Newsletter Thursday 9th Febuary, 2023

We the staff of St Patrick’s acknowledge the traditional owners, the Kulin nations, of the land on which we learn and play.

We pay respects to the Aboriginal Elders, past and present, who are our teachers.

We thank them for taking care of children and country for countless generations.

Ms Wilmann's Foundation Class

What a wonderful beginning we have had to the school year. All students have settled into the start of their school life remarkably well. There has been much laughter and enjoyment in our classroom, and we are thrilled with the way your children have made the transition from Pre-School to School. There is always something exciting happening in the Foundation rooms. Last week we went around the school looking for the green sheep and found it at Mrs Escalante’s office.

This week, we had the chance to walk around the school and talk about safety. We also read the book ‘No David’ No, David! - Animated Children's Book. Students created their own David and shared what safety looks like at school.

Here is some of their work.

Important Reminders:

Changes to the school timetable

Due to changes in our school timetable, please note the change of time that our classrooms will be open in the mornings.

Students can still be dropped off at 8.30am. Please do not drop off any earlier than this.

The gates will open 8.30 - students will gather in the colonnade to be supervised. Please do not leave your children UNSUPERVISED! The children are not supervised outside of the school premises.

8.40- Specialist teachers and leadership on duty- Children are to leave their bags outside their classrooms and they can then move to the basketball court with a teacher.  

8.50- Classrooms will open and children will move off the yard and head into class.

Please note, this does not mean that parent cannot enter the classrooms. They are still able to drop off their child/ren to the classes and pop in and say hello. Please remember however, this is the time that the students will begin to be getting settled for the day, so any conversations that need to be had with your child’s teacher, must be arranged at another time suitable for both parties.

School Uniforms

At St Patrick’s, it is important to highlight to students the message around respecting our school uniform. The uniform represents our school and is expected to be worn with pride. Please be aware that I will approach and ask students about their uniform and will follow up with parents if necessary.

Please write a note to your child/ren’s classroom teacher if there is an issue with the inform for a particular period of time.

Some reminders:

• Socks- are to be ankle socks; white for girls and grey for boys
• Students are to wear black shoes and NOT (black) runners. Runners may be brought to school for your child/ren to change into for the playtimes;
• Girls are permitted to wear the school (Summer) dress or the school shirt and grey shorts
• Boys wear the grey shorts in Summer and the long grey pants in Winter (they may choose to continue wearing the shorts.)
• Sports uniform consists of the polo shirt with the school logo and the green track pants or green unisex shorts.
• School sports jacket is optional in the cooler months.

Homework

After careful consideration and referring to long held research, the students of St Patrick’s will no longer be completing homework.

John Hattie who is a well renowned professor of Education and Director at Melbourne University Research Education unit, has completed many detailed studies on the effect that homework has on student outcomes. His finding is this:

‘Homework in primary school has zero effect.’ 

Instead we will continue to encourage all families to read with and to their children at every available opportunity.

Your children will continue to bring home books each week from school and they will continue to visit the school library on a weekly basis.

There are many opportunities for incidental learning to occur. This may happen whilst shopping, cooking, completing jobs around the house, during sports activities and just spending quality time together as a family. The other powerful tool is for families to reinforce any learning they have undertaken through these incidental learning opportunities that present themselves every day.

Can you help?

I have a parent needing assistance to get their year 4 child to school (St Patrick’s) each morning. They have no car and this will be the case for a long time. The family live in the area off Henty Park heritage area. If you are able to assist this family, please contact office@stppakenham.catholic.edu.au

Thank you

TERM DATES

PUPIL FREE DAYS:

These 3 Pupil Free days ensure that we can manage our commitment for all staff to continue to provide activities such as school camps for our students.

Please note, these dates are separate from our 8 Staff Professional Development days. Those 8 days are for our staff professional learning which will focus on Religious Education, Learning and Teaching and Student Wellbeing.

Here are a few pictures from our year 2 students, excited about completing their first week of school this year !

Lunch club is a great opportunity for the different year levels to work together. Here are a couple of photos from ICT club last Friday !

Last week our scholastic brouches where sent home. Below is an attached guide that details what book club is and how to order the books you want.

Orders must be submitted by Thursday the 16th of Febuary.

Below is also a link to the website with further information.

https://www.scholastic.com.au/book-club/book-club-parents/

Have you re-set up your PAM account yet! 

We have been using PAM as our main form of communication.  All emails, Student Attendance, Sick Bay notes, School Reports, commonly used forms, excursion/camp permission notes and Family Learning conversations, will all be communicated via PAM.  

Access PAM via this link   Link to PAM 

PAM - Parent Access Module

PAM (Parent Access Module) is our Parent to School communication platform.   PAM will provide real time access to keep parents updated with their children’s progress, important dates and messages. Relevant resources – calendar events, student reports, parent notified absences, absence data and sick bay notes will all be accessed via PAM.

Parents will be able to easily book Parent Teacher interviews through PAM, and access teacher email addresses. 

PAM accounts are linked via your email address that we have in our systems.  If you have recently changed your email,  please call or email us on office@stppakenham.catholic.edu.au

Click on the 'forget password' link to set your password and then verify your email address.  (Email addresses must be verified for PAM to work properly).  Once your email is verified, your email can be used as the username for your account.

Once you have successfully logged in, you can save PAM to your homescreen on your device.

If you have any issues or need help with PAM please contact the school via email, office@stppakenham.catholic.edu.au

PAM Instructions

Parent Notified Absences via PAM

Once you have PAM set up and saved to your home screen you can easily send in Parent Notified absences.   Please use this platform going forward as this automatically syncs with the class roll.   This will fix the issues of receiving SMS notifications even though you had already notified the school. 

 It is strongly recommended that students:

• Who test positive to COVID-19 should stay home and isolate for five (5) days;
• Should not attend school after five (5) days if still symptomatic;
• Who are symptomatic but have not tested positive should not attend school until their symptoms resolve;
• Parents, guardians or carers advise the school of the COVID-19 positive test result.

Student who are close contacts or social contacts are permitted to attend school but are strongly recommended to:

• if a close contact – regularly test for at least seven (7) days following their last contact with the person who has COVID-19
• if a social contact - test if they have symptoms of COVID-19
• wear a face mask when leaving the house, including on public transport, at work, school, and other indoor spaces
• let fresh air into their home or other indoor spaces by opening windows, where possible
• monitor for symptoms such as a runny nose, sore throat, cough, or fever/chills, and stay home and test if they present with symptoms
• Parents, guardians and carers should continue to notify the school if their child(ren) is a close contact.

Please remember to update your contact details and any relevant medical details for your child.  

Most medical profiles have now been updated. Please remember to keep them up to date and upload any asthma/allergy plans that may be relevant 

To update any contact details please contact the school office.