Newsletter #10 March 30
Principal News
Dear St Paul's families,
Welcome to our second last newsletter for the term. I am still not sure where the term has gone, but there is still plenty to do between now and next week. It has certainly been a very challenging term for all involved. It is the longest time people have spent at school in the last two and a quarter years and it would be fair to say that everyone is feeling tired both physically and mentally. Term One is usually a short term, however, this was not to be the case this year and everyone is looking forward to a well earned break.
MIDDLE UNIT LITURGY: Last Friday I was asked to help celebrate the Middle Unit Liturgy in the chapel in Father Matt's absence. It was a great opportunity to take some time out and be with the children as they came together and reflect on the Gospel story of the Good Samaritan. A story we have all heard countless times but perhaps not fully understood the significance of who was involved in the story and the real message that Jesus was trying to get across to his followers. Thank you to the Middle unit for inviting me to share in their celebration and to the parents who came along as well.
BABY NEWS: Congratulations to Niro (J4) and Ariani (M9) Arden on the wonderful news of a new baby Sister, Vienna, recently. Exciting times ahead for the whole family.
THANK YOU: Well done and thank you to the children for participating in the casual clothes fundraiser for cancer research. The final amount raised was $400. A wonderful effort
MELBOURNE: This Thursday and Friday I will be in Melbourne attending a meeting in my role as President of the Catholic Principal's Council IEU Vic/Tas. This meeting allows me the opportunity to share and provide advice on the educational landscape we find ourselves in and the suggested strategies moving forward that will continue to improve the conditions for staff in our schools and improve student outcomes.
SENIOR UNIT CAMP: Next Week I will be joining the senior students on camp at Campaspe Downs. It will be exciting to finally go on a camp and hopefully it will create long lasting memories for the children. In my absence Mrs Gibson and Mrs Sutherland will assume responsibilities for the day to day operations of the school.
SCHOOL ADVISORY COUNCIL: Tuesday night the School Advisory Council will meet at 7.00pm at school. Due to the many covid interruptions this term, it will be the first meeting for the council members to meet.
COVID RESTRICTIONS UPDATE: In our latest update, Students and staff who have tested positive for COVID-19, have completed their 7-day isolation period and are subsequently asymptomatic do not need to undertake any further testing for eight weeks. If however, symptoms develop, please test.
RAPID ANTIGEN TESTS: The next supply has arrived, please call into the front office to collect your child's test pack.
FAREWELL : We bid farewell to Jackson Rowbotham. Jackson and his family are relocating out of the district. We wish them well for their future.
Congratulations to this week's milestone winners:
BEE MILESTONE AWARDS: Hunter Vo, Justin Tran, Oliver Traeger, Holliee Tickle, John Thang, Harry Stanger, Dustin Simmons, Reyon Shermin, Joseph Santos, Abbiegail Peters, Cienna Pascale, April Nyabonda, Lam Nguyen, Dae Dae Moore, Olly Morton, Ashton McDonald, Rafael Mammone, Kennedy Krychaluk, Christian Hunt, Fletcher Heagarty, Shivreet Gill, Jo Fotheringham-Gottardo, Tarlow Fangatua, Lola Droffelaar, Nicola De Maria, Joshua Catipay, Eliza Campbell and Manpriya Atwal
NEXT WEEK'S NEWSETTER: I will be writing my report from Campaspe Downs Adventure Park and hopefully will have some photos to share of the children in action.
Reminders
Assembly this week in the hall at 2.45pm. Parents must be fully vaccinated to join us.
Daylight Savings ends this Sunday 3rd April. Move your clocks back 1hr before you go to bed on Saturday night.
Pupil Free Day 26th April (1st day term 2) Tuesday 26th April, staff from St Joseph’s and St Paul’s Mildura will engage in a professional learning day on Structured Literacy. There will be no school for students on this day.
As always,
Keep the Faith!
