Dear Parents,

Welcome to Week 6! We are already half way through Term 2, with many exciting activities planned for the last few weeks. Teachers are busily preparing Semester One reports and completing assessments on students. Parent/Teacher meetings are scheduled for Week 10.

Our best wishes are extended to Charlie Hindmarsh as he represents the Western Region at the Archdiocesan Cross Country today at Mt Stromlo. Good luck Charlie and run fast!

By now you would be well aware that Ms Sharon McCarthy has resigned from her Office Administration position at St Patrick’s. I would like to thank Sharon for her passionate and dedicated commitment to St Patrick’s over the past 8 years. We will miss Sharon’s vibrant sense of fun, creativity and friendliness. Sharon has accepted a position with Hume Shire Council which is much closer to her family and home. The office positioned has been advertised and we hope to announce a replacement soon. 

Coming up this week………………………..

YEAR K/1/2 CHOIR: Congratulations to our Year K/1/2 students who have been invited to sing at the Gundagai Hospital this morning. The invitation was extended following their wonderful singing at the Cancer Council morning tea, which was held recently. The students were a great credit to the school and left the community wanting to hear more of their talented singing. We are very proud of our K/1/2 students!

ATHLETICS CARNIVAL: Will be held this Thursday 6^th June at Owen Vincent Oval commencing at 10am. K/1 will join us at 11.30am. We wish all students a wonderful day of competition and fun. Parent helpers will be most appreciated.

ST PATRICK’S STREET STALL: will be held this Thursday, Friday and Saturday. All donations and assistance gratefully accepted.

YEAR 1/2 CLASS MASS: Our Year 1/2 class will host Mass this Friday, at St Patrick’s Church commencing at 12pm. The theme of the Mass is ‘Pentecost’. Parents and friends are most welcome to join us to celebrate Mass.

Other upcoming events………………

FAMILY WEEK: Next week and every Week 7 of term, we have re-named as ‘Family Week’. Family Week is a time to focus on being a family and an opportunity to spending time doing things as a family. Therefore, there will be no formal homework given during Week 7, apart from reading. Instead of homework, perhaps the family can play board games together one night, play cards or go on a bike ride etc etc. The ideas are limitless and we are sure as a family you can think of many ways to enjoy time together. We will be interested in finding out from the students, how they spent ‘Family Week’.

STEPH COOKE VISIT: Steph Cooke, Member for Cootamundra will be visiting St Patrick’s next Tuesday at 2pm. Steph will meet with our Year 6 students to discuss the importance of leadership and the active role leaders play in our school and community. We look forward to Steph’s visit and appreciate her time with her busy schedule.

YEAR 6 CAMP: The annual Year 6 excursion to Narrabeen Sport and Recreation Centre is coming up quickly. Year 6 together with Mrs Wilson and Mrs Hughes will head off to Sydney on Sunday 16^th June, returning on Friday 21^st June. Time to start thinking about packing bags Year 6!

2020 KINDERGARTEN INFORMATION SESSION: will be held on Thursday 27^th JUNE commencing at 5:30pm. Please encourage anyone who has a child ready for school next year to come along to this session and find out more about our wonderful school community. Enrollments this year will be done online. Please see further details later in this newsletter.

UNIFORM - WINTER JACKETS

With the cold weather well and truly here, thank you to parents for ensuring children have jackets to keep them warm when playing outside. Please remember acceptable school jackets colours are Navy, Bottle Green and Black.

We give thanks for the lovely rain we have received over the past week and continue our prayers for more rain as winter arrives.

Christine Baron

REC News

Year 3 and 4 Mass

Many thanks to 3/4 and Mr Ferguson for presenting such a beautiful mass on Friday 24 May.  We were all impressed with their reading and reverence. It was really lovely to see so many parents, family and friends come along. Thank you also to the 5/6’s and Mrs Hughes for last week’s National Reconciliation Week’s Liturgy on “Journey To Healing”.

Mass and Liturgy Times:

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

Dates to mark on your calendar:

07/06- Mass led by Years 1 and 2 (12pm)

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

Reflection for the week:

  

                                                       Ascension Sunday:

After he rose from the dead, Jesus spent time with his friends for 40 days before returning to his Father in heaven. He left us His peace and the promise of the Holy Spirit.

We are encouraged to ask questions, always digging into a deeper understanding of our faith, as well as having the courage to proclaim what we know and hope for.

Confirmation:

Please continue to keep in your prayers the children preparing for Confirmation.  The Parish are preparing the candidates beautifully and much discussion is being noted at school about the history of the sacrament and their chosen saint. Please note there will not be a Saturday afternoon class this weekend due to the long weekend.

Walking with you in Faith and Knowledge,

Mrs Wilson REC

Project Compassion collections should all be presented to the school office by Friday this week at the latest to ensure that it can be distributed to Caritas Australia prior to 30 June.

We thank our St Patrick's families and the wider community for supporting this Lenten project.

Confirmation candidates are half way through their preparation classes and the feedback so far has been very positive, please remember to keep these children in your prayers as they prepare to receive the Holy Spirit.

