St Patrick's Primary School Gundagai eNewsletter

Dear Parents and Carers,

After 3 long years, we are finally delighted to enter our first school term with all restrictions lifted! This has been very welcomed news for our St Patrick’s School community. We have certainly endured some tough times over the past four years when you consider drought, bushfires, COVID and now floods. We are proud of our little community for the resilience everyone has shown to work through these challenges together.

Year 6: This term is a special one for our Year 6 students as they complete their final term of their Primary School at St Patrick’s. We wish Eliza, Gracie, Akacia, Tahlira, Sophie, Ellie, James, Anson and Charlie all the best for the next 9 weeks.

Term 4 Activities: The term ahead is certainly a busy one with First Holy Communion, tennis and gymnastics lessons, excursions, Kindergarten Orientation, school reports, end of year events and our fabulous school play ‘Alice the Musical’ thrown into the mix. We are certainly going to finish this year in a big way!

2023 Extra Staffing Allocation: More great news for our school has been welcomed, with the 2023 staffing allocation announcement from CE. Due to our growing numbers, we have been allocated an additional teacher for next year. The teaching position is currently advertised and once the position has been allocated, 2023 class teachers and class groupings will be announced later this term.

CC Working Bee: The Community Council Working bee has been set down for Saturday 29th October commencing at 10am. Please come along and lend a hand to help beautify our school grounds. More hands make light work. You’re help will be greatly appreciated!

Looking forward to welcoming parents to our Community Council Open Meeting tonight commencing at 6:15pm.

With thanks

Christine Baron

Principal

St Patrick pray for us

Welcome to Term 4. We have really hit the ground running with so many things planned for the term.

Father George and Father Namora

It has been announced, that both Father George and Father Namora will be leaving our parish in the near future. Father George has been appointed Parish Priest of the Pambula Parish and will take up his appointment on January 10^th 2023. Father Namora has also been notified that he will be moving although his placement is not yet known. These decisions are made by the Archbishop.

At the moment, Father Namora is enjoying a well-earned holiday. Father George will begin his annual leave later in October.

We will greatly miss both priests who have served our parish faithfully for many years.

St Patrick’s Parish will be served by Father Yoseph Neonbesu who is currently Assistant Parish Priest in North Goulburn.

Mission Month

October marks World Mission Month, a celebration of the global work of the Church and the dedication of missionaries, who support children and communities in need around the world.

This year, we are encouraging students to learn what life is like for children in rural areas of Ethiopia and to take action for positive change.

In Ethiopia, food security and malnutrition remain key issues today. Through Socktober, we are helping to fund the establishment of a goat rearing centre to develop this initiative and save more lives.

Goat’s milk, which is more nutritious than cow’s milk, will help struggling families to alleviate the effects of malnutrition, which causes so many tragic early deaths.

At St Patrick’s we will be supporting Mission Month with an out of uniform day on Friday 28^th October. Children are asked to bring a gold coin donation on this day. If families would like to make other monetary donations, they will be welcomely received.

Year 6 Mass

This Friday Year 5/6 and Mrs Wilson will lead us in a special Mission Mass to mark the beginning of our Mission Month celebrations. We welcome you to join us at 12 noon.

The Rosary

By tradition, the Catholic Church dedicates each month of the year to certain devotion. The month of October is dedicated to the Holy Rosary, one of the best known of all Catholic devotions. October includes the Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary (October 7). The best way to celebrate the month is to pray the Rosary.

First Holy Communion

We ask you to continue to pray for our children of the parish who will make their First Holy Communion on Saturday 29^th October at 6 pm. These children Chace Clout, Indi Cole, Oliver Crowe, Eliza Graham, Lachlan Hargreaves, Beau Jones, Nora Lindley, Jimmy Lott, Molly Lott, Connor Manton, Chase Robinson. along with their families have been busy in their preparation to receive this wonderful Sacrament. They will enter a lifelong relationship with Jesus and with the Christian community that centres itself on the celebration of the Eucharist.

We invite you to celebrate with these children at the 6 pm Mass.

