Dear Parents and Carers,

We have begun the 2022 school year with a calm and settled return for all our staff and students. It has been most exciting to welcome 90 student enrolments and 8 new families to our St Patrick’s School, this year. Our enrolment numbers are steadily increasing each year and we thank all staff, students and parents who are talking St Patrick’s ‘up’ in the local community and encouraging more families to come and be part of this vibrant and exciting school community.

A special welcome is extended to our 14 new Kindergarten children. We are excited to be partnering with their families as they begin their educational journey here at St Patrick’s. Welcome Lola, Lucy, Clancy, Isabella, Claudia, Lottie, Imogen, Josie, Toby, Ryan, Harley, Phoenix, Lance and Billy. A special welcome also, to the Eccleston, Nicholls, Robinson, Crowe, Nicholls, Smart and Worldon families, who have joined our school community.

We also welcomed two other new families to our school, the Robinson and Huang families. Chase and Jimmy Robinson join our Year 4 and Year 2 classes while Ryan and Sophia join our Year 5 and Year 4 classes.

The 2022 school year begins under another cloud as COVID alters our processes again and we work to meet the current restrictions.  As always, we aim to keep our communication as factual and as practical as possible. It is hard to build school community when we are asking parents and family members to stay out of our school grounds, however we continue to follow advice from the NSW Government and NSW Health, to be able to provide the safest environment for our students to continue learning onsite.

Each day you will receive a notification of the current COVID cases from the last 24 hours at our school, identified by cohorts.  While we can provide this information, we are unable to provide any further information on any student that test positive as this would constitute a breach of privacy. We can assure families that we are following all protocols such as regular use of hand sanitiser, wearing surgical masks, ventilating rooms, placing students in cohorts to minimise interactions and movement to help keep our staff and students safe. We continue to encourage primary school students to also wear masks indoors.

RATS Tests are the other safeguard for our school community. Thank you to staff and families for continuing to support us by performing the twice weekly tests. Early days are showing very little impact on our classes, and we hope and pray that this might continue.  We are working closely with our neighbouring Catholic Schools and CE to have contingencies in place should the situation change.

Once again, our staff have rallied to be well prepared for any eventuality that may take place this term and to make our beginning of school as smooth and as “normal” as they can.  I would like to extend a very big thank you to each and every member of staff for their resilience and energy that they have put into making the start of the school year such a positive one for our students.

We look forward to celebrating our Opening School Mass this Friday and inducting our new school leaders.

Christine Baron

Principal

St Patrick, Pray for Us

Welcome back to a new school year. I hope you were able to relax and enjoy a lovely Christmas and holiday time with your family. I hope that 2022 will be a safe and positive year for all our school community.

Opening School Mass

On Friday we will celebrate our Opening School Mass at 9:30 am in the Amphitheatre. We are very grateful that we were given special permission to hold an outdoor Mass and are thankful to Father Namora for making himself available to say this Mass.

During the Mass we will present our School Captain’s badges, introduce our Year Six leaders and their responsibilities and present badges to the newly elected SRC Representatives for 2022.

Our numbers for Mass are restricted and we are only able to invite two fully vaccinated members from Year Six families.

Unfortunately, due to COVID restrictions we will not be able to officially welcome our new Kindergarten children at this Mass, but alternate plans are being made to celebrate this special event at another time.

Blessing for 2022

Blessed are you, Lord God,

Creator of body and mind and heart;                             

You have sent the Spirit of Wisdom and Knowledge to guide your people in all their ways.

At the beginning of this new school year we implore your mercy:

Bless the students, teachers, and staff of Catholic Education, Canberra and Goulburn,

that together we may grow in faith, hope, and love as we learn from you and each other how to follow your Son Jesus.

Expand the horizons of our minds, that we may grow in wisdom, understanding, and knowledge;

Deepen our commitment to seek the truth of your ways;

and enliven our faith to reach out to those in need.

Glory and praise to you, Lord God, in the Church and in Christ Jesus forever and ever. Amen

Kate Howe REC

A special welcome is extended to Mrs Samantha Johnson and Mrs Gemma Crowe in their capacity as Classroom Support Assistant’s (CSA’s) this year. Both Sam and Gemma are welcome additions to the wonderful support team we have here at St Patrick’s under Mr Ferguson’s leadership. This year we have four CSA’s working across classrooms along with Mr Braith Crane and Ms Tash Smith.

Just a reminder that our Kindergartens have their rest days for the first four weeks of school so tomorrow will be their first of three Wednesday rest days. 

