Dear Parents and Carers

ENROLMENT 2024 If you have a child beginning school in 2024 you can now go online and complete their enrolment application. Children turning 5 before July 31st 2024 are eligible for school enrolment. We may begin some current family enrolment interviews before the end of term one, with the official enrolment period in April and May. 

Learning at St Pat's At St Patrick's we teach the NSW Education Standards Authority (NESA) Curriculum. The primary school syllabuses are for the curriculum areas

* English

* Mathematics

* Science and Technology

* History

* Geography

* Creative Arts

* PDHPE

* Languages

To document our teaching and learning we have school agreed practices ensuring the curriculum is taught with integrity and that all students have an equitable experience.

Catholic Education's Catalyst initiative has influenced changes in our English school agreed practices in last 3 years. With a strong focus on systematic synthetic phonics, our students engage in the InitiaLit program in K-2 and the Soundwaves program in 3-6. Some students who are yet to reach year level expectations may have daily learning through the MacqLit program.

So, what does English look like at St Pat's?

In K-2 all aspects of English curriculum are taught through InitiaLit.

In Yr 3-6 aspects of English taught daily / weekly are:

Ask your child what sound they are learning or what aspect of sentence writing they are exploring. 

Blessings

Jo

MORNING ASSEMBLY

Every morning St. Pat's begins the day in the COLA with a community song and accompanying movements to assist us all in becoming calm, centred and ready to learn for the day. Teachers and students then have opportunity to acknowledge the fabulous St. Pat's behaviours students are exhibiting each and every day. The school community recognises all students through strong applause. The Leadership team is  overwhelmed with the number of students who are asking to lead our assembly daily. This is a great opportunity for students to develop confidence in leading our school in song.

Celebrating our Senior Writers

Please enjoy reading the beginning of this creative and exciting story written by Rowan in 5/6G

Bang Bang Bang! Gunfire shot across the field only centimetres away from my head. I started crawling away from the gunfire. The bridge swung open. I climbed in. 693 near the stable I said to myself. I ran checking every room number until I found 693. Locked of course. I got my hair pin out of my hair.

Scratch scratch went the pin when I started to unlock the lock. A groaning click came from the lock. 

Darwin, Arthur and Evelyn are you in here? 

I turned on my torch. Darwin, Arthur, Evelyn are you in here?

My torch swept across the room.

Nooo! I screamed. WHAT HAPPENED? Was I too late? No I cant be.

How can they be DEAD? I did everything they said. How could this happen.....

FABULOUS READING RESULTS!

Learning continues at St. Pat's each and every day. Our recent reading results sees close to 70% of our students benchmarked at or above expectations for reading across the school.

We use the DIBELS assessment (Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills) which is a set of procedures and measures for assessing the acquisition of literacy skills. They are designed to be short (one minute) fluency measures that can be used to regularly detect risk and monitor the development of early literacy and early reading skills in kindergarten through eighth grade. We will assess again in the middle of the year and check that every student is making progress.

The recent introduction of the InitiaLit program in Years K-2 sees 80% of our middle to junior primary students benchmarked at or above level in reading. Definitely something to celebrate.

AFL SKILLS CLINIC FOR K-2

Today our Year K-2 students participated in an AFL skills clinic morning supported by Steve and Darby from the Giants. Our Year 6 captains capably ran a variety of groups focussed on ball skills and hand eye coordination.

Religious Education

Upcoming Dates

Thursday 6th April – 2:30pm Easter Liturgy 

Chapel Mass 

Every Friday a class participates in Chapel Mass in the Church at 9:15am. Parents are welcome to join. Here are the upcoming classes:

Week 9: 1/2G

Ways to Pray - Harmony Week

Harmony Week celebrates Australia’s cultural diversity.

It’s about inclusiveness, respect and a sense of belonging for everyone, as revealed in its motto- ‘Everyone Belongs.’

Loving God you have created each of us in your image and likeness and so we are individual expressions of your love. Deepen our appreciation of each other so that we create in our communities places of dignity, harmony, enthusiasm, learning and prayer. Renew our hearts so that they may reach the full potential that you call us to. We pray in Jesus’ name, Amen.

Religious Education Curriculum

Years 5 and 6 have been exploring Judaism. They have had a quest speaker share her knowledge about the history and religious beliefs of Judaism and are currently completing a research project.

Years 1 and 2 students are learning about significant people in the parish community and asked Mrs Grant, Mrs Tomlinson, and Fr Adrian to visit on Friday for a Q & A session.

Term 1 School Fees

Thank you to the families who have finalised their Term 1 fees. 

Term 1 fees are now overdue, except those with direct debit arrangements.

If at any time your family is experiencing financial hardship, or if your family is in need of other support, please contact the school to organise an appointment for a confidential meeting with our Principal, Jo Scott-Pegum to discuss how the school can help support your family.

Nut Aware Policy

Parents/caregivers are encouraged not to send food that contains nuts to school with their children. This includes peanut paste, Nutella, muesli bars, all nuts and cooking oil containing peanut oil, as well as foods containing nuts, (but does not extend to ‘food may contain traces of nuts’).

• We have many students with nut allergies
• Students are strongly discouraged to share food
• If staff notice students have brought food that contains nuts or nut products, the students are then asked to eat that food away from any other children, near the office, and to wash their hands before going to play.

Hats & Drink Bottles

Please ensure your child brings their drink bottle and hat to school every day. 

A friendly reminder that parent teacher interviews (K-6) close on Sunday 26th at 5.00pm

Please make sure you book on compass prior to this.