Dear Parents,

A warm welcome to Week 4 and the season of Spring where cool nights mostly turn into beautiful warm days. We also extend a very warm welcome to our new student Rouge Calub. Rouge, who prefers to go by the initials ‘RV’ has joined our Year 1 class. We welcome RV and her mum and dad to our St Patrick’s School community.

St Patrick’s continues to operate under Level 3 restrictions. Thank you to our students who continue to show such resilience in adapting so seamlessly to our new school and playground regulations. Our CE Canberran Archdiocesan schools have begun their staggered return to school this week and are welcoming back students onsite for the first time in 10 weeks.  In light of the continuity of Level 3 restrictions, staff made the very difficult decision to cancel our school production ‘Alice, the Musical’. We had been forever hopeful that restrictions would lift and that we would be able to go ahead with our production, however the time frame is now too tight to ensure we could manage to have everything organised before the end of term. The students, although disappointed, have been very accepting of the news and refocused on the school activities we can go ahead with.

This week is Mission Week and our thanks go to Mrs Howe for organising a lovely liturgy for each classroom and some fun activities for students to participate in.

Next Tuesday we are looking forward to celebrating Melbourne Cup Day. All these activities have been adjusted to ensure students participate in their class cohorts and we continue to abide by restrictions.

Mr Jose Matos, our wonderful school grounds and maintenance person has resigned from his position, with his last day to be Friday 5^th November. We are extremely grateful to Jose for all his time, effort and energy that he has applied to this position, often going above and beyond for our school. Jose has accepted another fulltime position in Tumut. The Garden and Maintenance position at school has been advertised. If anyone knows anyone who would be interested in this position (3 hours a week or 6 per fortnight), please get them to contact the front office for further information.

Plans are still underway to develop our new school cultural space with the Cultural Committee meeting with local aboriginal painters last week. This is part of the Community Grant funding, that the school received last year. Our new school administration area continues to take shape, with joinery being installed this week and the front entrance and finishing touches to be applied over the next few weeks.

St Patrick’s School community was saddened to hear of the passing of former Principal and school teacher, Miss Carolle Howlett, last week. Miss Howlett spent 8 years teaching at St Stanislaus and was Principal of St Patrick’s from 1979-1980. A Requiem Mass for Miss Howlett will be held at St Patrick’s Church this Saturday 30^th October commencing at 2pm. Our thoughts and prayers are with Miss Howlett’s family.

Please come along and join in the Family Fun Day at Carberry Park this Sunday. St Patrick’s Community Council will be holding a cake stall. All donations greatly accepted.

Have a great week,

Christine Baron

Principal

There is so much to tell you about what is happening this week.

Firstly, this week is Catholic Mission Week.

This Socktober, we are encouraging students to learn what life is like for children from Thailand, specifically those from slum areas in Bangkok. 

Thailand is known as the 'Land of a Thousand Smiles', a country renowned as much for the warmth of its people as for the warmth of its weather.

Despite this, Thailand also exhibits staggering wealth inequality. In 2018, the wealthiest 10% of Thai people held over 85% of the nation’s wealth, while the poorest half of the population accounted for under 2% of all wealth. Around 7% of the Thai population of 69,480,520 people live under the poverty line.

Sadly, Thailand is also a major centre for human trafficking, particularly of children and vulnerable people. 

The Good Shepherd Sister’s Kindergarten Centre

The Good Shepherd Sisters have been supporting communities in need in Thailand for over 55 years.

The Sisters have a mission to build partnerships that promote the dignity and human rights of all, especially women and children.

The Kindergarten, offers life changing services for local women and their children: firstly the sisters provide a loving education in a safe place and secondly this allows the parents to freely work and earn a living for their families knowing the children are safe.

At St Patrick’s we are hoping to assist Catholic Mission to make a difference to the lives of these people.

On Wednesday each class will be holding a special Liturgy to mark World Children’s Mission Day. The readings, hymns and reflections have been especially chosen to focus on the mission we all have, as children of God, to look after our brothers and sister who need our help.

