Dear Parents, 

The term has finally come to an end and with reports having gone home I hope you had time to discuss and celebrate your child/children’s learning progressions.  The teachers are looking forward to meeting with parents this week to go through individual children’s learning achievements.

Parent Teacher Interviews

Parent/Teacher interviews will take place this week, starting today for Kindergarten, Year 1 & 2 and Year 3 & 4. Times for interviews went home last Thursday.  Please arrive on time to ensure the interviews run smoothly. Please note if the 12 minutes allocated is not enough to cover all questions regarding your child/children’s learning, please ask your child’s teacher to make another time available for further discussion. We thank the Community Council parents in advance for ringing the school bell at set intervals to ensure everyone runs to time.

Public Speaking

This will take place in individual classes here at school tomorrow. The children will be judged from the criteria set out in a Public Speaking marking rubric. The two highest scores will progress onto the Inter School speak off with McAuley Tumut in Term 3.

Fresh Fruit Wednesday – Give Me 5 For Kids Fundraiser

We would like to thank Woolworths Gundagai for providing the children with a delicious selection of fruit every Wednesday.  The fruit platter is looked forward to and devoured when the children arrive at the school of a Wednesday morning.  In support of Woolworth’s the SRC has decided to run a “Give Me 5 For Kids” fundraiser this Friday.  Children may come out of uniform on the last day of the term and donate a gold coin to go towards raising funds for local children’s hospital wards across our region.

Western Region Athletics - Temora

Congratulations to all children who competed last Friday out at Temora.  Each child gave their all and achieved personal bests. A big thank you to the parents who supported the children on the day by cheering and driving them. Thank you to Mr Ferguson for coordinating our runners.

Long Service Leave

Mrs Melissa Carberry will be taking long service leave for the first 2 weeks of Term 3. We hope she enjoys her well-deserved break and we look forward to seeing her back in the classroom in Week 3. 

Book Fair/Book Week Parade and Grandparents Morning Tea

Please mark the date for this special day occurring on Tuesday 7 August in Week 3 next term.  Mrs Hughes has included further information about this day in the newsletter.  These holidays are a great opportunity to get children’s Book Parade costumes sorted.

Enjoy the holidays with your children and travel safely.

Lisa Wilson

Assistant Principal

SCHOOL FEES ARE NOW OVERDUE. 

PLEASE ENSURE PROMPT PAYMENT IS MADE

Kinder Liturgy

Thank you Kinder for leading the Liturgy about creation on Friday.

Reconciliation and Holy Communion 2018

Reconciliation will be held on the Community/Retreat Day FRIDAY 24^th August at 12pm.

First Holy Communion this year will be held at St Patrick’s Church on Saturday 25^th August at 6pm.

The program will commence week 3, Term 3 at St Patrick’s Primary School.

 or the Reconciliation and Holy Communion candidates, the program requires a commitment to, attending:

1. A parent information night on Monday the 6^th August at 6:00pm

3 afternoon sessions for candidates (Tuesday the 7^th August, 14^th August and 21^st August from 3:30pm – 4:30pm). These sessions will be held at St Patrick’s Primary school.

2. 6:00pm Mass at the church to present the candidates to the parish community on Saturday 18^th
3. Reconciliation and Holy Communion preparation day (Friday 24^th August), at St Patrick’s Primary school.

If you wish for your child to receive these sacraments, please contact St Patrick’s School on 69441085 or complete an online registration to provide parent and child names, contact phone number and email address. Please complete the registration process by Friday the 3rd of August.

Online Registration:  Available using hyperlink   REGISTRATION

OR go to:    https://goo.gl/forms/pvhU6lhdXkC3JFbY2

Thank you for your support and we look forward to working with you.

Mass and Liturgy Times:

This term, Mass will be on Fridays at 12pm and Liturgies will be Friday at 12:30pm.

Liturgies may be held at the school, pending the weather on the day.

Dates to mark on your calendar:

06/07- End of term Mass led by SRC (12pm).

Thoughts/ Questions / Reflection for the week: Visio Divina 

Visio Divina invites the viewer into "divine seeing." Visio Divina shares origins with the ancient practice of Lectio Divina. (Lectio Divina calls for a slow, careful interaction with scripture through meditation and prayer, allowing a word or phrase to rise in one's consciousness, a holy word to be savoured and examined.) Similarly, Visio Divina invites one to encounter the divine through images. A prayerful consideration of and interaction with a photograph in the magazine, icon, piece of art, or other visual representation allows the viewer to experience the divine in a unique and powerful way.

Visio Divina can be practised individually or with a group in a small group or worship setting by using a piece of art as a focal point for prayer. Scripture can also be paired with the image in order for the viewer to reflect on the scripture through the art.

Use this image of ‘Beautiful Nature’, to encounter the divine.

1) Prepare: Close your eyes, breathe, clear your mind, and ask God to enter into this time of prayer with you. Ask God to speak to you through this image.

2) Lectio (read): Open your eyes and scan the image. Note what draws your interest but continue to scan the whole image. Close and rest your eyes a minute.

3) Mediatio (meditate): Open your eyes and let your eyes be led. Focus on just the part of the image that caught your eyes and name it. Close your eyes, seeing that piece of the image in your mind.

