Newsletter #19 July 15
Principal's News
Dear St Paul's Families,
Welcome back to the start of Term 3. I hope you all had an opportunity, where possible, to enjoy some down time over the holiday period. Unfortunately, we are required to maintain our restrictions due to the current situation in Victoria. This continues to put a strain on many families within the community in a number of ways. However, it is more important than ever that we continue to follow the guidelines in place for our own safety.
Our school day now finishes at its normal time of 3.25pm. We have done this to ensure that our children do not miss out on any more valuable learning time as, I am sure you would agree, they have missed enough already. This has also meant that we have an increase in the number of parents collecting their children at the end of the day through the Drive Through area. Due to the rise in vehicle numbers, it would be beneficial if some parents could arrive a little later than normal. This would certainly help with traffic flow. School finishes at 3.25pm and the gates for the drive through open at 3.30pm. All children are to be collected no later than 3.45pm. Please remind your children daily whether they will be picked up through the drive through or on foot at the front pedestrian gate. This will help avoid any confusion. If your child's travel arrangements change during the day, contact the office so we can let your child/ren know.
It is wonderful to see so many children recieve Gotcha awards. Quite a few children have reached the 50 Gotchas and are back on track to reach another 50. I have certainly enjoyed the children who wanted to be a Principal for an hour or have afternoon tea with me. It has definitely been entertaining!
Congratulations to this week's list of winners.
25 GOTCHA AWARD WINNERS: Pheonix Toutai, Leon Zaire, Abbiegail Peters, Xander Hunia, Denim Humphrey, Rubi Barila, Oliver Welsh, Hayden Rowe, Vienna Panagiotopoulos, Alissa Ovenden, Darcy O'Callaghan, Jett Johnson, India Droffelaar, Elizabeth Toutai, Angela Luo, Harriet Gibson, Thomas Graham, Lachlan Prescott, Lila Senior,
50 GOTCHA AWARD WINNERS: Ruby Slimmon, Tuan Nguyen, Aphisit Morris, Lily Jamieson, Sophie Freeth, Vivian Thai, Jules O'Donnell, Treeza Jessil, Gabriel Collins, Janelle Tran, Cienna Pascale, Lola Droffelaar, Bridie Cranston. Eddy Lion, Joel Tuifua, Max Mangan
Foundation enrolments are still open for the 2021 school year. If you have not contacted the office to fill in an application form, please do so as soon as possible. At this stage we are not able to host onsite school tours. We will be working on a virtual tour to share soon.
At the end of last term we celebrated our St Paul's Feast Day. While it was not met with the same fanfare as in years past, it was certainly celebrated with enthusiasm by the children and staff. Thank you to the staff for organising the activities. In a couple of weeks we will be able to assemble their artworks and have them on display in the hall. There will be plenty of photos to share once the display is complete.
We welcome the following students Lilliana Bush (M2) and Alice Blanchard (J7) who are continuing their educational journey here at St Paul’s. I am sure that everyone will make them feel most comfortable and welcome here.
A special welcome to Sam Keller and Carmel Seiler to St Paul's as they complete their Learning Support Officer placement over the next 5 weeks. I am sure they will enjoy their time with us and find it an invaluable learning experience.
A reminder that we will be hosting our student led conferences next week. These will be conducted online or via phone call on Tuesday 21st and Wednesday 22nd July either before or after school. You can book your interview via the SIMON Everywhere App and select the "Parent Teacher interviews" button or phone Admin.
As Always
Keep the Faith.
Vince Muscatello
Principal
Religious Education News
Updated Sacramental Program
Welcome to the updated Sacred Heart Parish Sacramental Program for 2020. Due to COVID-19, our Grade 4 students were unable to celebrate their Sacrament of Reconciliation earlier this year, followed by their Sacrament of First Eucharist last month.
We have some updated plans, however since these plans and dates have been developed, our restrictions have changed yet again. For now, please take note of the following dates. The Sacramental Team will be meeting tomorrow afternoon and we will provide you with further updates following this meeting.
