Newsletter Thursday 20th July, 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.

Welcome to 2 OG’s Newstime

The students have returned from the school holidays and are very energetic about their learning this term. The students were enthusiastic during Maths when they started learning about Multiplication as it relates to the times tables. They started by learning to share counters into Equal Groups and making Arrays. The students worked in pairs and showcased our school values of working Cooperatively with one another.

Reminders for Term 3

B Building Project

The B Block will be completed in the next two weeks and we are expected to be moving in on the 24^th July. We are very excited about this!

The A Block

As you enter the school, you will notice that Temporary fencing has been placed around the North end of the Senior building, A Block. We have some investigations going on at the end of the building which is likely to be happening until the remainder of the school year. Ms Sarah McGill of grade 5SM is the only grade affected by this change. This class and the rest of the school were notified last weekend before our return to school of these changes.

Donations

In order to support our P and F committee, I am asking if there are families and businesses out there who are able to donate items that can be used for future raffles and in particular for our fete that is being held later this year. Not only is this a sign of goodwill and enhance a sense of community, but it will also be great opportunities for your own business to be highlighted at St Patrick’s. If you would like to donate items, please contact the office on 5943 9000 or email office@stppakenham.catholic.edu.au

As always, we appreciate any help that is given to our beautiful school.

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.

I was deeply touched by the warm greetings from staff and students that I encountered on my return from my trip to the Holy Land.

The main foci of our group’s travels and study were:

• To gain a richer understanding by visiting where Jesus travelled in Jerusalem
• To study Mark’s Gospel with particular focus on women and children in the Gospel.
• To gain a better understanding of Judaism and Islam in the context of the Holy land and within their sacred spaces.

Our base in the Old City of Jerusalem was the Ecce Homo Convent of the Sisters of Sion.  Beneath this multi-level site lies the “Lithostrotos” (meaning Stone Pavement) which are important remains from Roman times. Since the Crusades, Christian tradition has placed the beginning of Jesus’s “Way of the Cross” at this location. Here we recall Christ’s suffering at the hands of Roman soldiers and his trial by Pontius Pilate. The name “Ecce Homo” ‘Behold the Man” refers to John 19:5 “Jesus came out, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. Pilate said to them: “Ecce Homo” (Behold the Man).

In the Old City we visited the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, on what is believed to be the site where Jesus was crucified and buried.  This church is a very holy site to many of Christian faith with control of the church itself shared amongst a number of denominations including Roman Catholic, Greek Orthodox, and Armenian Apostolic.

We visited the Mount of Olives, overlooking the old city and where Jesus wept for Jerusalem; and the Garden of Gethsemane, where Jesus’ passion began and where he was betrayed by Judas.

We attended a Friday evening Shabbat service at a local, less traditional synagogue, where much of the service was sung in Hebrew. Very early one morning, we visited the Western Wall, the only remaining wall of the second Temple built by King Herod and which was destroyed by the Romans in about 70CE.  This is a holy site for those of the Jewish faith and where I offered our class prayers to God by inserting them into some crevices in the wall. We also learned much about Judaism through our local tour guides as well a number of guest speakers who addressed us.

On our three-day trip to Galilee we saw the remains of the ancient city of Magdala, home of Mary Magdalene, which was only discovered in excavations in about 2011.  An ancient synagogue was found in these excavations and as it was a familiar stomping ground for Jesus, there is a very high likelihood that Jesus preached at this synagogue.  It was amazing to be at such a place.

Also, around the Sea of Galilee, we visited the synagogue at Capernaum and Peter’s mother-in-law’s house where Jesus stayed.   We visited the Mount of Beatitudes where Jesus preached the famous Sermon on the Mount – teaching us how to live. We went on a boat ride on the Sea of Galilee, swam in the sea and saw the remains of a 2000 -year old fishing boat, found in low water during a drought in 1986 and which took 10 years to safely remove and preserve intact.

Many Palestinians also live in the Old City of Jerusalem, in fact 30,000 of the 40,000 inhabitants of the Old City are Palestinian, most of them are Muslims but a relatively small number are Palestinian Christians.  The Temple Mount, containing the Dome of the Rock and Al-Aqsa Mosque is one of the holiest sites to those of the Islamic faith.  The Dome of the Rock can be seen all over Jerusalem with its distinct blue mosaic outer and its massive gold plated dome. Such a beautiful and sacred place for many.

Throughout the experience, the Sion Sister’s charism taught us to see Jesus as a faithful Jewish man of his time and the Jews as his brothers and sisters. We honour both those of Jewish and Muslim faith and respect our common roots and the God we hold in common. 

Lots of people of Jewish faith visit the Western Wall to pray.  The women and men pray on separate sides of the fence.

One of the Stations of the Cross or the Via Dolorosa.

Church of the Holy Sepulchre, believed to be on the site where Jesus was crucified and buried.

The preserved remains of a 2000 year old fishing boat.  This gives us a clear picture of what boats were like in the time of Jesus.

The site of the ancient synagogue in Magdala. It is very likely that Jesus taught in this synagogue.

The slab of rock on which the body of Jesus was laid.

The place of the crucifixion

The “Lithostrotos”, pavement from Roman times, under the Ecce Homo convent.

The whole pilgrimage was an enriching and life-changing experience for me. Through it all, I was deeply affected by the nearness I felt to the Scripture stories that I have known but that now have a very special significance.

I would like to leave you with this Blessing.

A Holy Land Blessing

May the Babe of Bethlehem

Bring you peace

May the Child of Nazareth

Bring you joy

May the Man of Galilee

Bring you Strength

May the Christ of Calvary

Bring you courage

May the Risen Jesus

Bring you hope

And the Ascended Christ

A Foretaste of His Glory

God Bless,

Mrs Tanner

WOW WOW WOW !

The Library has seen buzzing with laughter, joy and excitement over the last few days, it has been wonderful to watch and listen too.
The support the parents, carers, grandparents, big brothers and sisters in
purchasing books for their child/ren has been a delight to watch.
I just wanted to thank each and every one of you for your support once again.
Not only do your child/ren get new books to read at home, they will also
benefit from new books been purchased for the library, to bring home to share with the whole family.

To those child/ren who have to wait for their books until Friday – well done for waiting, I’m sure it will be worth it!

We had 4 books donated thank you once again to those families.
I would like to thank Nadine, Sharon, Tania, Cathy, Mel and Paul (ESO’s) for
their outstanding support helping keeping thing running so smoothly.

The raffle winners are :-

Lachlan 2 OG, Aaron 5 AT, Georgia 5 SA and Mr Richardson

They got $ 60:00 dollars’ worth of book of their choosing the joy on their faces as you can see from the photo was a delight to see

Confirmation

Reconciliation

Have you logged into 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. 

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. 

SCHOOL FEES

The Term 3 statments will be emailed out to families soon. If you would like to discuss your fees please make an appointment to speak with Meg.