We would love to have as many children come along and sing as a choir.

Kate Howe

REC

Fr George has been appointed the new Parish Priest of Pambula Parish to commence on 10^th January 2023. Fr Namora has also been notified that he will move parishes but the place has not been announced as yet.

Fr Yoseph Neonbesu (to be called Fr Joseph) will be the new appointed Parish Priest for the Tumut mission. There will only be one PP for Tumut, Gundagai, Adelong and Batlow (including Talbingo, Gobarralong and Adjungbilly). Jugiong will now join the Cootamundra parish.

Other announcements have been made as well, including Fr Richard Thompson as the new Vicar General.

A Parish farewell will be held for both Fr George and Fr Namora on Saturday 17^th December following Mass at 6pm. Families welcome to attend. Please contact Sarah Barton.

We would like to thank Fr George and Fr Namora for all their support of our St Patrick’s School community during their time with us. We have been fortunate to have two priests that have been very connected to our school and students. We wish them all the best in their new appointments and parishes.

Congratulations are extended to Katie Campbell and Andrew Hamilton on the safe arrival of their baby boy George. A beautiful brother for Harrison and Evie. Congratulations to the whole family we wish you all a lifetime of love, health and happiness.

A huge thank you to Tim Jones for spraying the weeds and grass around our playground area and the back of the classrooms and administration area on the weekend. We are very grateful to Tim for his generous time and efforts to help keep our playground safe.

Just a reminder about our Parent Working Bee set for Saturday the 29th of October. The event has been created on Compass for parent volunteers. If you could please indicate whether you are able to attend by accepting or declining would give us an indication of how many families will be available to help out.

Thank you once again to all of our families

We are excited to bring you the much-anticipated production of Alice the Musical on the following dates.

Wednesday 16th Nov-Matinee at 11:30am

Thursday 17th Nov-Night Performance at 6pm

Tickets: $5 single or $10 per family. Tickets will be available shortly.

Alice the Musical Parent Helpers:

We are calling on parents with creative skills and talents to please assist with our ‘Alice the Musical’ production.

Assistance is needed for the following areas:

Decorating the entrance area to the school hall (Alice in Wonderland theme)
Door Ticket sales
Stage Props (we already have a few props)
Production Flyer

Please call the front office ASAP and let us know what area you can assist with as we would be most grateful.

At St Patrick’s we will be supporting Mission Month with an out of uniform day on Friday 28^th October.

Children are asked to bring a gold coin donation on this day. If families would like to make other monetary donations, they will be welcomely received.

Congratulations to Abigail Bock in Year 5, who has made it through to the Archdiocese Public Speaking final after winning the Western Region Year 5 division. Abigail will compete against the Winners and Runner Up students of the Northern, Southern and Western regions on Wednesday 26th October. We wish Abigail all the best as she prepares for this.

Last Thursday, years 3 and 4 travelled to Canberra for our class excursion.

When we arrived in Canberra we had recess in the park across the road from questacon.Then we headed into questacon where there were 8 different galleries. First we went into the Space gallery which had space facts and different space related games.Then we went to an Illusion gallery which had lots of things to do with Illusions. After that we went to the Earth gallery which had an earthquake room and a big lighting strike that struck every 15 minutes. Next we went to a science gallery where the instructor did magic tricks and you could look at bugs with a microscope. Lastly we went to the drop zone, it was like an arcade. It had activities like air hockey and speedball. The main part of the dropzone was the big drop slide where you had to hold a bar for 3 seconds until the man told you to let go and drop down the slide.

By Corby and Riley.

After Questacon and lunch in the park, we walked to The Electoral Commission.

We were greeted by our guide, Lizzy. We went into another room where a video told us all about elections, democracy and how and why we have elections. It was interesting.

Then we went into the next room and we sat down on seats that looked like movie seats. Lizzy told us questions to look out for the answers for in the show. The story was told by videos and with illusions. They were very interesting, and a little funny. The first part of the story was about the gold rush and laws. The next one was about women not being able to vote but a woman got it changed. The last one was about a whole colony that got raided during the gold rush and fighting broke out.

