Dear Parents and Carers,

Well, here we are in Week 10 and back onsite with all our beautiful students. It was so lovely to welcome everyone back yesterday and the students certainly seemed very excited to see their friends and teachers again. Students were straight back into work routines and classrooms were settled. The playground has come back to life again and it is wonderful to hear happy and excited voices during recess and lunch breaks. 

I am sure you are all aware of the Level 3 restrictions schools are now operating under. Class cohorts are unable to mix so a new playground roster has been developed to divide the playground into 3 separate areas for play. This is in place for all school activities including bus and gate lines. The students have been extremely co-operative and have adapted seamlessly to the new regulations.

NAPLAN results for Years 3 and 5 students have been received this week and we would like to congratulate our students on their individual results. Parents will receive their letters with their child’s results today.

We are all looking forward with excitement to celebrating Bookweek and also our Mad Hatters Tea Party tomorrow (Wednesday) at school. Students are asked to come dressed in the Bookweek Theme, ‘Old Worlds, New Worlds and Other World’s’. At lunch time the students will enjoy a picnic lunch on the oval and are asked to bring a small rug, soft toys and their own picnic lunch to eat. Under our Level 3 restrictions, students cannot share food. Social distancing and cohort regulations will also be in place. A beautiful sunny day is forecast for this event and it will be wonderful to celebrate this special event together.

Staff have been working on developing a new school Vision and Mission statement that reflects the current context of our school. This was presented to the Community Council at their last meeting for approval. Please see below the new statement that we have come up with that still encompasses part of our previous vision and a more succinct mission statement.

Best wishes are extended to Mrs Lisa Wilson as she takes some well-deserved Long Service Leave over Term 4. We are very grateful to Mrs Wilson for the time, effort and energy she gives every day to our students and school community and we hope she takes the time to rest, relax and recharge. We look forward to welcoming her back in 2022. Mrs Natasha Flanagan will stand in as our Acting Assistant Principal during Term 4 while Mrs Carolyn Reardon will replace Mrs Wilson as Yr 5/6 teacher for Term 4. 

Thank you also to Miss Bethany Bruce for her effort and application as our Year 3/4 practicum teacher. Over the past 6 weeks, Miss Bruce has proven to be a very competent future teacher with her skills as a face-to-face teacher and also having to learn the ropes of Remote Teaching very quickly. Miss Bruce is now a qualified teacher and is looking forward to working both as a casual teacher and completing her Classroom Support Assistant (CSA) role over the rest of the year. Congratulations Miss Bruce and well done on a great job in Year 3/4.

We also farewell Miss Hannah Baron this Friday. Miss Baron was employed to cover Miss Bruce’s CSA role while Miss Bruce was on her teaching practicum. We have really enjoyed having Miss Baron work with us and wish her all the best for her university studies in the future.

So many thanks must be extended to everyone over the past four weeks for the positive attitude, perseverance, and support from all sectors of our school community. Thank you to the St Patrick’s teaching staff for the incredible job they did in moving so quickly once again to a Remote Learning Platform, thank you also to our Support Staff who were such a great support to teachers with students that attended onsite, to Mrs Fairall for always being available to send out communication and information to parents often at short notice and a huge thank you to our parent community for the wonderful job you did with your children on a daily basis. We are so, so blessed and truly grateful to have such a wonderful and supportive school community.

Term 4 will resume on Wednesday 6^th October for all students K-6. We are hopeful that restrictions will have eased again and that we can once again open our school up to our community in the near future.

Have a wonderful holiday break and stay safe.

Christine Baron

Principal