St Patrick's Primary School Gundagai eNewsletter

Dear Parents and Carers,

Here we are in Week 10 of Term 2! This term concludes this Thursday 4 July for our students, while staff attend a Professional Learning Day on Friday 5 July. Thank you to our wonderful parents and carers for your ongoing support through another busy term. We are so grateful to work alongside parents, providing the best educational opportunities for all the students at St Patrick’s School.

JUMP OFF DAY: A very big thank you to the SRC and Mr Makeham for organising the Jump Rope for Heart program during Term 2. The ‘Jump Off’ day last Thursday was a fantastic opportunity for students to showcase their wonderful skipping skills and some new skipping talents. The students certainly gave a fantastic demonstration of new and improved skills as well as some teachers. Thank you to parents and families for their wonderful support of this program.

PARENT/TEACHER MEETINGS: We encourage ALL parents and carers to attend the Parent/Teacher meetings scheduled to take place this week. These conversations about your child’s learning are an important process in the ongoing educational journey of your child. Please make sure you book a time with your child’s teacher via the COMPASS portal. If the times and dates do not suit, please make an alternative arrangement with your child’s class teacher.

STAFF PROFESSIONAL LEARNING DAY: Friday 5 July: This Friday, staff will be undertaking School Directed Professional Learning based on the CATALYST program that focuses on The Knowledge Rich Curriculum and Student Engagement. During the afternoon session, teachers will be utilising the time for planning, preparation, and evaluation time. Please note, that this is a PUPIL FREE Day for students.

Term 3 begins for all students on Tuesday 23 July. On Monday 22 July, Staff will be attending a Spirituality Day with Adelong and Batlow staff, with the focus on The Holy Spirit.

We wish all families a safe, restful and happy holiday.

Christine Baron

Principal

Would you like to be more involved in our Parish?

We would like to invite our fellow Parishioners to join any of the various Ministries of our St Patrick’s Parish. We are reaching out for people to be Acolytes (can be male or female), Readers, taking up the Offertory, part of the Sanctuary roster, Home Communion etc.

Each of these Ministries is an integral part of an active Parish.

If you would like to become part of a team, you would be most welcome. Please see Father Joe, or a member of the Parish Council.

Altar Servers News

Again, we say a big thank you to our wonderful Altar Servers. It is great to see our children serving on the Altar especially our new recruits. We are witnessing siblings gently teaching and guiding their younger siblings in their duties associated with this ministry.

Holiday arrangements – remember if you can’t attend, please find a replacement.

We are still looking for a replacement on 14^th September. If you can help please let us know.

Invitation to Attend

Archbishop Christopher Prowse will be visiting our Parish from 16^th – 18^th August.

On Saturday 17^th August we will host a dinner to welcome the Archbishop and enable him to meet with our St Patrick’s Parishioners. The dinner will be held after the 5pm Mass. Details have not been finalised at this present time, but the planning is in the process.

We are issuing the Invitation for all Parishioners to attend. At the back of the Church, you will find a notice where you can place your name as an intention to attend. This will make our planning for the dinner easier to organise.

Please RSVP by 27^th July

Term 3 Spirituality Day

Staff from St Patrick’s, St Joseph’s Adelong and St Mary’s Batlow will combine on the first day of Term 3 for our annual Spirituality Day. The theme for the day is the Holy Spirit. The day will be presented by CE Staff. This is a wonderful opportunity for the three schools to come together in a collegial and spiritual manner. This will be a great start for Term 3 for all Staff members.

Hope you all have a wonderful holiday. Rest up, enjoy and stay healthy and safe.

Kate Howe

REC

St Patrick’s Primary School has been overwhelmed with the support from the local community during their recent Lamb Drive called, ‘Flocking for Facilities’.

After initiating the idea in early June this year, Aaron Nicholls quickly roped in some helpers to get the word out. Between Craig Hargreaves and Aaron, they were able to make plenty of phone calls, and then combined with the school’s Facebook posts, newsletter articles and word of mouth, 70 lambs were donated over the next week and a half.

AT Nicholls and Aaron, armed with a list of over 15 farms, set out early last week to pick up the lambs from around the Gundagai farming district before dropping them off to Phil Worldon.

Phil generously donated his time and vehicle to transport the livestock to the Wagga Wagga Saleyards where Delta Livestock Wagga Wagga had a pen for the lambs to be held in, ready for livestock auction later that day.

Special thanks to Scott Hall and his team from Delta Livestock Wagga Wagga, who generated a total of $10,800 from the sale of the lambs and waived their agent's fees. These funds will go towards the St. Patrick's Primary School Community Council’s fundraising goal of improving our school facilities.

