Dear Parents and Carers,

Week 6 marks halfway through our final school term. We know the rest of the term will move by very quickly with lots of dates and important events coming up. One of our most anticipated events, is coming up this week!

ALICE THE MUSICAL is finally being brought to life on stage after having to cancel the event in 2022 and rescheduling in 2023. My deepest gratitude and thanks, goes out to the amazing St Patrick’s staff team for their tireless efforts, patience, and energy to ensure this musical went ahead despite this being one of our busiest terms. Thank you also to our amazing students, who have put all their effort and energy in making this show come alive. A big shout out to parents who have assisted with props and stage decorations over the past few weeks as well. Your assistance has been most appreciated. We look forward to welcoming everyone to our two fabulous stage productions this week!

2023 PREPARATION: Planning and preparation are now underway for the 2023 school year. CECG staff will be visiting St Patrick’s over the next few weeks to help support the changeover to Tech One office management system, 2023 School budget preparation and 2023 school planning including future directions with the CATALYST program as well as other exciting school programs.

MR TARRON MAKEHAM: We are delighted to welcome Mr Tarron Makeham to join our school team in 2023. Mr Makeham comes with previous teaching experience at Franklin and Snowy Valleys school in Tumut. He visited our school last week to meet staff and students and an opportunity to familiarise himself with our school policies and procedures in preparation for 2023. Mr Makeham is delighted to be joining in our team next year and will bring additional skills, ideas, and experience to our school community.

SEMESTER TWO REPORTS: Teachers are currently undertaking assessments in preparation for Semester Two reports. Reports will be available to parents on Wednesday 7^th December. It is important that students attend school regularly so that assessment data can be collated in preparation for reports. Parent/Teacher interviews will be available on Monday 12^th and Tuesday 13^th December on request from parents.

COMMUNITY COUNCIL: Our final Community Council Meeting will be held tonight at 6.15pm. If you are interested in joining this dedicated group of parents in 2023, please ensure you have sent your nomination into Kim Paton or myself, before tonight’s meeting.

We look forward to welcoming you to our fantastic production of Alice the Musical this week! No doubt you join with the staff in being incredibly proud and amazed of the talent and creativity of each and every student at St Patrick’s school, despite whether they hold a major or minor role. They are simply amazing!

Christine Baron

Principal

St Patrick, Pray for Us.

Remembrance Day

Last Friday we celebrated Remembrance Day. On this day of Remembrance, we remembered the courageous men and women who gave their lives in wartime. We remember those who stood for love and truth and thank them for the sacrifice they made for us.

Our School Captains attended the Remembrance Service held at the RSL Club. The children laid a wreath on behalf of the school. We thank them for the reverent way they represented St Patrick’s.

Altar Serving Roster

A new roster was sent home last week. Thank you to all the children and their families for their continued support of the Parish in this very special ministry.

Altar Serving Training

Father Namora has kindly offered to hold a training session for our new and existing Altar Servers on Friday 2^nd December. This will be a wonderful opportunity for everyone to gain further practice or learn about their new role in this special ministry. We have several new children to this role after recently receiving their First Holy Communion. Mr Peter Gain has also offered his time to assist in this practice session.

Graduation and Thanksgiving Mass

Our Year 6 Graduation and Thanksgiving Mass will take place on Friday 9^th December at 12 noon. This Mass will celebrate the closing chapter of the Year 6 children’s time at St Patrick’s and a time of thanksgiving for all we have achieved in 2022.

Everyone is most welcome to join us for this Mass.

Kate Howe

REC

St Patrick’s Primary School Gundagai, is delighted to present the timeless classical story of Alice the Musical!

Based on the original story of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll, this story will be retold through song, dance, drama and narrative by the talented and creative students of St Patrick’s from Kindergarten through to Year 6. 

We welcome all parents, grandparents, family and community members to watch this fantastic production!  Tickets are very limited now.

Tickets are available from St Patrick’s School, Front Office. Please phone 69441085 or call into the front office. 

Session Times: Wednesday 16^th November 11.30am

                           Thursday 17^th November 6.00pm

Please note: Students need to be at the School Hall by 5:45pm on Thursday evening.

Cost of Tickets:    $5.00 per adult

                             Children under 18 free

(All money raised will go towards covering the costs of hiring props and stage production costs)

We look forward to welcoming you to our magical wonderland!

Alice the Musical Raffle:

Thanks to Amy Ryder for organising a raffle for our Alice production. The winner will receive a beautiful cheese board, pot plant, terracotta planter pot and 2 bottles of wine. 

Tickets $2.00 each or 3 for $5.00 - Raffle will be drawn after Thursday Nights performance or Friday morning

It has been wonderful to have our 2023 Kindergarten students join us for our Kindergarten Orientation program so far. This Friday 18^th November will mark the end of the orientation program, with the children spending a full day at school. Thank you to our Year 5 students, who have been looking after the children and proving themselves as very capable buddies for 2023.

Final Kindergarten Orientation session: This Friday 18^th Nov 9.00 - 3.15pm

The following Friday 25^th November, our Little Learners program will conclude with a Teddy Bear’s Picnic from 9.30-11.00am. Parents are invited to a special presentation at 10.40am in the amphitheatre to conclude our Little Learners and Kindergarten Orientation programs. Parents of new students are welcome to attend an information session in regard to 2023 starting dates, uniforms and other important information from 9.30-1.30am

Teddy Bear’s Picnic: Friday 25^th November 9.30-11.00am

2023 Parent Information session: Friday 25^th November 9.30-10.30am

All parents that are new to our school next year are invited to attend the Parents Session, outlining key dates and events in 2023.

