2022 Newsletter #15 May 18
Principal News
Dear St Paul's families,
Welcome to this week's news update.
COVID UPDATE: There has been an increase in reported Covid cases and "Flurona" across the district. The cooler weather is certainly beginning to impact on general health and wellbeing. Remember, you are still encouraged to test your children twice weekly. Please call in to the office to collect an RA test kit for each child. Please ensure your children are wearing the correct winter uniform. We need to be as proactive as possible to minimise the impact of covid and the flu on our school community.
Congratulations to this week’s Milestone Winners for following our school norms.
BEE MILESTONE: Elsa Allieu, Dan Boby, Aaron Clarke, Sophie Freeth, Naomi Havea, Angus Hissey, Denim Humphrey, Angela Iang, Chimdindu Ilozue, Lily Jamieson, Austin Jones, Charlene Lion, Dexter Madden, Mackenzie Mangan, Max Mangan, Scarlett Moir, Dolly Moore, Deji Obatoki, Mason Roccisano, Sylvia Jade Simmons, Macki Tickle, Akesa Toto, Candice Treweek and Jayden Vo
HIVE MILESTONE: Will Hogan
PRINCIPAL MEETING: Tomorrow & Friday, I will be attending our termly Diocesan Leadership Gathering in Horsham with all the Principals of the Diocese. This is an important opportunity to discuss and explore all the current issues that are affecting Catholic education at the moment in the Ballarat Diocese and look at ways of improving education for all.
FIELD DAYS EXCURSION: I hope the Senior students have a great time exploring the Mildura Field days this Friday. It's important for them to understand how important the agricultural industry is to the Sunraysia area but also the use of technology and career opportunities that exist within the various industries.
WELCOME: Welcome to Stephanie Ban from IEU who is visiting today. Stephanie is the organiser for our area and is catching up with staff to share and discuss current issues within education.
SCHOOL PHOTOS: The catch up photos take a week ago have arrived and are being sent home with students today. Please ensure you check their bags so they don't get lost.
Please continue to check on SIMON Everywhere for updates and upcoming events.
As Always,
Keep the Faith.
Vince Muscatello
Religious Education News
Catholic Education Week Mass
Next Friday 27th May 2022, all students and staff at St Paul's Primary School will be celebrating our combined schools Catholic Education Week Mass with Sacred Heart PS, Our Lady's Merbein, St Joseph's Red Cliffs, St Mary's Robinvale and St Joseph's College at the St Joseph's College Mercy Stadium (located on the corner of Eleventh St & Riverside Ave) from 10am-11am. This year's Catholic Education Week theme is "Share the Good News."
All staff and students will travel to and from the stadium via bus, with the first buses departing school at 9.10am. All staff and students will be back at school by 11.30am. As this is an offsite excursion, all students will require consent via SIMON Everywhere. This will be made available in the coming days and parents should receive a notification.
Students will need to wear their full school uniform. They will not need to take anything with them to the Mass, however will still require their usual brain food, lunch, snacks etc. to eat when they return to school. Lunch orders will still be available to order for a slightly later lunch.
An invitation is extended to families and friends to join us for our celebration, however they will need to make their own way to and from the stadium. As seating is limited, please advise Mrs Blagus (mblagus@spmildura.catholic.
If you have any further questions regarding our celebration, please don't hesitate to reach out.
Senior Unit News
Well done to all our Grade 5 students that participated in Naplan last week. The children approached the assessment with positivity and should be proud of their efforts.
On Friday the Senior unit had a visit from Victoria Police. Students looked at ways to keep their homes safe.
This Friday we have our excursion to the Mildura Field Days. A reminder that students will need to have a packed lunch and drink bottle for the day. No Canteen lunch orders will be available for grades 5&6 on this day.
Reminder: Sports uniform days are Tuesdays and Fridays.
We need your help...
Middle Unit News
In Literacy last week our students have been reading the book 'Somebody's Land'. Students then used their knowledge of sentence types to write sentences about what they had read. Using a range of different sentence types helps make our writing interesting. We invite you to come in to have a look at our writing.
This week we are finishing our Subtraction learning cycle. The students have done a fantastic job of learning lots of different strategies that can assist them to solve subtraction problems. It would be great if our students can continue to practice these skills at home. You could ask them a simple subtraction equation such as 18 - 9.
