28 March 2024

PRINCIPAL’S REPORT

Hello St Patrick’s families, I hope this finds you happy and well. 

Thank you for a Great Term! 

The holidays are here! As usual, it’s been a whirlwind first term, but we got there. Amongst the busyness of life, it is sometimes easy to forget that this holiday is the Easter break – the celebration of the resurrection of Jesus. As always, enjoy this holiday with loved ones but remember the reason for the season. Never forget the sacrifice that was made for us and the gift we have received! 

John 11:25-26 
Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?" 

Prep 2025 Interviews 

2025 seems a long way away, but for the school we are already putting processes in place for next year’s Prep class, including identifying how many applicants we have and finalising our Prep cut off numbers. 

If you have a child you wish to enroll for next year, now is the time to ensure you have gone on to our website and done so via our electronic enrolment link. 

Although we do preference siblings when identifyingPrep enrolments, their online enrolment must still be lodged! Prep students with older siblings cannot be offered a place if there is no application for them! 

The school will begin enrolments early in Term 3. We look forward to seeing our new families soon and meeting our future Preps. 

Term 2 Start Date – Tuesday 16th April. 

A reminder that school resumes in Term 2 on Tuesday 16th April, as Monday 15th is a ‘Pupil Free’ day. 

That’s all from me for now. Stay safe and have a great holiday, I look forward to seeing you all again in the new term.

God bless,
Jim Wren
Principal

PARENT PORTAL

Download & Use the App Now!

In recent weeks you will have seen communication from the school regarding our transition to a Parent Portal for more streamlined communication with parents. The transition took place on Monday 5^th February, so if you haven’t already, make sure you follow the instructions recently emailed out to all parents, or view the pdf link below, on how to register on the Portal. If you are having issues registering, please contact the school office so we can help with the process.

Warm Regards,
Jim Wren

OUR PRAYERS…

Let us support each other in Prayer, especially for the Sick and the Deceased and those who are suffering Hardships, in our Parish and School.

APRE News

Holy week is the most important week in our calendar as Christians. Holy week takes us through the final days of Jesus life and gives us an opportunity to reflect on how his sacrifice has impacted on our lives today. Personally, I find this time so much more enriching than even the lead up to Christmas (and if you know me well, you know how much I love Christmas!). I find these days are when I feel closest to Jesus. I think as I have gotten older, and even becoming a mother – the anguish and fear that not only Jesus must have felt, but especially Mary his mother, make the meaning of Easter even more special.

The events of Holy Week, and especially the Resurrection on Easter Sunday, can be difficult concepts to teach children - the fact that a man who was persecuted, tortured, murdered, but then came back to life after three days to save our sins - for our students, especially in the younger years, this can be an incredible story to process.  I remember one student I taught in Townsville many years ago who was brand new to Catholic school, asked me if God, Mary and Jesus were just magicians who could make all this ‘stuff happen’.  I think our staff do wonderful work in being witness to Our Story.  The Way of the Cross this week was so engaging and special.  We have some beautiful photos to share.

We often think of faith as being the evidence of things unseen. As we approach the final days before the resurrection, I pray that all our families enter this sacred time with love and with understanding.

I can’t believe we are at the end of Term 1. When I reflect and think about what a whirlwind this last 10 weeks has been and all the amazing experiences I have had in my first term as a member of the St. Patrick’s community, I am truly grateful for the kindness and support of all the staff, students, and families. My most enjoyable part of the day is the first thing in the morning – I love greeting our families in the school grounds, and I am trying very hard to remember everyone’s name!

Caritas Project Compassion

This week we are wrapping up our Lenten Project Compassion fundraising initiative and already it’s looking like it’s going to be our biggest fundraising effort in a long time, with a total figure around or above the $1,200 mark!

I’d like to thank all the students and families who got behind our fundraising efforts this year. Your donations are going to make sure that someone in need will hopefully have their burdens eased this Easter. Well done St Pat’s!

I could keep writing if I wanted to but, I only have so much space so, I’ll stop there. I’ll finish by thanking you all for the effort you’ve made to make me feel welcome in this new school. Coming to work every day I feel proud to be a part of the St Patrick’s community and look forward to all the challenges and successes that come my way each day. Thank you for a terrific first term and I look forward to seeing you all after the break.

Take care,

Mrs Anna Chandler
(Assistant Principal Religious Education & Learning Support)

MASS TIMES

St George-Dirranbandi Parish

Priest Administrator: Fr Anthony Samy 0409 278 968 Email: balonneparish@bigpond.com 

Please see the Parish Facebook for Mass Times in the holidays

TUCKSHOP

Please click the links below for our new and updated uniform price list and tuckshop menu. When ordering food on the Flexischools app please be mindful that the cutoff time is exactly 8:00am on Friday mornings (at 8:01am your order will not be accepted).

