Newsletter #03 February 09
Principal News
Dear St Paul’s families,
Welcome to this week’s news.
Last Friday, we had an opportunity to come together as a school community to celebrate our whole school mass in the hall. Thank you to Fr Matt for celebrating mass with us and to the staff and children involved. It was lovely to come together as a school community to begin our new school year.
SACRED HEART PARISH: Accompanying last week’s news was a letter from Fr Matthew regarding the sacramental parish programme for 2022. As you can imagine, with restrictions in place last year and a realignment with the diocesan sacramental programme there will be many children receiving sacraments. Please take note of the dates that apply to you.
STAFFING UPDATE: Recently I announced that Mr White had resigned from his teaching position at St Paul’s. Mrs Rachel Slimmon has been appointed to teach in M9 and Mrs Ronica Vergara will be supporting the Foundation unit until further notice.
COVID UPDATE: Thank you to our parents for adhering to our current covid practices. I understand that it may cause some delays, especially when entering the school buildings, but I am very appreciative of your support in this matter. We, like many schools in the district, will continue to notify you as positive cases emerge. Please check our daily messages regularly and follow the current guidelines provided regarding notification and isolation.
Hopefully, this week we will receive our next supply of Rapid Antigen testing packs. We will notify you when they are available for collection.
SEWING VOLUNTEERS: We have several cube seats that over time have developed rips and tears. I am looking for any parents who are able to sew and would be available to make new covers for these seats. We would like to use them in our chapel as we look at making it a more user-friendly space. The school will supply the fabric. If you are interested, please email office@spmildura.catholic.edu.au by Tuesday 15th February.
UNIFORM: The weather, at the moment, is very unpredictable so it’s a good reminder to make sure that children are wearing the correct school uniform and labelled clearly. It does not take long for the lost property box to fill up, especially with school hats and jumpers.
PICK UP/DROP OFF DRIVE THRU: In the morning when dropping off children, please drive right around to the undercover seating area for the kids to get out of the car. This ensures that vehicles are not backed up at the front entrance.
Please note that when exiting the school grounds via the drive through, it is a LEFT TURN ONLY. This ensures that traffic flows freely and everyone is safe.
BUS STOP AREA: Unfortunately, parents are continuing to park on the nature strip next to the bus stop. Council have been notified and will be inspecting the area after school over the coming weeks. Please be aware you will be asked to park somewhere else. Failure to do so may result in fines being issued. The Salvation Army car park is available for parents as well as parking along 14th street and Etiwanda Avenue.
ICT AGREEMENTS: If you have not returned your signed agreement, please do so asap. This enables your children to access the digital devices at school. Your child will not be able to do so without the signed agreement returned.
CALENDAR EVENTS: Please check the calendar regularly for updates and important events. Tuesday 22nd February will be our school photos day.
As always,
Keep the Faith!
Vince Muscatello
SCHOOL PHOTOS
Catch up School photos will be taken tomorrow Thursday 5th May @ approx 1pm.
If you have ordered and paid for your child's photo previously the order has been held for you.
If you haven't previously paid a book mark with your child's photo on it will be sent when the photo orders arrive at school. You will be able to order from this.
Please ensure you have told your child that they will be having their photo taken. We will call those students on the PA to come to the office at 1pm.
MEET THE TEACHER INTERVIEWS
Meet the Teacher Interviews - BOOKINGS NOW OPEN
Parents and Carers are encouraged to book a 15 minute time slot on Wednesday 16th or Thursday 17th February. Meet the Teacher is a time for parents and carers to see how learning happens at St Paul's. You will also have an opportunity to share important information about your child that helps us to get to know them better. If none of these times suit, please feel free to contact your child/s teacher to arrange an alternative time.
Interviews will be held at School. If you prefer a phone call, please email your child/s teacher.
To book a time slot please go to SIMON Everywhere and select the "Parent Teacher Interviews Tab."
Learning Diversity News
Program Support Group (PSG’s) Meetings are held every 3-6 months for students who require additional support and or adjustments in order to have equal access the curriculum at school.
All parents/carers of students who have an Individual Learning Plan or Adjustment Plan have now had their Term One PSG Meeting scheduled. Dates & Times for these meetings can be viewed on the SIMON Everywhere app under the ‘Parent Teacher Interviews’ tab.
PSG meetings are conducted over set days when additional staff are employed to enable the Classroom Teacher and Learning Diversity Leader to be released from their regular duties to meet with parents & carers.
The aims of a PSG are to:
- ensure that those with the most knowledge of, and responsibility for, the student work together to establish shared goals for the student’s educational future
- plan reasonable adjustments for the student to access the curriculum and participate in their education
- provide educational planning that is ongoing throughout the student’s school life
- monitor the progress of the student
Your child’s classroom teacher will email you a copy of your child’s Personalised Learning Plan prior to the meeting. Please read the PLP prior to the meeting and have any questions ready for your child’s teacher.
