Newsletter 2023/13 ~ 19 May 2023

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

This week is National Volunteers Week, however it is also National Families Week.

A Blessing for Families.

Heavenly Father, please bless our families with Your everlasting love.
Give our families strength to overcome hardship and difficulties.
Give our families courage to admit our faults and forgive others.
Give our families joy to live life to the full and spread our joy to others.
May all families find comfort, support and guidance under Your loving care. 

Amen.

CURRENT & RECENT EVENTS

Welcome to our new families/students

This week we welcomed two families and six new enrolments to our school.  The Sawin family have moved from Werribee and the Joseph family arrived from the UK.  

We trust that Jesinta and Jayden (Year 4), William, Julian and Fabian (Year 2), and Jewel (Year 1) are settling well into our school community and have already commenced building good relationships with their peers.

SAC Meeting

The SAC met on Tuesday evening this week and discussed a number of items, including: community engagement events at school, e.g. regular parent/student/teacher lunches, family event in Term 2, Book Fair at Nhill Market; and uniform (a new jacket has been approved as described below).

In the next few weeks all families will receive an engagement survey. Please take the time to consider your contribution to the activities at our school and complete the survey by the requested date.

Uniform

A reminder that students must wear correct uniform to school each day, including plain navy pants/shorts/skort and black shoes. Refer to our Uniform Policy on the school website for full details. 

Exciting news! New uniform available

As mentioned earlier, the School Advisory Council has approved a new item of uniform which is available to order now - a royal blue soft shell jacket with school logo (see photos below). If parents wish to purchase this jacket to be worn this winter we strongly encourage you to call into Cambrelles and place your order as soon as possible (preferably by the end of next week) as there may be a 4 week wait for delivery. Price is $50.

The current microfibre jacket will be removed from the Optional Items list. Students can continue to wear this jacket for the time being.

Lost property

We are continually finding items of uniforms at school without names and these sit in our lost/found box for some time unclaimed. This is another reminder to parents to please name each item of clothing which your child wears to school so that it can be easily returned to its owner if misplaced. The simplest way to do this is using permanent marker on the white tag in the clothes, or you can buy pre-printed iron-on labels from any number of suppliers on the internet. Long-term unclaimed items will be added to our supply of second-hand uniform.

Work Experience Student

We have been fortunate to have former St Patrick’s student, Plot Nyo working with us this week as part of her Year 10 Work Experience with St Brigid’s College.  Plot has been working predominantly in the Junior classroom but has also been actively involved with yard duties as well.

UPCOMING EVENTS

Catholic Education Week

Catholic Education Week will be celebrated across Australia during the coming week.

As mentioned last week, we will be travelling to Hopetoun to join with students from our cluster schools on Wednesday. 

Our students will participate in activities with students from the other schools, relating to this year’s theme of “Let the words you speak always be full of Grace” (Col 4:6).

Next Wednesday also coincides with National Simultaneous Storytime and so all children will join in with the presentation of the story "The Speedy Sloth", by Rebecca Young and Heath McKenzie. 

A Liturgy will follow and then, after lunch, students will travel back to school.

St Joseph’s Primary School, Hopetoun, will be providing lunch for all students.  They will, however, need to take their own water bottle and snacks.

Permission requests for this excursion have been submitted to parents through PAM and are required to be completed by next Monday.

PSG Meetings

A reminder to PSG families that these meetings will take place on Monday 22 May.  If you have not already booked an appointment, these need to be done by this afternoon. 

Please note that if you have not received an email about this, then it does not apply to you or your child.

Miss Squires Leave

Families may have noticed an advert in this week’s Nhill Free Press or The Weekly Advertiser for a teaching position at our school for Terms 3 and 4 this year.  Miss Squires (Years 2-4) is taking leave for Second Semester and so we require someone to fill in during her absence.

Child Safe Standards

All students enrolled at St Patrick’s School have the right to feel safe and be safe. The safety and wellbeing of children in the school’s care will always be our first priority and the school will not tolerate child abuse. The school will create a child-safe and child-friendly environment where children are free to enjoy life to the full without any concern for their safety. Particular attention is paid to the most vulnerable children and young people, including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children, those from culturally and/or linguistically diverse backgrounds, children with a disability, children who are unable to live at home, international students, and LGBTQIA+ students. The full policy can be accessed via our school’s website: https://spnhill.catholic.edu.au/policies-procedures

The school’s Child Safety Officer is the Principal, Mr Kingsley Dalgleish.

All parents and volunteers that are onsite when students are onsite, or attend school events, are required to hold a Working with Children Check (WWCC) and sign the school’s Child Safety Code of Conduct. If we do not have a current copy of your WWCC, please present your card to the office for photocopying. We will endeavour to get all families to sign the code of conduct in the very near future.

We are committed to continuous improvement in our approach to child safety and well-being and welcome feedback from families and members of our school community on ways we can further strengthen our child safety policies, procedures, and practices. If you have any suggestions, comments, or questions, please contact the Principal either by phone or email principal@spnhill.catholic.edu.au

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

The number of countries that make up the British Commonwealth.

Classroom and Student News

Junior Class

This week in the Junior Class we welcomed a new student, Jewel, to our mix! We also hosted our first assembly for this term to show off all that we have been working on so far.

In Reading we have been working on the book ‘Feathers for Phoebe’ by Rod Clement. It is an exciting book about how Phoebe tried to be noticed and got all dressed up, and still no one noticed her. In the end Phoebe fell, lost all her new feathers and and was finally noticed for just being herself. We also made our own crests and showed these off with the first half of the book in assembly.

