2024 Newsletter #10 June 5
Principal News
Dear St Paul's families,
Welcome to this week's news. The week certainly began with a wintery blast. A very nice blanket of frost Monday morning to keep everyone on their toes. I still find it amusing, no matter what the season, some children will still wear shorts and a t-shirt. They obviously have a very good immune system and don't feel the cold.
Funding Injustice for Families: A couple of weeks ago the Allan Labor Government announced a $400 School Saving Bonus for all school students in government schools regardless of income, but only for Health Care Card holders in Catholic schools. This is deeply unfair. We believe the payment should be means-tested for all students or apply to all students. It should not be based on which school you attend. This policy punishes families for choosing to send their children to a Catholic school. Our school and the Victorian Catholic Education Authority, are working hard to oppose this policy and we need your help. We need to show the Victorian Government that punishing families who choose a Catholic school is unacceptable. Please consider contacting your local Member of Parliament to express your concern. Our school’s local MP is Jade Benham, she can be contacted by calling (03) 5021 2828 or by sending a message through her website: https://www.jadebenham.com.au/contact/ Template letters are available to assist you with making your voice heard. Thank you for advocating for your family and our school.
ST PAUL'S HISTORY: Don't forget to read this weeks insert of 1980 at St Paul's.
Free Internet: The Australian Government is providing up to 30,000 eligible families with school-age children with no internet at home free access to NBN under the SSBI. For more information call 1800 954 610.
Regional Cross Country: Congratulations to Tyler and Sylvia who represented Sunraysia at the Regional Cross Country in St Arnaud last week. They both peformed admirably and Tyler finished in 14th place and Sylvia in 15th place. They just missed out on qualifying for the state championships in Melbourne. Thank you to their parents who took time out of their busy schedules to take their children to this event.
PUPIL FREE DAY: This Friday, 7th June will be a a pupil free day for the children. The staff will be attending a professional development day at school. This day will be faciliteated by Mr Jim Waight from DOBCEL and we will continue our focus on the life of St Paul as we prepare for our 50th anniversary celebration in term 4.
KING'S BIRTHDAY LONG WEEKEND:This Monday 10th June is a Public Holiday. This means the children will have a four day weekend. If you are travelling away please be safe on our roads and enjoy your time with your family.
SOCCER CHAMPIONSHIPS: This weekend Mildura is hosting the 2024 Country Leagues Football Association Country Championships at Soccer Park on Eleventh street. Good luck to the St Paul's students who are representing Sunraysia in their respective age groups. There are over 100 teams across the age groups competing across the long weekend. Sunraysia has been very successful over the last few years, which highlights not only the talent in the region but also the level of expertise in the coaching. If you get a chance go along and watch our local kids perform, please do. Entry is free.
Congratulations to this week's milestone recipents for following our school norms. A wonderful achievement.
BEE MILESTONE: Emmy Hoy, Jed Thomas, Abbie Peters, Pippa Doecke, Joshua Catipay, Lenin Guevarra, James Echanes, Kalaisia-Rose Fonua, Oliver Harradine, Olly Morton, Mischa Pascale, Geordie Moraitis, Indy Baker, Montana Higgins, Dolly Moore, Dean Morvell, Harriet Gibson, Nila Vasanthakumar, Ana Vea, Harry Burns & April Nyabonda.
HIVE MILESTONE:Ruby Powell, Tiffany Tiyagu, Helen Mouzakis, Sofia Cricelli, Hannah Davies, Nico Pettinau, Alyson Morshedi, Michael Davies, Tania Latukefu, Spencer Kimpton, Nhu Nguyen, Heidi Slimmon, George Thomas, Dazzle Douglas, Murphy Mangan, Farai Nyabonda, Elsa Allieu, Lily Pham, Tilly Wankun, Jo Fotheringham-Gottardo, Niro Arden, Walter Divola, Emma Williams, Paddy Stevenson, Aiden Varghese-Moolayil, Annalise Goncalves-Wood, Charlie Van Roy, Wernix Teoh, Jack Stevenson, Ryan Macdonald, Luna Fenech, Elsie Freeman, Olivia Smith, Hugo Blagus, Jesse Pitt, Lavinia Fatanitavake, Nicholas Caminiti, Isabella Carter, Skylar Humphrey, Phoenix Toutai, Ella Garland, Max Mangan, Chimdi Ilozue, Dustin Simmons, Emma Williams, Holliee Tickle, Yindi Lopez-Bertalli, Natasha Cavallo, Fletcher Divola & Freyja Thake.
