Dear Parents

This week we welcomed representatives from the Bega RSL sub-branch to our assembly to congratulate our school captains on their oration at the ANZAC service and present them with a certificate. Eloise stood in for Lily who was absent on the day.

We have enjoyed the next visit of Ian Luscombe to support our school approach to student behaviours for engagement and learning. Ian’s feedback was great, he was praiseworthy of the calm classrooms and the school wide approach to our behaviour support processes. We asked Ian to look for opportunities for fine tuning our approach and will continue to implement these positive strategies for engagement.

On Tuesday, our Aboriginal Education Consultant, Kerry O’Callaghan from CE, came to speak with our Aboriginal Education Workers and our staff and to meet all our 2022 Koori Kids. Kerry facilitated our staff meeting on the theme of Cultural Competence.

Thank you to the parish men’s prayer group for cooking up a storm for our annual Mother’s Day breakfast. It was wonderful to host so many mums, grandmother's and mother figures at our breakfast today. The raffle has been drawn, congratulations to Sarah Andrews, Hannah Crockford, Karen Nelligan, Ursula Dam and Emma Lovelock on winning a box of chocolates each!

Thank you to Tam Prime for her baking up (another) storm of scones for the mother's day morning teas at home this weekend! Thank you to Carmen, Donna, Helen,  Jayde,  Ashley  and  all  the  of the other  parents  and  grandparents  who  have  helped  make  the  mother's  day  stall  a success! We are blessed to have an active fund raising committee at St Pat's. If you are interested in joining this, or one of the other committees please contact the school office or complete a form on Skoolbag.

We wish a very Happy Mother’s Day to all our Mother’s and Mother figures.

Blessings 

Jo

LIFE EDUCATION; HEALTHY HAROLD VISITS OUR SCHOOL

 The Life Education van is scheduled to visit our school from Tuesday 14th to Friday 17th of June.

Life Ed offers 12 purpose built, issue specific and age-appropriate primary school modules designed to engage, inspire and empower students. These modules are delivered face to face and cover a range of topics across the areas of physical health, safety and social and emotional wellbeing. The Life Ed program is designed to be integrated into the primary curriculum and all modules are all aligned to the NSW Curriculum Health and Physical Education Learning Area and other Learning Areas and General Capabilities.

Life Ed have professionally trained educators that come to schools and deliver primary modules. Life Ed has a wholistic approach in covering important curriculum subjects in an integrated way including:

• How nutrition and physical activity contribute to a healthy lifestyle.
• Online safety education including strategies for recognising, reacting and reporting predatory or unsafe situations.
• Strategies to deal with bullying and cyberbullying.
• Resilience, self-awareness, self-management and social awareness.
• Respectful relationships and consent.
• Decisions, peer pressure, responsibility and consequences.
• Alcohol and other drug education (in age appropriate contexts).
• Ways to keep safe at home, school and in the community

Life Education programs are delivered by a team of specially trained educators and supported by tune in lessons prior to the visit and a series of post-visit resources, our evidence-based program is not a rule book and does not dictate to children, this is essential to our success.

NAPLAN ASSESSMENTS BEGIN NEXT WEEK

Australia's future depends upon each citizen having the knowledge, understanding, skills and values necessary to provide the basis for a productive and rewarding life for citizens in an educated, just and open society. High quality schooling is central to achieving this vision.

The National Assessment Program (NAP) is the measure through which governments, education authorities, schools and the community can determine whether or not young Australians are meeting important educational outcomes.

In a world where people are increasingly mobile, the majority of today’s students can be expected to live and work in a range of places in Australia and overseas. It is important that there be consistent and well understood measures of student achievement around the country, and that the outcomes of these assessments be used to inform future policy development, resource allocation, curriculum planning and, where necessary, intervention programs. The NAP provides useful nationally comparable evidence about student achievement. By participating in these assessments schools benefit not only their own students, but also the students in every state and territory.

All Australian schools benefit from the outcomes of national testing. Schools can gain detailed information about how they are performing, and they can identify strengths and weaknesses which may warrant further attention.

TERM 2 CLASS TIMETABLES AND TERM OVERVIEWS

Today Class Timetables and Term Overviews for Term 2 have been uploaded to each class Seesaw page for parents/carers to understand the curriculum outcomes to be covered in all subject areas this term. By viewing the timetables parents/carers can note how ‘every minute of every day counts’ of a teaching day. St Pat’s teachers work hard to ensure there is routine and structure in every moment of every day to ensure learning is always occurring and students make progress throughout the year. Teachers are required to teach an expected amount of minutes per week per subject according to NESA guidelines.

AFL SKILLS CLINIC FOR KINDER TO YEAR 2

Maddy who is the coordinator of Sapphire Coast AFL organised an engaging, fun and inclusive AFL skills session on Monday morning. All K-2 students enjoyed participating in activities that involved building ball skills, fine and gross motor skills, kicking for goals, and teamwork. We thank the Year 6 sports captains and vice captains who led the rotation groups.

 

YEAR 2 STUDENTS ACCESSING THE BOTTOM FLATS AT BREAK TIMES

Our Year 2 soccer enthusiasts are now able to access the bottom playground during breaktimes, this gives them an opportunity to play together in a bigger space. We are grateful to our Year 6 leaders who are volunteering to assist with umpiring the games.

Sacramental Program

St Patrick's has welcomed Fr Adrian. Fr Adrian is looking forward to facilitating the Sacramental Program.

Save the Date!

First Reconciliation will be held on 22nd June at 6pm.

Further information is to follow.

Chapel Masses

Classes will be invited to Chapel Masses from next week onwards. Dates will be shared so parents can attend. 

Supporting Students to be safe on Social Media

It is important parents are informed about the different social media apps students can access and use.

A popular app amongst primary school aged children is Messenger Kids. 

For parent information and tips about Messenger kids visit https://www.esafety.gov.au/key-issues/esafety-guide/messenger-kids 

For the eSafety Guide on all apps visit https://www.esafety.gov.au/key-issues/esafety-guide 

Last Friday, 25 St Pat's students travelled to Wolumla to compete in the Southern Region Cross Country Carnival. The day was very warm and many students from all schools found the conditions tough. The recent wet weather made the course even more difficult, it was a real 'cross country' track! Congratulations to all competitors, a special congratulations to five St Pat's students who have made it on to the next level of competition.

Next Monday Arly Schrader, Isabella Walker, Ruben Bailey Roberts, Archie Sly and Will Nicholson will be a part of the Southern Region Team competing at the Archdiocesan Cross Country  Carnival in Canberra. It is great to note that it is the second time Arly has made the SR team, she also competed at this level last year. The other four students are first timers to this level of competition. We wish them all good luck!

  

The Community Council Fundraising Committee will be holding a Mother’s Day Stall at the Sapphire Marketplace tomorrow, Saturday 7 May from 10am to 2pm.

Show your support for St Pat’s by visiting and spreading the word.