Newsletter 2022/34 ~ 11 November 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

Remembrance Day

On the 11th day 

of the 11th month 

at the 11th hour, 

at this time each year, we join our fellow Australians and people around the world in respectful, silent reflection, as we remember the tragedy of World War I and the sacrifice made by the men and women who have served there and in other wars that our country has been involved in. 

We pause, 

we reflect and, with grateful thanks, 

we remember them.

CURRENT & RECENT EVENTS

Remembrance Day Liturgy

To mark Remembrance Day today, we held a Liturgy in the hall for the whole school.  I congratulate the students for the manner in which they displayed respect for the occasion and thank all who participated in the presentation of the Liturgy.

Penola

To coincide with the studies that have been done in Religious Education recently, we had a whole school excursion to Penola on Tuesday.  It was great to be able to see where the young Mary MacKillop met with Fr Julian Tenison Woods and the Josephite Sisters’ journey began.  Fr Matt also met us in Penola and joined us for our visit of the museum, as well as addressing us in the Church.

Auslan

Unfortunately our planned day yesterday with Auslan in the West and Our Lady Help of Christians School had to be postponed due to illness of our presenters.  We are hopeful that they may be able to reschedule before the end of the current school year.

Foundation 2023

Today we had our second visit from our 2023 Foundation students.  Last Friday they were with us until recess time and today they were at St Patrick’s until lunchtime.  When they return next Friday, they will stay for the whole day.

Gifting Mass

Last Christmas, our school donated non-perishable food items, gift cards and monetary contributions to help families in need in the lead up to Christmas. West Wimmera Health Service and local services were astounded by our generosity and again welcome our assistance in this area. We are asking St Patrick’s families, if they are able to do so, to contribute items to make up hampers for local families.

Non-perishable food items, IGA gift cards or monetary contributions can be sent to school and/or monetary or gift cards contributions made at the office.

These gifts will be presented during our Gifting Mass on Tuesday 29 November.

Rising COVID cases

The Department of Health has reached out to DOBCEL to indicate that they are seeing rising trends in presentations of COVID cases across the health systems.  This is also the case here in Nhill. 

Members of our school community are reminded that if you are experiencing symptoms to please stay home. Please continue to encourage your children to optimise social distancing when possible and practice good hand hygiene.

Rapid Antigen Test (RAT) kits were sent home with students last week and more are still available from school if you require them.  Anyone who wishes to wear a facemask is encouraged to do so.

Auslan in action

How wonderful to hear from a parent this morning that her children had been playing and met a deaf girl from another school.  "When our two children began communicating with this girl using Auslan, it brought tears to the girl’s mother's eyes who was most grateful that children are learning Auslan at school, and that her daughter was able to communicate with other children as they played together."

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 this week.  Stella (Joseph), Jonas (Patrick) and Ben (Patrick) were randomly drawn from the names listed for Respect, Responsibility and Safety respectively, and have added tokens to their respective Houses' tallies.

UPCOMING EVENTS

Lions Peace posters on display

This year’s Lions Peace Posters will be on display at Gallery Centre from next Tuesday.  Call in and have a look at the creations of our talented students.

Sunday’s Gospel

Luke 20:27-38

Jesus combined two basic and profound teachings in one proclamation — married life on earth and resurrected life in heaven. The Sadducees had rejected the resurrection and tried to trap Jesus in a contradiction by using an example of marriage. They asked: If seven brothers married the same woman and then they all died and rose to heaven, whose wife would she be? Jesus dispelled their trickery by stating their desired answer was none of the above. His reply was that there is no marriage in heaven; so, it was a moot question — “ unto death do us part.” Marriage certainly can be a beautiful and loving union of two people on earth. Resurrection, however, is an intimate, glorious and eternal union of all people with God in heaven.

The Sadducees who posed their question to Jesus—which of the seven brothers would this woman have to marry once everyone had died?—did not remotely care which brother it was. Theirs was not an honest question, arising from a genuine desire to know what Jesus thought. The Sadducees were famous for not believing in the resurrection of the dead, so why would they be concerned about a dead woman and her many dead husbands? Obviously, this was a “gotcha” question, intended to make Jesus look like a fool. The implication was: your theory about eternal life is WAY too complicated. Look at all the troublesome family ties that would have to be factored in. 

But Jesus was not one to be trapped by crafty legalists. You may be very smart, he said, but what happens after death is something beyond your ability to comprehend. Our life in God is a beautiful, mysterious thing; trying to explain it in strictly human terms is impossible.

Reflection by Fr Peter Hudson

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

Junior Class

This week we travelled to Penola to understand more about our school heritage, and finished off today with the Kinder transition morning. The junior students enjoyed join in playtime games with them. On-line testing in the subjects of Reading and Mathematics has taken place also. Our shared story has been the rather funny farmyard tale titled, What the Ladybird Said by Julia Donaldson. The students are glad that the ladybird’s idea saved the prize cow from the robbers. We have started our wonderful story called Fluke and will follow our patterned writing into next week.