St Patrick’s Primary School would like to sincerely thank the local farming families who have generously donated their lambs, time and transport, and Delta Livestock, for all getting behind this fundraising event and making it a success!

MENTORING PROGRAM: Mitch and Ash Waddell will be back this Thursday to present Session 3 of our whole school Mental Health Well Being program. The program focuses on the following topics:

Building resilience and dealing with conflict

Limiting beliefs and fear of failure

Positive relationships and identifying positive role models

Healthy mind and body

The feedback from the two previous sessions has been very positive from both staff and students. It is wonderful to have these tow great role models working on strategies to support Mental Health and Well Being with our students.

Little Champions will be running their Gymnastics Program next term. All students K-6 will participate in the program over 4 weeks. Gymnastics will be held each Thursday from Week 1 to Week 4. Students will walk to St Patrick’s School Hall accompanied by their teachers to participate in the program.

Please keep unwell children at home to assist with keeping flus colds and other illnesses to a minimum at school. Parents/carers will be contacted to come and collect students if they come to school unwell. We ask everyone’s assistance in maintaining a healthy school environment please.

A very grateful thank you to Mrs Carla Barton for offering her services to clean up some areas of our school facilities. Carla donated her weekend time to go around the school grounds, getting rid of rubbish and cleaning up specific areas. We are very grateful for your time and energy Carla.

Congratulations to the following students who took out First Place at the recent Interschool Public Speaking competition.

Year 5: Indi Cole- Learning from the Past

Year 6: Taite Johnson- Our Voices

Indi and Taite will now go through to the Archdiocesan Public Speaking competition to be held at St Mary’s Young on Friday 9 August. (Week 3, Term 3). Congratulations to Kaydee, Lane, Jimmy, Reuben, Eliza and Christyne who were very impressive on the day. We were super proud of you all.

Our grateful thanks to Mr Peter Gain who continues to offer his time to coach and prepare the students for the next level.

It was great to read a recent article of the Gundagai Independent highlighting ‘Rural scholars representing next generation of leaders.’ This article featured two former St Patrick’s students who have been selected for its 2024 Rural Scholarship program. Congratulations to Thomas Kingwill (Bachelor of Agriculture) and Olivia Lotz (Bachelor of Medical studies/Doctor of Medicine) for this outstanding achievement.

It is always wonderful to hear these stories of our ex-students.

The Week 10 award assembly will be held THIS Thursday 4 July commencing at 2.30pm in the Learning Hub. Parents will be notified if their child is receiving a Student of the Month or Principal Award.

We are calling for all enrolments for 2025. The number of teachers we are allocated, is based on overall student enrolments (not on individual enrolments). Catholic Education staffing decisions for 2025 are being made now!

If you have a child to enrol or know anyone wishing to join our school community, please encourage them to enrol as soon as possible.

Just a reminder that Term 2 School Fees are now overdue. Thank you to the families who have paid their fees in full for Term 2 and to the families who continue to make weekly/fortnightly payments.

If you have not paid your Term 2 Fees could you please do so within the next few weeks.

The Nationally Consistent Collection of Data on School Students with Disability (NCCD) is a yearly count of students by all Australian schools across the country. The aim of the NCCD is to provide the Australian Government with information about the number of students with disability in Australian schools and the type of adjustments they need in order to access and participate in education on the same basis as other students. From 2018, the NCCD will be used by the Australian Government to inform funding for schools, known as the ‘student with disability loading’.

If you are a parent, guardian or carer of a child with disability who requires ongoing adjustments at school, a teacher or another school staff member will consult with you to understand your child’s needs. This collaborative approach ensures the most appropriate adjustments are chosen to support your child’s learning and participation at school. In some cases, an individual education plan (IEP) or personal learning plan (PLP) may be developed to document specific educational goals and to review your child’s progress over time.

nccd_parent_fact_sheet_english_0.pdf

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Thank you to our parents and children for your continued support of Altar Serving duties. Mass during the cooler months is on at 5pm. If possible could the children arrive 10 minutes prior to Mass to allow time to get dressed.

If you have swapped could you please notify the office so amendments can be made to bullentin and roster.

6th July - Chase Robinson and Harry Barton

13th July - Archie McDonnell and Lachlan Barton

20th July - Nick Quine and Reuben Smart

27th July - Christyne Calub and Indi Cole

Tune into "Sounds of the Mountains" radio station (FM94.1) every Wednesday at 2.15pm to hear about what our classes and school has been up to over the week. Catch up with our Yr 6 leaders as they share our weekly news report:

Weerk 10 (Wednesday 3rd July) Chase Robinson and Skye Somerville

TERM 2 KEY DATES: