NEWSLETTER 20 - 28th June 2022

Herman Hesse, the nineteenth century German author and social commentator wrote many novels, the themes of which still have resonance for our contemporary times. Hesse is quoted as stating, ‘Everything becomes a little different when it is spoken aloud.’ Such a simple sentence that, upon reflection, has considerable applications – how often do our thoughts and actions change once the ‘unuttered word is spoken’; how often are school reports, school guidelines and policies require some reinterpretation regarding intent, upon being communicated. Student reports that will be issued to families next week are, ideally, communicated to families via a face-to-face meeting, allowing clarification and elaboration that support enhanced appreciation of this important aspect of school-home communication. Similarly, our school policies, and the expectations that reflect these policies, aim to provide all in our school community with sufficient guidance and support for our joint vision and purpose.

Although we communicate student learning engagement to families via the distribution of student workbooks, via online feedback samples, via the availability for 1:1 teacher-parent meetings throughout the year, and via diary notes, we all appreciate such communication provides a shallow appreciation of a ‘bigger picture’ of student learning. Similarly all our policies are available from our school website or from the school office, however, it is unrealistic to expect anyone to have a strong working knowledge of all these documents; just as Jesus summarised the 10 commandments into two (Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul and mind, and love your neighbour as yourself), all in our school community should take heart that much that is contained in the numerous policies is reflected in the simple principles inherent in two key behaviours or actions: Courtesy and Consideration - if communication through our words or actions are likely to counter these two qualities, then discernment is needed.

Communication of intentions has much in common with our school’s focus of striving to be ‘WEST’ people and endeavouring to uphold the Mercy values of offering Hospitality, being people who value Respect, Mercy and Compassion; consideration and courtesy are essentials in effective communication regardless of the generation. Our school diaries, Compass, Online Feedback initiative, school Facebook and school website all provide elements of an effective means of home-school communication. However, one of the benefits of a relatively small school community is the relative ease of communicating between home and school; our school usually has staff ‘on deck’ by 7:00am and rarely are ‘lights out’ before 6:00pm. I believe parents of St Patrick’s students are fortunate to have such immediacy with contacting their child’s school and I encourage parents to make use of this openness and accessibility to staff in the school setting.

Communication is at the heart of our school grievance policy. An important part of this policy is the need for considered responses – any conversation needs to have qualities of reflecting on any issue, trying to consider how best to ensure any ensuing discussions reflect what is right according to all involved in any communication, and to act after first contemplating all the facts. One of the misconceptions about teaching specifically, and education in general, is that it relies on talking to and with people to influence them. This is certainly an important tenet of teaching; however, effective communication is also about ‘hearing’ or appreciating what is not being said in a conversation. As we begin the final weeks of what has been a very busy term 2, we must not tire of communicating with each other and to be involved in listening to each other’s conversations perhaps a little more deeply than which we might have been accustomed to. We can’t expect to get every conversation ‘right’, or to walk away from every conversation assured our point was both appreciated or convincing, but we can engage with courtesy and consideration.

I find I must remind myself all too often to try to heed the example of the US Senator Margaret Chase Smith, who, at significant personal cost, in 1950 delivered her ‘Declaration of Conscience’ to the US Senate in opposition to the narrowing of debate and reason that was associated with the politics of fear espoused by another Senator, Joe McCarthy. Just as many of Herman Hesse’s themes provide us with wise counsel a century ago, Margaret Chase Smith’s following wise words certainly provides me with a constant reminder of the need to be attentive to discernment before action: “One of the basic causes for all the trouble in the world today is that people talk too much and think too little. They act impulsively without thinking. I always try to think before I talk.”

Thank you to all in our school community who contribute, in their own way, to help build respectful school communications.

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

July

August 

As communicated to families in earlier Newsletters, staff will be involved in a professional learning day, examining John Hattie’s Visible Learning model to enhance student learning outcomes. We are into our second year of this three-year professional learning program and hope to communicate more to families as the learning is implemented and the expected outcomes are identified. Students’ final school day for term 2 is Thursday 7^th July.

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, teachers 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. An online booking form is available for parents to arrange a mutually convenient time to meet for 15 minutes with their child’s teacher or children’s teachers: In order to allow teachers the time and opportunity to prepare for these meetings, bookings will close at 3.30 pm Friday 1^st July. These meetings 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. Some details regarding reports include:

• Students in Years 3 to 6 will receive an A to E rating. The overall rating will be determined after reviewing a body of student work.
• Students on Prep to Year 2 will receive Outstanding; High; Sound; Partial; Minimal Achievement ratings.
• Application and Attitude to Learning relates to student self-regulation, level of cooperation and willingness to learn and to support the learning opportunities of others.
• Kinder students do not receive a formal report; Kinder staff compile quality journals that outline student engagement and progress throughout the year. They are used for several purposes, one of which is to provide a base for discussions with parents. A guiding document ‘Reporting in Kindergarten’ is available via our school website and will be included in mail to kinder families this week.

Bookings can be made via the Compass app by tapping on 'More' in the bottom right hand corner and selecting 'Conference'. You can find detailed instructions on how to do this HERE.

Congratulations to Harper Clark, Lucy Chapman, Lulu Meech, Zita and Zara Omogbai-Musa, James Sullivan and Violet Watkins who were conferred with the Sacrament of Confirmation last Saturday night. Special thanks to Father Steven, Father Jaison and Father Damien who facilitated the Sacramental program and to Mrs Dunn who supported this program. Thank you also to the following staff members who, by their attendance at Mass last Saturday evening, were of support for our candidates on the night: Mrs Marshall, Mrs Badcock, Mrs Adams, Mrs Lamprey, Mrs Kingshott, Mrs Jak, Mr Atkins, Ms Stuart, Mrs Dunn, Mrs Meech, Mr Linhart.

