Dear Families and Friends,

As we draw near to the end of the Term I would like to thank parents for the great support you have given to our school. There are many positives to take from the term and as a school community we have much to celebrate. Our students have been involved in numerous educational, sporting and cultural activities and have represented our school community wonderfully.

Parents and grandparents have been involved in working on the playground and equipment, swimming and cross country carnivals, transporting our students to events, assisting in the classrooms, canteen, Community Council, the upcoming street stall, fundraising and Easter ceremonies. As a school community we flourish when we work together with a focus on the wellbeing of our students and the wider community.

I would like to congratulate our Kindergarten for the fantastic start to the year. They are a very settled, happy and cooperative group of students and are working very well. Thank you to their Y6 buddies who have shared the responsibility for assisting them around the school and making them feel at home.

Supportive Playgroups at St Patrick’s Primary School

Open to all Parents/carers of pre-school students and held on Fridays from 9:00am - 10:30 am for 8 weeks starting on the 11th May.

This is an opportunity for parents of pre-school children to be involved in an inclusive and supportive playgroup that has a focus on engaging families in their children’s learning. The playgroups focus is to support parents/carers to “see” the learning that occurs in everyday play and to build awareness of how they can positively influence their child’s learning.

The Supportive Playgroup Program is open to all Parents/carers of pre-school students regardless of whether or not you are attending St Patrick’s Primary.

The Main themes that will be covered include: Talking together, Reading together, Singing together, Playing together, Laughing together, Belonging and Learning together.

Parents may wish to continue the Playgroup throughout the year and utilise our new “Parent Hub” room that has been refurbished to support parent activities.

The Playgroup program has been designed to transition into the “Little Learners” preschool experience which will begin in Term 3. 

What are the benefits of Playgroup?

For Parents/Carers:

• understand the learning children do through play and other learning experiences.
• receive ideas for activities that they can do at home to support their child’s learning
• have the opportunity and a place to interact with each other, share knowledge and experiences and build parenting and friendship networks.

For Children: 

• become familiar with set routines, learning expectations and environment.
• have the opportunity: to develop literacy, numeracy, social and emotional, fine and gross motor skills.
• to develop good transition skills as they move into a new learning setting.
• to develop learning habits of mind, such as cooperation, purposefulness and persistence.

If you would like more information about this program please call me on 0423452072 or email vincent.powell@cg.catholic.edu.au

If you would like to register you may go online at SUPPORTIVE PLAYGROUPS or contact the school office.  

Two great parent/student support websites

1. The Student Wellbeing Hub      https://studentwellbeinghub.edu.au/

The resources available on the Student Wellbeing Hub help to create learning communities that promote student wellbeing and the development of respectful relationships.

1. The Learning Potential     http://www.learningpotential.edu.au/     

The site has great activities you can do with your child to help develop their literacy and numeracy skills. Browse by your child’s year level, or search for a topic, and the website will suggest ideas, activities, games and videos you can use to support your child’s learning. The Learning Potential App can be downloaded from Google Play or App Store. This app has lots of useful tips and ideas to help you make the most of those small opportunities in your busy day.  

Making Jesus Real  

One of the Making Jesus Real student activities this term involves the theme of, “Build a bridge and get over it”. This is a great activity for students to explore the benefits of having a positive mindset and not getting bogged down with some of life’s challenges that come our way and to move forward. This seems an appropriate metaphor for Gundagai; just as the community in the past built a great bridge to overcome the geography of the flood plain and the subsequent isolation of the Southside community. The reality of this metaphor is a challenge to the St Patrick’s community to continue the tradition of building bridges. Bridges of reconciliation, acceptance, tolerance, social justice, truth and hope. We hope our students will reach out and continue to be “bridge builders” - building bridges of truth, tolerance and hope!

St Patrick’s Street Stall

St Patrick’s Street Stall will be held this Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Thank you to our organisers and to our parent community for volunteering to sit at the stall, your hamper donations, raffle ticket sales and cooking. We greatly appreciate the support that you continue to give this event year after year.

ANZAC Day

ANZAC Day will occur in the second week of the school holidays. Once again we are asking parents and students to support this national event by marching on ANZAC Day. We will meet as a school group in front of Lott’s Hotel at 10:15 am to prepare for the march. Students will wear full summer uniform including hat. Parents will collect their children following the march at Carberry Park.

Thank you in advance of your support on this significant national day of remembrance.

Farewell to Maya, Shannon, Finlay and Abigail Bock who are moving to Darwin as of next term. It has been a pleasure to have Finlay and Abigail at St Pat’s and we wish you all the very best. Thank you to Maya and Shannon for your significant contribution to St Patrick’s and the wider Gundagai community. On behalf of our school and town community, I wish you all the very best; that you have great adventures, meet new friends and have lots of happiness.

Enjoy our term break

Wishing students, parents and staff of St Patrick’s, a restful and safe holiday break.

Principal

Kinder Liturgy

Thank you, Kinder and Mrs Carberry for leading the school Liturgy on Friday. 

Thank you! Caritas Australia would like to THANK YOU for supporting Project Compassion 2018

Please have your Project Compassion boxes to the front office by this Thursday.

Through your generosity, you are helping to empower our most vulnerable neighbours worldwide to build a just future for themselves, their families and their communities. 

Dates to mark on your calendar:

13/04- End of term Mass led by SRC (12 pm).

Thoughts/ Questions / Reflection for the week:

Breaking Open the Word

Breaking open the word enables us to gain a deeper understanding of and education in the Scriptures. Through reading the Scriptures prayerfully and searchingly, we encounter the Living Christ who calls us to an ever-fuller experience of Him in the Sacraments and life of the Church.

