Newsletter Thursday 26^th May 2022

Good afternoon Parents/carers and guardians,

Welcome to week 5 of Term 2. With this term only 9 weeks, it is fair to say that we are now halfway through. As the cold weather intensifies, we have seen a growing number of Covid cases within our community and cases of cold and flu are also on the rise. It seems that our last few years in lockdown have somewhat diminished our immune systems and the number of children we are sending home each day is growing.

Please take the time to remind your children about good hygiene, to dispose of a tissue after use, wash or sanitise their hands and to cover their mouth when coughing or sneezing. If they wake up unwell, coughing, runny noses etc, please do not send them to school. I am asking all families to remain vigilant at this time.

I am pleased to announce that we have secured a builder for the refurbishment of our E and B Blocks. Work will commence early in Term 3 and is expected to be finished in March of 2023. The students will move to the portables in the school during the build. The E Block will be the first one to have work started on it. Once that is completed, they will then begin work on the B Block. We are very excited to have this work being done.

You may have also noticed that work is continuing to be done on our playground. There are delays due to supplies etc however things will be completed in the next few months. Thanks all for your patience.

Take care and God Bless

Meg

Notifying the School of an Absence - IMPORTANT

Due to the increase in students not being at school, the office is taking several hours each day to chase up each absent student. I ask all parents to either use PAM or to contact the office directly to let them know that your child/ren will not be at school that day. We have a legal responsibility to know where the students are every day.

POPCORN WEDNESDAY 1ST JUNE

Next Wednesday the P and F committee will be selling popcorn for $2 per bag. Please note this is popcorn that is made on site and not the individual packets you find in the supermarket. The portion sizes are generous. If you would like your child to have a bag of popcorn, please send them with the $2 to give to their classroom teacher.

Reminder about parents not accessing the school toilets

Parents are reminded that they are NOT PERMITTED to use the school toilets when dropping off or picking up your child/ren. This is a huge Child Safety issue and we will be locking the toilets at 3pm each day to ensure the safety of our students. In the case there is an emergency, please come to the school office.

Thank you for your cooperation in this matter.

Prayers from families for newsletter

Just a reminder please to any families that would like to contribute to our school newsletter with a prayer that has been written by the family, please send them through to office@stppakenham.catholic.edu.au

Thank you

First Eucharist Mass

Last Friday morning, I had the pleasure of attending mass with the grade 4 and 5 children who recently celebrated the Sacrament of First Eucharist. Fr Janeesh shared a wonderful story about his own First Communion which the students enjoyed. The teachers have done a wonderful job preparing them for this Sacrament alongside Mrs Noleen Chalmers, our RE Leader. All the children then received a beautiful homemade First Communion cookie to complete the celebration.

HELP NEEDED- Can you help a family at St Patrick’s

I have a family who have reached out needing assistance to get their 2 children dropped home each afternoon after school. The students are in grade 3 and grade 6. They live in Jacaranda Way, Pakenham which is only a 4 minute drive from the school. If you are able to help, please contact the school office on 5943 9000 or email office@stppakenham.catholic.edu.au

Changes to Rapid Antigen Test Surveillance Program

From Monday 23 May 2022, there will no longer be a recommendation for students to undertake twice weekly RATs on school days.

However, RATs will continue to be distributed to families as they have been throughout this school year for the remainder of this Term.

Please see below for further information.

The Avenue Exit

I have spoken to both the Cardinia Council and the Police about the irresponsible and dangerous driving behaviours I am seeing from parents as they exit THE AVENUE car park. In the next week, parents will see a new and very clear NO RIGHT TURN sign.  I ask all parents/carers and guardians to please do the right thing and obey the sign and turn left in the mornings and afternoons. I will continue to be patrolling our busiest times in the car park to ensure parents are doing the right thing. I thank you for your cooperation in this matter.

Staff Updates

As mentioned last week, I am still currently in the process of engaging a teacher for grade 4DG for the remainder of the year. You will be aware that staff shortages are very common at this time, but particularly so in the teaching industry. In the meanwhile, Mrs Angharad Doran and Miss Katherine Mirabella will continue in the role.

