Newsletter #05 Feb 23
Principal News
Dear St Paul's families,
Welcome to the weekly update.
The start of the year continues to challenge us once more. Children are learning to interact with each other again on a daily basis. New and old relationships are being established with each other. Like anything, there will be teething problems for all involved. We continue to support our children in building positive relationships with each other, but please bear in mind that it takes time. Children don't have the ability to self-regulate their behaviours as well as adults do. We need to be patient and continue modelling the correct behaviours we want our children to develop. To put things into perspective, our current Year Two children have never experienced a "normal year of school". Both their Foundation Year and Grade 1 year were interrupted by Covid. At the other end of the scale, our Grade 6 children last experienced a "normal year" in Grade 3. We are all on this journey together and it is important that we must all work together to support our children.
MEET THE TEACHER: Thank you to the parents who took the opportunity to meet with the teachers last week. If you were unable to do so, please feel free to contact your child's teacher to arrange another catch up.
SCHOOL PHOTOS: Yesterday was our school photos day. Unfortunately, we had a number of students and staff absent due to isolation. Leading Image have advised us they will be arranging a catch up day for those students who were absent. We will publicise this date well in advance once it has been confirmed.
COVID UPDATE: Yesterday, the government announced an easing of some COVID Safe rules:
Face Masks: Premier Andrews has said that masks are still required for primary school children in grades three to six because the vaccination rate is still too low. Masks are no longer mandatory in secondary schools effective from 11.59pm Friday, 25 February 2022. All staff and visitors to the school are still required to wear a mask upon entering the building.
FOUNDATION REST DAY: Today is the last rest day for Foundation children as they will be at school full time as of next week.
SACRAMENT OF PENANCE MEETING: Tonight, there is a Parent Information evening at Sacred Heart Church at 7.00pm for those parents whose children in Year 3 and above will be receiving the Sacrament of Penance (Reconciliation) this year.
ASH WEDNESDAY MASS: On Wednesday 2nd March, we will travel to Sacred Heart Church to be celebrate Ash Wednesday Mass with Sacred Heart Primary and parishioners at 10.00am. It is one of the few times throughout the year that our students have to visit the church and celebrate with our sister school.
SCHOOL UNIFORM: It has become very noticeable already that several children are not wearing the correct school uniform. There are many reasons why we have a school uniform and the associated benefits. If your child is out of uniform, please notify your child's classroom teacher.
BOOK FAIR UPDATE: Don't forget this Friday is the Book Wish List day followed by our Book Fair beginning on Monday 28th Feb.
SCHOOL ADVISORY COUNCIL: The SAC members will be hosting their first meeting for the year on Tuesday 1st March at 7.00pm at school. It will be an excellent opportunity to discuss and share the priorities for the year, in particular, a new junior playground as a part of our overall masterplan.
I hope everyone enjoys the last few days of Summer and as always,
Keep The Faith!
Vince Muscatello
RE NEWS
Ash Wednesday Mass
On Wednesday 2nd March 2022, we will be celebrating our Ash Wednesday Mass, together with the staff and students from Sacred Heart Primary School. Mass will be celebrated at 10am at the Sacred Heart Church Mildura. Students are to be dropped off at school and will be transported to and from the church by bus, with buses leaving from 9.15am and returning by approximately 11.30. Parents are most welcome to join us in our celebration, however will need to make their own way directly to the church.
Students are to wear their school uniform and come to school with everything that they would bring for a normal school day (brain food, lunch, hat, ect.) Lunch orders will still be available, at a slightly later time.
As this is an offsite celebration, please ensure that you have given your child / children permission to attend through SIMON Everywhere APP. If you need any assistance with this, please don’t hesitate to contact your classroom teacher or the office.
First Reconciliation Parent Information Evening-
Just a friendly reminder that our parish First Reconciliation Parent Information Evening is being held this evening (Wednesday 23rd Feb 2022), at 7pm at the Sacred Heart Church. Children do not need to be present at the meeting. Parents will receive information regarding the preparation of the sacrament and packs will be handed out to be completed at home with families. If you are unable to attend this evening, please either contact the Parish Office directly or email Mrs Maria-Stella Blagus (mblagus@spmildura.catholic.edu.au) to arrange an alternate time to collect the preparation materials. Thank you!
Middle Unit News
In Literacy this week we have been reading and learning about a young man who overcame a great obstacle to achieve his dream of going to the paralympics. We have been talking about how he was able to use persistence and courage to overcome his obstacles. We have then been linking these to how we can use our own strengths and how we might be able to set goals for things that we would like to further develop.
