Dear Parents and Carers,

Welcome to Week 8 and the onset of Autumn! The cooler mornings and evening have been very noticeable lately and it is a timely reminder that jumpers are a good addition to the school bag every day.

This week is a very special week for our St Patrick’s school family as we celebrate the feast day of our school patron saint-St Patrick this Thursday 17^th March. All students and staff are asked to wear as much green as possible and come ready to enjoy a day of great fun. Staff have planned some great rotational activities for the afternoon. Thank you to our tuckshop helpers for organising some special ‘green’ lunch treats to enjoy as well. I know everyone is looking forward to those green sausages!!

A special welcome is extended to Justin Sedrak who has joined our Year 1 class. We also welcome Justin’s parents, Simon and Sylvia to our school community. We look forward to the Sedrak family becoming part of our school family.

We are very happy to be able to put in place all of the updated COVID regulations given our continuing low positive case numbers. Cohorting will be removed as from tomorrow and RATS kits are only required to be used when symptomatic. Masks remain optional for staff and students to use. We are delighted to finally welcome parents and visitors back onto school grounds as well. Parents are now welcome to enter the school grounds to drop off students or pick students up in the afternoon. We will continue to operate school activities under COVID safe procedures.

St Patrick’s Parish will be hosting a two day street stall this Thursday and Friday. All donations of saleable food and items are welcome. Please drop donations to the street stall in the morning.

May the luck of the Irish be with you all this week and may St Patrick bless and guide our school community always.

Christine Baron

Principal

St Patrick, Pray for Us

Lent and Project Compassion

Donations to Project Compassion allows Caritas Australia, the Catholic Agency for International Aid and Development, to work with local communities around the world to end poverty, promote justice and uphold dignity.

The theme of Project Compassion 2022 is ‘For All Future Generations’ and reminds us that the good that we do today will extend and impact the lives of generations to come. It invites us to make the world a better place by working together now and finding long-term solutions to global issues. 

We encourage you to put your compassion into action this Lent through your prayer, fasting and almsgiving by supporting Project Compassion. Each family received a Project Compassion box last week. Remember whatever you can give makes a difference.

Second Week of Lent 

(Week beginning Monday 14^th March)

This week through Project Compassion we learn about Biru who lives in a rural village in India’s east. He lost mobility in one of his legs, after contracting polio as a child. Biru worked as a shepherd, looking after other people’s cattle, to support his wife and four daughters. Keeping up with the cattle was a challenge.

St Patrick’s Day Celebrations

On Thursday 17^th March we celebrate the feast of our Patron Saint. What a great day this will be.

• We will begin our day with a special School Mass in the Amphitheatre at 9:30 am. During this Mass we will take the opportunity to welcome our 2022 Kindergarten class to our school. An invitation has been extended to our Kinder parents to join with us for Mass, a cup of tea and a look into the Kinder classroom.
• Lunch will be a special Tuckshop day with lovely green treats.
• The afternoon will be fun filled with a variety of Irish activities organised by the teachers.

The Parish will also celebrate with:

• 12 noon Mass and lunch at the Family Hotel afterwards. Please RSVP to Madeline Ryan Parish Secretary Gundagai@cg.org.au as soon as possible.
• The annual St Patrick’s Street Stall will also be held on Thursday 17^th and Friday 18^th.

Can you assist with:

• Donations of cooking, produce etc.
• People to sit on the Stall

We would greatly appreciate your help. If you can assist, please contact Madeline Ryan Parish Secretary "Gundagai Parish Office" Gundagai@cg.org.au

Easter Shoebox activity – All children will need a shoebox for our Easter activity. Please start to collect and keep. More information later.

Kate Howe

REC

UPCOMING EVENTS: 

Wednesday 23 March 2022 - NSW Riverina Schools Netball Cup (Yr 3/4 and Yr 5/6 girls only) at Tumut Netball Courts. Travel will be by private car and if you can assist with transport please email Jacki.   Permission Notes need to be accepted via COMPASS (under Events, click on Events click on "Awaiting Consent" and then hit the Green button to consent and scroll to the bottom to type your parent name then submit) 

Friday 1st April 2022 - Rugby Union 10's Gala Day (Yr 3/4 and Yr 5/6 boys only) at Tumut Bull Paddock starting at 9.30 a.m. Travel will be by Private car and again we ask that if any parent can assist with transportation to contact Jacki to advise. 