Step One: Listen to the Word
As you hear this familiar reading, what words or phrases strike you? What in this reading touches your heart?

A reading from the holy Gospel according to John.

After eight days, Jesus came in and stood among them.

In the evening of that same day, the first day of the week, the doors were closed in the room where the disciples were, for fear of the JEWS. Jesus came and stood among them. He said to them, ‘peace be with you’, and showed them his hands and his side. The disciples were filled with joy when they saw the Lord, and he said to them again, ‘Peace be with you. As the Father sent me, so am I sending you.’ After saying this he breathed on them and said: ‘Receive the Holy Spirit. For those whose sins you forgive, they are forgiven; for those whose sins you retain, they are retained.’

Thomas, called the Twin, who was one of the Twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. When the disciples said ‘We have seen the Lord,’ he answered, ‘Unless I see the holes that the nails made in his hands and can put my finger into the holes they made, and unless I can put my hand into his side, I refuse to believe.’ Eight days later the disciples were in the house again and Thomas was with them. The doors were closed, but Jesus came in and stood among them. “Peace be with you,’ he said. Then he spoke to Thomas, ‘Put your finger here; look, here are my hands. Give me your hand; put it into my side. Doubt no longer but believe.’ Thomas replied, “My Lord and my God1’ Jesus said to him; ‘You believe because you can see me. Happy are those who have not seen and yet believe.’

There were many other signs that Jesus worked and the disciples saw, but they are not recorded in this book. These are recorded so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God and that believing this you may have life through his name.

The Gospel of the Lord.

Step Two: Look into Your Life

Question for Children: How can you believe in Jesus whom you have never seen?

Question for Youth: Jesus' words of greeting were "Peace be with you," followed by the invitation to forgive sins. How does forgiveness bring peace to you? How does it change the world?

Question for Adults: What strengthens your faith? Why do you believe in Jesus?

Have a safe and restful holiday with your family and friends.

The school’s annual cross country carnival was held last Thursday down at the new racecourse venue.   The day was a great success with all children loving the new course and the green, lush surrounds of the racecourse area.  We are very proud of the efforts of all children and it was great to see smiles on their faces as they crossed the finishing line.

A big thank you to the parents and teachers that assisted on checkpoints and Meg Lloyd for helping on the recording desk.  This extra help ensured a smooth running carnival and we are most appreciative.  We were able to “beat the heat” and finish by 11:15 am!

The winning house of the day was FINNEGAN!  The placegetters in each age group were:

5/6 girls: Emma Ferguson, Skye Somerville, Philippa Fitzgerald, Isabella Boswell & Emily Ryan

5/6 boys: Taite Johnson, Andrew Cole, Archie McDonnell, Alexander Ryan & Riley Smith

7 years girls: Sophie Graham, Abigail Bock, Tessa Crowe, Amy Cotterill & Montanna Manns

7 years boys: Nathanael Tozer, Nicholas Quine & Jack Paton

8 years girls: Zoe Naughton

8 years boys: Jack Peterson, Darby Jones, Oliver Gailey & Anson Chew

8/9 years girls 2 km: Juliet Pearce, Ellie McDonnell, Mia Naughton, Gracie Peterson & Lilly Cotterill

8/9 years boys 2 km: Locky Eccleston, James Reardon, Charles Hindmarsh, Rylee Flanagan & Hugh Ryan

10 years girls 2km: Abby McDonnell, Addison Fairall, Sadie Eccleston, Asher Jones & Sarah Scott

10 years boys 2km: Samuel Turck, Lincoln Fallon, Finlay Bock & William Gaskin

11 years girls 3km: Lillian McDonnell, Alixandria Kerin & Molly McDonnell

11 years boys 3km: Lochie Wilson, Isaac Pearce, Max Graham, Benny Bartlett & Henry Hindmarsh

12 years girls 3km: Allie Sullivan, Abbey Flanagan, Maya Flanagan & Charlotte Curtis

12 years boys 3 km: Hugh Graham, Thomas Scott, William Naughton, Benji Leane & Don Cotterill

Congratulations to the top 5 placegetters, these children will now represent our school at the Western Region Carnival which we are looking forward to hosting in Term 2, week 1 on Friday 4^th May.  Just a reminder that all representative notes are due back to school by this Wednesday 11 April, please.

On Wednesday the 4th of April the Year 5 & 6 girls travelled to Tumut to play in the Netball Schools Cup.

When it was time for our games we were very nervous and excited! We lost our first game to South Public School but we didn't mind, we still had fun.

Our second game we lost to Tumut Public Yr 5, but again it was still really fun and we worked together as a team!

The third game we had a practice run with Gundagai Public because Nangus ended up forfeiting.

We got back up there though in our 4th game and gave it our best shot, winning against Tumut Public Yr 6.

In our fifth game we were winners as well, winning against McAuley Tumut.

Over all we had a fantastic time in Tumut. Special thanks to the mums who provided transport and Mrs Michelle McDonnell for coaching us. Thanks!

From the team Lily, Ella, Alixandria,  Abbey,  Allie, Maya, Charlotte and Molly.

Sport for all students will be this Thursday as usual.

We have our annual street stall this week on 12^th, 13^th and 14^th of April.

Please return your volunteer slips or call Leanne so that a roster can be drawn up. Raffle tickets have also gone home which need to be returned along with a 'winter warmer' hamper item by this Wednesday.

Please contact Leanne McDonnell, our street stall coordinator on 0427 455 100 or email dandlmcdonnell@bigpond.com

Happy birthday to the following people who celebrate their birthdays this week.

Samuel Turck celebrates this Thursday 12 April.

Juliet Pearce celebrates this Saturday 14 April

Molly McDonnell celebrates Sunday 22 April

Our very best wishes to you on your special day

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