Junior Unit News
To boost our efforts to follow our school norms, "Be Respectful. Be Safe. Be Our Best" we have implemented a regular whole-unit meeting. Every three weeks, the whole unit will come together to set a goal and celebrate four children (one from each class) who have been models of outstanding behaviour. We congratulate our first four 'Positive Behaviour Superstars'- April, Andrea, Chloe and Hannah. These girls have shown leadership by dealing with day-to-day issues assertively. They were all able to model to the unit how to use strong voices and body language when using the message 'Stop. I don't like it'. Our next Unit Meeting will be in Week 6 and we look forward to celebrating our next four Positive Behaviour Superstars!
BOXES NEEDED! We are still on the look out for boxes for the shadow puppet theatres we'll be making in Mappen Week (Week 7). If you have a nice big box at home doing nothing, please send it our way! (We need boxes about the size of a microwave, but we're not fussy!) Thank you.
Foundation Unit News
It is wonderful to see all of the children who are trying really hard to learn their "Rainbow Words". Our rainbow is starting to fill up with names. It is important as well as reading every night to keep learning the Rainbow words as well.
In Maths this week we are learning about ordinal numbers from first to tenth. It would be wonderful if you had the opportunity to reinforce this skill at home with your child in an informal way.
In Religion this week we are learning about the word "Sacred". We are talking about Sacred places and things.
The children are learning how to write simple sentences. Try asking your children what a sentence needs. Their initial response will probably be "a capital letter and a full stop". Then ask them what it needs to tell you. Hopefully they will say "it needs a who and a what doing". Eg The dog sat on the mat (Who - dog and the What doing - sat on the mat)
There are a large number of jumpers and hats in the Foundation Unit that go missing. Please make sure that all of your children's belongings are clearly named.
Technology News
This term, the Senior Unit have been learning to apply creative thinking skills to be more discerning when making decisions and solving problems. Thinking creatively helps when planning, designing, building and improving. In Mappen Week, students will use these skills and process in their classroom as they become entrepreneurs; planning, designing, building, improving and marketing their own unique products.
Developing Product Ideas...
Until next week, remember; "technology should improve your life...not become your life." - Billy Cox
Mrs Narelle Simms
ATTENTION ALL PARENTS/CARERS
Are your children using image sharing apps such as Instagram & Snapchat?
As a school, we have become aware that some students are using these image sharing apps on personal devices outside of school hours.
Are you aware both instagram and snapchat have a minimum age limit of 13?
Although it is a parenting choice to allow access to these apps, the age limit is in place to protect children from mature content, access to strangers, marketing ploys, and data collection.
The school has been made aware some students using these apps are sharing inappropriate images, personal information and even using the platform to bully and harrass others. As a parent/carer allowing access to these online image sharing apps, it is your responsibility to supervise the content your child is sharing and receiving.
Click on the link below to access the eSafety Commissioners resource, 'Are They Old Enough', so you can make an informed decision about your child's access to online sharing platforms, like Instagram and Snapchat.
If you have any questions or concerns you would like to discuss, do not hesitate to contact your child's classroom teacher or our school's Learning Technologies Leader, Mrs Narelle Simms.
Hands Up Mallee
Just a reminder that this FRIDAY 20th May is Walk Safely to School Day. 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). Please email nsimpson@spmildura.catholic.edu.au to advise if you are going to be meeting us so we know who to wait for (if you forget to email it’s still okay to meet us but if you are running late, we won’t know to wait for you).
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.
Last Friday the Senior students had a lot of fun with their bikes/scooters at lunchtime. We played follow the leader and there was lots of zig zagging around the basketball courts!
This Friday the MIDDLE UNIT will be able to ride/scoot at lunchtime.
Finally, the sun’s UV rays are now at a safe level for school hats to be optional for the students to wear during sport and playtime. The main reason behind not having hats compulsory all year around is so that when the UV rays are at 3 or below, we are allowing students to get enough Vitamin D from the sun without causing them damage from the sun’s harmful rays. Vitamin D is an important vitamin for us to have in our body as it helps build and maintain strong bones and teeth (which is particularly important in children while their bones and teeth are still developing).