Newsletter #33 November 4
Principal's News
Dear St Paul's Families,
I hope you all enjoyed the long weekend and appreciated the beautiful weather outdoors. It was certainly much better than being confined inside. While it is a short week at school it has certainly been action packed and will continue to do so for the remainder of the week.
The Juniors have their excursion day planned with lots of fun activities while the Year 3 and 4 children engaged in their camps program, all be it a modified version. None the less it is still an opportunity for them to have some fun in what has been a challenging year to say the least.
Behind the scenes we have been busily preparing our semester two reports as well as finalising our documentation for our external school review. It is a review that we have every five years to reflect on what we have achieved and to identify where we still need to improve. Our review is happening on the 19th & 20th November. Some of our school parents will be asked to participate in this review as well a mix of Middle and Senior unit children.
Congratulations to this week's Gotcha Winners and a special mention to Bryce Body who won last week's Assembly Gotcha Prize Voucher.
25 GOTCHA AWARDS: Natasha Cavallo, Levi Morton, Avy Tauelangi, Lachlan Prescott, Felix Blanchard, Aaron Clarke, Tiarna De Maria, Roman Caristo, Amber Echanes, Christiaan Giang, Christian Hunt, Charlene Lion, Ithika Parvez, Arianna Ram, Zac Scott, Malakai Stone
50 GOTCHA AWARDS:Taylor Burns, Charlotte Miller, Addison Welsh, Evan Beyer, Lola Droffelaar, Max Mangan, Ruby Slimmon, Bryce Body, Zeke Dedman, Christian Fidura, Tuan Nguyen, Keelan Roper, Leylan Clifford, Nicholas Horne, Vivian Thai
While I am on the congratulations trail, Rhia Doherty, who taught here a few years ago and has been doing some casual days this year, has announced the safe arrival of a new baby boy on the weekend. All are doing well.
I am also excited to share with you the wonderful news that Mrs Jenna Chisari has announced to staff that she is also having a baby. Congratulations to Jenna and her husband Jason as they prepare for exciting times ahead. The St Paul's staff babies just keep on coming. I have lost count as I cannot remember if that is 22 or 23 staff babies since I began at St Paul's in 2013!
This Sunday 8th November we will hopefully have new details regarding the easing of our current restrictions and we can get back to some sort of normality. I'm praying as I'm sure many of you are also.
It is getting later in the year however we are still fielding enrolment enquiries for 2021 in Foundation. If you know of anyone who has not yet made a decision regarding schooling for next year, please have them contact the office.
Accompanying today's newsletter will be the fee forms for 2021. Please fill them in and return them asap to the office.
Have a great week everyone and enjoy the weekend.
As always
Keep the Faith
Vince Muscatello
ADMINISTRATION NEWS
**2021 School Fees**
The 2021 School Fee Commitment (green) form is being sent home today with the oldest child in each family. We are sending home printed copies to ensure that all families have access to them to complete and return no later than Friday 13th November, 2020. We would appreciate it if they could be returned in the plastic pocket.
Once we receive the form a member of the Admin staff will follow up with each family to ensure that all the applicable allowances, discounts etc are applied, claim forms are completed etc.
If you have any queries don’t hesitate to contact the office.
Senior Unit News
Grade 6 Fun Sports Day
This Friday 6th November, all of the Grade 6 students will be participating in a fun sports morning with Sacred Heart School Grade 6 students. Students will be involved in volleyball, basketball and softball. Unfortunately, due to current COVID-19 restrictions, parents are not allowed to be onsite for this event.
It is important that all Grade 6 students wear their sports uniform, have a drink bottle and hat to wear. We are looking forward to a fun morning.
2021 Leadership Speeches
Next Monday and Tuesday our Grade 5 students will be making speeches for the 2021 School Leader and or Sports Leader positions. We look forward to hearing all of the speeches. It will be a very difficult choice this year, with so many of the Grade 5 students putting their hands up for leadership positions next year. We wish them all the best of luck.
Foundation Unit News
The Foundation Unit are enjoying getting back to their learning after an extra long weekend. They began the morning with their reading activities. The groups were taking part in a variety of activities including: "SH" worksheet, reading from their book boxes, rhyming match, a matching game of "Who am I?", syllables counting activity and guided reading sessions. While the majority of children are taking part in reading activities the teachers have small guided reading groups to focus on reading skills, to build fluency, expand vocabulary, develop reading comprehension skills as well as identifying their reading strenths and weaknesses. It is vital that parents are listening to their children read every night to support the reading the children are doing at school. We thank you for your on going support in this area.
My New Gallery
Junior Unit news
The Junior Unit students have been learning about Persuasive writing. We have been learning about what a persuasive text needs (title, introduction, reasons given to support the author's opinion, conclusion). We have been learning about the type of language that author's use to try and convince their readers to think the same way that they do.
"A persuasive text is when you are writing something and you are trying to convince someone to think the same as you" Willow, J4
"If someone thinks the opposite to you then you have to try and convince them to change their mind. You need to put in reasons and they have to be good otherwise it won't work" Joe, J4
"A persuasive text is a text to convince someone to think what you do. You need a title, an introduction that has your opinion, then you need about three convincing reasons and then the conclusion. It's good to learn about because it teaches you to think about other choices and decide what you want." Treeza, J4
We will continue to learn about this text type for the next three weeks. The students in J4 have already started to apply their persuasive skills in writing to Mr M to convince him to make playtime longer. How do you think they will go? They have included some very convincing reasons. Beware families of the new skills the grade one and two students are learning. Let's hope they use their new skills for good rather than evil!