UPCOMING EVENTS: Don't forget to check the calendar as there are a lot of things happening between now and the end of term.
Friday 7th June- Pupil Free Day- Staff Professional Learning.
Monday 10th June- Kings Birthday Public Holiday- School Closure
Thursday 13th June- J7 Student Led Conferences.
Friday 14th June - Assembly
Have a great week everyone!
As always,
Keep the Faith
Vicne Muscatello
Senior Unit News
Welcome to week 8!
We are thrilled to let you know that our Senior students have earnt a Gotcha Reward day! We are incredibly proud of their wonderful behaviour choices of being their best, being safe and being respectful. We will be celebrating together on Wednesday in week 9 with details below:
- Students will be permitted to wear appropriate casual clothes to school next Wednesday. Please ensure footwear is appropriate for outdoor activities.
- During the day, we intend to watch a movie which will be rated PG. If you have any concerns regarding this, please contact your child’s classroom teacher.
Brainfood Reminder: We have noticed many students are not bringing adequate brain food and snacks to sustain them throughout the day. Can you please ensure your child is bringing a healthy snack for brain food, lunch + snacks and something they can have for a recess snack? If you have any questions or concerns, please contact your child’s classroom teacher.
Upcoming dates:
Pupil Free Day - Friday, Week 8 (7th June)
Student Led Conferences - Tuesday and Wednesday, Week 11(25th & 26th of June)
Unit Liturgy
On Friday, week 10 (21st June), the senior students will be hosting a Liturgy at 9:15am. Our liturgy is based on our learning regarding Heritage. This term our Liturgy will be ‘co-created’ as the students are currently working together to plan and create our prayer experience. The students have been asked to join one of five groups to help co-create our prayer and to consider where they feel their unique gifts would be best used:
- Sacred Space
- Sacred Word
- Sacred Understanding
- Sacred Prayers
- Sacred Music
We would love for our families and friends to attend and celebrate our learning with us, the students are very excited to show their work!
Senior Unit Snapshot
Here is a snapshot of what we have been up to in the Senior Unit brought to you by the students in S12:
Grade 5 Math
In math we have been learning about short division and two-digit by two-digit multiplication. - Ryan & Liam
Grade 6 Math
We have been learning a lot about numbers with decimal amounts - like tenths, hundredths and thousandths. These are easy! We have been learning about positive and negative numbers. We learnt how to do long division, but everyone prefers short division! - Lucien
Sport
For sport, S11 and S12 have been discovering basketball! For the first few lessons we focused on passing and dribbling, now we are practicing shooting and defensive skills. On the other hand, S13 and S14 have been learning footy. They have been completing drills, playing suspenseful games and learning new skills. - Bair, Poppy and Nhalla
Literacy
During writing we have been learning how to use transition outlines. These are a type of planner we can use when we want to write multiple paragraphs about a topic. We have been reading information reports and learning about states of matter like gas. Then we have to highlight key words from the paragraph. We then use those words to create notes which we can then use to write our own sentences.
During each Literacy lesson we practice our cursive handwriting. We have been focusing on pen lifts and speed loops. We've been practicing our speed loops from the letter ‘z’. We wanted to show some examples we have practiced, zip zap and zop. - Willow and Jessica
Religion
In Religion, we have been learning about heritage and we have read the scripture ‘The man with a withered hand’. This is a scripture passage about Jesus spreading kindness in the synagogue by helping a helpless man who other people were avoiding. We think the scripture was a good reminder that we should always help people no matter who they are. - Aisha, Khloe, Grace and Catherine
Intersport Football
On Thursday, in week 7 some boys and girls from the senior unit played interschool football.
The boys first game was against Trinity Lutheran. The score was 17 to 25 - we won!
The second game was against Sacred Heart. We lost with a score of 73-0. The girls place Sacred Heart twice with scores of 56-0 and 41-0. - Jack, Taylor and Jett.
