Dear St Patrick’s families,

It was wonderful to gather as a school and parish community, to witness the Confirmation of 22 young people, on Saturday evening. Thank you to Mrs Howe for preparing the children so beautifully for this special sacrament and to parents for their commitment to the preparation program.

WR PUBLIC SPEAKING RESULTS: We are so very proud of both Abigail and Taite who headed off to Young yesterday to take part in the WR Public Speaking finals. Abigail was selected as the winner of the Year 6 division and Taite was selected as the winner of the Year 5 division. They will both now head to the Archdiocesan Public Speaking final to be held in Goulburn later this term. Congratulations to both Abigail and Taite on this wonderful achievement.

SCHOOL UNIFORM: Thank you to parents for ensuring that students were in the correct school uniform for school photos last week. We ask you continued support by ensuring that school uniform is worn correctly everyday. Jewellery, make up and hair requirements also form part of our school policy. The Uniform Policy is available on our website if you need to check for any requirements.

OPENING AND BLESSING: Preparations are well underway for our Opening and Blessing on Friday 8 September. Parents are most welcome to join us in celebrating this special event. Please remember to RSVP to Jacki by Wednesday 30 August, if you or family members would like to be part of this special celebration.

2024 SCHOOL ENROLMENTS: Please continue to encourage anyone wishing to find out more about our fabulous school, to ring for a tour or more information. We are accepting enrolments now for 2024 in all class levels. Staffing for 2024 is highly dependent on enrolment numbers for the following year. If you know anyone wishing to enrol at St Patrick’s, please encourage them to do so ASAP.

FAITH IN LEARNING RECOGNITION AWARDS: This Thursday, I will accompany Mrs Howe to the Recognition Awards Mass in Canberra where she will be presented with the 2023 Mission Award. It has been wonderful to have so many school and community members pass on positive comments about how deserving Mrs Howe is of this award.

Our best wishes go to Lachlan Morgan, Taite Johnson, Chase Robinson and Lane Johnson as they participate in the Archdiocesan Athletics Carnival today.

Christine Baron

Principal

St Patrick, Pray for Us

On Saturday evening 22 Candidates received the Sacrament of Confirmation in front of a packed St Patrick’s Church. The children were support by their families, Sponsors, friends, and Parishioners. We are so proud of these amazing children for their commitment and dedication to their Sacramental journey. Their attendance and participation in their preparation was admirable. The children were able to discuss and ask questions to enable them to deepen their faith and understanding of the Sacrament.

During the Preparation Day, the children presented a project on their chosen saint, outlining the qualities and gifts they possessed. The children spoke about what made their saint a person they admired and looked up to. This was an enlightening session where we all gained new knowledge of these great people.

We would like to express a special thank you to Father Joe for his constant support of our children, Mr Peter Gain our Acolyte, helper, and friend and to Mrs Marie Nelson who created the beautiful floral arrangements in the Church. A giant thanks to the wonderful children who formed the choir and sang like angels.

May the Holy Spirit bless us all.

Expression of Sympathy

Our sincere sympathy is extended to Anna and Jake Smart and their children Reuben, Olivia, and Rosie on the passing of Anna’s brother, George. The St Patrick’s School community expresses our thoughts and prayers to you and your extended family in this time of sadness. May God give you strength and comfort in the days ahead.

Mass

Year Five will present the Mass this Friday at 12 noon. Everyone is most welcome to join this celebration of the Eucharist.

Kate Howe

REC

Father’s Day BBQ Lunch:                                             We would like to invite all our wonderful dads, grandfathers and/or special male role models in our students lives for a BBQ lunch on Friday 1 September to help celebrate Father’s Day. A note has been sent home for dads/grandparents etc to order their preferences. Please come along from 12.30pm onwards to join in the following activities.

12.30pm Classroom Visits

1.00pm BBQ Lunch

1.30pm Join their children for a sport activity

Students are asked to either order their lunch via the school tuckshop or bring their lunch as per normal that day. They are welcome to sit with their dads or family members to enjoy lunch together.

The Opening and Blessing of our new school administration area and enhanced playground facilities will be held on Friday 8 September.

The ceremony will begin at 11.15am in our school grounds. Fr Richard Thompson (Vicar General) will officiate the ceremony. CE representatives including Dr Tony Bracken (Deputy Director), Mr Tim Smith (Performance and Improvement Leader) and representatives from CE Building and Maintenance along with Ms Steph Cooke (NSW State Government Rep), will be joining us for this important occasion.

The ceremony is outlined below:

11.15am-Smoking Ceremony and Welcome to Country

11.20am-Blessing of enhanced. playground facilities and administration area. This will also include the blessing of our new stained-glass window.

