2022 Newsletter #14 May 11
Principal News
Dear St Paul's families,
Welcome to the weekly update. I'm sorry I missed the Mothers' Day celebrations on Friday , but it was great to see all the photos on our school Facebook page. I hope that all our mums and special women in our lives were acknowledged, recognised and fussed over on the weekend. While it is one day of the year we celebrate and recognise what our mums do for us, the reality is they deserve the accolades every day.
Congratulations to this week's milestone winners for following our school norms.
BEE MILESTONE AWARD: Archer Barlow, Robert Burns, Kooper Carmichael, James Echanes, Manny Fakaia-Reale, Abbie Freeth, Lucien Graham-O'Connor, Baine Hateley, Cohen Hateley, Zalee Le Poidevin, Max Milsteed, Levi Morton, Jimmy Mott, Victoria Mouzakis, James Nadalo, Lyn Nazombe, Grace Panagopoulos, Olivia Puleio, Bruce Ratcliffe, Christella Shahin, Victoria Taylor and Jenny Tran
CATHOLIC EDUCATION WEEK: Every year we celebrate Catholic Education and share with our school communities our hopes, dreams and aspirations, that we have as educators, for the children in our care. On Friday 27th May at 10.00am, we will be celebrating Mass with Sacred Heart, Our Lady's Merbein, St Joseph's Red Cliffs, St Mary's Robinvale and St Joseph's College. Mass will be celebrated at SJC stadium , Mercy campus on 11th St. Our theme this year is "Share the Good News". If you would like to attend the Mass, please let us know.
SCHOOL BUS TRAVEL: CDC Mildura, under the direction of Department of Transport Victoria, would like to remind everyone that students are not to carry a scooter that cannot be folded and placed in a secure bag on the buses.
This directive, from the Department Of Transport, is in place for the safety of all travelling on board the network to avoid the scooter becoming a missile in the case of an accident.
ENROLMENT INTERVIEWS & DISCOVERY TOURS: Don't forget enrolments are open for 2023. For all enquiries and enrolment interview bookings, please visit the school website for more information. If you have missed our Discovery tours please contact the school for further information to arrange a visit.
WELCOME: A warm St Paul's welcome to Skye Boatswain who is completing a 4th year placement with us in Foundation. I hope she finds her time with us informative and rewarding as she prepares for a career in teaching.
NAPLAN: Well done to the children for their effort in completing the NAPLAN assessment tasks this week. It's a new experience for them this year as the majority of it is online. NAPLAN provides us with a brief snapshot of your child's learning at one moment in time. Throughout the course of the year we are always evaluating and assessing student growth and progress to help inform best practice in teaching and learning.
As always,
Keep the Faith!
Vince Muscatello
Catholic Education Week
Learning Diversity News
Term Two Program Support Group (PSG) Meetings have been scheduled for the students who are receiving additional support and adjustments with their learning program.
Parents/Carers of students requiring a PSG Meeting have been sent an SMS alert and have a time booked for this meeting in the coming weeks. Please check the Parent Teacher Interview tab on SIMON Everywhere App for the details regarding the date and time.
PSG Meetings are regularly held to ensure students are provided with equitable access and learning opportunities at school. It is important for parents/carers to attend these meetings either in person, via telephone or video conference. St Paul’s highly values parent’s contributions about their child’s learning needs at school.
Thank you for your support.
Lauren Gibson
Senior Unit News
Senior unit students and teachers are working together to get through another full week. Along with doing our best with the NAPLAN tests we are continuing to explore positive coping strategies in our 4R’s lessons. We are sharing some ways we can bounce back from the challenges in our lives by having a collection of positive coping strategies such as breathing exercises, being creative and talking it out. Please ask your child to share the positive coping strategies they find most helpful in stressful situations.
Thank you to the parents who have volunteered to come on the Mildura Field Day excursion next Friday. This important excursion will help springboard our term 2 MAPPEN unit and your support is appreciated. As we explore the Mildura Field Days exhibits, we will be looking for the different ways products are developed and marketed and bringing these ideas back to the classroom to help us plan, design, build and improve our own products. The unit called ‘Bizarre, bazaar’ will be our focus in the classroom and Technology lessons for the rest of the term and we can’t wait to share our efforts with you later in the term.
Junior Unit News
Our Religious Education unit about Love has inspired many beautiful conversations this week. Thank you so much to those families who were able to complete the 'Love is..' questionnaires that came home.
We had so much fun last Friday, as we prepared to spoil our Mums, Aunties, Grandmothers and other special women on Mother's Day. Some of the Junior children would like to share with us why their Mums are loved so deeply:
Manny (J4) - My mum is funny.
Emma (J4) - My mum is amazing and she looks after me.
Dexter (J4) - My mum helps me with everything.
Jayden (J4) - My mum always loves me.
Harry (J5) - My mum buys stuff for me.
Asena (J5) - My mum cuddles me.
Christella (J5) - My mum hugs and kisses me.
Elijah (J5) - My mum cuddles me when I'm sad.
Sylvia (J7) - My mum is really nice to me and lets me play games.
