Newsletter 2024/10 ~ 19 April 2024

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 to Term 2! 

I hope everyone had a happy Easter and a restful break.  We are entering the longest term of the school year, however we hope that it may be filled with many opportunities to celebrate faith, families, community and fun as we continue to grow and learn together at St Patrick’s School. 

Remember to keep a look out for the newsletter each week. This is our main form of communication so it’s the best way to keep in touch with all that is happening at our great school. 

Let’s have a terrific term everyone!

CURRENT & RECENT EVENTS

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Nhill Air Show

The Nhill Aerodrome was a hive of activity last Saturday as the Air Show literally flew into town.  Members of our SAC arranged a food stall at the event and sold homemade brownies and waffles topped with ice cream and syrup.  The stall was kept busy throughout the whole day - even after some other stalls had run out of food by midday!

Thank you to all who were able to assist on the day and ensure that it was a great fundraising venture for our school.  We haven’t determined the final figure of how much was raised on the day yet but it was a substantial moment.  These funds will go towards supporting programs for all students at St Patrick’s School.

Year 3-6 Athletics

Our contingent of students competed very well in the Nhill College Athletics Sports on Tuesday.  We had several outstanding individual results, including establishing new records, as well as our overall rating on the day.

We haven’t received the full results as yet and so will include full details in next week’s newsletter.

Thank you to Mrs Bell, Ms Farnham, Mrs Pilgrim, Mrs Hamilton and Mrs Dickinson for their efforts and supervision on the day.

Freestyle Dance Ministry

We were once again blessed to be able to welcome Justin Siedel and Freestyle Dance Ministry back to our school yesterday.  Justin has been a regular visitor over the past four years and the children are always delighted to see him again.

Justin took all of the students through a range of dance routines.  The students definitely have better coordination and movement than what someone was able to display with his ‘Dad Dance’ moves!!!

Auslan PD

Mrs Kupper and Ms Farnham attended an Auslan Professional Learning day in Ballarat on Monday.  Auslan is now being taught in 17 Catholic primary schools across our Diocese.  Some eagle-eyed viewers may have spotted our two staff members on WIN News on Monday night.

Building Update

During the holidays we had visits from a number of professionals in relation to our building project.  Survey and Services scans were completed; Geotechnical Engineers completed some site works; and the Architect came to take further measurements and photographs.

We are currently holding fortnightly meetings between the school, the architects and Catholic Education Ballarat as we continue to plan for our project which is due to go to tender later in the year with the intention that the works will commence before the end of the school year.

Fr Sajan Matthew

Our Parish farewelled Fr Matt during the holidays and welcomed Fr Sajan.  Some will have already met Fr Sajan at Mass last weekend, however as a school we extend our welcome to him as we look forward to meeting him in the near future.

Fr Matt has sent his best wishes to everyone as we commence our next school term.

UPCOMING EVENTS

SWPBS  Winners - Patrick!

Congratulations to Patrick who won the SWPBS draw for Term 1.  This week, House members decided to have a Waffles and Ice Cream treat for everyone today, combined with an afternoon of Tee-Ball.

Cemetery Flags

The Nhill RSL Cemetery Flags project has been a joint venture between a number of groups and our senior students have been invited to assist as well.  The RSL is placing flags around the Nhill Cemetery and smaller flags on the graves of those who served.

Senior students will be placing flags on veterans graves tonight between 4pm and 5pm.

The official opening of the Nhill RSL Flags project will take place this Sunday at 2 pm at the Nhill Cemetery. There will be a remembrance service as well as the Light Horse Re-enactment Society marching through the cemetery. 

Please arrive 15 mins before the starting time to ensure everyone is in place for the event.

ANZAC Day

Next Thursday is a School Closure Day for ANZAC Day.  Students are invited to march in the parade as we pay our respects to all who have served.  Those who are able to attend are asked to gather by the Information Centre in Goldsworthy Park by 10.10am in readiness for the 10.30am march.  Students are asked to wear their school uniform for the march and commemorative service.

Mrs Rintoule Returns

Mrs Rintoule has been relaxing during a few weeks of well-deserved Long Service Leave. She and her husband have been travelling in Italy and Switzerland and she has shared some photos that show some of the beautiful scenery they have been enjoying.  Mrs Rintoule will return to school on Tuesday (I hope!).

Thank you to Bridie Curran from DOBCEL who has been assisting in the office this week.

Catholic Education Week

Catholic Education Week will be celebrated across the Diocese from Sunday 28 April to Friday 3 May.

Catholic Education Week is an annual opportunity for the 63 Catholic schools across the Diocese of Ballarat to celebrate their achievements and distinctive ethos with their school and wider communities.

The week takes on special significance this year as our community of schools acknowledges the 150th Anniversary of the formation of the Catholic Diocese of Ballarat with the theme:

Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction and faithful in prayer. (Romans 12:12)

This year we will be hosting St Joseph’s Hopetoun, St Mary’s Warracknabeal and Our Lady Help of Christians Murtoa.  Arrangements for the day are still to be confirmed.