Regards
Sue Hopkins

CLASS News

Health & Drama

Students of the Week

Week 9– Charlotte May (Lower) Matilda Willoughby (Middle) Brooke Hams (Upper).
Week 10– Beau Kingston (Lower) Indi Irwin (Middle) Brooke Hams (Upper).

Welcome to Week 10 in Health and Drama. 

In Health, we have been furthering our understanding of all the emotions and strategies we can use to help self-regulate ourselves when required. We finalised our last assessment tasks for Health and Drama. Congratulations for all your hard work throughout the Term, I have thoroughly enjoy teaching each class. 

In the Lower school, we have continued to further understand how we deal with our feelings when something bugs you and how we can be a calm ninja by using strategies to assist us. Breathing techniques, listening to some calming music, taking timeout, thinking of, or visiting a peaceful place. This is leading into the ‘Zones of Regulations’ program we will be focusing on next term, in full, across the school. 

In Middle and Upper school, we continued developing our understanding of what are healthy emotions and strategies to manage our angry feelings. In the upper school we identified intense and unpredictable emotions during times of great stress. These feelings can lead to extreme emotional reactions and may cause a person to behave differently than they typically do. These emotional responses can vary from person to person. We also explored emotions in traditional stories. 

In Drama, we continued to act out different scenarios to depict how to deal with a variety of situations using verbal and bodily expression to express the correct emotions in the situation.  These scenarios were videoed, and the students were able to watch themselves as part of their final presentation.   We have continued to build on our warmup activities to develop their confidence and build relationships within the classes.  

The students presented well, and it was a fantastic effort by all. Thank you to the School Officers who have assisted me and the students throughout the term, it’s very much appreciated. 

I hope you all have a very Happy and Holy Easter holidays and I look forward to seeing everyone next term. 

Enjoy your day! 

Regards
Mrs Jane Webster

Peeking into PrepM

Week 9– Bridie Chandler, Astrid Bradley, Claude Stewart.
Week 10– Alex Lomman, Sam Brumpton.

Dear Parents, 

Week 10 already. It is amazing how fast this term has gone. This week is a short week, with Thursday being the last day. Please note that term 2 starts on Tuesday, 16^th April.

We have had a wonderful final week of term participating in lots of fun Easter craft projects, making cards, and spending extra time with our buddies. We also enjoyed learning about Holy Week by participating in the ‘Way of the Cross’ journey in the undercover area. 

Thank you for all your support this term as your beautiful little people have settled into school life and we have gotten to know each of them. We wish you all a wonderful Easter and holiday break. May you have time to rest and recharge and spend time with loved ones.  

Kind regards,  
Nichole & Courtney

Year 1H

Students of the Week

Week 9– Ava Lamb, Evy Tattam, Grace Bailey.
Week 10– Carter Keeping, Aya Kennedy.

Welcome to week 10! 

This week in English, we completed our recounts of St Patrick’s Day.  It was wonderful to see the children’s perspectives of the day and what they enjoyed. 

In Maths, we finished our cycle on length and the children had fun measuring the lengths of different objects in our classroom.  We used our feet, pencils, and cubes to measure these objects.

I hope everyone has a wonderful Easter holiday with family and friends and I look forward to seeing you all at the start of Term 2. 

Have a wonderful weekend. 
Mrs Fiona Harch

Year 1/2D

Week 9– Belle Vickers.
Week 10– Frankie Luck, Hayley Southern.

Hello, Year 1/2D families,  

We had a very busy end to the term with Project Compassion events, Holy Week events and learning all about the significance of Easter.  

Have a happy Easter and enjoy the break with your children. I look forward to seeing your child back in Term 2 for another great term. 

Kind Regards,
Miss Beth Daly

Year 2G

Students of the Week

Week 9– Cassy Custodio, Xander Behrend.
Week 10– Cooper Passman.

Hello, 2G parents,

Welcome to Week 10 – our last week of Term 1! What a great term we have had.

Here are some highlights and achievements from the term:

Math: We have learnt about three-digit numbers, representing, and recognising a variety of three-digit numbers, we have also investigated the math concept of length, and fractions.

English: We had explored and analysed fairytales and have written our own fairytale. We also written two compound sentences a day, showing great achievements and growth in this topic.

HASS: We looked at our local community, St George, and wrote a brochure for tourists about St George.

