Newsletter #30 October 14
Principal's News
Dear St Paul's families,
Welcome to this week's news.
It was lovely to have everyone back last week and settle back into some sort of a normal routine. We will be waiting for this Sunday's announcement to hear what the changes, if any, to our current restrictions are made and the impact it will have on us moving forward. At this stage our assemblies will continue in a virtual format. We have begun planning for our end of year school concert and Year 6 Graduation. It is most likely that these events will also be presented in a virtual format. As disappointing as it is, I cannot see schools being able to host events onsite with gatherings in excess of 100 people. We will just have to do the best we can under the circumstances.
School will continue to finish as normal from now on at 3.25pm. Due to the increased number of vehicles coming through the drive through, it is important that all school families pay attention to the road rules. Please do not restrict private driveways or bus stops while you are waiting in line. You can also park in the Salvation Army carpark and use the crossing to come and collect your children.
I know we are slowly getting used to Daylight savings again and the daily routine, however, I am noticing a number of children arriving after 9.00am in the morning. It would be great if you can ensure that your children are dropped off on time to allow for a smoother transition into school life once more.
A special welcome this week to Di Smith and Carmel Sherwell, who are both completing learning Support Officer placements here at St Paul's over the next two weeks. I am sure they will find their time with us invaluable and wish them well in their future career choice.
Next Tuesday we will celebrate Book Week with our annual Parade. Our theme this year is "Curious Creatures, Wild Minds". I am looking forward to the Annual Book week parade and to see what the children will dress up in. We will record this and upload it to our Facebook page as well.
Don't forget that next Friday the 23rd October is a Public Holiday. There will be no school. It was originally the AFL Grand Final day but has been renamed to "Thank You" day for Victorians.
October is traditionally Mission Month. Given all the interruptions and changes to the year to date our Mission month program will change. On Friday 30th October, we are asking the children to wear their craziest socks and bring a gold coin donation for the Catholic Mission.
Congratulations to this week's Gotcha winners!
25 GOTCHA AWARDS: Tolini Vave, Emma Williams, Evan Beyer, Treeza Jessil, Lacey Hunt, Bridie Cranston, Daniel Robin, India Droffelaar, Rorie Edwards, Siena Fraser-Donoghue, Andrew Giang, Ben Harry, Gabrielle Smith, Vivian Thai, Jed Thomas, Joel Tuifua, Joshua Davis, Mike Hogan
50 GOTCHA AWARDS: Elizabeth Toutai, Liam Brown, Eddy Lion, Willow Droffelaar, Laura Cifra, Milan Caristo, Sienna Mackay, April Nyabonda, Poppy Thannhauser, Jessica Allieu, Estee Clifford, Joshua Davis, Chloe Moir, Gabrielle Smith, Leo Tardio, Holliee Tickle, Joseph Fotheringham-Gottardo, Cohen Hately, Jack O'Callaghan, Phoenix Toutai, Liam Aranas, Pippa Doecke
Thank you to all our families for helping to make the transition back to school as smooth as possible. It is very much appreciated by the staff.
As always
Keep the Faith!
Vince Muscatello
Senior Unit News
Classroom News
We are certainly back into the swing of things with our Grade 5 and 6 students undertaking PAT assessments in reading, maths, spelling, grammar and punctuation this week. These are important assesments that show student's growth as well as assist us in identifying gaps on which we need to focus our teaching.
In other areas of our learning the students are:
- writing a memoir on an important event in their lives. There are certainly many vivid stories that the students have been recalling to assist them in this writing task.
- revising what we learnt about division in Remote Learning 2.0.
- exploring the notion of change as it relates to us as individuals and for the Church.
- learning about what makes a good leader in preparation for the 2021 Student Ledership nomination process.
Dates for your Diary
- Tuesday 20th October : Book Week Celebrations- The Senior Unit will be participating in a book parade from 9-10am. We encourage all students to dress up, with the theme this year being "Curios Creatures, Wild Minds." The remainder of the day will be spent engaging in fun activities related to a number of the 2020 shortlisted books.
