Dear Parents and Carers,

Kinder Orientation: What a glorious welcome to school our Kinder 2021 students had on Wednesday at their first Orientation session! It is always such a joyful time when we meet our new students and they meet each other as they take their first big steps into primary school.

Student behaviour and engagement: Over the last 5 years to support students in growing their behaviours for learning and engagement in class and at playtime, we have invested time and resources in student programs, professional learning for staff, and the engagement of additional support staff. These include:

The Empowered Program

Year 4-6 Boys and Girls programs

Berry Street Professional Learning (2 of 4 days to date)

Student Welfare Worker (3 year funded program)

In addition we have now engaged the professional services of Mr Ian Luscombe from BehaveAbility. Ian is going to be at St Patrick’s school for four days before the end of term and during that time he will be working in classrooms alongside teachers as well as presenting to staff and parents about his programs and strategies. We are really excited to have engaged Ian as an expert to support the students at St Pat’s to do and be their best each day. We will then work with Ian in 2021 to consolidate strategies for school wide positive behaviour.

We will be communicating with you regarding parent sessions as the schedule is created. You may like to look at the website for some initial information.

http://www.behaveability.com.au/

Covid Restrictions: There is news about some easing with covid restrictions from yesterday – 12^th November.

• We can organise a Year 6 graduation in the church that will look reasonably similar to past years. Whilst there will still be less people present, we are likely to be able to host members of each Year 6 student’s household in the church for the Mass and awards. We will soon communicate with Year 6 families about the plan for the evening of Tuesday 15^th
• We can resume on site Community Council meetings outside of school hours with physical distancing for up to 20 people.
• Staff meetings can now be in person with physical distancing, and not by MSTeams.
• We will be able to have a short and physically distanced cup of tea with our new kinder parents next week before pick up from orientation.
• The restrictions on parents in and around the school still apply including no parent engagement and participation on excursions. No parents or other spectators are permitted to attend activities held on school site during the school day.

We continue to look toward the time when life will be more similar to pre-covid time and we are so appreciative of your support as we follow our guidelines with care.

Blessings,

Jo