Newsletter #18 June 23
Principal's News
Dear St Paul's families,
Welcome to our final newsletter for the term. What a great way to wake up with rain falling on the roof. I am sure the farmers in our community will be very happy with this soaking rain to give their crops a good head start. Hopefully there will be more follow up rain in the coming weeks.
ST PAUL'S FEAST DAY: This Friday we celebrate St Paul's Feast day. We will be celebrating with a whole school liturgy followed by activities and lunch will be provided for the children. Unfortunately, parents will not be able to attend due to current school operation guidelines. This will also be the case for our final assembly for the term.
PHYS ED TEACHER APPOINTMENT: Yesterday Mr Warwick McDermott visited St Paul's for the day. Warwick has been appointed as the new Phys Ed Teacher and brings with him a wealth of experience and expertise to the role. I am certainly looking forward to working with him and supporting him in his vision for St Paul's in regards to Phys Ed.
FAREWELL: I would also like to take this opportunity to thank Mrs Krya Mitchell for her contribution to St Paul's as a teacher and parent. I wish her well as her family relocates to Nowra and she continues her educational journey. Mrs Mitchell had been working at St Paul's on and off in a variety of roles since 2008 and primarily in the Phys Ed role for the last five and a half years. Good luck!
GOOD LUCK: Good luck to Mrs Powell as she commences maternity leave at the end of this term. We look forward to the safe arrival of her twins. Welcome to Aimee Oxlade who will be teaching in Mrs Powell's class for the remainder of the year. Aimee has been teaching at St Paul's as a casual relief teacher for most of the term and has settled in beautifully.
SENIOR UNIT CAMP: The Senior Unit camp was postponed due to the covid restrictions that were in place. A new date for the camp has been set. It is Monday 19th July- Wednesday 21st July (Term 3 Week 2). The camp is shortened due to availability. It is an outdoor adventure camp at Rose's Gap. We will also be looking at some local excursions later in the year. New consent forms will be required to be completed for the children to attend by this Friday 25th June.
STUDENT LED CONFERENCES: Student led conferences for senior students will be conducted at an alternative time due to the new senior unit camp date.
SCHOOL REPORTS: School reports for the first semester were made available on Monday. Foundation to Year 6 reports are available via the SIMON Everywhere APP. Portfolios for Foundation to Grade Two were sent home with the children whilst the Year 3- 6 electronic portfolios are a part of their reports.
LEARNING SUPPORT OFFICER PLACMENT: Thank you to Rebecca, Kristy, Maeva and Chloe who complete their Learning Support Officer placements tomorrow. We have enjoyed having them work with our school community and wish them all the best as they pursue their careers.
Congratulations to our weekly milestone award winners for following our norms.
BEE MILESTONE: Nicholas Horne, Harper Hannah, Christiaan Giang, Liam Brown, Mia Aranas, Lexie McMahon, Rafael Mammone, Sienna Mackay, Treeza Jessil, Elijah Hunt, Jessica Ram, Prabhnoor Purba, Lorenzo Pettinau, Olly Morton, Taiana Moala, Maggie Slimmon, Zeva Smythe,
HIVE MILESTONE:Suiti Havea, Jasmine Gill, Oliver Capp, Rubi Barila, Taylor Burns, Sam Midgley, Dexter Madden, Lachlan Limburg, Havish Kinthada, Sienna Humphrey, Olivia Puleio, Jackson Puleio, Riana Peiris, Lyla Ovenden, Darcy O'Callaghan, Harry Stanger, Vivian Thai, John Thang, Macki Tickle, Oliver Traeger, Jasper Trinh
END OF TERM EARLY FINISH: This Friday is the end of term.
Please be aware we will finish school at the earlier time of 2.25pm.
TERM 3: Children will return to school on Tuesday 13th July. Monday 12th July is a pupil free day. Staff will be attending a Professional Learning day.
Have a great break everyone over the holidays and I look forward to seeing you all next term.
As always,
Keep the Faith!
Vince Muscatello
END OF TERM 2 2021
Friday 25 June 2021 is the last day of school for Term 2.
**School will finish at the earlier time of 2.25pm.**
The school buses will be running to an earlier time table.