A reminder there are no classes this long weekend, BUT it is the Feast of Pentecost (the outpouring of the Holy Spirit) so wear red to Mass for the celebration.
Classes will resume on Saturday 15 June, 4:30pm at St Patrick’s Hall.

Thanks,

Madeline Ryan

Sacramental Program Coordinator

Mortimer Shield

On Thursday last week, Year 5/6 went to Tumut for Mortimer Shield Gala Day.

The girls had one team and played three games of league tag. Our first game we won against Tumut Public School and (sadly) lost the other two games to Tumut and Adelong teams.

All in all, it was a great day, everyone had fun and had a fair go. Addison Fairall got ‘Best on Field’ for our team and Benny Bartlett got it for the boys.

• Lily McDonnell

The boys from St Joseph's Adelong joined with our team to make the team. So a big thank you for those boys from Adelong. The boys did rugby league tackle. We had 4 games. The first team we played was Gundagai  Public. We lost against them. Then we played against Tumut Public School. We won that game. Then after a break we played McAuley. In that game we lost. Then a little later we played Franklin which we won.

• Henry Hindmarsh  

Special thanks to Leanne McDonnell for preparing and coaching the girls.  Thank you to Mrs Eccleston for assisting on the day.  Thank you to Mrs Wilson for coaching the boys on the day and to St Joseph’s mum Donna Robson for running the water. And a very special mention to Jake Bower one of our past students who joined us for the day from McAuley - it was lovely to have your personality and good humour on game day.

We send along our best wishes with Max Graham of Year 6 this Friday as he represents the school in the Rugby Union Trials in Canberra. We look forward to hearing all about the experience on his return.

Just to inform all families that we have moved to an online platform for our 2020 enrollments. Simply go to our website

Under the Parents tab you will find a drop down menu. Select Enrolment. From here you are able to complete the online form and upload all of the necessary documentation. 

Please ensure that you share this information with potential new families. If you have any queries regarding the process please don't hesitate to call the front office.

This year the Community Council have decided to run a Monster Raffle consisting of 3 prizes totaling over $8000!

Tickets will be sold at a number of events over the remainder of the year with the winners being announced at the end of year functions.

Tickets are $5 each available from the school, Gundagai Real Estate, Wrens Store and Styling and the Gundagai Newsagency. 

1st prize a 7x5 trailer complete with crate and rego. Also will have a canoe, $600 worth of wine and $3500 worth of vouches 

2nd prize $1500 Harvey Norman voucher 

3rd prize $500 Harvey Norman voucher 

*Tickets will also be on sale at the street stall this week.

The Student of the Month Award is presented twice a term for Learning Excellence.

The student that receives this award has consistent effort to achieve at their best. Cooperative/collaborative learning behaviours and displays a positive learning attitude towards all tasks.

Kindergarten: Molly Lott

Year 1: Harry Peterson & Taite Johnson

Year 2: Charlotte McDonnell

Year 3: Sophie Graham

Year 4: Josie Quine

Year 5: William Gaskin

Year 6: Max Graham

Week 4 - Term 2 

Kindergarten/Year 1: Oliver Crowe - working hard to revise sight words.

Year 1/2: Nicholas Quine - a more focused week, trying hard to complete tasks.

Year 3/4: Anson Chew - being a good friend to so many.

Year 5/6: Sarah Scott - collaborating on tasks in a mature and respectful manner.

Week 5 - Term 2 

Kindergarten/Year 1: Savannah Manns - showing care and concern for others.

Year 1/2: Lachlan Morgan - enthusiastic participation in all class activities.

Year 3/4: Ollie Gailey - improved on task behaviours when working independently.

Year 5/6: Benny Bartlett - developing mature and settled work habits.

Week 4 - Term 2

RESPONSIBLE: Locky Eccleston

RESPECTFUL: Archie McDonnell

SAFE: Locky Eccleston

Week 5 - Term 2 

RESPONSIBLE: Lily McDonnell, Ella Nugent, Emmy Gaskin, Charlie Brown, Molly Lott, Garvita Joshi, Tyler Manns, Andrew Cole & Jayden Crossley.

RESPECTFUL: Jack Peterson, Andrew Cole, Isabella Boswell & Indi Cole.

SAFE: James Reardon & Indi Cole.

Week 6 

We introduced a 3 step model this week to encourage resilient responses; Pause, Plan, Proceed. The children take part in an activity to identify their feelings and the immediate effects on their bodies ie butterflies in their stomachs. The normalcy of feelings is acknowledged and the importance of being proactive is stressed. The children learn that pausing when they are emotional is helpful. They can do this by being still, taking a deep breath or counting to ten. Pausing gives children space to see a situation more accurately before planning a response.

Ask your child to describe the 3 steps of the model and what is involved in each one.

Week 7

This week the focus in on step 2 of the model, Plan. In Peer Support children learn the need to develop a range of coping strategies and be creative in drawing on these when planning responses. Responses include perservering, seeing the positive side to situations and engaging in activities they enjoy as a distration for a short time.

Encourage your child to talk with you about strategies they could use as difficulties arise.

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

Alixandria Kerin celebrates her birthday today!

Friday 3 August

St Patrick's

Annual Trivia Night

Book the babysitter and stay tuned for more details regarding the ever popular St Pat's Trivia Night.