St Paul's Catholic Primary School Newsletter 2022 Term 2, Week 6

Principal's Message

Dear St Paul’s families,

As we steam through Term 2, I wanted to make mention how lovely it has been to see so many parents attending assemblies, meetings, after-school pick ups and generally being back in our daily lives. If you are parent who is not usually able to be here for these things, (that was me when our children were at school), there are plenty of opportunities coming up for you to be part of our school community. We have our Athletics Carnival next Friday, June 3^rd and this year it will be a day-time event here on our back oval. There is a sign-up link for volunteers in the P&F section of the newsletter.

Here at St Paul’s we are always looking for ways to improve. This year, our Annual Improvement Plan has been given a sharp and narrow focus. Whilst there are many things, we continue to work on, we have the following five areas as the focus for improvement in 2022:

• Collaborative and evidence-based teaching practice
• Data-informed teaching
• Exemplary teaching practice
• A deeper commitment to Laudato Si
• Creating engaging and effective learning spaces

We are working to create a visual for parents that will be published on our new website -soon to be launched! This visual will give parents are greater understanding of what we do, why we do it and what the benefit is for your child.

At the beginning of the year, we were advised to stagger pick up times due to COVID restrictions. As a result of this we realized that our face-to-face teaching times had exceeded our the expected the hours stated in the award. Subsequently, our official end of day bell will now be set at 2:35pm. Our car park duty will conclude at 2:50pm. As of Term 3, students who are still here after this time will be booked into Out of School Hours Care (OSHC).

We look to launch our new St Paul’s website in the coming weeks and on this you will notice a ‘donations’ button that will allow you to make your donations for our two major community fundraising events for 2022 - our Caritas Ks and our St Paul’s Splash of Colour fun run. Both of these events will be held on the last day of Term 2, 2022 – Friday, June 24^th.

This morning we were led by our Aboriginal students in an assembly to remind us of the importance of Reconciliation Week and many of the children have been learning about The Stolen Generations in class this week. There is a sad history in this learning, and whilst we focus on a strong and positive future for Australia, there have been some really important questions raised by our students.

May the spirit of Jesus be flowing from your hearts!

Megan Evans

Upcoming Events

General Information/News

PLEASE CHECK PREVIOUS NEWSLETTERS IN NEWSLETTER ARCHIVE ON SZAPP FOR ST PAUL'S GENERAL INFORMATION

RE News

Month of Mary: May sees us enter into the Month of Mary. This is a time to reflect on Mary the mother of our Church and also to acknowledge our mothers and mother figures in our lives. Who was Mary? Mary was a young Jewish woman who lived in Nazareth in what is now Israel. The early traditions of the Christian community named Mary’s parents Anne and Joachim. Because of Mary’s faithfulness as a Jewish woman, we can imagine that her parents were also devout Jews and raised their daughter in accordance with their faith. Their tender care and devotion helped Mary to grow into the confident, yet humble young woman who would say yes to God. Because of the time and area in which Mary lived, we can make some pretty good guesses about what her life was like. Mary was probably a peasant. As a woman deeply rooted in the Jewish faith, Mary trusted that God heard the cries of his people and would “remember his mercy.” (Luke 1:54) Mary and Joseph raised Jesus to be a faithful Jew, aware of the injustices in the world, but believing in God’s justice, mercy, and love — believing that there is another way. By doing so, they changed the world. Reflecting on Mary’s life offers us the opportunity to learn from her and emulate her response to God. Mary teaches us how to lead our lives in faith and hope and love.

Laudato Si’ Week: The seventh anniversary of Pope Francis’ Encyclical letter Laudato Si: On Care for our Common Home takes place on May 24th. Laudato Si Week (Week 5) is celebrated annually in appreciation of the 2015 Encyclical letter in which the Pope says, “The entire material universe speaks of God’s love” (#84). Pope Francis has helped Catholics understand the connection people have to the whole of creation and that caring for Earth community is central to mission. “All of us can cooperate as instruments of God for the care of creation, each according to his or her own culture, experience, involvements and talents” (#14).

This week you may wish to take some time as a family to reflect the themes of Laudato Si.

Curriculum News

NAPLAN 2022

It was wonderful to see the Year 3 and 5 students working through the recent NAPLAN tests. Each student showed a positive effort when undertaking these online tests. Well done to all the students.

Later in the year when the results are sent to our school it will provide great data on the strengths of each students in the domains of reading, writing and numeracy. For the Year 5s it will provide a snapshot of the growth that has been made in the two years since Year 3.

Class News - Year 5/6 Camp

Thank you to the amazing staff who organised and attended the camp in 2022. It was a fabulous experience and the students have memories that will last a lifetime! Here is a snapshot from some of the attendees. 

Camp Reflections!

