Dear Families

Welcome to Week 2 of the newsletter. I sincerely hope that parents are revelling in the good weather and experiencing the wonder that the beginning of Autumn is bringing us.

It has been so wonderful to have visited the rooms each week and to see how the students are settling into the school year. The threat of Covid continues to reign over us, however it is delightful to see our St Patrick’s community getting on with life.

RATS test have been distributed to the families and more of these will go out at the end of this week. I would like to thank parents for their ongoing contributions on keeping our community safe by regular testing and notifying the school of positive cases. Parents are notified of positive cases as they come though so please continue to check your emails. **Camp Australia are run separately from us, so they will notify parents of a Positive case whilst in their care.

We have had some maintenance work done around the school this week with the B Block having the roof and gutters cleared as well as the drains in The Avenue being kept clear to avoid the flooding. The school works carefully with Cardinia Council to also ensure the drains outside of St Patrick’s are also kept clear.

Covid Update

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW

If there is a positive case at school…

The school will NOT be required to close as a result of the positive case attending the school.

If your child is not experiencing COVID-19 symptoms, they can continue to attend school, but you should monitor for symptoms.

Students who show symptoms of COVID-19 must get tested immediately using a rapid antigen test, or a PCR test if you can’t access a rapid antigen test. Students with COVID-19 symptoms must isolate and return a negative result before returning to school.

Students should continue with twice-weekly rapid antigen testing on school days.

Students who have recovered from COVID-19 do not need to participate in surveillance testing for 30 days after testing positive.

 If your child receives a positive COVID-19 result, you must:

• quarantine your child for seven days
• advise the school about the positive result
• ensure that your child stays home until their symptoms have resolved and they are well
• ensure that everyone in your household who is a close contact isolates for seven (7) days from the date your child is tested for COVID-19.

Advice and further resources about what to do if your child tests positive to COVID-19 or you are a contact, are available on the following Coronavirus Victoria web pages or you can call the 24/7 Coronavirus hotline on 1800 675 398:

Checklist for COVID contacts

Checklist for COVID contacts

• Checklist for COVID contacts - coronavirus.vic.gov.au/checklist-contacts
• Checklist for COVID cases - coronavirus.vic.gov.au/checklist-cases

Reporting your child’s positive test

If your child was at school during their infectious period, you need to report the positive case to office@stppakenham.catholic.edu.au or please phone the school office on 5943 9000.

If your child tested positive using a rapid antigen test you must also report your child’s positive test to the Department of Health via the COVID-19 Positive Rapid Antigen Test Self-Reporting Form or call centre on 1800 675 398.

General advice and support

Advice and further resources about coronavirus, including what to do if you test positive or if you have been told you are a contact, are available on the coronavirus website www.coronavirus.cgov.au or you can call the 24/7 Coronavirus hotline on 1800 675 398.

Other resources on the Coronavirus Victoria website include:

• information on symptoms - coronavirus.vic.gov.au/symptoms-and-risks
• how to get tested - coronavirus.vic.gov.au/taking-test-covid-19

Further information for languages other than English

For school information in languages other than English, call TIS National on 131 450. 

For translated written information about COVID-19 and health advice in languages other than English, visit www.coronavirus.vic.gov.au/translated-information-about-coronavirus-covid-19

Parents, guardians, carers and/or students can also call the Department of Education and Training COVID-19 hotline on 1800 338 663 and they will help interpret. 

Please be aware that we are unable to provide any information about students, family members or staff who may test positive to COVID-19. I would ask that all in our community continue to pray for those who are unwell with COVID-19 and respect their privacy.

The health, safety and wellbeing of the school community remains our highest priority. We are committed to continuing to communicate with you as promptly as possible and supporting you and your children during these challenging times.

If you have any questions about the arrangements, please contact office@stppakenham.catholic.edu.au or call 5943 9000

Staffing update

Fil Vandertuin who has been our office manager at St Patrick’s for 23 years has begun a new job at St Francis Xavier in Beaconsfield. Fil certainly leaves behind a legacy and we thank her for her enormous contribution to the St Patrick’s community! Fil has been core to supporting many families and working alongside them through any hardships. I would like to acknowledge Fil and her work with us and wish her every success in her new role at SFX.

I am currently in the process of hiring a new administration officer for our school office. I ask parents to be patient when contacting the office over the next few weeks till we have found a replacement. Thank you.

Reminders for parents

Students have been arriving well before 8.30am and being left unsupervised. This is an enormous safety issue on many levels and I am asking parents to adhere to the 8.30 timeslot. If you have to come earlier, please do not leave your child unattended! 

The Avenue and the Church Car Park has parking for those parents/guardians/grandparents wanting to come into the school to drop off and pick up their children. Please DO NOT park in the drive in and drive out areas as this interrupts the flow of cars.

The Beginning of the Year Mass is this Friday at 11.30am and will be livestreamed to parents. Only the grade 6 students and their teachers will attend in person and the Captains for 2022-School, House, Social Justice and ICT leaders will be acknowledged at this mass. The remainder of the students will watch it from their classrooms.

Link for mass

Link

ICT message 

Thank you to all the parents who have set up their PAM accounts and given their consent to the ICT policy to allow your child/ren to use the devices at school. For those who are still to do this please do this as a matter of urgency as your child will not be alowed to access educational material on any school device.   If you need help setting up PAM please email office@stppakenham.catholic.edu.au or call the school office on 5943 9000.

Meg Escalante

Acting Principal

School Closure days

Have you set up your PAM account yet! 

Operoo is no longer being used!!!

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. 

CSEF Applications are now due! 

The applicant must be one of the following:

1. a parent/carer (of a student attending a registered Government or non-government Victorian primary or secondary school) who is:
   • on the first day of Term 1 (31 January 2022), or the first day of Term 2 (26 April 2022)  a holder of one or more of the eligible financially-means tested cards (Centrelink Health Care Card or a Pensioner Concession Card), or
   • a temporary foster parent

The parent/carer must submit an application to the school by 24 June 2022.

If anyone has any questions or would like to discuss their school fee account, please contact Cindy in the school office cbyrne@stppakenham.catholic.edu.au   

Please download and fill in the form below if you qualify.

Book club catalogue's went home this week!   Orders are due in by Thursday 24th February.   All orders must be done on line via the scholastic web site.  

Please see the flyer below for instructions on how to order.   Cash payments will not be accepted!

My Trip to Tasmania by Michael 

Two days after Christmas, we went on the Spirit of Tasmania – 1, to Tasmania. Rebecca and Lewis and the kids together with me. We looked at the ocean and Rebecca saw some pink dolphins! I didn’t. I only saw some shrimps – I think. While we were on the boat, my sister Jordan and I played on the play stations.

We sailed during the day and it took one day to get there. We spent ten days in Tasmania. We saw the Singing Santa Claus in the house we were staying at. The next day we went to the beach. The weather was sunny but not too hot. While Lewis and Uncle Shayne went fishing, Jaxon and I played on the rocks and water. We made up a new game called sandballs. It is like snowballs but with sand instead of snow. I made a really massive sandball and threw it at Jaxon’s head and it knocked him into the ocean!

On the last day we quickly packed our bags, got dressed and drove to the boat. That night I awoke pretty late. It was midnight. We got off the boat. The kids and I were very hungry. Rebecca gave us an apple, a squishy and tiny chocolate chip cookies. When we got home we had Maccas for breakfast. I thought the trip was really fun and I didn’t want it to come to an end.

The End!

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

The medical profile section of PAM has also now been turned on.   This needs to be updated as soon as possible.  

To update any contact details please contact the school office. 

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/