2022 Newsletter #21 13 July
Principal News
Dear St Paul's families,
Welcome to this week's news update. I hope everyone had an enjoyable and restful break over the holidays. The holidays are always a good opportunity for me to get some jobs around the school completed without interruptions. The weather has certainly been unpredictable of late and the lost property basket is once again overflowing after two days at school. Please ask your children to check it and make sure your child's name is on their jumper. There are some very important updates in today's newsletter.
DOBCEL CIRCUIT BREAKER TERM 3: At the end of last term, I received a letter from Mr Tom Sexton, the Executive Director of Catholic Education,Ballarat. In that letter, which is attached, outlines the reasoning behind a proposed Term 3 midbreak for all staff, students and families. The date for the mid term break has been set for Friday 12th August and Monday 15th August. This will provide a four day break for all involved. This is not a decision that has been made lightly, but, in the interests of health, safety and wellbeing for all, it is deemed appropriate and necessary. If you have any concerns regarding this please contact the office via email.
RAPID ANTIGEN TESTING KITS: Please collect them as we are beginning to see a spike in covid cases again. Children who test positive are required to stay home. Parents are to notify the school if their child/ren have tested positive. If your child is a household contact, they are still able to attend school as long as you test them daily and return a negative result. If your children are showing signs or symptoms, please test immediately and keep them home until well enough to return.
STAFFING UPDATE: This week we welcome Mr Tom Pike. Tom has been appointed as the new PE teacher to replace Mr McDermott, who will commence at Red Cliffs Secondary College as of next week. Thank you to Mr McDermott for his time at St Paul's and I wish him all the best in the next stage of his career. We are very excited to have Tom teaching at St Paul's and I am sure you will all make him feel most welcome.
CANTEEN UPGRADE: We had applied for some funding last term to upgrade the oven in the canteen as our old one was on its way out. Fortunately, we were successful , thanks to Narelle Simpson's application, and we have installed a new oven. The funding has helped offset some of the overall costs as it was not as simple as pulling out the old oven and putting in the new one. Thanks Narelle!
SHADE SAILS: You may have noticed , at the front of the school, the new steel posts. We are now waiting for the shade sails to be installed over our new paved labrynth which was completed last term. This will become another outdoor learning space for children, staff and parents to have access to once we had installed seating around it.
JUNIOR PLAYGROUND: I have been informed that everything is on track for the new Junior Playground to be installed during the Term 3 holidays to minimise any disruptions for the children with machinery and trades on site. Hopefully it will be accessible for the student to use at the beginning of Term 4. We will be investing in a shade sail structure to then be installed over the new playground equipment. Once the new playground is operational, the old junior playground will be dismantled and sold privately. This space will then be repurposed as another learning area for the children.
STAFF PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT DAY: On Monday , the staff from St Paul's and Our Lady's Merbein, came together to work with Mr Jim Waight, from Catholic Education Ballarat. Jim spent the day exploring "Who is Jesus?, What is Sacaramentality and What is Charism? within the context of a catholic school. As a catholic school, every year our staff are required to engage in professional learning that focuses on different aspects such as: Catholic Identity; Catholic Social Teaching; Spirituality and Faith; and Formation of Mission.
DOBCEL BOARD VISIT: On Monday afternoon the Diocese of Ballarat Catholic Education Limited Board members visited St Paul's to meet the staff from both Schools. The DOBCEL board are travelling around the diocese visiting the schools communities throughout the term. Whilst visiting, they had an opportunity to learn more about our Structured Literacy approach and the significant positive impact it is having on our teaching and our children's learning. Exciting times ahead. Later that evening the Dobcel Board members met with the principals and the School Advisory Chair persons to discuss the Board's role of governance over our schools.
Congratulations to this week's milestone winners for following our school norms.
BEE MILESTONE: Laura Cifra, Chaunte Clark, Monica Leslie, Isla Madden, Tyler McIntosh, Geordie Moraitis, Felix Moyle, Tyler O'Rielly, Sophia Panagopoulos, Aidan Silcox, Jed Thomas Holliee Tickle & Jasper Trinh.
HIVE MILESTONE: Christian Fidura, Kalasia-Rose Fonua, Yasmin Gill, Naomi Havea & Cienna Pascale.
WELCOME: A special St Paul's welcome to Olivia Strubelj who joins us for the week to complete work experience. I hope she finds her time here enjoyable and rewarding.
FAREWELL: This week we say goodbye to Hunter and Jayden Vo as they relocate to Melbourne. I wish them all the best as they continue their education and hopefully may see them in the future.
As always,
Keep the Faith.
Vince Muscatello
Foundation Unit News
Welcome to Term 3! We hope you all had a lovely break and are rested and ready to settle back into school life.
The children are half way through the year and it is very rewarding to see how much the children have achieved in such a short time. Most of the children are very competent coming in each morning and borrowing their own reader, placing lunch, brainfood and water bottles in the correct spot and hanging their bags up. Many of the chldren still need reminders to return their books each day so they can be sent to the Library to have them taken out of their names.
This week in Maths, we area learning about "Capacity". The children are having a lot of fun predicting which container has the greatest capacity and then finding out the answer by filling them with water or teddies.
In Spelling, we have started a new spelling book from the No Nonsense Phonics Program.
Last term our focus phonemes were: s, a, t, i, p, n, c, k, ck, e, h, r, th
This term our focus phonemes are: m, d, g, o, u, l, ll, f, ff, ss, b, j, y
We are learning how to blend the above phonemes together to make words.
In Writing, we are learning to write sentences about a picture or a short clip that makes sense. We are remembering that a sentence needs: a capital letter, a full stop, spaces between our words and it must make sense. In order for the sentence to make sense we need a "who" and a "what doing". Eg. who - the cat, what doing - sat on the mat.
In Religion, we are learning about the concept of "story" and how the Bible is a collection of the sacred stories for Christians. We will be talking about where the children's names come from. Are they named after anyone? Does their name mean something special? A note will go home for parents to write the answers down so the children can share with the class.
Hands Up Mallee
The 10,000-step challenge is coming up again this August. Is your business participating or are you registering with a group of friends? St Paul’s staff will again be entering a team to increase our step count each day. I really enjoy talking to the students about it each year and they love telling me who in their family is taking part and how many steps they are getting! It’s a great way in which we can model a more active lifestyle to them. If you would like more details about the challenge, please email me at nsimpson@spmildura.catholic.edu.au and I can give you further information.
Bike/Scooter Friday is back! This Friday 15th July, the SENIOR UNIT will be able to ride/scoot on the basketball courts at lunchtime with Narelle Simpson. It would be great to again see lots of senior students riding/scooting to school and enjoying the opportunity to use their bikes/scooters at lunchtime.
Continuous Raffle
Congratulations to the following families who won a prize in the Continuous raffle drawn on Friday 24 June
- 2 x Boardgames donated by Traeger Family won by Liam Brown family.
- Pictionary Game donated by St Paul's won by McIntosh family.
- Cotton Candy Machine donated by Silorio family won by Bush family.
- Nail Voucher donated by Vo Family won by Pascale 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.
Sacred Heart Parish News
Our Diocesan Community
Please find below the link for the July 2022 edition of “Our Diocesan Community” magazine.
https://www.ballarat.catholic.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/ODC-July-2022-web.pdf
Parent Noticeboard
