Jesus, Good Shepherd,

Teach us through your Spirit

to walk your way of light,

to live your way of truth

and in all things to act with love and compassion.

Help us to come to the Father

by knowing you,

loving you and serving you in each other.

May our schools be places of

wonder, learning and peace

where the lessons of today

prepare us for the challenges of tomorrow.

May your Mother, Mary, 

guide our footsteps as she guided yours.

This prayer we make in faith.

AMEN

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

CATHOLIC SCHOOLS WEEK CELEBRATIONS

Welcome to Catholic Schools Week-Engaging Faith, Minds and Communities. We are excited to be offering the following activities during this special week.

• Monday 6^th May to Friday 10^th May-Praying the Catholic Schools Week Prayer

• Tuesday 7^th May-Year 6 Sports Specialist and leaders to lead Morning Fitness Sessions 9.00-9.15am

• Thursday 9^th May- Year 6 Sports Specialist and leaders to lead Morning Fitness Sessions 9.00-9.15am

• Thursday 9th May - 2.00-2.45pm Peer Support Groups begin

FRIDAY 10 MAY

• 9.00-10.30 - Open Classrooms-Parents invited to visit classrooms and see the great learning in action

• 10.00-11.00am - Mum's Pampering Session to be held in Murrumbidgee Room (10-minute time slots available for all mums, grandmothers, aunties, friends)

• 10.30-11.30 Morning Tea for all visitors

• 12.00pm Year 5/6 to present Mass in St Patrick’s Church

• Lucky Door Prize-Mother’s Day gift

We will be kicking off our Peer Support program this week on Thursday. The Year 5/6 class did Peer Support Training last Term and are prepared for this term's activities.

The children will be participating in a new module, Moving Forward which focuses on resilience. The experiences in the module help children to identify their qualities and strengths, develop skills, respond with a range of strategies and seek support when faced with challenges. In this session, the children will establish connections with the other members of their group and develop their group agreement to enable them to work well together. The children will discuss an example of a challenging situation and some resilient and non-resilient responses.

You might like to discuss with your child what they can do to help take an active role in Peer Support.

Catholic Schools Week Prayer

Jesus, Good Shepherd,

Teach us through your Spirit to walk your way of light, to live your way of truth and in all things to act with love and compassion.

 Help us to come to the Father by knowing you, loving you and serving you in each other.

May our schools be places of wonder, learning and peace where the lessons of today prepare us for the challenges of tomorrow.

May your Mother, Mary, guide our footsteps as she guided yours.

This prayer we make in faith.

Amen.

EASTER IN A BOX

Last week we completed our Easter in a box activity. Please take the time if you haven’t already to go through your child/children’s Easter Boxes with them.

40 Days 40 Items

Can all donations (garbage bags of clothes) be returned to school by Wednesday 15^th May (week 3).

Thank you for taking up the challenge and helping others in need.

Project Compassion

Please return your Project Compassion boxes.

Thank you for supporting this year “Give Lent 100 %”.

Mass and Liturgy Times:

This term, Mass will be on Fridays at 12 pm every 2nd week at the Church.

Dates to mark on your calendar:

10/05- Catholic Schools Week Mass led by Years 5 and 6 (12 pm)

24/05- Mass led by Years 3 and 4 (12 pm)
07/06- Mass led by Years 1 and 2 (12 pm)

21/06- Mass led by Kinder and Year 1 (12 pm).
05/07- Mass led by SRC (12 pm)

Prayer / Thoughts / Questions / Reflection for the week:

PRAYER

God of all time and every place, you sent the Holy Spirit so that we might come to know and love Jesus who is the Way, the Truth and the Life. Plant in our Catholic schools the seeds of Hope, Joy and Wonder. Nurture these seeds of your love and enable them to bear fruit that will nourish a world hungry for your love. We ask this in the name of Jesus, our Lord.

Amen

Live Jesus in our hearts, forever

God Bless, Mrs Flanagan REC

Dear Parents,

This year the sacramental program will be presented directly from the Gundagai Parish under the leadership of Father George NOT BY THE SCHOOL (as in previous years)

Reasons for this change:

Parents are the first educators for their children, the Parish is the source of Sacramental life and the School assists parents in the faith education or their children.

Registrations for Confirmation in June, First Reconciliation in August and First Holy Communion in November, will need to be made through the Parish website only cg.org.au/gundagai where you will find your letter of introduction, dates and other information along with the individual registration forms.