Western Region (WR) Cross Country Carnival - Friday 29th April at Gundagai more information will be sent home after our Cross Country on Tuesday 29th March

Hugh Ryan and Charlie Hindmarsh attended the Canberra & Goulburn Soccer Trials yesterday and both boys had a great day of experience and skills. 

Charlie & Hugh's report from their day: 

When Charlie and I got to the field at 8:40 a.m we saw some of the other kids. They looked ready to try out like us. We went to see Ms Sheree Bush the Sporting Manager to collect our bibs. Charlie got white number 7 and Hugh got pink number 4.   Charlie and Hugh found their friend from Yass and then we passed the ball to each other getting ready for the try outs to begin. There were kids from a lot of different towns. Ben, our training coach, brought the kids over to tell us what's going to happen on the day. He said only fifteen kids could be picked out of the forty-six. 

After he finished his talk we got into some training skills. Our first skill was controlling the ball with the soul of our foot. It was a bit tricky because you didn’t want to run into someone and trip over their foot and then lose control of the ball. We kept doing different skills he taught us and then we got ready to do another drill. We worked on scoring goals and defending your goal. After that we had our last drill for the goalies and players. 

Then we moved onto the trial games. First match Charlie played Centre Midfield and he played the first game White vs Green. Charlie set up 1 goal and scored one. He had a great game. He won that match 2-0 Then it was green vs pink and Hugh was the goalie for pink. He saved a lot of awesome shots and he played really well. Pink beat green 3-1 pink winning. We both played really well throughout the rest of the games. 

Then the training coach, our coach and Sheree Bush discussed the possibles and probables. They told all the players to come over and they called out the possibles and probable match players. First up they announced the goalies but unfortunately Hugh didn’t make it. Charlie made it for midfield/striker in that match. Charlie set up 2 goals for his teammate and almost scored on his great big run. Charlie's team won by one point. Then when Charlie got home he heard that he made the team for Canberra Goulburn. We both had an amazing time!

Thank you for reading about our day and congratulations to Charlie on your selection.  

Last week we farewelled Mr Braith Crane from our school. Mr Crane has been working as a Classroom Support Assistant (CSA) for the past year at St Patrick’s and we have been very grateful for all the positive energy and enthusiasm that he has brought to this role. We wish Mr Crane all the best for the future.

Congratulations to Ms Kristen Bartlett who has begun as our new CSA to replace Mr Crane. Ms Bartlett has a Certificate 3 in Children’s Services and prior experience working in local schools as a CSA. We are pleased to welcome Ms Bartlett as a member of our staff team.

Bec Gaskin our uniform coordinator is in the process of sorting through our winter uniform supplies.   Now is the time to check your sizes and stock. Remember to order online via the website.  There is also plenty of second hand items to check out as well.  If you would prefer second hand just contact Bec Gaskin or the office and we will see what sizes are available.   We are currently waiting on our polar fleece sports jumpers to arrive and we apologise to the families that are waiting on these items.  As soon as the delivery has been received we will send home your order.

KINDERGARTEN PARENTS INVITATION 

Dear Kinder Parents,

On Thursday 17^th March we celebrate the feast of our Patron Saint. What a great day this will be.

We will begin our day with a special School Mass in the Amphitheatre at 9:30 am. During this Mass we will take the opportunity to welcome our 2022 Kindergarten class to our school.

An invitation has been extended to our Kinder parents to join with us for Mass, morning tea and a look into the Kinder classroom.

We would love to see you and for you to see how we celebrate St Patrick’s Day.

Please let Jackie know if you will be attending.  Thank you to the parents who have already advised that they will be attending. If you could please confirm by Wednesday 16th March for catering purposes. 

