NEWSLETTER 34 - 1st November 2022

It was a privilege to attend camp with our Year 6 cohort last week. The students had multiple opportunities to exhibit our WEST values and many Spirit of Jesus moments were witnessed and shared while on camp. The High Ropes Course at Hollybank was an experience that put many of the students outside of their comfort zone. Some students were very reluctant to venture out onto the wires, but with a great deal of positive encouragement from the other students, every student in the class made it through at least one course. This encouragement was wonderful to witness and the sense of accomplishment and growth from the students who ‘had a go’ was evident on their faces long after we left Hollybank.

Often, the thing that holds us back from growth is the fear of making mistakes or the fear of the consequences that those mistakes will bring. We like to sit in our comfort zone. Feeling comfortable feels good, for a time. But, like with any other emotion, we don’t want to stay in this space forever, because meaningful growth does not live in the ‘comfortable’ space. As Emily McDowell, best known as @emilyonlife, states, “‘Personal growth’ is misleading, because it sounds like it is going to be fun. But if we called it ‘deliberately making yourself feel so uncomfortable it’ll feel like your dying’, nobody would do it…”. Hopefully our hesitant Year 6 students did not think they were really going to die on the High Ropes Course at Hollybank (think of the risk assessment), but they were obviously well and truly out of their comfort zone and this led to personal growth.

The best selling author, Alan Cohen has stated that “Personal growth is not a matter of learning new information but of unlearning old limits”. These limits, or boundaries that we set for ourselves are like a mechanism that we install to prevent ourselves from feeling uncomfortable. We tell ourselves that we are unable to do a particular thing because of X, Y and Z. This may be learned or it may be something that we have been told by others. A classic example for some people is that they believe they are bad at something. Often this relates to maths, or english, or sport, or friendships. This leads to these people not trying anything in the area that they perceive themselves to be bad at. At St Patrick’s, we want to instil a mindset of growth in our students. We want them to push themselves out of their comfor zone and not restrict themselves based on ‘old limits’. As stated, these limits are often based on the idea that we are not allowed to make mistakes. Therefore, we want our students to see the value in being willing to making a mistake and then learn from that mistake. But, we also want them to value feedback and self reflection, both of which are required if we are to learn from our mistakes. At St Patrick’s we are striving to equip students with these tools throughout their schooling journey to improve their outcomes now and into the future.

Kurt Atkins 

Acting Principal

2022

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

2023

Term 1 - Friday 3rd February - Thursday 6th April

Term 2 - Wednesday 26th April - Friday 7th July

Term 3 - Monday 24th July - Friday 29th September

Term 4 - Monday 16th October - Thursday 14th December

*Student Free Day Monday 24th April 2023

November

December 

We have started Term 4 off with a bang, with our wonderful 4 day action packed camp down South. This has set the pace for the rest of our school year, which will also be action packed. Many things to look forward to this term include the athletics carnival and other NW sporting events, high school taster days and orientations, learning more about the Tasmanian Aboriginals with Uncle Hank, as well as our much anticipated leavers events which will include; the End-of-Year-Excursion, the Leavers Mass and dinner and the leavers assembly. Amongst the many highlights, we will also be working away in the classroom consolidating our understandings of number, measurement and geometry in Maths. In English, we will continue to work through our spelling program, build our comprehension skills and try our own newspaper report writing. Term 4 will also give the students the opportunity to get their creativity on as we explore drama. In Religion, students will be looking at Scripture and the always enjoyable Advent. As always, if you have any questions about Term 4 in Year Six, please see Mrs Kingshott or Mrs O’Brien. Try not to blink, because you’ll be sure to miss this term! 

As Mrs Kingshott said, ‘the weather really could have ‘dampened’ things’, but not even four days of consistent rain got our spirits down! This year six class was an absolute pleasure to take away on camp. They rose to every challenge placed before them, and believe us when we say, there were many challenges!

