NEWSLETTER 16 - June 8th 2021

Acting Principal's Reflection

“Children learn as they play. More importantly, in play, children learn how to learn” Fred Donaldson

Over the past week, I have had the opportunity to interview a number of families and future kinder students that will be starting their schooling in 2022. Conducting these kindergarten interviews is definitely one of the perks of the job. It is so wonderful to see how these little people interact with their families and how their faces light up when they see the wonderful kindergarten space. I often wonder what our future kinder students and their parents or guardians expect from kindergarten and their future schooling lives. In the early years of schooling, play experiences form an extremely important part of learning. The below extract from the Queensland Department of Education explains the value of play in learning.

Play-based learning provides opportunities for children to actively and imaginatively engage with people, objects and the environment. Symbolic representation is a critical aspect. When playing, children may be organising, constructing, manipulating, pretending, exploring, investigating, creating, interacting, imagining, negotiating and making sense of their worlds. It promotes the holistic development (physical, social, emotional, cognitive and creative) of a child and depending on how it is utilised, may also support a broad range of literacy and numeracy skills. The teacher's role in scaffolding play is pivotal.

As a parent of a kindergarten child, I regularly see the value that play experiences have in developing all aspects of my daughter’s learning. These early years are so important in developing the way that children learn and the approach that they take to learning. The connections that they make between their play in intentional play experiences and the concepts that they are learning can create neural pathways which lay the foundation for success in future learning. Research shows that even limiting free play (unintentional play experiences) can have a negative impact on a child’s learning and development.

“Play is often talked about as if it is relief from serious learning, but for children, play is serious learning” Fred Rogers

I am often inspired by the work (play) that I see taking place in our early childhood classes. These students are often engaged in considered, purposeful play experiences that are inspired by their curiosities alongside the relevant frameworks and curriculum documents. Our staff take great care and interest in ensuring that these experiences are engaging and allow for multiple avenues to learning, yet, we also continue to grow and learn in this space as we constantly strive to improve our practice.

Kind regards

Kurt Atkins

Acting Principal

Mid Year Reports and Parent-Teacher Meetings

Mid-year reports for students in Prep - Year 6 will be sent home on Thursday in Week 9. Parent-teacher meetings will be held on Tuesday and Wednesday in Week 10. Online bookings for parent-teacher meetings will open up in Week 9. More information regarding how to make a booking will be made available in future newsletters in the coming weeks.

New School Counselor

Our new school counselor, Sarah Padman, will commence this Friday, and will then be available for student sessions every Thursday until Sophie Eaves returns from leave. Sarah will contact families of students that currently receive counseling in the near future. If you would like your child to be considered for counseling, please collect the appropriate forms from the office and return them at your earliest convenience.

Cyber Awareness

The ability to access online resources at school enhances our teaching and learning experiences.  We also aim to empower students to have safe and positive experiences online develop their skills as Digital Citizens.

Students are encouraged to be:

• Secure-when online we take care to keep our personal information safe.
• Safe-there are things we need to do to stay safe and have fun.
• Kind-we use technology to be kind and respectful for others
• Curious-look for signs that something is fake, ask questions and talk to parents and teachers for support.

The website https://www.esafety.gov.au/parents provides clearly presented tips, skills and advice for parents on topics such as online habits, safety and privacy to help your child have a more secure and enjoyable experiences online.

A Parent’s Guide to the app Snapchat was provided to parents of Year 5 and Year 6 students last week. Further information is available at the following link from the Australian eSafety Comissioner  https://www.esafety.gov.au/key-issues/esafety-guide/snapchat

This app is available for people who are 13 years and above. When using the app teens can be:

• Secure-by taking care with personally identifiable information.
• Safe-by managing privacy settings and being aware of public Snap to Our Story location maps.
• Kind-treating others with respect.
• Curious-look for signs that usernames or Snapcodes may be fake and speaking to adults for support or blocking and reporting abuse.

POSTPONED - Cross Country K-6

Unfortunately, our Cross Country Carnival has been postponed as we are no longer able to access the council land opposite the school playground due to the significant rain that we have had during the past week. Once we are able to access this again we will reschedule the carnival.

As the North West Catholic Schools Cross Country is being held next Thursday, we will run small trial events around our school grounds on Thursday during PE lessons to select which students will attend. We will take two boys and two girls from each year level in Years 3 - 6. More information regarding this event for students attending will be provided early next week.

Year 3 - Garden

Year 6 - Science

As learners, our Year 6 students have been following the steps of the scientists from the early 1800s, who began discovering the link between magnetism and electricity. Students have begun their investigation by creating an electromagnet. As scientific inventors, this task involved making a hypothesis, building the electromagnet, problem-solving, persistence, making adjustments, and regardless of success, all learners reflected on what elements of the task did or did not work, and then thought about other solutions and further improvements through more investigating.

