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Dear Parents and Carers,
Despite the drizzly weather on Tuesday our Year 3 - 6 students enjoyed competing / participating in the annual school swimming carnival. Thank you to Mrs Harnett for her organisation of the carnival ensuring the day went to plan.
We congratulate Penola House for winning the house trophy. Captains Oliver and Ella proudly received the trophy.
Congratulations to the swimming age champions:
Junior Girl: Eva Ridley
Junior Boy: Drew Duncan
11 Year Girl: Monique Canavan
11 Year Boy: Nate Irvin
Senior Girl: Ivy Smith
Senior Boy: Lincoln Thompson
Congratulations to the Michael Rheinberger Award winner – Ivy Smith!
Well done to all the nominees Monique Canavan, Amber Phillips, Braydan Sharman, Logan Creek, Will Herbert-Scott, Ella Taylor and Blake V for being noticed as demonstrating the characteristics of Michael Rheinberger during the carnival day.
Staff:
We welcome Mrs Harmony Morrow to the office team as the part time office administration assistant.
Catalyst: High Impact Teaching Practice
Principle 2. Present new material using small steps. Presenting new information in small, bite-sized chunks increases the progress made by the students. Introducing too much at once will see progress rates fall as they can only process so much at one time. This reduction in cognitive load allows metacognition to take place (it allows them to think about how they are thinking about the task).
Principle 3. Ask a large number of questions …and to all students. Questions are a teacher’s most powerful tool, they can highlight misconceptions, keep a lesson flowing and challenge students to think deeper into a subject. The greatest value of questioning though is that they force students to practice retrieval, this strengthens and deepens memory. At St Patrick’s we strive to be a ‘No Hands Up except to ask a question’ school. Teachers pose a question and then pick a student’s name from the ‘pop stick cup.’ This is a minds-on strategy that lets all students know they need to listen, think, and be prepared to respond.
LENT began on Wednesday, as we begin our journey to Easter your children will be talking about the messages from Fr Luke at Mass this week about prayer, giving, and giving up. Ask them what they remember from Fr Luke’s homily.
Blessings on your weekend.
Jo
LNAP: NSW Literacy and Numeracy Action Plan 2017-2021
In collaboration with Catholic Education Canberra Goulburn, St Pat’s will continue to receive support for Kindergarten to Year 2 Literacy and Numeracy development through school based instructional leadership.
In my role as Instructional Leader at St Pat’s I will endeavour to;
- Lead whole school professional learning in literacy and numeracy.
- Clarify expectations for classroom practice, informed by system wide, evidence based, best practice.
- Embed powerful contemporary approaches to learning through developing a culture of learning that builds capacity to deepen insight and meaning.
- Support the implementation of best practice through a co-teaching model (co-planning, co-teaching, co-debriefing, co-evaluating).
- Collaborative analysis of assessment data to inform point of need instruction.
- Organisation and collation of assessment data
- Assisting teachers in the design and implementation of intervention strategies for students at risk and requiring support, through leading and modeling best practice.
I will be co-teaching in classrooms daily to support teachers in K-2 to implement best practice in teaching literacy and numeracy.
Over the next 2 weeks we are focussing on;
NO HANDS UP/USING POPSTICKS in the classroom.
Random response systems like no hands up engage the entire class of students and set an expectation that every student has a voice. No hands up ensures there is no favouritism and helps identify gaps in student understanding. Teachers use popsticks at any point in a lesson to increase the engagement of all students. The use NHU demonstrates that opinions, thoughts, ideas and reflections of each person in the classroom are valuable.
Upcoming events & dates
26th February - 4/5B Chapel Mass
4th March - World Day of Prayer
5th March - 3/4R Chapel Mass
LAUDATO SI’
“As Christians, we are also called to accept the world as a sacrament of communion, as a way of sharing God and our neighbours on a global scale” (Pope Francis pg15).
Ash Wednesday & Rice Lunch at St Pat’s
On Wednesday St Pat’s celebrated Ash Wednesday and the beginning of Lent with Mass and a rice lunch. Mini Vinnies raised $55 for Project Compasion.
NCCD
Each week I will share information and/or tips from the Nationally Consistent Collection of Data on School Students With Disability.
I am a … parent, guardian or carer of a student with disability
I can expect that:
- I will be invited to a consultation meeting about adjustments for my child when necessary
- I will be able to request a meeting to discuss my child’s needs
- I will be able to propose items for the agenda
- I will be consulted about who should be invited to the meeting
- I will be consulted about the time and place of the meeting
- I can decide whether or not I will attend all or part of the meeting
- I can bring a support person to a meeting if I wish.
I can contribute by:
- nominating people with relevant expertise to attend the meeting
- asking for the draft meeting agenda beforehand
- advising the convenor of the meeting if I am bringing a support person
- expressing my views during the meeting or nominating someone else to speak for me.
Passion Clubs
This week saw the beginning of the “Passion clubs” on both Monday and Friday lunch times. Students were seen having fun making paper planes, drawing Disney pictures, doing craft, acting, reading, positive graffiti, Being a St Pats Kid club and doing yoga interacting with older students and learning a skill at the same time. Both Aleesha Danvers, Brooke Scott and Jack Garner volunteered to be leaders of the Passion Clubs assisting in getting the materials ready and helping problem solve situations that may arise. Children engaging in their passions can provide a stronger sense of self, building confidence and creating a deeper sense of achievement.
Peer Mediation
Caitlyn Healey and Tigerlily Chinnock are St Pat’s Peer Mediator leaders and have been introducing themselves to your children and letting know that they are on the junior playground to help maintain “Peace and wellbeing”. The great news is that to date there has only been one incident in three weeks which was about friendships so you as parents can give yourselves a pat on the back. You have obviously taught your children how to be tolerant and inclusive of others. Keep up the great work.
Empowered Program
The theme of LISTENING was explored this week as your children enrolled in the program this term reflected on the words that they hear the adults and friends around them say in their regard. They were challenged to then think about what they say to themselves too – their internal dialogue.
“Do you speak positively with encouragement or do you put yourself down with negative words?”
As adults it is good to stop sometimes and to reflect on how kind we are to ourselves especially our thoughts which then manifest into words which then manifest into actions. It is a life long process and your children are learning the power of positive self-talk early so that by the time they are adults like us they will have cultivated an inner strength that will be difficult to be destroyed by others. Every child at St Pat’s has an “I AM’ statement. What is yours? “ I AM KIND, I AM HAPPY, I AM BRAVE, I AM LOVE OR I AM AWESOME.
Blessing of the classrooms
Have an awesome weekend
Alicia Spicer
Wellbeing Coach
Our School swimming carnival was held on Tuesday. Although the weather was unpleasant the children still had a fun enjoyable day.
Penola was the winning house this year.
Our age champions for 2021 are:
Juniors – Eva Ridley and Drew Duncan.
11 years - Monique Canavan and Nate Irvin.
Seniors – Ivy Smith and Lincoln Thompson.
Ivy was also awarded the Michael Rheinberger swimming award. Ivy received this award for her sportsmanship, persistence, leadership and teamwork. Well done Ivy and to all those children who tried their hardest.
Jannene Harnett
Bega Girl Guides have resumed “face to face” meetings. This is for girls aged 7 - 14 years and meet on a Tuesday night from 6.30pm till 8.00pm. Some exciting news is we now have a new Gumnut group for girls aged 6 to 7 years who meet on a Tuesday from 4.00 pm till 5.00 pm. For more information ring Anne on 0411281434 or ask a girl at your school that already is a Guide or Gumnut what it is all about.
Many thanks for your support,
Anne Moore
Guide Leader