Technology News
It was SPOOKTACULAR fun in the Tech Room last week!
With Halloween falling in on Saturday 31st of October, our Technology lessons took on a Halloween theme.
Foundation - having mastered the art of creating a sequence of steps (algorithms) to code a robot to move, Foundation students had a turn at being the robots and following a sequence of steps. After following a sequence of steps to create a drawing of a Jack-o-Lantern, students used the 'Chatterpix Kids' app to give their drawing a voice.
Year 1 & 2, engaged their design thinking skills and experimented using a variety of materials to safely build 2D and 3D models of Halloween items. Materials used included Lego, Unifix Cubes, Kinex, Pinboards and a digital Geoboard and Tangrams.
Years 3-6 - had a spectacularly fun time taking Sphero 'trick or treating.' Students worked in pairs and where challenged to create code and program Sphero through a maze of haunted houses, stopping at each one to ask 'Trick or Treat' and changing costume (aka colour) before moving to the next house.
Until next week, remember...
TECHNOLOGY, like art, is a soaring EXERCISE of the human IMAGINATION ~Daniel Bell
Mrs Simms
Religious Education News
Thank you to everyone who wore their colourful, odd, crazy, decorated, fun socks to school last Friday for Socktober and made a donation to Catholic Mission.
The rain didn’t dampen Ollie and Emilia's enthusiasm to “sock it to poverty.”
We raised a total of $305.35 for Missions to help those less fortunate than ourselves. Unfortunately, we had to give the Students v's Staff Sockball Shootout a miss due to the rain. Mr White and his ragtag team of staff were very disappointed! They were really looking forward to 'kicking it to poverty' against the students. To cheer them up, the students have decided to reschedule the event for a sunnier day soon.
Sacramental Update
A reminder, the Sacrament of First Eucharist will go ahead and be celebrated following COVID safe guidelines outlined in the letter below from Fr Matt. For further information please contact the Parish Office.
Arts News
Our magnificent middle unit students have FINALLY been able to finish an animation project started way back in term three! After learning all about a man in Bendigo who makes 'junk' into art, we created our own creatures using recycled materials.
The children learnt how to use Google Slides to create stop motion animation and then took photos of their own creature in order to animate it. They then learnt how to make their animation into a GIF.
Here are just a few examples of the fantastic work created by the middle unit students.
Creature Animations
Hands Up Mallee
St Paul's has recently featured on the Achievement Program website, recognising the work we have completed and the work we are continuing to do, especially with our focus now on Sustainibility and Climate Health. We are really proud of our efforts and hope that we can create more awareness for our students and community.
Spotlight on
St Paul’s Primary School, in Mildura, is committed to promoting health and healthy behaviours, and strives for continuous improvement. Since joining the Achievement Program in 2012, the school has implemented a wide range of healthy changes, which has seen it receive Victorian Government recognition for all seven health areas in the program.
Climate and Health
St Paul’s Primary is excited to take part in the new Climate and Health pathway, with the aim to empower children to take climate action, strengthen links with the local community and embed sustainable change that will benefit the school community for years to come.
Healthy and sustainable practices already happening include:
- active travel, with the school offering a walking club
- participating in Active April, Walk to School Day and steps challenges
- incorporating road safety information in the curriculum and information for families
- excursions to the local eco village and recycling plant
- the use of solar panels
- a re-planting trees program on school grounds
- maintaining a healthy canteen with lots of fruit and vegetables.
What's next?
With an increased understanding of the link between climate and health, the Health and Wellbeing Team and the Sustainability Team will work together to implement climate and health actions and embed more sustainable practices over time. The school is looking forward to using the new resources, information and support now available as part of the Achievement Program.
NAIDOC Week 2020
NAIDOC Week was posponed for 2020 due to Covid restrictions. It will now be celebrated next week. St Paul's will acknowledge NAIDOC week on Friday 13th November.
This year’s theme for NAIDOC is: Always Was, Always Will Be.
Always Was, Always Will Be. Recognises that First Nations people have occupied and cared for this continent for over 65,000 years. They are spiritually and culturally connected to this country.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people were Australia’s first explorers, first navigators, first engineers, first farmers, first botanists, first scientists, first diplomats, first astronomers and first artists.
St Pauls will this year celebrate in line with Social Distancing restrictions. What St Paul's will do to acknowledge NAIDOC week will be in next weeks newsletter.
Sunraysia Catholic Communities Bulletin
Please find attached Sunraysia Catholic Communities Bulletin for weekend 31st October and 1st November 2020. Enjoy the read and the coming week.
Just a friendly reminder that with Mass commencing from Tuesday 3rd November you need to contact the Parish Office on 5021 2872 to book in.
Continuous Raffle Draw
Congratulations to the following families who won at Friday 30 October Virtual assembly
- Thermo Server (donated by Campbell family ) – won by Coslovich family.
- Basketball & Board Game (donated by Droffelaar family & Rebel Sports) - won by Baker family
- Football & Board Game (donated by Richmond family & Rebel Sports) - won by Sunna family
Parent Noticeboard
Border Sports Academy
Basketball skills raining day at the Irymple Leisure Centre Karadoc Avenue Irymple. More info bec@nsacademy.com.au
Canteen News
Reminder that 'Crunchas' are no longer available for sale at the Canteen.