Dear Parents and Carers,

Welcome to Week 8 of Term 1. Our term is quickly moving along.

Exciting News! Catholic Education Planning and Facilities Team have confirmed that our new Student Amenities block will begin soon. This Capital Works project has been signed off by the Director and fully funded by CECG. The project will take 12-14 weeks for completion. A brief timeline has been provided below. We have also received confirmation that our Outdoor Covered Area will also go ahead, following the completion of the Student Amenities Block. This project will be funded through combined contributions from the Jowett Estate, School funds and Catholic Education. We are so very grateful to all parents and staff that have advocated for these new improved facilities for our school community and look forward to celebrating the completion of both projects throughout this year.

NEW REVERSE CYCLE AIR CONDITIONERS: After many issues experienced with our heating and cooling facilities in our Learning Hub, the decision was made to replace the old evaporative cooling system with two brand new Reverse Cycle Air-conditioners.  The decision was also made to install a new air-conditioner in the School Counsellor’s/Music/Uniform Room which will be greatly appreciated by all who use this space regularly. A new phone line has also been installed in this room to help improve services for our school counsellor, Lucinda.

HARMONY DAY: A beautiful celebration was held last Friday to acknowledge Harmony Day and the lovely cultural diversity of our school community. A special thank you to families who contributed to the delicious lunch items and to our fabulous canteen workers, Kate Hufton, Louise Crowe and Kim Paton for all their hard work in preparing and organizing such a delicious lunch.

FOOTSTEPS DANCE: As part of our PDHPE curriculum, we undertake dance lessons. We have utilised the Footsteps Dance company over the past few years to engage our students in fundamental dance movements. Footsteps will be here this week teaching dancing everyday. A disco will be held on Thursday evening. Footsteps Dance are well known for their engaging contemporary dance lessons to modern music. We look forward to welcoming Footsteps Dance instructor, Georgie to St Patrick’s this week.

NAPLAN ASSESSMENTS: Congratulations to our Year 3 and 5 students who completed their NAPLAN assessments over the past two weeks. We were every proud of all of our students for their positive attitude and aptitude during the assessments.

LONG SERVICE LEAVE: I will be taking Long Service Leave (LSL) during Weeks 9 and 10. Mrs Wilson will be Acting Principal during the time I am on leave.

Wishing everyone a great end of term and a happy and Holy Easter.

Christine Baron

Principal

St Patrick, Pray for us