Dear Parents and Carers,

As we move into Week 8 and Week 3 of Remote Learning, we continue to be very grateful for the support, efforts and understanding of our families. A special thank you must go to the Community Council parent group that put together the lovely collection of photos for a FB video post on Monday. We certainly miss the contact with all our families and especially our beautiful students. Thank you to parents who are sending great photos in of all the wonderful things that are happening during Remote Learning. The creative ways families are undertaking activities always brings a smile to our faces.

Since the Media Release last Friday by the Premier and Minister for Education regarding the safe return to onsite schooling for NSW students, not much more information has been released. The commencement of the return of students on October 25^th is dependent on vaccination rates reaching 70% across the state. In addition, the Government will mandate through a public health order, the vaccination of all school staff. If ‘stay at home’ orders are lifted in any part of the state prior to October 25^th, it is possible that some schools may return to onsite learning sooner. We are hoping this will be the case for our NSW rural Catholic schools. At this stage all we know is that the lockdown has been extended until Friday 10^th September. We will now have to wait for further advice from NSW Health, NSW Government and Catholic Education before we have a clear pathway forward. Once more information is known we will share it with our families.

Until then, St Patrick’s school remains open to the families of essential workers and the students who have no one to care for them at home. Please continue to follow the advice of NSW Health in minimalizing movement and contact with one another. We certainly understand the challenges of keeping your children at home through this period of time, but we also thank you for following the requirements of the NSW Health Orders.

St Patrick’s continues to focus on providing high quality online learning opportunities for all our students Years K-6. I am extremely grateful to the teachers and support staff who are working tirelessly behind the scenes, to maintain the quality of learning and teaching of the normal classroom teaching programs. We are so fortunate to have such dedicated teachers and support staff at St Patrick’s.

We continue to pray that our families and community stay safe.

Best wishes for the week ahead,

Christine Baron

Principal

Thank you everyone for the way you have adapted to Remote Learning. This is certainly a challenging time for everyone.

It has been wonderful to see work in Religion being submitted by classes. We have seen beautiful prayer spaces that have been created, so that children and their families can spend some time in prayer and quiet reflection. We miss being able to come together to pray as a school community, but it is heartening knowing that our children are making time to talk to God while at home.

Today, we received a heartfelt message from Father George, to our school families, expressing his feelings about being separated from the children. He misses everyone and sends his love and prayers to all. He sent a special message to our Confirmation candidates who were unable to celebrate their Sacrament before the lockdown took place. He assured these children that their Confirmation will be celebrated as soon as possible, and the Holy Spirit will be with us all through this time. Thank you, Father George, for your continued spiritual guidance.

The Community Council (CC) held a virtual meeting last Tuesday evening.

We still have fundraising projects happening during the lockdown. The rose bush fundraiser was a success and raised $445 for the school. We sold 70 roses within a week and received a lot of positive feedback. Thank you to everyone who supported the fundraiser and to Simone Jones for the creative idea! Please remember to complete your Crazy Camel orders- it is a fun little project for the children during lockdown.

Alicia Hargreaves has been researching online ordering systems for tuckshop. It looks as though School24 will be the app we implement as it has been recommended by schools in Wagga and it is the most cost-effective app for a school our size. More details to come.

The season for summer uniforms is approaching, and please remember to use online ordering for the uniform shop. There is a link to access on the school website under ‘Parents’  ‘Uniforms’ or via st-patricks-primary-school-gundagai.square.site.

Planning for the cultural space is still taking place. Unfortunately, the water tank was inspected by the Council and has not been approved to hold the sandstone blocks, therefore an alternative playground space will need to be found.

We have the street stall scheduled for October 7/8/9. Hopefully this can still go ahead. If you are looking for some productive lockdown projects for the family consider making craft, jams/preserves, potting seedling or succulents for the street stall, as they would be greatly appreciated.

Planning for a school fete will begin next term. The fete has been proposed for March 2022, therefore planning will need to start next term as once school goes back next year, March will come around quickly. Please let Sam Johnson know if you have any ideas for the fete or if you would like to run a stall or help with the organising- we will need lots of people to be involved.

A reminder to use the following emails addresses to contact CC members, tuckshop or uniform co-ordinators:

communitycouncil.stpats@gmail.com – Kate Graham and Kim Paton monitor the inbox

uniformshop.stpats@gmail.com – Bec Gaskin monitors the inbox

tuckshop.stpats@gmail.com – Alicia Hargreaves monitors the inbox

COVID lockdown is a difficult time for parents as it causes a lot of chaos and pressure on the home front. Please remember to reach out if you need and try to look forward to the happy times ahead, which will be extra special xo.

Kate Graham

Secretary, Community Council

Thank you to all of our families for your continued support during lockdown.  The teachers have been receiving some amazing work that the children are creating at home during remote learning.  The Yr 5/6 children were asked to participate in a meditation activity on Friday and to set up a prayer space dedicated to their choosen Confirmation Saint (photos attached).  

Year 1 / 2 for their Religion task had to create a nature Mandala using beautiful things they found outside.  We have also had some pretty amazing Lego "Park" creations.

Just a couple of updated images of our Administration building project. It is all starting to come together and we will keep all of our families updated with further progress photos in due course. 

Year 3 / 4 had a Crazy Hair Day today during their zoom. Check out their hairstyles and imagination for today's meeting.  So great to see Mrs Flanagan and Miss Bruce join in on the fun morning activity.   

Thank you to the families who continue to send through images of their children joining in on their morning catchups with their teachers.   Please continue to send through your images of learning, exercise activities, cooking and outdoor adventures.  Please send your images to jacqueline.fairall@cg.catholic.edu.au