Newsletter #27 24 Aug
Principal News
Dear St Paul's families,
Welcome to this week's news update. The wintry weather continues to challenge us with rain and windy conditions once more. The good news is that winter is almost over and will hopefully allow us to recover quickly from all the germs that have been circulating lately. It certainly knocked the wind out of my sails last week.
There are lots of events happening at school over the next few weeks. It's wonderful to have the opportunities for the children to engage with each other and with families. The relationships we build and develop at school are so important as so many lifelong friendships and connections are made.
MAPPEN WEEK: The children have really enjoyed the learning that has taken place this week. You only have to see the smiles from the pictures on our school facebook page to understand how much fun they are having. The competitive edge is also coming through with some of the children, especially in the paper airplane department. The Juniors were certainly ready to visit the Langtree Hall as a part of their Mappen week activities too.
JUNIOR UNIT LITURGY: This Friday at 12.15pm in the chapel. Please come along and join in with the children.
FATHERS' DAY BREAKFAST: Next Friday 2nd Sept we finally get to celebrate Father's day with breakfast after a two year absence. Come down to the hall from 7.30am and enjoy sausages, bacon and eggs with the children.
FATHERS' DAY MASS: Saturday 3rd September you are all welcome to join us to celebrate Mass at Sacred Heart Church at 6.00pm. This is another opportunity for us to recognise and acknowledge the important part our dads, grandpas, uncles and other special men play in our lives.
BOOK WEEK: Wednesday 31st August. Our theme this year is "Dreaming with eyes wide open". I am looking forward to seeing the children dressed up as their favourite book week character. The highlight of the day is the parade in the hall @9.15am and the fun activities focussed on the shortlisted books.
SUNRAYSIA CATHOLIC COMMUNITIES SACRAMENTAL DATES: For those children celebrating First Eucharist this year, please take note of the information provided. First Eucharist (Grade 4 and above) Parent Meeting Wed 7th Sept. 7pm, Sacred Heart Church and the Celebration weekend is Friday 21st, Saturday 22nd Sunday 23rd October
Congratulations to this week's milestone winners for following our norms: Be Safe, Be Respectful and Be Your Best!
BEE MILESTONE: Mia Aranas, Manpriya Atwal, Isabella Burdett, Amber Echanes, Christian Fidura, Victoria Finocchiaro, Olly Morton, Deji Obatoki, Conor O'Rielly, Mischa Pascale, Alliyah Silorio, Dustin Simmons and Harry Stanger.
HIVE MILESTONE: Elsa Allieu, Bryce Body, William Buffon, Harrison Burns, Roman Caristo, Kooper Carmichael, Joshua Catipay, Aaron Clarke, Jaxon Dunn, Ella Garland, Lucien Graham-O'Connor, Denim Humphrey, Luke Hunt, Lachlan Limburg, Sienna Mackay, Dexter Madden, Max Mangan, Tyler McIntosh, Sam Midgley, Scarlett Moir, Lucas Nguyen, Soobhanah Parvez, Layla Powell, Jackson Puleio, Hayden Rowe, Zac Scott, Harry Stanger, Holliee Tickle, Macki Tickle, Candice Treweek and Emma Williams
GOOD LUCK: Good luck to those St Paul's children (current and past), representing Sunraysia in the South Australian Junior Soccer Championships this weekend. The championships are being held in Mildura at Soccer Park. If you can spare some time go along and support our local teams.
Have a great week everyone and as always
Keep the Faith!
Vince Muscatello
MAPPEN EXPO
Please visit our MAPPEN expo this Friday 26th August between 1.30pm-2pm.
We love it when as many family and friends come and see our learning.
Library news
Hello from the library. Next wednesday 31st August we are celebrating Children's book Week. We will begin our day with a parade of book Characters in the hall at 9.15. Parents and special friends are invited to our parade. The rest of the day will be filled with fun activities related to the shortlisted books or the theme"Dreaming with eyes open". I am really looking forward to this special day and cannot wait to see all our St Paul's Book characters.
