2024 Newsletter #20 October 30
Principal News
Dear St Paul's families,
Welcome to this week’s news update.
The weather is warming up again which is nice to see, and it is important that the children continue to wear their hats when outside during play times. With the shortened school week next week due to the Professional Learning days and Public Holiday, it’s hard to believe, we will have reached the halfway mark of the term already. With the extended break some of you may take the opportunity to go away for a few days with your family. If so, please travel carefully.
FIRST EUCHARIST: Congratulations to those students who celebrated their First Eucharist over the weekend. It was such a special time for those children and their families. A special thank you to Mrs Blagus for coordinating the masses and for those staff who attended and assisted the children.
GRANDPARENTS DAY: The Foundation unit are excited to celebrate with their grandparents this Friday morning. There are lots of fun activities to be involved in for everyone to enjoy.
PUPIL FREE DAYS: Next week is a short week for the students. On Monday, 4th November the staff are engaged in Professional Learning, Tuesday is the Melbourne Cup Public Holiday and Wednesday is another staff Professional Learning Day. Children will not return to school until Thursday 7th November.
SAC NOMINATIONS: We are looking for parents who would like to join our school advisory council for 2025. If you are interested about the role and would like to know more about it, please contact me for further information via email: principal@spmildura.catholic.edu.au. Thank you to those parents who have already responded. I will be in touch.
CLASSES 2025: This time each year we begin the process of planning for our 2025 classes. Parents who have information they wish to share regarding their child’s classroom placement for the 2025 school year must do so in writing via email to: principal@spmildura.catholic.edu.au . A considerable amount of time and planning is put into organizing classes for students and many factors are taken into consideration. Parents have until Friday 1st November to send me an email. Please understand that everything we do is in the best interests of your child and remains confidential.
STAFFING UPDATE: There are changes to our teaching staff for the 2025 school year. Previously, I informed you that Miss Chloe Henderson and Miss Ellen Bock have been appointed as classroom teachers for the 2025 school year. They are replacing Mrs McGlashan and Mrs Pongrac who are retiring at the end of this year.
Last week I notified the current staff that Mrs Rachel Slimmon has submitted her resignation and will finish at the end of the year. Miss Savanna Kalms has been employed as a replacement for Mrs Slimmon. There will be a formal opportunity at the end of the year to farewell Mrs Slimmon and to thank her for her contribution to St Paul’s.
DIOCESAN LEADERSHIP GATHERING: This Thursday and Friday I will be in Horsham attending the final Principal Leadership gathering for the year. This will also be my final gathering with my colleague principals from across the diocese. Mrs Sutherland will be assuming the principal role in my absence.
Congratulations to this week’s recipients of our Gotcha awards for following our school norms and reaching the important milestones.
BEE MILESTONE: Mankirat Bassi Singh, Fletcher Carmichael, Natasha Cavallo, Estee Clifford, Jeremiah Jayan, Sophie McGregor, Rosie Midgley, Levi Morton, Lucas Nguyen, Sophia Panagopoulos, Erin Taylor, Julian Thai, Tilly Wankun, Gabb Yandan, Ryan Macdonald, Ira Janssen, Charlie Robinson, Amalia Roccisano, Lilah Golding, Kevin Norton, Cooper Chapple, Dan Boby, Luke Hunt, Vincent Cricelli, Siena Sbaglia, Treeza Jessil, Nhu Nyugen, Spencer Kimpton, Aiden Varghese & Hunter Rayson.
HIVE MILESTONE:Will Buffon, Jenny Tran, John Thang, Victoria Finocchiaro, Andrea Norton, Ruby Divola, Elsa Allieu, Dustin Scott, Alia Lijo, Isabella Carter, Hayley Rowe, Darius Davis & Lorenzo Pettinau.
CALENDAR EVENTS:
OCTOBER:
Thursday 31st- 2025 Foundation Transition Session 3
NOVEMBER:
Friday 1st – Foundation unit Grandparents Day activities 9.15am
- Assembly 2.45pm in the hall.
Monday 4th- Pupil Free Day – Staff Professional Learning
Tuesday 5th- School Closure - Melbourne Cup Public Holiday
Wednesday 6th – Pupil Free Day Saff Professional Learning.
Thursday 7th - Junior Unit Activities Day (Camp Program)
-12.15pm Foundation 2025 Transition Session #4
Friday 8th November- Mission Month activities organised by the SRC at lunch time
I hope you all have a wonderful week and enjoyable weekend. As always
Keep the Faith!
Vince Muscatello
Senior Unit News
Swimming Lessons
Thank you to all parents for their cooperation during our Swimming lessons this week at First Stroke Swim School. It has been a fantastic week so far as the students have been following all our norms during the lessons.
We remind parents to continue to send students to school with all the required equipment i.e. bathers, dry towel, separate bag (e.g. plastic bag) for wet clothes. We trust that your child has found the program very beneficial.
House Leader and School Leader Speeches
At 9am on Wednesday 13th and Wednesday 20th November, we will be conducting our House and School leader speeches.
Parents are welcome to attend to support their children.
Swimming Photos
Middle Unit News
We hope everyone is enjoying a great start to our final Term of the year!
Puberty notice: Just so you are aware, the Middle unit students will be participating in lessons where they will be learning about physical, social and emotional changes in our bodies. These four lessons will take place during weeks 7 - 10 (one lesson per week) More information to follow.
Reminder about uniforms - Please ensure your child is wearing the correct sports shorts, (on Mondays and Wednesdays) as well as having a school hat and a drink bottle of water with them each day.
