NEWSLETTER 11 - 12th April 2022

“A man who was completely innocent, offered himself as a sacrifice for the good of others, including his enemies, and became the ransom of the world. It was a perfect act.” This quote by Mahatma Gandhi epitomises the central theme of Holy Week – God’s unqualified love for us as expressed by Jesus’ sacrifice on Good Friday. The stories associated with Holy Week are central to our Christian faith. They are stories that reflect qualities that would appeal to any Hollywood producer: love, drama and deceit followed by betrayal leading to the horrific death of the main character, which culminates in a surprising and wonderful ‘twist’ to the end of the tale with the main character’s return from the grave. The stories associated with Holy Week are central to our Christian faith.

We celebrated Palm Sunday during our morning assembly yesterday. We can only gain a glimpse of Jesus’ feelings as he rode into Jerusalem, knowing that the same people welcoming him with joyous acclaim would turn on him and demand his death by Friday. How often have we turned on those who bring news that does not accord with our own selfish desires? Are we ‘Palm Sunday people’ in all situations? - Do we allow our own concerns to predominate our relationships so that we become ‘Good Friday people’, diminishing others and being unproductive regarding supporting key values such as respect, compassion, hospitality and mercy? One of the many humbling experiences that my involvement with others in my role over the past 15 years has been, is that I am now far more reticent to react narrowly and ‘authoritatively’ to the traits, behaviours and actions that ‘annoy’ me in others, because, upon even the most brief and cursory self-reflection, I more often than not possess the very traits; teaching me to take that much needed deep breath and learn to respond respectively, whilst also endeavouring to change within. One Holy Week message that resonates for me is the redeeming quality of compassion and the strength of those who display compassion regardless of circumstance.

We will continue to work hard to ensure St Patrick’s becomes an even stronger example of a W.E.S.T. school, because W.E.S.T. values are Gospel values, and our mission, as a Catholic school, is to educate the whole person. Thank you to all the parents, students and staff who share this mission. Tomorrow’s Project Compassion Fruit and Rice Day and Project Compassion coin box line is a call for action to allow children to put words into action – and we all know that words without actions result in hollow promises, which is contrary to the Lenten message. Gandhi, whose quote began this report, at one point in his early life apparently seriously considered the Christian faith due to his reading of Jesus, however, he was so disappointed with the actions of those who professed to be Christian, that he devoted his considerable gifts and energies into living out his own faith, to great positive influence. Thank-you to all in our school community who strive to ensure their individual actions speak volumes about their character and by their support of WEST and Mercy values that are ultimately supportive of our school-based resolve to affirm staff welfare and student outcomes – we would be astounded by how our everyday actions and choices have a profound effect on our children for whom we ‘serve’ and support.

 Regards,

 Rod Linhart

(Principal)

Term 1 - Thursday 3rd February - Thursday 14th April

Term 2 - Monday 2nd May - *Friday 8th July

Term 3 - Monday 25th July - Friday 30th September

Term 4 - Monday 17th October - Thursday 15th December

*Student Free Day Friday 8th July 2022

April

Tuesday 12th April: Parent-Student-Teacher Meetings

Wednesday 13th April: Fruit and Rice Day / Parent-Student-Teacher Meetings

Thursday 14th April: Last Day of Term 1 - Easter Raffle Drawn 

Monday 25th April: ANZAC Day 

May

Day/Date TBA - Mother's Day Stall 

Thursday 5th May: Mother's Day Breakfast

ANZAC DAY – LATROBE WREATH LAYING AND CEREMONY: CHANGES TO ANZAC DAY SERVICES

We encourage students and members of families to represent St Patrick’s School by their participation in the annual ANZAC Day march on Monday 25^th April. Please inform the school office (call, email or via your child’s diary) of your child’s interest in representing the school in the Latrobe ANZAC Day march before Thursday 7^th April.  Details for your attention include:

• Students to march in full winter uniform please.
• Students may wear medals on the right side of their shirts or jumpers if this is your desire.  
• St Patrick’s Catholic School staff will be available to assist with marshalling the children from 9:30am.

The march to both Latrobe ANZAC Day Services on Monday, 25 April has changed in that participants will form up in BARCLAY STREET, not James Street as is the normal tradition.

This change is at the request of the Latrobe RSL as it enables the Parade to undertake a respectful eyes left at the Sheean Memorial while also being a shorter length, enabling more of their ageing members to participate.