The third room was about the laws and voting.With a partner we went to our own screens to watch and learn. First we learnt about the houses, The house of Representatives and the Senate. After that we had to do this spaceship quiz game where we needed to pick the right answer.

Then the last and final room was the voting room where we voted for either apple, banana, peach or oranges. You had to put it in order from 1 to 4 on a ballot paper. We had to get our ballot papers off Riley or Christine. Then we had to go and vote in the booths that were set up and then put it in the box which could not be opened until we had all voted. Joey had to guard the box. After everyone had voted we counted the votes. Peach got voted out first then banana. It was between orange and apple but in the end apple won. The people who voted for Apple were happy.

By Indi and Taite

Alice the Musical

Matinee Performance: 11.30am Wednesday 16th Nov

Night Performance: 6pm Thursday 17th Nov

2022 Award Day-Friday 9^th December-9.30-11.00am

Year 6 Graduation Mass-Friday 9^th December 12pm

Year 6 Graduation Dinner-Wednesday 14^th December 6pm-TBC

Year 6 BIG DAY OUT-Monday 12^th December (Please note change of date)

Term 4 concludes-Friday 16^th December at 3:15pm. Year 6 traditional ringing of the school bell will take place from 3.00pm onwards.

Very shortly we will be moving our school administration system from MAZE to Tech One. This means most of our Administration will be completed through COMPASS and Tech One and should streamline our administration processes. Mrs Fairall will undergo training of the new system as of November 1st. CE will provide the training and follow up support. We ask you to be patient as we move from one system to another in readiness for 2023. With this new finance system parents will be allocated a new BPay and school reference number which we will advise of shortly. We are unsure at this stage whether or not parents will be able to pay via direct deposit as they have been in the past but more information will be sent out to families as we are made aware.

Kindergarten Orientation Dates:

Friday 4^th November: 9.00am-1.30pm

Friday 11^th November: 9.00-1.30pm

Friday 18^th November: 9.00-3.15pm

We look forward to welcoming our 2023 Kindergarten students to our St Patrick’s school community. 2023 Kindergarten Enrolment forms are due in now.

Final session: Friday 25^th November (Teddy Bear’s Picnic) 9.00-11.00am. This will include a presentation of certificates for completing our Little Learners and Kinder Orientation Program. Parents most welcome to join us at 10.30am in the Amphitheatre.

Congratulations to our Week 1 class awards

Kindergarten : Lucy Nicholls for her accurate number work

Yr 1/2 : Archie Peterson for his consistent effort in class and a great start to the term

Yr 3/4 : Molly Lott for braving the "Drop Zone" at Questacon

Yr 3/4 : Charlie Brown for asking lots of questions during the excursion

Yr 5/6 : Abigail Bock for setting a high standard of book work presentation

Just a reminder about our 'Crazy Camel Fundraiser'. We hope all the children are busy designing their artwork.

Orders and payment are due back by Friday 21st October 2022.

Book Club Orders from Issue 7 (if ordering and paying by cash) need to be dropped into the office by Wednesday 26th of October (Week 3). LOOP Online Orders will also close on Wednesdaqy 26th of October.

Thank you to our children and parents for your continued support. If parents could please have the children at the Church by 5.45pm for a 6pm Mass.

Saturday 5th November - Ellie McDonnell, Archie McDonnell

Saturday 12th November - Jack Peterson, Harry Peterson

Saturday 19th November - Tahlira Rose, Corby Rose

Thank you to our parent volunteers for once again giving your time to help run our Friday canteen whether it be cooking cookies or working in the canteen. We are forever grateful for your time.

We are still looking for parent volunteers to help on a few days during term 4. If you are able to help out on any of the following days could you please contact the office:

Friday 4th November - with Kate Graham

Friday 18th November - with Alicia Hargreaves

If you are able to help on either of these two days could you please notify the office.

We would like to extend our birthday wishes to the following students who have celebrated a birthday recently