Dear Families and Friends

Catholic Student Youth Ministry Australia

Last Friday, I gathered with a number of school leaders, priests and our Archbishop Christopher Prowse, to discuss how we can further develop staff and student faith based formation programs. This was a great opportunity to learn from the experiences of other dioceses and ministry leaders and plan pathways for Youth Ministry action for our school and parish. A very positive symposium day, juxtaposed to the negative press the Catholic Church is receiving at present. I believe all participants found the dialogue and input to be inspiring and affirming in our commitment to Catholic education. I wish to extend the invitation to any parent or community member wishing to meet and discuss Youth Ministry Pathways or the nature and purpose of our Catholic schools.

Kindergarten enrolments for 2019

If you intending on enrolling your child in Kindergarten for 2019 or know a family member or friend who is considering our school, please call by the front office and pick up an enrolment package.

Please note the following Kinder transition and orientation dates: 

• Little Learners transition to school group 9:00am – 10:00am beginning on the 19^th October
• Kinder 2019 Information Evening 6:00pm Monday 22^nd October
• Kinder Orientation half days 9:00am – 12:00pm. On Tuesday the 23^rd and 30^th of October and the 6^th of November.

 Focus on Learning

At present, I am engaging with the school staff and students to reflect on the feedback and feedforward processes that are present in our school. Our aim is to examine and refine existing feedback strategies with a view to clarifying our students’ understanding of the learning process as well as building their learning capacity, growth mindset and well-being. This action research is based on the research of John Hattie’s’ “Visible Learning”, Mark Treadwell’s “The Future of Learning” and Anne Graham’s “Improving Wellbeing Through Student Participation”. This year, I have had the privilege of working with all three professors, alongside a number of Sydney principals involved in similar research. We meet in Sydney later this year to present our research.

Archdiocesan Schools Survey

The annual surveys of Staff, Parents and Students in all schools across the Archdiocese will be conducted this term. The survey period will open on the 21^st of August and conclude on the 1^st September. All parents at St Patrick’s will receive an emailed link to the survey. I encourage you to complete the School Satisfaction Surveys as they are designed to gather feedback from parents, staff and students about our school and will be used to strategically and systematically move St Patrick’s forward to improve student wellbeing and learning outcomes.

2018 UNSW ICAS Spelling Competition Results

We would like to congratulate the 11 students who chose to further extend themselves in this challenging test. Our school achieved 6 credit and 5 participation certificates, a result we are most proud of.

Congratulations to:

CREDIT recipients: Sophie Graham, Oliver Gailey, Juliet Pearce, Sadie Eccleston, Asher Jones and Lily McDonnell

PARTICIPATION: Anson Chew, Jessica McDonnell, Mia Naughton, Harrison Crowe and Will Naughton

Student of the Month Awards

This Friday at our 2:30 assembly, seven students will be receiving a Student of the Month Award. This award will be presented twice each term in weeks 5 and 10. One student from each class is selected based on the following criteria:

• consistent effort to achieve at their best
• co-operative / collaborative learning behaviours
• displaying a positive learning attitude towards all tasks.

The above criteria reflect the core skills required of 21^st century learners.  As our students understand and engage in the learning process, they develop learner competencies that will allow them to take increasing agency over their own learning. Parents / carers of those students selected for the Student of the Month Award have been notified via email.