Parents of children who make a connection to normal Main Road City Buses, please note that these buses run to the normal timetable. Monday 12 July is a Pupil Free day, Professional Learning day for staff. Term 2 Classes for students will resume again on TUESDAY 13 July 2021.
Junior Unit News
Hi Junior Families, welcome to week 10! It’s hard to believe we are finalising our last week of Term 2. The students are very much looking forward to school holidays.
On Monday, the student’s reports became available to read on the Simon Everywhere app. If you have had any trouble accessing your child’s report please contact the office. On Monday, the student’s Learning Journals were sent home with your child. These Journals are a showcase of some of your child’s learning from Semester 1. We hope you enjoyed looking at your child’s Learning Journal and sharing the successes they have achieved this semester. We are certainly proud of them all for the amazing growth they have made so far this year.
In Writing, we have been learning how to structure a narrative by including a beginning, middle and end. We have been learning how to include conjunctions to join two ideas and also how to reread our work to check for correct punctuation and ensure our sentences make sense. At the beginning of our writing lessons, we spent time creating our own class narrative. The students in J8 were very excited to share their story.
One sunny Tuesday afternoon, Gerald, Jim and Bob the buffalos were sitting in a small bathtub in the grassy bush. Along came Sienna the hippo who sneakily started spraying cold water from a hose at the buffalos.
Out of nowhere, a little boy named Kimmy came bursting through the long, thick, green grass. Kimmy was very shocked to find the three buffalos making themselves at home in his bush bathtub.
"Hey! What are you doing in my bush bathtub?" Kimmy said angrily. The buffalos replied, "We found this bathtub and didn't think it belonged to anyone." At that moment Kimmy was even more surprised to find a hippo crouched behind the thick reeds, holding a green hose. Kimmy could not believe what he was seeing. What surprised him most of all was that Gerald, Jim and Bob invited Kimmy to share the bath and he couldn't stop himself from saying "YES!"
After Kimmy got into the crowded bathtub, Sienna the hippo decided to join as well. Even though it was an unlikely event, they all enjoyed their bath and were happy.
~Written by the students in J8
Below are some pictures of the student’s work from each class. The students love sharing their stories with an adult. Please feel free to visit your child’s classroom during the morning to listen to your child read their narrative.
At the end of this week, we will sadly farewell Mrs Powell as she begins her new journey of motherhood. On Monday afternoon, J5 threw Mrs Powell a surprise baby shower where they enjoyed playing games such as ‘Baby Bingo’, ‘Pin the Dummy on the Baby’ and gave some parenting advice using some dressed-up baby pumpkins! It was a great afternoon spent as a class. We are all very excited to meet Mrs Powell’s new babies and wish her all the very best!
On behalf of the Junior teachers, we would like to wish all our families a happy, healthy and safe school holidays. We look forward to seeing the children back at school for Term 3!
Foundation Unit News
We would like to take this opportunity to wish everyone a very safe and relaxing holiday. It is hard to believe that we are half way through the year already. The children have grown so much both academically and socially. We are so proud of how far they have come from the beginning of the year. We look forward to seeing everyone back on Tuesday 13th July to begin Term 3.
This week the Foundation Unit are using Mathematical games as a way of transferring their learning about subtraction and addition strategies. Each day they are participating in different hands on activities and education games to allow them to use their new knowledge. Below are some photos of the children taking part in the games.
We would also like to say thank you to Maeva Lopez who has been working in the Foundation Unit for the last two weeks as a Learning Support Officer. The children and the staff have loved having her support in the unit and wish her all the best with her studies.
Middle Unit News
As we near the end of the first Semester, a number of students are reaching or approaching 50 Gotchas, also known as the ‘Hive Milestone’. When students achieve this target, they get to choose from a menu of rewards. Last week, Olivia and Denim from M1 chose to ‘be the teacher’, sidelining Mr Freeman to teach origami cranes and run an interactive online Kahoot quiz about animals respectively.
We were also visited during this time by Estee from the Junior Unit, who chose to visit M1 for an hour as her Hive Milestone reward.
Lucien, Angela I and Nimrat in M2 are looking forward to organising and celebrating from the Menu this week.
