Dear Parents,

We received some fantastic news on Tuesday that the school has been successful through the Australian Government Capital Grants Program in receiving one million dollars of funds to put towards our refurbishment project.  This is a huge bonus for St Pat’s as it will allow us to refurbish the B Block (Middle building), upgrade the E Block (Junior Building) and then allow us to remove the portables and improve play areas. 

Behind the scenes work has been progressing over the last 18 months, we are in a position where we can go to tender shortly. Hopefully the build will commence towards the end of Term One next year.  Having so many portables onsite at the moment does have one advantage, we will have enough adequate spaces to move the children whilst work is underway. 

On behalf of the whole school community I thank the Australian Government Capital Grants Program, and DOSCEL for their assistance with the project.  This is very exciting for the school and will mean that that the students at St Pat’s will learn in contemporary, state of the art facilities that support the pedagogy.

COVID

Please continue to watch for symptoms with your children and get them tested if necessary.  If your child does return a positive result we ask that you contact the school asap.  The rules have changed regarding a positive case within the school and students will no longer be required to isolate for 14 days if they are a school close contact.  They will now need to provide a negative test to return to school.  Household close contacts will still be required to isolate for 14 days.

2022 Enrolments

If you know of anyone looking to enrol their child at St Pat’s for 2022 please encourage them to contact the school Office on 5943-9000 or email office@stppakenham.catholic.edu.au

Sacraments

First Communion takes place this weekend at 6pm on Saturday and 10.30am Sunday.  Confirmation will be on Saturday the 4^th of December at 3pm and Reconciliation will be Tuesday 30th November at 7pm and Wednesday 1st December at 7pm.    Noleen Chalmers has been contacting Confirmation Candidates families to outline the vaccination compliance rules that need to be adhered to.

Parent Access

Parents are now welcome to enter the school grounds without the need to QR on your way in.  Please remain outside the classrooms and do not enter the buildings.  If you are coming for a pre-arranged appointment please sign in and QR code at the Office.  Masks are required to be worn by parents at all times when indoors at school.

Dropping Off in the Morning

A reminder that students are not to be at school before 8.30am as they are not supervised.  Anyone early needs to remain with their children until a staff member opens the gates.

Uniforms

We understand that as students return for the last few weeks of the school uniforms may not fit as well as hoped and it is difficult to purchase uniforms at the moment.  We ask that parents are very respectful of our uniform policy and that students wear the uniform with pride, however, we understand that there may be some items that cannot be purchased.

Hats

Please remember that as we enter Term 4 it is compulsory for the students to be wearing hats when outside.

The following COVID Restrictions remain in place when all children return onsite next week;

• Parents are now welcome to enter the school grounds without the need to QR on your way in. Please remain outside the classrooms and do not enter the buildings.  If you are coming for a pre-arranged appointment please sign in and QR code at the Office.
• Student Masks – As per Government regulations all students in Grades 3-6 are required to wear a mask whilst indoors (unless you have an exemption). Masks are encouraged for students in Grades P-2.
• Adult Masks – Masks are required to be worn by parents at all times when indoors at school.
• Please communicate with staff via phone or email.
• The Office is open, however, if it is not essential please contact via phone 5943-9000 or email office@stppakenham.catholic.edu.au  
• All extra cleaning and hand hygiene that was in place is still being adhered to.
• Please do not send food items to share with others when it is your child’s birthday as they cannot be handed out.
• Bubble taps are operational at school.
• An ample amount of sports equipment will be provided at school so we ask that students do not bring equipment from home.
• If your child is sick, or displaying symptoms, please keep them at home. Children that present as sick or displaying symptoms at school will be sent home.  It is our preference that they gain a medical clearance or negative COVID test before they return to school.

Reimbursement for Activities Not Undertaken / Fee Assistance

As we work our way through the remainder of the activities between now and the end of the year the school will calculate any differences in the costing and reimburse parents where appropriate.  If you are experiencing difficulties due to the pandemic please contact Fil at the Office for a confidential discussion regarding fees.

Regards,

Simon

Please read the article below in regards to helping children to cope with uncertainty during  COVID.

Using Play to support Children during COVID

Things are hard right now and if you need to talk about it or would just like to read some information on how to look after ourselves and our children, the following services will help you and articles will help you. 

If any families are struggling at this time and would like to reach out for a chat or support please contact Meg Escalante, our Wellbeing officer, via email on mescalante@stppakenham.catholic.edu.au. 

You can also visit the Be You website which has contact numbers for you to call. 

Graduation Bears

An email went out to all current grade 6 families yesterday in regards to Graduation Bears.   If you would like to purchase one of these for your child there are a number of ways you can do this.   You can call the school any pay via card over the phone, or visit the school office using your card to pay or correct cash in an envelope.  Or send correct cash with your child and ask them to drop it off at the school office.   The cost of these bears is $15 each. 

Grade 6 Jumpers - 2022

An eform is available on Operoo for the current Grade 5 students to order a grade 6 jumper for next year.   Please log on to your Operoo account and answer all the questions.   Payment is only available via your card and orders must be place before Sunday 28th November, the cost of these jumpers is $45.  If you would like to try on a sample of the jumper please visit, Hip Pocket Workwear, Purton Rd, Pakenham and let them know you are from St Pats and would like to try a jumper on.    This will help you choose the correct size.    

Neither of these items are compulsory to purchase, they are just a lovely memento from their time at St Pats.

Have you set up your PAM account yet!

From the start of 2022 PAM will be 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.  

A new app (SimonEverywhere) will soon be available to download to allow easy access to PAM but for now please save the PAM log on screen to the home page of your device or bookmark it in your browser.  

Access PAM via this link   Link to PAM 

SIMON -  a Learning Management Software solution for schools.

St Patrick’s Primary school is now using SIMON in the classroom to keep track of your child’s progress and learning as well as attendance.  SIMON will also be used for School Reports and Student Wellbeing.

PAM, SIMON’s Parent Access Module

PAM (Parent Access Module) is our new 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.cathlic.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. 

Our much awaited Church Renovation is about to begin and is anticipated to cost in the order of $4.2 million. After contributions from Parish funds, the “Be a Sponsor of Church Renovation” programme aims to provide extra funding for the Sacred Artwork that will adorn our new church as well as reducing the loan repayments to Catholic Development Fund and thereby reflecting our strong Parish Community.

Please see the flyers below for more information and keep up to date on the Parish webpage.   https://stpatrickspakenham.com.au/fundraising/ 

Operoo is still our main platform for communication!  All correspondence will continue to go via the Operoo email platform.  In most cases it will be in Operoo that you will first be notified of any upcoming excursions or events.  Most of these events must first be approved before they appear on any calendar.  

Please remember to update any details in Operoo, for example change of address or phone number,  this will send us a message that your details have changed and we are then able to update our database.

Don't forget to upload your child's hayfever letters including symptoms specific to your child!

If you have any problems using Operoo, please call into the school office preferably on a Monday, Thursday or Friday and we will be able to help you.  

Please remember to update your contact details and any relevant medical details for your child.  

This can be either done via Operoo or contacting the school office.

The medical profile section of PAM has also now been turned on.   Please update this at your convenience.  We will still be using Operoo for any medical issues until the end of this year but as of the start of next year we will be moving to PAM for all communication and medical needs. 

Have you installed the new SZapp?   

Skoolbag is no longer being used, install SZapp now! 

 Follow the installation guide below to install the new app on your smart devices.