Newsletter #13 May 4
Principal News
Dear St Paul's families,
Welcome to this week's news. The weather is certainly beginning to cool down and yet is still warm in the afternoons. As you can imagine the lost property box is starting to fill up quickly with jumpers. It is so much easier when they are clearly labelled with your child's name so they can be returned. Please check them carefully this week as the cooler weather settles in.
Enrolments for 2023 are now open.
- Discovery Tours – these are for families who are new to the school and would like to learn more about what our school has to offer. They will be run over 2 weeks. If any of our current families know of anyone who may be interested please let them know.
- Enrolment Interviews will be conducted from 23rd May to 2nd June 2022.
This year we have an online process for booking the tours & enrolment interviews. These can be accessed through the school’s website or by using the QR code. Scroll down through the list of events to select either the tour (new families) or ENROLMENT INTERVIEW (new & current families) date & time you prefer. The forms can be translated into a different language by selecting from drop down box at top of form N.B. Answers must be entered in English.
If you have any queries or need any help please don’t hesitate to contact Reception or email office@spmildura.catholic.edu.au
RAT TESTS- Families are still encouraged to test their children twice weekly. If you haven't collected your child's test pack please contact the office to collect.
GOTCHA AWARDS- Congratulations to this week's winners. A wonderful achievement to date.
BEE MILESTONE AWARDS- Emma Williams, Addison Welsh, Eden Vo, Tolini Vave, Aiden Varghese Moolayil, Vanessa Trajceski, Ariah Tickle, Poppy Thannhauser, Erin Taylor, Zeva Smythe, Hayley Rowe, Hayden Rowe, Keelan Roper, Faye Ratcliffe, Jessica Ram, Issac Puleio, Olivia Prescott, Lyla Powell, Konna Peters, Vienna Panagiotopoulos, Riley O'Callaghan, Lottie Moyle, Helen Mouzakis, Parker Mott, Dean Morvell, Chloe Moir, Sam Midgley, Lexie McMahon, Sienna McKay, Jennifer Ly, Lachlan Limburg, Alia Lijo, Spencer Kimpton, Ethan Jones, Harlow Johnson, Treeza Jessil, Luke Hunt, Lacey Hunt, Elijah Hunt, Skylar Humphrey, Sienna Humphrey, Mike Hogan, Angela Harris, Oliver Harradine, Elih Groenan, Annalise Goncalves-Wood, Harriet Gibson, Daisy Gibson, Ella Garland, Sofia Echanes, Jaxon Dunn, Hannah Davies, Sofia Cricelli, Emma Circosta, Milan Caristo, Darcy Bysouth, Harrison Burns, Bryce Body, Rubi Barila, Samuella Allieu, Jessica Allieu and Asena Akkus
HIVE MILESTONE AWARDS- Andrea Norton
CROSS COUNTRY - Well done to Mr McDermott and the children who participated in the Cross Country on Friday. Thank you to the parents who were able to come along and cheer on the children. Good luck to the Middle and Senior students who qualified for the Division Cross Country tomorrow. I am sure they will do a fantastic job representing St Paul's
GRIP LEADERSHIP- The Senior unit leadership group is participating in the GRIP Leadership program at the Mildura Function Centre today with Mrs Simms. It is a great day of activities and learning focussed on what it means to be a leader.
NAPLAN- Next week the Year 3 and Year 5 students will be participating in the Naplan assessment tasks. This year the majority of the tasks will be completed online. Thank you to Mrs Sutherland and Mrs Simms for coordinating the roll out of this and to the Middle and Senior unit teachers for supporting the children in preparing and understanding how the assessments work. NAPLAN presents a snapshot of the children's learning at one particular time. We conduct numerous assessments regularly to show the growth in our children’s learning.
MOTHERS' DAY- This Friday we will celebrate Mothers' Day at school with a shared lunch and Liturgy. More information and details in today's newsletter. I hope that all our mums, grandmas and the special women in our life are acknowledged and spoiled this weekend because they absolutely deserve it for all they do for us. Happy Mothers' Day!
ASSEMBLY- Don't forget this Friday afternoon in the hall at 2.45pm. You are all most welcome to attend.
Enjoy the rest of the week and 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.
Religious Education News
Mother's Day Picnic & Liturgy ~ Friday 6th May 2022
The children and staff at St Paul's would like to invite all our special mothers, grandmothers, carers and all other special women in our lives to our Mother's Day BYO Picnic Lunch from 11.40am on the John Hill Oval. Please bring along a picnic rug and lunch to share with your loved ones (lunch orders will still be available to order for both children and mothers). Lunch will be followed by our Mother's Day Liturgy at 12.15pm in our School Hall, which is a time to celebrate and give thanks to YOU! We look forward to celebrating with you all on Friday!
Mother's Day Photos
Thank you to all the mothers, grandmothers, carers and all other special women in our lives who have emailed through a photo of themselves with their children and / or grandchildren. It would be absolutely amazing if we can have as many members of our school community represented in our presentation at our liturgy this Friday, so if you could please email through a photograph to Mrs Blagus via email mblagus@spmildura.catholic.edu.au by tomorrow afternoon, that would be greatly appreciated. We look forward to celebrating you all this Friday.
Mother's Day Stall
Senior Unit News
Students and teachers have hit the ground running with lots of new and interesting learning. In Literacy we are exploring texts to help us learn more about Australia’s amazing history. This includes life in Australia prior to colonisation and ANZAC Day. We are writing extended sentences to make our writing more interesting and informative.
