Term 3 Issue 1 - 28th July 2023

Principal's News

Dear Families,

Welcome to Term 3. It was lovely to see so many happy and smiling faces on our first day back. We have hit the ground running this term with lots of things happening around the school.

Behaviour Support Plan

We have now implemented our new Behaviour Support Plan to ensure that there is consistency across our school. It has been great to see students making positive choices and moving up on the behaviour ladder each day. Students are working hard to reach the ‘300 Club’ by the end of the term. This term has also seen the implementation of our Mercy Merit Awards. Students have been working hard and demonstrating their Mercy Values in the playground to receive one of these awards.

Sacrament of Confirmation

Throughout the year I have had the pleasure of working with Father Tom in the delivery of our Sacrament of Confirmation and now First Communion. This year two of our students, McKenzie and Mahtayo, have been attending weekly sessions for their Sacrament of Confirmation. During our recent Saturday Mass both students received their Sacrament of Confirmation and were installed by our new Bishop, Ken Howell. McKenzie and Mahtayo, congratulations, we are all very proud of your commitment to the Sacrament of Confirmation. I would also like to take this opportunity to congratulate two other local students, Ellen and Hugh, who have also been attending our weekly Sacrament of Confirmation sessions and who also received their Sacrament of Confirmation at Mass.

Mercy Value Review

Over the past 12 months St Patrick’s School have been engaging in collaborative sessions to review our Mercy Values. This year students, families and community members were invited to join us on this journey and were able to provide feedback on our Mercy Value review throughout the year. Thank you to everyone for your feedback, thoughts and ideas. I am excited to share with you all our new St Patrick’s Mercy Values.

Catholic Education Week

This week we have celebrated Catholic Education Week. Staff attended St John’s School in Roma for Bishop’s Inservice Day. This was a wonderful opportunity to gather with staff from Roma and St George and celebrate Catholic Education Week 2023 ‘Communities of Faith, Hope and Love’.

Deadly Arthur Visit

On Monday we welcome Deadly Arthur to our school. He will be with us for three days and will be working with students to create a wall mural on our upstairs classroom veranda. We are super excited to be working with him and to bring our veranda to life with some amazing artwork.

Enrol Now For 2024

If you are thinking about enrolling your child for Prep in 2024 please contact the school office as soon as possible to arrange an interview time. Interviews have been extended until the end of this term. If you were not able to attend our recent Prep Open afternoon please contact the school to arrange a school tour and a meet and greet session.

Enrol - St Patrick's School, Mitchell

Term Dates for 2023

Term Three - Tuesday, 11th July to Friday, 15th September 

Term Four - Tuesday, 3rd October to Friday, 1st December

Jeans for Genes Day

Everyone is welcome to wear their jeans next Friday, 4th August to support this worthy cause.

Please bring a gold coin donation to wear jeans and cupcakes will be on sale for $2 each.

School Photos

School photos will be taken on Wednesday, 9th August.  The photo order envelopes were sent home earlier in the week. If you wish to order school photos this year, please ensure that envelopes and monies are returned by 8.30 am. on 9th August.

PPF News

The next meeting of the PPF Assn will be held on Monday, 14th August at 5.30 p.m. Everyone is welcome to join us and share your ideas to help raise funds for your children.

Chocolate Fundraiser

The PPF is selling boxes of chocolates for $60.00 each.  If anyone is interested in selling a box please contact the school office.

Bookfair

St Patrick's School Annual Bookfair  will be held in Term 3, from Monday, 14th August to Thursday, 24th August. The Bookfair will close after the Parade.

The Book Fair Parade will be held on Thursday, 24th August at 10.30 a.m.                                                         The Bookfair theme for this year is - Hats Off To Reading. Costumes are to be singular.

For dress ups - think of characters who have hats i.e. Cat in the Hat, Paddington Bear, Mad Hatter, Sorting Hat, Sherlock Holmes, Madeline, The Magic Hat, Pirate, Farmer, Where's Wally, Mary Poppins, Witch......