Parent Information Evening about the Sacrament of First Eucharist - Tuesday 21st July 2020 at 7pm at the Sacred Heart Church
Sacrament of First Reconciliation - Wednesday 29th July 2020 at 7pm at the Sacred Heart Church. Students have already completed all of their preparation for the reception of this sacrament.
If you have any further questions regarding the updated sacramental program, please contact either Mrs Maria-Stella Blagus via email mblagus@spmildura.catholic.edu.au or contact the Parish Office from Tuesday-Friday, 9.15am-4pm.
Senior Unit News
We're Back!
It was great to see our Grade 5 and 6 students return yesterday! Below are Darcy, Jett, Lyla, Ava, Bella and Bianca celebrating the beginning of Term! We look forward to sharing many memories with you throughout the term.
Relationships and Sexuality Unit
Just a reminder that this Friday we will beginning our Relationships and Sexuality Unit. The scope and sequence covers a range of topics such as - my body, life cycles, relationships, identity, taking care and getting help when I need it. If you have any questions regarding this please e-mail your child's classroom teacher.
Junior Unit News
Hello everyone and welcome back to Term 3. We are all very excited to be back at school and ready for a big term of learning.
We have all been preparing for our Student Led Conferences next week by thinking about some goals we would like to work towards this semester and choose some work to share. We can't wait to share this with you!
In Writing, we have been learning about Information Reports and already this week students have created a plan with facts based on Koalas.
This week, we have been learning all about subtraction. Here is a photo of some hard working students solving some subtraction problems together!
Foundation Unit News
Welcome back to Term 3. The children have settled back into school this term and continue to amaze us with how independent and capable they are with walking themselves into school each morning and continuing to complete their morning routines. They are very excited with the new investigation areas. We have a fantastic Camping Area where they have been busy catching fish and cooking them, sitting by the camp fire and sitting inside the Teepee. There is a School Area where they have been having fun being the teacher and conducting their own lessons. The other areas are: construction, lego, playdough, dolls and trains. It has been a pleasure to watch the children engage with each other and learn some valuable life lessons.
Middle Unit News
Hello Middle Unit families,
We are so glad to see everyone back at school ready for a great term. Thank you to the students who have been bringing their own personal drink bottle. As we are unable to use the bubble taps at school at the moment we ask that ALL students bring their own water bottle.
This week we will begin learning about how to write a persuasive text. Yep, that's right! We are teaching the children how to argue. Be ready to have some creative and convincing conversations with your children over the following weeks. As a part of this we will be making small plastic bottle greenhouses and have asked all students to bring in a clean plastic bottle of some sort. Clear ones are best so that we can see our herbs and vegetables growing in front of our eyes!
In maths we are starting subtraction so if you know any great 'take-away' games to play at home then now is the time. In Religion we are looking at why St Mary MacKillop is so significant in our lives today and the kids will be able to tell you some of the amazing things that she ahs done.
We hope you have enjoyed the return to school as much as we have and look forward to a great term!
Middle Unit Teachers
Physical Education Update
Welcome back to term 3 everyone! I hope you all had a wonderful break which allowed you to rejuvenate the body and mind. I enjoyed walking on the beach with my family and even playing some games of throwing golf with some buoys we found along the way.
On Friday 7th August we were due to hold our annual Mini Olympics. Due to the current circumstances we have decided to not hold our event this year. However, we will enjoy some fun tabloid sports activities at school that day instead. These will be happening between lunch and recess, with the Senior and Middle classes being out on the John Hill Oval and the Foundation and Junior grades on the Mercy Oval.
Despite this news, we have still been practicing our Mini Olympics skills during our PE lessons this week. The younger grades are learning their frisbee, long jump and soccer kicking techniques. The older grades are measuring their shot put distances.
Here are some action shots of our Junior students from the end of last term while they were practicing their overarm throwing skills. Each class was aiming for hoops and splats that were worth different points. J8 were the overall winnners (as pictured).
