Newsletter 2022/29 ~ 7 October 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.
St. Patrick's School is a child safe school.
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
Welcome back to Term 4.
I hope that all families have had an enjoyable and safe school holiday break. The majority of the children returned refreshed in readiness for the last term of the year and it was pleasing to see just how many were excited about being back at school.
Loving God,
at the beginning of this new school term,
we ask you to bless us,
the students and staff of St Patrick’s School,
that we may continue to grow in faith, hope and love
as we learn from you and each other
how to follow your Son, Jesus.
Give us a generous spirit
to be enthusiastic with our learning
and courage to accept new opportunities.
Jesus, inspire us to be faith filled,
respectful and resilient learners
and be the best that we can be.
Amen
CURRENT & RECENT EVENTS
Dental Health Nurse
We had a visit from the Dental Health Nurse on Monday with many of our students having visits to the van for their appointments. Unfortunately, not all students could be seen on Monday and so the nurse will be returning on a later date (of which we are yet to be advised).
Mrs Dickinson
Ms Murphy’s leave has been extended and we have welcomed another Mrs Dickinson this week. Bianca Dickinson is currently filling in in the Senior classroom. We welcome Bianca and thank her for making herself available to assist with our seniors and their learning.
Mrs Dickinson
The other Mrs Dickinson, Emma, is currently enjoying a short period of Long Service Leave but will be rejoining us again later next week.
Mr Keller
Mr Keller, meanwhile, is currently on placement at Dimboola Primary School as part of his teaching studies. We look forward to Mr Keller returning to St Patrick’s School in Week 5 of this term.
Staff Retreat
All staff members attended the Staff Retreat in Halls Gap on Thursday 15 and Friday 16 September. The Retreat was facilitated by Catholic Education Ballarat’s Jim Waight, Education Officer: Formation of Faith, and Bernadette Luckman, Education Officer: Religious Education. Staff were joined by staff members of Our Lady Help of Christians Primary School, Murtoa, for the two-day Faith Retreat which focused on Catholic Identity and Faith Formation.
The Retreat afforded us the time to explore the wisdom of the Catholic Christian tradition relating to spirituality.
Fr Matt Restall led us in Mass on the Thursday afternoon and joined us for dinner in the evening.
School Wide Positive Behaviour
During play times, staff have been monitoring for students demonstrating aspects of Respect, Responsibility and Safety within the school yard. Names are collated and shared during our weekly assemblies. Names are drawn randomly for each category and that student’s House receives a token for their House jar. The House with the most tokens later in the year will be rewarded.
Congratulations to all children who were recognised for their positive actions around the school over the last week of Term 3 and this week. Link (MacKillop), Claire (Joseph) and Do Wah (Patrick) were randomly drawn from the names listed for Respect, Responsibility and Safety, and have added tokens to their respective Houses tallies.
School Advisory Council
School Advisory Council met this week and discussed: website/promotional update, maintenance inspections (spider control, termites, playground), school uniform review, Fr Matt’s regular school visits, sacramental program, community engagement events (Nhill Show and Carols in the Park). The next meeting was set for Tuesday, 22 November and the Annual General Meeting will be held on Tuesday, 6 December.
RAT Kits & COVID-19 Update
Another supply of RAT kits has been sent home with children this week.
Summary
- RAT kits will be provided during Term 4.
- RATs are to be used when symptomatic.
- Report positive test results to Victorian Department of Health (link below).
- Report positive test (student and/or family member/close contact) to school - phone 53911575 or 0419929271, SMS 0419929271, email principal@spnhill.catholic.edu.au.
- Students who test postive must isolate for minimum of 5 days, return on day 6 if no symptoms, any symptoms after day 6 must remain in isolation, consider another RAT before return to school.
- Mask wearing - recommended indoors or outdoors where physical distancing is not possible; if leaving isolation wear a mask for the next 2-5 days; everyone (including students aged 8 years and above) must wear a face mask when travelling on public transport, taxis or rideshare vehicles; students who are household contacts must wear a mask at school (indoors).