• Wednesday 9^th February
• Wednesday 16^th February
• Wednesday 23^rd February

This week for Sport (Thursday) we will all be heading to the Gundagai Pool for swimming.  Please ensure all children have their swimmers, towel, rashie, goggles (if required), sunscreen and $2.00 for pool entry if you are not a current holder of a pool pass.  Please make sure all items are clearly labelled with your child's name so no property is lost or misplaced. 

Our new cultural space is starting to take place. Our Aboriginal artists have been busy over the holidays working on the new mural. We are currently waiting on council approval for the sandstone blocks to be placed across the tank area so that we can continue to develop an outdoor learning space. Community Council will also contribute to the project to ensure it meets funding requirements.

Mrs Fairall has finally been able to move into her new office space. We are still waiting on furniture orders to arrive for the new sick bay and will order more furniture for the new walk-in area. At the moment, we do not have a phone system connected to our new office area but hope to have that rectified soon. All phones are being diverted so that Jacki can still take calls.

NEW ROOF AND GUTTERING:

You would have noticed our beautiful new roof and guttering on the old administration area. A huge thank you to Catholic Education for supporting this project, as the old roof was causing major issues with leaks and some structural damage. Building supplies are limited at the moment and not all work has been completed but we hope this will be fully completed in the near future. Thank you again to Tom Gaskin and Co for completing this project over the January holidays.

As communicated last Friday, we have been granted permission to go ahead with our Opening School Mass this Friday 11^th February commencing at 9.30am. The Mass will be held outdoors in our school amphitheatre with Fr Namora officiating. During this Mass, our Year 6 students will receive their leadership badges and our SRC representatives will also be presented with their badges.

Students will be seated in cohorts and socially distanced to meet the current COVID requirements.

Two fully vaccinated Year 6 parents/adults are permitted to attend the Opening Mass. Please bring chairs, hats, water etc. Parents are asked to please socially distanced and limit mingling with other parents. Masks are not required outdoors. Could names of the two adults attending, please be provided to Jacki in the front office by tomorrow afternoon.

If your child receives a positive RAT test, they need to

• record the positive RAT result through the Service NSW website or Service NSW app
• notify the school by ringing the front office of the positive RAT or PCR test result as soon as possible
• follow NSW Health advice to isolate for 7 days (all family members will be required to isolate)

The student will then need to provide a negative RATS test to the school to return after 7 days please.

The second lot of RAT kits have arrived and will be distributed to students this week. These tests will be to use at home over the next two weeks ie each child will receive another 4 tests. Students will bring the RAT test home in their school bag this time, unless parents specifically wish to collect them themselves. Please let Jacki know ASAP if this is the case.

Please continue to use the tests twice per week and only report positive results.

Congratulations to all of our Swimmers who participated in this year's swimming carnival. Thank you to our parent helpers once again for your help in ensuring our carnival ran smoothly.    Special thanks to Abby, Molly and Emily for helping and keeping a watchful eye on the little ones swimming. 

Gundagai Rail Trail are organising a Trivia Night on Saturday 19th February 7.00 pm at the Gundagai District Services Club. Entry fee $15.00 per adult and $5.00 per child.  Tables of 8. RSVP by 11th February by phoning 0412 487 356 for table or individual bookings.  All funds raised go towards the Gundagai Rail Trail Campaign.

Year 6 Radio Weekly News

Tune into "Sounds of the Mountains" radio station either FM96.3 or FM94.1 every Wednesday afternoon at 2.15pm to hear about up coming events, weekly awards or around the school news which is presented by our Yr 6 school leaders

Week 10 - Tahlia Rose & Akacia Winchester

Week 11 - Anson Chew & Charlie Hindmarsh 

Go to: www.school24.net.au OR on your mobile device iPhone/Android install the app from the store
Press the BLUE registration button to create your account.
Enter your unique school ID number to help us match your account with your school,
St Patricks Primary School- NSW: 25406963

Roster: 

Friday 11th February:   Alicia Hargreaves & Lauren Gailey 

COOKIES: Belinda Hindmarsh & Lisa Ryan  

Friday 18th February: Sam Johnson & Louise Crowe  

COOKIES: Caitlin Smith & Cal Reardon

We have had lots of birthdays been celebrated over the Christmas and New Year period and we would like to send all of our children and teachers a Happy Birthday Wish 

25th December - Emily Ryan 

27th December - Christyne Calub

28th December - Garvita Joshi 

29th December - Darby Jones 

31st December - Anson Chew

14th January - Harrison Campbell & Jasper Rui 

22nd January - Dale Paton 

26th January - Sophie Graham 

2nd February - Archie McDonnell 

3rd February - Eliza Hargreaves 

4th February - Lachlan Morgan 

6th February - Fletcher Smith 

7th February - Taite Johnson 

8th February - Andrew Cole