On Friday the children will have a fun day where they will form their coin lines with the coin donations they have been collecting. They will also display their class sockball and engage in a sockball kick off. Mr Crane has been nominated as the Staff member to test our class sockballs to see which will travel the furthest. We will adhere to our Covid restrictions and participate in our class cohorts.

* Gold coin               *    Wear your DONATION        *  CRAZIEST SOCKS

 Thank you, families, for your continued support of Catholic Mission.

Example targets                                  

First Holy Communion

Last week our children began their preparation for the Sacrament of the Eucharist.

The children have enthusiastically engaged in their learning and contributed to rich discussions. On Saturday night they were presented to the Parish congregation during Mass. We keep these children in our prayers as they continue, on their faith journey.

The Sacrament of the Eucharist will be celebrated on Saturday 6^th November at 4:30 pm in St Patrick’s Church.

Masses and Liturgies

Due to current restrictions, we are unable to celebrate class Masses in the Church. However, classes will celebrate Liturgies within their classrooms during the Term. The children will continue to engage in prayerful experiences within their classrooms.

Kate Howe  REC

Don't Forget this Friday is "Out of Uniform Day" and the children are asked to wear Crazy Socks - Gold Coin Donation 

Kids will also be participating in our annual coin line so please send in any small change -  each class is participating in the longest coin line which is always a bit of fun between classes. 

The annual St Vincent De Paul Street Stall for the Gundagai chapter will be held Thursday 28th Friday 29th and Saturday morning 30th October.

Donations of goods, saleable items or your time to sit on the street stall would be appreciated.

Please contact Anne Saunderson 0408441317

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

Thank you to the families who helped at the working bee, your time and hard work was much appreciated, and it is lovely to see the school grounds looking tidy again. We are particularly grateful to the families who continually answer the call to support and help with school activities, we are lucky to have these families at our school. The school community has a commitment to 2 working bees each year, which hasn’t been possible due to COVID restrictions, however we are hoping to return to this next year. In 2022 we will roster families on one working bee each to evenly spread the workload. It will also be a chance to have a BBQ and catch up with other families, while contributing to the school.

Fundraising this term includes a cake stall this Sunday at ‘Fun in the Park’. We will also have Halloween themed cupcake decorating kits for children to enjoy. Please contact Sam Johnson if you can help with cooking or if you can spare some time to help at the stall. It will also be a chance to promote the school within the community as we are currently taking enrolments for 2022. On Sunday we will begin selling tickets for our end of year raffle, and soon we will be sending raffle tickets home for families to sell and approaching local businesses to sell tickets. The raffle will be drawn at the conclusion of the street stall on Saturday December 4^th. The street stall date has been changed again and will now take place on Thursday December 2nd, Friday December 3^rd, and Saturday December 4^th. We need everyone to make a big effort so our final fundraiser for the year is a success! Consider making a start on Christmas cakes or puddings to sell at the stall or approach a friend or relative who is well known for their Christmas baking and might like to donate something festive and delicious.

Planning for a school fete in March 2022 has begun. Thank you to Sam Johnson for kicking this off. We have had lots of great ideas for stalls and activities however we will still need more volunteers so please get involved.

Tuckshop continues to be busy. Thank you to our new volunteers, especially Wei Rui who is helping out a lot this term, which means we can offer the tuckshop to the children each week. The uptake of the School24 app for ordering has been great and it has improved the workflow for volunteers. Thank you to the parents who have adopted the new system so quickly. Please switch over as it is difficult for volunteers to process both online and brown bag orders and it increases the chance of errors with the lunch orders.

The cultural space is taking place. We are still working to get the water tank approved to hold the sandstone blocks, and we will have indigenous artists painting a mural soon.

We are putting the call out again for a parent volunteer to create a school yearbook. The yearbook is a popular memento that the children enjoy reading and looking back on. We have had a few requests from parents for the yearbook to be available again, however we need a volunteer to make it happen. Please let a CC member know if you can assist.