Day 1 saw the students face many fears head on, when all 21 students achieved success on the tree-tops rope course at Hollybank by finishing a course. This success did not come easily or instantly and we could not have been more proud of the determination, perseverance, resilience and encouragement we witnessed here.

After a long drive the day before, Day 2 saw us soaking in the terrible, albeit, rich history of Port Arthur. We were able to participate in a short history of the site, presented by Nikki, who had everyone eagerly listening to, and handing out, crimes and punishments. Safe to say, it sounds like it was a good thing this group of students weren’t convicts back in the day, as their sentences would likely never have ended. 

Day 3 saw us exploring TMAG, bowling many strikes and gutter-balls at the bowling alley, bouncing and scaling the walls at Bounce and then back to camp, to again conquer our nerves with a high-flying giant swing and the 14-high-milk-crate climbing.

Our final day had us getting up close to the animals at Zoo-Doo and then making the long journey home, with a much anticipated stop at the Campbelltown lolly shop on the way.

If our camp had to be summarised in a few words the stand outs would have to be; bravery, determination, encouragement and a generosity of spirit. Four stand out qualities demonstrated by each and every one of the 21 young people that shone on our camp. 

We thank our wonderful students for the way in which they embraced all aspects of camp and for reminding us of the blessed position we are in to be able to teach Year Six. We also thank Mr Atkins and Mrs Anthony for their support, organisation and laughs shared and Mrs Harris for her incredible behind the scenes organisation! 

The 2023 Schedule of Fees is included in today's newsletter. A copy will also be emailed to families today. At the commencement of the 2023 school year, families will be issued with an annual invoice. Families that completed a Payment Arrangement Form for 2022 won't be required to complete a new one for 2023, unless your current payment arrangements will change in 2023. Mrs Leonard will be in contact with families who haven't completed the Payment Arrangement Form in the coming weeks. Should you have any questions or concerns regarding your 2023 Payment Arrangements, please contact our Finance Officer, Lennice Leonard on 6426 1626 or via email: lennice.leonard@catholic.tas.edu.au

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

Prep: Fern Gardner for being a resilient learner. Well done Ferm for trying your best and not giving up. Thank you for your positive attitude.

Year 1: Gracie Morse for the pleasing contributions you make towards class discussion and the great effort with your work.

Year 2: Isaac Banks for working hard to complete written tasks neatly and follow teachers’ instructions when asked.

Year 3: Violet Furley for working hard in Math tasks and  for her positive and welcoming attitude.

Year 4: Oliver Singline for his positive application to problem solving in Mathematics.

Year 5: Daniel Eastley for being a kind and thoughtful student, particularly to his Kinder buddy.

Year 6: The Year 6 Class for displaying WEST values to each other and persistence to overcome varied challenges, which enabled them to fully participate and enjoy the Year 6 camp.

Congratulations to our House Raffle winners this week: 

Not Drawn This Week

Dooley -  Martyn - 

Byrne - 

Student End of Year Reports will not be printed this year and instead will only be available via Compass. Reports are easy to access via Compass and instructions for this will be made available in future newsletters. We will however print reports if requested by parents/guardians. This can be requested after the reports have been made available on Compass. Please note the reports from previous years and the Mid Year Report from this year can also be accessed via Compass (either in the App or the web version).

Parents are welcome to contact Mr Atkins, Mrs Marshall or Mrs Badcock at any time to discuss issues relating to their child’s education. It is important for parents to always make contact with the leadership team (Mr Atkins, Mrs Marshall & Mrs Badcock) or their child’s teacher if they require elaboration or clarification on any issue. Contact to the school can be made by either phoning the office between 8.00am - 4.00pm (after-hours phone calls will now go to the school message bank) your child's diary, or by making an appointment. 

Latrobe U12’s Junior Cricket would like to invite all kids interested in playing junior cricket to come along to training every Thursday night from 16:30 till 17:30 at Latrobe Cricket Club. Any questions please contact Stephen Kettle 0407 185 608

‘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.

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.