- Practice good hygiene (hand sanitiser is provided throughout the school).
- Stay home if unwell, even with the mildest of symptoms, and get tested.
More detailed information is provided at the end of the newsletter.
BookClub Issue 7
Welcome back to Term 4 and a BUMPER Issue of Book Club! Catalogues were sent home with children yesterday.
UPCOMING EVENTS
Nhill Show
Next Thursday will be a School Closure Day for the Nhill Show. This is the first time the Show has gone ahead since 2019 so we are all hoping that it can be a successful event for the organisers and for the community generally.
Entry is free for all children under the age of 18.
All children have been involved in producing items for the Show and so I encourage all families to go along and see your children’s work as well as enjoying other aspects of the Show.
Schools have been invited to participate in the Grand Parade at 4pm. We will have our school banner there and all members of our school community including students, siblings, parents, friends are invited to join in the parade.
The Show will be held at the Nhill Showgrounds.
DOBCEL Board visit
Next Tuesday morning we will have a visit by representatives of the DOBCEL Board(Diocese of Ballarat Catholic Education Limited). DOBCEL is the Governing Authority for the majority of Catholic schools in our diocese, including St Patrick’s School.
Sunday’s Gospel Reflection
Luke 17:5-10
The Lord answered, "If you had faith as big as a mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, ‘Pull yourself up by the roots and plant yourself in the sea!’ and it would obey you."
A mustard seed is really tiny. Jesus is saying that even if we only have a small amount of faith we can do amazing things.
This reading gives us hope – that even if we just have a tiny little bit of faith, with God’s help, we can make real changes to the world around us. If we have more than we need, we can share what we have with others.
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.
By the Numbers
34
The number of Chapters in the Book of Deuteronomy in The Old Testament
It’s the silly period of the AFL year where clubs try and entice players from other clubs to come and join theirs, without wanting to lose any players of their own. And as the bartering occurs, clubs suddenly greatly increase the value of their players as they request the world for players they haven’t been able to find a place for in their own teams all year! Having said that, I hope Port can pull off all the trades and deals they are currently pursuing (but for little outlay!).
God Bless you all.
Kingsley Dalgleish
Principal
Classroom and Student News
Junior Class
Mrs Creek
The Foundation and Year 1 students have returned to school eager and excited to be back. Our big book shared story has been an adventure. The title The Fearsome, Frightening, Ferocious Box by Francess Watts and David Legge kept everyone guessing till the end. What was in the box making all that noise? At the end of the story, all the animals count to 3 and open the box. I’ll let your child tell you what unexpected thing happened.
We have returned to counting patterns, backwards and forwards through the 100 chart. We are ordering numbers and Year 1 students are using the MAB blocks to count and record numbers.
We are getting our art designs ready to enter into the Nhill Show for next week.
In Religion we have started to understand how there are lots of times we get invited to different events. Invitation is our core topic for this term.
Tegan has been using her counting skills to order numbers to 20 (pictured below).
Middle Class
Miss Williams
It has been a very exciting week coming back to school after the holidays and getting to hear everyone’s stories and events from their time away from school.
This week in Reading we are looking at the book Do Not Open This Book for Eternity, examining the nouns and verbs in this group and identifying all the different types of these kinds of words within the book.
In Writing we have been working on the correct use of punctuation. We have focussed on full stops, capital letters, commas, apostrophes and using paragraphs in our writing, and including one of these focuses in our writing each day, making sure that we can use them and remember to use them when we need to.
In Maths we have been learning division. Some of the language used and what it means can be confusing. Manipulatives, such as play dough, can help us to see how many times a number can be divided into a total number (and maybe some left over). We have also been looking at how multiplication and division are related, and how we can use our multiplication knowledge to help with division.
We have begun our new unit of Invitation for Religion this term; looking at what an invitation is, and remembering the times that we have been invited somewhere or invited someone else, and how that has made us feel.
This term's Art unit is media art. We were excited on Monday to use our iPads to take photos and learn how to edit and add text to them in iMovie.