In Writing our Foundation students have been working on writing sentences and correctly forming letters. Our sentences for this week have been ‘They are in bed.’ and ‘This bit of my leg is bent.’ Year 1 students have continued to write narratives and have had a focus on planning their work first before beginning to write. This means that we can come back to our story when writing and be able to remember what we were up to or what we might have been writing.

In Maths we have continued with addition. Year 1s played a game using our knowledge and facts up to 20. This means that we have been able to talk and discuss about what our answers are and be able to justify how and why we got an answer. Foundation students have continued to work on represent addition up to 10 using number line and tens frames.

Middle Class

What an exciting week we have had in the Middles class! On Monday we warmly welcomed five new students to our class. In Year 2 we welcome Fabian, Julian and William and Year 4 we welcome Jesinta and Jayden. I hope you all have had a pleasant first week at St Pat’s.

In the classroom this week:

Reading: searching and naming facts in our shared book, ‘Moon’. In order to find the facts we learnt about what a fact is and also what an opinion is.

Writing: using our fact finding skills we have been searching for facts on elephants, firefighters and gemstones. From here we have written our facts into sentences forming a short factual story.

Maths: we have been working on recognising that addition and subtraction are similar and that we can use the same strategies such as the split strategy, jump strategy to solve equations.

Art: this week all students were able to have a go at creating their own stop motion videos. (I hope to upload their videos to Class DoJo soon).

Integrated Studies: our focus this term is stimulating science. We are looking at howthings change, react and grow. 

Homework books were updated this week. A couple of students are yet to receive their homework books yet - these will be handed out on Monday.

I ask that all homework books be returned to school on Fridays, please, so they can be corrected and then sent home again on Mondays. Thank you.

School Wide Positive Behaviour Support SWPBS

Throughout the day, staff monitor for students demonstrating aspects of Respect, Responsibility
and Safety within our school. Students are issued a ticket to place in their classroom container. During assemblies, a draw takes place and those who have their ticket drawn out are invited to place a marble in their House container. The House with the most marbles at the end of each term will be rewarded.

Congratulations to all children who were recognised for their positive actions around the school. Marnie, Treesa & Liberty (Monday's draw for last week) and AJ, Sienna and Declan (this week's draw) were randomly drawn from the nominations for Respect, Responsibility and Safety, and have added tokens to their respective Houses' tallies. 

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 Gu Thay Paw and AJ with Little Joey awards.

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:

50 nights - Charlotte K, Hannah G, Hannah E, AJ.

75 nights - Tegan, Declan.

Important Dates and Reminders

All calendar dates are available on PAM (SIMON Everywhere)

Term Dates

2023

Term 2   24 Apr to 23 Jun

Term 3   10 Jul to 15 Sep

Term 4   2 Oct to 20 Dec

School Calendar

May

Mon-Fri 22-26 Catholic Education Week

Wed 24 - Excursion: Catholic Education Week Mass, Hopetoun

June

Mon 12 - King's Birthday Public Holiday

Thu 15 - West Wimmera Lightning Premierships

Fri 23 - Last Day Term 2

Church Times

Reminders

Student late arrival, early departure, temporary absence procedures

A reminder to parents that any student late arrival, early departure or temporary absence must be recorded in the SIMON KIOSK located in the foyer.  If you have any difficulty following the instructions at the kiosk, please ask office staff.

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 >School Links

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.

The Simon Everywhere app delivers instant notifications to parents' mobile phones, delivering the functionality of PAM in an easy to navigate app.  We will use Simon Everywhere for all important notifications.  

You will be able to manage all your day-to-day school needs from PAM (Simon Everywhere) - notify us of absences, provide permission for student activities, update medical/contact information, 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 -

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

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.

What you need to know about COVID-19 in Victoria

Please visit the Coronavirus (COVID-19) Victoria website (link below) for all up-to-date information about the response to COVID-19.

• 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.
• 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.
• It is recommended that rapid antigen tests (RATs) are used by students and staff if they:
• • have symptoms of COVID-19 infection, no matter how mild
  • are a household or close contact of someone who has COVID-19
  • are a social contact of someone who has COVID-19.
• The Department of Health recommends that all Victorians report their positive RAT result via the online form or by calling 1800 675 398 and inform those with whom they have recently been in contact, including their workplace, school and household.
• Principals are no longer required to inform their school community of a positive case associated with the school.

RATs are available for all Victorians from council sites. Individuals can obtain two free packs (10 tests) for themselves and two free packs (10 tests) for each household member. People with disability and their carers can get up to four free packs (20 tests) in line with existing RAT distribution for people with disability.

School Advisory Council

Parent Representatives

• Rebecca Curtis
• Emily Gladdis
• Moo Khu James
• Michaela Koop
• Zanther McEldrew
• Nathan Wheeler

Ex Officio

• Mons. Glynn Murphy - Parish Priest
• Kingsley Dalgleish - Principal

Next Meeting

• Tuesday 18 July 2023, 7.30pm

Our Mission

Community News

Homework Club - Nhill Learning Centre

Karen families are welcome to enrol their children in the Homework Club.

When: Tuesdays during school terms

Time: 3.30 - 5.00 pm

Where: The Patch, Clarence Street, Nhill

Contact for more information:

Nan Da San Bleh Dah (Coordinator) 0469064696