FINAL REMINDER for any families wishing to order from Issue 2 Term 1 Book Club that online orders and any orders dropped into Mrs Fairall will need to be done no later than Week 9 - Wednesday 23rd of March to allow delivery time before the end of the term.  

Just a reminder that Tuckshop will be on THURSDAY this week and we will be holding a special sausage sizzle lunch deal.  Order forms were sent home with each child on Monday (No online School24 orders this week please).  All orders need to be returned to school NO LATER THAN WEDNESDAY 16TH March.  Money will need to be sent into school also on Thursday.   

Thank you to the families who have already downloaded and activated their Compass School Manager Account.  Compass is our new school communication platform and we need all families to be on this App by Term 2.  If you have not activated your account or downloaded the App onto your smartphone could you please do so.  You will need to contact the office so that Jacki can resend your username and Temp password so please contact Jacki as soon as possible.

COGLearn Professional Learning

As part of our CATALYST journey, Mrs Carberry and Mrs Eccleston have been undertaking professional training in COGLearn. COGLearn focuses on High Impact Teaching Strategies (HITS) that teachers can use in the classroom to engage all learners. St Patrick’s will host the next COGLearn Professional Learning Day on Monday 21^st March. Teachers from Adelong and Batlow will attend the day led by Michael Roberts from COGLearn.

THE WRITING REVOLUTION:

Mrs Wilson and Mrs Flanagan have also been undertaking training in the Writing Revolution professional learning series. Each week Mrs Wilson and Mrs Flanagan dedicate 1 ½ hours to training in this revolutionary series aimed at engaging students in quality writing. This training is also part of our CATALYST journey and the commitment as a staff we have made to ongoing quality training related to evidence-based research.

Please find below the NAPLAN assessment dates for Years 3 and 5 in Term 2. The NAPLAN assessment will be conducted online again this year. Students will begin practising for the online assessment over the coming weeks.

1oth May-Writing

11^th May-Reading

12^th May-Conventions of Language

13^th May-Numeracy

Parents of Year 3 and 5 students who would like more information on NAPLAN can view all details on www.nap.edu.au 

WESTERN REGION (WR) CROSS COUNTRY: St Patrick’s School will be hosting the WR Cross Country Carnival on Friday 29^th April. Student representatives from across our Western Region Catholic schools will converse on Gundagai to participate in this annual event. Thank you to our Community Council Fundraising group for co-ordinating canteen facilities on the day. Parent helpers will be needed to help out at this event. This is a great opportunity to welcome visitors far and wide to our Gundagai community and showcase this area. More information to come.

Expression of Interest are being called for those parents and carers that would like to see dance lessons commence in Gundagai for children 3 years and older.  Lessons would be for Jazz, HipHop and Tap. Please call Lyn Heidtmann on 0413 097 244 for more information. 

Australian Dental Health NSW - School Dental Initiative will be visiting our school with their dental health van the week commencing 2nd of May 2022.  A confirmed date will be advised shortly.  

ADHNSW will provide a full examination.  If your child needs fillings they will contact you. If your child is not Medicare eligible they will do a FREE check.  

Forms have been sent home and MUST be returned.  All forms will need to be scanned and emailed to ADHNSW prior to consultation.  If you do not wish to have your child examined then please notify the office. 

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 

Congratulations to our Week 6 and Week 7 weekly class awards:

Week 6 - 4th March 2022

Kindergarten : Claudia Worldon for doing her best and never giving up

Year 1 /2 : RV Calub for a focused approach during Literacy time 

Year 3 /4 : Christyne Calub for being prepared and organised in the classroom 

Year 5 /6 : James Reardon for approaching all remote learning with enthusiasm & maturity

Week 7 - 11th March  2022

Kindergarten : Harley Rose for excellent number work 

Year 1 / 2 : Kingsley McDonnell for his active and focused participation in class

Year 3 /4 : Eliza Graham for application to her learning and consistently neat handwriting

Year 5 / 6 : Anson Chew 

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 

Happy Birthday to the following students who have recently celebrated their birthdays: 

2nd March - Lane Johnson 

3rd March - Amy Cotterill

5th March - Flynn Leane 

8th March - Isabella Boswell