St Pat's News

March 18, 2020

At St Patrick’s Parish Primary School we hold the care, safety and wellbeing of children and young people as a central and fundamental responsibility of our school.

From The RE Leader - Annie Forrest

PRAYING LENT

Loving God,

We pray that we may grow closer to your son, 

our Lord Jesus, 

and share our love with all our sisters and brother

Amen. 

AN IRISH PRAYER

May God give you, for every storm, a rainbow,

For every tea, a smile,

For every care, a promise,

And a blessing in each trial.

For every problem life sends,

A faithful friend to share,

For every sigh, a sweet song,

And an answer for each prayer. 

St Patrick's Project Compassion Challenge!

Week 4: 23rd-27th March

For the four weeks of Lent the Mini Vinnies group are coordinating a whole school Project Compassion fundraising campaign. 

Week 4 challenge- bring 20c if you have medicine in your home

Aim: to show how even just a small donation can make such a difference in the lives of people living in poor countries.

From The Principal - Peter Sanderson

Dear Parents, Parishioners, Carers, Staff & Students,

Congratulations

We pass on our best wishes to Annie Forrest and Alistair Templeton who will be married on Friday 27th March. Annie will be taking leave next week as she prepares for the big day.

COVID-19 (coronavirus)

The COVID-19 (coronavirus) situation continues to evolve. As stated in last week's newsletter and the updates I have sent out, we are being provided the latest advice from the Australian and Victorian Chief Medical Officers by the Catholic Education Commission of Victoria Ltd to ensure that our school practices are helping to keep our school community safe from the outbreak. The current advice from the Victorian Chief Health Officer is that schools remain open. This advice is constantly under review and we will update you if it changes. If you choose to keep your children at home, could you please provide the school with notification in writing stating the reason for absence and dates of absence. A letter regarding the decision for schools to remain open is going out today.

I provide the following information from the latest Catholic Education Commission of Victoria update in the hope that it may help families discuss the virus in a calm and informed way.

Conversations with children and young people

Families and caregivers of children and young people should discuss news of the virus with those in their care in an open and honest way.

Try to relate the facts without causing alarm, and in a way that is appropriate for their age and temperament.

It is important to listen to any questions they may have, and to let them know that they are safe and that it’s normal to feel concerned.

If the media or the news is getting to be too much for them, encourage them to limit their exposure.

Resources

A range of key resources, including videos and tips for young people, have been collated for you to share with your staff, students and families to help promote ongoing wellbeing and good health across your school community:

Reconciliation

In light of the COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic, it has been decided to cancel this evening's Sacrament of Penance. Fr John Corrigan and I have decided to be cautious and not go ahead with this special but non-essential gathering at this time. Parents will be informed when this celebration can be rescheduled.

St Patrick’s Day

We had a great celebration of St Patrick’s Day yesterday. Thank you to the P&F for organising morning tea and the special lunch and to Rebecca’s Cafe for the ice cream treat. Special thanks to the Yr 3/4 students and their teachers for preparing and leading us in the St Patrick’s Day liturgy.

Winter Uniform

Children will need to be in winter uniform from the start of Term 2. Please see Beth in our uniform shop on Tuesday mornings or contact her via the school office if you need uniform items. As per our SunSmart policy, hats need to be worn until the end of April.

Pupil Free Day

A reminder that there will be no school for students this Friday, March 20th. All staff will be attending professional development on Big Write and VCOP, a teaching approach that aims to improve children’s writing.

Cybersafety

At St Patrick’s we have a commitment to keeping children safe. This is evident in the efforts teachers go to to teach their students to be safe when navigating social media and the internet. It concerns me that some students have access to apps out of school hours that are not age appropriate. These apps, such as Tik Tok and SnapChat are causing unpleasantness between students through comments that are posted. This unpleasantness then spreads to school and has the potential to escalate. I urge parents to be mindful of what your children are doing online.  Please reinforce that any comments or ‘likes’ that they are placing online is forming their ‘digital footprint’ which is with them for life. Practical tips are to check settings in the apps and devices and to set time limits. Tik Tok in particular is a very dangerous app. I refer parents to the  eSafety Commissioner website where you will find important safety tips regarding various apps and information regarding age appropriateness. All this information is provided with the intention of keeping your children safe.

Kind regards,

Peter Sanderson

Principal

2020 Pupil Free Days

Friday March 20 - Staff PD

Friday May 29 - Report Writing Day

Thursday August 6 & Friday August 7 - Staff Personal Development 

Wellbeing News

Harmony Day

On Tuesday we celebrated the dual celebration of St Patrick’s Day & Harmony Day. In the morning we completed activities in our classroom to celebrate our cultural diversity. A hand tree is one of the activities that we completed to reflect how we can all work together as one multicultural nation.

Learning Diversity - What is NCCD?

Did you know about...The Nationally Consistent Collection of Data on School Students with Disability (NCCD) takes place every year. 

The NCCD is a collection that counts: 

• the number of school students receiving an adjustment or ‘help’ due to disability 

• the level of adjustment they are receiving to access education on the same basis as other students. 

