Dear St Patrick’s families,

I hope families had time to enjoy the beautiful weather over the long weekend and enjoy time outdoors or relaxing in some way. We are moving quickly into the last few weeks of Term 2 with Semester One reports and parent/teacher meetings now becoming the central focus.

Semester One Reports: Thank you to teachers who are working hard to prepare Semester One reports in readiness to go home next Friday. Assessment data that has been collected over the past two terms is being collated to prepare for report gradings. As previously mentioned, there will be NO comments on Semester One reports with Parent/Teacher meetings highlighted as the essential communication pathway for these reports. Teachers will be setting up interview timeslots in COMPASS over soon and parents are asked to choose a selected timeslot. 15 minute timeslots will be allocated per student.

2024 Open Day: Please encourage anyone who has a child ready for Kindergarten in 2024 (or any year level), to come along to our 2024 Information session next Thursday 22nd June at 5:00pm. We can’t wait to tell the community about our fabulous little school!

TTFM Surveys: Parents are asked to please fill in the Tell Them From Me surveys that have been provided for feedback. The feedback is greatly appreciated as it enables us to plan forward for the 2024 school year. The survey has been extended until this Friday 16^th June.

WR Athletics Carnival: Best wishes are extended to our students that will be attending the WR Athletics Carnival in Tumut this Friday. We hope they enjoy the opportunity to participate in their selected sporting fields with other students from Catholic schools across the Western Region.

Stain-Glass Window: A new stain glassed window is going to be installed in the front entrance of our school administration area, this coming Thursday. The stain-glass window, has been beautifully designed by Deb from Elegance Stained Glass, and reflects our Catholic culture together with symbols of the Gundagai area, including the beautiful Murrumbidgee River. The window was made possible by a very generous donation from ex-St Stanislaus families, Bernie Harrington and Raymond Young. This has been a long work in progress, but we cannot wait to see the finished result.

Our thoughts and prayers are with all those who suffered the tragic loss of loved ones over the weekend and all families in our local community who need our support and prayers.

Christine Baron

Principal

Sacrament of Reconciliation

Congratulations to Rouge Calub, Leila Gaskin, Lane Johnson, Jack Fifield, Jimmy Robinson, and Reuben Smart who received the Sacrament of Reconciliation on Friday 2^nd June. Father Joe was so happy with the children’s preparation and their understanding of the Sacrament. Father commented on the children’s reverence, openness, and honesty.

The children, parents and Father celebrated this special occasion with morning tea held in the Staffroom.

Family Mass

What a joyous Family Mass we celebrated on Saturday 3^rd June. It was wonderful to have so many St Patrick’s families present. A big thank you for making this a such a lovely Mass. There have been so many positive comments from the parishioners about the happy vibe in the Church and Father Joseph was overjoyed. Immediately after Mass he was asking when we are holding the next ‘Family Mass?’

The children are to be congratulated on their involvement in the Mass either by reading, singing, taking part in the Offertory or just by being there. Thank you to the Parents for supporting your beautiful children in true St Patrick’s style.

Family Week

I hope you all enjoyed our ‘Family Week’ last week. There have been wonderful conversations about the things that families got up to. We had children report that they had played cards, explored the creek, tried darning socks, watched movies, played board games, read books, enjoyed family joke time, and generally just enjoyed being together as a family. What a great idea Family Week is!

Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus

This coming Friday 16^th June the Church celebrates the Feast of The Most Sacred Heart. Devotion to the Sacred Heart is devotion to Jesus and his love. It is a sign or a symbol of both the divine and human love that Jesus has for his Father and for us. 

Mrs. Carberry, Kinder and Year One have been busy preparing this Mass. We warmly welcome you to join us at 12 noon. It will be a special celebration.

Sacrament of Confirmation

Next Term, the children in Year Five and Six will make their Sacrament of Confirmation. Registration Forms are available on the Parish Web site or from myself. Preparations begin on Saturday 29^th July with our first lesson and a commitment Mass.

The Sacrament will be celebrated on Saturday 19^th August at 5 pm Mass.

