Newsletter #03 February 18
Principal's News
Dear St Paul’s families,
Here we go again! It is good to be back after the short lockdown stint and thank you everyone for your understanding and patience. Hopefully, we can all move forward in the right direction and give our children some stability and encouragement. If anything, the children have certainly been resilient during this period of uncertainty.
Tomorrow afternoon at assembly we will be relaunching our School Wide Positive Behaviour Support (SWPBS) framework. This framework is an important part of our focus on wellbeing for all and reinforces our school norms of: Be Safe, Be Respectful and Be Your Best. You are most welcome to come and join us at assembly, however, please ensure you register via the QR code posters on the breezeway entrance doors at the hall.
With the constant change in restrictions there has been an increase in families shopping online via click and collect. As a result of this we have more plastic bags in our homes than normal. The Sacred Heart Parish Soup Kitchen is seeking plastic shopping bags to give out with Take-Away meals at the Soup Kitchen. If you have any spare plastic bags, please send them to school and leave them at reception. It would be very much appreciated by the Soup Kitchen volunteers. They are also seeking ice cream containers to freeze food in. Please make sure they have been washed prior to bringing them to school.
On Saturday 13th March, a local group will be hosting the “Walking off the War Within Event”. Its purpose is to raise money and awareness about mental health and suicide prevention, particularly within emergency services and the Australian Defence Force. There is a local committee organising the event, and Adam Young, former Casual Relief Teacher at St Paul’s, is the head of the committee. This year the committee is also supporting a local charity-Suicide Prevention Network. St Paul’s will be supporting this day by having a Casual Clothes Day on Friday 12th March. We are asking the children to bring a gold coin donation.
I mentioned previously that we had some parents volunteer to participate in a Guided Learning Walk, to learn more about how we teach and how the children learn at St Paul’s. The feedback from the parents was extremely positive and provided an opportunity for them to be engaged in a different way. We have another opportunity for a Guided Learning Walk on Tuesday 2nd March. The walk will begin at 9.30am and will go for 1 ½ hours. There are limited places for the Walk. We will be running these Guided Learning Walks each term so there are plenty of opportunities for you to participate. Parents can attend more than once. If you are interested, please fill in the survey form provided below to register.
https://forms.gle/LCiozjzJTjcaUiKg7
Next week I would like to welcome Miss Laura Squillace, former St Paul’s student, who will be completing a placement as a part of her teaching course at La Trobe university. Laura will be working in the Foundation unit with Mrs Heep’s class. Please make Laura feel welcome when you see her.
Next Week is also MAPPEN WEEK. There are lots of different activities planned for the children. The senior unit will be participating in an excursion on Monday 22nd. Please ensure you have given consent for this activity on SIMON Everywhere. We will host our MAPPEN EXPO on Friday between 1.00pm and 2.00pm for any parents who would like to attend.
Don’t forget this Monday 22nd Feb is our School Photos day. Please make sure your child is wearing their correct school uniform on that day. For the children who normally have PE on the Monday, please wear your normal school uniform, and bring your sneakers to change into afterwards. The Senior unit children have been reminded to bring their Sports uniform, in a separate bag, and change into it after their school photos.
Next Wednesday 24th Feb will be the last rest day for the Foundation students. We will see them at school full time from Monday 1st March.
As always,
Keep the Faith!
Vince Muscatello
SWPBS Relaunch Day - FRIDAY 19th February
WHAT IS SWPBS?
School Wide Positive Behaviour Support (SWPBS) is a whole-school approach to creating a safe and supportive environment that has a strong evidence-based approach and is used in many Australian schools and thousands of schools across the world.
It is a behaviour framework focussed on teaching, reinforcing and rewarding desired student behaviour based on following our school norms: Be Safe, Be Your Best and Be Respectful
Students will be involved in a fun “bee” and “norm” activity during the day.
This is also a casual clothes day – Students can wear yellow and black clothing to school.
Tomorrow Friday 19th is a casual clothes day – Students can wear yellow and black clothing to school.