If you were wondering where the year 5/6’s on theWednesday, Thursday and Friday of week 4, we were at school camp. Now, camp wasn’t just a fun experience, it also builds confidence and resilience. Bachelor Outdoor Education Center is a place you must go to. I had lots of fun with my friends. We went to Litchfield where we went swimming at Florence falls and went on a bushwalk at Wangi falls. It was brilliant. There were so many fish and snorkeling was amazing. The whole camp was amazing. You had to face your fears and step out of your comfort zone. I got to spend time with my friends. I would definitely go again. - Anha

It was the most fun ever!! The food was great, dessert was ice cream. The activities were the best. We did rock climbing, raft building, high ropes and lots more. We watched a movie under the stars. The trampolines were so bouncy- lots of fun. I shared a cabin with Oscar, Hans and Zander. We talked all night and had lots of fun with all the teachers and students. I can’t tell you what my favourite thing was because I don’t have a favourite thing! Camp was awesome and so much fun. Praise to Chef for her amazing food I enjoyed. I can’t wait to go back next year. Thank you Bachelor staff, see you next time. - Harry

This year's camp was really fun and I would like to do it again one day! The cabins were okay (not dirty) and the staff were kind! The food was good, like most of the things at camp, but the cordial was watered down. I loved all of the activities, especially high ropes rock climbing, archery and radio rogaine, aka orienteering (even though I didn’t do it this year, but I did last year) we had a movie under the stars and a campfire, as well! I loved every bit of it, except the mozzies! Overall, camp was super cool and exciting. I hope I can go again. - Samantha

At camp we did high ropes then from high ropes we did ziplining. I had the best time. Archery was very hard though. Radio Rogaine was so fun and tiring. Overall it was very fun and exciting. - Kade

When we got to school we were all ecstatic. We couldn’t wait to get to Bachelor and as a result of that it made the bus ride there almost unbearable. We were so impatient, I mean I was checking the time every five minutes, it seemed to go on forever. When we finally got there, we had morning tea and were assigned our cabins. I was in a cabin with Pippa and we were in one of the best blocks- the blue block. Thankfully, this year the cabin aircons worked really well and it was very cold. Our cabin had a doorway in the wall so we nearly had a double sleepover with Miss Marley and Miss Alex. Then they swapped cabins with Lilyand Harshika so that was fun. After that we were assigned our groups. I was in Miss Alex’s group with Harshika, Malena and Sophie. First up we had archery. Our team didn’t do great but it was still fun. I think we ended up with about two hundredhundred and something points which wasn’t bad. After that it was a tasty lunch of burgers. Our last activity of the day was team challenges and that was so much fun! First we had to climb across a rope with no harness (it was all safe) but that’s not the best part. The best part was the obstacle course. It was so much fun and there was a laser beam where we got so filthy. It was hilarious how dirty I got! - Matilda.

OSHC & ELC News

ELC NEWS

Here in the ELC the children have been working hard planting different things..

Currently in the garden we have planted sunflowers, pumpkin, eggplant, tomatoes, chives and cabbages. We have been discussing with all the children about respecting the garden and what we need to do to let it grow watering, sun and my favourite, no pulling the plants. We are excited to see them grow.

To develop their understanding of growing fruit and vegetables we asked families to share some fruit and vegetables they have at home so that the children could make a rainbow with and try all different types of new flavours.

All the ELC educators would like to thank all the donations of recycling material we have received already.

School Counselling Program

Hi, my name is Sarah and I am the School Counsellor from CatholicCare NT. I am located St Paul’s Catholic Primary School one day a week on Wednesdays and I'm here to provide students with support and emotional well-being. Through the School Counselling Program during a counselling session I conduct Child Centred Play Therapy modality which is a developmentally appropriate, evidenced based, therapeutic intervention for school aged children from 3-11 years old. This approach is based on the belief that "play is therapy" for children, like when adults talk through their problems to solve them, here children play through their problems to solve them.  

What is Play Therapy?

Play therapy builds on the child’s inner resources and strengths, which are supported by the therapeutic relationship to bring about growth, development and healing in the child. Play therapy helps children develop confidence and positive self-esteem, find healthier ways of communicating and can promote resilience and coping, in ways that are appropriate to their developmental stage.  

Here are some of the following referral reasons that your child may be struggling with and that Play Therapy can be an effective therapeutic approach by referring to the School Counselling Program; divorce & separation of parents, anxiety & depression, low self-esteem & self-confidence, social difficulties, angry & aggressive behaviour, trauma & abuse, grief & loss, autism spectrum disorder, attachment issues… and more… 

Play therapy is a gentle intervention that provides a safe and secure space for children to process their thoughts, feelings, and experiences through their first and most natural language; play! 

Referrals can be made through completing the form which is avalaible on request at: admin.stpauls@nt.catholic.edu.au

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