Newsletter #11 April 28
Principal's News
Dear St Paul's Families,
Welcome to our weekly update. I hope you all enjoyed ANZAC Day on Sunday and were able to participate in some form or another at various services across the district. We must never forget the sacrifices made by so many so that we may enjoy the freedoms we have today. Thank you to Miss Jess for preparing the ANZAC liturgy for the children to participate in last week as well.
This week we welcome Ashley Derrick , who is completing a Learning Support Officer placement here at St Paul's. We often have people completing placements here at St Paul's and see it as an excellent opportunity for both the LSO and the school.
POLICE IN SCHOOLS VISIT-The senior students have been involved in the Police in Schools visits. It's great to have this program back up and running again after such a long time. There are so many important messages and conversations that are shared with the students and Victoria Police. A positive initiative that will hopefully improve relationships within our communities.
OPEN DAY GUIDED LEARNING WALKS-Next week we will be hosting our Open Day Guided Learning walks for 2022 enrolments. On Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday we will be running three sessions at 9.30am, 12.30 pm and 6.00pm. Please contact the office to make an appointment.
SPEECH SUPPORT- We farewelled Sarah Palmer this week. Sarah has been working at St Paul's as a Speech Therapist over the past few years. Sarah commences her maternity leave this week. The programs Sarah has been running will continue in her absence. We wish Sarah and her husband all the best on the arrival of their new bundle of joy.
Congratulations to this week's Milestone Achievers for following our norms
BEE MILESTONE: Laura Cifra, Bridie Clift, Jaxon Dunn, Tate Gorringe, Amelia-Mae Hunt, Charlene Lion, Ashton McDonald, Dolmari Moore, Olivia Prescott, Ellie Sexton, Olivia Smith, Leonardo Tardio, John Thang, Poppy Thannhauser, Aria Tickle
HIVE MILESTONE: Ava Fidura, Harriet Gibson, Olly Morton, Lucas Nguyen, Geordie Moraitis
AUTHOR VISIT-Next Tuesday Phil Kettle will be visiting St Paul's and running a series of workshops for the children. Phil is a well known Austrailan author who is well known for writing the "Too Cool" series and then "Marcy" and "Spike" series as well. It's great when we can get authors of this calibre visiting and working with our children.
Parking in Plane Tree Drive- Please remember to respect the residents who live in Plane Tree Drive when collecting your children at the end of the school day. Please do not park across drive ways or park in such a way that it hinders the traffic flow. If Plane Tree Drive looks too congested, please park in the Salvation Army carpark and use the pedestrian crossing. It might be a little further to walk but it is a lot safer.
CATHOLIC EDUCATION - This year we celebrate 200 years of Catholic Education in Australia. This is an important milestone in the history of our catholic educational journey. There will be a National Mass celebrated on the Feast Day of Our Lady Help of Christians on 24th May 2021. St Paul's is relatively young in this department having been operating onsite on 14th street & Etiwanda avenue since 1975. Hopefully in the coming weeks I will be able to share some of our St Paul's history with you.
As always
Keep the Faith!
Vince Muscatello
Religious Education News
Foundation Unit News
In Religion this term the Foundation Unit's Concept is "STORY". We have been talking about how everyone has a story. Stories can be written or told. We all have a favourite story we like to tell or listen to. We went to the Library and Miss Marg talked to the children about the books in the Library and how important it is to look after the books. She also spoke about how she cares for the books. Miss Marg read the children a story. The children then designed some posters to hang in the Library about how to care for books. (see pictures below)
Australian Early Development Census (AEDC)
On Wednesday 12th May the Foundation teachers will be conducting the AEDC data collection. It gives a national picture of the development, health and wellbeing of children in their first year of full time school. The census results help communities, schools and governments plan services and develop better policies to target support for children and families. Please see link below for more information.
Junior Unit News
Hello Junior Families!
This week we have begun our new unit of learning in Religion. This term we will be learning about our own and other's footsteps, exploring Jesus' teachings and how we can listen and respond in word and actions. We have begun our unit of learning by creating our own footsteps, which was lots of fun but also very tricky!
During Sport this term, the main focus will be developing student's fundamental movement skills. Fundamental movement skills include balance skills, locomotor skills (such as running, jumping and hopping) and ball skills (such as catching, throwing, kicking and dribbling). This week the students focussed on the skill of dribbling.
