Newsletter #34 November 17
Principal News
Dear St Paul's Families,
Welcome to this week's news.
BOOK WEEK PARADE: Today we hosted the Book Week Parade in the hall. I must say I am very impressed with the costumes the children and staff were wearing. There seems to be a bit of a competition developing between the staff teams with the level of creativity and flair in the costume designs. There were lots of rainbow fish and pugs around the place. Once again thanks Miss Marg for your efforts in coordinating the Book Week parade.
FOUNDATION TRANSITION: Our new Foundation children visited us again today and had the opportunity to meet their new buddies for 2022. It was certainly a hive of activity this morning around the place and the children all seemed to enjoy themselves. The excitement continues in the Foundation unit with their breakfast on Friday at school.
PARENT/TEACHER INTERVIEWS: Next week we have our parent teacher interviews which will be held virtually after school. If you haven't made a booking you can do so via "Parent Teacher Interviews" on the school App. These are optional and will be held on Wednesday and Thursday afternoon.
AGM: The date for the school AGM has been set for Tuesday 30th November at 7.00pm. This will also be held virtually. A link will be provided prior to the meeting.
Congratulations to this week's award winners for following our school norms.
BEE MILESTONE: Joseph Lloyd, Scarlett Moir, April Nyabonda, Shawn Wei, Grace Panagopoulos, Rubi Barila, Oliver Harradine, Charlotte Hogan,Denim Humphrey
HIVE MILESTONE: Emma Williams, Ethan Jones, Kennedy Krychaluk, Sienna Mackay, Jessica Ram, Samuella Allieu, Chaunte Clark, Bridie Clift,Elih Groenen
Have a great week everyone as always,
Keep the Faith!
Vince Muscatello
Foundation Unit News
This Friday 19th November is the Foundation Breakfast. A reminder that all children are to arrive at school at 8am and make their way to the hall for breakfast. They will be having fruit, cereal and toast with orange juice and milo. The children have decorated their own placemat to use and will be bringing them home at the end of the day. This is part of the St Paul's Camp Program and it is an expectation that all children attend the breakfast.
As part of our Health topic we have been talking about emotions and how to manage our emotions. We have discussed strategies to calm our feelings when we become overwhelmed. We have also listened to the story "The Red Beast". To compliment this learning we will be watching the movie "Inside Out". This movie is rated PG, if you do not want your child to watch this at school, please contact your child's teacher before Friday.
Today we celebrated Book Week by having a parade in the Hall. It was so lovely to see all of the children have some fun and participating in the parade. A big thank you to Miss Marg for organising the day and Georgie for being the MC at the parade. We continued the celebrations by taking part in some fun Book Week Activities.
Junior Unit News
Last week we had a wonderfully busy week finalising our learning in our science topic on 'change'.
On Thursday, we began learning about the changes in seasons and the day and night cycle. The students began making their own volcanos using paper Mache. It was a very busy and messy day but the students had lots of fun.
On Friday, the students continued learning interesting facts about volcanoes. They then learnt about chemical reactions by erupting their volcanoes using the ingredients bi-carb soda, vinegar and some red food colouring to add to the fun.
This week in Maths, we have begun learning about division. We have learnt about how division means sharing into groups and practiced sharing amounts into equal groups.
In Phonics, we are starting to learn about prefixes and suffixes. The students have found it very interesting so far learning what some prefixes mean and discoverying how the meaning of words change by adding a prefix or suffix.
Middle Unit News
MAPPEN
During Mappen last week our students created some great projects on the History of Australia. Students were invited to share their learning with students from the Senior Unit. It was great to see them share some of the facts that they have learnt.
LITERACY
During Literacy this week our students have been learning some new skills. We have been practicing our reading with fluency with a partner. This ensures that we are reading at the correct rate and with expression. We have also been working on identifying sentences and fragments. Students were given a list of fragments and sentences and they had to decide which ones were fragments and which ones were complete sentences. It would be great if you could chat to your child about what a fragment is and what a sentence is. To finish off our Literacy block we did a jumbled sentence. Students are given a group of words that are all mixed up and they have to unjumble them to make a complete sentence. This a great little challenge and you can see the competitiveness come out in our students.
SENIOR NEWS
We were very proud of our school leaders who represented St Paul's at the Remembrance Day Service on Thursday. Well done Darcy & Llya.
Grade 6 Graduation - Sunday 12th December
COVID Restrictions Update - we have been advised by Catholic Education Ballarat that our year 6 primary school children will be able to attend the graduation Mass and ceremony regardless of their vaccination status. All other attendees 12 years old and up must be fully vaccinated and will need to QR code and provide proof of vaccination status.
Program of Events
5pm - Graduation Mass at Sacred Heart Church 6pm - Graduation Ceremony at Sacred Heart Church
6.45pm-8pm - Dinner for Year 6 Students at St Paul's Hall. Parents drop off and pick up students in the drive thru.
Technology News
Recently, Year 1 &2 students have been learning to write and follow algorithms using symbols such as arrows to represent instructions. Last Wednesday, the students started exploring different ways to represent instructions, including using text and pictures. Students then used this knowledge and followed both written and pictorial instructions to create a poppy for Remembrance Day.
Until next week remember, coding is a special type of magic!
Mrs Narelle Simms
Arts News
Thank you to all of the students and parents for bringing items for filming our Virtual Concert last week. Next week we will begin filming the juniors and foundation songs. Please bring the following items in for Specialist day next week.
Library News
Hello from the Library,
What a fantastic day we have had today celebrating Children's Book Week. It was fantastic for us all to be together for our parade this morning, so we could all see our wonderful costumes. Thanks very much to all the students for participating so well. Also a huge thanks to Mrs Georgie Willis for her terrific work as our MC this morning.
Hands Up Mallee
We are now well and truly into Walk to School Month; this gives us an opportunity to be aware of how our children are getting to and from school each day.
Walk to School is good for kids, their families, and the whole school community. It encourages lifelong healthy habits, helps make the streets and drop-off zones around the school safer and less congested, helps connect kids to their local neighbourhood and creates opportunities for families to get active as well.
This year to motivate children to be more active; Sunraysia Community Health and Aligned Leisure have created a competition giving students the chance to win 1 of 3 scooters as well as 1 family pool pass just for entering! All you need to do is scan the QR code which will direct you to the entry site, fill out the details and then get walking!! Remember that students who join me with Walking Club at school on a Monday, Wednesday & Friday can count this as Walking time. Entering the competition will also give our school the opportunity to receive a $500 prize for the most students entered.
PARENT TEACHER INTERVIEWS - Wednesday 24th & Thursday 25th November
Parents are invited to attend a Parent Teacher Interview on Wednesday 24th or Thursday 25th November. These will be online or via phone.
To make a booking go to the SIMON Everywhere APP - Select Parent Teacher Interview and select your child and their teacher.
Interview bookings will close on Friday 19th to allow teachers time to email out a link for the online meeting.
*Please note, these are not Student Led Conferences like we have done in the past. They are, however an opportunity for you to discuss your child's learning. Your child may attend if you like but it is not complusory.
Continuous Raffle
As part of our fundraising at St Paul's we have a continuous raffle draw. These occur at most assemblies. We are asking for a parent volunteer to assist with the organise & running of this. If you can help out with a few hours per term it would be very much appreciated. Special thank you to Mrs Pauline Cavallo for assisting with the raffle for the last two years.
Please contact the office, we will be happy to explain further.