2022 Newsletter #26 16 Aug
Principal News
Dear St Paul's families,
Welcome to Week 6. We hope that you had a restful circuit breaker weekend and got to spend some time resting and recharging for the weeks ahead.
It has been great to see a number of students reaching 50 Gotcha and picking a special reward. Students receive Gotcha's by any staff member for Being their Best, Being Safe and Being Respectful. The most common rewards students pick are - Teaching for an hour in their classroom- Using Mr M's chair- Having afternoon tea with Mr M- Going to another class for an hour or- Picking something from the surprise box
These rewards are used to reinforce positive behaviour that we want to consistently see in the students.
Yesterday the Senior students were lucky to have a visit from the Museums Victoria - Robotics on the Road. Students enjoyed this a hands-on experience that engaged the students in logic and algorithmic thinking, requiring students to write instructions for their robot using block-based programming language. Thanks to Narelle Simms for organising this for the students.
Staff have been focusing on 'fluency reading' during their professional learning sessions this term. Fluency Reading is the ability to read with speed, accuracy and proper expression. In order to understand what they read, children must be able to read fluently whether they are reading aloud or silently. When reading aloud, fluent readers read in phrases and add intonation appropriately. During the Literacy Block, students across the school practice their fluency reading with a partner, while the teachers walks around checking in on each pair. You can practice fluency reading at home with your child by rereading your favorite books.
Congratulations to our Learning Support Officer Maeva Lopez on becoming an Australian Citizen.
Next week is MAPPEN week. The students are really engaged during this week, which builds up to the expo. The expo is a fantastic way for parents and family to celebrate the students' learning. The junior unit will visit Langtree Hall as part of MAPPEN week, where they will be looking at local history.
Next week we also welcome Skye Boatswain. Skye is completing her teaching placement with the Foundation students. She worked with them earlier in the year so it will be great for her to see how the students have grown since then.
Coming up... Dads, Grandads and male role models, don't forget to put Friday 2nd September from 7.30am in your diary for our 'Bloke's Breakie'. Our Father's Day Mass is also celebrated at the Sacred Heart Church on Saturday 3rd September @6pm.
This week Gotcha Winners...
Helen Mouzakis, Ana Vea, Vienna Panagiotopoulos, Zeva Smythe, Annalise Gonclaves-Wood, Hunter Rayson, Spencer Kimpton, Tolini Vave & Sylvia-Jade Simmons.
As always,
Keep the Faith!
Melissa Sutherland
Deputy Principal
MAPPEN EXPO
Please visit our MAPPEN expo on Friday 26th August between 1.30pm-2pm. We love it when as many family and friends come and see our learning.
Senior Unit News
We hope you have all had a recharge during the school circuit breaker and also had the opportunity to focus on some special time with your family and friends. In Literacy, the Senior students have been learning the skills of analyzing what they read while being engaged in the novel “Boy Overboard” by Morris Gleiztman. The novel has also been supported with the viewing of some Behind the News articles that relate to the topic of refugees.The following are examples of how some students expressed their interpretations through a structured paragraph that included a topic sentence, supporting details and a concluding sentence.
Refuge ~ By Charli Dunn
It is very difficult to decide to move away from your country to find safety. Firstly, if you decide to leave your home you would be leaving all of your friends. Next you will need to learn how to speak a new language. Then you might grow a fear of the unknown. Finally you will suffer from family separation. To conclude, some people might not want to leave their home but it might just be the best choice.
Leaving Home ~ By Lily Jamieson
Leaving your country to go somewhere new, to be a refugee is a long difficult and treacherous journey. Leaving friends and home, moving from the people you laugh and love with is a very scary choice. Having to learn a new language, speaking something you did not know how to speak is not a natural feeling as you have to get used to it. Fear of the unknown, not knowing what some things are can be odd. Being separated from loved ones, some of your family you may have to leave behind. Moving from where you once lived to going to somewhere totally different, is a completely new chapter in your life. It is both a scary and lively road.