Year 5 and 6 News

Years 3-6 have had a busy start to our term. We have begun a variety of interesting units and being halfway through the year students are working toward being determined, passionate and organised 
for each curriculum area. Our Positive Behaviour Ladder has been an exciting new addition to the classroom this term with many students remembering our Behaviour Focus and moving up the ladder!
We have begun a unit on telling stories and have been incorporating elements of drama to practice our skills. We have been using tone, motion, pace, and volume to add zest to our stories! Miss Sonya has kindly provided our class with some interesting and descriptive Indigenous stories written by some of our community members. Students have engaged well in the stories and have spotted some Gunggari words they are confident with!

Maths

In Maths this term, we are recognising odd and even numbers and our upper years 5/6 are 
comparing and ordering decimals and recognising prime, composite and square numbers. 
We have also begun investigating physical science and the impact of forces on our 
everyday lives. We began our unit by listing all of the ways a ball could be moved – one 
student could think of 12 different ways to move a ball! 

Religion

In Religion, our 3-6 have begun to an inquiry into the first Australian Catholics and the history behind our religion. We have many insightful ‘I wonder’ questions that we will aim to answer by the end of our unit. Some of these include: ‘I wonder why mass wasn’t allowed in public?’ and ‘When was it determined that the Irish were Catholic, and the English were Anglican?’

Just a reminder that I encourage all students to attempt to complete their weekly homework to 
consolidate their learning. We have Homework Club each Monday from 3:00pm-3:45pm and it 
is a supportive and happy environment for students to work in if they have questions to 
ask myself or one of their peers.

Prep to 2 News

We hope our P/1/2 families all had a relaxing break over the holidays and spent some time together keeping warm in the cooler weather. The students completed their holiday recounts with excitement and there’s no doubt it will be another busy term ahead!

Our learning:

This term in English we will be focusing on descriptions, including nouns and adjectives to give more detailed responses in both oral language, as well as written responses. This term the year 1’s and 2;s have started spelling as a component of their fortnightly homework. The focus sounds are taught each week and are reflected in these words. Thank you for helping your child with this! The preps are focusing on the long vowel sounds and we have learnt that vowles have both a short and long sound e.g. /a/ as in apple and /a/ as in gave. Our phonological awareness will continue to focus on breaking apart words to hear each sound e.g. c-u-p for preps and blends for the year 1 and 2’s e.g. b-l-o-ck.

In maths we are covering all different concepts and will be focusing on our ‘teen numbers’. Year Two students will continue to focusing on three-digit numbers and using this knowledge to begin operations!

In science this term students are learning about biological science and how to care for living things. In our negotiated play space, we have a vet surgery set up which has been entertaining hearing our students care for their pets’ injuries! Our new pet fish, ‘Owlie’ has also been welcomed and we ensure that he’s fed each morning.

In Religion, students will continue to explore the Creation Story. We know that God created the world in seven days and will compare and contrast this with the Rainbow Serpent as a part of our focus on First Nations perspectives.

100 days of school:

We did it! Thank you so much to all our parents and friends for helping us reach 100 days of learning. We dressed up as what we’d like to be when we’re older. We are now 100 days smarter!

Rotations:

Parent helpers are needed for rotations again this term. Please let me know if you are available on Tuesday morning from 8:45-9:45am – I’d love to hear from you!

Boxes:

If you have any small boxes at home, we’d love to have them as a part of our recycling centre. Cereal boxes etc are great!

A peek into the classroom…

Principal's Award

For displaying a positive and respectful attitude in all that you do. You always warmly greet staff and students and you are always willing to help others. Keep letting your Mercy Values shine through in everything that you do.

Mercy Award

Remi McCarrol

For showing respect everyday. Your manners towards your friends and teachers has not gone unnoticed Remi. Your listening heart, kind words and actions are evident every day. Thank you for being a wonderful friend to all at St Patrick's. Congratulations Remi - we're so proud of you!

Linnea Gant

For displaying respect to your peers and teachers at St Patrick's School. You have immaculate manners and are a joy to have in our classroom.

Awesome Achiever Awards

Myhia Mitchell

For your efforts during the Athletics unit, where you showed an immense improvement in your skills. Your positive attitude to trying new activities has been fantastic modelling for your peers.

McKenzie Mitchell

For returning to St Patrick's after the break with a determined and hard working attitude toward all lessons. You proving to be a consistently focussed learner happy to give anything a go. This will make for a smooth transition when you move into High School next year. 

Important Dates for 2023