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Dear Parents,
It was so wonderful to return to school last week and catch up again with all the staff and students. Most exciting was visiting the classrooms and seeing our students happy, healthy and fully engaged in their learning. While students indicated that they enjoyed their time at home and their parents did a great job with teaching, the overall consensus was that students were excited to be back at school and learning alongside their friends.
Thank you for all the prayers and good wishes during my absence. While it has been a lengthy recovery time, due to a number of unexpected complications during a routine operation, I am grateful to be finally on a good recovery path and look forward to returning to full time work in the near future.
Many grateful thanks to the incredible staff at St Patrick's that continued to provide exceptional education during the remote learning period. Everyone agrees that school is not school without our beautiful students and the incredible joy they bring to our everyday classrooms. A special thank you to the Leadership Team of Mrs Wilson and Mrs Howe they continued to provide support and encouragement to staff, parents and students during remote learning and on return to face to face teaching. It has certainly been a time of extreme changes. Thank you also to parents for the wonderful job you did teaching your children from home and continuing with their education during difficult times.
St Patrick's School is now accepting 2021 enrolments. You may have noticed our Facebook posts and videos to promote our beautiful school. Please ensure you SHARE these posts as we want to try and reach as many local and surrounding area families as possible.
As restrictions ease, we ask that parents continue to be vigilant with their children's health and keep them at home if they show any signs of illness especially coughs and colds as we enter into the winter season.
Best wishes for a wonderful week ahead. So lovely to have some much needed rain. Stay warm and healthy !
Kind Regards
Christine Baron
Principal
Pentecost Sunday 31.05.2020
A time to Reflect
The Holy Spirit filled the disciples with courage and faith to share the Good News! They began to tell others about Jesus, and that he died for us and rose to new life. Pentecost is sometimes known as the ‘birthday of the Church.’ On this day, the Holy Spirit came to the disciples. God the Father and Jesus sent the Holy Spirit to help the Church and guide the Church. The coming of the Holy Spirit was the point by which the Church truly begun! This same Holy Spirit is with us today.
If the Holy Spirit could give you one gift – like the courage and faith of the disciples at Pentecost - what would it be? Why?
Project Compassion
This is an amazing effort when there are so many hardships being felt in this current economic climate.
More Good News - As of the 1st June we are now allowed to have 50 people attending Mass. This will mean we can now plan our School Masses. We will not be able to attend as a whole school but with some classes present each week.
This Friday Years 3/4 and 5/6 will present the Mass.
Altar Serving - A new Altar Serving Roster will be sent out with the Newsletter. Thank you for your continued support of this important role. If your rostered date does not suit please arrange a swap.
Mass time - Please note that this Saturday 6th June there will be ONLY one Mass at 5 pm. Father is investigating if this is a more suitable time during the winter months. An announcement will be made shortly.
Kate Howe
REC
Covid-19 Fee Relief for Families
Are you currently receiving JobKeeper or JobSeeker?
If the answer is YES then you can apply for a fee remission on Term 2 fees. Dependent on your reduced hours your family could receive 25% to 50% off fees.
Please ask your employer to state on their company letterhead if you receive JobKeeper or JobSeeker and what your hours had been and are now reduced to during Covid-19 and forward this onto the front office.
If you need any help or have any questions please contact Lisa Wilson.
SZApp (Schoolzine) for Mobile Devices
As a requirement of registration St Patrick’s must keep a register of attendance at school for all children. The Act requires that attendance of a student must be recorded for every day when the school is open for attendance. Class Teachers mark our electronic roll twice daily at 9am and 12pm.
If your child is late to school or absent a note/email is required. This can be submitted online via the Schoolzine App in Contact Us tab or from the school’s website under Forms and Documents, both electronically go directly to the front office.
Compulsory attendance of school age children
Under Section 22 of the Act, it is the parents’ responsibility to ensure that a child who is of compulsory schooling age is enrolled at a school and attends.
Parents must have a reasonable excuse for not complying with the compulsory attendance requirements in the Act. If parents do not have a reasonable excuse they are liable under the Act and guilty of an offence.
Examples of a ‘reasonable excuse’ for a child’s absence might include:
- Illness, including recovery from major illness, injury or medical condition
- Medical or dental treatment
- Bereavement
- Religious or cultural observation
- Family holidays or extended visits overseas
- Attendance at a wedding
- Attendance at court or other legal hearings
- Participation in sanctioned debates, eisteddfods, sports, musical or theatrical productions not directly arranged by the school
- Participation in territory, interstate, national or international sporting event
- Sanctioned extended absence in relation to children of travelling families
A detailed copy of our Attendance Policy can be found on our website.
Reports for students Kindergarten to Year 6
Semester 1 2020
In response to the changed learning circumstances in Term 1 and Term 2, Semester 1 2020 reporting processes have been modified to provide parents with specific information about their child’s achievement and progress.
Semester 1 Report
- The report covers work completed in both Term 1 and Term 2.
- Student achievement will be reported as an A-E grade for the three main core areas only: Religious Education, English and Mathematics.
- Other subjects will not be reported on and ‘Not assessed’ will be displayed. This means that, although the learning throughout the semester has been rigorous, it is not possible to make an overall judgement about the student’s achievement in relation to the reporting Outcomes or Achievement Standards against the Grade Descriptors.
- A new section ‘Engagement with Learning’ has been developed to replace the ‘Personal and Social Capabilities’. The new statements are based on the Australian Curriculum: General capabilities, and target four key areas of learning engagement: Thinking, Communication, Responsibility, Collaboration.
- The inclusion of the ‘Engagement with Learning’ statements means that the General Comment section of the report is no longer required; the statements give detailed information on your child’s approach to learning.
- A compulsory 15 minute Parent Teacher interview is required since there is no General Comment. This is an opportunity to talk in more depth regarding where your child is at and ask questions as to where their learning is going.
Key Dates:
Week 9 - Wednesday 24 June reports go home.
Week 10 - Parent Teacher Interviews Tuesday 30 June, Wednesday 1 July, Thursday 2 July.
* Please note students will not be required to attend.
** Social distancing measures will be in place
Please ensure you attach copies of Birth Certificate, Immunisation Certificate and Baptism Certificate.
We also have hard copies in the office should you wish to fill one out by hand.
We have had several emails from parents in regards to the type of Hand Sanitiser we are using at the school as some children are presenting with dry cracked skin.
We are following Catholic Education's COVID-19 guidelines and ensuring all children are aware of the importance of good hygiene and we will continue to follow strict hand cleanliness and hand washing. We have purchased our Hand Sanitiser from our local chemist which is a product from the Southern Highlands, Australia. This product is Lemon Myrtle scent and has 70% alcohol + Vitamin E which is our recommendation from Catholic Education.
We have been advised by the Cootamundra-Gundagai Regional Council that there is a scheduled road closure on Tuesday 16th of June on Brungle Road, Gundagai. This road closure will be closed from both ends from 8.45am for approximately 4-5 hours. Please make a note on your calendar to avoid being late for school or work
CONGRATULATIONS to our Week 3 and Week 4 WildCat Award recipients
RESPONSIBLE - Essie Norden, Andrew Cole, Flynn Leane
Week 5 Term 2
RESPONSIBLE - Joey Gailey, Abigail Bock, Sophie Graham
RESPECT - Abigail Bock, Lachlan Morgan, Emmy Gaskin