MAPPEN EXPO - Friday 26th Feb, 1pm-2pm
MAPPEN week is where we focus on integrated studies including subject areas such as science, history, geography, civics and citizenship.
Students across the school will present their learning this Friday 26th Feb from 1pm-2pm. Parents and Friends are welcome to attend.
Senior Unit News
The past week before lockdown saw students complete their PLAY leader training and they will begin running lunch time activities on both school ovals next week (well done PLAY Leaders).
We are well established in our units of work accross all curriculum areas and we are excited by the opportunity to begin our MAPPEN unit in week 5 titled; Museums in Motion. As part of this unit students will be involved in a field trip along the river front, wherby they will be informed about the wonderful history behind this region. They are welcome to wear their sport uniform for this activity, but they will need to arrive at school in the morning in their school uniform due to photos getting taken before we leave. Please ensure that you provide approval for this event via the Simon Everywhere App by tomorrow Friday 19th Feb.
The MAPPEN unit will also involve the construction of historical dioramas, so if you could send your child to school with boxes and items that could support this activity it will be greatly appreciated. Your child should have received their Prodigy mathematics membership by now and we encourage parents to create a parent account as well. Having a parent account will allow you to monitor your child's progress and set them mathematical goals for rewards. Simply contact your child's class teacher if you require assistance with this task. Below are some pictures of the Senior Unit engaged in our Religion activities.
Junior Unit News
Next week, the Junior Unit will be participating in MAPPEN. Our topic is Sustainability - Tiptoe Through Our World. Throughout the week, students will be engaged in a range of activities focusing on this topic.
One of the activities requires the students to create a gift using recycled items. We ask if you could please bring in any recyclable materials you may have at home to help with this project.
Thanks,
Junior Unit
Technology News
Celebrating Safer Internet Day last week and learning how to be safe online was a lot of fun.
Foundation students had a great time singing and dancing to the 'Safe Online' song, so much fun we forgot to take any photos or videos. Sorry!
Year 1/2 enjoyed reading, Swoosh, Glide and Rule Number 5, a book written especially for Safer Internet Day. We then discussed the four key rules the characters, twin sugar gliders named Swoosh and Glide, learned to follow to stay safe online; Be Kind, Be Safe, Ask For Help and Make Good Choices. Students then enjoyed making their very own character mask to take home and help them remember those rules.
In Year 3/4 students worked in groups on two tasks around being safe online. For the first task students had to discuss and define terms associated with online safety. They even went old school and used a real dictionary to check their definitions. In the second task, after watching an online safety video, student had to sort statements according to whether they were true or not.
Did you know, you can download a virus to your computer without even knowing it? Most students were surprised to find out this was true. All except one very clever cookie who likened computer viruses to the coronavirus, explaining to their peers it is possible to get both without even knowing you've been exposed. Luckily, they had some good advice for us too; sharing that by taking precautions we can avoid downloading computer viruses which is just like practising good hygiene prevents coronavirus from spreading. A win for online safety and our health!
Year 5/6 students participated in an online virtual class presented by a representative from the Office of the eSafety Commissioner. During this virtual class students were exposed to an understanding of what fake news and how to identify it. In Technology class on Tuesday, students followed up this learning further investigating and researching fake news by undertaking a variety of independent tasks.
One task was to complete an online quiz to see if they could apply what they had learned and successfully identify fake news. How well can you identify fake news? Why not try the quiz yourself?
Until next week remember, the internet gave us access to everything; but it also gave everything access to us.
Mrs Narelle Simms
POSTPONED - Cyber Safety Parent Information Session
Unfortunately, due to the government lockdown we were unable to host the Cyber Safety Parent Information Session last night as planned. We will host this event later in the year and a new date will be advised as soon as possible.
In the meantime, follow the presenter Martin McGauran's business page on Facebook. Inform and Empower share all the latest cyber safety hints and tips via their facebook page.
Physical Education Update
Here are some photos of our Middle Unit students enjoying some games involving collaborative fair play.
Middle Unit Collaborative Fair Play Games