Last week in our Resilience, Rights and Respectful Relationships (RRRR) lesson, the Junior students learnt about the importance of personal strengths, particularly in relation to working effectively and collaborating with others.
The students participated in a partnership game, where they had to work with their pair to successfully transport a pencil from one side of the room to the other side, in both their hands without dropping it. The students trialled different techniques including: both grasping the pencil, carrying the pencil with open palms, holding the pencil between a high-five and more.
After the game, the students then participated in a reflection discussion about what kind of skills were used to work effectively with others. We explored and discussed skills including: listening, practising, noticing, cooperating and communicating. We also reflected on how we can use these skills in the playground and classroom.
The students really enjoyed this activity and we did see a lot of strong teamwork skills shining throughout the experience.
Congratulations to Mrs. Jeffers and her family on the safe arrival of their beautiful baby girl Layla. We are all looking forward to meeting her soon.
Middle Unit News
Term 2 kicked off with a bang with our school Cross Country last Friday. The excitement began when the buses arrived because it has been so long since the children had been on a bus!
We are very proud to say that every student in the Middle Unit completed the race, with lots of perseverance and determination (and support!) all round.
In Maths, we began our unit on subtraction. The students have been learning some different strategies to solve subtraction problems and will continue to develop their skill set to be able to solve more complex problems
Last week we were visited by three hermit crabs from Mr Freeman’s house who are looking for a new home: Bluey, Bingo and Baby. In Writing, we are learning about the structure of persuasive texts, as well as persuasive language devices. The students were invited to explore the benefit of having a pet and were asked to write a persuasive piece to persuade the reader that we either should or should not have a pet.
Looking to next week, we begin to prepare children for the NAPLAN testing format. If you have any concerns about your child sitting the test, please see your classroom teacher.
Senior News
Welcome to week 2.
The students certainly had a great time at the Cross Country on Friday. A few drops of rain did not deter their effort. It was fantastic to hear the students cheering each other on no matter what their running ability was. The senior teachers are always so proud of how inclusive the students are.
This week we will once again have a 'Police in Schools' visit. Each class will spend 1 hour on Friday with them.
Our Religious Education unit this term started with a bang! Students engaged in the Amazing Race to find clues. The theme will centre around "Journey".
A date for the diary - The senior unit mass will be held on Friday 14th May. We will love to see many parents and special people attend.
In English, students are continuing their great work on Persuasive texts. Students will spend the week deconstructing a text 'Plastic is not Fantastic' learning about how to answer literal information.
Wishing you all a fantastic week of learning!
SENIOR UNIT CAMP
Gr 5 & 6 Melbourne Camp Monday 21st - Friday 25th June 2021
Students will be participating in a 5 day camp to Melbourne. They will travel by bus on Monday 21st June & returning Friday 25th June.Daily site visits to various points of interest around Melbourne such as Treasury Gardens, Old Treasury Building, Parliament House, Melbourne Museum, Old Melbourne Gaol, MCG, Shrine of Remembrance, Scienceworks, Immigration Museum and Melbourne Zoo. It is an expectation that all students attend as it is part of the curriculum. Please ensure you give consent for your child to attend on the SIMON Everywhere APP - click on your childs profile - drop down menu to school activities no later than this Friday 30th April.
Please advise on the APP if your child is NOT attending.
Wellbeing News
Program Support Group (PSG) Meetings
Program Support Group Meetings (PSG’S) for Term Two have been scheduled over the coming weeks for students who require supplementary, substantial or extensive support and or adjustments in order to have equal access to the curriculum.
Appointments have been sent via SIMON Everywhere to parents and carers of students who have an Individual Learning Plan (ILP), Adjustment Plan or a Behaviour Support Plan. PSG meetings are conducted over set days and additional staff are employed to enable the Classroom Teacher, Learning Support Officer (if applicable) and Learning Diversity Leader to be released from their regular duties.
The education of each student at St Paul’s is a partnership between parents and the school and active engagement of parents is critical to each student’s wellbeing and learning. It is an expectation that parents attend these meetings. Should you be unable to make the allocated time please contact us and we will try to exercise flexibility and reschedule a time over the set days.