Middle Class

It’s good to be back in the Middle Class after only one day with them last week. From all accounts the 'middles' were amazing and respectful children for Mrs Dickinson and Mrs Bell while I was away on camp with the seniors.

This week we are working on the book Boy by Phil Cummings. It’s an interesting book about how a boy can’t hear and he uses “dancing hands, pictures and drawings” to communicate with those around them. We have been relating this book to our real life and how we are learning Auslan. We even saw the sign for thank you being used in the book.

In Writing we have been writing narratives and have had some wonderful creative sentences and words used within our pieces.

In Maths we are learning about time, relating digital and analogue time to each other.

On Tuesday we travelled to Penola to learn more about Saint Mary MacKillop. It was wonderful to see how much information we retained about Mary from our learning during Religion last term. 

We are excited to have the Year 1 students join us again this Friday, as well as Mr Robarts. The Kinder children are at school and Miss Williams and Mrs Creek will be working with them and the Foundation students for the day. What a great learning opportunity it will be for us to get to know more about our Year 1s.

Senior Class

We have had another great week of fun activities and learning  in the senior classroom this week. On Monday we started on-line testing for Reading and this continued during the week for Maths and Spelling. On Tuesday we travelled to Penola to learn more about Mary McKillop and the heritage of the school. Here are some short recounts of the day from a few of the senior students:

by Georgia

On Tuesday the 8th of November we went to Penola to see where Mary McKillop grew up with her sisters. We also learnt about Fr. Julian Tenison Woods. Mary McKillop was Australia’s first saint. The bus trip took two hours to get there. 

by AJ

On Tuesday our school went to Penola to visit Mary McKillop. We went to check out the school she made. We saw magazines of her and other people. Mary McKillop was the very first saint in Australia.

by Riley

On November the 8th we went to Penola where Mary McKillop lived, because Mary was originally from Melbourne, Victoria. She later moved to Penola, SA. While in Penola we went to the school that she started. We saw a cabin where they used to live. After that we saw photos of Mary in the gallery and we went to the church. When we left we went to the park to play and eat.

Little Joey Awards

This week we continue to acknowledge the significant role of the "Brown Joeys" in the establishment of St Patrick's School, and recognised  Hser Wah 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:

100 nights - Oscar

125 nights - Caleb

150 nights - Hannah G.

175 nights - Xavier

250 nights - Tyler

Important Dates and Reminders

All calendar dates are available on PAM (SIMON Everywhere)

Term Dates

Term 4   3 October to 20 December (Students' last day is Friday, 16 December)

School Calendar

NOVEMBER

Friday 18

Forward to Foundation (Kinder) Transition Program 8.55 am - 3.15 pm

Tuesday 22

SAC Meeting 7.30pm

Friday 25

Forward to Foundation (Kinder) Transition Program 8.55 am - 1.00 pm

Tuesday 29

Gifting Mass 2.00pm

DECEMBER

Thursday 1 - Friday 2

Middle Class Camp

Friday 2

Forward to Foundation (Kinder) Transition Program 8.55 am - 1.00 pm

Monday 5

Dental Health Van Visit #2

Tuesday 6

SAC Annual Meeting 7.30pm

Friday 16

Students' last day (dismissal time 3.15pm)

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.

You can find the lunch orders menu in PAM (SIMON Everywhere): - >Home, scroll down to >Knowledge Bank, >Parent Documents, >Action, >Preview

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

Links / Information

COVID-19 Update

Changes to Pandemic Orders (from 12 October)

The Victorian Government has announced the end of the pandemic declaration and associated pandemic orders. New settings will apply from 11.59 pm on Wednesday 12 October 2022.

Isolation & reporting requirements

Parents/carers should inform the school (by phone 53911575 or 0419929271, or in writing principal@spnhill.catholic.edu.au)

Students who test positive for COVID-19 -

• should stay home and isolate for a minimum of 5 days
• should not attend school after 5 days if still symptomatic, e.g. runny nose, sore throat, cough, shortness of breath, fever, chills, or sweats
• who are symptomatic but have not tested positive should not attend school.

Where students become symptomatic at school, they should be collected by their parents/carers and undergo testing for COVID-19.

COVID-19 reporting requirements

• Report a positive RAT to the Department of Health online (link is provided below)
• Inform those with whom they have recently been in contact, including their workplace, school and household.

Face masks

• School-aged children are encouraged to wear face masks indoors in a public space or outside in a crowded place where they can't physically distance. 
• Face masks will continue to be available for staff, students and visitors. 

The Department of Health recommends that 

• masks should be worn by a person who is a close contact of someone who has tested positive for COVID-19 when leaving home. 
• masks should be worn by a person who has COVID-19 for 10 days after a positive test when they need to leave home. 

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 will continue to be available for staff, students and visitors.

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