Reading Achievements
The following students were recognised this week for their reading achievements:
75 nights - Ma Thay Thay, Sienna
100 nights - Declan, Tegan
125 nights - Hannah G, AJ
200 nights - Olive
Important Dates and Reminders
Term Dates
Term 4 3 October to 20 December
School Calendar
OCTOBER
Thursday 13
Local public holiday - Nhill Show (school closure day)
Monday 31
Student Free Day - Staff Professional Development
NOVEMBER
Wednesday 2 - Friday 4
Senior Camp
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.
Wimmera Bakery has advised that they have recently reviewed their prices, and the price of some items will increase in the near future. We will provide an updated price list when this happens.
Parent Access Module PAM / SIMON Everywhere
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.
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.
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, 22 November at 7.30pm
- AGM Tuesday, 6 December at 7.30pm
Our Mission
Community News
Nhill Heritage Weekend
Links / Information
COVID-19 Update
Rapid antigen testing / Isolating / Leaving Isolation
- The Victorian Government is providing further deliveries of rapid antigen tests in Term 4 to schools.
- It is recommended that rapid antigen tests are used by students and staff when symptomatic.
- If staff or students receive a positive test result at any time, they must report this through the Department of Health system (Rapid antigen tests | Coronavirus Victoria) or via the coronavirus hotline at 1800 675 398, and isolate for at least 5 days or up to 7 days.
- Students (or their parents) must also report a positive result to their school by phone or written notification; this is so the school can support them, record that they will be absent while in isolation, and let the rest of the school community know there has been a positive case onsite and that they should monitor for symptoms.
- Students who report a positive result must isolate for 5 days and not attend school until their symptoms resolve.
- Any student or staff member who tests positive to COVID-19 must now isolate for a minimum of 5 days. If they are asymptomatic, they may return to school on day 6. If they are symptomatic, they must remain in isolation until day 7. If they have symptoms after 7 days, they are strongly advised to stay home until their symptoms have resolved.
- As an additional risk mitigation, the Department of Health strongly recommends that you wear a face mask away from home indoors and outdoors when you cannot physically distance. If you are leaving isolation on day 6, wear a mask for 5 days but particularly the first 2 days. If you are leaving isolation on day 7, wear a mask for 4 days but particularly the first 2 days.
- Consider taking rapid antigen tests before attending a workplace, including schools, sensitive settings or visiting people at higher risk of severe illness. If you are positive, stay home.
- Where a student is a household contact of a positive case (that is, they have spent more than four hours with someone who has COVID-19 inside a house, accommodation, or care facility) they must inform the school. Household and household-like contacts are no longer required to quarantine as long as they take additional safety measures in the 7 days that would have been their quarantine period (see Table 1). If household contacts do not undertake the safety measures they are required to isolate and test on Day 1 and Day 6 of isolation. Household contacts are required to inform the school that they are attending during the 7 day period.
Face masks
- Current advice from the Victorian Government on the wearing of face masks is available here: https://www.coronavirus.vic.gov.au/face-masks.
- Wearing a face mask can help protect you and those around you. Face masks stop droplets spreading when you talk, cough, sneeze and laugh, which lowers your chance of spreading or catching the virus.
- The advice strongly recommends the wearing of face masks in indoor settings (noting that exceptions to the recommendation apply to teaching circumstances when clear enunciation or visibility of the mouth is essential) or outside where physical distancing is not possible.
- As an additional risk mitigation, it is strongly recommended by the Department of Health that anyone leaving isolation on day 6 or 7, wears a face mask indoors away from home, and outdoors where they cannot physically distance. For those leaving isolation on day 6, wear a mask for 5 days but particularly the first 2 days. For those who are leaving isolation on day 7, wear a mask for 4 days but particularly the first 2 days.
- Everyone including students aged 8 years and above must wear a face mask when travelling on public transport, taxis or rideshare vehicles.
- If face masks are required, they should be worn for up to four hours and replaced after this time.
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.
Stay home if unwell
- 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.
Links
https://www.coronavirus.vic.gov.au/checklist-cases