Newsletter #38 December 9
Principal's News
Dear St Paul's Families,
Welcome to our second last newsletter for the year. I cannot believe it is this time already. I hope everyone is enjoying the beautiful weather at the moment, minus the dust of course. Our season of Advent continues as we prepare for the birth of Christ. The christmas trees have gone up and there are decorations a plenty around town. It will be extra special to celebrate Christmas with family and friends this year.
On the weekend we had more new trees planted along the Etiwanda Avenue side of the John Hill Oval. These trees replaced our old Gums that were posing a safety risk. It will be great when these trees are established and provide us with some shade and beautiful colours for the children, during the different seasons.
Our somewhat different looking school magazine arrived yesterday from the printers. They are being sent home with the oldest in the family today.
Please note that due to unforeseeen circumstances the canteen will be closed for the remainder of the school term.
Yesterday our students participated in their transition morning where they got to meet their teacher and class mates for 2021. It was also an opportunity to welcome some new children to St Paul's across different year levels as they begin their journey with us as well.
Teachers for next year are as follows:
Foundation Unit- Mrs Heeps, Mrs Gray , Mrs Emmett
Junior Unit- Mrs Stevenson/Mrs Vergara, Mrs Powell, Mrs Brouwers, Mrs Chisari, Miss McVean
Middle Unit- Mrs Byrnes/Miss Burt, Mr White, Mrs Baker, Mr Freeman
Senior Unit- Mrs Thurman/Ms Kedmenec, Mr Alexander, Mrs Courtney, Miss Parker
Learning Technology- Mrs Simms, Languages- Signora Ghidinelli, PE- Mrs Mitchell, The Arts- Mrs Freeman
Intervention Support- Mrs McGlashan, Mrs Gibson
Library- Mrs Pongrac
The senior unit children have two busy days ahead as they participate in excursions as a part of their modified camps programs. It's ten pin bowling and pizzas today and then off to the Perry Sandhills tomorrow with a visit to the Wentworth pool as well.
Tomorrow evening will be the premiere of our Online End of Year Christmas concert. Well done to Miss Jess and the children for the preparation, planning and rehearsals leading up to tonight. Sit back, relax and enjoy the show with your family. I know its not the same as being physically onsite watching it but it's better than nothing. We finally had good weather for it as well, that's a first! It is usually stinking hot or raining!
Friday morning will be our End of Year Whole School Mass with Fr Matthew. This will be celebrated in the hall with children and staff only.
This Sunday evening at 6.00pm we will be celebrating our Year 6 Graduation Liturgy and Ceremony. The good news is that we can have more people attend. I have spoken to Fr Matthew and we can have as many as 300 present, which will enable other family members to be present. Physical distancing requirements and QR codes will be in place.
Next week is our last week of the school year. Next Wednesday will also be our last assembly. At this assembly we will be announcing our new school leaders for the 2021 school year as well as present our Year 6 awards. This will be held virtually for parents and families at this stage. I am waiting on further updates this week. If there are any changes you will be notified as soon as possible.
The children will finish school on Wednesday 16th December at 3.25pm. It is a normal school day.
Congratulations to this week's Gotcha winners.
25 GOTCHA AWARDS: Siena Fraser- Donoghue, Ben Harry, Sione Holani, Scarlett Moir, Lachlan Nowak, April Simmons, Taylor Bui, Antonio Holani, Treeza Jessil, Joseph Lloyd, Lyla Ovenden, Alexis Pantazopoulos, Claudia Schilling, Poppy Thannhauser, Daniel Sunna, Nevaeh Tufuga, Milika Ahotaeiloa, Russell Clark
50 GOTCHA AWARDS: Isabella Edwards, Siena Fraser- Donoghue, Ben Harry, Joel Tuifua, Zalee Le Poidevin, Jacob Metcalf, Cooper Wilkens, Elih Groenen
Enjoy the rest of the week and have a great weekend everyone.
Keep the Faith!
Vince Muscatello
Senior Unit News
MAPPEN EXPO
Yesterday the Senior students held their final MAPPEN Expo for the year. The title of our unit this term was DATA and DECISIONS. The students were learning to understand the consequences of financial decisions and encourage us to think critically about our options that allow us to participate in the world of business and economics.