Here are a few examples
During the summer of 1788, Narangaroo and his family were living at creek camp. Barangaroo and his family are here for a nice place to stay and also for good food and fresh water. ~ Zeva Smythe
In 1788, Barangaroo and his family decided to visit creek camp for the summer because they had good food and water supply. ~ Olivia Prescott
In Maths we’re consolidating our learning about fractions, decimals and percentages and there’s been some fun investigations to get us thinking and see how our skills can be used out in the real world.
This week we have students representing St Paul’s at the Division Cross Country event as well as at the GRIP leadership. We are so proud of how hard our Senior students work to challenge themselves and be their best.
Teachers are planning for our excursion to the Mildura Field Day on Friday 20th May. It would be helpful to have some parents to supervise small groups of students as they move around and look at the displays. A current Working with Children Check (WWC) is required. Please contact Ms Courtney if you would like to join us.
Please ensure you have given consent on SIMON Everywhere for your child to attend this activity.
As part of the transition process to secondary school, our Gr 6 students have a fantastic opportunity for a secondary school experience to St Joseph’s College on Wednesday 25th May.
Parents should drop their child off directly at Mercy campus (cnr Eleventh St & Riverside Ave) please enter by the 11th street gate by 8.30am. A staff member will meet all students. They can be collected by parents at the end of the day (3.20pm). The college will provide a BBQ lunch for all students. Students are to wear casual clothes. Please advise Ms Tracy Aston if your child has any food allergies via email admissions@sjcmda.vic.edu.au or phone 50188034. All Grade 6 students to attend regardless of 2023 college they will be attending.
Please ensure you have given consent on SIMON Everywhere.
Middle Unit News
Welcome back to all our students and parents. We hope you all had a restful and enjoyable break. The students have settled back into learning and we are working hard and building on all our learning from Term One.
In Literacy, we have been learning to express our ideas and our understanding using the strategy ‘Because But So’. Students are given a sentence stem and asked to create three different sentences using the conjunctions because, but and so. When students returned to school last week we used sentence stems to create sentences about our holidays. On Thursday and Friday we did some learning about Anzac Day. We then created sentences to show our understanding of what we have learnt. The students have been focusing on ensuring their sentences include rich vocabulary, have correct punctuation and make sense.
We are very proud of all our students who participated in the cross country on Friday. It was also lovely to see our students' enthusiasm to go and watch and cheer on their siblings.
Because But So
Junior Unit News
We were so very proud of the Junior Unit children last Friday during our Cross Country event. All the children gave their best effort and demonstrated persistence, sportsmanship and team spirit. What a wonderful way to kick off Term Two! Thank you to those family members who were able to attend.
This term we will be immersed in the Science of Light and Sound. We will be learning all about different sources of light and sound and how they can be manipulated in interesting ways. We 'tuned in' to this learning last week by experimenting with torches and creating shadow shapes with our hands.
Here are some photos of our intrepid scientists...
Our Religious Education topic for the term is "Love". We will be talking in class about what love means. It would be great if you could have a chat at home about how love is expressed in your family.
The weather is about to get much colder, according to the forecast, so please ensure your child has a jumper at school each day. Please double check that all jumpers are clearly labelled. Thank you.
We wish all the mothers, aunties, grandmothers and special women in our lives a wonderful Mothers' Day this weekend. We hope you have the opportunity to rest and to feel truly appreciated.
Foundation Unit News
Welcome to Term 2!
It promises to be a very busy term. Last week we held our Cross Country. The children were very excited and had a lot of fun participating. They also enjoyed watching the Gr 1 and Gr 2 children run the extra distance and cheering them on. We would like to thank all of the parents who found the time to come and support their children.
This term in Literacy the children are learning to write sentences. To begin with, the children are given the first part of the sentence and they are having a go at finishing the sentence. Eg. I can sit ...... on the mat. So far, they have been doing a fantastic job at writing the last part of the sentence.
Technology News
Term 2 has kicked off with a BANG in the Technology Room.
Last term students in the Middle Unit explored a range of different ways to represent data, including QR codes. This term they have jumped in the deep end and are putting that learning into practice. Students are using their digital literacy skills to create an mp4 file using images, videos and sound files. Students will then link this to a QR code to share their work with others.
All students are very keen to share their creations when they are finished.
Meanwhile, this week Foundation students started a Design and Technology unit learning to select and prepare food for healthy eating. They began by exploring different foods and identifying which ones are healthy.
As parents, keeping our children safe online is a high priority. Sometimes though, it can feel impossible to know how and where to start. To help you, the eSafety Commissioner is hosting FREE webinars this month for parents to learn how to set up parental controls on devices and apps to keep your children safe online. Check it out.
Until next week, remember; "technology should improve your life...not become your life." - Billy Cox
Mrs Narelle Simms
Hands Up Mallee
Sunraysia Community Health Services (SCHS) are running a competition for all school aged children across Sunraysia to create an Active travel poster that will be used to promote Walk to School later this year.
We encourage any student to create a poster. There will be 3 prizes of $100 Gift Vouchers to Officeworks as well as their design being used to promote Walk to School month during 2022.
The poster MUST include – lots of colour, pictures and text, information promoting kids to walk/ride/scoot to school, be in A4 format.
Think about what is active travel and why is it good for us? What pictures can I add to support this?
Any entries can be given to Narelle Simpson, dropped off at the Office or emailed to nsimpson@spmildura.catholic.edu.au before 20th July.
It would be great to have a winning entry from our school! Let’s get designing!