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Dear Parents and Carers
The joy of the week was the fabulous St Pat's Swimming Carnival on Tuesday with great weather, great competition and great sportsmanship. We are so proud of our students who challenge themselves to improve, who have a go, and who show persistence and determination. We will soon honour a student with the Michael Rheineberger Award for demonstrating these attributes.
Congratulations to the age champions Isabella, Henry, Arly, Thomas, Eva and Drew.
And, congratulations to Penola House on winning the carnival!
At the beginning of each school year we reteach our 3 school rules and what following the rule looks like and sounds like for our students. Please check in with your children that they know the rules and what they mean. You could ask questions like, 'What are the St Pat's School Rules?' or 'How do you show the Look, Listen, Learn rule?'
We also explore the 4 core values upon which we base all that we do at St Patrick's. The rules and values are also embedded into our red, green and yellow 'Look into' pillars.
Safety
Please take some time to speak with your children about their safety on the way to and from school. We are aware that students may be witness to risky and unsafe behaviours of other young people. We know that the presence of vapes, and access to these devices is rising in the community.
Regularly talking about how to keep safe, how to recognise when you are feeling safe / unsafe, and how to communicate unsafe things is really important.
Blessings,
Jo
RESPECT, SHARE, GROW
BE SAFE, BE HAPPY
LOOK, LISTEN, LEARN
At the beginning of the school year our students are introduced to an understanding of What it means to be a St. Pat's kid. The students explore our rich St. Patrick's history, our school vision and build an understanding of the 3 pillars. This week we focus on our 3 school rules. In visitIng our classrooms I found many examples of displays that focus on our school rules.
Religious Education
Upcoming Dates
Wednesday 22nd Feb 2:15pm - Ash Wednesday Mass
Sunday 26th Feb 9:30am - Family Mass
Friday 17th March 12:35pm- St Patrick’s Day Mass
Thursday 6th April 2:20pm- Easter Liturgy
Chapel Mass
Every Friday a class participates in Chapel Mass in the Church at 9:15am. Parents are welcome to join. Here is this Term's roster:
Week 4- 3/4G
Week 5- 5/6Y
Week 6- 5/6R
Week 8- 5/6G
Week 9- 1/2G
Lent
Ash Wednesday is the start of the Lenten season. On Ash Wednesday Christians receive a cross of ashes on their foreheads to symbolise their repentance and a wish to turn back to God and try not to make the same mistakes again. Lent is a time of prayer, fasting and giving to the poor.
My Body, My Life Puberty and Personal Development Program Year 5 and 6
The Archdiocesan Relationship Education Team are very excited to be visiting
St Patrick’s Primary School to run the My Body, My Life puberty and personal development program with Grade 5 and 6 on Tuesday, 7th March 2023.
Our team of relationship educators and trained youth ministers will be working in small groups with the year 5 and 6 students for 2 hours, to give them the best opportunity to be involved in discussion and learning.
St Patrick’s requested early access to the online units for all parents of last year’s grade 3, 4, 5 & 6 students. Parents can access the content, at their discretion, with or without your child. The videos are still available here at his link: https://cgcatholic.org.au/my-body-my-life/st-patricks-bega/.
For more information, please see the parent information letter on Compass.
You can also visit the website: https://cgcatholic.org.au/healthy-relationships/primary-programs/my-body-my-life/
Supporting Students - Transition to Kindergarten
Will one of your children be of school age next year? It is not too early to book a meeting to discuss how St Pat's can support the transition to Kindergarten. We will share further information about our Big Steps program in the coming weeks.
Some of our Pre-Kinders are already practicing wearing their school uniform to preschool!
Swimming Carnival
We were blessed with the weather on Tuesday for our swimming carnival, it wasn't too hot and it wasn't too cold, it was just right! The level of participation was great, children set their own expectations for participation. As you know, our carnival is run as a Year 3-6 carnival and we encourage everyone to have a go. For the lap swimmers there is a healthy level of competition, for the less capable or confident swimmers there are novelty events.
The novelties and cheering were won by MacKillop, well done!
The overall winning house on the day was Penola, congratulations!
Our age champions for 2023 are
Junior boy - Henry
Junior girl - Isabella
11 Yr boy - Tom
11 Yr girl - Arly
Senior boy - Drew
Senior girl - Eva
Congratulations to these students and to all our ribbon winners.
As you may know, in Week 2 of term, swimmers were able to nominate to compete in two lap events to ensure they are able to meet the requirement of 50m which is the Olympic pool distance. Over the years, St Pat’s have taken our swimmers who have won the 33m events at our Carnival only to have them discouraged at this next stage due to being unable to complete the full 50m distance in the Olympic sized pool. You may know that it has been extra work to run it this way, but it does ensure the students participating can successfully swim the distance. In Week 2, every student from Yr 3 to 6 was encouraged to give the qualifying a go, to record their time and demonstrate they can swim the distance.
Twenty-three students have been selected to compete in Narooma next Tuesday, congratulations to these students. This selection process includes verifying that the swim times are fast enough to complete the requirements for the regional carnival. A directive from Catholic Education last year, after covid restrictions were eased, says that we are to include any child for representative purposes, who has previously made that level but was unable to attend the school carnival, due to any factor. This same directive applies to every sport, whether it is for team or individual competition throughout the year. We hope to have as many St Pat’s kids as we can competing in the wide variety of sports that are available each year.
There are still some outstanding notes and money to be paid for competing in Narooma. Please return them ASAP.
If at any time you are unsure of why we do things the way we do regarding sport please contact me, Jannene Harnett, and I will be more than happy to have a chat.