Coming home today is a letter outlining the changes in our Compass finance system which will involve the school fees and billing system.  Families have been notified of their new Biller Code and BPay Reference number via email last week for the families who make weekly, fortnightly or monthly payments.  All other families who pay in full will shortly receive a statement with the new BPay Reference Number and Biller Code.  Please ensure you update this if you have not already done so. 

Unfortunately we no longer have the option to pay by Direct Deposit and the preferred payment is via BPay or Cash payments. 

The Compass Portal will have an additional feature under "My Payments" which will allow families to view any Compass event payments and also allow families to view their fee statement history.   All the information will be in the letter coming home today. 

Mrs Fairall will also be out of the office on Tuesday 22nd of November due to training for the new Tech One system.  At this time we would ask that you call the office instead of emailing as the emails may not get read. 

After the kind donation of funds from Anne Field from the Busking Group we have recently purchased some rather colourful Ukuleles and our Yr 5/6 class were happy to model these instruments.  Thank you again for the donation 

GYMNASTICS

The gymnastics program will be held for the next 3 weeks so please ensure students wear sport uniform for the next 3 Fridays.

SWIMMING:

Our swimming program begins next Thursday 24^th November for students K-6. Students will need to bring their swimmers, towels, goggles, sunscreen, $2.00 for pool entry if you are not a season ticket holder every Thursday please.

2023 School Captain Speeches

Year 5 students will be presenting their 2023 School Captain speeches from next Monday to Wednesday morning commencing at 9.00am each day. Parents and family members are welcome to attend the presentation of speeches.

Monday-Garvita, Charlotte, Darby, Emmy and Jack Ryan         

Tuesday - Nate, Jack Paton, Abagail, Ryan and Tessa                                           

Wednesday - Faith, Amy and Lachlan

The students and staff will vote for the four School Captains on Thursday 24^th November.  We wish all our Year 5 students the very best as they prepare to present their speeches to our school community.

2023 Captains and Leadership Roles will be announced at our end of year awards ceremony.

Our CSA’s are all undertaking further training in the MultiLit Literacy programs that we have implemented across our school. This training is provided by CE as part of the CATALYST initiatives.

Ms Bartlett undertook training in MacLit program last week.

Mrs Crowe will undertake training in IntiaLit program later in the term.

Mrs Johnson will undertake training in Reading Tutor at a date to be advised.

All these programs help support literacy improvement from K-6.

Alice the Musical

Matinee Performance: 11.30am Wednesday 16th Nov

Night Performance: 6pm Thursday 17th Nov

SEMESTER TWO REPORTS: Wednesday 7^th December

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 - Compass Event will be sent out shortly for payment and consent

PARENT/TEACHER INTERVIEWS: Monday 12^th and Tuesday 13^th December - Information will be sent out via Compass regarding interviews with class teachers shortly

WEEK 10 AWARD Day:  Thursday 15^th December 9.00am

PRINCIPAL AWARD’S MORNING TEA: Thursday 15^th December 10.30am

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.

Friday 27^th January-Staff PD Day

Monday 30^th January-CE CATALYST System Day in Canberra

Tuesday 31^st January-Staff Preparation Day

Wednesday 1^st February-Students K-6 begin Term 1

Congratulations to our Week 4 and Week 5 Class Awards

Week 4 - 4th November 2022

Kindergarten - Lance Crowe for his inclusive, kind attitude towards all 

Yr 1/2 - Lotus Jielan for her consistent focus during class discussions

Yr 3/4 - Andrew Cole for his engagement and effort during number activities

Week 5 - 11th November 2022

Kindergarten - Josie Lott for lovely manners and showing reading improvements 

Yr 1/2 - Kaydee Smith for her enthusiasm and positivity in the classroom 

Yr 3/4 - Molly Lott for outstanding result in spelling assessment. Congratulations Super Speller 

Yr 5/6 - Tahlira Rose for her creativity and initiative shown in Federation of Australia written and digital pieces of work

Congratulations to our Student of the Month and Principal's Awards for Week 5 Term 4 

Student of the Month

Kindergarten - Clancy Smart 

Yr 1 - Fletcher Smith 

Yr 2 Jasper Rui 

Yr 3 - Eliza Graham

Yr 4 - Taite Johnson 

Yr 5 - Abigail Bock 

Yr 6 - Charlie Hindmarsh 

Principal's Awards 

Ryan Robinson 

Charlie Ryder

Joseph Gailey (Absent on the day for photo) 

Jack Ryan

Thank you to our Children and Families for your continued support. Mass is now at 6.00pm Saturday evenings and if children could be there by 5.45pm. 

3rd December - James Reardon & Indi Cole 

10th December - Taite Johnson, Riley Smith, Sophie Graham

17th December - Emmy Gaskin & Christyne Calub

Christmas Eve Mass 24th December - Charlotte McDonnell & Nate Tozer 

We would like to send out a birthday cheer to Sarah Gailey who celebrated her birthday on 12th of November. We hope you had a lovely weekend for your special day.

The Fundraising Committee are working hard to bring the Fair to life, we are looking for more volunteers to assist with smaller preparation tasks and to assist on the day.

If you are able to assist the Committee we would love to hear from you; please contact the School Office or Sam Johnson - 0422 154 298 - smjohnson7103@gmail.com

Help us make the St Patrick’s Day Fair a great success and bring us one step closer to building the much needed Outdoor Covered Area!!

Sam Johnson

Community Council - Fundraising Co-Ordinator