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Dear Parents and Carers,
We have had an amazing OS adventure for the past 7 weeks. We have enjoyed new places and spaces, sampled culinary delights (not so much me as the other family members!), met interesting people – including friends who were also OS at the same time, and had a lot of fun times (most memorable the days at Paris Disneyland…) However, it is great to be home and to be back at St Patrick’s this week. My favourite moment was when I went to the playground before school on Wednesday (my day of return) and was greeted by your lovely happy children. ‘Welcome back!’ ‘You’ve been gone a long time!’ ‘We missed you!’ ‘How was your holiday?’ ‘Where did you go?’ ‘I’ve got a sore finger!’ ‘We’ve got a new person in our class!’ ‘Hello Mrs Scott-Pegum!’ Ah the delights of being in the presence of these joy filled, energetic children.
I also arrived back for the day of our second Kinder 2020 orientation morning and had the opportunity to greet familiar faces of current parents and becoming familiar faces of our new parents as they begin the journey of partnership in learning at St Pat’s. I am really looking forward to spending some time with our 2020 Kindergarten children at their third and final orientation to school next Wednesday.
My sincere gratitude goes to the other amazing leaders in our school who led our school in my absence. Thank you to Mrs Perryman, Mrs Kite, Mrs Grant and Mrs Fraser for your tireless dedication to the students and families at St Patrick’s and for all you have done to support seamless learning and engagement for all learners this term. Someone asked me this week: ‘Where are you headed on your next adventure?’ but for now we will be enjoying being home!
In the final week of our holiday, I moved from holidaying to professional learning, attending the International Study Tour in Reggio Emilia, Italy. To help situate you here is a map:
In Reggio Emilia, the municipality post World War 2, have cultivated an approach to early years education in their infant / toddler centres and preschools, they also have one primary school. In fact, post war, they decided that the place to start rebuilding and on which to focus, would be the children. I have been interested in this educational philosophy since my first degree in education and am so glad to have taken time to visit and explore (with 300 other educators from 54 countries) Reggio Emilia. I will share more of my learnings and what that can mean in our Australian setting…
Blessings on a cooler-than-yesterday weekend!
Jo
Kaye Lowe Visit
This week we had a visit from Adjunct Associate Professor Kaye Lowe. Kaye spent time in the lower grades working with students and teachers on reading and writing.
What is the take home message?
Refresh the book shelf, maintaining motivation, interest and the joy of reading is very important in the development of readers. It is therefore important to make sure that students’ books are updated to ensure their interest is maintained. As their reading increases their interests will change and the books that they want to pick up may be different. This applies to students beyond year two, so could I encourage you to reinvest in the conversations around books- ask your child, what are you reading at the moment, are there other books that you are interested in, what are they?
It’s the Perryman Pass
With only three and a half weeks to go and my goal still not reached, it’s probably time I up the motivation for the students. So with that in mind I encourage those students to come and see me with their work and to find out what the reinforcement will be for doing so.
Please join us…..
Throughout 2019, St Pat’s have been part of a program called Challenging Learning. The program is as the name suggests how we can make learning challenging. On 2 December from 7.30-8.30pm, George Telford will be running a workshop for parents-
HOW PARENTS CAN HELP THEIR CHILDREN
TO BECOME GREAT LEARNERS!
Please join us - babysitting will be provided. Please contact Elise if you require babysitting.
Caz Perryman
Venue: St Patrick’s Library
Time: 7:30pm (1 hour session)
Date:MONDAY 2nd DECEMBER
Presenter: George Telford
Come along on the 2nd December to hear about:
- Growth Mindsets – what they really are.
- Fixed Mindsets- and why we don’t want learners to have them.
- Learning Language- and how you can be a big help at home!
- Praise- it can be good………. or not so good!
- The importance of the right kind of feedback - and how important the parent role is in this.
- Challenge- is it better to get the easy stuff right, or struggle with the more interesting and challenging stuff?
- Why your school is involved in this learning and how an already very good school can become even better.
- How a focus on improvement will more naturally lead to
- What high schools notice about growth mindset learners.
George Telford is a former classroom teacher and Principal in Victorian schools for 35 years. He helped implement these changes at his own school with results that you might be interested in! George is now the Senior Consultant and Australian Director for Challenging Learning. Challenging Learning are working with St Patrick’s on 2nd December. This night is designed especially for parents/carers and it would be wonderful to see you there.
Religious Education in 5/6G
We have been learning about Moses and how he rescued his people and brought them to a safe place with the help of God. We have learned about the Ten Plagues. In one of the plagues, Moses turned the river into blood because the Pharaoh refused to let Moses’ people go. In another, Moses cast thousands of cicadas over the land. The last plague was the worst in the Pharaoh’s eyes because he lost his son. In the coming weeks we will be learning about the Passover.
By Brodie & Izzy
Christmas Hampers
Thank you to all the students who have donated to our Christmas Appeal. Mini Vinnies are seeking further donations to fill the hampers in anticipation for our Giving Mass on Friday 6th.
Christmas Choir.
Dear Parishioners,
What can I do to share the Christmas message with others? How can I show and share my joy at the coming of Our Lord at Christmas?
Perhaps you could join us in Singing Carols at our Christmas Masses and show forth our joy and give beauty to our Christmas celebrations. It is my desire that our whole Parish community come together for a Combined Choir. This Choir will join us from our four church communities to sing at three Christmas Masses:-
Family outdoor Mass 7pm,
Vigil Mass 9:30pm, and
Tathra Christmas day Mass 9:30.
There is no expectation that you need to sing at all three, just attend and sing at the Masses you would like. But let’s all come together to practice. I have asked an outsider -Douglas Simper of Big Sing St John’s Church- to corral us together and lead us in singing. Practices begin THIS TUESDAY at St Pats Bega 5:45- 7pm 26th Nov.
Then 3rd Dec, 10th Dec 17th & 24th (practice on the 24th is at 10am).
ALL AGES AND ABILITIES ARE WELCOME!
Put a little Christ in Christmas. The Way-Advent & Christmas reflections is a little booklet that has a daily reflection for advent and Christmas. Featuring works of great art masters it is only $4. Available from the parish office, Ph 6492 1058 Tuesdays & Thursdays 9-3.
Peace, Fr. Luke
Vinnies News. WChristmas Fair. Saturday 7th December at Bega Vinnies 10am-2pm. Come and get a photo with Santa, $5 12-1pm.
St. Pat’s Book Fair 2019 Book Fair was another great success. It was awesome to see a large number of children enjoying the Book Fair with their parents. The children continue to show interest in a wide variety of books. Well done !!!
Big thanks to all who participated. We were able to gain $400 worth of books for the Library and still have over $300 in credit, awesome work everyone !!!
Year 7, 2020 Orientation Day
Friday, 29th November 2019 – 9:00am to 3:20pm
Students wear their primary sports uniform and runners. They should bring their pencil case, recess, lunch, drink & hat. A sausage sizzle will be held at lunchtime. Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions, Sandra Foley Phone: 02 6495 8829.
School Fees
There remains a large number of school fees still outstanding, please finalise your account as a matter of urgency.
Week 8 is fast approaching, but there are still a few intensive swimming notes not returned.
Quite a few families have returned the permission note but payment hasn’t been made.
This all needs to be finalised before Week 8.
A BIG thank you to those parents who have donated uniforms for the second hand store. The QKR second hand items are selling out fast and more are needed. Please check and see if you have any current style items to donate. There are both new and existing families who really appreciate having second hand uniform available. All proceeds from donated goods go back into our school community.