2022 Newsletter #19 June 15
Principal News
Dear St Paul's families,
Welcome to the weekly update. I hope you all enjoyed the long weekend public holiday and used it as an opportunity to get away and travel or even just to catch up on things to do around the house. Either way I hope it was of benefit to you all.
I am still coming to terms with the fact that we are almost at the end of term already. I know it has not been as long as Term One, however, it certainly has been action packed.
I had the pleasure last week of spending time reviewing another one of our catholic schools in the Ballarat Diocese. I visited St Joseph's, in Charlton, a small country school with an amazing group of dedicated and committed staff, parents and of course, children. They should be proud of what they have achieved to date. It also made me proud of how important our school communities are and the role we play as catholic educators. It doesn't matter how big or small your school is, it is the good news stories and the focus on our gospel values that you share with those around you that matters. We all want our children to be successful in life, in whatever way possible, and we need each other to help and support them along the way. "It takes a village to raise a child": whilst a commonly coined phrase, sends such a clear and powerful message to everyone. Our catholic schools are rich, vibrant communities which celebrate diversity, unity and inclusivity. When we work together in love we achieve so much more!
CONGRATULATIONS: Well done to this week's milestone achievers for following our school norms
BEE MILSTONE: Felix Blanchard, Zander Hately, Dante Mazza, Aisha Smythe, Jed Thomas, Owen Vo, Chi Vong
HIVE MILESTONE: Dae Dae Moore, Tevita Pohahau, Aiden Varghese Moolayil
STUDENT LED CONFERENCES: These will begin tonight and continue tomorrow evening after school. They are an excellent opportunity for the children to share their learning with you and their teacher .
EISTEDDFOD PERFORMANCE : Good luck to the Middle and Senior Unit choirs who are performing this Friday at the Mildura Arts Centre. The Grade 3/4 section will commence at 11.30am and the Grade 5/6 section at 1.30pm
FOUNDATION UNIT LITURGY: This Friday at 12.15pm. all parents are welcome to attend.
ST PAUL'S FEAST DAY CELEBRATIONS: Next Wednesday 22nd June at 9.05am, we will be celebrating our school feast day with a whole school liturgy in the hall followed by fun activities for the children.
STAFF UPDATE: This week we have been conducting interviews for positions advertised. These will be announed in next week's newsletter.
REMINDERS
END OF TERM: Next Friday 24th June is our last day of school. School will finish at 2.25pm.
ASSEMBLY: Next Friday 24th June 1.30pm in the hall. All welcome to attend.
TERM 3 START DATE FOR CHILDREN: TUESDAY 12TH JULY
Enjoy the rest of the week everyone and as always,
Keep the Faith!
Vince Muscatello
Religious Education News
St Pauls Feast Day - Wednesday 22nd June
Learning Diversity
Student Learning Adjustment Letters - Semester One
At St Paul's we are continually monitoring our students development and identifying ways in which we can best support their learning needs. Students can require varying levels of support at school and/or with their learning, and the frequency of this support can vary also depending on the identified need.
Over the coming days, parents of students who have participated in intervention programs or have had adjustments provided to their learning program this semester will recieve a letter through the Simon Everywhere App outlining the details of these adjustments.
Senior Unit News
On Friday, the Senior Unit students celebrated MAPPEN week with their expo. It was fabulous to see so many parents, grandparents, friends, guardians and family members come along to celebrate the learning students have completed throughout the term and MAPPEN week. Students were required to design, create and market an item of their own. Well done to all the Senior Unit students and thank you to all that came along to the expo.
My New Gallery
Junior Unit News
What a big week we had last week! On Friday, we celebrated our beautiful liturgy in which we thanked God for all the love we have in our lives. Thank you to those people who were able to join our prayer.
You'd be aware that every term, we have 'Mappen Week'. Mappen is a curriculum resource that supports us to deliver high-quality education in the humantities, sciences, civics and citizenship, and technologies. Whilst we have regular timetabled Mappen lessons, having a dedicated 'Mappen Week' enables us to engage in projects and hands-on explorations. Last week, the Junior children made shadow puppets and theatres. They developed scripts, experimented with sound-effects and presented their own shows. Preparing collaborative projects has been especially challenging, due to the unprecedented level of student absences over the past few weeks, but the children showed incredible flexibility and the results were fantastic!
As mentioned above, we have seen more children off sick in recent weeks than we have ever seen before. There have been several days when some classes have had more children away than at school. As disruptive as it can be for both school and families, it is absolutely imperative that children with even mild symptoms of illness are kept home until they are symptom-free. This is the best way we have to ensure a healthier attendance record for everyone in Term Three. Thank you for your support with this.
Foundation Unit News
Welcome to Week 8!
This Friday the Foundation Unit will be celebrating their first Liturgy. The concept is "Wonder" and all parents and special people are welcome to attend. The Liturgy will be held in the Foundation Unit at 12:15 pm.
The children have been celebrating the wonder and beauty of God's presence in Creation. We have looked at extraordinary things in Creation: both in the "natural world" and the "human world". We have also discussed ways we can care for our beautiful world and ways to care for each other.
In Maths this week we are learning about "subtraction". We are learning to calculate the total amount of a collection, then take a portion away and work out how many there are left over.
In Writing this week we are learning how to extend a sentence by using the conjunction "because". Today the children wrote the following responses to:
An ant is in the bin because ....... he wanted to hide.
An ant is in the bin because ........ she was stinky.
An ant is in the bin because ........ he was lost.
The children have been having a lot of fun writing about why the ant is in the bin, box, tin and cup.
Hands Up Mallee
Last Friday the Middle Unit enjoyed playing ‘Hit the Target’ where they had to try and land a bean bag into a tub whilst moving on their bikes and scooters and were not allowed to be too close. It was a lot trickier than they expected but everyone showed great determination and concentration and never gave up! This Friday it is the JUNIOR AND FOUNDATION UNIT that will be able to ride/scoot on the basketball court at lunchtime.
Next Wednesday lunch will be provided for all students as we will be trialling some new canteen options that we are looking to introduce to our menu. All students will be provided with a small portion of each new item (3 in total) for their lunch and will then be asked to complete a short survey to gain their feedback. The items that we will be providing are - ‘soup surprise’, ‘fried rice’ and ‘sweet potato wedges’. Each of the recipes that we will be using are classified as ‘green’ items meaning that they are healthy and are classified as everyday foods.
Technology News
With a world filled with digital content—from essays to blog posts, google searches or social media posts —keyboarding is the foundational skill that makes this type of content possible.
Students in the Senior Units have been learning to touch type and practicing this skill for a short period of each Technology lessons. Students are finding touch typing makes them faster and improves accuracy. This means they can get tasks done quicker and spend a bit more time away from your computer and generally be more productive. This seemingly simple skill can be what makes the difference for students’ future careers—academic and professional.
On average, a child between 6 and 11 years old that can type at 35wpm (words per minute) with an accuracy of 90% or greater is working at an expert level. Congratulations to Darcy Strubelj who is typing 35wpm at 97% accuracy and Naomi Havea, Deji Obatoki, Yamin Gill and Alliyah Silorio hot on his heels.
You can encourage students to practice touch typing at home by logging into their typing.com school accounts.
Until next week, remember; "technology should improve your life...not become your life." - Billy Cox
Mrs Narelle Simms