Newsletter 30/01/2024 Term 1 Week 1

From the Principal

Dear parents and carers,

Welcome back to school to all our families and students for 2024. A special welcome to our 19 foundation students and our 7 new families who commence their time with us at St Patrick's. We hope they experience a sense of welcome and inclusion. We hope your summer break was filled with relaxation, fun, family time and joy and that everyone is ready for the start of school tomorrow.

LEARNING AND TEACHING

School Closure Day

Today, Tuesday 30th of January, was an opportunity for staff to unpack our new wellbeing program, Resilience, Rights & Respectful Relationships. The staff worked through the day exploring the resources, creating a yearly planner and looking at the classroom lessons and activities. We are looking forward to sharing this with families and working with children in this vital area. 

Speacialist Timetable

The specialist timetable for Term 1 is attached below. Please use this to find which day your child/children have PE classes and need to wear their PE uniform.

Foundation Rest Days

Our foundation students will come to school tomorrow for our first day of the  2024 school year. 

After that they will have a rest day on a Wednesday until the long weekend in March. 

Rest days for the Foundation students will be on the 7th, 14th, 21st & 28th February and the 6th March.

School Uniform

Information on our school uniform is attached to remind families of what we are currently expecting children to wear to school. We are in a holding pattern now until the final alterations are made to the uniform through our SAC review. Families are asked to do the best they can to adhere to these guidelines until this is complete to ensure that we continue to present a united appearance as a student cohort.

The second SAC survey is complete and will be circulated to families in the near future. Please take the time to fill this out  when you are offered the opportunity.

Canteen Changes

Mercy Regional College have informed us, that at this stage, they will not be opening the canteen on a Monday for 2024. 

Please note that the canteen is also closed this week, so no lunch orders on Wednesday the 31st January , Thursday the  1st of February or Friday the 2nd February.

Please make sure to send your child with lunch on these days, and with lots of snacks, children are often more hungry after weeks of grazing the pantry!

3-6 Swimming Program

Our Grade 3-6 Swimming Program will start on Monday the 19th February at the Camperdown Swimming Pool.

Swimming lessons will be on Monday, Tuesday Wednesday and Thursday of that week with our Swimming carnival to be held on the Friday (23rd February).

Swimming lessons will continue on Monday the 26th and Tuesday the 27th February.

A timetable will be available for each class next week.

CATHOLIC SCHOOL CULTURE

Opening School Mass

Our opening school mass will be held on Friday the 9th February at 9.30am. We warmly invite all our school families to come along and celebrate with us.

Parish Bulletin

LEADERSHIP AND STEWARDSHIP

New Staff Members

It is with great excitement that we welcome Anna Hinkley to the St Patrick's School community. Anna brings a wealth of experience and knowledge to the school, as she has been working at St Mary's Colac where she was a classroom teacher and held a leadership position. Anna will be teaching 3 days a week in the 5/6 area on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. 

We also welcome back Stacey Riches as an LSO in the 5/6 area.

COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT

HCSN Mass

On Monday 29th of January the staff from all four of our HCSN schools met in Terang to celebrate mass and share a morning tea. At this mass we welcomed all the new staff members to our network and recognised the years of service of our staff.

Michael Saunders 30 years
Marlene Justin 25 years 
Georgia Copeland 15  years
Clare Chivell 10 years 
Hollie Theodore 5 years 
Heather Moore-Bowman 5 years

Bunnings BBQ

The P&F have locked in a date to host the BBQ fundraiser at Bunnings in Warrnambool. The date set aside for this is Saturday, 17th of February 2024. We will be holding a meeting on Tuesday 13th of February at 7pm to help organise this event. 

The sausage sizzle will run from 9am - 4pm.

If you could spare an hour or two  on this day and volunteer some time please contact the office.

Container Deposit Scheme

We have registered our school for the container deposit scheme that has now commenced in Victoria. The nearest deposit machines are located at Cobden, Timboon, Terang & Warrnambool.

How to claim your refund at a CDS VIC Return Point;

Charity Donation
You can donate some of your 10c refund directly to St Patrick’s School.
You can donate via:
 -the CDS Vic West app
– select your preferred “Charity” as your active payout
– scan your app barcode at the machine
– insert your 10c drink containers and select “Transfer” directly on the screen of the machine when finished. 100% of the donated refund will be transferred to the donation partner you selected within the next 5 to 12 days.

Birthdays

Happy Birthday to the following students who celebrate their birthday this week.

Paddy H, Spohie W, Annie W & Deegan S

Community Events

Parenting 101

March 4 @ St Patricks