Newsletter #31 October 21
Principal's News
Dear St Paul's Families,
Welcome to this week's news. I would like to begin by congratulating Mrs Blagus who last week announced the safe arrival of a beautiful baby boy, Luca Benjamin Blagus. Another wonderful addition to the Blagus household. While I am congratulating people, well done to the children yesterday who dressed up for Book Week. The costumes were fantastic and the enthusiasm was electric. The children had a great day celebrating book week.
A special St Paul's welcome to Jess Hosking and Amanda Chapple who join us to complete an LSO Placement over the next two weeks. I hope they enjoy their time with us and find it rewarding.
We are still fielding enquiries for enrolments for Foundation for 2021. At the same time, circumstances can change for some families and they leave the district. If you know that you will not be at St Paul's in 2021, please notify the school as soon as possible. This impacts on our class structures for the following year.
If there is any information that parents would like to share regarding their children's classes for 2021, they must be in writing and received by no later than Friday 6th November. Every year the teachers spend a great deal of time planning and preparing class lists for the following year. The decisions made take into account a number of factors such as: academic, behavioural, social and emotional development. All letters are to be addressed to principal@spmildura.catholic.edu.au
This year we will be seeking three nominations for School Advisory Council. If you would like to consider being a member please contact the office to collect a nomination form. You can also talk to any of our current members for further information regarding the role. They are : Jack Freeman, Kellie Nowak, Lauren Droffelaar, Loretta Ghidinelli and Julie Humphrey.
You may have noticed some new fencing installed around the school. This is a part of our Child Safe standards to ensure all children are safe at school. The gates are locked at 9.00am each morning. This means that anyone entering the school grounds can only do so via the Front reception.
New seats have been installed in the pick up /drop off area. This is to help speed up the process for collecting children at the end of the day. The children can sit on the seats and face the drive through to ensure they can see the vehicles.
When dropping off or picking up the children please drive right to the end of the seated area. It is really difficult when parents stop near the front entrance or the Chapel crossing to allow children to get in or out. It actually contributes to traffic congestion. Parents should be waiting for the car in front to drive off. It is only a matter of time before an accident occurs. You should not be pulling out in front of another vehicle.
When leaving the drive through it is a LEFT HAND TURN only. I am amazed by the number of parents who deliberately do a right hand turn into traffic. Once again you are putting the safety of yourselves and others at risk by not following the rules. I would rather add an extra five minutes to my trip than have an accident.
This Friday 23rd October is a Public Holiday. School will not be open. Good luck to those of you whose football team is playing in the AFL Grand Final this weekend. Unfortunately, there will be excitement and disappointment for spectators alike as their teams wins or loses. Luckily I won't be a nervous wreck as my team didn't make it, however, there are some staff here who will make Monday morning very interesting indeed.
Congratulations to this week's Gotcha winners. I had a lovely time Monday afternoon hosting afternoon tea with some students as we well as another being Principal for an hour yesterday afternoon.
25 GOTCHA AWARDS: Isabella Bergman, Jessica Cavallo, Nicola De Maria, Yasmin Gill, Zalee Le Poidevin, Hunter Rayson, Nayte Yates, Harry Williams, Luke Hunt, Jacob Metcalf, Lainesia Toutai, Ava Gemits, Samuella Allieu, Harriet Gibson & Will Langford.
50 GOTCHA AWARDS: Emrys Clifford, Will Hogan, Lexie McMahon, Jackson Puleio, Zeva Smythe, Harry Stanger, Aisea Tuifua, Ema Vea, Owen Vo, Finn Droffelaar, Riley Freeth, Harvey Heagerty, Ryan Moir, Lam Nguyen, Lyla Ovenden, Claudia Schilling, Rosy Senior, Aaysha Ram, Lupe Tufuga, Jack Hogan, Alliyah Silorio, Minh Ky Le, Mason Tauelangi, Dustin Scott, Bianca De Maria, Sienna Humphrey, Bella Tardio, Ben Harry & Leticia Sappupo.