St Francis Xavier year 7 enrolments 2023 - TALK AND TOUR WITH HEAD OF CAMPUS

Any parents wishing to begin the process of enrolling their child/ren for Year 7 at St Francis Xavier next year, may be interested in one of their Head of Campus Talk and Tour dates. Families can register on their website. See below for details.

St Francis Xavier will also be holding specific tours (with translators for Chin speakers and people from South Sudanese languages) for our community and dates will be sent to you when they are confirmed.

Head of Campus Talk & Tour Dates 9.30 to 11.00am

21 June, 26 July, 6 September, 11 October, 8 November.

Covid Update

VISITORS AND VOLUNTEERS PERFORMING WORK AT A SCHOOL 

Any visitor or volunteer performing work at a school must be fully vaccinated (boosted) (with three (3) doses) with an approved COVID-19 vaccine or have a valid exception to attend on-site for the purpose of working. 

Visitors or volunteers working on school sites include, but are not limited to: 

• Parent and Friends Committee members 

• School Advisory Committee members 

• Volunteers performing volunteer work at the school (for example, parent helpers and those participating in a school working bee outside of school time) 

• Volunteers attending school camps or excursions

• Schools must collect, record and hold vaccination information for all workers, including visitors or volunteers performing work at a school whether inside or outside

This term, the covid mask mandate for teachers and students in years 3-6 has been scrapped. However if you would still prefer your child to wear a mask whilst in the classroom, that is not a problem. The school still has plenty of masks on hand. The latest Covid information is listed below so please read carefully.

WATCH FOR SYMPTOMS 

If your child is unwell, even with mild COVID-19 symptoms, you must keep your child at home until their symptoms resolve and get your child tested with a PCR test (nose and throat swab) or complete a Rapid Antigen Test (RAT).

If symptoms continue, your child should stay home and take another RAT or PCR test in 24 hours. If that test is also negative, your child may return to school if another diagnosis is confirmed (such as an underlying health condition or medication).

VACCINATIONS  

All students and their families are strongly encouraged to get vaccinated. Children aged 5 to 11 can now get vaccinated. Parents, guardians and carers are encouraged to book their child in for a vaccination at the first available opportunity.

Changes to Rapid Antigen Test Surveillance Program

From Monday 23 May 2022, there will no longer be a recommendation for students to undertake twice weekly RATs on school days.

However, RATs will continue to be distributed to families as they have been throughout this school year for the remainder of this Term.

The ongoing supply of RATs to families in our school will ensure that parents, guardians and carers will have them should they need them if their child(ren) is a household or household-like contact or if their child(ren) has COVID-19 symptoms. 

Students who are identified as household or household-like contacts will continue to be required to adhere to additional safety measures, including wearing a face mask when outside of the home and receiving a negative result using a RAT on at least five (5) days out of the seven (7) day close contact period, to attend school. 

Families must continue to notify the Department of Health and the school if their child(ren) returns a positive RAT result. Additionally, you should inform the school if any of your children are household or household-like contacts.

HOUSEHOLD AND HOUSEHOLD-LIKE CONTACTS 

Household and household-like contacts are no longer required to quarantine but are required to undertake the following additional safety measures in the seven (7) days that would have been their quarantine period:  

• Notify the school if returning during their seven (7)-day period; 
• Undertake daily rapid antigen testing five (5) times within the seven (7) days; 
• Wear a face mask indoors (if aged eight (8) and above) unless a lawful exemption applies; and are not permitted to visit hospitals or care facilities unless an exemption applies.  
• Household and household-like contacts are still permitted to participate in school activities, including camps and excursions, as long as they wear a mask when indoors (if aged eight (8) and above or have a valid exception) and complete five (5) rapid antigen tests within the seven (7)-day period that would have been their quarantine period. 
• A household or household-like contact attending an off-site activity during this period must notify the school they are attending under these requirements.
• If a student, parent, guardian or carer cannot comply with the additional safety measures at any time, they must quarantine immediately for the remainder of their seven (7)-day household contact period to get tested on Day one (1) (or as soon as possible) and on Day six (6) of their household contact period and not attend school until a negative Day six (6) test result is received.