Some of the essential questions we covered as part of the Unit were:
- 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?
The culmination of the Unit was our Expo where students were able to present their business plan and project idea. There were a range of new products designed by the students including:
- The Airchair
- Retractable Spring Sneakers
- H2O Calculator
- Thermotherapy Bear
- Kool Kicks
- Emergency Bracelet
- Cosmic Cosmetics
- 100% Australian made designer clothing
- Emergency back pack
- Care packages
- Sonic boom
- Cafe for dogs
- Multi saw
- Technology company
- Dishwasher robot
- Robotic couch
- A bike that charges your devices
- Self cleaning whiteboard
- Adults only beer flavoured zooper doopers
- Electric Comfort Couch
MAPPEN EXPO - DATA AND DECISIONS
REMINDERS
Thursday 10th December - leaving school at 9am, we will be visiting the Perry Sandhills, Darling and Murray River Junction for lunch (packed), then the Wentworth Pool. Students are to wear their sports uniform and bring a packed lunch, snacks, drink bottle, bathers, rashie or t-shirt to be worn in pool, towel, hat and sunscreen.
Friday 11th December - our final camp day will see all of the Senior Students participate in the innaugral St Paul's Amazing Race. This will be based at school and involve the students working in teams to solve puzzles, participate in challenges and ofcourse to have fun! Students are to wear their sports uniform.
GRADE 6 GRADUATION - GOOD NEWS UPDATE
We have been advised in line with the easing of restrictions announced on the weekend, we are no longer required to adhere to the 2 guest maximum per Grade 6 student for the graduation ceremony at Sacred Heart Church on Sunday 13th December at 6pm. Upon entry to the Church you will be required to sign in using a QR code.
As a reminder, we ask all Grade 6 students to be at the Church no later than 5.45pm on Sunday. We are looking forward to a wonderful evening celebrating our Grade 6 students.
Middle Unit News
Happy week 10!!!
We only have a matter of days left now until we celebrate our last school day of 2020! Students had a successful transition day on Tuesday and met their new class teachers and class mates. Over the next few days we will be sending home all the students books and artwork so we can get the rooms ready for a fresh new start in 2021.
Students have been showing an increase in knowledge of analogue clocks, they can now all mostly identify the hour hand and minute hand and some students are even reading, interpreting and creating complex timetables. As we continue to watch the weekly BTN videos we are happy to see that more students now know facts about where we live and what is happening in the world that can effect us and our country.
Finally, we are happy to start some joyful Christmas activities. We are learning the history of the Christmas story and why we celebrate it each year as Catholics and we compare this to how other people in the world celebrate. We also are writing a letter to Santa to tell him how wonderful we have been all year. Students may also be preparing a special something for the people at home as a gift to show their love.
Thanks,
Middle Unit Teachers
Junior Unit news
Hello Junior Unit families,
Happy Week 10! The students are very much enjoying counting down the days until Christmas. In the Junior area we have enjoyed having two special visitors, Pig the Pug Elf and Pauly the Elf. The children have loved starting the day off searching their learning environment for our visitors although Pig can be a bit cheeky at times!
This past week, the students have been engaged in a David Walliams author study. We read the stories Geronimo, Boogie Bear and The First Hippo on the Moon. The students loved listening to the stories as David Walliams is a brilliant writer who enjoys making children laugh!
On Tuesday morning, the students had a visit to their new classroom and met their 2021 classroom teacher. On returning to their classrooms the students were very excited to share some things about their new teacher as well as some new friends in their classrooms. Here are some of the comments from the children:
“I really enjoyed making candy canes in M1 with Mr. Freeman,” - Laura, J4
“I likes sitting with Skylar and Harvey and making Pig the Pug,” - Joe, J4
“I enjoyed making new friends with Jessica and Abbie” - Ava, J5
“I enjoyed meeting my new teachers and making Christmas trees, “ - Angela, J8
“I am happy I am with my friends Blair and Maddie,” - Emmy, J7
“I liked my new classroom. It is good. I am happy that one of my friends, Dustin is in my class,” - Jeron, J6
Foundation Unit News
Last Thursday the Foundation Unit had a wonderful day. It began with an early 8am breakfast at school followed by and excursion to Benetook Farms where the children had the opportunity to feed, pat, cuddle and collects eggs from some very friendly chickens, ride on a variety of bikes, go in the maze, pick and most importantly eat some very yummy strawberries and explore the farm. They then had pizza and icecream for lunch followed by the movie "Sing".
