Newsletter 8/03/2024 Term 1 Week 6.5 Update

From the Principal

Dear parents and carers,

With the long weekend public holiday on Monday and the athletics sports on Tuesday, we are sending out this brief update to keep you informed of important events around the school.

P.A.M Outage

Our Parent Access Module app is up and running again after repairs have been completed. Thank you for your patience with this and I hope some of the errors with the system have been rectified. 

St Patrick's Day Picnic

We are excited to be hosting a family picnic on Friday 15th of March to celebrate our patron saint, St Patrick. The actual feast is Sunday 17th of March. The picnic will be from 6pm to 7pm on the school grounds, so save the date and join in an evening of fun and community connection, bring your picnic blanket and dinner along, the staff look forward to seeing you all.

LEARNING AND TEACHING

Athletic Sports

Our St Patrick's Athletic Sports will be conducted next Tuesday the 12th of March. As there is no school Monday for the public holiday, parents are reminded to be prepared for the day with sports uniform and some way of showing your child's house colour, plenty of food (Lions BBQ available on this day), a drink bottle, sunscreen and hat. If you wish to take your child home from the event at any time of the day, please inform the recording table and the classroom teacher/s. If someone else is collecting your child, we will need parental permission for this. We look forward to seeing lots of parents on this special day. 

Easter Raffle

Our Easter raffle will be held on the last day of Term 1 - Thursday the 28th March.

We ask parents to supply one Easter item/egg per child. These can be brought into the office now.

The children will have brought their raffle books home last week. Please write on both sides of the tickets & return them to school along with the money. ($1 per ticket = $20 per book).

If your child/family missed out on getting a raffle book, please contact the office and we will send one home.

The Easter raffle is one of our major fundraisers for the year and is a highlight for the children!

NAPLAN

Dear Parents,

Our 2024 NAPLAN testing for Grade 3 and 5 will commence next Wednesday the 13th of March. These assessments should all be completed by Friday 22nd of March. If you need any further information regarding these, please contact the school office.

LEADERSHIP AND STEWARDSHIP

Staff News

Amy Wynd is delighted to announce that she is expecting her third baby later this year. We wish her all the best for the months ahead. She will continue working until the end of Term 2 before commencing family leave. We will commence the process of finding a replacement teacher for 5/6 WS shortly.

Parents in the school

We are delighted that parents are now coming into the school to be part of their child's education. Can we please ask that if you are going to spend more than 5 minutes in the building, that you check in at the office for our emergency management procedures. If you are a regular attendee, we can give you a "Quick Access PIN" to speed this up. 

School Beginning Hours

Just a reminder that supervision at the school begins at 8:30am. We have many children arriving well before this time at the moment. Until we have our "Out of Hours Care" option, we ask that children don't come on site until this time please. 

Building Program

The excavation works are now complete and we are watching the retaining walls being installed to prepare for the foundations. We have lost part of our Junior playground to the builders compound and a track will be built through the school yard shortly to facilitate the transport of materials to the site. 

2024 Known Dates

Parent feedback around our school digital calendar is that on a PC or laptop it is clear and easy to follow but on the tile of the mobile phone app it is not as clear. To help this, we will include a "Known Dates" image to keep you informed of important events .

St Patrick's School Leadership Structure

The following diagram outlines the leadership of St Patrick's at present. If you need to speak to someone at the school, please consider these roles and responsibilities to direct your enquiries. 

COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT

Community Meal

Grade 5/6WS will be preparing and hosting our first Community Meal next Wednesday the 13th of March.

Thank you to all the parents that have returned their notes and indicated they will donate some food.

P&F Meeting

The next meeting of the P&F will be held on Tuesday the 26th of March at 6:30pm in the staffroom. If you are considering helping with the roles advertised over the last two newsletters, we would love to see you at the meeting.

Birthdays

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

Wally R, Spencer M & Lenny B

Community Events

MRC Open Day

Camperdown Junior Netball

Cobden Night Netball