Dear Parents and Carers,

Welcome to Term 2. We were certainly blessed with beautiful weather over the school holidays and I hope it was an opportunity for families to enjoy holiday activities or some downtime.

ANZAC Day: Thank you very much to all our wonderful families for your incredible support of the 2024 ANZAC Day services. We were absolutely delighted to have so many students join us for the street parade as well as the Dawn Service. A special thank you to our school captains, Christyne, Corby, Riley and Chase, who proudly represented our school at both events. Special mention to Archie McDonnell and Lachlan Hargreaves who also attended both services. Staff members were extremely proud to march alongside, such a large representation of our students, especially given it was during school holidays.

MEET AND GREET EVENING: Term 2 started off on a very positive note, with a large attendance of families at our Meet and Greet session held last Wednesday evening. The feedback from the evening was extremely positive, with parents expressing their gratitude for the information they received from teacher sessions. Thank you to our very committed SCC members, for supplying the food and cooking the BBQ for all to enjoy.

WELCOME: We were delighted to welcome three new students to St Patrick’s last Tuesday. Cindy Chen returned to St Patrick’s in Year 5 along with her younger sister Kayla who will join Year 1. We also welcomed Bella Huang into Year 1. It is always wonderful to welcome new faces to join our St Patrick’s School community.

MOTHER’S DAY CELEBRATIONS: This Friday 10 May, is a special opportunity to celebrate our wonderful mums, grandmothers, aunties or anyone who plays a special role in the life of our students. Please see the schedule below for Mother’s Day celebrations. We look forward to celebrating this special time with you.

DIRECTOR OF EDUCATION VISIT: The Director of Catholic Education, Mr Ross Fox visited St Patrick’s today. Mr Fox took the opportunity to visit classrooms, to see Direct Instruction and High Impact Teaching Strategies in practice in our classrooms. The students were delighted to find that Mr Fox was wearing his special ‘fox socks’ again!

DATES FOR YOUR DIARY! As usual, Term 2 is packed with exciting educational, sporting and cultural activities. The ‘Dates for your Diary’ section below, provides an easy reference point for families to keep abreast of activities coming up over the next two weeks. Please check the newsletter, COMPASS portal and FB page for all school events and add them to your personal diary.

2025 OPEN Day-Yes it is time to start opening up our school to anyone wishing to become part of our school community in 2025. Our first 2025 OPEN DAY will be held on Friday 17 May from 9.30-11.00am. Please spread the word!

Christine Baron

Principal

Reconciliation

Today our Year 3 children begin their preparation for the Sacrament of Reconciliation. Through this Sacramental preparation, the children come to an understanding that one of the greatest gifts we have been given is free will. We are all capable of making both ‘good’ and ‘poor’ choices and these choices affect others. Reconciliation is about being sorry for our wrong choices and coming back to be with our forgiving Father.

This Sacrament is for Catholic children in Year 3 or others who may have not yet received this Sacrament. If you know of any children from the other schools who are ready for this Sacrament could you, please pass on this information.

The preparation consists of lessons on Tuesdays with children only and Saturdays with parent/parents. The lessons will be held in the Year Kinder/Year 1 classroom each week.

*** Please put these dates in your diary to avoid clashes with other events.

Week 2

Lesson 1 - Tuesday 7^th May 3:30 pm to 4:30 pm

Lesson 2 - Saturday 11^th May and Commitment Mass 4:15 pm 4:45 pm. This meeting is in the Church. NB Mass at 5pm.

Week 3

Lesson 3 -Tuesday 14^th May 3:30 pm to 4:30 pm

Lesson 4 - Saturday 18^th May 3:45 pm 4:50 pm ** NB Mass at 5pm.   

Week 4

Lesson 5 -Tuesday 28^th May 3:30 pm to 4:30 pm

• Sacrament of Reconciliation – Friday 31^st May 9:30 am

Altar Servers

Father Joe has issued a special invitation to the children in this Sacramental Group to join the Altar Serving Ministry. This usually occurs after the children have received the Sacrament of the Eucharist, however there are several children in this group with older siblings and this provides a great opportunity for these siblings to be peer tutors.

If your child would like to become an Altar Servers in our Parish, please complete the tear off on the note sent home on Friday and return it to school before Friday 10^th May. 

