Filter Content
Dear Parents and Carers,
200 Years of Catholic Education
This week the Archdiocese celebrated the bicentenary of Catholic Education with a Mass at the Cathedral. Mrs Grant was our St Patrick’s representative at Mass, see her message and photos.
St Patrick’s at 152 years is among the earliest Catholic schools in Australia.
Did you know?
Over 200 years, Catholic schools have grown to become the largest provider of schooling in Australia (outside government) with one in five school age students attending a Catholic school.
This represents some 768,000 students in 1,751 schools across the country and employing 98,000 teachers and staff.
Nearly 40 per cent of Catholic schools are located outside of metropolitan cities in regional, rural and remote communities.
Student Learning
I had a visit this week from some of our Kinder Mathematicians sharing their learning. As part of our ‘make, say, write, do’ approach to Mathematics having an opportunity to talk and share learning is very important.
When your children are counting for you ask them,
‘Is there another way to count those?’
“Is there a faster way?’
Students are already exploring counting groups by ones or twos or other groupings. They are also demonstrating their ability to subitise – look at a collection and know the number eg looking at this
Student Inquiry
This week Ella from Kinder walked a little with me on the playground and asked, ‘Mrs Scott-Pegum what did you look like when you were little?’ I said I would bring a photo to show her. It had been a while since I looked at the album, I’m going to look a little further with the family on the weekend!
This is me as a child.
When was the last time you took a look at the family photos with your children? Find some time to share the photos and stories!
BehaveAbility
Ian Luscombe’s visit has continued to help the staff at St Patrick’s to hone their skills in our approach to student positive behaviour and engagement.
Ian’s presentation to parents yesterday was very well received. Thank you to those who could come. We have booked Ian for Term 2 visit dates and this parent information session will be repeated on Wednesday 5th May from 5-6pm. PUT THE DATE IN YOUR DIARY!
Catalyst: High Impact Teaching Practice
Principle 4. Provide models and worked examples.
Delivering new information to students by linking it to something or some process they are familiar with allows students to gain an understanding quicker, it also gives them deeper retention. This is especially true of more conceptual ideas.
In Science, we may explain the flow of electrons in a circuit by using the model of the water in a “lazy river”. The water being the flow of electrons, the pumps providing the voltage (power) and the people in the water providing resistance.
Blessings for your weekend of walking down memory lane with your family.
Jo
MATHS PROFESSIONAL LEARNING; LNAP
Our 8 K-2 teachers and myself began Mathematics Masterclass workshops this week, via Zoom, led by Leonie Anstey to further imbed our mathematics content knowledge. As part of the LNAP program, teachers will have the opportunity to participate in 12 workshops throughout the year. Leonie Anstey has worked closely with our teachers over the last 3 years and brings a wealth of mathematical knowledge as well as delivering practical ways of teaching mathematics in the classroom.
INITIALIT
Our K-2 teachers have embraced the InitiaLit program in K-2 classes and students are deepening their knowledge of phonemes (sounds), rhyme, syllables and words. The program works slowly and systematically to ensure there are no gaps and all students are making progress. Ongoing class monitoring by teachers ensures students are receiving a balance of practice and challenge for optimal progress in reading.
VOLUNTEERS AT ST PAT'S
This year St Pat's is able to enjoy having volunteers working back in our schools. We ask volunteers to participate in a 30-40minute induction with Val Sheahan (Assistant Principal) to ensure a shared understanding regarding our school vision, duty of care, confidentiality, use of social media and expectations when working alongside students. Please contact the office to book a time to attend an induction.
Upcoming events & dates
4th March - World Day of Prayer 12pm in school hall
5th March - 3/4R Chapel Mass
LAUDATO SI’
“Human ecology is inseparable from the notion of the common good, a central and unifying principle of social ethics. The common good id the sum of those conditions of social life which allow social groups and their individual members relatively thorough and ready access to their own fulfilment” pg126
200 Years of Catholic Education
On Wednesday I had the honour of representing St Pat’s at the Mass of Thanksgiving - 200 Years of Catholic Education at St Christopher’s Cathedral in Manuka. Schools from all over the Archdiocese gathered to celebrate the milestone.
NCCD
Each week I will share information and/or tips from the Nationally Consistent Collection of Data on School Students With Disability.
For NCCD frequently asked questions visit : https://www.nccd.edu.au/faq
Peer Mediation
Congratulations to all of the Junior primary students for being St Pat’s Kids as again our student peer mediators have not had to mediate any disputes on the playground…YAY. A big thank you to Ivy Smith and Oliver Malone for volunteering to take on the role of Peer Mediators on Wednesdays until our Grade five students are inducted.
Passion Clubs
Students are loving their clubs and are happy to be creative on Monday and Friday lunchtimes. The Junior Primary Passion Clubs will be held on Mondays now and the Senior Primary Passion Clubs will be held on Friday lunchtimes. Next week there will be a meeting in the library instead of clubs for all those current Passion Club leaders and students who would like to lead a club. To lead a Passion Club you need to have an interest that you would like to share, create four different 20 minute activities that you can teach others about. The Passion Clubs that have been running since the beginning of term are Yoga, Disney Drawing, Paper Planes, Drama, Book Reading, St Pats Kid and Basketball. I cannot wait to hear about the Passions of new students who come forward to lead clubs for the next 4 weeks.
Empowered
This week the students enrolled in Empowered were introduced to “Character Strength Spotting.” Having explored briefly the character strength of LOVE, GRATITUDE, CURIOUSITY and SELF CONTROL the students have been on a quest to find people displaying these four character strengths at school and at home. Reflecting on themselves they shared their stories of being caring, generous and kind which are examples of the character strength of LOVE.
This is a simple way that we can retrain our brains to look for the positives in and through the actions and words of the people we interact with whether it be in our families, at work or in town. Happy character strength spotting! You just may be amazed at all of the positive energy that surrounds you.
“the light in me knows the light in you is AWESOME……so let it shine”
Enjoy
Alicia Spicer
Wellbeing Coach
Alicia.spicer@cg.catholic.edu.au
Last Friday 24 children travelled to Narooma to compete at the Southern Region swimming carnival. All children tried their hardest. Twelve have been selected in the Southern Region Team. These students will travel back to Narooma on Monday to compete in the Archdiocesan swimming carnival.
Good luck to Lincoln Thompson, Ivy Smith, Kai Schrader, Arly Schrader, Sophie Stroud, Eva Ridley, Sienna Jessop, Clay Hoyland, Jack Garner, Nate Irvin, Drew Duncan and especially Levi Dale. Levi didn't think he could make the 50m distance but flew down the pool on the day to win the 8 yr boys freestyle. It's great to see our kids being allowed back into competitive sport.
Girl Guides
I wore my Girl Guide uniform because it was World Thinking Day on February 22. 10 million Girl Guides and Girl Scouts across 150 countries celebrate World Thinking Day. It is a day when Guides think about their “sisters” in all the countries of the world, the meaning of Guiding, and its’ global impact. When we complete all the activities we receive the World Thinking Day 2021 badge that we sew on our sash. I think we can be peacebuilders by being kind to others, standing up, standing together and standing strong to help others if they are sad or lonely.
Jasmin Green