Vince Muscatello
Religious Education News
Sacrament of Reconciliation
Congratulations to the following students who will be celebrating their First Reconciliation next Wednesday 6th April at 7pm at the Sacred Heart Church:
Joshua Catipay, Natasha Cavallo, Emma Circosta, Harriet Gibson, Ava Fidura, Marc Guevarra, Monica Leslie, Joseph Lloyd, Geordie Moraitis, Lam Nguyen, Dustin Scott, Ruby Slimmon, John Thang, Charlotte Hogan, Treeza Jessil, Jack O'Callaghan, Riana Peiris, Hayden Rowe, Ariah Tickle, Addison Welsh, Jack Hogan, Keelan Roper, Leon Zaire and Marco Guevarra.
We wish them all the very best on their faith journey!
Palm Sunday
Next Sunday 10th April 2022 is Palm Sunday. Palm Sunday is celebrated on the final Sunday before Easter and on this day we recall Jesus' entrance into Jerusalem whereby he was greeted by his followers waving palm branches.
Over the next two weeks, our Foundation, Junior and Middle Unit students will be making Palm Sunday banners, which will be carried in the Palm Sunday procession at the Sacred Heart Church next Sunday 10th April at 9am. It would be fantastic if some of our students and their families could please join the celebration and be involved in the procession.
If you have any further questions about this celebration, please don't hesitate to contact Mrs Maria-Stella Blagus - mblagus@spmildura.catholic.edu.au.
Project Compassion
This week we introduce you to Biru from India. Biru is a young man living with a disability, who faced the prospect of a life of poverty and discrimination. With the support of Project Compassion, he participated in entrepreneurship training and gained the skills to become financially independent. View and listen to Biru's story below.
Your generous support can help to change the lives of some of the world's most vulnerable people, just like Biru. Please join us to raise much-needed funds for people living in poverty.
Senior Unit News
This week is super busy as we prepare for adventure camp next week. We still need donations of snacks (share packs or multi packs are best) for our morning and afternoon teas. We would appreciate them being sent into school as soon as possible so we can finalise our packing.
CAMP REMINDERS
Departure:
- Children need to be at school on Monday 4th April at 7.00am.
- The bus will be leaving for Campaspe Downs at 7.30am sharp.
Return Trip
- It is expected we will leave Campaspe Downs on Friday 8th April at 8.30 am and arrive approximately back in Mildura at 2.30 pm.
Please Note: An updated arrival time will be sent via SMS and on daily messages on SIMON Everywhere. Students will need to be picked up from school at this time.
On Thursday each class will be introduced to the Police in Schools program. Last year these sessions were eagerly anticipated by our students and promoted lots of discussion about safety in the community.
This Friday 1st April at 12.15pm we will celebrate our first Senior Unit Liturgy for the year. Family and friends are welcome to join us in the chapel, provided you are fully vaccinated.
Next week Nicola DeMaria will represent St Paul’s in the Regional Tennis finals in Swan Hill. Good luck Nicola!
Middle Unit News
Its hard to believe that we are in the second last week of school. This week in Literacy during our Daily Review we have been looking at all the different letter combinations that make up the 'ee' sound, as in the word seed. Below is all the different ways that we read and write that sound. It would be great if you can show your child this poster and get them to share with you some other words that they know that could be listed under each one.
This week in the Middle Unit we are very lucky to welcome a student teacher Miss Jones. We are excited to have her as part of our teaching team for the next four weeks.
Well done to all the students in the Middle Unit who received their award for '25 Gotchas'. Keep up the fantastic work. There are several students who have reached 25 Gotchas since the awards were written out and they will receive their certificate next week. Well done everyone, keep up the great work.
Junior Unit News
It's hard to believe it is Week 10 already! Term One has flown by. We are so proud of the way the children have settled into school life, and we are already seeing progress in their academic outcomes and their independence.
