Dear Parents and Carers,

Welcome to Week 4! Last Friday we had the opportunity to celebrate the beginning of our new school year by celebrating a truly beautiful and prayerful Opening School Mass in our amphitheatre with Fr Namora officiating. It was perfect weather for such a special occasion as we inducted our 2022 School Captains, Year 6 leaders, SRC members and welcomed two of our new families. Thank you to Mrs Howe for all the organisation and preparation leading up to the day. We are very grateful that we were given the opportunity to celebrate as a school community, given that many schools have had to postpone their Opening School Masses under the current regulations.

As we are unable to invite parents onsite for our annual Parent Information evening your child’s teacher will send home a class letter with relevant information about outlining class subject areas and information about their classroom. Please remember that teachers are always available to contact if needed. Contact details are included in the class letters or you can ring the front office to make an appointment if needed.

The 2022 Gundagai Show will be held this weekend. This is always a great community celebration. Our school will have a display in the pavilion, and we invite all parents to head along to see their child’s work as part of our school creation. Please encourage your child to enter the local competitions in the Junior Section with their art, cooking, photography, creating etc and be part of this great community event.

As a school community we know that sometimes our school covid regulations can be confusing and daunting for our families. Our restrictions are regulated by NSW Government and NSW Health. We refer all matters to our CE COVID Team for advice on school events which will often differ greatly from community regulations. We cannot make our own decisions for school events that would be in breach of our current regulations. Please know that our staff are working hard to ensure that we comply with restrictions to keep school as normal as possible and provide the best opportunities we can for our students and families. Your patience, kindness and understanding is appreciated as we navigate these challenging times together.

Wishing everyone a safe and happy week ahead,

Christine Baron

Principal

St Patrick, Pray for Us

Opening School Mass

It was a special experience to hold our Opening School Mass in our School amphitheatre on Friday. There was a lovely feeling as we set our sacred space to celebrate this open air Mass. Our theme “Many hands, One heart’ featured throughout the Mass as we reflected how at St Patrick’s we all support each other to help grow and expand the heart of our wonderful school.

Congratulations to our School Captains, Year Six Leaders, SRC Members and our new students who were presented with their badges and welcome bookmarks during the Mass.

Thank you to all who assisted to make this event possible, especially to Father Namora for making himself available.

Altar Serving

Thank you to our Altar Servers and their families for continuing their duties throughout the school holidays. I know sometimes it can be challenging when people are away on vacation to uphold their commitments, but we are very grateful that Father was supported at weekend Mass. Thank you to those who just stepped in when there was a need. Your efforts do not go unnoticed.

A big congratulations to those new Altar Servers who served for the first time in the holidays. Thank you to our students from last year’s Year 6 who continued in this ministry to help train their siblings to become more confident in the role of an Altar Server.

New Cross 

We have purchased a beautiful cross to hang in our new entrance space.

These beautifully painted and hand-carved crosses come from the families in La Palma, El Salvador. The crosses from El Salvador are carved by the men and hand-painted and finished off by the woman in La Palma. They are intricately designed and truly unique. 

We thank our previous gardener Jose Matos for his generous donation to the school which was used to purchase our very special cross.

Kate Howe

REC

On Thursday 3rd of March (Week 6) we will begin our Rugby Skills Program with Rhianna Bourke SIRO Development Officer.  Kinder and Yr 1/2 will do a "get into rugby program" and the Yr 3-6 will do a mix of tackle and touch skills to prepare for the primary school 10s in Tumut on 1st of April. 

Also a reminder that the Canberra Goulburn Cricket Trials online nominations need to be in before 4th of March. Please head to the Canberra Goulburn Sport website for the link to register and all other information  www.sport.cg.catholic.edu.au/nominations 

Western Region Swimming Carnival 2022 has now changed its venue to  Cootamundra Municipal Olympic Swimming Pool on Thursday 24 February 2022.

Pool opens for warm up at 8.45am

Carnival Manager’s meeting 9.15am

Carnival commences at 9:30am

ENTRY to the pool is $2.50 per person, with no spectator fee. The pool canteen will be operating and there will also be a BBQ on the day with a variety of items.

Students who are successful on the day will be given details about representing the Western Region at the Archdiocesan Carnival on Tuesday 8 March at Queanbeyan.

SHADE – Please bring own shade (parents/spectators), sunscreen and chairs.

