18 August 2023

PRINCIPAL’S REPORT

School Calendar Dates – Term 3, 2023

Hello St Patrick’s families, 

We’re halfway through the term already! There is a lot happening at school in these next few weeks, let’s take a look! 

Family Life Lessons at St Patrick’s 

Last week you should have received a letter from school regarding the upcoming ‘Family Life’ lessons that will take place in our classes in week 8 of the term (starting Monday 28^th August). These lessons are conducted as they are a part of the Australian School’s Curriculum. Each grade has an individual lesson that meets the requirements of the Australian curriculum and, as such, the information presented to the students increases in depth as the students get older and progress through the grades. The information that is presented in these lessons is age appropriate and supported by resources supplied to all Toowoomba Catholic School by our Head Office. If you do have any questions about the lesson your child will be taking part in, please contact your classroom teacher. 

Daniel Morcombe Child Protection Week 

In week 9 of the of this term (starting Monday 4^th September), our school will be taking part in the Daniel Morcombe Child Protection Week program. This will involve the students taking part in lessons to teach them strategies that help them; 

• Recognise – recognise situations where they or others may be in harm or at risk of harm. 
• React – react in a way that helps them stay safe. 

• Report – know how to report situations that have made them feel unsafe, as well as who they can report to and how. 

This curriculum has been in place in Qld schools for several years now and plays an important role in helping our young people develop the awareness and strategies required to keep themselves and others safe. If you do have any questions about the lesson your child will be taking part in, please contact your classroom teacher. 

Book Week Parade – Friday 25^th August 

Next week is the national Children’s Book Council of Australia Book Week. This is where we celebrate books and reading and the wonderful impact they have on our lives and imaginations. This year’s theme is ‘Read, Inspire, Grow’, and to celebrate, the students will be taking part in book week activities during their library lessons. We will also be bringing our Friday assembly forward to the morning session so the children can take part in our book week dress up as a part of this. Students are encouraged to dress up as their favourite character from a book of their choice with a parade being held at the start of the day. It should be heaps of fun and all families are invited to come and watch. See you there! 

Outside School Hours Care at St Patrick’s 

Following the survey conducted earlier this year on the potential of an Outside School Hours Care (OSHC) service being opened at St Pat’s, and the strong response to that survey, an application to the government is currently being made by the TCSO Kindergarten & After School Care team for an OSHC to open at our school. The application process is not guaranteed, but, at this point, we have a strong case for this to go ahead. There is a lot of administrative and legislative hoops to jump through before this can go ahead so, if our application is successful, it would most likely be for the service to start in Term 1 of 2024. I know this service would be of great benefit to many of our families so I will continue to keep you updated as this progresses. 

Term 3 Parent Teacher Interviews 

Term 3 Parent/Teacher interviews will be conducted later this term and, for some classes, early in Term 4. These interviews are vital to maintain clear communication about your child’s learning progress and provide a great opportunity for teachers and parents to clarify understandings around learning and assessment, as well as effort, attitude, and behaviour in class and around school. Teachers will be able to provide next learning steps and provide suggestions to support learning at home. Parents can also share concerns or advice they think the teacher should be aware of. Please keep an eye open for communication from your classroom teacher regarding these interviews and make sure you make the time to meet with your classroom teacher. 

Upcoming Public Holidays & Student Free Days 

Don’t forget to mark on your calendar the upcoming student free day; 

1. Friday 1^st September – Teacher Professional Development Student Free Day. 

Expressions of Interest Currently being taken for Supply Teachers and SO’s 

You may have seen an expression of interest that was recently posted to our Facebook page and sent out to all families via our Skoolbag app. We currently have a great bank of supply staff but are looking to expand this to meet the ongoing needs of the school. If you feel you have the qualifications, skills or experience for the role, or know someone else who does, make sure you contact me, the Principal, via email or drop in and say hello.  

That’s all from me for now, have a great weekend. 

Jim Wren

SKOOLBAG APP

Dear Parents/Carers

Our school uses the Skoolbag app for iPhone and Android, to help us communicate more effectively with our Parent community. We are asking parents to search for and install the Skoolbag app.

