NEWSLETTER 14 - 17th May 2022

Plato is quoted as saying, “Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a harder battle.” This sense of compassion – a key Mercy value for St Patrick’s – is a desire to see others free from unnecessary suffering; unnecessary because intrinsic to growth is a realisation that we all need to have elements of resilience and fortitude to face the inevitable challenges that present themselves to every ‘man, woman and beast.’ The Gospels highlight how strongly aligned compassion was in Jesus’s teachings and actions, from Mark’s (6:34) reference (“When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. So he began teaching them many things.”) to Matthew’s (14: 13,14) account of Jesus’s response to the doggedness of his followers despite his quest for solitude at times (“When Jesus heard what had happened, he withdrew by boat privately to a solitary place. Hearing of this, the crowds followed him on foot from the towns. When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them and healed their sick”), Jesus’s example to us is his defining ‘Compassion’ very much as a verb, an action word.

An old and dear friend of mine recently died and had spent the final few weeks in palliative care. In my efforts to be of support I undertook some research of palliative care, and it came as no surprise that the wonderful care that my friend received aligned with a 2017 study from the journal ‘Palliative Care’ that examined constructs of sympathy, empathy, and compassion, with all three terms containing distinct themes and sub-themes.

• Sympathy was described as an unwanted, pity-based response to a distressing situation, characterized by a lack of understanding and self-preservation of the observer.
• Empathy was experienced as an affective response that acknowledges and attempts to understand the individual’s suffering through emotional resonance.
• Compassion enhanced the key facets of empathy while adding distinct features of being motivated by love, the altruistic role of the responder, action, and small acts of kindness. Patients reported that unlike sympathy, empathy and compassion were beneficial, with compassion being the most preferred and impactful.

The 14th Dalai Lama, born to humble farmers and one of 16 children, is quoted as having said, “Compassion is not religious business, it is human business; it is not luxury, it is essential for our own peace and mental stability - it is essential for human survival.” Compassion is the key Mercy Value that staff of St Patrick’s are discerning during two afterschool sessions this week and next week, each being two and a half hours in duration. As already stated, there are numerous references to Jesus showing considerable compassion to many in his intimate and wider circle and for some, if not many, in our own school and the wider community, our capacity to display compassion can be compromised by our perception of the dynamics of the term – are displays of compassion indicators of supporting and fostering dependency and, therefore, fostering weakness regardless of how well-intended the goals; or are displays and efforts of compassion indicators of strength of purpose for a better common good? Jesus’s teachings, I believe, certainly indicate the strength needed to ‘action compassion’, and the Dalai Lama supports this by stating that “Compassion and tolerance are not a sign of weakness, but a sign of strength.” 

We help shape the communities we live in whether they are workplaces, schools, households; treating everyone with kindness and respect - being compassionate - shifts the focus from ME and MY sense of entitlement to the real needs of others. Research highlights that once we become compassionate and society less fragmented, our own anxiety levels go down because we adopt a more compassionate frame of reference, often resulting in a diminishing of our appreciation of needs; looking ‘inwards’ is our natural response to anxiety and self-absorption, and this is the exact opposite of what we need to remediate anxiety. Compassion appears to be key in this contextualising our needs and expectations in the light of a bigger picture. The notion that we are all entitled to happiness is contrary to being compassionate. Apart from our families, our local neighbourhood (or school, for students) remains the most important ‘boundary’ and is essential to our mental health and well-being regarding how we involve ourselves in this ‘shared space’. Colleagues and family are different from our neighbours or fellow students; we don’t choose our neighbours or fellow students - they are different, and we are initially wary, but the key to our moral formation is being able to build bridges across the chasm of difference - unless I can treat ‘him or her’ with respect and compassion, I am failing as a person. Or to put this in the words of Buddha, “In separateness lies the world's great misery, in compassion lies the world's true strength.” Thanks to all in our school community who actively embrace a compassionate attitude.