The education of each student at St Paul’s is a partnership between parents, as the first educators of the child, and the school. It is an expectation that parents attend these meetings either onsite*, or via telephone or Google Meet.
*To attend onsite you will be required to provide your vaccination certificate.
Should you be unable to make the allocated time please contact to office to reschedule as soon as possible.
Active engagement of parents is critical to each student’s wellbeing and learning and we look forward to meeting with you at the allocated time.
Lauren Gibson
Deputy Principal – Wellbeing
Learning Diversity Leader
Senior Unit News
Welcome to Week 3 of Term 1
We enjoyed our first full week last week although the students and teachers were a little tired on Friday!
Important Reminders
Uniform - Students are to wear their Sports Uniform every Tuesday and Friday.
Drink Bottles - Please ensure your child has access to a drink bottle everyday.
Chrome Books - Please remember to charge these each evening and bring them each day.
Hats - Reminder to bring these each day as the UV is still really high.
Meet the Teacher Interviews - We would love to meet as many parents as possible next Wednesday and Thursday. Please make sure you book a time via SIMON Everywhere or email your child's teacher for an alternative time.
Camp- We are excited to go to Campaspe Downs near Kyneton for an adventure camp from Monday 4th to Friday 7th April. Please ensure you fill in the consent form on SIMON Everywhere ASAP to help us with our planning.
Communication - We love talking to you about your child's learning or any concerns you or your child have. You are welcome to contact us via email anytime or make a time to come in for a meeting.
S11 - Lucy Gray - lhocking@spmildura.catholic.edu.au
S12 - Danielle Baker - dbaker@spmildura.catholic.edu.au
S13 - Cheryl-Anne Courtney - ccourtney@spmildura.catholic.edu.au
S14 - Alisha Parker - aparker@spmildura.catholic.edu.au
Next week we are beginning our Structured Literacy Program. Students will engage in a 2 hour block every Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.
STEM Challenge
Middle Unit News
Welcome to the Middle Unit for 2022. It has been lovely to see everyone returning to the classroom last week. We have a new teaching team for 2022 and we are excited to get to know all our students both new and returning.
We have spent the first week learning about the different ways that we can be a good friend to each other and we created some beautiful classroom displays to remind us of this throughout the year. We have discussed different ways we can fill each other's buckets and look after each other. We will continue to work on being good friends to each other for the remainder of the year.
This week we move into some of our literacy activities for the year. One of these activities is Paired Fluency Reading. Students sit with a partner and read a provided text. They take turns to read to their partner working on accuracy, rate, fluency and expression. Students can practice these things reading each night at home. We encourage children to read as many nights they can as this will support their learning at school.
This term Middle Unit Classes will be having sport on a Monday and a Wednesday. On these days students are to wear the correct sports uniform.
If anyone has any concerns or positive experiences they would like to share with us over the year we welcome you to email your classroom teacher. We look forward to all that 2022 has to offer.
Junior Unit News
This week the children of the Junior Unit commenced Structured Literacy. This is a research-based approach to the teaching of Reading and Writing that involves explicit instruction in the alphabetic code. Structured Literacy is explicit, systematic teaching that focuses on phonological awareness, word recognition, phonics and decoding, spelling, and syntax at the sentence and paragraph levels. All St Paul's teachers and support officers have undertaken extensive training in the delivery of Structured Literacy and we are anticipating wonderful outcomes for our students.
We try very hard to keep all the children's lunches nice and cool by putting them in the shared fridge every morning. Where possible, you can help us manage the challenge of fitting in 80+ lunches by using your smallest lunchbox container or even just a named ziplock bag. Thank you for your help with this.
Last week the children played Getting To Know You games. Here they are with their "Human Bingo" cards. Look at all those happy, smiling faces!
We look forward to meeting you all in person, if we haven't already. In the meantime, please feel free to contact your child's teacher at any time:
J7 - Karen Brouwers kbrouwers@spmildura.catholic.edu.au
J8 - Beck McVean rmcvean@spmildura.catholic.edu.au
J4 - Emma Rutherford erutherford@spmildura.catholic.edu.au
J5 - Aimee Oxlade aoxlade@spmildura.catholic.edu.au
Foundation Unit
Week 3 has been a busy one! We have been learning about many things and would like to share some of our learning with you.
Literacy - we have been linking our learning to families. We have also learnt about the phonemes (sounds) a, b & c. You could ask your child what things begin with each of the sounds. We have learnt to identify and write the word "the".
Maths - we are learning how to write numbers, how to count and make collections of numbers to 10. We have also learnt some maths songs to help teach us how to count.
Religion - we are learning about who is in our family and the different types of families. At this stage we don't have many family photos. Could you please email them or let your child bring in a photo.