Kate Graham

Secretary, Community Council

communitycouncil.stpats@gmail.com

The ‘Family Fun Day’ is a great opportunity to advertise our beautiful school and fundraise at the same time. With the Cupcakes now covered for the decorating activity; we still need to fill our stall with some yummy baked items – cakes, slices and biscuits or savoury items!!

Baked items can be dropped to me at St Pat’s Hall on Friday 29^th (Canteen entrance) or delivered to the Stall on Sunday from 10am. Any volunteers who can assist with the stall on Sunday between 11am and 1pm, even just for 1/2hour would be greatly appreciated.

If your able to assist with cooking or even spare 1/2hr to assist on the stall please contact the school (02) 6944 1085 or myself 0422 154 298.

Thank you for your support!

Sam Johnson - Fundraising Coordinator

Congratulations to Sophie Graham and Jessica McDonnell for their extraordinary efforts in the recent WR Public Speaking final. The competition was held via TEAMS and both girls delivered exceptional speeches in a virtual capacity. The adjudicator gave both girls some great feedback and they were delighted with their individual results. Congratulations Sophie and Jess and thank you for representing our school with such pride.

Time to start collecting those racing snails with Melbourne Cup Day is just around the corner! The annual St Patrick’s Snail races will be held next Tuesday 2^nd November. Dress up in your favourite race going attire and don’t forget to decorate a carriage for your snail (optional). Snail races will be held in class cohorts.

Sweep stakes will also be held in individual classes. Class teachers will provide this information to students.

As it is also our final gymnastics session, we will ask students to come dressed in their sport gear and bring their race attire to change into following gymnastic lessons.

Miss Bethany Bruce has decided to resign from her Classroom Support Assistant position at St Patrick’s to take up casual classroom teaching work, as she is now a qualified teacher. Mrs Gemma Crowe has taken on the role of CSA until the end of Term 4. Mrs Crowe is a qualified teacher and has had her application for casual and temporary classroom teaching and support positions approved through Catholic Education. We are delighted to welcome Mrs Crowe as part of the St Patrick’s teaching team.

We were delighted to be able to welcome back our Little Learners last Friday. Ms Smith was kept very busy with activities for our happy and energetic little group. Little Learners will be held again this Friday and then our Kindergarten Transition Program begins in Week 5. This is an exciting time for our 2022 Kindergarten students as they familarise themselves with our school environment.

KINDERGATEN TRANSITION DATES:

Session 1: Friday 5^th November-9.00-12.00pm

Session 2: Friday 12^th November-9.00-12.00pm

Session 3: Friday 19^th November-9.00-1.30pm

Session 4: Friday 26^th November 9.00-3.15pm

Children will need to bring Crunch and Sip plus recess for Sessions 1 and 2.

Children will need to bring Crunch and Sip, recess and lunch for Sessions 3 and 4.

Please make sure your child brings a hat and sport shoes for activities.

We are accepting nominations for Community Council members for 2022.  

St Patricks Community Council is aligning with the Constitution for Archdiocesan Catholic School Community Councils and as such each year 3 positions on the Community Council will be up for election. This is a great opportunity for new people to join the Community Council and play a part in helping the school continue to grow.

If elected members will serve a term of 2 years and can nominate for a total of 3 terms (a total of 6 years) If you are interested or would like more information on who/what the Community Council is please speak to one of the current members or Mrs Baron.   

Nomination can be made by emailing Chris Baron by Monday November 8th, 2021. If more than 3 nominations are received there will be a parent and Community Council vote to decide on the 3 members who are elected. The committee for 2022 will be announced at the end of year awards in December.

CRICKET REGISTRATIONS NOW OPEN

Local Cricket Clubs are taking registrations for the new cricket season.

There is something suitable for boys and girls aged 5 and up.