Altar Servers Picnic and Training

Father Joe has invited our Altar Servers to a special gathering on Friday 10^th May at 1 pm in St Patrick’s Hall to thank them for their service to the Altar Serving Ministry of St Patrick’s Parish.

We will provide lunch and celebrate together as a thank you. Afterwards we will hold a training session with some new recruits to the Ministry.

Mother’s Day

On Friday 10^th May St Patrick’s will celebrate our wonderful Mums, Grandmothers and special ladies with a delicious morning tea and Mass. We look forward to welcoming these amazing women to this special event.

We thank Mrs Wilson and Year 6 for presenting the Mass for us.

Project Compassion Boxes

Thank you to those families who have returned their Project Compassion Boxes. If you still have yours at home, please return it to school as soon as possible. Every contribution regardless of its size makes a difference. So far, we have raised $134.50.

Through your kindness and generosity, vulnerable families and communities are now able to pave the way for a brighter and more just future.

I hope to forward the collections to Caritas Australia at the end of this week.

Family Mass

On Saturday 15^th June at 5pm we will hold a Family Mass in St Patrick’s Church.

This is a wonderful opportunity for our School and Parish to celebrate Mass together. Our last family Mass saw so many families coming along.

Please mark this on your calendars. We would love to have lots of our school families involved in this Mass.

Kate Howe

REC

Thank you to the following parents who have been elected onto the Exec Committee of the School Community Council (SCC).

Chair: Mrs Lisa Ryan

Secretary: Mrs Sam Johnson

Treasurer: Mrs Liz Ferguson

Council Members: Mrs Bonita Taylor and Mrs Lauren Eccleston

At last Wednesday’s Meet and Greet session, Mrs Sarah Rose (CECG Family Engagement Officer) spoke briefly prior to the parents present about the new framework for the Community Council.

The Community Council (CC) will now be referred to as the School Community Council (SCC), a slight name-change to reflect that EVERY parent/carer is now considered a member of the SCC. As a member of our School Community Council, you will become part of a network of parents and carers across the school that work together with the Principal and staff, to build a supportive and inclusive school community. You will be able to contribute to our school and our fundraising and community building activities in a way that suits you.  For some families this may be regular participation in activities, initiatives and events across the school year; for others it may be a dedicated focus on one particular event or a role about which they are truly passionate.

The SCC model allows parents and carers a more flexible model for ‘opt in’ and ‘opt out’ of activities. In a nutshell this means that if you have a passion for organising certain events eg trivia night, meat raffle roster, disco night etc etc, you can put your idea forward to the SCC and offer to run one activity or fundraiser. It is a more flexible model then in the previous CC framework. The SCC are keen to hear from parents/carers with new ideas to help promote our school and/or assist with fundraising.

Please contact any member of the SCC if you wish to find out more or discuss any ideas.

Just a notice to families that Jacki will be away from Wednesday 8th of May for a week and returning on Wednesday 15th May. Mrs Paula Butt will be in the office to help with any enquiries.

We look forward to welcoming all our mums, grandmothers, aunts or special friends to our Mother’s Day celebrations this Friday 10 May.

10:15am-Open Classrooms

10:45am-Morning Tea

12pm-Mother’s Day Mass-presented by Year 6

Please join us for some or all of our special activities. We look forward to sharing special time with you!

Don't forget also about our Mother's Day raffle which will be drawn on Friday. $2.00 per ticket (total value is $20.00 per book). Tickets have been sent home and if possible please return to the office no later than Friday morning.  Thank you to Fig n Co and Carla Barton for the donations of this raffle. 

If you haven't already sent in your RSVP could you please do so by Wednesday for catering purposes. 

Yes it’s that time of year already! Our 2025 Open Day will be held next Friday 17 May from 9.30-11.00am.  If you know anyone who has a child that turns 5 before July 31 2025, please encourage them to come along to our information day. Anyone who cannot make that session is welcome to organise their own personal tour of the school by ringing the Front Office on 69441085.

Please let your family, friends and others know about the great things happening at St Patrick’s! We are hoping for a good turn up.

We are currently practicing our Emergency Evacuation and Lockdown drills. It is important to practice these drills in preparation for any situation that may possibly occur in the future and to ensure we have safe routines and practices in place. Teachers have been going through procedures with students in class and we will enact these procedures over the next few weeks.

CSYMA Leadership Retreat Day: Year 6 will join other Year 6 leaders from Adelong, Batlow and Tumut at McAuley Catholic College tomorrow for the annual leadership day. Thank you to parents who are assisting with transport to and from the event.