Last week we had the opportunity to meet with our buddies and make and decorate a scuba diver to hang in our classroom. (see photos below)
The children went to the Library yesterday to borrow a book to take home and share with their parents. It is lovely to find the time to share a story with your child and discuss what it was about. All books that are taken home are to be carried in their library bag to protect the books. It is very important that your child brings in their library bag every day.
Coming up this month
Book Buddies night on Tuesday 22nd February at 6pm. Come to school in your pyjamas with your parents and see how we learn to read at school. (see Simon Everywhere Calendar for more details)
Mathematics
This term, students in years 3-6 are trialling the use of an online mathematics program, Matific, to support their learning. There is no obligation for students to practice maths skills using Matific at home. If we find the program to be a valuable learning tool and continue using Matific after term 1, student login details will be available on request.
Hands Up Mallee
Every Monday, Wednesday and Friday morning from 8:00am, we have a Walking Club program for the students out the front of the school with music. This is a great way for the students to build up their physical activity for the day while getting to talk to their friends and listen to music. At the conclusion of Walking Club at 8:30, students are welcome to join us in the Hall for Breakfast Club until 8:45am. Students will be offered a selection of healthy breakfast options to kick start their day. Whilst eating their breakfast at tables, students will have the opportunity to chat with students from all year levels. A very important part of running our Breakfast Program so successfully is not only the fantastic connection we have with the Breakfast Partnership Program but also allowing the Senior Students an opportunity to volunteer their time to assist with the serving of breakfast. At this stage students will be asked to volunteer for a time that best suits them. I am always so impressed with the amount of students willing and asking if they can help!
If you have any questions regarding our walking or breakfast program, please don’t hesitate to see me or contact me via email at nsimpson@spmildura.catholic.edu.au
The students volunteering is greatly appreciated and is a great experience for them.
Library News
Hello from the Library,
This term we have 2 great events coming up.
The first is our Book Buddy Night and at the conclusion of the night Foundation parents are invited to buy a book for our library and your child's photo is put in the front of the book and your child is the first to borrow the book.
Our second event is our first Book Fair for the year. This begins on Friday 25th Feb with our Wish List day. Books, posters and lots of other stuff will be available for children to buy on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday the 28th Feb, 1st and 2nd of March. the theme for this Book Fair is "Dive into Reading".
Today some reminder notices were given to students who still have library books out from 2021. Please have a look for these books and if there is a problem just let me know.
Thanks Marg Pongrac
Technology News
Data Glyphs
For our first Technology lessons last week, students got to know each other by creating a 'glyph'. Glyphs use symbols to represent data, also known as information.
Junior students used colour to represent data about themselves and created a 'Shoe Glyph'.
Middle Unit students created a unique t-shirt using symbols to represent data about themselves, while Seniors used the same symbols and decorated a mask.
Safer Internet Day
Yesterday was Safer Internet Day. With a title of ‘All Fun and Games? Exploring Respect and Relationships Online’, the worldwide event empowers young people to create a better digital world by challenging them to play a part in fostering supportive relationships and more respectful communities online. Encouraging good digital citizenship and making the online landscape a less dangerous place is fundamental for a safer online future. Through education we are providing school leaders, staff, parents and pupils with the knowledge and confidence to understand and respond to the internet’s ever-evolving hazards.
Webinar for Parents/Guardians
For parents, the eSafety Comissioner is offering a free online webinars with tips about how to support young people to socialise, learn and have fun online safely. The webinar explains how to access information, use technology safely and navigate new online platforms.
The presentation is designed for parents and carers of young people aged 5 to 12 years old and will cover:
- how to talk to young people about online risks on different social media platforms and games
- how to help young people develop skills to protect themselves when they are online
- where to go for help if things go wrong and how to access mental health support and information through eSafety.
Three sessions are on offer, as per below and you can CLICK HERE to register
Tuesday 8 February 12.30 to 1.30 pm
Thursday 10 February 12.30 to 1.30 pm
Wednesday 23 February 7.30 to 8.30 pm
Important Reminder
Last week, all students were given a 'Digital Technologies Acceptable Use and Cyber Safety Agreement'. Thank you to all those students and parents/guardians that have read through the information, signed and returned the forms.
If you have not yet done so, please return forms asap.
Chromebook Collections
As part of our 1:1 Chromebook program for Senior Unit students, year 5 and new year 6 students require a parent or guardian to accompany them to collect their Chromebook.
Chromebooks can be collected today from 3:25 - 4pm from the Technology Room. If this time does not suit please email me (nsimms@spmildura.catholic.edu.au) or call the office to make other arrangements.
Until next week, remember; "technology should improve your life...not become your life." - Billy Cox
Mrs Narelle Simms
Administration News
If you have received a form earlier in the week (payment option form) to complete could this please be returned back to the office ASAP. Thank you to families who have already done so.