Then on Friday they celebrated a Liturgy about "creation" where the children re-enacted the way the world began by making a beautiful display of creation. Below is a link if you would like to view the Liturgy.
We would like to say a huge thank you to our families at St Paul's who have been so understanding, patient and co-operative in what has been a very interesting and challenging year. As a momento of your child's first year at school the teachers have put together a photo book, capturing different aspects of their year. We hope you enjoy looking at the photos and take the opportunity to talk to your children about the different experiences they have had. These books will be given to the children on Monday next week.
Arts News
Oh my gosh. It's tomorrow!!! Have you been following the 'Virtual Concert' event on our school facebook page? If not, jump on and have a look for all the details you'll need. Don't forget that the video will begin at 6pm tomorrow evening, but if you can't tune in then, it will still be available to view ANY TIME afterwards.
Now that the concert is all finished, we have had the chance to finish the term with some fun, festive, Christmas art! The senior students experimented with chalk pastels on black card to create something "Christmassy" and the Foundation students have made magical snow globes!
Christmas Chalk
Languages - Italian News
In these final few weeks of the year ... our Foundation and Junior Unit children have enjoyed listening to an Italian story about "L'albero di Natale" ~ "The Christmas tree". They have also been busy creating some colourful Italian Christmas cards and completing other festive activities. Here are some photos of the beautiful work completed in class.
Special mention to Abbiegail Peters who recently decided to use her 100 Gotcha Rewards to come and join her brother Konna during his Italian class. Abbie, her friend Chloe and Konna were the lucky students who got to decorate our Italian classroom Christmas tree - complete with fairy lights and other trimmings. What a great job!
Grazie ~ Signora Ghidinelli
Buon Natale ~ Merry Christmas
Technology News
A touch of Christmas has hit the Technology room.
Last week, students in the Junior Unit revisited push/pull forces and how those forces create movement. They applied their knowledge and made a mechanism that will be used to create a push-pull toy elf.
The Senior Unit were investigating electrical energy and how it can control movement, sound or light. They made the most wonderful Christmas cards and included an electrical circuit which controls a light to 'brighten' up the image on the front of their card.
Until next week, remember ...
TECHNOLOGY, like art, is a soaring EXERCISE of the human IMAGINATION ~Daniel Bell
Mrs Simms
Library News
Library borrowing for the year has finished. Thankyou very much to all the students for trying so hard to return all their library books and also to families for all your support during the year. Remember it is never too late to return any books you might find. Hope everyone has a lovely Christmas and holiday and I am looking forwards to seeing all the students in the library next year. Marg Pongrac
Physical Education News
After such a crazy year, I can hardly believe we have already reached our final week of PE lessons! I am so incredibly proud of how resilient all the children are in this school, and how willing they are to bring their best to each class. This week it is all about choice. Each grade is able to pick what they would like to enjoy together from the available options. It is interesting to see how the dynamics of each class work as they decide on what to play. Here are some photos to show some of the learning from last week and the start of this week.
Junior's Bouncing and Target Games
Middle's Virtual Classroom
Senior's Final Lesson - choice of games
Hands Up Mallee
Children love handing out candy cane with their Christmas cards to all their friends, but, did you know that the average sized Christmas candy cane contains approximately 2½ teaspoons of sugar and the mini Christmas candy cane contains approximately 1 teaspoon of sugar?
It has also been a pleasure to serve them all breakfast throughout the year, regardless of whether they have eaten at home or not. We could not have managed that without the wonderful support we get from Mildura Region School Breakfast Partnership, Foodbank SA, Powercor and Woolworths Supermarkets (our major donors). Also to our wonderful senior students who have volunteered their time to assist throughout the year – thank-you. The way you all so eagerly assisted with buttering the toast, collecting cups, cleaning up spills and stacking the chairs each week has been greatly appreciated. Make sure you continue the great work at home for Mum over the holidays!
I look forward to doing it all over again in 2021.
MADEC
