Dear Parents and Carers,

Welcome to Week 4 of Term 3. The weeks are once again flying by! We have certainly been enjoying the warmer weather and beautiful sunshine.

WR PUBLIC SPEAKING FINALS: it was a pleasure to host the WR Public Speaking finals last Wednesday in St Patrick’s School Hall. 24 students representing our 12 WR Catholic Primary Schools, presented some impressive speeches. Many thanks to our adjudicators Mrs Anne Saunderson, Mrs Vicki Somerville and Mr Abb McAlister for adjudicating on the day. They had some tough decision to make! Well done to Lane Johnson who represented St Patrick’s in the Year 4 division. Lane should be very proud of his preparation, hard work and presentation on the day. We were very proud of you Lane!

WELCOME MISS WILSON! St Patrick’s welcomes Miss Erika Wilson to our school community. Miss Wilson is in her fourth year of studying a Bachelor of Education at ACU in Canberra. Miss Wilson will be teaching our Year 5/6 students under the supervision and support of Mrs Wilson and Mr Makeham. Miss Wilson will be with us over seven weeks as she completes her final teaching practicum before she begins a full-time teaching career. We are delighted to have Miss Wilson sharing new ideas and teaching techniques with our Year 5/6 class. (and no ……Miss Wilson and Mrs Wilson are not related!!)

PRINCIPAL/REC/CLERGY Day: Mrs Howe and I attended the annual Principal/REC/Clergy Day in Canberra last Friday. This was a wonderful opportunity for School Leaders and local Parish Priests to connect and discuss the theme ‘Catholic Schools as Centres of Evangelisation’. Speakers for the day included Mr David de Carvalho (Executive Director) who addressed the topic, ‘We are called to be faithful, not successful’ and Mr Patrick McArdle (Vicar for Education) who spoke on the topic of ‘Partners in our Evangelising Missions’. A panel of speakers addressed the challenges and opportunities for evangelisation in our local communities. Our final session involved all the local TBAG Principals, REC’s with Fr Xavier identifying current evangelisation processes that work well and consideration for new ways to explore.

HITP VISIT: Today we welcome Mr Pat Ellis to our school as we continue to embed High Impact Teaching Practices into our classroom. Mr Ellis was keen to engage in discussions with Mr Makeham (HITP leader) and provide support and guidance as we continue our school HITP journey.

STUDENT AMENITIES/COVERED OUTDOOR AREA:  We are eagerly awaiting the completion of our new student amenities facilities. The handbasins arrived today and the plumbers have been busy installing them. Once they are installed and a final clean completed, we will be opening the toilets for the students to use. A final handover meeting will be held with Mattoni this Friday.

We have also had confirmation that construction of our covered outdoor area will begin during the next September school holidays. Karauna from Junee have been the successful tenders. We hope to have this structure completed in time for summer activities. Our thanks to Thomas James (TJ) from the CECG Planning and Facilities team, who has strongly advocated on our schools behalf, for the project to be completed in the immediate future. It will be exciting to have two major projects ticked off, before the end of 2025!

PRINCIPAL PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM (PPDP): I will be undertaking a pilgrimage to Portugal, Spain and Italy as part of the PPD Program (with several other Principals), from Monday 25 August until the end of term. As 2025 is the Jubilee Year of Pilgrims of Hope, this is a significant opportunity to deepen my faith, values and sense of purpose as a Catholic school leader.

The pilgrimage includes:

1. Portugal-A Visit to the Shrine of our Lady of Fatima
2. Spain-Walking The Camino (The Way of St James)
3. Italy-Audience with Pope Leo, Tour of the Holy Doors, St Francis of Assisi, Blessed Carlos Acutis, St Anthony of Padua and other holy sites.

Mrs Wilson will be Acting Principal during this time. Please reach out to Mrs Wilson if you need anything.

Wishing everyone a wonderful week ahead and every blessing for the rest of the term. I will keep you updated on my pilgrimage journey.

Christine Baron

Principal

St Patrick, Pray for Us

Confirmation Preparation 

We are fast approaching the special event of celebrating the Sacrament of Confirmation on the 23^rd August. Our 16 children are reverently participating in their lessons, further developing their knowledge of the work of the Holy Spirit. As part of the Sacrament, each Candidate takes the name of a chosen Saint. The children have been busily researching the Saints to choose a Saint that truly resonates with them. The children examine the life and qualities of the Saints and how they can demonstrate these qualities in their lives.