Once you have installed the Skoolbag app from either the Apple App Store or Google Play Store just search for our school’s name St Patrick's Primary School St George.
For Windows users search for Skoolbag in the Windows Store, install the app, and then find our school. Please note it must be a Windows 8.1 or 10 device.

Please check the flyer below for instructions.

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

Acting APRE

Week 5: Isabella Ballin
Week 6: Darcy Stower and Hailey Easterbrook

Last week we celebrated the Feast Day of Mary MacKillop with a whole school Mass in the church. Thank you to our students who all participated so prayerfully during Mass. A special mention to Father Anthony as well for leading us. Mary MacKillop is a very special saint to our school not only because she is Australia’s very own saint but also because she is one of the founders of the Sisters of Saint Joseph who were instrumental in establishing St Patrick’s School in St George. There are many special lessons that we can learn from the life of Mary MacKillop, chief among them being never see a need without doing something about it. Mary was a great champion for the poor and less privileged and this care for others is something we can all appreciate and aim towards.  

Family Life 

At the end of this term in Week 8, the Sexual Health Education Program (better known as Family Life Lessons) will be taught to children from Prep to Year 6. Please have a conversation with your child/children and clarify any questions that they have after these lessons.  

These lessons are part of the curriculum of our school and all schools across this Diocese. They form part of the Personal, Social and Community Health Strand of the Australian Curriculum and follow the Catholic Education Office, Diocese of Toowoomba, Guidelines for Teaching Sexual Health.   

Please be assured that this material will be handled with sensitivity. Below is a brief overview of the content covered across the school. You will also receive a note home with further details for each year level. If you have any questions or concerns about the content being covered or your child's participation in these lessons, please contact your classroom teacher.   

If you have any questions or concerns about Family Life lessons or would like to see the resources being used in class, please feel free to contact your classroom teacher to discuss further.   

Student Protection Week 

In Week 9, St Patrick’s School will hold its annual Student Protection Week. During this week, classes will engage with lessons from the Daniel Morcombe Child Safety Curriculum. Further information about these lessons and the content to be covered will be shared in the next newsletter.  

Father’s Day 

This year, St Patrick’s School will be celebrating Father’s Day with a wonderful BBQ breakfast run by the P&F and a Father’s Day Prayer Celebration on Thursday, August 31. Mrs Colley and Year 3 have volunteered to lead us in prayer for this special occasion and we invite all families to come and join us in the church from 8:45am to celebrate Father’s Day after you have enjoyed the special P&F BBQ breakfast. As part of our Prayer Celebration this year, I invite all St Patrick’s School families to send in no more than three photographs to be part of our Father’s Day Reflection video. You can send in photos of our St Patrick’s dads, grandfathers and those like fathers to us. Please email your photos through to Miss Byrne at Kristin.Byrne@twb.catholic.edu.au before 12pm on Wednesday, August 30.  Photos sent in after this deadline may not make the reflection video.  

God Bless,
Kristin Byrne  

MASS TIMES

St George-Dirranbandi Parish

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

CLASS News

Peeking into PrepM

Students of the Week

Week 5: Lucy Wren and Frankie Luck
Week 6: Loghan Avery and Eddie Casalegno

Dear Parents, 

I hope you have enjoyed the long weekend and are ready to start week 6 refreshed! 

Book Week – In week 7 we will celebrate book week.  

 As a whole school, we will have a dress-up parade on Friday 25^th August. All students are encouraged to dress up as a character out of a picture book. Each class then stands up in front of the school to ‘show off’ their costume. This will take place in the morning at 8:45am. Parents are most welcome to attend.  

Town Library Visit – on Tuesday the 22^nd of August the Prep students will be visiting the town library to listen to one of the shortlisted books and participate in an activity. If you can assist by walking with us, participating in the activities and walking back to school, can you please let me know as soon as possible? The more parent help we can get the smoother the excursion will be.  

Colour fun run – One of the major fundraisers for the P & F this term is the colour fun run. It will take place on the last Thursday of the term, 14^th of September. For those of you not familiar with a colour fun run your child will need to come dressed in some old clothes that can be stained from the colour. It is set up on our big school oval and students may choose to walk or run. Courtney and I both walk the course with children who are a bit worried or anxious. Further information will go home with students early next week so please keep your eye out for this.  