- Thursday 22nd October 1-2pm: School Nurse Visit to present a puberty education session.
- Thursday 22nd October - 2.30pm - 3.25pm: Visit from the Victorian Police Commnity Engagement officers to talk to our students about cybersafety.
- It is now compulsory that all students wear hats when playing outside. Can you please double check that your child has a clearly labelled hat.
Middle Unit News
Hello to the Middle Unit community,
Welcome to week 2 and thank you for the great start we have all had. In the weeks to come, the students are going to be building balloon powered cars. Students will consider physics in their world; as they travel to and from school and as they play with their friends. They will appreciate the complexity and creativity of computer programs that they use every day. Students will be able to discuss new scientific findings by referring to their knowledge of the scientific method. They will continue to develop their science, engineering and programming skills. To prepare for this, start collecting some of the materials you can see in the pictures. Each pair of students will need to create a car with wheels that roll and can be powered by a balloon.
It is sad to say that we will not be doing a sleepover camp this year. However, we have arranged educational and team building days to be done in place of these and we believe that students will benefit greatly from this time spent together. Information about exact details to follow.
If you want any further information regarding camp please feel free to contact your classroom teacher.
Junior Unit news
During our first week back at school the students have been exploring their emotions during our ‘Social and Emotional Learning’ time. We drew our face or a little character of ourselves and each morning the children are encouraged to place ‘their face’ where they are feeling in relation to our ‘Zones of Regulation’. The Zones of Regulation are; Blue (sick, tired, sad, bored) Green (happy, calm, feeling okay, focussed, ready to learn) Yellow (silly, loss of some control, frustrated) and Red (angry, mad, terrified, out of control). The aim is for us to be in the green zone and I’m happy to report that the vast majority of children are in the green zone each morning! During week one we explored how we feel in the blue zone and discussed the strategies we can use to ‘get back to the green’. (E.g.) Go for a walk, listen to music, drink water, watch TV, read a book, exercise, talk with a friend.
This week we are looking at how we feel when we are in the ‘green’ and what actions we can take to stay there. Our learning has been further enhanced with the students watching the movie ‘Inside Out’ with the specialist teachers last Wednesday. The movie follows Riley, an eleven year old girl, who moves cities with her parents and has to navigate the emotions she experiences at a new school, dealing with a loss of friends and connection to all she once knew. Perhaps check in with your child today – What Zone are you in and why? The Junior Unit Teachers wish everyone a great remainder of the week with lots of ‘green’ feelings.
Don’t forget to send in a photo of your child as a baby/toddler with their name written on the back for our new Mappen unit on ‘Growing Older and Wiser.’
This week's photos
Foundation Unit News
Congratulations to all of the Foundation students for following our school norms by: Being their best, Being respectful and Being safe. This week the children have enjoyed chosing their rewards from the SWPBS program. Some of the rewards chosen were Lorenzo who was excited to go sport with his Grade 5 Buddy - Jett. Kalasia also chose to go to a sport session with her cousin Tiana and Paityn and Sienna are very excited about being the Principal for an hour tomorrow. It has been lovely to see the excitement on the children's faces as they choose a reward for the positive behaviour they have been displaying throughout the term.
My New Gallery
Religious Education News
It's World Mission Month.
Catholic Mission is the international mission agency of the Catholic Church in Australia. Compelled by the message, life and love of Jesus Christ, Catholic Mission forms Australians for mission and raises funds for mission—in Australia and around the world.
October is World Mission Month and at St Paul's we would normally raise funds with our annual Mission Week stalls. This year, due to COVID, we are unable to run our stalls and are having to think outside the box to raise funds a little differently.
This year, on Friday 30th October, we will raise funds and celebrate Mission Month with a Socktober event. Students are invited to 'Sock it to Poverty' by wearing colourful, odd, crazy, decorated, fun socks to school and bring a gold coin donation for Catholic Mission.
If you would like to donate or raise additional funds for Catholic Mission, you can register your child via our St Paul's Socktober page using the link below. Upon registering your child you will be forwarded more information.
