NEWSLETTER 18 - 14th June 2022

Last weekend’s Gospel reading from John 16 referred to Jesus as saying:

‘I still have many things to say to you

but they would be too much for you now.

But when the Spirit of truth comes

he will lead you to the complete truth,

since he will not be speaking as from himself

but will say only what he has learnt;

and he will tell you of the things to come.’

Jesus’ experience of an intimate loving God continued in the experience of the early Christians who glimpsed that, while the historical Jesus of Nazareth was no longer with them, Jesus as the Risen Christ was a powerful presence, still alive in their midst, and they experienced this as a powerful Spirit of love, courage, gratitude and peace, even in the midst of hostility and suffering. They knew with the certainty of experience, God as Father, as Son and Spirit. How this could be so, remained mystery, as it still is, but the experience of love has its own certainty, as Paul writes with conviction: ‘the love of God has been poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit which has been given to us.’

Many of Paul’s letters that are contained in the New Testament are focused on supporting emerging Christian communities to be communities of love, to be true to the intentions of unselfishness, compassion, hospitality and mercy. Proverbs 27:17 highlights the double-edged sword that defines the term ‘community’ with the following quote: “As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another." At times we naturally clash and test each other in our daily undertakings as humans existing in an imperfect socially constructed world, yet it is through these engagements that most of us become sharper. I am proud to be part of the St Patrick’s Catholic School community, which does not imply that I am always a ‘satisfied’ member of this community, just as being a member of a family implies the familial relationship is wholly and utterly satisfying. The occasional discontent and dissatisfaction that we all occasionally feel as a member of the school community usually derives from dealing with unreasonable demands that we find difficult to define as realistic. Jesus was unequivocal about the importance of love being the determinant of our responses and actions, and I am deeply grateful that, in association with so many of the people with whom I have the privilege to work with, we have learned humility and the importance of discernment and respect when discussing what can often be frustrating conversations because we may have failed to appreciate that another’s issue, whilst lacking substance to ‘me’, is very real to the ‘other’.

Stendahl, the 19th century French writer, was highly regarded for the acute analysis of his characters' psychology and he is considered one of the foremost practitioners of realism. He stated that we can acquire everything in solitude except character. I take heart from the reality that, just as there is strength in our differences, there is a degree of comfort when our ideals and sense of community overlap. There is a story about two fish who were swimming, and another fish passes by them and says, 'Hey boys, how's the water?' As they swim on, one says to the other, ‘What's water?' This story illustrates the point that sometimes the most important realities are things that we don't recognise around us, and for fish that is water, but for humans that's culture. ‘Culture’ in the sense of a shared pattern of norms and values that tend to be learned, tending to be passed on from generation to generation, whilst also tending to evolve for good reasons. My prayer this week is that all in our unique and, I believe, quite wonderful St Patrick’s Catholic School community, do our best to consider the reality of ‘the other’ with whom we may have in the past, or are currently, involved in discussions.

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

June

July

It is with sadness that I wish to advise that Mrs Harvey, Year 5 teacher on Wednesdays – Fridays, will be leaving us at the end of this term to take up another employment opportunity. Mrs Harvey has been a respected colleague and she certainly appeared to feel comfortable with, and very supportive of, our school culture and we will have the opportunity to thank her for her contributions to St Patrick’s and celebrate with her a new opportunity for personal and professional growth before she leaves. Our discernments regarding Mrs Harvey’s replacement in Year 5 have begun.

We gratefully appreciate our volunteer parent coaches who offer coaching immediately after school on some days, and we acknowledge that a quick ‘catch-up’ amongst parents after school can offer the only face-to-face opportunities for parent get-togethers. As a shared space between the Latrobe Early Learning Centre (who use our hall and playground before and after school, from 6.30am until 6.30pm) parents who are briefly catching-up after school or watching any sport coaching are expected to be active in their supervision of their child or children, and be respectful of the Childcare requirements that the school grounds are for Childcare use after 3.20pm unless a school event, such as sporting coaching, is taking place. Thank you for your cooperation and support.