Classroom and Student News

Junior Class Report

Welcome back to Term 2! It has been fantastic to see so many smiling faces this week and hearing all about the wonderful holiday break families had. This term is an 11-week term. Like every other term, there is a lot going on within the school. Already this week we have had our Year 3-6 students’ athletics day, Freestyle Dance Ministry, and celebrated Patrick’s house winning in Term 1 with a yummy and fun afternoon eating waffles and ice-cream, and playing T-ball.

Wonderful learning has been taking place in the classrooms. This week in F/1, the Green Group in InitiaLit have learned a new sound - /i/. Combined with their previous learned letters, /m/, /s/, /t/, /a/ and /p/, they are beginning to read and write words independently. The Blue Group have been focusing on the digraphs /ee/, /ea/ and /oa/ and have been looking at the tricky words ‘many’, ‘any’ and ‘who’. Tricky words are taught and used throughout the year to practise reading tricky words (phonically irregular words).

In Mathematics, the Foundation students have been learning to organise objects into simple data displays, recognise quantities by sight, counting and naming numbers in sequence, explore the relative position of 1 to 10, and write numerals before and after 1 to 9. The Year 1 students have begun looking at addition, in particular, how numbers are balanced, the equality symbol (=), the addition symbol (+) and using the commutative property of addition.

To all the wonderful mothers and special people out there, your special day is just around the corner! Please keep an eye out for something special happening in Week 4.

Have a fabulous weekend!

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. This week Sophie, April and K'Lu Doh Soe were randomly drawn from the nominations for Respect, Responsibility and Safety, and have added tokens to their respective Houses' tallies. 

Little Joey Awards

We continue to acknowledge the significant role of the "Brown Joeys" in the establishment of St Patrick's School, and recognised Olive and Charlotte M 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 for their reading achievements:

25 nights - Amity, Shalom, Freddie, April, Samual, Brodyn, Agnes, Elvi, Bethany, Avery, Srishti

50 nights - Liberty, Tegan, Olive, Charlotte K, Jody, Tyler

75 nights - Tegan, Declan

School Advisory Council

Parent Representatives

• Rebecca Curtis 
• Emily Gladdis
• Moo Khu James
• Michaela Koop
• Zanther McEldrew
• Ashleigh Meyer

Ex Officio

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

Meeting Dates

• Tuesday, 30 April 2024, 7:30pm
  
• Tuesday, 23 July 2024, 7:30pm
• Tuesday, 15 October 2024, 7:30pm

Dates and Reminders

School Calendar

April

Thu 25 - ANZAC Day Public Holiday

Mon 29 Apr - Fri 3 May - Catholic Education Week

Tues 30 - SAC Meeting 

May

Fri 10 - Walk Safely to School Day

Mon 13 - Little Desert Cross Country (Nhill)

June

Mon 10 - King's Birthday Public Holioday

Fri 28 - End of Term 2

St Patrick's Nhill

Church Times

11:00am Mass each Sunday

Our Mission

Child Safe Standards

Community News

SchoolTV

This year, World Health Day fell on 7 April, during the holidays. The focus for this year is My Health, My Right, chosen to champion the rights of individuals to have access to health services, education and conditions conducive to good health. 

Physical activity and exercise is not only vital to a child’s overall development but it has so many other benefits. With children spending more time on computers being sedentary, it is even more important to get kids moving more. As well as maintaining a healthy weight, it also improves concentration by helping to establish connections between different parts of the brain. It helps kids develop fundamental movement skills impacting positively on their confidence, self-esteem and ability to develop social skills. On an emotional level, it reduces stress and anxiety while improving posture and sleep. Physical activity and exercise is good for your child’s health, now and in the future. Parents should encourage their kids to move or play sport at every opportunity – in and out of school. 

Now is the perfect time to think about how we can incorporate more ‘active time’ into each day. School TV has lots of great information to support parents and carers in having these conversations with their children.  

Reminders

Parent Access Module PAM / SIMON Everywhere

The Parent Access Module PAM (SIMON Everywhere) is our "go-to" for all parent information. Download the SIMON Everywhere app from the app store on your mobile phone and login using your PAM credentials.

Simon Everywhere 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 Simon Everywhere, including:

• notify us of absences;
• view the school calendar;
• provide permission for student activities;
• update medical/contact information;
• view the lunch orders menu; 
• read the newsletter.

Please contact the office with any questions.

Student late arrival, early departure, temporary absence procedures

All student late arrivals, early departures or temporary absences must be recorded in the Passtab iPad located in the foyer.  Please ask office staff for assistance.

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 SIMON Everywhere: - >Home, scroll down to >School Links

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)
  • we have put this link onto PAM (Simon Everywhere) >Home, scroll down to >Parent Links
• 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.

*Six simple steps to protect yourself and those most at risk

1. Wear a face mask
2. Take a test
3. Stay at home
4. Meet outdoors
5. Talk to your GP about COVID medications
6. Get vaccinated

*coronavirus.vic.gov.au

Healthy Lunch Ideas

Some recipes -