Overdue notes were given out to the students yesterday and it is great to see so many books returned today. If there is a problem just get in touch or come and see me.
Marg Pongrac - Librarian
Religious Education News
Father's Day Mass - Saturday 3rd September 2022
Next Saturday 3rd September, we will be celebrating our Father's Day Mass at the Sacred Heart Church at 6pm. It is a time for us to reflect and give thanks for all of our fathers, grandfathers, stepfathers, godfathers, uncles and all those who are like a father to us. Our students and staff will be involved in the celebration with readings, processions and singing in the choir.
If your child has volunteered / been asked to assist with a special job, they will be receiving an individual letter sent home detailing this. If you are unable to attend, it would be greatly appreciated if you could please contact Mrs Blagus mblagus@spmildura.catholic.
We look forward to seeing as many children and their families present at our liturgical celebration, as we celebrate all our special fathers and father-figures.
Father's Day Mass Photos
As a part of our Father's Day Mass, we are collating photographs of our students and staff with their fathers, grandfathers, stepfathers, godfathers, uncles and all those who are like a father to us. These photos will be included in our Father's Day reflective video, which will be played at our Mass. If you would like a photograph included in the reflection, we ask that you please email it through to mblagus@spmildura.catholic.
Senior Unit News
Last week we celebrated our Term 3 liturgy in the chapel. The theme was integrity and included many of the ideas we have explored so far this term. Father Matt was unable to attend and Mrs Sutherland stepped in as our leader. She gave a very memorable reflection on the importance of being a person of integrity even when it is difficult. We all enjoyed her UNO story and game of heads and tails.
This week the Senior Unit is a buzz of energy and excitement as we work on our MAPPEN unit 'Ethics and Emotions'. Our work this week is helping students understand that who they are and what they value prepares them for physical and emotional changes they will experience. On Thursday students are asked to bring in a light coloured t-shirt, calico bag or pillowcase that they can paint on. The design will be permanent and will come home at the end of the week. We hope parents and family members will join us at 1.30pm on Friday to view our Expo and talk to the students about their learning.
Middle Unit News
This week the students are learning about 'Forces and Functions'. On Monday morning we researched, designed and tested paper planes. We talked about what goes into designing something and how we can all be engineers. Students are exploring how to conduct experiments. They are learning about how to make an experiement fair and ensure that the results are as accurate as possible. Later this week we are making balloon powered cars. If you have any of the following resources at home please send them in with your child to assist with our creations;
- plastic bottles
- paper towel roll
- empty juice box
- paper cups
- icecream container
- milk carton
- cardboard
We look forward to sharing our learning with you at the Expo on Friday at 1.30pm.
Junior Unit News
What a fun week we're having! We have been immersed in learning about toys, communication devices, household products, transport and clothing of the past and present. Today's visit to Langtree Hall Museum has been a wonderful way to bring this learning to life. The Langtree Hall Museum was Mildura's first public hall built in 1889 and is an important link to Mildura's Heritage. The children have enjoyed seeing and discussing historical memorabilia, the large collection of international dolls, christening gowns, toys, clothing, embroideries, and an old musical instrument collection. Travelling on the bus is always very exciting, too!
The children have been busy designing and building their own playgrounds, and look forward to presenting their designs on Friday afternoon, following our Liturgy. You are all welcome to join us in the chapel at 12.15pm, and/or in the classroom afterwards for the Mappen Expo.
We have our Book Week Costume Parade next Wednesday. We look forward to yet another wonderful day of celebration, as we 'dream with our eyes open'. Please remember that dressing up is optional and not an expectation. Dress up events can be very stressful for families, especially when we put pressure on ourselves to come up with something new and unique every year. The purpose of Book Week celebrations is not to line the pockets of costume shops, but to promote a love of reading. If producing a costume is too much trouble, another option might be to bring along a favourite book from home to share with the class. Or simply use this year's theme "Dreaming with Eyes Open" as a terrific excuse to wear PJs to school! (Please note, children will need to wear appropriate footwear for playing outside).
