2023 Newsletter #10 June 14
Principal News
Welcome to week 8! We hope you had a restful King's Birthday Public Holiday.
Senior Students
The grade 6 students will attend a transition day at St Joseph's college tomorrow. Students are asked to wear warm casual clothes and shoes appropriate for physical education. This Friday the Senior unit Netball & Soccer teams will represent St Paul's in the interschool sports.
School Advisory Council
Last Tuesday the School Advisory Council met. It was a full agenda. Items that were discussed included, Student Led Conference, Staff Behaviour Matrix, our drafts camps policy, NCCD post enumeration visit and audit, our playground audit and our future Come and See Structured Literacy week.
Student Led Conferences - Tuesday 20th and Wednesday 21st June - 3.45pm-6pm
Student led conferences offer a wonderful opportunity for students to take charge of their learning journey and showcase their progress to their parents. Unlike traditional meetings, where teachers do most of the talking, these conferences empower students to lead the discussions. Students gather evidence of their work, reflect on their accomplishments, and set goals. During the conference, they confidently present their work and discuss their strengths and areas for growth. This collaborative approach strengthens the bond between students, parents, and teachers, fostering a supportive and nurturing environment. By embracing student-led conferences, schools encourage students to develop important skills like communication, critical thinking, and self-reflection.
To book a Student Led Conference, please go to your SIMON Everywhere APP and select Parent Teacher Interviews from the front page.
St Paul's Feast Day
St Paul's traditionally celebrates St Paul's Day on the last day of term 3. However, the actual day is celebrated on June 29th. St Paul, also known as Apostle Paul, travelled to many places to tell people about Jesus and his teachings. He wrote letters that are now in the Bible and helped spread the message of love and faith. On St Paul's Feast Day we remember and celebrate his life and the good things he did. St Paul's Day is a day to learn about him and the important role that he played in the history of the Church. Our St Paul's Day will include a whole school Liturgy, activities, supplied lunch and will finish with an end of term assembly. NB: It is an early finish @2.25pm on this day.
Feedback
It is always so love to get feedback from the Community about our students. This email was written about our Middle Students during their camp to Swan Hill.
This week's Gotcha's
Congratulations to this week’s gotcha recipients for being their best, being respectful and being safe -
Bee Milestones - Noah Demario, Manny Fakaia-Reale, Ella Garland, Shivreet Gill, Lily Hector, Jack Hogan, Harlow Johnson, Harshveer Khangura, Mischa Pascale, Max Mangan, Mason Roccisano, Tirath Singh, Poppy Thannhauser, Oliver Traeger, Harry Williams, Nicholas Cross, Dean Morvell, Ashton McDonald, Eternity Conquest, Helen Mouzakis, Darcey Bysouth, Jennifer Ly, Seth Ram, Jed Thomas, Lucas Nguyen, Lorenzo Pettinau, Francis Chan Za Hmung, April Simmons, Isla Madden, Victoria Finocchiaro, Manmeet Kaur, Rubi Barila, Elena Akkus, Scarlett Moir, Aaliyah Windahl, Tolini Vave, Faye Ratcliffe, Tyler O’Rielly, Rafael Mammone, Nicholas Halton, Ari Williams and Harriet Gibson.
Hive Milestones - Christiaan Giang, Harriet Gibson, Mackenzie Mangan, Memphis Johnson, Shani Singh, Brayan Moolayil, Isabella Carter, Rosie Midgley, Siena-Rose Sbaglia, Charlie Robinson, Erica Ram, Ava Fidura, Lilah Golding, Sienna Humphrey, Ollie Thannhauser, Oliver Angwin, Olivia Prescott, Natasha Cavallo, Daisy Gibson, Harper Hannah, Oliver Moroni and Sophie McGregor.
Gotcha's Everywhere!
Administration loves it when students come to the office to hand in their Gotcha tickets for 25 or 50 Gotchas. The new Foundation students sometimes can't even see above the bench! The smiles on their faces make our day! When students' reach 50 Gotcha's they get to pick a reinforcement from here!
Staff Behaviour Matrix
The staff at St Paul's have also adopted a Behaviour Matrix. Staff spent time discussing what expected behaviours they would like to see from each other. Over the next two weeks, staff can also recieve Gotcha's for being being their best, being safe and being respectful.
End of Term
School will finish for our Winter Break on Friday 23rd June with an early dismissal of 2.25pm. We hope that the students find rest and joy during the break. We are grateful for your presence in our school community and are excited for what lies ahead. Enjoy your break and may God's blessing be with you always.
Melissa Sutherland
Acting Principal
Senior Unit News
Camp
The Senior students who attended camp in Week 6 had a great experience at Roses Gap. The students followed our school norms extremely well during camp and were polite to all the camp staff which was lovely to see.
The camp was a great opportunity for students and staff to get to know each other better and build stronger friendships as a result.
As we were away in the Grampians, it was difficult to upload photos to Facebook during camp. Students were sent home with a card with a QR Code (as per below) on it to access all photos that staff took during camp. If you didn't receive one of those, please email Tom Pike on tpike@spmildura.catholic.edu.au and we will get one to you.
Interschool Sports
Well done to all those students who represented St Paul's at Interschool Netball and Soccer in Week 6. It was a big week with camp and sports in the same week, but our students performed and most importantly, represented St Paul's very well indeed.
Our girls soccer team won both their matches and will be competing in the Division Finals this Friday - all the best girls!
The boys netball team has been invited to participate in the Division Finals this Friday as well. Wishing you all the very best boys!
Mila Pascale participated in the Regional Cross Country in St Arnaud last Tuesday, a great effort, well done Mila!
Middle Unit News
Congratulations to our Middle Unit choir who came second at the Mildura Eisteddfod last week . They sang beautifully and represented our school wonderfully. Well Done to Ms Jess and all our singers.