Thank you for the support that the athletes and families provided for our cross country athletes in their participation of this state-wide championship event, which was conducted last week. It was obvious that all 19 athletes tried their very best in their races, with most individual age events attracting approximately 250 students, representing most of the state, independent and Catholic schools across the state.

• 2022 All Primary School Cross Country Photographs that were undertaken by 'Photograph Tasmania' will be available for review from Sunday 27th June from the following website: https://www.photographtasmania.com.au/
• ​Times and placings are also available at https://cdn.revolutionise.com.au/cups/tasathletics/files/yimzomf9nmpsvxp4.pdf​

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

Prep: Daphnee Mahoney for completing all work tasks independently. Well done, Daphnee for your application towards your work.

Year 1: Anas Abdelgayed for your positive persistence with your learning and engagement with others. 

Year 2: Oliver Anand for an improved effort to concentrate, focus on the task and complete quality written work. 

Year 3: Seth Foster for his improved effort and application towards completing his work and for contributing to discussions.

Year 4: Rori Eagling for her positive attitude and application to Art, especially her Australian landscape inspired by Albert Namatjira.

Year 5: Amaja Scott for consistently displaying an excellent, responsible attitude to all her learning and being a most helpful student in class.

Year 6: Sasha Tucker For being focused and applying her problem solving skills during Mental Maths.

Congratulations to our House Raffle winners this week: 

Dooley - Hunter Viney  Martyn - James Sullivan 

Byrne - Suraya Khan

There will be no canteen on Thursday 7^th July (the final day of term 2). INSTEAD, the SRC will be holding a 'Pizza Day'. Pizza's will be ordered via the QKR app - orders will open on Friday 1st July and will close on Wednesday 6th July at 3.00 pm (no late orders will/can be accepted) 

St Patrick’s is responsible to offer assistance with the canteen that is offered on ground (Meercroft Park) on Saturday 30^th July, which is the first weekend back from term break holidays. A Google doc has been created for family members to book a 20 minute block of time to assist behind the counter – your support of this request will be gratefully appreciated and will communicate to the Devonport Junior Soccer Association the collaborate and generous nature of our wonderful school community. The link for your 15 minute booking is

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfzmY4SEyRCILcjj4i_gsvoNz4pVkBpFIad7esPQvZDHcRqVw/viewform or you can nominate a time between 8.00am and 12.00pm in your child’s diary or ring the school office.

Thank you to the following people who have booked the times below:

Our Student Representative Council are encouraging staff and students to dress up to show what job they would like to have when they are older or to dress up as their favourite idol. They will also hold in conjunction with this a Pizza day, instead of our normal canteen menu. All money raised will go to KOINZ 4 KIDS to help support young people living with cancer. Thank you to Mr Atkins and the SRC for this initiative.

Please continue to follow Health advice regarding notifying us if your child contracts COVID-19. COVID signage is being updated to reflect some important changes that include:

• The water bubbler is now accessible for student use, which will assist with ensuring students can access water through play-breaks. In our endeavours to support ‘Move Well, Eat Well’ principles, there is an expectation that students bring water in drink bottles, rather than energy drinks – thank you for supporting this expectation.
• Parents are welcome inside school buildings without masks – please sanitise upon entry and wear a mask if you are a close contact (as per Health instructions.)
• There is no need to sign-in at the school office unless you are collecting or dropping off your child outside the usual drop-off/pick-up times (always come to the school office and office staff will contact the class teacher please, rather than picking your child directly from the classroom.)

Catholic Education Tasmania (CET) has been advised by the Director of Public Health that mask wearing in our schools can cease at midnight Friday 24 June 2022 for all persons except those subject to household close contact requirements. While masks will no longer be mandatory in CET schools, there are times when you might continue to see masks worn. Please note:

• Mask wearing in indoor settings when outside the home will still be required by staff and students subject to household close contact requirements with the exception of students in primary schools.
• We remain supportive of individuals who wish to wear a mask to reduce their personal risk of catching or transmitting viral respiratory illnesses. 
• Mask wearing is recommended when staff are working closely with children vulnerable to COVID-19.
• We continue to have masks available for staff, students and visitors should they wish to wear one.
• Mask wearing may be required by Public Health in specific instances in response to an increase of cases at a CET school or workplace.

It is also important to stay at home if unwell and get tested please.

CET continues to comply with all Public Health directions as we are carefully transition out of COVID-19 management strategies and restrictions.  We appreciate your continued support for our COVID-19 response.

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.

Whole school assemblies have commenced again each morning – parents are welcome; please follow the COVID Safety Plan protocols – sanitize and observe personal distancing.

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.

Recently, the North West Football League (NWFL) has initiated a primary school football roster in the Latrobe district. We are excited to bring this free sporting opportunity to students, both boys and girls, from Grades Four to Six.

Initially, we will hold school holiday clinics in the upcoming break in Latrobe. Your registration will enable us to provide details via email. Further information can be found via this link. https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfR9jOk2eCmFVI9TesFMvigUh6yquh2b6T70EMnKnG9ZITS3w/viewform 

Erths’ Prehistoric World.

Friday 15 July 6.30pm

Saturday 16 July 11am and 2.00pm

Dinosaurs are a gateway to learning, inspiring young minds to consider an array of subjects from science to literature, geology to bioengineering, and natural history to mathematics. Dinosaurs have become a curious link between child and parent, grandparent, guardian and educator. The learning opportunities are immense.

Experience the creatures of your imagination coming to life on stage in this enthralling new show! Bookings can be made at: Burnie Arts and Function Centre 6430 5850 or burniearts.net/whats-on

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.