Sacramental Program Information
Awaiting further advice from the Victorian Government, please be advised details regarding Sacrament of Confirmation, Reconciliation and First Eucharist are yet to be confirmed. We will keep you updated as information becomes available.
We Need Your.....
Yes, that's right, we need your odd socks.
If you have any odd socks, old pairs of socks, socks with holes in them, any socks at all that you can bare to part with, we need them. All donations of socks will be greatly appreciated and can be sent to school with students and given to Mrs Simms, by Monday 19th of October.
Technology News
It is very exciting to have students back in the Technology Room. This term, all students from F-6 will be participating in a variety of both STEM and coding lessons with a focus on understanding that Technology is not just all about devices!
STEM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths, however STEM-based education is more than learning the content and concepts of these four individual subject areas. STEM education focuses on hands-on learning with real-world applications and helps develop a variety of skill sets, including creativity and 21st-century skills.
21st-century skills include, media and technology literacy, productivity, social skills, communication, flexibility and initiative. Other skills attained through STEM education include problem solving, critical thinking, creativity, curiosity, decision making, leadership, entrepreneurship, acceptance of failure and more. Regardless of the future career path considered by these children, these skill sets go a long way to preparing them to be innovative.
Coding is not just about learning a programming language or moving robots around a maze or picture mat. This term students will build their creativity, problem solving, teamwork, presentation skills, empathy, resilience, patience and confidence as they engage in coding activities both with and without the use of technology.
Until next week, remember...
TECHNOLOGY, like art, is a soaring EXERCISE of the human IMAGINATION ~Daniel Bell
Mrs Simms
Languages - Italian News
Ciao a tutti ... it is so lovely to see all the smiling faces of our students back at school for the start of our Term 4 classes.
Over the course of the last few Italian lessons, Middle & Senior students have been undertaking a Unit of work focussed on "La Famiglia - The Family".
As part of our languages lessons, students have been encouraged to research and then draft up their own individual Family Tree or as it is called in Italian " L'albero genealogico "
Here are some photos of sample family trees completed by the Yr 3 /4 students during remote learning, along with some Yr 5/6 drafts which are currently still in progress.
Grazie - Signora Ghidinelli
il mio albero genealogico ...
Library News
Hello from the Library.
Next Tuesday 20th October St Paul's will be celebrating Children's Book Weed. We will have a parade of book characters in our units followed by some fun activities to go with this years' theme: "Curious Creatures, Wild Minds". Students are invited to come dressed as their favourite book character or something to do with the theme.
Following on from Book Week we will have our Book Fair beginning with a wish list day on Monday 26th October. Books are available to buy Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday 27th 28th and 29th October before school at lunch time and after school. This is a great way to buy fantastic books for your children and to support our school to buy new resources. We also have a colouring in competition where students from each unit could win a $20.00 voucher to spend at the Fair. A flyer for the Book fair will be coming home next week.
Two things to look forward to in the Library,
thanks,
Marg Pongrac
Hands Up Mallee
St Paul’s are very proud to have been one of only four schools across the whole state that have been invited to take part in a Climate & Health Project.
As part of this project we are required to evaluate a number of climate resources to see how they fit in with the benchmarks of the Achievement Program, we will then need to complete a case study and take part in a 30-minute interview to assess the value of it, along with any recommendations.
We feel extremely privileged to have been invited to take part in this study and feel that it is reward for the all the hard work we have undertaken in meeting all the benchmarks of the Achievement Program that allows our school to be named as a Health Promoting School.
Our main focus with this study group will be working towards Sustainability and what that means for us.
We look forward to sharing our findings with all at a later date.
Breakfast Club Roster | ||
Friday: Ryan M Jontae M | Monday: Lyla O Alexis P | Wednesday: Aaysha R Claudia S |
Physical Education News
This week we continued to have fun playing games where everyone was able to choose their own equipment. This has allowed everyone to build some confidence and achieve some success! Last week the Junior classes played follow the leader where they needed to look and act like different emotions. Here are some photos of them, see if you can guess which emotions they are imitating!
Junior Emotions
Sent home today
The August edition of 'Our Diocesan Community' Magazine is being sent home with your child today.