Mid-year Reports will be issued to parents at Mid-Year Parent-Teacher meetings which are timetabled for Tuesday 5^th July and Wednesday 6^th July – the final week of term 2. In addition to providing parents with several items of student work via our Online Feedback and Reporting platform that uses Seesaw as the medium, teacher will provide any additional samples of student work and insights into student application and attitude to provide clarity and elaboration for the mid-year report. We hope to have an online booking form ready for next Tuesday’s Newsletter, which will allow parents the opportunity to book a 15-minute session with their child’s teacher, which will be conducted at school between 8.30am and 5.45pm. Parents who are unable to attend these meetings will have their child’s midyear reports sent home on Wednesday 6^th July. We look forward to these collaborative meetings.

Teachers will send home a student workbook next week in our ongoing desire to provide for families with an insight into some of the varied tasks that students are engaged in as part of their learning. We ask that these books are returned to school promptly the day after they are taken home, please.

Congratulations to all students who participated in last Thursday's NW Catholic Schools Cross Country at Stella Maris School, Burnie; the individual efforts of all athletes were very impressive. The school will support those students who were competitive in the NW Catholic Schools Cross Country (run the entire or almost the entire distance) and commit to a continuation of training, to compete in the 2022 Tasmanian Primary All Schools Cross Country, which will be conducted at Symmons Plains on Tuesday 21^st June.  We look forward to supporting these athletes in this state-wide event that aims to select students to represent the state.

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

Prep: Hallie Lewis for the cooperation, kindness, and care you demonstrate when working with others.

Year 1: Elsie Tueon for the very pleasing improvement you have made across all areas of your learning.

Year 2: Nevaeh Goss for working independently on written tasks and contributing to class discussions.

Year 3: Henry Jones for his attitude and application towards literacy tasks. 

Year 4: Chloe Anthony for her application to independently research and present information on Mozambique.

Year 5: Dempsey Cock for an outstanding improvement in his reading comprehension.  

Year 6: Sophie Mulcahy for her oral presentation of her creatively written poems, at the Year 6 Poetry Cafe.

Congratulations to our House Raffle winners this week: 

Dooley - Fraser Smith  Martyn - Bruce Cheuk  

Byrne - Eliza Bowkett

Congratulations to Ryan, Claire, Harrison and Lakyn who participated in a state wide grading as part of their Tae Kwon-Do training. Their self-discipline and hard work was impressive. Congratulations too, to Mrs Hyland, who, with her husband, are black belts and were two of the key facilitators of this event.

Congratulations to Jacob Hingston who played with Somerset Heat over the long weekend and competed in the Launceston Classic Basketball Tournament. After a long hard fought tournament Jacob's team played off in the finals and finished 3rd. A fantastic weekend was had by all, and Jacob enjoyed it thoroughly making many new friends. 

Father Damien has welcomed our return to cobber classes attending Wednesday morning Masses this term, and it has been wonderful to share our student involvement with many parents and grandparents, and many of the parishioners who have expressed delight at the ‘return of the students’ to Wednesday morning Masses. The format of our involvement at Mass is that Father Damien visits the older class who will be visiting the following week and explore the theme of the week’s reading and students create Prayers of the Faithful, a selection of which students will prepare to read at Mass. Invitations to cobber class Masses are distributed to those parents whose children are attending Mass. Our final Cobber Class Mass attendance for this term will be Wednesday 15^th June at 9.30am, with Year 3 and confirmed Catholic students attending.

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.

We have had quite a few students over the last few weeks who are not bringing drink bottles to school with them. Could parents please make sure that their children have a drink bottle daily. Unfortunately due to Covid rules, our water bubbler outside the hall is still unable to be used. 

Vinnies is looking for community minded and enthusiastic volunteers for their North West Vinnies stores. For enquiries please contact Lauren on 6427 0243 or email lauren.trewin@vinniestas.org.au

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.

‘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.