NEWSLETTER 24 - 9th August 2022

Ecclesiastes is one of the ‘Wisdom Books’ of the Old Testament and offers the reader advice on how to face the uncertainties and frustrations of life, especially in the face of existential predicament. Chapter 8, verse 7 states, “If no one knows what will happen, who can tell him when it will happen?” There is a degree of futility in some readings of this book, however, there is an element of reassurance that even the writings of the very wise – King Solomon is attributed as a key influence in Ecclesiastes – reveal a sense of insignificance of some aspects of our lives when the variables that influence our lives are often so complex and out of our control or choice. This realisation can lead us to either respond by ‘cherishing’ the persona of one who is a ‘victim of fate’, or it can temper our character and ‘ennoble’ us to work harder in our attitude and application to working towards realising our goals in spite of what are often inconceivable challenges out of our control. Staff at St Patrick’s are certainly in the latter category – our efforts to enhance student outcomes are evident in our planning, conversations and professional learning.

In previous Newsletters I have mentioned the findings from the Dunedin Multidisciplinary Health and Development Study, which is a longitudinal study of a complete birth cohort of 1,037 children born in one city in a single year, who have been followed from birth to the age of 40 with 96% retention. This New Zealand landmark research initially involved each child who participated undertaking a 90-minute session with an examiner who conducted a developmental test and then rated the child on 22 characteristics. Those traits were then clustered into five types of children: well-adjusted, confident, inhibited, reserved, and “under-controlled,” meaning impulsive, restless, and easily distracted. Teachers and parents of a shy, clingy pre-schooler may hope that their child’s behaviour is just a phase, however, this research found what they are more likely to find many years later is a young adult who is hesitant about new experiences and uncomfortable in social situations. Similarly, young children who appear self-confident and outgoing are likely to display a similar temperament as adults; the ‘nature vs nurture’ argument.

A significant finding of this study highlighted childhood self-control as a key predictor of physical health, substance dependence, personal finances, and criminal offending outcomes, following a gradient of self-control. Effects of children's self-control could be disentangled from their intelligence and social class in addition to mistakes that they made as adolescents. In another cohort of 500 sibling-pairs, the sibling with lower self-control had poorer outcomes, despite shared family background. Interventions addressing self-control might reduce a multitude of societal costs, save taxpayers money, and promote prosperity.

The ancient Greek philosopher, Heraclitus, said, ‘Character is destiny.’ There are significant instances of high achieving adults who have challenged extremely disadvantaged backgrounds; there is considerable evidence that ‘nurture’ and positive influence have profound positive effects on what might be perceived to be negative tendencies of our individual ‘natures.’ A reassuring aspect of the study concluded that children with problem behaviours —such as aggression or irritability or ‘under-controlled’—can learn how to overcome them. Andrew Carnegie, the Scottish philanthropist and businessman, stated that as he grew older, he paid less attention what a person said, but rather watched what they did.  As joint educators, my prayer is that parents and St Patrick’s Catholic School staff can find sufficient common ground to enable our joint passion for a positive future for our children and students to be tempered by a realisation that we need to espouse qualities of being ‘well-adjusted’, and ‘confident’, and challenge behaviours that are ‘under-controlled’ - the research cited above provides us with hope that even though character traits are acknowledged as being strong intrinsic influences on our destinies, these traits can be positively influenced. Thank you to all in our school community who, through words and actions, challenge and offer guidance to those who are ‘under-controlled’.

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

August 

September

Mr Linhart was on leave yesterday and will be attending a principal meeting tomorrow; Mrs Meech was away today – Mrs Carol-Jones taught Year 3; Mrs Stoeisseger was away today - Mr Angliss taught Kinder; Mrs Fenton will be away from next week for the rest of the term – we welcome Mrs Mac to Year 2 on Mondays and Tuesdays (Mrs Lockyer will increase her teaching in Year 2 to include Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays.) Mrs Hyland will be away this Thursday.

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

Prep: Eluka Woolley for trying her best with all learning tasks.Thank you for your positive participation in our lessons Eluka.

Year 1: Cohen Cass for your positive learning attitude and the consistently great work you have produced across all learning areas.

Year 2: Dexter Eagling for an improved focus when completing written work at his desk.

Year 3: Evie Bracken for her application towards art tasks and for the consistent kindness she displays towards others.

