Dear Parents and Carers,

Over the weekend we had two special opportunities to gather:

REMBEMBRANCE DAY: Thank you to our School Captains, Abigail, Charlotte, Nate and Jack for representing St Patricks at the Gundagai RSL Sub-Branch Remembrance Day celebration on Saturday. They were joined by Emily (Year 5) and Lachlan (Year 4) as well as parents and grandparents. Students gathered yesterday for a school Remembrance Service to honour those who have served or continue to serve to keep our country safe.

FIRST HOLY COMMUNION: What a beautiful celebration on Saturday evening, when Leila, Rouge (RV), Reuben and Jack (GPS) made their First Holy Communion! Special thanks to Mrs Howe for preparing the children so beautifully, to parents for supporting their children in their faith development and to Fr Joe for a beautiful Mass. A highlight was when Fr Joe invited the four children to sit with him on the altar steps for the homily. This will be a special moment these children will have forever. Many thanks also to the St Patrick’s children and staff who came along to support their family and friends as altar servers, music and overhead or in the choir.

Year 5 School Captain Speeches: Our Year 5 students will deliver their 2024 School Captain Speeches every morning during this week. Voting for the 2024 School Captains will take place this Friday. We look forward to hearing from our Year 5 students about their ideas, hopes and plans for next year as school leaders.

2024 KINDERGARTEN INFORMATION SESSION: This Friday 17 November, any new parents to our school community in 2024 or Kindergarten parents are welcome to come along to the school library for an information session. The session will run from 9:00 to approximately 10.30am.

CATALYST: Mrs Gillian Forrester (CE) visited St Patrick’s today to support teachers in the continued delivery of Direct Instructional programs. In 2024, The Writing Revolution program will be utilised from Kindergarten through to Year 6 aimed to teach students to become proficient writers, readers and critical thinkers. The sequential teaching instruction from K-6 enables teachers to build writing skills developed each year.

 A big end of week for the Gundagai community with infamous Snake Gully Cup and other events being held.

Christine Baron

Principal

St Patrick, Pray for Us

St Patrick's Parish have organised a "Monster Christmas Raffle" with 26 prizes up for grabs.  totaly value of $5,500 in prizes.  Tickets are $2.00 each or 3 for $5.00 and can be purchased from St Patrick's School Office or Elders.  Raffle will be drawn on Saturday 16th December.     Raffle tickets were sent home last week. If you could please send them back into the school with the money would be appreciated. 

This week in "What's in my Food" we are taking a look at Shapes (biscuits)

Step 1: Ask What's In My Food? Ignore the front
of the packet and turn it around.

Step 2: Count the number of ingredients on the
back. The more ingredients there are, the less
likely it is to help our One Body for Life. If there
are more than 6, it's best to pop it back on the
shelf and find a better choice.

What's In Shapes? 26 ingredients. Some of the Ingredients in flavoured crackers like Shapes have been linked to asthma, eczema, learning difficulties and behavioural issues. This simple swap significantly means you don't have to deal with these issues.

Here's a simple cracker recipe that is so morish. Make a double batch because they will disappear off the tray before you get a chance to put them away.
Bonus #1: You'll have left over ingredients you can use in many other recipes.
Bonus #2: A lot less ingredients and less
packaging too, making these crackers better for your One Body for Life and One Planet Earth.

Year 5 2024 School Captain Speeches: Monday 13 Nov to Friday 17 November (Week 6)

K-6 Swimming Program begins: Thursday 16 November

2024 Kindergarten Transition Program: Friday 17 November 9.00-3.15pm

2024 Kindergarten Parent Information Session: Friday 17 November 9.00-10.30am

2023 Award Day: Friday 8 December (Week 9)

Semester 2 Reports posted on COMPASS: Wednesday 6 December

Year 6 Graduation Mass: Friday 8 December 12pm

Parent/Teacher Meetings: Monday 11 and Tuesday 12 December

Term 4 Concludes: Friday 15 December

Year 5/6 Ballarat/Bendigo Excursion

On the 31st of October Year 5 and Year 6 went on their 4 day excursion to Ballarat. We spent 10 hours on the bus to arrive at 6:00 in Sovereign Hill. We went to dinner then to a pantomime show, we had a Q&A with the actors then went to bed.