COVID Restriction – One adult per swimmer are able to attend

Children will be seated with their own school separate from parent / family member. You are required to leave the pool when your child/children have completed their event/s.

 Please organise your own child/children’s transport for the day.

St Patrick’s is responsible for time keeping in Lane 6 for the day.

Please let Mrs Flanagan know if you can help time keep: natasha.flanagan@cg.catholic.edu.au

Please return your entry form, permission note and $10.00 to the front office by Thursday of this week

This term our school is trialling a gross motor/core activation program to students from Years 1-6.  In consultation with Occupational Therapists and Mr Ferguson, Mr Crane, one of our valuable Classroom Support Assistants, has been working with children from Monday to Wednesday for 15-20mins to develop this important part of our bodies.  The core is a group of muscles that are responsible for providing stable movement; it helps our senses regulate our bodies; and gets us in the learning zone, and keeps us there longer. 

We have Occupational Therapists to work with some students via Kurrajong and the Royal Far West on a weekly/fortnightly basis.  These allied health professionals normally work 1:1 with our students and their families.  This new program supports small groups of children over a number of days each week.  It is hoped to roll the program across a different intake of children at a later date.  If you have any questions or comments about this new initiative, please direct them to Mr Ferguson by emailing craig.ferguson@cg.catholic.edu.au 

Congratulations to our new 2022 Student Representative Council members

Year 2: Zoe Paton and Lane Johnson

Year 3: Molly Lott and Dale Paton

Year 4: Corby Rose and Chase Robinson

Year 5: Abigail Bock and Charlotte McDonnell

School Captains:  Tahlira Rose, Sophie Graham, Hugh Ryan and James Reardon

These students will be the student voices for our school and will work closely with Mrs Wilson to discuss, organise and act on fundraising and awareness of current issues in our local and wider community.

Our first fundraiser for the year will be an online bulb fundraiser through Tesselaar. Kate Graham and Simone Jones have done their homework and this process is extremely easy to order through.  Brochures with information will be sent home this week. 

Gundagai Basketball Term 1 season: Beginning Wednesday 23rd February

7 week competition.

Subject to registration numbers, we hope to hold the following comps on a Wednesday night:

AUSSIE HOOPS- for all children aged 5-10 years old. This program includes a short skills session each week, a game as well as an Aussie hoops pack (a bag, basketball, singlet and stickers)

Senior mixed SOCIAL comp-11 years to OPEN. We will split this comp into a couple of different age groups, depending again on registration numbers. This comp would be a social and fun competition this term. You can nominate a whole team (of 5-8 players) by emailing gundagaibasketball@gmail.com, or simply registering yourself and we will create teams based on numbers.

Fees are as follows:

AUSSIE HOOPS (5-10 yrs old) $100

Senior Comp- 11 years and older $90

This terms fees include your membership to Basketball NSW for the entire year of 2022. If you play in another competition with us later in the year, you would pay a smaller fee, only our club fee of $50.

*****We are a registered ACTIVE KIDS PROVIDER so vouchers can be used for children aged 5-18*****

See the links below to register yourself or your child-

AUSSIE HOOPs LINK ( 5-10yr olds)

https://membership.sportstg.com/.../MapF.../mapfinder.cgi...

SOCIAL COMP LINK (11 years to adults)

https://membership.mygameday.app/regoform.cgi?aID=28650...

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 10 - Tahlia Rose & Akacia Winchester

Week 11 - Anson Chew & Charlie Hindmarsh 

Thank you to our wonderful canteen volunteers and cooks. We appreciate all that you do for our school and in particular making sure all of our little ones have a delicious recess and lunch every Friday.  As previously advised canteen will be held on THURSDAY this week therefore no online orders.  Simply fill out the order form that was sent home and return to school by Wednesday 16th March.  

Canteen Roster: 

Roster: 

Friday 25th March - Lauren Gailey & Cal Reardon  

COOKIES: El Williams & Simone Jones 

Friday 1st April - Kate Graham & Alicia Hargreaves

COOKIES: Michelle McDonnell & Sam Johnson 

We would like to extend our Birthday Wishes to the following students who have recently celebrated a birthday.  We hope you all had a lovely day with your family and friends 

11th February - Akacia Winchester

14th February - Lance Crowe 

15th February - Savannah Manns