Students are counted in the NCCD if they receive ongoing adjustments at school due to disability. This ‘help’ allows them to access education on the same basis as a child without disability. The NCCD uses the definition of disability in the Disability Discrimination Act 1992. Schools provide this information to education authorities. 

If you wish to know more, please click on the link provided on our website or contact Learning Diversity Leader, Andrea Lane.

NCCD Parent & Guardian Fact Sheet

3/4M.L NEWS

How we celebrated St Patrick's Day

Joel - I loved St Patrick’s day because we got to do Kaboom Sports and then we ate ice cream. 

Rosie - The fish and chips for lunch was yummy.

Ava - My favourite thing was Kaboom sports because it was fun and busy.

Lenny - I loved eating green ice cream at school on St Patrick’s day. 

Archie - Kaboom sports was so much fun because of the activities and the very loud music.

PE News

Swimming & Athletics

The Regional Swimming and Athletics have been cancelled

School News

Thank you to all the students who participated in our St Pat's Has Talent yesterday. There is some amazing talent in our school.

The winners were:

1st Kim (Dance)

2nd Lylah & Bridie (Dance & Song)

3rd Ella & Catie (Song)

Crowd Favourites Lola E (Dance), Paddy Q (Song) & Evie O (Song)

Winter Uniform Orders

If you require any winter uniform for your child for next term, please order through CDFpay or at the office as soon as possible so that orders can be processed and ready for pick up before the end of term.

Uniforms can be paid for using CDFpay, EFTPOS or cash.

School Rosters

Canteen

Thursday March 19 - Nikki Payne, Sioban Murnane, Mel Rayner

Friday March 20 - Pupil Free Day

Thursday March 26 - NO CANTEEN

Friday March 27 - NO CANTEEN

Thursday April 16 - Sarah McCorkell, Caitlin Down, Caroline McGowan

Friday April 17 - Jenny McNeil, Sarah Dyson, Fiona Godde

If for any reason you are not available to do you shift, please try swap with someone else on the roster.

Library Reshelving - this can be done at anytime during the week of:

Monday March 23 - Sarah Parkinson

Monday April 13 - Jessica Condon

Sickbay Linen - the linen will be sent home with your child the Friday you are rostered on.

Friday March 20 - Michelle Verhoef

Friday April 17 - Viv McCallum

Bookclub

Scholastic Book Club orders for No 2 close on Thursday March 12.

Library Shelving

Do you have a spare hour once or twice a term to help put away borrowed library books? If you do, please contact the office and your name will go down on our roster.

SCHOOL TIMES

The office is open from 8.30am - 4.00pm each day.

There is no supervision for students before 8.40am. Teachers use the time prior to the doors opening for setting up for the day, therefore they are not available to supervise students. Students who arrive at school prior to 8.40am need to wait at the side door near the hall until the doors are opened.

The bell for the start of the day rings at 8.55am, any student arriving after this time needs to be signed in using the iPad at the office.

The bell for the end of the day rings at 3.20pm. If for any reason you are going to be later than 3.30pm to collect your child/children, please contact the school office.

Parents & Friends News

Hot Cross Bun Drive

The P & F will run a Hot Cross Bun Drive as a Term 1 fundraiser. The Village Bakery will be our suppliers.

All orders to be done through CDFpay. The cut off day for orders will be Wednesday March 25 at 12pm. Order pick up will be Friday March 27 by 2.20pm. Orders can be collected from the Canteen.


Regular Hot Cross Buns - $7

Free Free Hot Cross Buns - $7

Choc Chip Hot Cross Buns - $7

RAFFLE TICKETS WILL BE SENT HOME ON THURSDAY MARCH 19

Canteen

THERE WILL BE NO CANTEEN NEXT THURSDAY AND FRIDAY, MARCH 26 & 27.

Canteen Days are Thursday & Friday, except the last day of terms 1, 2 & 3 and the last week of term 4. At times we may need to close the canteen, those days will be advertised in the newsletter.

All Canteen orders are to be made by CDFpay, please click on the link to access the directions, CDFpay. Each student must have a reusable container with their name and class clearly marked on it. The Canteen Menu can be accessed from our Website and the Skoolbag App. All prices are in CDFpay.

Canteen Menu Link - Parent Information Page on the Website

This button takes you directly to PAM for Absences, School Activities, Reports, Learning Conversations, Numeracy & Literacy Interviews

Sporting Schools

Sporting Schools will run each Wednesday & Thursday for 7 weeks of each term, 3.20pm-4.30pm. The final sessions for Term 1 will be Wednesday March 25 and Thursday March 26. 

Please use the Skoolbag App for each session your child is going to attend.

If you do not have the Skoolbag App, click on the link for instructions.

https://www.moqproducts.com.au/skoolbag/installation-instructions/

School Community News

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Parish Masses

Port Fairy St Patrick's & Koroit Infant Jesus Mass Times

Saturday March 21 @ 6.30pm - Port Fairy

Sunday March 22 @ 10.30am - Koroit

Lice Check

The school has been notified that over the holiday period there have been a number of cases of lice. Please remember to check you child's hair regularly and if they do have lice, notify the school and treat as directed on the lice products and do a follow up check and treatment.

Please click on the link below for information on lice and how to treat it from the Department of Health Department of Heath Lice Information Sheet

Community News