Newsletter 6 - 2nd May 2024

Welcome back to Term 2

We have another busy term ahead, with a number of programs happening throughout the term including First Aid in Schools program; Mother’s Day Liturgy and Afternoon Tea followed by activities; the AFL in Schools program; the Cross Country Carnival; Reconciliation Week activities, and Speak Up and Stay Chatty (Year 6). We look forward to a great term.

St Brendan Shaw College Year 7 Enrolments 2025

The first round of enrolments for 2025 for St Brendan Shaw College have already closed. If you are thinking of enrolling your child in St Brendan Shaw College for 2025, please make this a priority as there are significantly higher enrolments for 2025 and you may risk your child missing out. St Brendan Shaw College are also offering scholarship for leaders, young sportsmen and women, artistic students, and advanced learners. Applications for scholarships close on Friday 10th May. 

Anaphylaxis Awareness

We are seeking your help to support the students in our school with severe allergies. 

Anaphylaxis is a severe allergic reaction that is potentially life-threatening. The most common causes of anaphylaxis in schools are allergies to food and insects (bees). To help manage allergies, our school is following the National Allergy Council’s Best Practice Guidelines for Anaphylaxis Prevention and Management in Schools.

The Best Practice Guidelines recommend an Allergy Aware approach, which means we are supporting students at risk of anaphylaxis in the following ways:

• training staff
• educating students about allergies and anaphylaxis
• teaching students that we all have different needs and to be respectful of others
• teaching students the importance of getting help immediately if their friend with an allergy looks sick.

For food allergies, we are also:

• encouraging students with food allergies to wash their hands before and after eating
• encouraging students to wash their hands after eating something their classmate or friend is allergic to
• teaching students not to share food with friends who have food allergies.

In accordance with our policy, the following foods will be excluded from St Patrick’s Catholic School, please ensure these are not brought to school:

• shellfish 

• cashew 

• peanuts

• pine nuts 

• pistachio

• pecan

• hazelnut products 

• Familiar products include any hazelnut spreads e.g., Nutella, Kinder Chocolate / Kinder Beuno, Hazelnut OreosThis does not include foods labelled “may contain traces of nuts''.  

Food allergies are common in school aged children and avoiding the food is the only way to prevent an allergic reaction. Therefore, we have put a range of different things in place to help keep these students safe. 

We ask you to support the school’s Allergy Aware approach so that we can increase safety and provide an environment that meets the needs of all our students. 

Thank you for helping our school be “Allergy Aware”  https://allergyfacts.org.au/

Outside School Hours Care

St Patrick’s Catholic School and St Patrick’s Child Care work in partnership to provide a service that meets the needs of working families in our community. St Patrick’s Child Care provides a service to families in our school and community for long day care, as well as Outside School Hours Care (OSHC) in the mornings and afternoons on school days. The school hall and playgrounds are utilised daily for OSHC and are licensed for regulatory compliance with the Education and Care Unit with the Tasmanian Government. For the centre to operate according to regulations, all children in the centre's care must be supervised with only the children registered with the service.

I fully encourage parents to connect with others in our school and it is a delight to see this happening around the grounds at St Patrick’s. There are approximately 45 children attending OSHC each day, and the Educators can only keep the OSHC children inside the hall for a very short time after school. Unfortunately for St Patrick’s Child Care, it makes it difficult for the Educators of St Patrick’s Child Care to provide the children in their care the required regulated supervision if other non attending children and parents of OSHC are mixed amongst them. For this reason, we kindly ask that play on the equipment is limited to 5 - 10 minutes and families leave the school grounds by 3:05 p.m. The gates on Noone Street are locked in the afternoons to provide safety for children in the OSHC at 3:05 p.m. This also allows St Patrick’s Child Care  to comply with the regulations of the Education and Care Unit.

We appreciate your understanding in supporting the safety of our children in the school and St Patrick’s Child Care. If you would like to seek further clarification regarding this matter please do not hesitate to speak with me on 6426 1626.

Apraxia Awareness 

This month is Apraxia Awareness Month. Learn more about Childhood Apraxia by watching the youtube video with 83 beautiful Australians living with Apraxia. May 14th 2024, an internationally recognised day to celebrate those with Apraxia and spread awareness about this lifelong and rare speech disorder.

Apraxia Awareness Month - May 1st 2024 - 83 Australians with Childhood Apraxia of Speech

Have a great week

Carmen Aylott

Principal