COVID-19 POSITIVE CASES 

If your child has no symptoms and there is a positive COVID-19 case in their household, class, year level or other grouping, your child can continue to attend school in line with Victorian Department of Health advice. 

Staff and students who receive a positive RAT result must register it on the COVID-19 Positive Rapid Antigen Test Self-Reporting Form available on the Coronavirus Victoria website https://www.coronavirus.vic.gov.au/report as soon as possible. 

Staff and students who receive a positive RAT or PCR test result must tell their school as soon as possible, and follow Victorian Department of Health advice. 

Students who test positive to COVID-19 must isolate for seven (7) days and not attend school during that period. 

Students who have recovered from COVID-19, are not required to get tested or isolate if they are re-exposed to a positive COVID-19 case within 12 weeks of ending their isolation period. If more than 12 weeks have passed since their isolation period concluded, students must follow the relevant testing and isolation advice depending on the type of contact they are. 

Schools will regularly communicate to parents, guardians and carers about the presence and impact of COVID-19 in their school community. Parents, guardians and carers should expect to be provided with details of any impacted grade, year level or other grouping. 

VENTILATION 

The Victorian Government has provided air purifiers and new filters for all schools. Fresh air is the most effective form of ventilation to minimise the risk of transmission. 

Schools are required to increase fresh air flow into indoor spaces (including shared spaces, staff areas and thoroughfares) whenever possible. 

Using outdoor spaces will continue to be encouraged, where practicable.

FACE MASKS 

Staff and students are no longer required to wear a face mask indoors or outdoors at school. 

Everyone aged eight (8) years or over must wear a face mask when travelling to and from school, on public transport, taxis or rideshare vehicles, unless a lawful exemption applies. This includes when travelling to and from activities, school camps and excursions on school buses or via public transport. 

Visitors to primary schools are no longer required to wear a face mask indoors or outdoors at school. 

Any students or staff members who wish to wear a face mask may do so, including those who are medically at-risk. 

ACTIVITIES

COVID-19 will continue to be considered in all activity risk assessments. Guidance will be provided to schools on applying appropriate safeguards across a range of activities, including school camps and excursions. 

Parents, guardians and carers will be made aware of the risk of exposure and will need to provide their permission for their child’s participation in extra-curricular, out of school hours or off-site activities. 

VISITORS

Visitors on school sites should be kept to a minimum to support essential school activities or student needs. 

Visitors will be required to comply with COVIDSafe measures, including physical distancing requirements and practise respiratory etiquette and good hand hygiene. 

The use of Service Victoria QR codes for electronic record-keeping is no longer required in school settings. 

Parents, guardians, carers and other adult visitors are no longer required to show evidence of two doses of a COVID-19 vaccine if not performing work or volunteering at the school. 4 April 2022 

VISITORS AND VOLUNTEERS PERFORMING WORK AT A SCHOOL 

Any visitor or volunteer performing work at a school must be fully vaccinated (boosted) (with three (3) doses) with an approved COVID-19 vaccine or have a valid exception to attend on-site for the purpose of working. 

Visitors or volunteers working on school sites include, but are not limited to: 

• Parent and Friends Committee members 
• School Advisory Committee members 
• Volunteers performing volunteer work at the school (for example, parent helpers and those participating in a school working bee outside of school time)
• Volunteers attending school camps or excursions
• Schools must collect, record and hold vaccination information for all workers, including visitors or volunteers performing work at a school whether inside or outside

KEEPING SCHOOLS OPEN  

Parents, guardians and carers are asked to respect the rules at their child’s school to help keep the community safe. 

Schools will do everything they can to maintain continuity of face-to-face learning including the increased use of casual staff. 