WR Cross Country - Batlow

Congratulations to our Western Region Cross Country team who travelled to Batlow on Friday to participate at the next level of cross country. Thank you to St Mary's Batlow for hosting this event and to all of our parents for transporting children to and from the Cross Country. 

Congratulations to Taite Johnson who came 1st in u12s and Denver Blundell who also came in as the 6th runner and off to the next level in Canberra. 

Do you know how to ‘be fire safe’?

With winter on our doorstep, now is a great time to catch up with some of your local Fire and Rescue NSW firefighters to learn about the simple steps you can take to keep safe during the cooler months.

Fire and Rescue Gundagai is hosting its annual Open Day on Saturday, 11 May 2024 between 10.00am and 2.00pm

You and your family are invited to head down to your 28 Otway St Gundagai for a range of free activities including firefighting demonstrations, free BBQ, station tours and safety presentations.

For more information on your local station, visit www.fire.nsw.gov.au/openday and follow us on Facebook www.facebook.com/frnsw.

We are encouraging families to practice Timetables at home with their children. The following is a guide to which timetables should be practiced in each year level. Quick recall of timetables assists students understanding of multiplication, division and problem solving activities.

Year 1 - 1 and 2 Timetables (Skip counting etc)

Year 2 - 2, 5 and 10 Timetables (plus revise 1 and 2)

Year 3 - 3, 6, 9 Timetables (plus revise (1, 2, 5 and 10)

Year 4 - 4, 7, 8, Timetables (plus revise (1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 9, 10)

Year 5/6 - 11, 12 and consolidate all other Timetables

Congratulations to our Week 11 Term 1 Student of the Month and Principal Award recipients:

Kindergarten - Charlotte Kennedy 

Year 1 - Pippi Nicholls

Year 2 - Phoenix Rose

Year 3 - Archie Peterson 

Year 4 - Mackenzie Little 

Year 5 - Conor Cotterill 

Year 6 - Corby Rose 

Principal's Awards - Chase Robinson, RV Calub and Pippi Nicholls 

Congratulations to our Week 1 Term 2 Class Awards

Friday 3rd May 

Kindergarten - Tannah Elliott for a great start to Term 2 

Year 1 - Sophia Knight-Gregson for a settled and positive start to Term 2 - always producing quality work 

Year 2 - Lola Eccleston for her beautiful fluent reading aloud 

Year 3 - Fletcher Smith for great class preparation with writing his speech 

Year 4 - Jasper Rui for improved engagement in class activities 

Year 5 - Indi Cole for effort and application to her learning 

Year 6 - Isabella Boswell for increased initiative and confidence in her learning

Week 1 Wildcat Awards

RESPECTFUL - Emma Brown, Dylan Ryder, Corby Rose, RV Calub, Lachlan Hargreaves, Eliza Graham, Emily Ryan, Leila Gaskin, Phoenix Rose, Kingsley McDonnell, Pippi Nicholls

RESPONSIBLE - Dylan Ryder, Indi Cole, Elizaa Graham, Will Potter, Sarah Gailey, Remi Taylor, Ollie Crowe

SAFE - Archie McDonnell

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:

Weerk 10 (Wednesday 3rd July) Chase Robinson and Skye Somerville 

Dental Van visits - Week 2 (days to be confirmed)

Director of Education: Mr Ross Fox Visit-Friday 10 May from 1pm

Reconciliation Classes begin: Tuesday 7 May at 3.30pm

CYSMA Journeying with Jesus-Year 6 Retreat at McAuley College Tumut-Wednesday 8 May

Mother’s Day celebrations-Friday 10 May from 10.15am

Reconciliation Commitment Mass-Saturday 11 May at 6pm

CG Cross Country-Stromlo Friday 17 May

2025 OPEN DAY 9.30-11.00am-Friday 17 May

The Council of Catholic School Parents Archdiocese of Canberra Goulburn (CSPACG) meets each term to discuss educational issues and other matters impacting our families. Please include the below flyer in your school’s enrolment pack, and share through your social media channels.

Contact: Sarah.Rose@cg.catholic.edu.au or 0447 888 326 (Family Engagement Officer)

The men's health education rural van is once again visiting Gundagai on Thursday 9th and Friday 10th of May 9.30am-3.30pm both days.