Dear Parents, Carers and Guardians,

Welcome to the final newsletter of 2023.  I hope we can all take this time to reflect on the many events that have occurred this year and to reiterate just how wonderful the St Patrick’s community is.

Last night we celebrated our Year 6 Graduation ceremony, and it was truly a wonderful event. The Year 6 students ran the show with incredible guidance from their year 6 teachers. So many parents and other visitors commented on how smooth the celebration was; filled with emotion and pride. The students rose to the occasion presenting speeches, poems and read books to their captive audience. As a principal, I am always in awe of how our students shine at this time of the year.

I would like to acknowledge the staff of St Patrick’s in this final newsletter. And when I say staff, I mean my teaching staff, to our Education Support Officers, my administration and office staff and to my maintenance staff-THANK YOU for everything that you do! Words will never be able to express what I really want to say. I see how they go above and beyond for our students. I see the emotion on their face; whether it is delight in a child’s achievement or concern over some other matter. They walk beside the students in their learning journey.

To the families of St Patrick’s community, thank you for your support during another incredibly busy year! Sometimes it seems that each year, we get busier and the time we have to achieve things gets less and less. I hope we can all find the time to relax and take time for ourselves and for one another this festive season.

God Bless,

Meg 

Staffing 2024

Congratulations to Tresa Andrews who accepted the position of Religious Education Leader (REL) at St Patrick’s for the next 3 years. Tresa will continue to hold her position of classroom teacher at St Pat’s as well. I would like to take the time to thank Noleen Chalmers who has been in the REL role for the last 3 years. Noleen has made an incredible impact in the role and she is to be commended on the support she has given both school and the Parish. Thank you Noleen. 

We farewell a few teachers and one administration staff member this year. David Daly, Katherine Mirabella, Liz Ashcroft, Katie Koulouris, Taline Apoyan and Chris Antolini. I would like to thank each of these staff members for their dedication to the work in educating our children and we wish them well as they move on to their next venture in life.

We welcome back Rosa Mitchell from Personal Leave and Emily Talbot from Maternity Leave next year.

Next year for 2024, I have been unable to secure a Language teacher due to the teacher shortage, therefore, St Patrick’s will be introducing Visual Arts for a period of 12 months only.

Classroom teachers for 2024

Mental Health in Primary Schools

The Royal Commission into Victoria’s Mental Health System highlighted that primary schools provide opportunities to identify children with mental health and wellbeing challenges, who can then be referred to treatment, care and support.

The Mental Health in Primary Schools program is being expanded to every government and low-fee non-government primary school in Victoria. Scaling up across the state from 2023, by 2026 every primary school will be able to employ a Mental Health and Wellbeing Leader to implement a whole-school approach to wellbeing.

The Department of Education and Training has been piloting the Mental Health in Primary Schools program in Victorian schools since 2020 in partnership with the Murdoch Children's Research Institute and the Melbourne Graduate School of Education at the University of Melbourne. Evaluation of this pilot program has shown that 95 per cent of Mental Health and Wellbeing Leaders consider the Mental Health in Primary Schools model has improved their school’s capacity to support students’ mental health and wellbeing needs.

Participating schools receive funding to employ a Mental Health and Wellbeing Leader, a qualified teacher, to work across the school to implement a whole-school approach to mental health and wellbeing for students, staff and families based on a broad knowledge of the needs of the school community.

Congratulations to Kelly Wilson who will be our Mental Health in Primary Schools (MHiPS) teacher. 

Kelly will work across the school to lead implementation of the MHiPS program. The role will:

• build the capacity of school staff to identify and support students with mental health concerns
• support the school to create clear referral pathways and connect to local services for students identified as needing further assessment and intervention
• implement effective mental health strategies aligned with social and emotional learning and adapt a whole-school approach to health, wellbeing and learning initiatives.

The mental health and wellbeing leader promote a whole-school approach to mental health and wellbeing to students, staff and families, and does not provide one-to-one intervention or counselling support to students.

Last day for students in grades F-5 is Monday the 18^th December at 3.10pm.

First day of Term 1 2024 is Wednesday 31st January.  

Church Building Project/Church car park pick up

Thanks so much to all of the parents for your cooperation of the new arrangements in the Church car Park. It is wonderful to have the support of our parents as we endeavour to set in place new routines for getting the students safely in their cars.

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. Please continue to check updates on PAM and the newsletter.