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Staff News

Mrs Harris was away on Monday and Tuesday - Mrs Leonard took over duties in the front office; Miss Newell was away today (Tuesday) - Mrs Fenton taught Year 2; Mrs Badcock was away today (Tuesday) at a Deputy Principal's Meeting; Mr Atkins will be away on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday at the Annual CPAT Principal's Retreat; Mrs Temple is on leave for the next three weeks - Mrs Mac will be teaching Year 5

Circle of Security

Book Club - Issue 4

This issue is jam-packed with so many good books, and over 170 new releases, so make sure you have a look. There is something in there for everyone! Orders close on the 15th June 2021.

After School Playground Use & Childcare

As many parents would be aware, Latrobe Early Learning Childcare uses our playground for after-school care. Due to regulations that they are required to uphold, they can't use the playground while other students not attending after-school care are on the playground. Therefore, we now have an agreement in place where after-school care will not commence using the playground until 3:15 pm on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays & Fridays, and not until 4:00 pm on Wednesdays to accommodate for families that have students involved in soccer and basketball training. As we have now put this arrangement in place, we kindly ask that parents ensure their children do not play on the playground after these times so that students in after-school care can use these facilities. Thank you all in advance for your cooperation.

Nut Aware School

A reminder to parents that St Patrick's is a Nut Aware School and that we ask that parents not pack nuts or nut products in their children's lunchboxes. 

WEST Award

Congratulations to Talei Sesara who received a WEST Award during today’s morning assembly. We will continue to acknowledge those students who exhibit WEST (Welcoming, Encouraging; Sorry; Thankful) qualities and Mercy Values (Hospitality, Compassion, Mercy and Respect) by presenting awards at our Monday morning assemblies. 

Student of the Week

Prep:Blair Smith for his positive attitude and participation in our spelling lessons.

Year 1: Dana Al-Roubaie for showing pleasing improvement in your  reading, maths and spelling. This is a result of her great attitude towards her learning. 

Year 2: Lakyn Dezoete for consistently displaying a positive attitude and application towards all learning tasks.

Year 3: Annabell Methorst for the kindness she demonstrates towards others and for her application towards

Year 4: Jovi Rand for his caring attitude towards his classmates and including others in conversations and games. 

Year 5: Oliver Gatehouse for his engaging persuasive text on why the Boeing 747 is the best aircraft ever made!

Year 6: Ruben Clarke for the persistence and problem solving skills he applied to enable him to successfully build and test his Electromagnet.

House Raffle Winners

Byrne House: TBC

Dooley House:  Esther Bloomfield

Martyn House: James Sullivan

Photos of Sporting Teams

If any parents or guardians have photos of students from school sporting teams and would like to see these included in the newsletter, please email them to stpatslat@catholic.tas.edu.au 

Inquiring Minds - Birth to 5 Years

‘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. Parents or an adult family member stays for the duration of these sessions; there is no cost, however if you would like to donate a gold coin it would be appreciated. Please feel welcome to participate.

St Brendan Shaw College Enrolments

The Smith Family's Saver Plus Program

Care and Concern

Please feel welcome to be included in our Care and Concern Volunteer List - thank you to the many school community members who are already on this list and are assisting others: Always please contact your child’s teacher, the office staff or Mr Atkins if you feel we could offer support in any way to anyone in our school community in need.

Check in TAS App

It is now a requirement, as part of our COVID Policy, that any adult that visits the school for longer than 10 minutes must sign in using the 'Check in TAS App'. 

Please view the below PDF for information regarding how to install and use the Check in TAS App.

We have QR codes at the office and school hall that can be scanned using this app when you are visiting the school for longer than 10 minutes.

If you do not have a smartphone or device that will let you install this app, you will need to visit the school office so that we can check you in.

Covid-19 School Safety Protocol

• Adults to please hand sanitise upon entering any school building: the school provides hand sanitiser at school venue entry points or adults may use their own (and be observed to use a sanitiser).
  
• Adults, where practicable, to maintain 1.5m physical distancing, observing seating arrangements as communicated by signage or instruction please: indoor event attendance limited to one person per 2 square metre per indoor space.
• Adults to sign-in, either at the school office or on a list provided at the entry of the school building. The school is obligated to record contact details of visitors to school events held in school venues, with this information stored securely for a period of 21 days.
• Appropriate COVID safe signage is communicated at school entry points. Key message to visitors - if feeling unwell, it is important not to be in attendance; the school will bar entry to people who have tested positive for COVID-19 or who are close contacts of a person who has tested positive for COVID-19.
• Although daily cleaning of frequently touched internal surfaces is undertaken, we ask adult visitors to avoid touching surfaces unnecessarily.
  

THANK YOU