Next day we stayed in Sovereign Hill and saw lots of amazing things being made and melted. For example, candles, candy and gold. We had sausage rolls and pies for lunch and then we had a choice to stay home and rest or go and explore. After about an hour of exploring or resting, we came back to our apartments for 2 hours to get ready to go to a light show. The light show was split into 3 parts. The first part was a 3D show about how the world was formed. Then the second part was a light show on a hill about how Aboriginals believe the world was formed. Then the final part was this reenactment of the diggings and the Eureka stockade. Then after the show had finished we went home to bed.

On the 2nd of November we headed out to Bendigo to the gold mines. We went only to the second level but it was 61 metres underground. Our tour guides showed us the evolution of mining drills and support and we got to see a quartz/gold vein. Then we went on a talking tram ride and saw the sights of Ballarat. After that we headed to our accommodation; the Bendigo Discovery Centre. It was basically a massive science playground. There was a vertical slide that was exhilarating and awesome. We had pizza for dinner and went stargazing, then to sleep.

Our last day was a bright and early start. We travelled to Echuca, a two hour drive. We went on the Ps Pevensey paddle steamer and had a tour of the wharf area and got souvenirs. Then 7 more hours on the bus and at 6 we got home to Gundagai. 

Overall it was an experience that was entirely worth going on. And we thank our teachers for taking us and our parents for making the excursion be able to happen.

Written by Charlotte McDonnell and Riley Smith.

OVERDUE LIBRARY BOOKS

Could all students that have library books at home please send them into school over the next few weeks.  All books need to be marked off as returned before we finish school. 

FINAL REMINDER  Parents are reminded that should they wish to order for Christmas the orders need to be in before 1st of December to allow time to be sent to our school before we break up for the 2023 year.  An order will be placed this Wednesday 29th November if you can send in your orders or order via LOOP. 

LOOP orders are also encouraged via the Scholastic Website scholastic.com.au/LOOP as payment can be made online directly.

Dates for 2024 Calendar 

Staff Professional Development Days: Tuesday 30 and Wednesday 31 January

Students K-6 Return: Thursday 1 February

Ash Wednesday: Wednesday 14 February

Easter (Week 9)

-Good Friday: 29 March

-Easter Sunday: 31 March

-Easter Monday: 1 April

Term 1 concludes: Friday 12 April

Term 2 Dates: Tuesday 30 April-Thursday 4 July

-Sovereign’s Birthday: Monday 10 June

Term 3 Dates: Tuesday 23 July-Thursday 26 September

Term 4 Dates: Tuesday 15 October-Wednesday 18 December (TBC)

Congratulations to our Week 4 and Week 5 Class Awards.  

Week 4 - Friday 3rd November: 

Kindergarten - Fred Miller for doing his very best during literacy and writing 

Yr 1 - Harley Rose for quick and accurate work with all number tasks 

Yr 2 - Remi Taylor for growing in independence across all areas 

Yr 3 - Ethan Wu for his application and engagement in Maths 

Yr 4 - Conor Cotterill for working hard in learning especially in Maths 

Yr 5/6 - AWAY FOR EXCURSION 

Week 5 - Friday 10th November: 

Kindergarten - Pippi Nicholls for working hard with writing and presentation of her work 

Yr 1 - Isabella Melksham for signicant progress in end of year reading assessment

Yr 2 - Kingsley McDonnell for using great mental strategies in Mathematics 

Yr 3 - Zoe Paton for her participation and improving number recall in Maths

Yr 4 - Ollie Crowe for his application and engagement during out Maths topic "Money" 

Yr 5 - Ammy Wu for experimenting with more English in conversation 

Yr 6 - Lachlan Morgan for good application towards Mary McKillop timeline

Last Friday we held our Student of the Month and Principal's Awards. It was lovely to see so many family members show their support.

Student of the Month for Week 5 Term 4 were: 

Kindergarten- Gus Hufton 

Yr 1 - Kevin Lyu 

Yr 2 - Lane Johnson 

Yr 3 - Charlie Ryder 

Yr 4 - Emma Brown 

Yr 5 - Chase Robinson 

Yr 6 - Abigail Bock 

Principal's Awards - Claudia Worldon, Denver Blundell and Tessa Crowe

Congratulations to our Week 4 Wildcat Awards

RESPONSIBLE - Billy Eccleston 

RESPECT - Harley Rose 

SAFE - Reuben Smart, Kevin Lyu

Sending out a BIG Birthday Cheer to Sarah Gailey who celebrated her birthday on Sunday 12th November.  We hope you had a great day with family and friends Sarah