If your child is in Year 5 upwards for Confirmation, or Year 3 upwards for Reconciliation and Holy Communion, you will need to register by May 7. The website is being prepared now and will be available by Easter. There will be a further reminder in Week 1 of Term 2 of the urgency that these registrations must be completed by May 7.

Please note that you will be required to upload your Baptism certificate as part of the registration for Reconciliation and Holy Communion sacraments and the certificates of the above sacraments for the registration of Confirmation candidates. 

There will be some very excited children this afternoon the prizes for the colour run have arrived this morning. Thank you again for all the support everyone has shown for this fundraiser we have raised $3,500.00

Our next fundraiser will be the street stall on the 6th - 8th June. If anyone is interested in coordinating the street stall please contact the school office or a Community Council Member as we would really appreciate some help.

Our next meeting is scheduled for next Thursday 16th May. Please contact a CC member if you have anything you would like discussed at the meeting.

NAPLAN Online schedule is provided below for our Year 3 and 5 students. The students will be assessed over two weeks (rather than the 3 days that has previously been the case)

Tuesday 14^th May-Reading (Online) and Writing (Not online)

Wednesday 22^nd May-Language Conventions and Maths (Online)

It is very important that ALL our Year 3 and 5 students turn up to school on both those days to complete their assessments.

This year the decision has been made to not conduct the external ICAS competitions.  With the introduction and increase in online assessment data platforms provided by Catholic Education the students at St Patrick’s have gained added experience and opportunities in numerous online testing. 

Through the introduction of PAT Tests this year in Reading Comprehension and Mathematics (Years 2-6), Online Naplan practice tests (Year 3 and 5), and Mathsburst Pre test and Final test (Years 3-6) this valuable data is used by classroom teachers to plan for and assess the student’s learning and achievement.   As a school we aim to meet every child’s learning needs through analysis of school wide data.  If you have any queries please contact Mrs Baron or Mrs Wilson

Teacher Meetings: Teachers at St Patrick’s School are always open to parent discussions especially if parents wish to raise any concerns or issues. Parents are asked to please be considerate of teacher’s busy schedules throughout the day and ask that you ring and/or email teacher’s to make a mutually convenient appointment time. Thank you

Week 11 - Term 1 

Kindergarten/Year 1: Tyler Manns - giving writing attempts 100% in content and presentation.

Year 1/2: Jack Ryan - putting in a huge effort with his writing.

Year 3/4: James Reardon - making sensible choices with his learning and behaviours.

Year 5/6: Addison Fairall - acting on feedback to improve the quality of her writing.

Week 1 - Term 2 

Kindergarten/Year 1: Denver Blundell - starting the term with enthusiasm and positive class participation.

Year 1/2: Amy Cotterill - trying her best with all her work.

Year 3/4: Josie Quine - thoughtful responses recorded on Jam Boards.

Year 5/6: William Gaskin - taking risks when writing with increased suspense and character description.

Week 11 - Term 1 

RESPONSIBLE: Indi Cole, Riley Smith, Molly Lott, Dale Paton, Montanna Manns, Amy Cotterill, Archie McDonnell & Flynn Leane

RESPECTFUL: Denver Blundell, Dale Paton, Tyler Manns, Abby Mcdonnell, Charlotte McDonnell & Isaac Pearce.

SAFE: Oliver Crowe, Abby McDonnell, Sadie Eccleston, Garvita Joshi & Darby Jones.

Week 1 - Term 2 

RESPONSIBLE: 

RESPECTFUL: Montanna Manns

SAFE:

This Friday Sam Turck and Benny Bartlett will travel to Canberra to represent the Canberra Goulburn Archdiocesan Team at the MacKillop Rugby League Trials. We wish both boys the best of luck.

As previously advised, the WR Cross Country has been postponed until Friday 17 May.

Could those parents who were driving please indicate to the front office if they are still able to drive on this date.

Many thanks

Lisa Wilson

The St Pat's community would like to congratulation Martin Crossley & Cassandra Adamiak on the birth of their daughter Josette who is pictured here with her older brother Jayden from our Kindergarten class.

The SRC is to be congratulated on raising $626 through the Easter Raffle and we thank all of our families for supporting the raffle with your donations of chocolate goodies. Our winners in the raffle are as follows: Josie & Nick Quine, Pippa Fitzgerald, Sadie Eccleston, Max Graham, Ellie McDonnell, Savannah McDonnell, Emma & Charlie Brown and Emma Ferguson.

We thank the 'Easter Bunny' (our beloved Leonie Winters) for dropping in and spoiling our children.

Don't forget to post your Earn & Learn stickers into the box marked St Patrick's either at the Woolworths store or in the front office.