On Friday in Canberra, I was speaking with Archbishop Christopher, who will confirm our children. He is very much looking forward to meeting our young people and their families as he officiates this Sacrament.

We pray that the Holy Spirit will bless our children with the Gifts and Fruits he sends.

Piety Stall

The Piety Stall is operating at the back of the Church before and after Mass, for anyone wishing to purchase a gift. There are some lovely things available. The stall operates as cash only.

Blessed Carlo Acutis

Blessed Carlo Acutis will be canonized a saint on Sunday, 7^th September in Rome. The canonization of this young saint, the first millennial saint, has been greatly anticipated due to his great devotion to the Eucharist. He is also the model of inspiration to our young people in this modern world. We pray for all our young people through the intersession of St Carlo Acutis.

REC and Key Leaders Day

Last week I attended two days of key meetings in Canberra. These days were very interesting and informative. Keynote speakers addressed the participants from all over our Archdioceses. On Friday, 169 people attended. During a session with our new Director, it was great to see a slide projected onto the screen of our very own St Patrick’s Kindergarten students. We were the only school featured, and our Kinders looked superb.

Over the two days there were many valuable take aways. Some of those that resonated with me were:

• The importance of developing our friendship with Jesus
• Let Jesus touch you from within
• ‘We are called to be faithful not successful’ – Mother Teressa of Calcutta
• Evangelisation, is the Church’s essential mission and deepest identity, aiming to bring the Good News to all
• Be surprised by the joy of FAITH
• Make decisions, like Jesus would
• If we do things together, we can turn the world around
• To build good communities we all need to get amongst it
• Schools are our new frontiers of evangelisation, children are our new evangelisers
• We need to do this work, with the help of the Holy Spirit
• We plant seeds that will one day grow. We are workers, not master builders.

Kate Howe

REC

St Patrick’s is excited to announce that we will be commencing some workshops with the local Intereach ROAR Program that provides Health and Well Being Support Services. ROAR is funded by the Department of Social Services, and their programs are provided free to educational providers.

ROAR aims to improve the health and well-being of children and young people. ROAR offers small groups of students the opportunity to participate in a range of programs to support self-confidence, resilience building, emotional regulation, anxiety etc.

Geoff from ROAR shared some of his great programs with St Patrick’s staff at our Staff Development Day at the end of term. Staff thoroughly enjoyed the session with Geoff and look forward to the great workshops he will be providing for students in the terms ahead.

Our first program will be the Kimochie’s program which will be offered to a small group of Year 1/2 students. The 6 week program begins of Wednesday 20 August. We aim to start offering the ROAR program to our younger students and then moving to the older classes across the year. We look forward to working with Geoff and the ROAR program by providing ongoing support for student’s health and well-being. Parents of students participating in the first ROAR program have been contacted. If you have any enquiries please contact Mrs Flanagan or Mrs Baron.

Thank you to our students and families for your support in our annual book fair over the last two weeks.  The book fair ended last Thursday and we once again appreciate your support.  Thank you to the students that helped Mrs Hughes with book sales during lunch time and to the students that helped pack up the books.

We are also grateful to the families who donated books to the library. 

SCHOOL PHOTO DAY: 

School Photo Day is next Monday 18 August.

Please ensure your child is wearing their FULL Winter School Uniform.

REMINDERS:

1. Hair accessories- only in school colours ie Green/Navy/Black (no other colours please)
2. Winter school jumpers to be worn (not sport jumpers)
3. School Ties are to be worn by boys and girls.
4. White socks for girls and black socks for boys please
5. Black school shoes ONLY (please give shoes a polish up)
6. Hats do not need to be worn to school on Monday but all students need to have their hat in their bag for recess and lunch play.

NOTE: Please remember to send in your photo envelope with payment either cash (correct amount of money as no change will be given). If paying online please ensure you write your reference number on the envelope. 

Sibling envelopes are available on request. Contact Jacki and one will be sent home prior to Monday 18th August. 

Our annual street stall date has been set for Thursday 26th September and Friday 27th September.  Please save this date in your diaries as we will be calling upon our families for donations of baked goods, garden produce or donations. 

We will be sending home shortly a flyer with more information regarding hamper items and asking for parents/grandparents to sit on the stall to sell tickets.  We will have 3 large hampers as prizes.  

Each class will be asked to bring in an item for the hamper:

Kindergarten, Year 1/2 are asked to bring an item for a Garden Hamper. Think gloves, fertiliser, hose links, packets of seedlings, tools, pot, potting mix, garden tools, plants, pest spray, vouchers

Year 3/4 are asked to bring an item for a Spring Cleaning hamper.