Inquisitive/Literacy Unit of work - During the past week in our geography-focused unit, we have been learning about Madagascar. This week we have ‘travelled’ to Brazil in South America.
Religious Education: This week is Mission Week. Each unit will celebrate a liturgy within their unit to help students focus on the need to reach out and show compassion for our fellow human beings who are in need.
First Communion: Congratulations to the following students who made their First Eucharist over the weekend: Holliee Tickle, Cienna Pascale, Max Mangan, Rafael Mammone, Lorenzo Pettinau, Jennifer Ly, Annalise Goncalves-Wood, Hayley Rowe and Charlie Smith.
Well done to the students who participated in the basketball interschool sports during week two. We wish the cricketers well for Friday 8th November.
Dates for the Calendar:
Middle Unit Liturgy - 9:15 am Friday 29th November.
Next week will be very short for students; they will only attend school on Thursday, November 7th, and Friday, November 8th. We all hope you and your families have a restful, extra-long weekend.
Junior Unit News
Teddy Bear Picnic Fun!
J8 will be presenting at assembly this Friday. Assembly commences at 2:45pm in the school hall. All are welcome to attend.
Junior Unit Activity Day:
On Thursday the 7th November, the Grade 1 & 2 students are invited to participate in our Junior Activity Day. Please ensure you have given consent for this activity on SIMON Everywhere APP. Please check the SIMON app for more information.
The day will commence with normal school drop off with activities commencing at 9am.
- Grade 1 students will be invited to stay back at school until 6pm. Dinner will be included.
- Grade 2 students will be invited to stay back at school until 8:30pm.
Our formal invitation for the 'Activity Day' is attached below. The first invitation is for Year 1 students and the second invitation is for Year 2 students.
Grade 1 Invitation
Grade 2 Invitation
Foundation Unit News
The Foundation Unit have some exciting things coming up this term.
Grandparents Day - Friday 1st November 9:15am - 11am in the Foundation Unit. The children will perform some songs for their Grandparents and then invite them to take part in some fun filled activities. If Grandparents are unable to make it the children can invite a special person to attend.
Activity Day - On Friday 6th December, as part of our camping program, the Foundation students will be having a fun day. The day will begin with a "Buddy" session. They will be having Pizza for lunch. They will then be travelling to and from the Water Play Park in Hugh King Drive by bus leaving at 12.30pm and returning at 2pm. When they return back to school they will take part in activities and a movie. Children will need to be collected from the drive through at 5pm sharp. Please Ensure you have given consent for this activity on the SIMON Everywhere APP.
In Maths for the next few weeks the children are learning about "time". We are learning about the days of the week, sequencing events in a day, learning how long it takes to do certain tasks and how to tell o'clock time.
In Literacy we have been learning about "digraphs". The children know that two letters that make one sound are called digraphs. We have learnt about the following digraphs: ow, oa, ie, ai, ay.
Could we please ask that parents encourage their children to read their readers every night and bring them back to school the next day to change and borrow a new one? Many children have overdue books at home.
PE News
Interschool Cricket
Interschool T20 Blast Cricket for Middles and Seniors will be on next Friday 8th November at the Mildura Sporting Precinct.
If your child is in the team you would have received a notification to complete the excursion permission on the SIMON Everywhere APP. Please ensure you complete this or your child will not be able to participate on the day.
They will need to be at school by 9:00am to travel by bus to the ovals, and then return to school at 2:30pm. They will need to bring their lunch, drink bottles and hats. They are required to wear their sports uniform.
Please note that this is a modified version of cricket and students WILL NOT BE REQUIRED to bring their own protective gear or wooden cricket bats
If you have any questions please contact Mr Tom Pike on tpike@spmildura.catholic.edu.au.
Regional Athletics
On Monday last week's, three of our students participated in the Region Athletics in Bendigo.
We would love to celebrate their amazing efforts as all three received ribbons on the day.
Samuella Allieu - 3rd 100m 🥉
Erin Taylor - 3rd Discus🥉
Konna Peters- 2nd Long Jump 🥈
Konna will now compete at the State Athletics in Melbourne on 6th November. Well done Konna!
Congratulations to you all on representing St Paul's with pride! 🙌
Uniform Shop News
The Uniform Shop is now fully stocked for summer uniforms.
Orders can be made at any time online CDFPay (SimonEverywhere App).
- Orders made prior to 9am will be sent home with child on the day
- Orders placed after 9am (or on weekend, school hols etc) will be sent home with child on next school day
SHOP OPENING HOURS
TUESDAY 8.30 to 9.15am - THURSDAY 3.00 to 3.45pm
Hands Up Mallee
This Friday, 1st November any student in the Foundation Unit who brings their bike/scooter to school can meet Narelle Simpson at the front of the school during the first half of lunch play for some fun. Next Friday, 8th November will be the Middle and Senior Unit. A friendly reminder that helmets must be worn. Any student that does not have their helmet will not be able to ride their bike/scooter.
With Halloween on this Thursday night, we ask that you do not send your child/children with lollies and treats that they received during trick or treating. As a health promoting school, we would like to minimize the amount of sugar they are consuming at school, especially after Halloween night. Sugary treats quickly spike your blood sugar, but as your body rushes to process it all, your energy levels crash, making you feel sluggish and irritable. This is obviously not an ideal scenario for school and learning.
Sts Anne and Joachim Catholic Parish Bulletin
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