Police In Schools
During the Police In Schools initiative, the students have the opportunity to create a commercial that depicts an area of safety. The topics for the commercials are: Bullying, Cyber Safety and Car/items theft. The students are currently working in small groups to design an engaging and informative commercial that could be selected to air on television! It is wonderful to see students working together and using their perspectives to influence the safety messages.
This Friday the Senior Unit Liturgy will be held in the Chapel at 12.15pm and all are welcome to join us in the celebration.
Next week we begin the Mappen Week inquiry unit. The topic for this term is “Ethics and Emotions". Please join us in the Senior Unit at 1.30pm on Friday 26th August for the Expo and to hear all about your child's learning.
Just a friendly reminder that the Book Week Celebration is on Wednesday 31st August and the theme is, “Dreaming with eyes open”. This is a great opportunity for everyone to dress up and be inspired by the magic of reading.
Have a wonderful week!
Junior Unit News
We hope you all enjoyed a relaxing 'Circuit Breaker' weekend and used it as a chance to refresh and recharge. We're into the home stretch of Term Three now, and it's going to be an action-packed few weeeks.
Just a couple of reminders:
* Next week (week 7) is Mappen Week and we will be taking a deep dive into the concept of 'past, present and future'. Please ensure you have granted permission for your child to attend the excursion to Langtree Hall on Wednesday 24th August. Details can be found on the app.
* We will be celebrating our Junior Unit Liturgy on Friday 26th August at 12.15pm and you are all warmly invited to join us in the school chapel. Following the Liturgy, you may like to come and see the children's wonderful Mappen work.
* In Week 8, on Wednesday 31st August, we will be celebrating Book Week. The children are invited to come to school dressed as their favourite book character. Please note that they will need suitable shoes for playing outside (school shoes or sneakers).
Technology News
This term, students in the Middle Unit have been exploring visual coding. They began the unit by building a lego mazes and using visual information on cards to create algorithms that guided a lego figure through their maze.
Once students were able to use a set of standard visual coding blocks to create, read and execute algorithms correctly, they practised this skill using the online game 'Run Marco'.
ARE YOUR CHILDREN IN YEAR 5/6?
Students in year 5/6 are included in our Chromebook program. A part of the agreement for this program is that students will bring their Chromebook to school at least 80% charged everyday. It is the students & parents responsibility to ensure devices are charged overnight for the next day.
Student are NOT to bring their Chromebook charger to school. On the odd occasion when for some reason a student's device does not charge overnight, students are to still bring their device to school and notify their teacher or Mrs Simms that is requires charging. We have spare chargers here at school for these rare occasions.
If the students device is not charging or the charger is lost or damaged, please contact Mrs Simms for assistance.
Until next week, remember; "technology should improve your life...not become your life." - Billy Cox
Cheers, Mrs Simms
Hands Up Mallee
Breakfast is a very important time of the day for everyone. As the word suggests it is about breaking the fast that we have done since our last meal, which for most of us would have been approximately 12 hours earlier. It not only fills our tummies, but it also helps our brains to function properly throughout the day. As you know we have a breakfast program here at St Paul’s, where we offer any student breakfast between 8:30 – 8:45 on a Monday, Wednesday and Friday morning. This program is funded through our connection with the Mildura Regional School Breakfast Partnership (MRSBP) and is run at little or no cost to our school. At breakfast club the students have the opportunity to have a piece of toast, warm spaghetti, cereal, milo or juice. They also get to sit down at tables and have conversations with each other as well as the Senior Students assisting us with the preparation and serving of it. Feel free to pop in with your child to have a look at how our program works.
We are also very proud of the fact that we are usually able to offer fresh fruit as an emergency for students who have not bought brain food to school. Fruit is sourced through family donations (for which we are very grateful!) and Foodshare. However, this is not always available and therefore it is important that you make sure that your child/children come to school with brainfood every day. Some great options for brainfood include – any fruit in season, cheese, celery, carrot, dried fruit, plain popcorn etc.
This week the bikes and scooters are back!! On Friday it will be the JUNIOR/FOUNDATION UNIT who will be able to join me on the basketball court at lunch time to have some fun and games with their bikes and scooters.