Think gloves, detergent, sponges, brushes, spray and wipe, bottles of cleaners etc

Year 5/6 are asked to bring an item for a Party Hamper.

Items can be delivered and dropped off to the office as of next week but cut off date for items will have to be by Friday 12th September to allow time to put hampers together.

Raffle tickets will also be sent home shortly for families to sell to support our annual fundraising. Thank you 

Tash Smith & Lisa Peterson

Our annual Bookweek dress up day and parade will be held on Wednesday 27 August (Week 6). The theme for 2025 is ‘Book and Adventure’. The Bookweek parade will begin at 10.15am on the school blacktop. Parents and families are most welcome to attend.

It’s time to start organising your costume in preparation for the Bookweek parade. Mrs Hughes will also organise a variety of fun Bookweek activities to be held over the day.

We are pleased to announce that St Patrick's Primary School are in the proce3ss of y introducing the BPoint Solution to manage direct debit arrangements for the payment of school fees.

What is BPoint and What Do You Need to Do?

BPoint is a secure Commonwealth Bank payment processing platform designed to facilitate online payments, while ensuring the highest security standards. This system safeguards your financial information using industry-leading security measures.

Our new direct debit platform will allow you to pay school fees using either a bank account or a credit card (excluding AMEX). Please note that payments made via credit card will incur a 0.5% surcharge.

Establishing Direct Debits.

This option is available to families who wish to set up this direct debit option.  It may not be of interest to some of our families but if you are interested in setting up this new system contact Jacki in the office who will send out an email outlining estimated weekly, fortnightly, and monthly repayment options to ensure all fees are paid by the end of the year. These amounts will also include any outstanding 2024 balances should you still have payments outstanding.

While using the direct debit payment option is not compulsory, many families find it helpful in staying up to date with their financial obligations.

Contact Jacki if you would like more information on this option of paying school fees for the duration of 2025 and onwards.

This Thursday we have nominated a Year 3/4 boys and girls Tag and Tackle team to participate in the Trent Barrett League Stars Gala Day in Tumut. This is an annual event and based on having fun and being active. Also the opportunity for some of our students to try a different sport. 

The day will be held at Twickenham Oval, Tumut.   We remind the boys playing tackle to make sure they pack their headgear and mouthguards and football boots.

We have received a revised draw which will be sent home today with the students attending this event. 

The long awaited OOSH Service in Gundagai is getting closer to operating. All going to plan should be started next term.   Families will need to enrol using the QR Code below or emailing the admin team

Tune into "Sounds of the Mountains" radio station (FM94.1) every Wednesday at 2.15pm to hear about what our classes and school have been up to over the week.

Week 4 (13th August) - Charlie Ryder & Molly Lott 

Week 5 (20th August) - Eliza Graham & RV Calub

Week 6 (27th August) - Zoe Morgan & Ollie Crowe

Thank you to our children and families for your committment to Altar Serving on Saturday evenings. 

Roster:

Saturday 15th August - RV Calub, Maeve Ryan, Isabella Melksham 

Saturday 23rd August (Sacrament of Confirmation) - Harry & Archie Peterson 

Congratulations to our Week 2 and Week 3 Class Awards. 

Week 2 - Friday 1st August 

Kindergarten : Daphne Simpson for breaking words apart and putting them back together

Year 1/2 : Levi Bayley for working hard in Maths 

Year 3 : Lucy Nicholls for increased confidence with number work (Absent for photo) 

Year 4 : Lachlan Barton for quick and accurate work habits 

Year 5 : Maeve Ryan for reflective responses to our class novel "A Banner Bold"

Year 6 : Dale Paton for determination and committment to achieve at his best (Absent for photo) 

Week 3 - Friday 8th August

Kindergarten : Sadie Nicholls for showing kindness and compassion to all her peers

Year 1/2 : Lilly Barton for a terrific homework record

Year 3 : Ryan Robinson for his enthusiasm and positive classw contribution 

Year 4 : Parker Melksham for articulating in positive ways 

Year 5 : Zoe Paton for listening to and acting on feedback to improve her Maths

Year 6 : Indi Cole for consistent work ethic and enthusiasm

Wishing the following students a very Happy Birthday. We hope you all have a great day with family and friends:

5th August - Tannah Elliott

8th August - George Ryan 

12th August - Levi Bayley