Family Life – Please ensure you have taken the time to read the information ready for week 8.  

Show and Share – This week a letter went home with a timetable for students to bring something in to share with their classmates. This will generally occur on a Friday only. There is no pressure for a child to share if they don’t want to, however it is a good way to work on students speaking skills. 

Wishing you a wonderful week! 

Kind Regards  
Nichole & Courtney

Peeking into Prep & Year 1H

Students of the Week

Week 5: Biller Fuller and Declan Wilson
Week 6: Cooper Lambert and Ella Summers

Welcome to week 6! It is hard to believe that we are over halfway through the term. 

In English we have begun to look at what is a nouns verb and adjective, and how we use them when writing sentences.  The Prep students have also been working on sounding out CVC words when reading. CVC words are three letter words that have a consonant, vowel consonant. 

In Math we have continued to look at partitioning collections and numbers.  The Preps have been focussing on numbers up to 10 and the Year 1’s up to 20.  We will now move into looking at how we use this knowledge when adding and subtracting numbers. 

In Science we are looking at the weather and in particular what clothes we might wear when it is hot or cold. This will lead into making observations about the sky such as the sun or moon moving through the sky as well as the differences between day and night. 

In Health we are looking at ways to stay safe.  We have begun to talk about what an emergency is, what we do in an emergency and who are the people who help to keep us safe. 

I sent out an email this week regarding some important information of events happening over the next few weeks.  If you have not received this email could you please check your other or junk folder.  If you still haven’t received it please let me know and I will send one home in your child’s Kit Book. 

Have a wonderful weekend. 

Kind Regards,
Fiona & Kira

Year 1D

Students of the Week

Week 5: Rocco Casalegno and Keli McAlister
Week 6: Lyla Manning and Belle Vickers

Hello everyone,

We are over half way!

As our Religion focus is currently Baptism, last Friday we visited the Church. Father Anthony showed the class the symbols, actions and words involved with Baptism. It was so great to see all children excited and with lots of questions for Father Anthony. On Tuesday, the students organised a Baptism for a doll. All students displayed great enthusiasm during this activity.

In Math, we have begun learning about mass and comparing familiar objects. We will continue our number and addition focus throughout the rest of the year.

A reminder that Book Week is next week and our dress up day is Friday the 25th of August. We will have a parade at 8:45am in the MPC hall.

Kind Regards,
Miss Beth Daly

Year 2W

Students of the Week

Week 5: Sophie Luck, Max Muller and Matilda Willoughby
Week 6: Chelsea Cross, Riley Curtis and Oliver Easton

Good afternoon, Parents and Caregivers of Year 2W,

Updates:

1. Science Experiment 8.45am Thursday 17th August Week 6. We have lots of hot wheels but if your child would like to bring a little car in to class, they are welcome, depending on parental permission.

Our experiment was so much fun! The students learned about force, push and pull.

2. Teddy Bear Hospital Visit from University of Queensland Medical student volunteers 10am Friday 18th August  Week 6. Year 2 have been invited to join the Year 1 class to learn about the importance of nutrition, dental hygiene, daily exercise, and sun safety. Students can bring in a teddy for this if they would like to. The teddy is optional.

3. Book Week Friday 25th August Week 7. Students dress up in their favourite book character.

4. Homework- Please continue to stay on top of homework. With these shorter weeks it is very easy to get left behind. I am happy to help students catch up and get back on top of these weekly tasks, however I need their homework books please here at school to do this.

5. Parent Teacher Interviews -These will be conducted this term in Week 9. A letter will be going out soon for you to give a preference time for these.

Please make contact if you have any queries.

Kind regards
Christina Wardle

Year 3C

Students of the Week

Week 5: Lewis Price, Amelia O’Toole and Noah Ballin
Week 6: Eleanor North and Kai Satchell

Welcome to Week 6.