Science: We explored the topic "Change and Growth" by writing our own Life Cycle Book. 

Religion: We analysed the local parish here at St Pat's, looking at its people and internal features.

Art: We explored and created a variety of artworks this term using different mediums and art supplies creating magnificent artwork.

Question to ask your child: What was your favourite subject this term?

Wow, what a great busy term we have had. I have really enjoyed my first term here, and I hope your child has had a great start to the year.

Have a blessed, joyful, and restful Easter break. Will see you all in Term 2!

Kind regards
Miss Merryn Gaggi

Year 3C

Students of the Week

Week 9– Lincoln Alderman, Max Muller, Karleigh Bella.
Week 10– Chelsea Cross, Tori Lamb

Welcome to Week 10. Wow, it’s the end of the term already.

In our English unit, we have completed our work around ‘Matilda’. This term, we have looked at how to write the orientation of a narrative and we have also discussed the purpose of persuasive writing. This introduced the idea of writing in paragraphs, keeping to one idea for each paragraph.

The students have been working hard to earn their class reward and I am delighted to say that they were successful. As a result, we are watching the movie version of ‘Matilda’ on Thursday.

I was very proud of the way Year 3 approached NAPLAN with calmness and a positive manner. They are however pleased that they don’t have to think about NAPLAN again until Year 5.

I would like to take this opportunity to wish everyone a blessed Easter and a restful break. 

Kind regards
Mrs Annette Colley

In Maths, we have been exploring 3D objects. The students were able to identify a long list of 3D objects in the classroom and wider environment. Extending on this, we have been working to observe and compare features of 3D objects and identify their corresponding nets. As a culmination, the Year 3 students participated in various building challenges, constructing 3D objects from nets, play dough and other materials. 

In Science, we planned an investigation to explore shadows and how they change during the day. As part of this, we discussed variables and how to conduct a ‘fair test’. We made scientific predictions around the results we were expecting to see. We had some interesting findings which we presented using tables and graphs; this helped us to analyse and reflect on our results.

In Art, we have been exploring patterns and lines and how we can use these techniques to create artwork. We have been working hard to apply these skills and will soon have some impressive artwork on display in the classroom. 

Thanks,
Mrs Angie Harrison

Year 4R

Students of the Week

Week 9– Lewis Price, Eleanor North.
Week 10– AJ Farmer.

Good morning parents and caregivers, 

Over the past two weeks, the students have been involved in many exciting activities around the school. Firstly, we would like to express a massive thank you to the families who contributed to the bake sale, as well as those who supported the cause by purchasing the baked goods. Our Year 4 students did a wonderful job selling the homemade treats to other students and staff within the school. We can happily report that the event was a successful fundraiser for Project Compassion. 

We also had a great celebration on St. Patrick's Day! The students commenced the morning with a mass, followed by a shared morning tea and a series of fun, school-wide activities. The class all looked fantastic in their green attire for the day. 

Learning Updates 

English: The students have begun to plan, draft, and write an imaginative new chapter for 'The Twits' novel. The planning phase is now complete, and they are in the process of drafting their work. In their writing, they have been focusing on the inclusion of nouns, verbs, adjectives, text connectives, pronouns, and dialogue.

Art: Our recent art lessons have centred around the concept of form in two-dimensional artworks and how this also applies to three-dimensional artworks. The students have experimented with shape and form to create imaginary wide-mouthed creatures from clay. The results have been fantastic! 

HASS: The students have been studying different types of community groups and the members within them. They have categorized these members into religious, cultural, and social groups. After splitting into smaller groups, they examined the characteristics and activities of different community members. 

Science: Year 4 students have been exploring the attractive and repulsive properties of magnets. They followed procedural text to conduct hands-on experiments and discussed the North and South poles of magnets. 

Religion: We have continued our studies on the life of Paul and the miracles performed by Jesus. The students have also reviewed the seven sacraments. 

Week 10 consisted of Year 4 completing assessment, learning, and celebrating Easter together. Congratulations to the class who did a wonderful job leading the whole school Easter mass. 

I would like to extend my best wishes to the Irwin family on their move to Toowoomba. We will certainly miss having Indie in our class and seeing the family around town. 

Again, thank you for your continuous support. We are looking forward to more exciting experiences in the coming weeks. 

I wish everyone a wonderful and happy Easter Holiday. Enjoy your time with the students at home. I look forward to seeing all the students back in Term 2. 

Kind Regards,
Miss Alice Rathie

Year 5W

Students of the Week

Week 9– Madison Emerson.

