Newsletter Thursday 12th October, 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.

2NB Newsletter

Welcome to 2NB's newsletter. We are very excited to share our learning with you! It has been a busy time in our class with lots to learn.

 

Indigenous Art - Shay, Mehar, Khoi, Akuoch

We were painting our dot painting using a map of Australia. It was very tricky to use the small cotton sticks to get a small amount of paint and do many small dots. We had to be patient and careful not to smudge the dots.

 

Data & Statistics - Maluil, Shay, Akuoch, Mehar

We have been creating bar graphs to show information we have collected. First we had to decide on a topic, then we had to pose questions and survey the class. We had to tally the answers and find the total. Next we ruled up a bar graph and entered categories and totals. The graph tells us what most people like and the least favourite category. So it was fun drawing the graph!

 

Month of Mary - Kyra, Audrey, Rebecca, Khoi, Aluk

October is the month of Mary. We are learning about the Rosary and the special prayers we pray during the Rosary. Every morning we join together to sing the hymn Hail Mary using Auslan signing.

 

Reading - The Very Cranky Bear by Nick Bland - Khoi, Aluk, Akuoch, Esther, Shelly, Amelia, Isabella, Ruth

We got to experiment with our character voices to act out The Very Cranky Bear. We enjoyed using the microphone and dressing up to be the characters in the story: Zebra, Lion, Sheep, Moose and the Cranky Bear. We practiced our expression for other books by Nick Bland.

 

Touch Typing - all 2NB

We are beginning to learn touch typing on the ChromeBooks. We are learning touch typing and get used to using chromebooks because in grade 3 we will be using chromebooks all the time, not ipads! It's been tricky to position our fingers over the letters and look at the screen. We think this will be a handy skill for next year. We need LOTS of practice!!

Dear Parents, Carers and Guardians,

Tomorrow we have Gen Bryant and her band are coming to play for St Patrick’s.

Gen is an independent musician, composer, public speaker, and team builder, who has been involved in school and parish ministry across Australia for over 18 years. Gen is passionate about spreading the Gospel messages of hope, love, and justice to young people and provides interactive and engaging sessions while sharing her music and faith journey with people of all ages and all walks of life.

Gen’s mission has always been to connect, engage and inspire people of all ages, and from all walks of life, through her music.

Gen is a Melbourne based, singer-songwriter of contemporary and Christian music. The impact of her music and ministry reaches far beyond the stage, through a hope-filled message and testimony of resilience, for both secular and faith communities across Australia.

I would like to invite parents to the final assembly at 2.15pm in the stadium. Our Choir will be performing as well as students sharing their experiences from the day.

Take care and God Bless,

Meg

Church Building Project

Once again, St Patrick’s will enter another building project, however this time it will be our Church undergoing these renovations. This will commence at the beginning of September and there will be some changes to the way the Church car park is to be used by parents dropping off and picking up students each day. I ask all parents to use patience and remain calm as we navigate some alternative arrangements during the renovations. All changes will be clearly marked and staff will be available to help parents in the first few days of the changes. The main focus will always be the safety of our students and irresponsible behaviour and dangerous driving will not be tolerated under any circumstances. Thank you for your understanding in this matter. More information will be given as we get closer to the time. Please continue to check updates on PAM and the newsletter.

Dates for Term 4

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.

This year we are holding a Colour Fun Run to raise money for our school playgrounds. Last Friday the students where given booklets that included a link to sign your child/ren up to fundraise on behalf of the school. All fundraising is done online and there are a range prizes for the students who fundraise. 

As this event is late in the year all prizes will be delivered to the school next year in Term 1. For our current year 6 students if you have a younger sibling we will pass it onto them, all other families we will be in contact with once the prizes have arrived.

The class who has the most sign up's by tomorrow will be able to run first on the day. If you have not signed your child/ren up yet and are wanting to please use the link below:

https://www.schoolfunrun.com.au/

In our first week of fundraising we have already raised $2086! This is an amazing feat and we are so grateful to our community for getting involved. If you would like to contribute but you don't wish to set up an account you can donate directly to the school with the link below. Any prizes won through this page will be donated to families within our school community.

https://app.schoolfundraising.com.au/fundraising/st-patrick-s-5c21cd3c-2fe0-42bf-9e00-7f26fd8eb11e

Today the scholastic brochures have gone home. Please submit your order online as soon as possible as it is due by Friday 20th October.

The whole school was very productive in drawing a special picture for the Christmas Card Competition held by the Catholic Education Department of Sale. It was very hard to choose only 20 entries. The students needed to include the 3 Kings who followed the Star to Bethlehem. Whilst many drawings were really well done, only some could be entered. Hopefully, one of these will win the competition and be chosen from all of the schools in Sale.

Our school fee statements have gone out this week, please check your emails and contact the office if you have any questions or concerns.

Because parenting doesn't come with instructions, SchoolTV is a wellbeing resource implemented at our school to help support you in the challenges of modern-day parenting relating to youth mental health and wellbeing. Parenting is a learning journey and SchoolTV supports families by providing credible information from trusted sources with practical strategies to help alleviate some of the challenges being faced by young people today.

Watch video interviews with leading wellbeing specialists and browse a library of resources. Each topic is accompanied by factsheets, podcasts, books, articles, apps and other videos.

This award-winning resource helps families build relationships, foster connections, enable understanding and break down barriers to navigate a pathway towards better mental health and wellbeing for young people. It will assist you in starting those conversations on topics that can sometimes be awkward or difficult to tackle.

Parents and caregivers are the greatest influence on a young person's life and SchoolTV focuses on empowering confident parenting.

Explore SchoolTV today!

https://stppakenham.catholic.schooltv.me/

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. 

Reconciliation - UPDATED