Year 4: Oliver Singline for his positive application towards learning tasks and for always being willing to help with classroom organisation. Thanks Oliver.

Year 5: Egan Bos for displaying a mature, positive and enthusiastic approach to all areas of his learning. A great start to the term!

Year 6: Kyan Mayes for his positive, welcoming and very helpful start to Term 3 not only demonstrated at St Patrick's but also at the taster day.

Congratulations to our House Raffle winners this week: 

Dooley - Ethan Dick   Martyn - Rehan Hasan

Byrne - Gracie Morse

Unfortunately, we have had some incidences after school regarding behaviours occurring on school grounds when students are in the care of their parents that we would deem inappropriate during school hours. We acknowledge that a quick ‘catch-up’ amongst parents after school can offer the only face-to-face opportunities for parent get-togethers, however, in the light of these incidences, parents are requested to take their child or children home promptly after school please, unless their child or children are involved in a school event, such as sporting coaching, is taking place. Thank you for your cooperation and support.

This term in Prep students will be…

• Learning ‘Friends of Ten’ (different number combinations to make a total of ten).
• Developing mathematical addition and subtraction skills.
• Learning the days of the week and connecting the days of the week to familiar events.
• In Religion we will be learning about our Church Community, the Mersey Leven Parish.
• The Changing Environment (Earth and Space strand) will be our science unit. We will explore daily and seasonal changes in our environment that affect our every day.
• We will further our spelling skills by developing our phonemic awareness, grapheme and diagraph knowledge.
• Prep students are learning to communicate by writing a sentence that makes sense.
• Keep up the great work with home reading and sight words to help further your child’s reading skills. We will be enhancing our reading skills at school with a strong emphasis on comprehension – understanding the text.
• Sketching and creating will be our art elements this term.

Sketches by Prep. In Prep we have been learning to sketch flowers.

Below is a video on our Talk for Writing presentation at Assembly - The Enormous Turnip.

High schools and colleges in our school ‘catchment’ area have commenced informing our students in senior primary classes of the unique character that each of these schools offers for prospective students. We will do our best to provide our senior students and their families with opportunities and information that will be offered by all of these high schools and colleges. Parents of our Year 5 and 6 students are encouraged to contact high schools and colleges in the area to request information and to arrange a more personalised presentation of the respective high schools and colleges as they make important decisions for secondary school.

In Year Four we have been exploring the poem ‘My Bike’ by Pie Corbet, which is one of the model texts from the Talk 4 Writing program. We identified the author’s use of similes, adjectives and verbs, as tools to engage their reader.  Students created their own free verse poems on bicycles focusing on applying these tools.

The Bicycle

The bike leans against the wall.

Old and rusty, broken and dusty

It's covered in mud.

Chrome peels back like a silver scab.

Mud covers the wheels like melted chocolate.

By Rori Eagling

The Bike

The bike leans.

The light slowly flickers on, to off.

A thick piece of glass is stopping me from grabbing it.

As quick as a flash I barge through the door.

Seconds later I gently slid onto the seat.

It is as soft as a pillow.

I slowly click the gears into place.

The wheels spin as I pedal.

The handlebars are soft to grip.

I ride home proud, on my new friend.

By Izabella Goss

Ozobots are small robots that can be programmed using colour codes on paper or by using block programming and bluetooth. These robots were used in Year 6 recently as part of their Science Unit. Students are programming the robots to navigate a constellation.

• The school Book Fair will be open for sales:
  • Monday 22^nd August after school until 3.30pm.
  • Tuesday 23^rd August from 8.30am to 8.50am and after school until 3.30pm.
  • Wednesday 24^th August from 8.30am to 8.50am
• Students will also participate in a performance of a CBCA Bookweek Book of the Year shortlisted book, ‘The Imaginer’ on Monday 22^nd
• Our Bookweek Dress-up Day will be Thursday 25^th August – students This year’s theme is, “Dreaming with eyes open…’.

Many thanks to Mrs Carter for her support of this initiative.