Cricket is a great way to be active and make new friends

Click on the link below to register with our local club

https://play.cricket.com.au/club/gundagai-district-cricket-association/6d42e1b3-86d8-eb11-a7ad-2818780da0cc

Thank you to all the families who have downloaded and are using the School24 Canteen online ordering app for Friday lunch orders.  It has been very successful and a lot easier process for our canteen volunteers so "THANK YOU" 

The bakery has advised that due to increased orders of pies, sausage rolls or mini meat pies if our families can submit their canteen order on Thursday Night by no later than 9pm  so that John (the baker) has the orders in for his early morning bake.

If you have not already downloaded the App to your phone and need the instructions please contact Jacki at the office and she will provide you with the instruction sheet. 

Year 6 Radio Weekly News

Tune into "Sounds of the Mountains" radio station either FM96.3 or FM94.1 every Wednesday afternoon at 2.15pm to hear about up coming events, weekly awards or around the school news which is presented by our Yr 6 school leaders

Week 4 (27/10) - Jezanna Winchester & Juliet Pearce

Week 5 (3/11) - Nick Little & Alec Bell-Magnone

Week 6 (10/11) - Jess McDonnell & Locky Eccleson 

Week 7 (17/11) - Ollie Gailey & Harry Crowe

Thank you to all of our children and families for your continued support of our Parish.  We would ask that you please arrive at the Church by 5:45pm to allow time to get dressed. 

30th October - Emmy Gaskin & Sophie Graham 

6th November - Oliver Gailey & Tahlira Rose 

13th November - Nate Tozer & Jack Peterson 

Congratulations to our Week 2 and Week 3 Class Awards

Week 2 

Kindergarten - Fletcher Smith for quick numeral work and neatness of writing 

Year 1 / 2 - Zoe Paton for a focused start to her Term 4 Learning 

Year 3 / 4 - Nate Tozer for his consistent application to all classwork and being a great role model 

Year 5 / 6 - Sophie Graham for continually seeking out and acting on teacher feedback to enhance her learning 

Week 3 

Kindergarten - Archie Peterson for beautiful letter formation and presentation of written work 

Year 1 / 2 - Molly Lott for showing enthusiasm with her number work 

Year 3 / 4 - Isabella Boswell for her application to her learning especially writing 

Year 5 / 6 - Tahlira Rose for thoughtful reflections and responses during literature circle time 

Congratulations to our WildCat Awards for Week 2 and Week 3 

RESPONSIBILE - Joey Gailey, Lane Johnson, Lilly Cotterill, Locky Eccleston, Remi Taylor, Denver Manns, Harrison Campbell, Kaydee Smith

RESPECT - Ellie McDonnell, Darby Jones, Emma Brown, Zoe Morgan, Maeve Ryan, Dale Paton 

SAFE - Darby Jones, Conor Cotterill, Ollie Gailey, Parker Melksham, Fletcher Smith, Lilly Ferguson, Drue Summers 

Happy Birthday to the following students who have recently celebrated their birthday 

16th October - Hugh Ryan 

20th October - Lotus Jielan 

22nd October - Oliver Crowe

Thank you to our families who are ordering through our new online  School24 Canteen ordering system. It appears to be working well for our canteen volunteers.  For those who have not yet downloaded the School24 App for our online ordering for Friday's canteen its very easy and less time consuming for our volunteer mums.  If you haven't downloaded and registered and need the username please contact the office and Jacki can provide you with this information.  

If orders could please be ordered by Thursday evening (no later than 9pm) 

Roster: 

Friday 29th October:  Sam Johnson & Leanne McDonnell 

COOKIES: Emma Peterson & Anita Manns 

Friday 5th November: Lauren Gailey & Renee Lindley 

COOKIES: Caitlyn Smith & Claire Somerville 

Friday 12th November: Alicia Hargreaves & Wei Rui 

COOKIES: Leanne McDonnell & Liz Ferguson 

Country Children’s Early Learning provides an After School Care program at the Gundagai Neighourhood Centre.

The Country Kids Club is a place where children can enjoy time with their friends after school, and participate in a range of activities provided by our Staff.

The program is open to school aged children from all schools and operates from 3pm – 6pm. For more information contact us on:6236 8305 or enrolments@ccel.com.au