Dear Parents and Carers,

I would like to spend a little time today on the theme of manners. I am so delighted when I hear children using their manners, without prompting, that I have grown my awareness around the use of manners in our daily life at school. We seem to be spending more time at present helping our students remember the courtesies of “please” and “thank you” and “excuse me.” There was a “once upon a time” era when these words were automatized by the time most children got to school, however our reminders are to students across the grades with even some of the senior students needing prompting to be polite.

As we know, courteous behaviour sets a standard of self-respect and respect for other people who then feel valued as fellow human beings. If we, personally, set out to grow as unique persons, then, we will learn to respect the uniqueness of others. Confucius shares some thinking that might be relevant to the influence on us: “If I am walking with two other people, each of them will serve as my teacher. I will pull out the good points of the one and imitate them, and the bad points of the other and correct them in myself.”

We as parents, and the first educators of our children, work hard to present ourselves as strong role models to emphasise the importance of manners, courtesy, politeness and common respect. What we all hope to instil in our children, as parents and as teachers is: “Always be respectful and express yourself in a polite and courteous manner”.

The other social behaviour I have been encouraging with the children, and again this will mirror a learning you may focus on at home, ‘being friendly first.’ What this means is that we encourage our students to initiate friendliness as much as respond to friendliness. I have been noticing and complimenting the students who use a greeting first, ‘Hello Mrs Scott-Pegum, how are you?’ and also those who are able to continue talking toward a short conversation.

Thank you for your continued work in the home to encourage these prosocial behaviours in your children!

Challenging Learning This week I spent a day in Canberra with other principals at an Instructional Leadership forum. During this time we collaborated around next steps to grow student centred teaching and learning and share the good practice in our schools. I was able to share the growing capacity of our St Pat’s students in writing and achieving their personal learning goals. This is a big part of our strategic move toward all students in our school understanding what learning is, and how they learn and their next steps in learning. In our green pillar Look Ahead to the Future at St Pat’s we have ‘A View to Lifelong Learning.’ We are clear in our aspirations, one of which is to, take responsibility for our learning, another to develop independence, interdependence, collaboration and self-motivation for all students. Please ask you child about their current learning goals.

Have a restful and fun long weekend. Happy fishing, skiing, camping, resting at home… and all other pursuits!

Christ With Us,

Jo

You are invited to Saint Patrick’s INAUGURAL PARENT and CHILD Reading Workshop

On Wednesday 12 June at 5.30-6.30pm, we are hosting a reading session with Prof Kaye Lowe for YOU AND YOUR BEAUTIFUL CHILDREN. Kaye is the founder of Read For Success and the author of many books on reading. Kaye is a consultant who works with our classroom teachers and provides great strategies to support your child with reading and writing.

Is reading important in your home? Is reading a battle? Do you want your child to be a reader? If so, this workshop is for you! Research highlights the essential inclusion of parents in the success of a child learning to read and fostering a love of reading.

The workshop will be held in the school Library. For this workshop, we also are inviting your child/children to come along with you. For the first half an hour they will have supervised playtime in the Kindergarten classroom while the parents are learning. For the second half hour, you will practice the reading strategies in the library with your child.

Please return the following slip or email Mary.Kite@cg.catholic.edu.au to let us know you will be attending.

I ____________________________ will be attending the PARENT and CHILD Reading Workshop with my children ____________________________________.

CELEBRATE

Top readers  

      KM

This week students had the opportunity to take home a Book Club Order Form. Please ensure you pick the books with your children.  

Please return orders by Tuesday 18^th June, 2019.

Keep munching on those books together, they open up a whole new world. Enjoy.

Reminder: Book Club orders are by THE LOOP or credit card slip on back of order form. Any problems contact Mrs Platts via St. Patrick’s office 6492 5500

Thank you to Mitre 10 for supporting our school garden with donations of plants and fertiliser. Casey came to school last week to present the generous donation.

On Monday 24th June the school will be holding its Athletics Carnival at the Bega athletics field.  Some of the 8 year olds in Year 2 will be attending,  (these children will be informed) as well as all the Middle and Senior Primary children.  The carnival will commence at 9.30am with the girls completing field events while the boys compete in the track events.  At around 11am the boys and girls will swap events.

The children may wear appropriate shirts for athletics in their house colours with the normal sports uniform bottoms.  Tennison - Red, Penola - Green and MacKillop - Yellow.

Parents are welcome to come along and support your children.

Make sure your child has a piece of fruit, recess, lunch and plenty to drink.  Please pack clothing appropriate for cooler weather.

The Kinders, Year 1 and most of the Year 2 children will stay at school as normal.

Later this year, we will be holding a separate Junior Primary Carnival in the school grounds.  There will be more about this at a later date.