear a face mask when travelling to and from school on school bus services,  public transport, taxis or rideshare vehicles.

Screening requirements

• Students and staff who have tested positive for COVID-19, and have completed their 7-day isolation period, now do not need to undertake rapid antigen test (RAT) screening for 12 weeks after their release from isolation. This was previously 8 weeks.

Household contacts

• Students and staff who are household contacts of a COVID-19 case are no longer required to quarantine. They can return to school as long as they undertake rapid antigen tests (RAT) 5 times within their 7-day period and wear face masks indoors if they are aged 8 and above unless they have a valid exemption.
• Household contacts are required to inform the school that they are attending during the 7 day period.   
• If any household contact returns a positive RAT result during this period, they must isolate for 7 days and not attend school.
• Students who report a positive result must isolate for seven days and not attend school during that period. 
• If a student tests positive or is a household contact of someone who tests positive, the school must be notified as soon as possible. They must also  follow the Checklist for COVID cases.

Vaccination requirements for visitors to schools

• Parents, carers and other adult visitors (not performing work) are no longer required to show evidence of two doses of COVID-19 vaccine.  

RAT screening program extension

• RATS are required by students who are household contacts to attend school (5 negative tests over a 7-day period), or who have symptoms.
• Please contact the school office if you require another RAT kit.
  

Practise good hygiene

• All staff, students and visitors to schools should undertake regular hand hygiene, particularly on arrival to school, before and after eating, after blowing their nose, coughing, sneezing or using the toilet.
• Hand sanitiser is available at entry points to classrooms.
• Sharing of food is not permitted.

The most important action school communities can take to reduce the risk of transmission of COVID-19 is to ensure that any unwell staff, parents / carers and students do not attend school sites even with the mildest of symptoms and get tested.

School Advisory Council

Parent Representatives

Helen Cannell

Moo Khu James

Zanther McEldrew

Emily Gladdis

Nathan Wheeler

Appointed Representatives

Ann Munro - Parish

Ex Officio

Mons. Glynn Murphy - Parish Priest

Kingsley Dalgleish - Principal

Next Meeting

Tuesday, 19 July 2022, 7.30pm

Our Mission

Community News

Nhill Kindergarten & Long Day Care Open Days

Over 3- Long Day Care - Tuesday 12th July, 2.30-3.30pm

Under 3- Long Day Care - Thursday 14th July, 1.30-2.30pm

3- and 4-Year-Old Kinder - Thursday 14th July, 2.30-3.30pm

Horsham Regional Art Gallery - School Holiday Program

SCHOOL HOLIDAY PROGRAM Tuesday June 28 & July 5: 

• Mini Makers Storytime session for 0-5 yo Tuesday June 28 from 10-10.45am. Theme.......Earth Elements (Primary School siblings welcome to attend) cost $5 per family

• Art Gallery School Holiday Program for 6-12 yo Tuesday June 28 from 1-2.30pm. Theme ... Big and Little, collage and drawing, collaborate and create! This session is all about little critters and how we can be inspired to create artworks in response to them. Cost $12 per child.

AND ............this is the really exciting part!

• Art Gallery Workshop Tuesday July 5,  1-3pm for Teenagers /Adults.  Artist lead workshop with proud Wotjobaluk woman Gail Harradine in collaboration with Belinda Eckermann and their exhibition “Mali marrng Mallee sky”. Be inspired to create a piece of small wearable art. Cost $25 per participant .

BOOKINGS ARE ESSENTIAL SO CALL THE GALLERY ON 5382 9575 OR GO ONLINE USING THE LINK BELOW. 
These workshops are supported by the Victorian Department of Education and Training.

Horsham Town Hall - "The Listies"

Hilarious, ridiculous fun for your kids that will have the whole family in stitches. 

THURSDAY 30 JUNE 10:30AM
BOOK NOW!

Uniting - School Holiday Workshop for kids in Years 6, 7, 8 & 9