Science
Hello parents, this paragraph will be talking about our science lessons from this term. We had fun making and doing experiments. One of them was experimenting with balloons, we had lots of fun and all did it successfully. - Nicholas, Alice, Sienna
Life in the Senior Unit!
Middle Unit News
Gr 3 & Gr 4 (Adelaide) camps
Arrangements are being finalised for our camps and Activity Permissions will be available soon:
Gr 4 - Tuesday 6th - Thursday 8th August ADELAIDE
Gr 3 - Wednesday 7th - Thursday 8th August PIONEER SETTLEMENT SWAN HILL
Junior Unit News
Inquisitive Project: Arcade Games
The Junior Unit students became 'Game Designers'. They had to design and develop a product that uses a push or a pull action to play a game. We viewed images of different arcade games and discussed how pushes and pulls are used to play each game.
Hands on Investigation: The students were given their design brief:
Design an arcade game that must:
- be made in a group
- use a push or a pull to play
- be safe
- be made from recyclables
The next step was to discuss their ideas, draw and label their design, write a procedure for making the game, make the game, test the game, fix any problems and enjoy playing the game.
This activity was enjoyed by each and every student. It was amazing to see such fantastic teamwork and some really amazing designs come to life!
Making Process
Our Creations!
J7 Student Led Conferences
Mrs. Lucy Gray is unable to run Student Led Conferences in the last week of the school term alongside other classes. Instead, interviews for J7 will be held earlier.
Parents of these students are invited to book a 15 minute time slot via SIMON Everywhere.
Student-Led Conferences are a meeting where students present their progress and achievements to their parents. Unlike traditional parent-teacher conferences, these meetings are led by the students themselves, encouraging them to take responsibility for their learning and development.
We encourage all parents to book a 15 min timeslot on the Simon Everywhere App.
- Select Parent Teacher Interviews from the Home screen.
- Select Child
- Select Student Led conference
- Select Class (this will default to their CORE class which is their usual classroom.
- Select Interview Time
- Book Interview
Mrs. Gray will be available on
- Thursday 13th June
- Wednesday 19th June
- Thursday 20th June
We look forward to as many families as possible attending to affirm the learning of our fabulous students.
St Paul's History- The Early Years Ch.10
1980
The improvement of the school as noted in the Review of October 1979 can be largely attributed to the stability of the staffing situation, which has enabled people to get to know each other and so communicate and work together/
The beginning of 1980 saw an increase in pupil numbers, which meant the school needed an extra teacher. As well as this, two teachers resigned and were replaced as the school had its biggest ever change-over of staff.
Mr. Terry Carroll decided to introduce music into the curriculum and $1,000 was spent on an organ and other musical instruments. A production called “Swinging Samson” was prepared and enjoyed by all who saw it. Unfortunately, the design of the school made it difficult to organize music lessons and practice, so this area wasn’t as fully developed as it was hoped.
At the beginning of the year, Mrs. J King was appointed Vice Principal. A further change was at the end of Term 1 when Sr. Pam Barlow was transferred and Sr. Noela Farrell appointed as Principal. Before Sr. Pam left, a reunion was held to which all past pupils were invited and many of them attended.
After the new School Board was elected in April, a system of sub-committees was instituted. One of these organized a record of school happenings as a pictorial history and, in third term, an International Day. This was well supported by parents, whether from Australia or overseas. Another sub-committee installed a pop-up sprinkler system for the front lawn area of the school.
At the end of 1980, the number of pupils at the school had risen to such an extent that it became apparent that extensions would have to be planned. In the meantime, a portable classroom was ordered to be used on a temporary basis.
1980 saw a major change; that of the Principal. There was sadness at Sr. Pam’s going, but the school continued to run smoothly. This can be attributed to the excellent organization established by Sr. Pam which was continued in an equally able and sympathetic way by Sr. Noela.
In her report to the Annual General Meeting of 15th April 1980, Sr. Pam spoke as follows:
“Youngsters see us as a group living life- with its joys and tensions. They see the need for acceptance and appreciation, for support and consideration - they experience the richness of pooled talents and benefit from a number of caring people”; (Page 2)
This spirit continued during 1980.