A vital component of building children's independence at school occurs at the start of the school day, between 8.50 - 9.00. This is when the children learn the routines that will carry them all the way through their primary years. As they develop good 'executive function' habits, such as putting their lunch orders in the box, storing their brainfood, returning and borrowing books, etc, they also experience a sense of order and responsibility and grow in confidence. We all run late from time to time, but unfortunately we have an increasing number of children who regularly miss the start of the day and we'd love to see everyone here by 8.50am whenever possible.
Another important part of our day occurs at around 10am. This is 'Brainfood Time', when children take a break from Literacy, to have a quick drink and a small snack to tide them over until lunch. The intention is that these snacks are healthy, easy-to-eat options such as a small number of grapes, a small apple or banana, a piece of cheese, yoghurt pouch or a few carrot sticks. Students will not be permitted to eat the less appropriate options at brain food time -less appropriate options are bags of chips or grainwaves, cupcakes, sugary bars etc. We thank you for your help with this.
Our cricket season has come to an end and now we are focusing on volleyball. Here are some photos of the Juniors practising their ball-handling skills.
Junior Ball-Handling Skills
Foundation Unit News
The Foundation Unit have had a busy week of learning. Below are some of the things they have been learning about.
Maths: numbers that come before and after a given number
Writing: Identify the word "you"
Spelling: The phonemes - Xx, Yy and Zz
Religion: The items on our prayer table and why they are important.
SWPBS: We have been learning about what a good listner does. We have read the book "The red beast" and discussed strategies about how to calm ourselves when we feel angry.
EASTER BONNET PARADE 
Next Friday 8th April the Foundation Unit will be having an Easter Bonnet Parade at 1pm. We are asking for your assistance to help your child make an Easter hat at home and bring it into school. We would like all hats to be at school the day before the parade to ensure all children have a hat. Parents are welcome to attend. If you have any questions about the parade please see your child's teacher.
Hands Up Mallee
A huge thank-you to all the students who rode or scooted to school last Friday for Ride2school day and to all the parents who rode with them. It was a huge success, I think we had well over 100 bikes and scooters at school on the day!
All the students really loved being able to ride and scoot during lunch time (and recess too). All students were very safe and followed our schools norms well, so they really should be very proud of themselves especially when there were so many out there!
As a result of the success (and lots of the students asking), we are looking at making this a regular event next term so watch this space for more information early next term.
Next week for the last week of term there will be NO Walking Club or Breakfast Club due to the Senior camp.
Ride2School Day
Technology News
Over the last few weeks, students in year 5/6 have been learning about Binary Code. Students understand binary represents numbers using 1s and 0s and these represent the on and off electrical states respectively in hardware and robotics and can represent whole numbers in binary.
This week students explored how digital systems represent text in binary. Knowing the decimal number 65 is 01000001 in 8-bit binary and this corresponds with 'A' on the ASCII table, student were able to represent their initials in binary code and create a Binary Bracelet.
DIGITAL CITIZENSHIP & CYBERSAFETY
Snapchat is a messaging app that lets you send images, videos or instant text messages to friends. These images, videos and messages are only available for a short period of time once they are opened. You can also use filters on your images and upload photo and video stories that last for 24 hours before they disappear. However this is misleading as content posted to Snapchat is not as temporary as it may appear, as users can save chats or screenshot them without the sender knowing. Adult content can also be accessed in the app.
Snapchat usage rose during the lockdowns, with many young people utilising it to stay connected with their peers. The app continues to develop features to engage an even larger audience and emulate current trends, rivalling platforms such as TikTok and Instagram.
In the guide below, you'll find tips on a number of potential risks associated with the use of the app and valuable advice for parents & carers to keep your child/ren safe.
NB. The age classification for Snapchat is 13 years and over, although much of the content may be inappropriate for that age group.
Arts News
It is almost the holidays and we have FINALLY finshed and hung some artwork! This term has been very difficult with so many people missing lessons here and there. The senior unit looks colourful and alive with fantastic Lego Figure self potraits!
Lego Self Portraits
