Newsletter Thursday 10th August, 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.

Dear Parents, Carers and Guardians,

On Tuesday our staff spent our Professional Development day at the Mary Mackillop Heritage Centre in East Melbourne. This was the most fitting day as it was her Feast Day. Mary Mackillop was an incredible inspiration to all, but to teachers in particular. Mary was an advocate for those children who were most disadvantaged in life. The poor, the hungry, the unwanted. She stood up against those who tried who to shut her down. She became an inspiration for those who could not help themselves. In the face of every adversity, Mary and her fellow nuns worked day and night to ensure that each child was educated and nurtured.

Our staff were split into 2 groups and completed 2 activities. One group went off on a walk around the streets of East Melbourne and explored Mary’s birthplace, her first schools and explored other parts of history connected with Mary and the Sisters of St Joseph. We visited the chapel at Australian Catholic University where we convened as a group and prayed for our St Patrick’s community.

The second group stayed back at the Heritage centre and learnt more about the life that Mary, her family and her students led. We walked through an incredible gallery that stored many old relics from Mary’s day including Bibles, parts of original buildings, the habits the nuns wore and old school equipment. The Heritage Centre also had some amazing works of art and a lovely gift shop. The 2 groups then swapped so we were all able to take full advantage of the day.

I would like to thanks Mrs Noleen Chalmers for her organisation of the day. Our staff thoroughly enjoyed the experience and I know our students will be able to reap the benefits of our experience.

Take care and God Bless

Meg

Reminders for Term 3

Dates for Term 4

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. 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.

Please note that TONGIHT at 7:00pm is the Parent Confirmation Workshop.

Last week our Year 1 students headed off to LegoLand for the day !

Confirmation

Reconciliation

On the 4th of September we will be celebrating Father's day with a few before school activities. All families are invited to come down and join us this morning, we will also have a coffee van on site !

Our Father's Day stall is happening on 22nd and 23rd of August. Please remember to purchase a token for your child/ren through CDF Pay. The link and instructions are below:

https://stppakenham.cdfpay.org.au

In celebration of the Women's World Cup we are encourgaing our students to be active everyday this month with these fun soccer challenges!

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.