It has been great to see many students reaching Gotcha milestones over the last few weeks. We love to celebrate our successes together and our students are to be congratulated on a great semester.
We are looking forward to sharing some of these academic successes with our families next week during our Student Led Conferences. Don’t forget to jump online to book your time slot.
During Literacy, students have been writing SPO’s and paragraphs about states of matter. Ask your child to describe the 3 states of matter to you.
Since everything found on earth can be grouped into the three states of matter, we can categorise them as solids, liquids and gas. Liquids take the shape of their containers. Solids have definite shape, mass and volume. You can not see gasses, but they are all around you. Matter is everywhere, can you find a solid liquid and a gas around you right now? - By Alice
Since everything found on earth can be grouped into states of matter, we can categorize them as solids, liquids or gas. When you put water in a container it changes shape. When water is overheated it evaporates and turns into water vapour. Solids have atoms which make it stay the same shape. Gasses do not have a definite shape. - By Harvey
A reminder that the term finished next Friday 23rd of June at 2:25pm.
Junior Unit News
Week 8, wow! What a wonderful and fantastic term of learning we have had together.
We would like to thank all of the parents and family members that joined us for our Junior Unit Liturgy last Friday. It was wonderful to see so many special guests join us to celebrate our 'Participation' unit.
In Religion, the students have been learning about how they can use their spiritual gifts to help our school and our world be a better place. Next week, the Junior Unit will be making some slices to donate to the Sacred Heart Parish Soup Kitchen to help people in our local community. The students will also be invited to write or draw a message of kindness for someone in need. To support your child's learning we are inviting families and students to bring to school a non-perishable item (e.g. tin tomatoes) or a gold coin donation to also give to the soup kitchen. This is an invitation only and not a requirement. The teachers and LSO's would also like to thank everyone for your continued support in your child's Religious Education at St Paul's.
Student Led Conferences: The Junior Unit students have been preparing for our Student Led Conferences that will be held in week 9. All parents are invited to attend the conferences held on Tuesday 20th & Wednesday 21st of June (more information can be found on SIMON). The sessions are led by the children, and they provide the opportunity for you to see your child’s work that they are super proud of.
Foundation Unit
Welcome to Week 8!
What an active term we have had and we also have a couple of busy weeks before we can go on holidays to rest and recuperate. Below are the important things to remember:
Friday 16th June at 9:15am - Foundation Liturgy in the Foundation Unit.
Everyone is invited to attend the Liturgy to help the students celebrate their "Wonder" unit. The children have learnt about the story of Creation and the beauty, wonder and awe we experience in our lives.
Tuesday 20th & Wednesday 21st June - Student Led Conferences
Parents are invited to attend the conference by booking a time slot on the app. This is an opportunity for you to see some of your child's work that they are proud of. The session will be led by the children.
Friday 23rd June - St Paul's Day
To end the term we will be celebrating our Patron Saint by having a fun day at school with a shared lunch.
Please check out our facebook page to see some of the wonderful things that are happening for the students who have reached 50 GOTCHA's. The children have enjoyed going to other classes for an hour, being the teacher for an hour, having afternoon tea with Mrs Sutherland, just to mention a few things. It is wonderful to be able to reward the children with some fun things for all of their efforts in being their best, being respectful and being safe.
Have a wonderful and safe holiday and we look forward to seeing you all in Term 3.
Religious Education News
Infiorata Festival - Multicultural Celebration
Dear St Paul’s community,
It is almost the end of another term and just before we end it, we would like to celebrate another multicultural event. At our school, we are very blessed to have such rich multicultural community, and what better way to acknowledge this richness than by celebrating some of these events as a school community!
In Italy, they have a Flower Carpet Festival known as the Infiorata Festival, a unique artistic spectacle where streets are adorned with intricate floral carpets to celebrate the feast of Corpus Christi, known as 'Corpus Domini' in Italian. It’s also said that it is usually done during the feast day of Saints Peter and Paul (our school’s patron saint). This age-old tradition showcases the country's deep-rooted connection to art, religion, and community.
We would love to celebrate this at our school and we would truly appreciate it if any members of your family would like to participate / help make some crafted flowers that we will be using to create our own flower carpet. This flower carpet will be showcased on our last day of school as we will also be celebrating St Paul’s day on that Friday!
To all those who would like to create some flowers, the school hall will be open on Thursday, 15th June at 8:00am until 8:35am, and in the afternoon from 4:00pm until 4:45pm.
Let us keep the spirit of community alive! We hope to see you there!
Sending you love and peace,
Ronica Vergara & the St Paul’s Family
Arts News
Congratulations to the Middle and Senior choirs who performed so wonderfully last week at the Mildura Eisteddfod. Both choirs took out second place in their sections and both only lost out to first place by ONE point!! What a fantastic experience to stand up on the stage at the Mildura Arts Centre and perform to a big audience.
All of the children involved should be commended on the way in which they represented St Paul's in the wider community, displaying our school norms of being respectful, being safe and being their best. Well done to you all!
Both choirs will perform their Eisteddfod songs to the school at our end of term assembly NEXT Friday 23rd June. Please come along to watch them!
Hands Up Mallee
After much research, planning and sourcing, we finally have our very first wicking bed! It is hoped that this will only be the beginning and that this first bed is a successful experiment. Some senior students have done an amazing job in helping to get this together. It is hoped that next term I will be able to work with different students across the school to create more wicking beds and involve the students more with growing, nurturing and observing our vegetables. If you would like to learn more about wicking beds feel free to email me at nsimpson@spmildura.catholic.edu.au
Our wicking bed is located behind the pick up area with Rocket, Broccoli, Cauliflower and Beetroot planted.
