Newsletter Thursday 29th August

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.

Year Level Camp/ Fun Day Dates:

TERM DATES 2024

2024 PUPIL FREE DAYS AND SCHOOL CLOSURE DAYS:

The 4 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.

To be held on Monday morning beginning at 8.30am on the basketball courts. There will be 2 coffee vans for the dads to grab a coffee at no charge. There will be a variety of activities set up for the dads to then join in with their children for the morning. We wish all our dads/carers/guardians and grandfathers a wonderful day with your families on Sunday

As a part of Book Week, some of our students participate in a Make a Book incrusion, where they each got to make a book. Here are a few bookes they made

By_Oyiti.pdf

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This morning, we held our second African Community meeting for this year. We had many families attend this presentation. Thuch Ajak was our key speaker, he is from the United African Farm. He spoke about the importance of coming together as a community and making connections. Thuch Ajak invites families to the community farm to grow produce commonly used in African cooking. More information about the community farm can be found on the farms website https://unitedafricanfarm.org. Mrs Cheryl Billings-Smith also attended the meeting, she is a social worker through community Links Pakenham and she works closely with families requiring support in the community. Thank you to Mrs Nadine King who is involved with the African Community and helps to strengthen the partnership between school and the African Community to ensure they are engaged with all that is going on at St Patrick’s. See photo attached.

Our AFL dress up day will be on Thursday 19th September. Students are invited to wear their favourite team jersey on this day. 

Our P&F have also organised hot food for this day. Log onto CDF Pay if you would like to place an order for your child/ren. There are meat pies, sausage rolls and vegetarian pasties all at $5 each. These orders must be submitted by Monday 2nd September to ensure the bakery has enough time to organise our order.

https://stppakenham.cdfpay.org.au

Please contact Alex Taylor in the school office if you need any assistance accessing your CDF Pay account.

Please note there have been several complaints about parents parking across our school driveways at the end of the school day.

Not only is this an illegal activity, but it is also making it very difficult for any pedestrians and particularly those in wheelchairs to access the footpath and move safely across to the other side.

If you are found to be blocking a driveway, you may be approached by a member of staff and asked to move your car. I have also informed the local council of what's happening, and they will be conducting roving patrols and handing out fines.

From Monday 2nd of September students will be required to wear their school hats during lunch and recess.  Our school policy is Not Hat No Play will be enforced from Wednesday 4th September.

Our Foundation team are needed around 40 shoe boxes by next week for their diorama project. If you have any spare please bring them to the office

We have a free dress day on Friday 13th September. We ask all students participating to bring a cold coin donation in, all proceeds are donated to our school Parish.

We are experiencing a high volume of students (and staff) with cough and flu symptoms. Please ensure you keep your children home from school if they present with a nasty cough, runny nose or fever. We are continuing to rely on habits developed throughout the Covid lockdown and use the hand sanitiser every day before and after eating, entering the classroom and after the toilets.

Department of Health Warning for parents and families

There has been an update on the Increasing Pertussis (Whooping Cough) Cases

MAIN POINTS

• The Department of Health, Victoria has issued a health alert, Increasing pertussis (whooping cough) cases in Victoria.

• The key messages are: cases of pertussis are increasing in Victoria, mostly affecting children aged 10-12 years
• pertussis is a highly contagious respiratory illness known for causing a cough and can lead to life threatening infections in babies

• symptoms of pertussis may be very similar to other respiratory infections, especially in the early stages, meaning diagnosis by a doctor as soon as possible is important.

ACTIONS REQUIRED

• Principals are asked to:

Primary schools must NOT allow a student with whooping cough to attend the school for 21 days after the onset of cough or until they have completed five (5) days of antibiotics.

• Students younger than seven (7) years who are in proximity of a whooping cough case, and who have not received three (3) doses of the pertussis vaccine, should also be excluded for 14 days from the last date of exposure, or until they have completed five (5) days of antibiotics. 2
• Secondary schools and all staff that are not bound by the legislative exclusion requirements applying to primary schools but are encouraged to follow the same guidance to ensure staff and student safety. ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
• Vaccination is the most important preventive measure against these diseases

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

• Vaccination is the most important preventive measure against whooping cough as it reduces the risk of infection and severe illness and protects those in the community who are most vulnerable. • It is recommended staff and students stay up to date with their vaccinations, including booster doses and seek medical attention early if whooping cough symptoms occur.
• remind the school community about the importance of seeing their General Practitioner if their children exhibit any of the symptoms listed
• consider any school community members (staff or parents/guardians/carers) who are pregnant or who have infants under the age of six (6) months, to ensure this important information is available to them.

During this term, I will start to plan for 2025 and will soon be looking at staffing for the following year. If you have a reasonable request for your child/ren in regard to classroom placement, this MUST be put into writing and be emailed to principal@stppakenham.catholic.edu.au. The closing date for this will be Friday 6^th September. Any requests coming to me after this date may not be considered.

Once again, these requests are never guaranteed and ultimately, the final placement of the students rests with me as principal.

Kind Regards,

Meg Escalante

SiMON Everywhere is an app our school uses to acces PAM and CDF Pay. We will be sending reminders through this app, as such please download and sign in. There is a guide below for your reference. If you are having any issues please contact Alex Taylor in the school office ataylor@stppakenham.catholic.edu.au

Have you logged into your PAM account yet! 

We use 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.