As a result of this change of route, no street parking is permitted in Kobie Lane, Barclay Street and Gilbert Street (between Barclay Street to Hamilton Street) from 5:30am until 11:00am inclusive. 

Access to carparks will still be available.

No through traffic, consequently a detour via Cottom Street, will be in effect from 5:30am until 6:30am and again from 9:30am until 11:00am to enable the safe staging of both Services.

Public Health require that attendees check in to these Services via the Check In TAS app.  A manual option will also be available.  There will be multiple locations to do this before arriving on site and congesting the entry.

Masks are mandatory for the mid-morning Service and your cooperation with this for the safety of the most vulnerable that attend this Service is greatly appreciated.

This term has flown by! We have explored place value to tens of thousands and beyond and applied different strategies (split, compensation and the algorithm) to solve addition and subtraction problems. 

Our main writing focus has been creating information texts. We have researched, summarised, used rhetorical questions, planned, drafted and published information reports on South American countries and Australian native animals.

In Art we have explored different sketching techniques to help us sketch an Australian native animal. 

In Religion we have explored units on Christian Life, Lent and Holy Week. 

Any updates to our School COVID Safety Plan (Version 13) will be communicated to families via Compass during the holiday period. Families are welcome to ring the school number (6426 1626) during the school holidays to speak with Mr Linhart.

Many thanks for the wonderful response to our invitation to attend parent-student-teacher meetings this Tuesday (today) and Wednesday (tomorrow). These 15-minute conversations will focus on term 1 achievements, identifying possible challenges to academic and/or personal growth and the opportunity to confirm at least one goal to work towards that involve parents, students and teachers collaborating on establishing reasonable strategies for the realisation of the goal/s. Hopefully, any  mutually agreed upon strategies and goals that result from these three-way conversations will have far more potency than if the student is not part of this goal-setting. From the school’s perspective, we are extremely appreciative of every parent who finds the time to talk with their child or children about his or her education, and those parents who involve themselves with their child’s reading, spelling, maths, faith education. A parent’s role in his or her child’s education is so very significant, and the school recognises the enormous work that many parents put into ensuring their child has a clean uniform, a healthy lunch and recess and their homework completed; staff appreciate your role by your attendance at such initiatives, however, your role as parent is complex and demanding, and we appreciate that any school involvement is very often determined by work and family commitments.

Congratulations to the following students who have received Student of the Week.

Prep: Jaydah Blackwell for being a Mercy person showing kindness and respect to everyone. 

Year 1: Dawson Furley for the great work you have consistently produced throughout the first term. Great work Dawson. 

Year 2: Tahlia Simmonds for completing a detailed, sequenced, step by step process of the potato from farm to plate.

Year 3: Ellie Hayes for demonstrating the WEST values and for the compassion she demonstrates towards her class members.

Year 4: Taylor Goss for being welcoming and well-mannered and applying himself to mental maths tasks.

Year 5: Hailey Mitchell for her neat and organised approach to all learning tasks.

Year 6: Cameron Reeves for being a positive role model at St Patrick's through his consistent demonstration of the WEST qualities and the positive attitude and effort he has towards all tasks.

Congratulations to our House Raffle & Recycling winners this week: 

Dooley - Evie Bracken  Martyn - Shahad Al-Roubaie

Byrne - Leon Dewing

The school canteen is operating Thursdays at this stage until we secure family support for Friday canteen. Information on the menu, including prices, is available via our school website. To support the operation of the school canteen at the commencement of the school year, the school has allocated some hours that will provide Mrs Anthony and Mr Angliss the opportunity to prepare the lunch orders, however, we welcome assistance with this initiative if it is to be sustained and opened to two days – Thursdays and Fridays. Ideally, we are hoping for a parent or family member to make themselves available to assist with the coordination to help relieve the workload on Mrs Anthony who has worked hard (a considerable amount of time in voluntary capacity) to prepare both the canteen facilities, and in ordering and preparing many items that will be available this Thursday. For the canteen to work as part of a school-parent initiative, and to two days (Thursdays and Fridays) we need volunteers (currently two parents have offered help for some Friday sessions, however, we are requiring more assistance throughout the year on Fridays if this is to be viable) who can commit to assisting on the day. If you consider that you have some time available on Thursdays (or Fridays) please confirm your availability via the following Google document link

