St Patrick's School

Dear Parents/Caregivers,

Welcome Back! We hope you all had a lovely break and enjoyed some fun times together. We welcomed a number of new staff, students and families to our St Patrick’s community this year. It was wonderful to visit all classes last week and see all the students happy and settled. Thank you to all the parents who were able to stay for morning tea.

We warmly welcome the following new students to St Patrick’s School and wish them all the very best as they commence their learning journey here in our wonderful community:

Reception students:

Nyibol

Setareh

Tyler

Riaan

Adhieu

Randeep

Ritvik

Gurkirat

Efrata

Gautham

Alan

Alana

Huy

Shivendra

Lucas

Adelynn

Aston

Angela

Dan

Keinrick

Mansirat

Students in other year levels:

Stanley

Alyssa

Louis

Ngoc

Cynthia

Thien

Pinakshi

Trung

We look forward to working in partnership with all families to provide an excellent Catholic education.

During the holidays, maintenance occurred to ensure that the school provides the best facilities for the students.  This included:

·         Painting refreshment

·         High pressure steam cleaning of pavers on oval side.

·         Steam cleaning of carpets

·         Window cleaning

·         Oval maintenance

·         General yard clean-up

Children’s Birthdays are an important event. Class teachers will acknowledge your child’s birthday by singing Happy Birthday and presenting them with a certificate or sticker. With the increasing number of food allergies presenting at school, under WHS requirements, staff have asked that parents do not bring cakes or lolly bags to school. 

 We ask that students do not bring personal belongings to school. The school provides the equipment that any students require throughout the school day. Please note that if students bring any personal belongings, the school is not responsible for replacing any broken, lost or stolen equipment.

On Wednesday, 15th February, we will have our “Meet the Teacher” Evening. The evening is an opportunity for you as parents to  

·         take part in understanding the changes to the English Curriculum

·         Be presented with the Annual School Performance Report 

·         Meet the teachers 

Please put this important date in your diary. It is important that all families are represented. The evening will begin at 6pm and finish at 7:30pm. Prior to the meeting, we will provide a sausage sizzle tea between 5.30 & 5.55pm. I look forward to seeing you all there. 

Each Monday, we begin the week with Community Prayer in the Church. All parents/caregivers are welcome to celebrate with us. Classes take turns in leading us in this special time.

It is very important that all students are at school on time. Learning starts immediately after the bell rings. When students are late, they are missing valuable learning time, particularly in English and Mathematics, two fundamental subjects to their success.

School times are:

Start time:           Monday to Friday             8:50am

Finish time:         M, W. Th and F                  3:10pm

                                Tuesday (only)                   2:30pm

Attendance is compulsory and if a child is absent the Front Office must be notified.

If a child is going to be absent for a period of time, there is a form that must be completed. This is a legal requirement. The form can be collected from the Front Office.

OSHC is run by Camp Australia and is available before and after school for parents who need to drop off or pick up their children outside of these hours. Please contact them to register and make bookings 1300 105 353 or www.campaustralia.com.au

Before school care hours are 7.00am until 8.30am, after school care hours are 3.10pm (2.30pm Tuesday) until 6.00pm.

St Patrick’s School offers Playgroup on Wednesday and Friday mornings from 9:30-11:30am. Playgroup is free. Families attending are asked to bring a piece of fruit for snack time.

In all things love

Barbara and Anne Marie

Leadership Team

Welcome to the 2023 school year. I hope you all enjoyed a lovely, slower paced break and enjoyed the time you had together. It was lovely to see the smiling faces on our students. They all seemed happy to reconnect with their friends and appear ready for a successful year of learning at St Patrick’s School.  

As we begin Term 1, we have some important dates for you to take notice of. The calendar is already filling up and we look forward to welcoming our community back to school celebrations from the beginning of the year. Please check the calendar. 

A few days to highlight include: 

• Ash Wednesday February 22nd. We will have a Mass for students from Years 3/4 to Year 6 at 9am in the Church. Community members are welcome to come along. The students from Reception to Year 2 will have a Liturgy of the Word. 

• Harmony Day will be celebrated at the end of Harmony Week on Friday 24th March. It is a big celebration at St Patrick’s where all are asked to wear our traditional dress, or orange coloured clothing. We will have a parade on the basketball court and the students will be involved in African Drumming workshops throughout the day.  

Parents and Friends Group 

Last Monday some of our families and staff gathered for morning tea on the first day of school which is a great way to start our community gatherings. Our Parents and Friends group has a number of interested parents already and we welcome anyone who would like to join us. It involves one or two catch ups a term and we’d love your input on ways that we can create events that families would enjoy attending. The P and F is also a good way to get to know your children’s friends' families. If you are interested please let me, Anne-Marie Platten, know and I will follow up from there. 

Parent and Child Sacramental Preparation Workshop – Sacrament of Reconciliation

This Wednesday, 8th February, we begin our Sacramental Program with a workshop for parents and children who have enrolled in the program. We will meet at Whitefriars’ School Mary MacKillop Hall, 45 Beaufort Street Woodville Park, at 7pm. We look forward to working alongside those involved as the children prepare for the sacraments of Reconciliation, Confirmation and First Eucharist.  

Wishing you all a lovely week. 

God bless. 

Anne-Marie Platten 

Assistant Principal Religious Identity and Mission.  

School Fees 2023

Hello and welcome to all our new families and a welcome back to our existing families.

I am currently in the process of issuing a school fee statement to all families and this will take place in the next couple of weeks. I will place a statement in the eldest child’s school bag so please watch for this.   

 We offer direct debit, BPay, EFTPOS and also direct deductions from Centrelink payments to cater to the changing financial needs of our families at St Patrick’s School. When the direct debit payment option is selected your school fee payment is calculated over the full school year right up until the 31st of December 2023. This means smaller payments are required, making this method the most affordable way to budget for your commitment. Please come into the office or ring me on 83034500 if one of these options would better suit your financial requirements.  

School Card 2023 is now applied for online. Instructions on how to do this are available at the front office. Please be aware School Card must be applied for each year.

If at any time you are having trouble meeting your school fee commitment, or have any queries, please contact me on 83034500 to discuss this matter.

Christine Lavender

Finance Officer

SCHOOL CARD 2023

Welcome back to all our new & existing families.

School card is now applied for online so St Patrick’s will require families to follow the process as set out below.

• Please type in school card 2023 online application into the internet browser.
• Click onto School Card Scheme
• See applications and then click on the downward arrow.
• Click School Card form A - apply online
• Complete the required areas and SELECT St Patrick’s School
• Press submit

If you are unable to follow this process Chau our community worker will be able to assist you. This will be by appointment only on either a Tuesday or Thursday morning. Please come into the front office to arrange a time to see Chau. At this appointment you must bring your centrelink or healthcare card and your own device either your mobile phone or ipad.

Regards

Christine Lavender

Finance Officer

2023 SCHOOL FEES

Ø Direct Debit instalments deducted from January to December

Ø Annual school fees due by end of Term 3 (non-direct debit option)