As always
Keep the Faith
Vince Muscatello
Religious Education News
Socktober
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.
As a part of Socktober, this week, students in the Senior Unit experienced first hand what life is like for children in countries less fortunate than our own by participating in a Sockball Challenge. Students were given a selection of items, such as material scraps, second hand socks, plastic bags and pieces of twine and asked to create a soccer ball, just as children in places like Cambodia do to enjoy playing a much loved game of soccer.
Sacramental Program Update
As you are aware, our Sacramental Programs have been greatly affected by the COVID restrictions. The below letter, from Fr Matthew, contains important information regarding proposed changes for celebrating the Sacrament of First Communion / Eucharist.
Senior Unit News
BOOK WEEK 2020
Well done to the Senior Unit for embracing our book week parade and celebrations this year. While we were restricted to having our book parade in our unit, we thoroughly enjoyed guessing the characters that were on parade. Back in the classrooms we rotated around to explore the following 2020 shortlisted books:
MAPPEN
This term our focus for MAPPEN is Data and Decisions. This unit focusses on developing our understanding of the consequences of financial decisions and encourages us to think critically about our options, allowing us to participate in the world of business and economics.
We will be exploring the following essential questions -
- What is the difference between needs and wants?
- What are the types that we have and how we use them?
- What is the nature and meaning of work?
- How do you put together a business plan?
To assist us in our learning, we have sent home a survey about employment that the students will use to explore the nature of work and why individuals choose to participate in work. We would appreciate your assistance in completing the survey.
GRADE 6 BABY PHOTOS NEEDED
Could all Grade 6 students please bring in a baby photo to be used for our Graduation Ceremony. These photos can either be brought into school, clearly labelled or e-mailed directly to nsimpson@spmildura.catholic.edu.au
All photos will be returned. Thankyou in advance for your support.
Middle Unit News
What an awesome week we have had so far! The pictures show just how much fun the students were having during our book week celebrations! A huge shout out to all those families that helped out with making sure the kids were dressed and ready to celebrate their favourite characters! As well as the activities you can see here, students took part in a socially distanced parade and got the chance to show off their costumes.
Book week
Middle Unit Excursions
Wednesday 4th November - Grade 3 Excursion to Lake Cullulleraine
Thursday 5th November - Grade 4 Excursion to The Chaffey Trail
Friday 6th November - Grade 4 Excursion to Lake Cullulleraine
Please ensure you have given consent for your child/ren to attend the excursions on SIMON Everywhere.
Thank you to the families that have returned the 'Wildside Outdoors' permission forms that were sent home last week. A reminder for others to return back to school ASAP.
If you have any concerns or questions about the excursions, please see the classroom teacher.
Junior Unit News
Greetings from the Junior Unit and HAPPY BOOK WEEK!
What an incredible day we had on Tuesday the 20th, engaging in different activities and learning lots of interesting facts about famous authors! It was fantastic to see so many students dress up as their favourite characters! We look forward to seeing more smiling faces in the Library and borrowing some of the new picture books Mrs Marg has added to our collection!
Book Week
Foundation Unit News
Yesterday the Foundation Unit had so much fun coming to school as their favourite Book Character to celebrate Book Week. They began the day with a parade in the Hall with the Junior Unit. It was hosted by Georgie and the children had fun guessing the name of the book, the title of the movie and watching all of the classes and teachers parade in their costumes. Back in their own classes they read the book "We're Stuck" which is one of the short listed books and made a cute Kindness keeper/key ring to give to someone as an act of kindness. Hopefully you received one at home. They then spent the rest of the day with their specialist teachers where they got to do some more Book Week activities. It was definitely a fun day that was had by all.
My New Gallery
Hands Up Mallee
Help wanted!
We are looking to increase our sustainability efforts throughout the school and we need your help. If anyone has or knows someone who has a recycling kitchen caddy that they are not using, it would be greatly appreciated if they could be sent to school. We are looking to try and get one per class so that the students can start recycling their green waste in the same manner as we do at home.