Sam (J7) - My mum helps me when I can't do things.
Parker (J7) - My mum brought me into the world.
Chloe (J7) - My mum loves me.
Spencer (J8) - My mum keeps me safe.
Fetongi (J8) - My mum gives me big cuddles.
Tate (J8) - My mum makes me food.
Please enjoy this gallery of photos showing our Mother's Day preparations.
Our next exciting event will be the Junior Unit Liturgy and Mappen Expo. You are all warmly invited to join us, so please pencil in Friday 10th June 12.15 - 2.00.
In Week 7 (Mon 6th June - Fri 1oth June) the children will be working in groups to design and make shadow puppet theatres. Each class will need five cardboard boxes (the ideal box would be a shoebox suitable for boots - see picture for reference). If you have a box to spare, please send it in to school before Week 7. Thank you.
Have you seen our new Junior Unit display? The children worked together, mosaicing letters to spell out the joyful Easter proclamation "Alleluia! Jesus is Risen!". We are very proud of this shared artpiece.
Foundation Unit News
Welcome to Week 3!
Last week the children were busy having their photos taken for the Mother's Day photos. We hope you received your photo from your child.
It was lovely to see so many Mothers, Grandmothers and special people attend the Mother's Day Picnic last Friday. Below are some photos of the children enjoying their lunch.
Middle Unit News
On Tuesday our Grade 3 students sat their first NAPLAN tests. We are very proud of all of them.
In Religion we have started our new unit, Unity. The students have been watching a clip on how the community came together to assist during the flood disaster. The students then created a polaroid picture to show the different ways people assisted. Below you can see some of our polaroids.
Hands Up Mallee
Friday 20th May is Walk Safely to School Day.
This event seeks to promote road safety, health, public transport, and the environment.
As we have done in the past, we will have a walking school bus leaving from Number 1 oval 12th Street Gate at 8:00a.m. Mr McDermott or Narelle Simpson will be waiting for you and will walk to school with the students (parents and other siblings are more than welcome to join us). If your child/children will be joining the Walking School Bus, please email me at nsimpson@spmildura.catholic.edu.au so I have an idea of who we will be looking for on the morning (if you forget to email, you are still welcome to join us). Alternatively, students are asked to walk to school – think about a closer spot you could drop them off so they could walk part of the way if they are unable to walk all the way.
It would be great to see as many kids walking as possible.
As a result of our successful National Ride your bike to school day, we have decided (after receiving feedback from the students) that every Friday students from different units will have the opportunity to ride or scoot to school and during first lunch break they will be able to use their bikes/scooters on the basketball courts. The students are very excited about this, and we see it as a wonderful opportunity to encourage more physical activity in their day. This Friday the SENIOR UNIT will have the undercover basketball court available to them at lunch time. This certainly doesn’t mean that other students don’t ride/scoot to school then, they just won’t be able to use their bikes/scooters at lunchtime. Each week I will advise which Unit will have the basketball court available to them.
We are also very pleased to announce that we were successful in receiving a grant to buy some new bike racks which have now arrived and are in the undercover area outside Mr Muscatello’s office window. Bikes will be out of the weather whilst at school!
Mr McDermott will also be attending a Bike Safety course that will qualify him to teach Bike Safety to the students so that we can hopefully encourage more students to ride/scoot safely to school on a regular basis.
Division Cross Country
On Thursday 5th May, 15 students from St Paul's Primary participated in the Sunraysia Division Cross Country held at the Aero ovals. In chilly conditions, students aged 9 or 10 completed a track covering 2kms, while students aged 11 or 12/13 ran a 3km track. All students attending were great representatives for the school. They demonstrated persistence and determination when competing. Below is a list of the students that ran and the positions that they finished.
9/10 yrs Boys: Tyler O'Rielly - 14th, Konna Peters - 38th, Jimmy Mott - 41st, Cohen Hateley - 54th
9/10 yrs Girls: Addison Welch - 15th, Samuella Allieu - 18th, Lyn Nazombe - 26th
11 yrs Boys: Keelan Roper - 8th, Conor O'Rielly - 47th
11yrs Girls: Mila Pascale - 14th
12/13 yrs Boys: Oliver Capp - 10th, Liam Brown - 24th, Zander Hateley - 27th, Ben Boby -29th Darcy Strubelj - 40th
Congratulations to all the students above on a great effort and a special mention to Oliver and Keelan. As they finished in the top 12 in their race, they now get to compete at the Regional Cross Country in St Arnaud on Tuesday May 31st. Best of luck boys.
Action shots from Cross Country
Continuous Raffle
Congratulations to the following families who won a prize in the Continuous raffle drawn on Friday 6th May.
- Jumanji Game donated by Mangan Family won by Mackay family.
- Crayola Silly Scents donated by Slimmon Family won by Horne family.
- Pop n' Hop game & Book donated by Mangan & Strubelj families won by Fidura family.
- Marvel Books won by Hunter Vo family.
Thank you to families for donating prizes for the continuous raffle. If you indicated on your 2022 School Fee Commitment form (Parental Help) that you would donate a prize to the value of $30 these can be sent into the office.