Additionally, the Middle Unit had a visit from Jimmy’s little brother Parker, who achieved his Hive Milestone and chose to spend an hour in M1 during Sport on Wednesday.
As part of our decoding Reading activity, Sound Buttons, we consulted our resident expert Mrs Thurman when we couldn’t decide how the word ‘triangle’ should be coded. Grade 3’s remembered that the grapheme ‘ng’ (thing ‘r/i/ng’) could go into the word, but then another student pointed out that the ‘g’ in triangle was a hard /g/ sound.
The last few weeks the students in the Middle Unit have been reflecting on their personal goals and creating new goals for Term 3. It is great to see them thinking about their learning and striving to improve.
We hope you all have an amazing holiday, stay safe and enjoy some time with family and friends.
Mrs Byrnes, Mrs Doherty, Mr Freeman, Mr White and Mrs Baker.
Senior Unit Camp
Students will be participating in a 3 day camp to Roses Gap. They will travel by bus on Monday 19th July & return on Wednesday 21st July. Students will participate in Rock Climbing, Low Ropes, Giant swing, Flying fox and other exiting outdoor activities. 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 25th June.
Please also advise on the APP if your child is NOT attending.
SENIOR NEWS
Welcome to Week 10
The seniors have had a great final week of school for term 2.
In Religious Education we are finishing off our theme "Journey". We have been looking at parables from the bible and how these show God's hope for the world. These will be uploaded to 'Learning Areas' so parents can view them.
In English, students have been looking at 'exemplar texts' to help them when writing their own Information Reports.
We wish your family a safe and restful break. See you all in Term 3. The senior Team!
ST PAUL'S FEAST DAY
Physical Education Update
So here we are at the end of another term, already half way through the year! I would like to thank everyone who has assisted at any sporting events throughout the past 6 years. Your time and efforts have been most appreciated! I am very pleased to be passing the PE baton onto Mr Warwick McDermott. I know he has much expertise to share, and will continue to run the program with integrity and enthusiasm as I have endeavoured to do. I feel so incredibly blessed to have been able to teach all the wonderful students at St Paul's over the years, and I will be taking away some beautiful memories. God Bless!
Languages - Italian News
Continuing with our Italian theme of Weather & Time ...
Our Junior students have recently begun learning an Italian song called " Oggi, Oggi " which includes the Italian vocabulary for the different types of weather you might encounter during the four seasons of the year. Here are some lovely samples of work that our Junior students completed during the week.
I also would like to wish you all a relaxing and restful break over the school holidays. Enjoy !
Ciao ~ Signora Ghidinelli
J5 & J8
J6 & J4
J 7
Hands Up Mallee
As we come to the end of another term and are preparing for the holidays, just a reminder to help your children to unwind during this break – try and keep them off electronic devices as much as possible. Challenge them to go a full day with no electronics (including the TV), encourage them to walk the dog, take them to the park with a friend, get them to bake or prepare the evening meal with you. Every simple task we get them to do off their devices is a win! Have a wonderful break to you all.
Breakfast Club Roster | ||
Friday: 24th June Prabhnoor P Zac S | Monday: 12th July School Closure | Wednesday: 14th July Tarlow F Christian F |
Technology News
Foundation students were very excited last week to transplant the seedlings they have grown from a seed planted earlier this term. They are all extremely curious to find out what kind of vegetable is growing in their pot.
This week, students will finish making the healthy lunch meal they planned after learning to identify healthy and unhealthy foods and exploring the five food groups.
In recent weeks year 1 & 2 students have been learning which plants and animals can be grown to provide materials for clothing. Using the book "Where Did My Clothes Come From?" written by Chris Butterworth, students were able to identify how cotton plants are grown, harvested and processed to make cotton thread, which is then woven into fabric for making clothes.
To demonstrate this process students have created their own mini weaving loom to weave lengths of wool into 'fabric' squares. Everyone is super excited to finish their fabric squares and bring them home to share with family and friends.
Wishing everyone a safe, enjoyable, relaxing and well deserved holiday break. Remember to take some time these holidays to....
...and enjoy each others company.
See you all in Term 3.
Mrs Simms