If you are able to help please send them to the front office at school and then we can distribute them to each class.
Thank-you
Breakfast Club Roster | ||
Friday: Rosy Senior Daniel Sunna | Monday: Lainesia Toutai Janelle Tran | Wednesday: Hana Truong Neveah Tufuga |
Physical Education Update
This week, the children in grades 3-6 have been learning how this year of restrictions and remote learning has affected their fitness levels. The good old beep test returned, and many were surprised when they were not able to equal or beat their previous score from term 1. Discussions around why this may be resulted in many children realising the impact their usual sports or dance classes outside of school have on their fitness levels.
Our Foundation children enjoyed being dressed up for their PE lesson this week, as it was on our book week dress up day. We read 'Hello Lighthouse', and afterwards the children joined in some fun active lifesaving activities followed by some relaxing drawing.
Our Junior grades learned how to dribble a hockey ball using a hockey stick this week. They enjoyed learning these skills with another teacher while I was undertaking some PE specific online learning. This learning is spread over 4 days, and has allowed me to network with other PE educators who have inspired me to try new and fun ideas with each grade in the coming weeks.
Here are some photos of our foundation students enjoying their game last week where they were able to choose their own equipment.
Foundation Choose Their Own Game
Technology News
In the Technology Room, it has been all about coding over the past week.
The Senior and Middle Unit students were reaquainted with the Sphero Sprk+ robots on loan from the CSER Lending Library. Everyone had a great time creating code to navigate through a maze. There was definitely a lot of patience, persistence, communication and collaboration required to get the code right.
With their classroom teachers, students in the Junior Unit have been learning about their emotions and the 'Zones of Regulation.' In the Technology Room last week they were excited to share their knowledge with me. Students then worked in groups and created code to move Jack, our Code and Go Robot Mouse, to the correct zone for each of the emotions they identified.
Until next week, remember...
TECHNOLOGY, like art, is a soaring EXERCISE of the human IMAGINATION ~Daniel Bell
Mrs Simms
Arts News
We had so much fun this week celebrating Book Week 2020! On Tuesday, the Foundation students completed some book related activities in their specialist classes. During The Arts, we read the story "Nop" by Caroline Magerl. It's a beautiful story about a scruffy old teddy who makes himself a balloon and flies for miles to find a friend.
Check out these gorgeous balloons created by our amazing Foundation students.
Balloons
A special thanks to the Droffelaar family for donating the wonderful craft supplies!
Jess Freeman
Library News
Well done everyone for an amazing celebration day yesterday. All the students looked fantastic dressed as their favourite book characters. Thanks very much to Narelle Simms for putting this video together so you can see all the unit parades.
Next week we have our Book Fair, we will start with the Wish List day on Monday. Books can be bought on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday before school, at lunch time and after school. Due to COVID restrictions unfortunately parents and friends will not be able to come in this time.
Payment for books can be made by one of the following methods -
- Online payments (see back of wish list form sent home with your child on Monday)
- Cash (bought to school by student)
- EFTPOS (over phone to office)
NB: Books will remain at school until payment received.
Parent Noticeboard
⚽Free Soccer Day ⚽
9am-12pm Saturday, Oct 31st - Limited Spots Available
????Mildura Soccer Academy is excited to announce that we will be launching our fun soccer program in Mildura for boys and girls aged 4-14! All kids of all abilities invited!
To kick off the opening of our new location we are throwing a Free Gala Day for children to come and experience the Mildura Soccer Academy program.
Age Groups: 4 to 6 year olds 9-10am, 7 to 10 year olds 10-11am, 11 to 14 year olds 11am-12pm
Register your interest now and we look forward to seeing you all there! http://bit.ly/msaregisterfree
9am-12pm Saturday October 31st
St Pauls Primary School Soccer Oval
Corner Fourteenth St and Etiwanda Ave