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

May

June

Next Tuesday parents will receive their login details for the Student Online Feedback and Reporting Guidelines, details of which were included in last week’s Newsletter, and available on our school website via the Curriculum tab. From next Tuesday 31^st May, parents will be able to access some of their child’s work samples that provide students with focused, constructive feedback against the learning intentions and success criteria. A reminder that each class will not be loading the same number of feedback items at the same time – parents will need to appreciate that class teachers have until Monday 4^th July to have made available via Seesaw 2 Religion; 3 English; 3 Mathematics. Due to the nature of some assessments, some classes will not have all eight items online until 4^th July, whilst other classes may have all or most of the eight items available online earlier.

These guidelines provide parents with information regarding our school Student Online Feedback and Reporting Guidelines, an important document that staff have been collaborating on for much of the past 18 months and has been scrutinised by the School Board. In summary:

1. Teachers will use Seesaw to communicate samples of student work to families through the compilation of online folios that will be accessible to both students and parents.
   • Compass, student diaries and school newsletters will remain the primary communication sources related to school routines, events, policies, protocols, and procedures.
2. The Online Feedback Folio contains samples of work that reflects your child’s performance under certain conditions and at key stages of the year and are examples of a wider body of work produced by your child.
   • Online feedback to parents will offer parents an insight and is not meant to provide the entire student body of work.
3. Online folios are examples of student work (work samples) and performance that reflect the student’s level of proficiency against grade-level criteria and support a teacher’s appraisal of a student’s grades in key learning areas.
   • Teachers will still provide other examples of student work to parents throughout the year, including student workbooks and weekly tests.
4. Class teachers are best positioned to determine the frequency and timing of feedback provided and there may be variation in frequency between learning areas and between different grades as appropriate during terms 1 and 2 for mid-year reporting, and during terms 3 and 4 for end of year reporting, however, all classes will provide families with the same number of examples:
   
   • Mid-Year online folios are to contain the following examples of feedback for reporting: 2 Religion; 3 English; 3 Mathematics.
   • End-of-Year online folios are to contain the following examples of feedback for reporting: 3 Religion; 6 English; 6 Maths, 2 HPE (1 Health, 1 Physical Education), 2 HASS (History and Geography), 1 Science, 2 Music, 2 Languages, 2 Arts, 1 Technologies.

Literacy-The Big 6 

PHONICS

Research has shown that there are six key components that contribute to successful reading and because of the importance of these components, they have become known as the 'Big Six’: oral language, phonological awareness, phonics, vocabulary, fluency and comprehension. The reading components of our school reading program focus on the Big Six.

Phonics (Letter-Sound Knowledge)

Phonics is the method for teaching people how to read and write using an alphabetic language. It is done by demonstrating the relationship between the sounds (phonemes) and the letters or groups of letters (graphemes) of the written language. In the English language there are 26 letters of the alphabet and approximately 44 sounds(phonemes). There are not enough letters to represent the sounds and some sounds are represented by more than one grapheme which can make reading and writing challenging.

How does phonics contribute to reading success?

 Phonics instruction helps the reader to map out sounds when spelling. This ability enables readers to decode words. Decoding helps in the development of and improvement in word recognition.

Phonics at school

Instructional approaches to develop phonological awareness at school include the following:

• Systematic and explicit teaching of letter-sound relationships.
• Clear articulation of letter sounds.
• Multisensory approaches including visual, auditory and kinaesthetic
• Teacher-led group and individual decoding activities.
• Blending letters to write words.
• Segmenting words into individual sounds and representing these with alphabet code.
• Segmenting-stretching out the sounds heard in words.
• Blending-converting sounds to words.

What can parents and caregivers do at home to encourage phonological awareness?

In early childhood children typically develop an awareness of phonics as they notice and emulate print in their environment such as names. Strong phonemic awareness skills assist children in their application of phonics.