This week in Religion, students will bring together the knowledge they have built around the Ten Commandments, The Beatitudes and the Fruit of the Spirit. We have looked at each of these separately and made connections to how they can help us live out our everyday lives. Now we will explore them more deeply and investigate the links between them. In our class, we have talked a lot about how it’s okay for us to have different opinions and how we can express our point of view while being respectful and accepting of other people’s ideas. This will be a good opportunity for us to put these skills into practice as we all interpret things differently and have different views and make different connections. Much of our Religion centers around giving children the chance to engage in dialogue, both teacher guided, and student initiated. Year 3 students are really embracing these opportunities to share their thinking and experiences with others. 

Kind regards 
Annette Colley 

Year 4/5  

Students of the Week 

Week 5: Hannah Acton and Pippi Cott 
Week 6: Brooke Hams and Chase Hawthorn

 Dear Parents and Caregivers, 

I hope all families have enjoyed a wonderful long weekend. We have entered Week Six! 

Last week the students respectfully participated in the Feast Day of Mary MacKillop Mass. Well done to those students who assisted in leading the Mass. You all did such a wonderful job. 

Year 4/5 will be visiting the high school next week on Wednesday 23^rd August, to support the High School students from the Sport and Recreation Studies class. The students at the High School are learning how to organise events and sports tournaments. I will be walking the class up to the High School to participate.  

Book week is fast approaching, and this year’s theme is READ, GROW, INSPIRE. We will celebrate on Friday 25^th of August - Week 7. Please be aware the students can dress up as their favourite book character on this day and we will be doing a special Parade on Friday morning. This will also be combined with our normal Friday afternoon assembly. I look forward to seeing all the wonderful costumes. This week will involve reading different books and participating in wonderful book week activities.  

Please keep an eye on upcoming events/ information such as Family Life, Daniel Morcombe week, Book Week and Colour Fun Run. 

Kind regards, 

Miss Alice Rathie 

Year 5/6A  

Students of the Week 

Week 5: Harry McCosker and Isabella Ballin 
Week 6: Ella Easton and Harriet Sheedy

We have made it to the end of week 6!

We have been super busy in year 5/6A. Well done to Peter Behrend and Theresa Sevil who represented SW for tennis this week in Caloundra. We have also had students represent the school and themselves at the Goondiwindi Eisteddfod last week and they all went very well. Congratulations to all these students. We have had a busy week this week with High school transitions and year 5 going to the hub to read with the Kindy kids.

Next week (Week 7) we are also very busy preparing and getting ready for Book week. On Friday next week students are able to come dressed up as their favourite book character! Assembly and parade will be held Friday morning at 8:45am. The year 4-6 students will be heading to the high school next Wednesday for a touch football tournament held by the year 11 and 12 Sport and Rec students as part of their assessment. All students are looking forward to this and are asked if they can wear their sports uniform next Wednesday.

Year 6 camp is fast approaching. Parents can you please ensure all paperwork is handed back to the school ASAP.

Thank you and have a great weekend.

Miss Claire Armstrong  

Sport & Library News

Eley Elite 

Week 5: Ngkylah Saunders

SPORT

Sport has been a little quiet and as most of the district trials  have been completed, it will get quieter!!

I do know that State soccer and tennis trails have taken place over the past couple of weeks with a number of students attending. From all accounts it was a great experience.

The South West Athletics carnival is being held on Wednesday 30th and Thursday 31st August at the St George State High School. Good luck to the students attending!

LIBRARY

BOOK WEEK – 19th -25th August 2023 

BOOK WEEK – 19th -25th August 2023

The Children’s Book Council of Australia is celebrating Book Week in week 7 of this term. This year at St Patrick’s, the children will be given the opportunity to come to school dressed as their favourite book character. This does not need to be an elaborate exercise as we just want to have some fun and celebrate reading with the children. This year the theme is Read, Grow, Inspire which you can see on the attached flyer. Our dress up day will be on Friday 25th August with an assembly first thing in the morning at 8:45am. If you have any questions regarding the dress up day, please don’t hesitate to see myself or your classroom teacher.

Borrowing days are as follows, so please try to remember to send along library books:

Happy borrowing and reading!

Reading is Power and Knowledge! Happy borrowing and reading!

Community News

ST PATRICKS SCHOOL COLOUR FUN RUN FUNDRAISER 2023

Fundraising