Good afternoon, Parents and Caregivers of Year 5W,

Thank you for your attendance and support during Parent Teacher Interviews last week. Please make contact if you haven’t had an interview and still wish one.

We have had a very busy term and made some wonderful achievements in our learning and with our peer interactions.

Today we enjoyed participating in ‘The Stations of The Cross’ with Year 1/2 and we will continue our Easter celebrations when we meet to complete some Easter craft on Thursday.

Thank you for supporting the homework process and encouraging your child to return homework each week. Homework has been completed consistently by many students and this is an excellent achievement. If there are any homework books still at home, please return them even if they are not completed, so that I can set up the homework for Term 2.

To borrow library books during the holidays’ borrowed books were to be returned by today (Holy Thursday).

After Parent Teacher Interviews we have negotiated for some students to borrow home readers so that they can continue practicing their reading at level. If you would like to be part of this or you are finding the library books too difficult to read, please contact me.

Wishing everyone a very safe and happy Easter break.

Kind regards
Mrs Christina Wardle 

Year 6M

Students of the Week

Week 9– Alexa Farmer, Georgie Nott.
Week 10– Henry McCosker, Lauren Duffin.

Welcome to the week 10 newsletter. The last newsletter for the Term!!! Year 6 students have been busy with sport and learning over the last fortnight. Below are some of the learning the students have been involved in.  

Maths  

In Maths, students have been investigating visually growing patterns, explaining the rules used to create the patterns and representing this data in a table. They have been following and creating their own algorithms (rules) to generate number patterns. We have started learning about reading itineraries and timetables and the powers of 10 for next term. 

English  

In English, students have started a new unit based around the novel ‘Rivet Boy’. They have been looking closely at vocabulary and background knowledge of the Bridge that is in the text. Students have been exploring because, but and so sentences and using independent and dependent clauses in their writing. They have started to look at the text structure of a persuasive text and the language features, such as rhetorical questions, high modality, and emotive language. The students are enjoying the novel. Question to ask students: What is Rivet Boy about so far? 

Science  

In Science, students have been continuing to look at plants and animals and their environments. They started to design an irrigation system or trough to help farmers use water sustainably. Students have started writing a letter, becoming ‘the experts’, explaining possible outcomes to why the farmers animals and plants aren’t looking healthy.  

HASS  

In HASS, students have been practising their skills of developing questions for inquiry, in particular, immigration. They have started exploring immigration and the rights and status of different groups of people in the past.  

Religion  

In Religion, students have been finishing off their task of a PowerPoint presentation about a notable Australian Catholic and how they are significant to the development of Australia as a Nation. We will look at the Examen next and how to respectfully participate in prayer.  

Buddies  

 We had the buddies visit our classroom on St Patrick’s day and students showed them where they sat and what a tidy tray is and a pencil case etc. Students had fun decorating shamrocks with their buddies.  

Mrs Claire McDonnell 

Sport & Library News

SPORT 

There have been quite a few trials of late – below and photographed are the successful students.  Well done and good luck to all!

SW Basketball

Congratulations to Olivia Harch who was selected as a shadow for the SW Basketball team.

SW Netball

Congratulations to Brooks Hams who was selected as a shadow for the SW girl’s Netball team.

Balonne Touch Team

Congratulations to Reagan Cross, Max Luck, Levi McCulloch, Alistair North, Geoffrey Easterbrook, Rory Southern, Georgie Nott, Hannah Acton, Brooke Hams, and Karlie Alderman who were selected in the Balonne Touch team.

Balonne Rugby League

Congratulations also to the boys selected in the Balonne Rugby League team.  Jacob Kings, Max Luck, Reagan Cross, Gus McCosker, Tom Easton, Alistair North.  These boys will travel to Roma in April for the South West trials. 

LIBRARY 

BOOK FAIR

Has been postponed until week 2 of term 2.  22^nd – 26^th April.  

Opening hours will be:

• 15 – 4pm: Tuesday, and Wednesday
• Thursday ANZAC Day
• 10 – 9am: Friday

All classes will be borrowing on Thursdays.  Please ensure you child has a library bag for borrowing.  Book return day is Wednesday so the books can be processed before borrowing again on Thursday. 

Reading is Power and Knowledge.

Happy borrowing and reading,

Binnie Eley & Julie Pike
(St Patrick’s Library Staff)

COMMUNITY NEWS

St George Show 2024

Easter Holiday Program

Truck Pull Thallon

Riversands Wines

Easter in the Vines

Two days of family fun!

Free Entry 10am – 6pm. Bookings required.