Here are some ways parents and caregivers can encourage phonics:

• A child’s name is a great resource for learning letters.
• Play with magnetic letters/tiles to build words.
• Make alphabet books that include names of family members, pets, hobbies, sporting interests.
• Play letter/sound/picture bingo games.
• Play Snap and Memory games.
• Read to and with children.
• Making letters with playdough.

Students in Years 3, 4, 5 and 6 will participate in the school annual cross country on Monday 23^rd May. This event will be used as a team selection event for a school representative squad to participate in the NW Catholic Schools Cross Country that is proposed for Thursday 9^th June at Stella Maris Catholic School Burnie, and the Tasmanian All schools Cross Country proposed for Tuesday 21^st June at Symmons Plains.

The start and finish of these races will be at the school should parents wish to spectate, and the race route is included below. Race times for these classes are:

Students in Prep, Years 1 & 2 will participate in their class cross country on Friday 27^th May. This event covers 500 metres and is ‘low-key’ with students receiving participation ribbons for their efforts and will be run immediately after lunch – parents are welcome to attend.

The start and finish of these races will be at the school should parents wish to spectate, and the race route is included below. Race times for these classes are:

Should these events be cancelled due to inclement weather, parents will be notified via Compass by 12.30pm on the respective days.

Accompanying this Newsletter is a letter introducing our school companion dog, an initiative of our School Counsellor, Karlie. If you do not want your child to interact with Sully, please email Mr Linhart by no later than 20/5/22. We will assume that no reply by the given date, allows interaction with Sully. Please forward your email to  stpatslat@catholic.tas.edu.au 

Students will bring home a Mathematics book or work sample this week to share with parents in our ongoing efforts to communicate feedback to families with the intent of opening discussions regarding student proficiency and our joint efforts between home and school to support student outcomes. Please ensure the resource is returned to school the next day. Thank you.

Thank you to the many students (and their families) who have a commitment to participate in school representative sport – representing St Patrick’s in soccer and basketball school teams allow for character development, a physical outlet and an appreciation of what it means to be a team player. Parents are asked to contact their child’s coach or Mr Linhart (6426 1626) if their child is unable to play on the day – this action shows respect for the generosity of time exhibited by our many volunteer coaches and helps support positive team dynamics.

Beginning THIS WEEK, the School Canteen will be offered both Thursday AND Friday (currently School Canteen is offered Thursdays.) Providing support for the school canteen is one way parents can be involved in one aspect of the school, and we are looking for family support on either of these days please – the school has committed staffing to ensure the School Canteen can operate on both days, however, we would dearly love some assistance from families such as:

• Assisting with putting stickers on lunch bags for 30 minutes on Thursday and/or Friday mornings, preparing sandwiches and/or some meals, assisting from 11.30 to 1.00pm in heating and packing lunch orders.

Nominations are called for the St Patrick’s Catholic School Board. A brief outline of the role and structure of the school Board is available from the school office and via our school website. The school Board usually meets for approximately two hours on a Monday evening six or seven times a year and discusses a range of topics including school policies, finances, buildings and facilities, promotion of the Catholic ethos and future directions. The role of the Board is viewed as being integral in sharing the responsibility of the overall wellbeing of the school. Our current school Board membership consists of the Parish Priest, Father Jaison and the principal, Rod Linhart, and Deputy Principal, Kurt Atkins, as ex-officio members, Felicity Derin-Reeves (Chair), Carl Garrad (Treasurer), Julie Fawkner (Secretary), Bev Sullivan (Deputy Chair), Belinda Kelly and Nicholas O’Toole. If you are interested in becoming a member of the school Board, we invite you to contact one of the School Board members or the school office staff as soon as possible. Please feel welcome to sit in on any School Board member as an observer if you wish to.

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

Prep: Eliza Bowkett for being a kind and caring person, including others, and being a great friend.

Year 1: Blair Smith for the improvement in your approach towards challenging tasks. 

Year 2: Darcy Wrankmore for an improved focus and application to his classwork. 