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1m2bCVv1V91Dn9rwXv0HV2czv8vfPKv68DuOAebxfrGg/edit?usp=sharing

Caritas Project Compassion money boxes are asked to be returned on Wednesday 13^th April please. On this day, Wednesday the 13^th of April, students and staff are also invited to participate in a fruit and rice day to simulate the typical diet of children in some parts of the world who are less fortunate than ourselves. On this day students are asked to bring only fruit to school as a recess snack and at lunch the Mini-Vinnies and SRC will provide each student with a bowl of rice to eat. This is voluntary; however, it would be wonderful to see whole-school support as a small token of our gratitude in the light of the poverty of so many. As a school we will use the coins collected throughout Lent to spell out this years’ Caritas theme: For all future generations. Caritas does great things for people in need. At St. Patrick’s we support their good works by making small contributions to the Project Compassion boxes.

Mothers and/or female family members or significant female friends of students are warmly invited to attend a Mother’s Day breakfast that is proposed for Thursday 5^th May from 8:00am to 8:50am, to be held in the area outside the school assembly hall (weather permitting.) Cereal, tea, coffee, juice, toast, eggs, bacon and home-made jams will be available. It is proposed the children will sing a welcoming song and the student captains will welcome everyone at 8.00am sharp, so your support of this commencement time is greatly appreciated please. More information will be forwarded to families next week. 

Students are welcome to begin the summer-winter uniform transition from this Monday 4^th April. During this two-week transition period leading up to the end of term 1, students are expected to be dressed in either full summer or full winter uniform please. Information regarding our school uniform is in the student diary or available on our school website. Please contact the school office for any uniform needs. Full school winter uniform is expected for all students from the first day of term 2, Monday, May 2^nd.

As per our Sun Smart policy hats are compulsory in Term 1, students will be required to still wear hats whether they are in summer or winter uniforms for the remainder of the term.

Whole school assemblies have commenced again each morning – parents are welcome; please follow the COVID Safety Plan protocols – sanitize and face masks indoors.

Holy Week  

A big THANK YOU to Mini Vinnies for giving their time to organise project compassion fundraising activities. 

Although not being on social media myself I am aware of some of the benefits of this type of communication in the community. I am aware that some parents belong to social media sites that are related to specific school classes – these sites are not school-supported and are convened by parents and serve a purpose; once again, I am aware of some benefits of this type of informal communication. Staff are aware of one of the maxims that is used in our regular staff communication – “Talk with, not to, not about.” I would encourage any question regarding a school policy, procedure, event to be directed to a person who should be best placed to provide an accurate response, which, if related to a school policy, practice or event is a teacher or myself. Parents are welcome to contact me at any time by ringing the school number (6426 1626) and, if I am not available, I will respond to a message.

‘Inquiring Minds’ Birth to 5 program - a ‘Set-Up for Success’ Catholic Education Tasmania initiative.

our ‘Inquiring Minds’ birth to 5 program operates each Friday during school term time from 9.00am to 10.30am;This program involves a considerable focus on communicating to parents the learning intentions of important activities that are associated with early years learning. Mrs Klug will be working to engage parents in early years learning experiences that will ensure children who are enrolling in Kindergarten, will be informed in regards to developing key social, emotional, physical and cognitive skills and understandings.

Have you heard the buzz around Hive? Developed by the Central Coast Council, Hive is a community hub housing a planetarium, science centre, museum and art gallery, workshop spaces and café. There is truly something for everyone! Hive is located at 50 Main Street, Ulverstone and is open every day from 10-4.   

Easter holidays kick off on 15 April and Hive have been busy planning their Holiday Program. Hive’s resident scientist, Colin from Science and Wonders, will be presenting a range of hands-on science workshops for all the curious junior scientists out there. You could learn how to make slime, explore the world of electricity or solve puzzles with Morse code. Check out the full suite of workshops here.

Looking for more holiday activities? Hive will have additional planetarium shows from Tuesdays to Saturdays at new times of 10:15am and 1:30pm. There are currently two shows running: The Sun: Our Living Star and Capturing the Cosmos. Outside of school holidays, Planetarium shows run at 2pm between Tuesday and Saturday with an additional show at 3pm on Saturdays. Book in your planetarium show here!  

A reminder to parents that St Patrick's is a Nut Allergy School and that we ask that parents not pack nuts or nut products in their children's lunchboxes.