11.35am-Unveiling of plaques

11.50am-Walk down to Church

12.00pm-Mass

1.00pm-Light Luncheon in school hall for invited guests, staff, parents and parish members.

We are also delighted to be welcoming Mr Bernie Harrington and members of his family. Mr Harrington donated the money for the beautiful stained glass window in the school foyer. Mr Harrington was an ex student of St Stanislaus School and donated the money in behalf of his family and his best friend Raymond Young, in appreciation for the great education they received at St Stanislaus. It will be wonderful to have the Harrington family here to celebrate this special occasion.

Family members are most welcome to join us in celebrating this special day. Please RSVP to the front office by Wednesday 30 August, for catering purposes.

OPENING AND BLESSING SAUSAGE SIZZLE LUNCH FOR STUDENTS: A special FREE tuckshop sausage sizzle (or vegetarian option) lunch will be available for students on Friday 8 September to include them in our Opening and Blessing school celebrations. Orders will be available via the Schools 24 App.

Calling upon our Parents in our school community to lend a hand with our upcoming working bee as of Monday night 21st of August we only have two parents volunteering to help on Saturday 2nd September (if possible - more hands will make light work).  We are hoping if we have the parent volunteers it will only take a few hours. 

We have our "Opening and Blessing" of our new Administration building, Active Enhanced Playground Facilities and our Cultural Space on Friday 8th of September so we would love to have our grounds sparkling. 

We need help with: 

* Weeding front path (spraying) 

* Replacing Sand in the sandpit and outdoor kitchen area

* Whipper Snipping outside bank 

* Hanging photos in front foyer (4 x A3 photos)

* cutting back trees

* Weed spraying on bank near cricket pitch

* REMOVE spikey bush near front admin area (chainsaw required)

* Place bark around plants.

If you are able to spare some time on Saturday morning 2nd of September could you please contact the office. 

Week 6 Peer Support 

This week in Peer Support, we introduce students to the recurring theme in Taking Opportunities; the jack in the box.  Children discuss the different ways of responding to difficult situations and learn that they can cope by having a go, being positive and not giving up.  We have called this being resilient.  The construciton of their own jack in the box serves as a reminder to the children that they can spring back when they feel under pressure from circumstances. 

Encourage your child to discuss their understanding of resilience and the need to practise resilience whenever they get the opportunity.  You might like to help them find a prominent place in your home for their jack in the box as a visible reminder.

Thank you to Kate and Jock Graham for your kind donations of the three "Mud Kitchens" the children are excited to be able to play with these preloved kitchens.  Thank you so much for the donations. 

We farewelled our lovely school counsellor, Ms Nadia Ho last week. At this stage, Catholic Care have not had success in recruiting a new school counsellor. We will keep families informed once we hear about our new counsellor.

We advised our St Patrick's Community about our upcoming Street Stall in our previous newsletter. Our Street Stall is coming up on Thursday 14th September, Friday 15th September and Saturday morning 16th September.  The street stall contributes to our fundraising goal for the year significantly. 

We are asking for our school community for donations of baking, fresh produce, plants and plant cuttings, jams, crafts and anything that can be sold on stall over the two and half days.  

We are still looking for major raffle prizes if any families have any suggestions please notify the office.  Any donations of either a load of wood, a dressed lamb or vouchers would be extremely helpful to gather a great raffle prize.

Please contact Tash Smith or Lisa Peterson if you are able to assist with a raffle prize donation or suggestions.  

We will be sending home a note in the next week with a street stall roster template and would ask that the note be returned to the front office allocating a time you are available to sit on the stall. 

We thank you all in advance. 

Tash Smith and Lisa Peterson 

St Patrick’s is continuing to use a practical and evidence-based approach to teaching and learning, providing the education our students and families deserve. This teaching approach, known as High Impact Teaching Practice (HITP), guides the way in which every teacher across the school plans, delivers and supports learning for every student. The approach has been developed and designed based on national and global research into how children learn, known as the Science of Learning. High Impact Teaching Practice involves embedding evidence-based pedagogy in all classrooms, informed by Rosenshine’s Principles of Instruction, supported by high-quality curriculum resources. Our teachers have continued to attend Professional Development opportunities and implement programs that support High Impact Teaching strategies. Mr Pat Ellis (CE Education Lead) will be visiting our school on Wednesday 30 August to view CATALYST and HITP in practice across our classrooms.

We welcome back the Footsteps Dance Program in Week 8 of this term. Footsteps will host the dance program for our students across Monday to Thursday. The School Disco has been rescheduled to take place on Wednesday 6 September from 5.00-7.00pm.