Kyra Mitchell (PE teacher/Sports Coordinator)
My New Gallery
Hands Up Mallee
The Community Relief Team is here to keep our community safe. They are working closely with other organisations and can connect families to get the support that they need. This includes emergency food relief, social support, financial support, collecting prescriptions and more!
If you would like to access this service please email the Community Relief Service at communityrelief@mildura.vic.gov.au
or call (03) 5018 8588 Monday - Friday 8am - 5pm
or complete an online request form at
Anyone is welcome to access this service and make a referral. Once your request has been received, a team member will be in contact to help take away some of the stress and link you with services that will support your health and wellbeing during this challenging time. Where possible (if requested) you will be linked with an Aboriginal team member or interpreter service.
Student Wellbeing
YOGA at St. Paul's
St Paul's acknowledges that these are uncertian times and that this can create stress in the lives of adults and children. In order to reduce stress at this time the school is offering free Yoga Classes at recess on a Thursday in the hall. Yoga sessions will be run by a trained professional. All students are welcome.
PLAY Activities at Lunch Time
In order to increase students physical activity at this time when community sports are restricted our Senior students will be running the Play Program at Lunch time on Tuesday's and Thursdays. All students from F-2 are welcome to join in with these fun activities.
Student Wellbeing Groups
Felicity is running wellbeing groups this term including:
Free To Be
Social Express
Brave OnLine Program and
Deadily Choices continuing from last term
Library News
Hello from the Library. A big thankyou to Oscar for the very kind donation of this lovely book 'Will you be my Mate?' The book has a lovely photo of Oscar in the inside cover and he was very excited to be the first person to borrow it.
Students have been doing a great job returning overdue books this week, remember have a look around for any forgotten books.
At this stage our first Bookfair for the year will be held from the 19th until the 21st of October. Book week will be celebrated from the 17th until the 23rd of October. the theme this year is 'Curious Creatures, Wild Minds'.
Arts News
At the end of last term, the students in the junior unit created some spooktacular artwork!
We watched an animated version of "Creepy Carrots" by Aaron Reynolds and then drew our own version, using wax crayon and food colouring. They also used watered down white paint to spray a black piece of paper for their background, in order to create a 'night sky'.
In the second session we looked at how eyebrows can completely change the expression on a face and the students designed and drew eyebrows on their art piece. They also designed a mouth and glued on goggle eyes.
All of the Creepy Carrots are hanging in the junior classrooms, but here are just a sample of some of these great creations for you to enjoy :)
Creepy Carrots
Technology News
Term 3 is going to be very interesting in the Technology Room...we've been overrun by mice.
Lucky for us, they are fun to play with!!!
These 'Code and Go' robotic mice arrived today and, over the term, will be used to teach algorithmic thinking, coding, and problem-solving in grades F-2. Students in years 3-6 will also be learning these skills using the web-based coding app Scratch 3.0.
Pretty much everything that kids touch involves coding these days—their remote controls, TVs, phones, watches—we are a technological society, and it’s only going to increase in the future. This is why teaching coding is so powerful. However, coding is a great way to learn more than just this one aspect of computer science. Coding also teaches critical thinking, problem solving, persistence, resilience, courage, communication, attention to detail, logic, collaboration, empathy, maths, processing skills, determination, and creativity.
Below is a list of age appropriate coding apps and websites you may like to investigate and explore with you children, so you too can reap the rewards coding has to offer.
Until next week, remember...
Technology is cool, but you've GOT to use it as OPPOSED to letting it use YOU!
Mrs Narelle Simms
Online Safety in the Home
Keeping our children safe online is always a concern for parents. To provide support for parents, the eSafety Commissioner are offering free online webinars to learn more about online safety. The upcoming webinar: "eSafety's parent guide to online gaming," will cover:
- the benefits of gaming and how to mitigate the risks,
- strategies to manage gaming and overuse, and
- where to find help and support.
For more information and to register click here:
Future upcoming webinars will include:
- A parent's guide to screen time
- A parent's guide to the latest apps