In Religion we have been talking about the fact that for Christians, Lent is a time of preparation for the events of Holy Week and Easter. It is a period of 40 days where Christians are encouraged to pay particular attention to prayer, fasting and alms-giving. Making an effort to put God at the centre through prayer, helps Christians to consider choices they could make where they make more time or money available through ‘fasting’ so that there is more time or money to give to the needs of others, known as ‘alms-giving’. As part of our Religion lesson this week we will be talking about what we can give up or what extra things we are able to do. Talking to your student at home about this would be a great discussion.
We would like to congratulate ALL our students who had a go at running for SRC this week. We are very proud of all your efforts and whist we can only have one SRC per class we know we have many students who would do a great job.
Junior Unit News
In the Junior Unit we have been learning about the different emotions that people experience. We have acted out different emotions and drawn pictures about how these emotions look and feel in our bodies. Here are some of our happy learners...
This week we are reading I'm Australian Too, by Mem Fox. This picture book introduces a host of different families who all live in Australia and have many different cultural backgrounds and nationalities. It would be wonderful if you could take some time this week for a conversation about your family's heritage.
We are in the middle of our first Maths learning cycle for the year. The children are working in different groups, according to their particular needs, but the focus for all groups is place value. This video offers some insight into the way we teach this key concept.
Next week we will observe Shrove Tuesday and Ash Wednesday. The children will learn about the season of Lent, as a 'special time of waiting' when we prepare for the joyous celebration of Easter.
We have noticed that some of the children are feeling cold at school in the morning, so even though we are still having lovely warm days, it may be helpful to pop a jumper in the school bag, just in case. Please make sure your child's windcheater & hat are clearly named.
There have been a few incidents in the Junior Unit of children playing the game "Truth or Dare", and the 'dares' have not always reflected our school norms. We are asking the children not to play this game at school, and we would appreciate your support with this. Thank you.
Foundation News
BOOK BUDDIES:
Last night the Foundation Unit celebrated their annual Book Buddies Night. We would like to thank the parents for taking the time to bring their children into school dressed in their pyjamas. They were very excited to be at school at night time and they had a lot of fun participating in reading activities with their parents. Below are some photos of the night.
Donated Books for the Library:
If your were unable to attend the Book Buddies night and you would like your child to purchase a book to be donated to the Library with your child's photo in it. Please contact the office or Ms Marg in the library.
REST DAYS:
Today was the last official rest day for Foundation students. If you feel that your child is not coping without a rest day please see your child's teacher to arrange for them to continue to have the Wednesday off until they are ready to come to school full time.
Technology News
Last week Senior Unit students explored how balancing technology with a variety of offline activities and physical exercise has a positive effect on brain development as they grow. Before using their Chromebooks and beginning the first module of the eSmart Digital Licence, students participated in a choice of unplugged activities. Activities included, lego building, strategy games such as noughts and crosses or fences, drawing, card making and taking a walk.
On Thursday, Junior Unit students learned the four most common trackpad gestures for using the trackpad on a Chromebook. Students practiced to moving the pointer, clicking, scrolling and the drag and drop gesture before logging into their Chromebook for the first time this year.
Digital Technologies Acceptable Use and Cyber Safety Agreement Spotlight
All students are provided with a secure and managed Google account for educational purposes. This account allows students to access a variety of Google for Education applications for word processing, visual presentations, file and data storage and email.
It is important all students know and understand the use of the email address associated with their Google account must:
- ONLY be used for educational purposes and not for personal use.
- NOT be used to sign up to any social networking, subscription based websites, online media or online communication programs unless specifically instructed to by a teacher.
- NOT take photographs or capture video of themselves, or other students without teacher consent and even with consent not to share such photographs or videos with others via email.
Your assistance to ensure students adhere to these expectations as per the ICT Acceptable Use and Cyber Safety Agreement is greatly appreciated. By working together staff, parents and the wider community can keep all students safe in online environments.
Until next week, remember; "technology should improve your life...not become your life." - Billy Cox
Mrs Narelle Simms
Hands Up Mallee
SCHS are pleased to be offering a range of walk in COVID-19 Kids & Booster Vaccination Clinics located at our main building, 137 Thirteenth St Mildura (Cnr of 13th St & Deakin Ave).
Please see the attached flyer. Both walk-in & by appointment options are available for anyone in our community to access.
In March they will be able to offer more of an active outreach workforce to provide community education and to further support community to access vaccinations. If you are feeling any sort of hesitation at all, have any questions or think having someone visit you, your service or someone you know to provide extra support, please don’t hesitate to reach out and they will link you in with someone in their team/organisation that can assist.