Dear Parents and Carers,

Welcome to Catholic Schools Week and a new school term!

Catholic Schools Week is an opportunity to celebrate and showcase the innovative learning and faith development that occurs in Catholic schools every day. The theme of Catholic Schools Week in 2019 is ‘Engaging Faith, Minds and Community’.

St Patrick’s School is a testament to the vibrant faith and learning that is occurring on a day to day basis across Catholic Schools. Students are actively engaged in learning, strong in their faith development and so closely connected to the Gundagai community.

To celebrate this special week, we have several activities occurring throughout the week with the main focus on Friday. The day will commence with Open Classrooms and Mother’s Day celebrations. A special pampering session for our mothers, grandmothers, aunties etc will be held prior to morning tea. Year 5/6 will also lead Mass at 12.00pm in St Patrick’s Church. We encourage parents to come along to our open classrooms and see the learning in action. Please stay to enjoy morning tea and/or join us for Mass.

Last weekend, I attended a ALEA (Australian Literacy Educator’s Association) Conference in Canberra. It was an inspiring day spent with local literacy experts showcasing their action based research in everyday classrooms. The keynote speaker, Catherine Nash held and motivational talk on Writing Teachers-Teachers who Write. This was followed by a session on Functional Grammar and Poetry. A very inspiring way to spend a Saturday.

Our Year 3 and Year 5 class will sit their NAPLAN Online assessment over the next two weeks. This is the first time the students have completed NAPLAN online. The writing component will be the only section that will not be online. Please remember that NAPLAN is only one of the tools that are used by the school to assess students and the day to day data gathering is also very important. We wish our Year 3 and 5 students all the very best.

Our very best wishes are also extended to Sam and Benny as they compete in the Canberra Goulburn Archdiocesan Team in the MacKillop Rugby Leauge trials this Friday?.

Best wishes for a happy week,

Christine Baron

Principal