A full list of preparation dates will be finalised and sent out asap following a meeting with Father Joe.

**** PLEASE ADD THESE DATES TO YOUR CALENDAR *******

Kate Howe

REC

Starting Monday the 26th of June (Week 10), The SRC will be hosting a Beanies for Brain Cancer week as part of Miss Bartletts Month of June fundraising for the "Cure Brain Cancer Foundation" where Miss Bartlett has pledged to walk 15km+ a day.

On Thursday 29th June, the whole school will be doing a three kilometre walk around Gundagai ovals to raise awareness for children with brain cancer and supporting Miss Bartlett. On Friday 30th June (last day of Term 2), we will be coming out of uniform in the foundation's colours of purple and gold. We will be accepting donations all week.

The money raised from your donations not only helps brain cancer patients as they deal with this insidious disease, it also helps researchers searching for better treatments and a cure for brain cancer. You may be surprised to learn that, in Australia, brain cancer kills more children than any other disease and more people under 40 than any other cancer, yet it is one of the most underfunded and under researched cancers of all time. Your participation in Beanie for Brain Cancer Day will enable us to, not only increase awareness of this terrible disease, but also raise much needed funds for brain cancer research.

Thankyou.
Abigail and Jack (on behalf of SRC)

Gundagai High School Year 7 2024 enrolments are open and enrolment forms can be found on their website www.gundagai-h.schools.nsw.gov.au

Orientation/Transition Days will be announced early next term. 

Mr Bernie Harrington and Mr Raymond Young provided a very generous donation to St Patrick’s School, for the enhancement of our new office administration area. Mr Harrington and Mr Young, wanted to give back to the school community, in appreciation for the wonderful education they received when they were students at St Stanilaus School (St Patrick’s former name). They have both done well in life and attribute this to the great education they received that gave them many opportunities in life. Raymond’s family owned a store in Gundagai called ‘Cash and Carry’ which was run by his parents George and Maude Young. Sadly, Raymond has now passed on, Both men had very fond memories of growing up in Gundagai and have returned often over the past years. Mr Harrington made the donation on behalf of his family and his great mate Raymond. We have had frequent contact with Mr Harrington over the course of the stained glass window design and hope to invite him and his family to the school in the near future to celebrate this beautiful dedication to their families. We will post a photo after the new window panel is installed this Thursday.  Stay tuned for the transformation.

We are inviting students, teachers and parents to provide feedback on their experience of our school using an online survey. The surveys are an important part of our whole school evaluation and planning process.

We would like to invite you to complete the Tell Them From Me (TTFM) Partners in Learning survey. As we value the role of parents and carers within our school community we would greatly appreciate your feedback. The information you provide will be used to maintain our commitment to working together in partnership to further improve student learning and wellbeing at St Patrick’s School Gundagai.

The survey is anonymous and will take approximately 20 minutes to complete. You are able to access the parent survey on your computer or mobile device by using the URL below:

http://tellthemfromme.com/9kvqk

The survey has been extended until this Friday 16th of June 

Year 5 students will walk to either Gumnut or Gundagai Preschool this Thursday 15^th June to spend time with younger children and help promote our school community. The students will join in the morning activities including reading and role playing at both Gumnut and Preschool. 

Please contact your child’s teacher or the front office if you do not wish them to participate in this activity. The students will be split into two groups and one will walk to Gumnut (weather permitting) and the other group will walk to preschool.  Students will leave around 10am and be back by 11-11:20am. 

Come along to St Pats Hall this Saturday at 2pm as the Gundagai Community Choir raises funds for Uralba and Residential Aged Care.
Music in the Afternoon, features:
The Gundagai Community Choir
And special guest artists
Verity Whittaker and Denise Reardon

Saturday 17th June at 2pm
St Patrick Hall
$5 for show & Afternoon tea will be provided.

* Monday 17^th July will be a Staff Professional Learning Day. The office will not be opened until 11.30am that day.

* Term 3 begins on Tuesday 18^th July for all students K-6.