Years K/1/2-5.00-6.00pm

Years 3/4/5/6-6.00-7.00pm.

Good luck to our two Year 6 teams entered into this Sunday's Riverina Tournament of the Minds Challenge at Sturt Public School Wagga Wagga.

STEM- 7 Feathered Professors

The Arts - The Illusionists

Daily class time has been spent preparing, rehearsing and collaborating as a group.  Scripts have been written and props designed and modified!

Best of luck Year 6 

Congratulations to our Week 4 and Week 5 class awards. 

Week 4 - 11th August 

Kindergarten: Alfie Eccleston for positive class participation and inclusion of others

Kindergarten: Noah Zhu for excellent reading and writing 

Year 1: Lucy Nicholls for great participation in daily review

Year 1: Harley Rose for applying consistent application to tasks and working efficiently on his own. (Mrs Johnson) 

Year 2: Kaydee Smith for excellent information on her "Information Report"

Year 2: Lilly Ferguson for effort and enthusiasm on her Maths 

Year 3: Jimmy Robinson for pushing his comfort zone with Maths Extension and public speaking

Year 4: Cindy Chen for great application in English during her classes. Keep it up

Year 5: Taite Johnson for outstanding achievement in all areas

Year 5: Emily Ryan for always giving 100% in Core activities (Miss Bartlett) 

Year 6: Garvita Joshi for composing and presenting a creative speech on The Difficult Journey of a Leaf

Year 6: Jack Ryan for increased participation, initiative and leadership in TOM and History

Week 5 - 18th August 

Kindergarten: Chelsea Crowe for beautiful handwriting 

Year 1: Kevin Lyu for fantastic work with sounds and words 

Year 2: Lachlan Barton for putting in 100% into all his classwork, always producing quality work

Year 3: Zoe Paton for being focused and on task to support her learning in all KLA's

Year 4: Connor Cotterill for enthusatic and determination in all writing activities

Year 4: Winnie Huang for trying hard to be focused and on task during learning

Year 5: Emma Ferguson for being focused and on task during learning 

Year 6: Miya Zhang for quick and accurate calculations with Fractions

Congratulations to our Week 5 Term 3 Student of the Month Awards and Principal Awards.

Kindergarten: Sophia Knight-Gregson 

Yr 1 - Josie Lott

Yr 2 - Lilly Ferguson 

Yr 3 - Leila Gaskin 

Yr 4 - Indi Cole 

Yr 5 - Isabella Boswell 

Yr 6 - Nate Tozer 

Principal Awards - Week 5 Term 3 

Ammy Wu, Amy Cotterill and Imogen Graham 

Congratulations to you all. 

Congratulations to our WildCat Awards for Week 4 and Week 5:

RESPONSIBLE: Eliza Graham, Molly Lott, Dale Paton, Lachlan Morgan, Ryan Huang, Abigail Bock, Mackenzie Little, Max Zhu, Archie Peterson, Ryan Robinson, Toby Nicholls, Clancy Smart, Josie Lott, Lottie Worldon, Harry Barton, Dale Paton, Molly Lott, Riley Smith, Corby Rose, Emma Ferguson, Christyne Calub

RESPECTFUL: Lachlan Hargreaves, Skye Somerville, Emmy Gaskin, Ryan Huang, Taite Johnson, Harry Peterson, Lachlan Barton, Lane Johnson, Jimmy Robinson, Kaydee Smith, Harrison Campbell, Parker Melksham, Charlotte McDonnell

SAFE: Emma Brown, Harrison Campbell, Sarah Gailey

We would like to send out a birthday cheer to the following students who have recently celebrated their birthday: 

14th August - Faith Miller 

15th August - Harry Ryder

16th August - Miya Zhang 

17th August - Corby Rose 

Thank you to all of our Term 3 Volunteer parents for your time again this term.

Friday 8th September: "Opening & Blessing BBQ"

Cookies: Liz Ferguson & Lindsey Rose

Canteen Volunteers :  Bec Nicholls & Alicia Hargreaves (Craig) 

Monday Cupcakes - 11th September : Krystal Miller & Amanda Morgan

Friday 15th September

Cookies: Simone Jones & Bec Nicholls 

Canteen Volunteers: Rebecca Tobin & Alicia Hargreaves

Monday Cupcakes - 18th September : Bonita Taylor & Fiona Worldon 

Friday 22nd September - NO CANTEEN (LAST DAY OF TERM) 

Tune into "Sounds of the Mountains" radio station (FM94.1) every Wednesday at 2.15pm to hear about what our classes and school has been up to over the week. Catch up with our Yr 6 leaders as they share our weekly news report: 

Week 10 - 20th September : Emmy Gaskin & Tessa Crowe