Our Social and Emotional Learning unit at the moment is all about independence. The children have been reflecting on all the things they are able to do on their own, and thinking about how much practice it took before they could do these things without support. Now would be a great time to focus on independence at home, too. You might like to encourage your child to set an independence goal, such as learning to tie their own shoelaces, pack their own lunch, make their own snack, put away their clean clothes, use an alarm clock to wake up in the morning, etc.
Foundation Unit News
This week is MAPPEN Week the children are consolidating their learning about Geography. We have been talking about where we live and looking at: our town, our state, our country, our continent and our world. We are looking at special land marks in Australia and how we can care for our world. We have spoken about weather in different parts of the world.
On Thursday our Buddies are coming in to complete an activity with us about the special places in Australia and locating where they are found on the map. We will also have lunch with our Buddies on this day.
On Friday the MAPPEN Expo will be held from 1:30pm - 1:55pm. This is an opportunity for parents to come in and see what their children have been learning about during MAPPEN Week. They will be able to share their booklets that they have been working on.
This week we welcome back Skye Boatswain. She is completing a 4 week placement in F17. The children were very excited to have her back.
There are a large number of children who are not returning their Library books. We are missing a lot of books. If the children have too many books borrowed out they are not allowed to borrow new ones, this means they will not be reading each night. We ask that you please have a look around home to see if you have any books from the Library that need to be returned. We appreciate your assistance with this.
Arts news
Our senior students have been working hard this term to create a beautiful Dean Russo inspired art piece. The children have loved learning about the artist and practising techniques like rubbing using wax crayons and texture plates to create a "gritty" street art look.
Dean Russo has exhibited in the United States and Australia. His work follows the pattern of “construct, deconstruct and reconstruct”, and uses layering to break down an image, allowing key elements to show through. Dean uses layers of acrylic and spray paints, sands and scratches, allowing the viewer to see “through the surface”.
5/6 Dean Russo inspired dogs
These wonderful pieces are on display in the corridor near the staff room.
PE News
Thanks to funding from the Sporting Schools program, Mildura Basketball are running clinics for our Senior Unit for the next three weeks. This is a great initiative which helps bring local sporting groups into schools. Along with the expert knowledge, the funding we received has allowed us to purchase new padding for the basketball goals, new basketball rings, nets and basketballs. The students were very excited to hear of the new equipment upgrades!
Division Mini Olympics
A reminder that the Division Mini Olympics is on Thursday 1st September. Please ensure that consent has been given for students attending.
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
Have you registered for the Walk Off the War Within?
Register for Free, $10, $25 or donation – This is an inclusive event that is available to everybody. Register for $0, $10, $25 or a donation of your choice. Money raised through ticket sales supports event costs with proceeds donated to local charities that work in the field of men’s mental health and suicide prevention.
This year the challenge will be taking place on Saturday 17th September
- DATE: Saturday 17 September 2022
- TIME: 8:30am
- LOCATION: Nowingi Place, Hugh King Drive, Mildura
- PARKING: There is ample parking available around the area
The 2022 Challenge
People are invited to take on 20km with or without a 20kg, or walk as much as they can, on their own or with a mate. The WOTWW team challenges everyone – mates, family, colleagues, and friends – to throw on their walking boots, grab your pack and march as one; everyone is welcome.
Help us fight depression and PTSD and let return service people and our emergency service personnel know they are not alone in their battles with mental health and well-being. The events are open to everyone, of all abilities and ages including those emergency service and defence force personnel and members of the general public. We encourage you, your group or business/organisation to take in a walk near you and help raise awareness for PTSD and depression.
Staff at St Paul’s will be joining in the walk, will you?
This Friday, the SENIOR UNIT will be able to ride/scoot on the Basketball courts at lunchtime.
Sacred Heart Parish News
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