* NAIDOC MASS: Wednesday 19 July-School Captains to represent at McAuley Catholic School Tumut

* ST VINNIE’S WINTER APPEAL: Friday 28 July

* Term 3 Book Week - 31st July to 3rd August "Book Week" (more on this later) 

* WR Public Speaking-St Patrick’s v’s McAuley: Wednesday 9 August

* School Photo Day: Wednesday 16 August

* Final of WR Public Speaking Comp-St Mary’s Young: Monday 21 August

* Tournament of the Minds: Sunday 27 August

* Footsteps Dance Program: Monday 4 Sept to Friday 8 September

* Footsteps Disco for Years K-6: Thursday 7 September

* WR Choir Competition: St Mary’s War Memorial School West Wyalong: Tuesday 12 September

Thank you to our wonderful parents for volunteering to cook cupcakes, cookies and to volunteer your time on a Friday to work in the canteen during Term 2.  We are extremely grateful for your time. 

Friday 30th June: 

Cookies: Lindsey Rose & Simone Jones 

Canteen Volunteers: Kate Graham & El Williams

Thank you to our families who have volunteered their Friday evenings to sell raffle tickets during Term 2 and Term 3 for our school fundraising.  Volunteers who are rostered on each week are to meet at Lotts Family Hotel from 6.30pm.  If you are unable to do your rostered date we would ask that you please organise to swap. 

Friday 30th June - Alicia Hargreaves & Jacki Carberry 

Friday 7th July - Brett Eccleston & Andy Lott 

Friday 14th July - Kev Paton & Peter Gailey 

Friday 21st July - Mick Crowe & Jock Graham 

Friday 28th July - Damien Somerville & Chris Rose 

Congratulations to our Week 6 and Week 7 Class Awards. Keep up the great work

Week 6 - 2nd of June 

Kindergarten: Pippi Nicholls for working hard with writing and presentation of her work

Kindergarten: Fred Miller for reading and writing CVC words

Year 1: Lottie Worldon for always working hard in class to complete all learning tasks

Year 2: Kaydee Smith for showing positive learning

Year 3:  Zoe Morgan for being focused and engaged during Daily Reviews 

Year 4: Molly Lott for always being prepared, engaged and on task during learning in class

Year 5: Archie McDonnell for establishing great learning habits

Year 6: Darby Jones for demonstrating mature leadership and initiative (absent from photo) 

Week 7 - 9th of June

Kindergarten: Sophia Knight-Gregson for great listening to sounds within words 

Year 1: Josie Lott for fantastic improvement in her reading and homework 

Year 2: Kingsley McDonnell for putting in a big effort to complete tasks 

Year 3: Reuban Smart for always being engaged during lessons and supporting his peers (absent from photo) 

Year 4: Indi Cole extending her learning producing quality work 

Year 5: Nicholas Quine for improved attitude to his learning tasks 

Year 6: Jack Ryan 

Congratulations to our Week 6 and Week 7 WildCat Awards 

Week 6 Term 2 - 2nd June 

RESPONSIBLE: Emily Ryan, Lachlan Barton, Skye Somerville, Taite Johnson, Chase Robinson, Joey Gailey, Lilly Ferguson, Christyne Calub, Archie McDonnell, Denver Blundell 

RESPECTFUL: Ollie Crowe, Ammy Wu, Emily Ryan, Taite Johnson, Andrew Cole and Hamish Tobin

Week 7 Term 2 - 9th June 

RESPONSIBLE: Archie Peterson Ammy Wu, Corby Rose, Joey Gailey, Dylan Ryder, Ryan Robinson, Lilly Ferguson and Phoenix Rose 

RESPECTFUL: Amy Cotterill, Garvita Joshi, Charlotte McDonnell, Joey Gailey, Nick Quine, Skye Somerville, Isabella Boswell, Corby Rose, Ammy Wu, Kingsley McDonnell and Harley Rose 

SAFE: Darby Jones, Joey Gailey and Sophia Huang

Happy Birthday to the following students who have recently celebrated their birthdays:

27th May - Jack Paton & Tessa Crowe

31st May - Juno Bock

3rd June - Leila Gaskin