4) Oratio (pray): Open your eyes and look again at the piece of the image that caught your eye. Allow it to bring forth a word, image, or emotion. Close and rest your eyes.

5) Contemplatio (contemplation): Open your eyes and gaze at the whole image. What is God speaking to you today through this image? How will you respond to Him? Spend time processing that with God. Pray or journal about it.

God Bless and have a safe and happy holiday,

Mrs Flanagan REC

Community Council Update

Our last meeting (21/6/18) was an open meeting and we would like to thank David and Michelle Scott for joining us for the meeting.  We were also joined by a few other parents for a presentation on A-E reporting and NAPLAN that was held prior to the meeting. Thank you, Vince, for your insight into how the A-E reporting system works, very timely given reports went home the next day. We also had the opportunity to see the kind of information the school receives from the NAPLAN tests and how it is used at St. Patrick’s to continue to improve the education our children receive.

Two fundraising events are planned for Term 3, ‘At the Movies’ trivia night and catering for Trent Barrett. Our hosts Peter and Carolyn Reardon are busy making the rounds of questions for the trivia night on Friday the 10^th August. The date is approaching fast so don’t forget to organise your table of friends and outfits (dress theme is Movies). Trent Barrett is on the following Wednesday (15/8/18).

The Crazy Camel Fundraiser (calendars, cards, tea towels etc with children’s artwork) is normally held in Term 4 ready for ordering all those Christmas presents. Community Council is seeking someone who is interested in coordinating this fundraiser.  Planning of the Term 4 fundraisers will be discussed at the next Community Council meeting (2/8/18) so if you are interested in helping with Crazy Camel please contact the school or Kim Paton to discuss.

Work is continuing on gaining quotes, setting budgets and decisions on the best options for the AstroTurf Area. Discussions were held regarding possible grants that may be able to be applied for to help with the costs. Community Council would appreciate the heads up on any grants that you may hear of that could be used for this purpose. If hear of any please contact the school or Craig Hargreaves.

The frequency of the school newsletter was also discussed and it was decided to trial a fortnightly newsletter with a weekly bulletin email. At this stage this is a trial and as such Community Council would appreciate your cooperation and look forward to your feedback after a few weeks. Another great way of finding out what date something at the school is on is in the School Zine App. The School Zine App once downloaded contains the school newsletter, school calendar, links to forms as well as other functions. 

Congratulations to our Western Region Athletics Team who competed in Temora on Friday. Everyone ran, threw and jumped their hearts out with many of our athletes improving their personal bests from our school carnival. Lochie Wilson was named Intermediate Boy champion, Abbey Flanagan came 2nd in shot put and congratulations to Henry Hindmarsh for his initiative and thoughtfulness in assisting with the carnival after finishing his event.  A full list of results may be available before the end of Term, please contact the office if you would like a copy emailed. Thank you to the parents who were able to come and support their children and especially those families who helped transport others to and from Temora.

Well done everyone!

KINDERGARTEN: Denver Blundell - trying so hard with writing and recognising sounds and letters.

YEAR 1/2: Montanna Manns - writing a creative and interesting 'Sense Poem'.

YEAR 3/4: Lincoln Fallon - being a whiz with a hockey stick.

YEAR 5/6: Max Graham - being a great mentor to younger children.

RESPONSIBLE: Archie McDonnell

RESPECTFUL: Archie McDonnell, Tyler Manns, Joseph Gailey & Flynn Leane

SAFE: 

Our very best wishes to the following people who celebrate their birthdays this week.

Tom Scott celebrated on Sunday 1 July

Emma Ferguson celebrates on Tuesday 3 July

Library News

Dear Families and Friends

Some great events are coming up early in Term 3.

On Tuesday the 7^th of August St Patrick’s will be celebrating the “Children's Book Council Australia” Book Week.

The focus for book week this year is “Find your Treasure”.

On Tuesday the 7^th of August we will hold our Annual Book Week Parade and Book Fair in conjunction with our “Grandparents Day”.

We will begin our day with a morning tea for our Grandparents and friends at 9:30.

At 10:30 we will commence our much-anticipated book week parade. We are asking all children to come dressed as a character from their most treasured book.

We are also asking Grandparents and friends to spend time in our classrooms or read a treasured story to our children.

Our Annual Scholastic Book Fair will also operate during Week 3. It will be set up in the Library. This is a great opportunity for all grandparents, parents, friends and students to purchase books at great prices. Also, many friends and families purchase a book or two to donate back to our school library. Please remember that the school receives 35% of all sales to purchase more books. 

On this day we will again be holding a trivia afternoon for all the students. This year’s theme will be “Treasured Fairy Tales and Nursery Rhymes”.

Justine Hughes

Librarian

Give Me 5 for Kids is a national fundraiser which has been supporting and raising funds for local children’s hospital wards across regional Australia for the last 20 years. Beginning in the mid-'90s as a simple coin drive from the Central Coast region, this annual charity drive has since raised $22.3 million nationally and benefited over 40 children’s hospital wards.

This Friday the 6^th of July the SRC are supporting this Charity by holding an out of uniform day. We are asking all families to donate 5 coins (Give 5 for kids). The SRC will also be leading the End of Term Mass on this Day.