If any parents or carers would like any further information about PSG Meetings please feel free to contact me at the school.
Lauren Gibson
lgibson@spmildura.catholic.edu.au
Deputy Principal- Wellbeing
NAPLAN - Grades 3 & 5
NAPLAN is conducted on May 11th - 13th of May. All students in grade 3 and 5 are expected to sit these four assessments - Mathematics, Writing, Reading and Language Conventions. If you have concerns or questions regarding NAPLAN please see your child's teacher or Melissa Sutherland.
Hands Up Mallee
School hats are still compulsory at the moment due to the UV rays still hovering around 5(we need this number to be 3 or less). We anticipate that this will remain for another couple of weeks. We will update you as soon as it is safe for hats to be optional.
Thank-you to the families that responded to our survey from last week in regard to creating a school community garden. If you haven’t filled it out, I have again included the link for you. The information that we gain from the survey will help guide us with the creation of our garden.
The purpose/vision of our garden is for families to have access to fresh fruit and vegetables during school hours and to feel free to come and tend to the garden when they have spare time. It will also allow the canteen access to the garden and the children will see what we grow being used in the foods that they eat from the canteen as well as providing a source of fruit for brainfood time.
Technology News
Last week, Foundation students started their new Food and Fibre unit by exploring foods and sorting them by whether they come from a plant or animal. Students then drew pictures of their favourite food from a plant and favourite food from an animal.
The focus for the Junior students Food and Fibre unit is to explore how and why plants and animals are grown for food, clothing and shelter. Students started by learning the names of the different parts of a plant. To show what they learned, students began creating a plant collage, which labelled all the different parts; roots, stem, leaves, flower, seed and fruit.
Don't forget to keep collecting the following items needed for our Food and Fibre projects across all year levels. We will be beginning these projects in week 4, so bring your collected items to the Technology room as soon as you can. The more the better.
- 1.25 - 2L softdrink/water bottles
- milk bottles or cartons
- med - large tin cans
We are also looking for any spare soil or potting mix, so if you have any in the garden shed you don't need contact Mrs Simms to arrange collection or drop off.
Roblox - A Warning For Parents
It has been bought to our attention that some students are playing the very popular multiplayer gaming and game-building tool, Roblox. Roblox is a seemingly innocent game, similar to Minecraft, and has the potential to be a learning tool. It is is not however without risks and recently some of our students have been subjected to predatory behaviours and targeted via the chat feature of this game.
As a result of this targeting and predatory behaviour, as a school, we have taken the proactive measure of blocking Roblox for all student accounts and devices. However, considering students may have access to Roblox on non-school devices and accounts, we highly recommend restricting access to this game to children 13+. At a minimum, if you do chose to allow children to access this game, ensure you actively supervising children and have applied the parental controls, turned off the chat feature and enabled privacy features and filtering.
Click the link below for further information and a more comprehensive 'Parents Guide to Roblox'
For parents who want to learn more about utilising parental controls and device safety settings to help kids and young people stay safe online, the eSafety Commissioner is offering free access to their webinar - eSafety's Guide to Parental Controls. The webinar is offered at the following times:
- Tuesday 4 May 12.30 to 1.30 pm
- Wednesday 5 May 12.30 to 1.30 pm
- Thursday 6 May 7.30 to 8.30 pm
- Tuesday 8 June 12.30 to 1.30 pm
- Wednesday 16 June 7.30 to 8.30 pm
Register for this free opportunity by clicking the link below.
Until next week, remember - technology is just a tool, what matters is how we use it.
Mrs Simms
Physical Education News
Cross Country:
Thank you to everyone who assisted in making Friday such a fantastic day! We were blessed with the help from Chaffey Secondary College's Advance Sports Leadership students down at the Aero Ovals during the running of our Middle and Senior grades. In the afternoon, our Foundation and Junior grades enjoyed running around our John Hill Oval at school, with the help from our Sports Leaders.
Here are some photos from the Aero Ovals, more photos to follow next week.
20 students have now qualified to attend the next division stage of Cross Country in Sunraysia next Wednesday 5th May. If your child is one of these, please provide them with consent via the Simon Everywhere App.
Cross Country
More Cross Country