Winterfest Smartie Mosaics

Anette Victoria Barker, a young mother of a family who attended St Patrick’s, sadly died unexpectantly during the school holidays and our school is organising some funds that will offer some support for Anette’s family. Funds that we raise from the Latrobe Winterfest Festival will contribute towards this school offer of support for Anette’s family. If you can spare 30 minutes on Sunday 14^th August, please nominate a time that you can assist with supervision of the activity, which will be located in the school hall. A school staff member will be in attendance at all times - help will be required in distributing mosaic boards and smarties, heating chocolate and cleaning-up. Thank you. A link to the form to nominate a time to assist is: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfHcrZcJA5rCxd_7-fGUB9MaxB6exOk2tLm0szJGbb7UyDoZA/viewform

Thank you to the following staff and parents who have already volunteered (we only require two people per shift so thank you to the extra help offered.

Thank you most sincerely for the generous offer of assistance with the school’s request for a meal donation in support of the Barker family. The response certainly reflects the generous nature of our wonderful school community. Following on from a letter that was communicated to participating families, the meal preparation roster is below. Please contact Mr Linhart, Lennice or Tameka in the school office if your circumstances have changed in regard to this offer of assistance, or if you would like to offer a meal or lunchbox item. We are asking the meals to be brought to school to allow us to send the meals home each Tuesday and Thursday. Please ensure your containers are clearly labelled with your name for the effective return to you. Once again, thank you to the families who have volunteered their time and resources; the Barker family has communicated their heartfelt thanks for this gesture of support.

Please continue to follow Health advice regarding notifying us if your child contracts COVID-19. Some important considerations regarding the updated COVID-19 School Safety Plan include:

• 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.)
• Positive cases are still required to isolate for at least 7 days.
• Close contacts are still required to follow close contact rules for 7 days including testing daily if leaving their home and wearing a mask (all persons 12 years and older) in indoor settings when outside their home.
• 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.)

Colds and flu

• Students/staff with cold or flu symptoms are required to stay home and test for two consecutive days.
• If the person has twice tested negative on successive days for COVID-19 and their symptoms are mild e.g. a runny nose, there is no coughing or sneezing and, if a student they have indicated when asked that they feel well, then the person is permitted at school /workplace.
  
  

Rapid antigen tests

Schools and the TCEO will allocate rapid antigen tests to CET personnel (staff and students only) as per the following schedule:

• Provide one (1) test when requested due to the person being symptomatic.
• Provide five (5) tests when requested due to the person having household close contact status.

COVID-19 testing

• If staff or students have symptoms, they should stay home and test for COVID-19.
• If it is less than 28 days since they had COVID-19, they do not need to get tested but should

still stay at home if unwell.

• If the test is positive and the person has not had a COVID-19 infection within 28 days, the person is considered a confirmed case.
• If the initial test result is negative and symptoms continue, students and staff with ongoing symptoms are advised to take a second test the following day.
• If the second test remains negative, this is sufficient to enable a return to work or school.
• If a person has returned 2 successive negative rapid antigen tests and still feels unwell consider

taking a PCR test.

• Positive rapid antigen tests must be registered on the Tasmanian Government COVID-19 website by the confirmed case or their parent/carer.

Confirmed cases

Should a student or member of staff test positive for COVID-19 they must:

• Isolate for a minimum of 7 days, provided outside the 28-day reinfection exclusion period.
• Isolate for a further 3 days if they still have symptoms on day 7.
• If test positive using a rapid antigen test, register the result with Public Health using their online declaration form or phone the Public Health Hotline 1800 671 738.
• Notify household close contacts of the need to observe close contact requirements when leaving their homes.

The canteen will be operating on a limited menu again this Thursday 11th August. The QKR app will reflect what is available to order on this day. We thank you for your understanding. The full menu will be available from Friday.

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

Parents are welcome to contact Mr Linhart at any time to discuss issues relating to their child’s education. It is important for parents to always make contact with Mr Linhart or their child’s teacher if they require elaboration or clarification on any issue. The school phone is diverted to after hours to ensure your question should be answered.

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.

The 2022 Devonport Basketball Spring Primary School Roster will commence on Friday, 2nd September for Grades 1 & 2. If your child wishes to play in this roster, registrations will be open on Friday, 5th August and close on Friday, 19th August. Registrations can be completed through the following link.https://www.playhq.com/basketball-tasmania/register/4acf47

Primary School Tournament

This Tournament will be held on the 23rd, 24th & 25th of September and will be played across venues in Ulverstone, Devonport and East Devonport.  More information will be provided in forthcoming school Newsletters as we receive it.

‘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.