Newsletter Thursday 3rd Novemeber 2022

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.

Good afternoon Parents/carers and guardians,

Welcome back after an extra long weekend. I hope families were able to catch up on rest and enjoy some downtime with one another.

Last week on Wednesday and Thursday evening, students from St Patrick’s and St Clare’s celebrated their Reconciliation. This was a very special occasion for the students who had been well prepared by their classroom teacher to receive this sacrament. A special thanks to Noleen Chalmers who is our Religious Education Leader, as well as grade 3 classroom teacher, for her incredible work in getting everything organised and for all the behind the scenes details. Each evening began with a short mass and then Fr Paul and Fr Janeesh explained the process. The families were wonderful at remaining quiet and reverent whilst waiting to be seen.

Thanks again to all the teachers involved, Fr Paul, Fr Janeesh, Siji Dominic and Noleen for all your hard work!

A big thank you for everyone who participated in our P&F Cookie Dough fundraiser. We sold 428 tubs which raised $1,928 all of which is going towards our school playgrounds. This has been one of the best fundraisers yet !

Take care and God Bless

Meg

Foundation Transition/Second Hand Uniform Shop

The next transition session will be held on Tuesday the 8^th November from 9.30-10.30. There will be coffee and tea available in the Parish hall on this morning for any parents wishing to stay around during that time.

The second-hand uniform shop will be open during the Foundation Transition for the 2023 Foundation families only.

Christmas Concert

I am pleased to announce that St Patrick’s will be bringing the Christmas Concert back. This will be held on Thursday the 1^st December and each grade will be performing. Families will be asked to gather from 5pm onwards with a picnic to share with each other. We encourage all students and families to come dressed in Christmas clothes. The concert will begin at 5.30pm.

In the event of bad weather, the concert will be moved to the stadium.

NOONE uniform shop

Last week I met with Jayne Markey, the Retail Area Manager for Noone, our uniform supplier. They have many stores and the one our families would be familiar with is in Beaconsfield. She informed me that Noone has a brand-new uniform shop opening in Officer on the 7^th November. This shop is located in Siding Ave near the local Cardinia Council Officers. It is much bigger and will hold more stock than the Beaconsfield store. They will be offering days where families, both old and new, can book in an appointment to be fitted for new uniforms.

This information will be sent out to parents as soon as it is received. Noone offers a Layby system where no deposit needs to be paid. The process is that the uniform is stored away until you are ready to collect it and when you do, you do not have to pay for all of the items at once. For e.g. You set aside 5 pieces of uniform in December and when you collect in January, you may only want 3 items and these are the items you pay for and the other 2 are kept aside for you.

Pick up and Drop off of students-The Avenue

Please ensure that you are NOT dropping your children off until you reach the area where that is supervised by teaching staff. Some parents/carers/guardians are dropping their children off and allowing them to walk across a busy carpark and this is not safe.

Please think carefully and sensibly for the sake of all our students. Staff will not hesitate to approach parents if we feel that there is dangerous behaviour going on. We will not risk our students’ safety.

Families leaving St Patrick’s at the end of the year

As we continue to plan for 2023, any families who will NOT be returning to St Patrick’s next year are to notify the school in writing via email office@stppakenham.catholic.edu.au

Thank you to the parents who have put in their requests for 2023. Please note, the timeframe for this is now closed and I will not be accepting any more requests for 2023 classroom placements.  

SAVE THE DATE

Grade 6 graduation:

Thursday the 15^th December from 5pm to 7pm. More details to follow.

School Uniform Reminders

I would like to remind families please about the importance of wearing our school uniform with pride. I have noticed in the last few weeks that some students are not wearing the correct items and therefore this brings down the presentation of how we present as a school. If your child/ren does not have the correct uniform to wear for a particular day, they must have a note to explain this and this note is to be handed to the teacher. I will be asking staff to follow up if there are still issues.

Thank you for your understanding in this matter.

Preteens Youth Group Grades 4, 5 and 6 students-DIVINE-FAITH FORMATION PROGRAMME FOR CHILDREN

St Patrick’s and St Clare’s along with the Parish is setting up the Pre-teens youth group. See the flyer below for the dates and contact numbers if you are interested. This is an excellent opportunity to get to know new people and to have time to discuss your faith whilst having fun and sharing some food and soft drinks. SEE FLYER BELOW.

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.

Parents please also note, that you are not able to talk to the teacher’s directly when ringing through to the school office. The teachers are in with the students and therefore staff cannot attend to phone calls to parents. If you wish to pass on a message to a teacher, please email them or ring the school office and ask the office staff to pass on the message to the teacher. Thank you.

COVID Update

It is STRONGLY RECOMMENDED that students who have tested positive for COVID isolate at home for a period of at least 5 days. During this time it is HIGHLY RECOMMENDED that they remain at home after 5 days, if symptoms persist in order to minimise the spread of the infection amongst the other students and staff. I ask all parents to please be considerate of all families in our community and not willingly send an infected child to school. Please note that I will have no hesitation in sending a child home that is showing symptoms of any kind.

It is strongly recommended that students:

• Who test positive to COVID-19 should stay home and isolate for five (5) days;
• Should not attend school after (five) 5 days if still symptomatic;
• Who are symptomatic but have not tested positive should not attend school until their symptoms resolve;
• Parents, guardians or carers advise the school of the COVID-19 positive test result.

To assist with limiting the spread of COVID-19 and other illnesses, parents, guardians and carers should be strongly encouraged to ensure that their child(ren) remain at home if they are unwell, including if they have tested positive to COVID-19.

TERM DATES

TERM DATES - 2023

Please note that the below dates are subject to change

House Athletics Event:

Due to the ongoing extreme weather conditions we have postponed the event.

It will now occur on Friday the 18th of November

New permissions forms will be going out as the old ones are now irrelevant. Please make sure you submit these forms via PAM as soon as possible, no late forms will be accepted.

We have recently created a Facebook page that will be used to promote our school. Please feel free to follow our page as we will update it reguarly with any updates and activites that occur moving forward.

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100087005542953

Have you set up your PAM account yet! 

We have been using 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 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.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.