Year 3: Zander Bloomfield for the compassion and kindness he always demonstrates towards assisting his classmates and for displaying initiative around the school.

Year 4: Leon Garrad for his positive application and effort to the mapping and research tasks in Geography.

Year 5: Jimmy Tueon for accurately using formulas to work out the area of rectangles and triangles.

Year 6: Jack Chapman for conscientiously completing his homework and therefore seeing improved results in his spelling test outcome.

Congratulations to our House Raffle winners this week: 

Dooley - Jaxon Hampton  Martyn - Lucy Chapman Byrne - Amir Khan

Staff and students in Years 3 to 6 voted last week for School Captain for term 2 after initially listening to some speeches from the candidates. As a result of these votes, we welcome Tyla O’Toole to the position of joint School Captain with Ruby Anthony, with Tyla’s speech included in this Newsletter – Ruby’s speech was included in last week’s newsletter.

Tyla O’Toole’s nomination speech:

Good morning teachers, students, families and friends. As you know my name is Tyla and I am running for school captain.

I believe I am a natural leader and I have the passion to care and look out for others students in our school community. I have loved seeing this school grow over the years since I started kinder.

I have been inspired by previous school captains which has made me step up and become a great leader for other students in our school. I am committed to helping staff and fellow students with the upcoming school calendar and events. 

Therefore, I hope you vote for me, as I believe I have the ability to be an exceptional rolemodel for other students and I will represent the school with pride, always reinforcing our school WEST values. 

William Hawkins competed in a swim meet in Launceston on the weekend. He broke 4 club records and has now made it to the state finals where he will compete in Hobart later this year. Congratulations Will on this achievement!

As of Term 2, any student who is now treated for First Aid will no longer receive a note in their diary to be sent home. Parents will now receive a brief SMS with the details of the incident included within this message. As per our current protocols, a parent will be notified by a phone call for any head injuries or more serious incidents. 

Karlie offers discrete counselling services to students upon both parent's signed request. Request forms are available from the school office or can be downloaded from the school website.

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

BOOK CLUB Issue 3 is out now! Scholastic has put together a wonderful catalog full of new releases from some of our favorite series'. Make sure you have a look! Orders need to be in by no later than Friday 20th May 2022.

Games for the Saturday morning Devonport Soccer Association school roster have now recommenced – a reminder for families involved to check the Devonport Junior Soccer Association website https://djsaschools2022.torneopal.com/ for game times and grounds and for any updates regards cancellations. 

Thank you to the following people who have volunteered to support the teams in the capacity of coach/sideline manager:

Currently, our U5 (Kinder) team only has 4 registered players - if any kinder students would like to join this team please contact Mrs Harris in the school office for further information. 

*Training is not compulsory and is only conducted if coaches choose to and have the time available. 

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.

G I R L S - WINTER

• School skirt or pinafore of modest length.
• Green school shirt and school tie (or dark green skivvy if cold).
• Navy blue school jumper or Navy soft-shell jacket.
• Navy blue tights or ankle-length navy blue socks.
• Low-heeled black school shoes (no other visible colours) with arch support.
• Green scarf – scarf to be worn outside and during sedentary activities only.

B O Y S     - WINTER 

• Green school shirt and school tie (or dark green skivvy if cold).
• Navy blue school jumper or Navy soft-shell jacket.
• Long grey trousers or grey shorts of modest length.
• Ankle-length navy blue socks.
• Black school shoes (no other visible colour) with arch support.
• Green scarf – to be worn outside and during sedentary activities only.

SPORTS UNIFORM (To be worn Mondays and Fridays)

        . Plain Navy blue track pants or Plain navy blue shorts of modest length or Navy skort

        . Green polo shirt with school logo

        . School rugby top or navy soft-shell jacket

        . Ankle-length navy blue socks and runners with arch support 

House names and colours are:   Martyn - Green   Byrne- Blue    Dooley - Red

‘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.