Schools will continue to make localised staffing decisions to ensure appropriate supervision can be maintained. 

Schools will not be able to guarantee particular staff for any cohort and students may not have their regular teacher for a class. 

LEARNING FROM HOME 

We will continue to monitor the situation and where face-to-face learning is not possible, learning from home options will be supported for short periods. 

Students who are required to isolate or quarantine will be provided with learning materials to support their continued learning. Schools are not expected to provide a full remote learning program in these circumstances.

TERM DATES

The applications for government secondary schools where due Friday the 13th. 

If you choose to hand the form in directly to your preferred school please provide a copy to the office.

If you are sending your child to a Catholic or Independent school please fill out section 5 of the document and return it to the office.

If you have any questions please contact the office directly.

This weeks sudents from 2KG used lines, patterns and chalk to make this masterpiece.  

After a “Take 2”, we had a glorious day for the Pakenham District Cross Country Event on May 25th at Toomuc Reserve. Students were nervous but enthusiastic and displayed wonderful “Team Spirit”, encouraging all competitors. 

Well done to all students who demonstrated commitment and persistence leading up to and on the day of the event, even with the “false start” and many students having to rebuild their stamina after illnesses. All students should be proud of their achievements to meet or beat set goals and, for many, even be able to compete after setbacks due to illness. 

Congratulations to Tayte (6BC), Mikayla (5SA) and Owen (4SM)

These students will now have the opportunity to represent St Pat’s at the next level of competition.The Cardinia Division will occur next Wednesday June 1st at the same venue. Permission for this event will be available via PAM and permissions submitted immediately due to the short turnaround of events. We wish these students well as they stride into the next level of competition. 

Students were supported by several staff members on the day. Thank you to Belinda Couch, David Daly, Eliza Silva, Mel Britt and Tania Parmley for supporting the students on the day, and to Neesha Bateson who assisted with results. 

Stay Active!

Louise Breeden

 District Cross country

By 6TA District kids

We left school at 11:25am and arrived at Cardinia life at 11:30am. We waited for 10 minutes  then the 9-10 year old boys and girls went for their 2km run.  Soon after the 11 year old boys and girls ran their 3km,it was the 12 and 13 year old boys and girls to run, that was us. 

Biak’s run- At the end I was very tired and I tried to keep up with Lincoln and Matteo. 

Lean’s run- I had  a foot injury which was really bad and I couldn't step on it. I was not able to do my best.

Lincoln’s run- My run went well but I got a stitch in the middle of the race and I did very well to keep up with Matteo. 

Peter’s run- My run went bad because I rolled my ankle and got in a bad place but I still have my head up for next year.  We left at 2:00pm and arrived back at school at 2:05pm

Biak’s place-52nd  Lean’s place-71st  Lincoln’s place-48th  Peter place-67th

Even if we didn't get to the top ten,we are so proud of ourselves because we worked hard to get this far.

Overall we were very happy,had so much fun and enjoyed being with our friends.

The Scholastic cataloguess have been sent out for your child to bring home. This is a book club where you can purchase books for your child with 20% of your order donated to schools for the purchasing of valuable educational resources.

If you would like to purchase something from the catalogue please do so before the 26th of May. All purchases are done online, please refer to the last page of the catalogue for step-by-step instructions on how to process your purchase.

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. 

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. 

Parish Secretary and Bookkeeper: Job Vacancy at St. Patrick’s Parish Pakenham.

A position has become available based at the St Patrick’s parish office, Pakenham.  The primary purpose of the role is to provide secretarial, administrative support to the Parish Priest and bookkeeping for the parish. Hours of work: 30 hours per week, 9.00 am to 3.00 pm Monday to Friday. Applications are to be addressed to the Parish Priest and emailed to parishoffice@stpatrickspakenham.com.au by Friday 20th May 2022. For a copy of the job description, please contact the parish office via email or directly on 03 5941 7315.

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/ 

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.

 Please read the flyer below from our School House Captains.