St Paul's Catholic Primary School Newsletter 2023 Term 1, Week 8
Principal's Message
St Paul’s families
Wishing everyone a happy Harmony Week!
It was wonderful to celebrate and embrace our school’s cultural diversity on Tuesday during our Harmony Day luncheon and parade. The message of "Everyone Belongs," which highlights the idea that everyone has a role to play in building a harmonious and inclusive society was clear. The colour of orange was everywhere, and the cultural clothing was a sight to see.
Over the past two weeks our students in Year 3 and 5 have participated in NAPLAN undertaking a Writing task, Reading assessment, Language conventions test and a Numeracy test. All students have shown confidence and a willingness to do their best during this time and should be commended for this.
With NAPLAN being conducted earlier this year teachers will be able to use the assessment data (due towards the end of Term 3) to identify the teaching and learning needed in literacy and numeracy. It also gives teachers more time to engage with students and families to discuss their child’s strengths and areas of focus.
Thank you to Ms Libby, our Curriculum Leader and our Year 3 & 5 teaching and ISA staff for all their work with organising and undertaking the testing at our school.
The Year 3-6 Swimming Carnival was a wonderful opportunity for students to show not only their swimming abilities but their encouragement and support for all. Our House Leaders are to be congratulated on their leadership demonstrated on this day. Well done to Hartzer House for being the overall winners of the Swimming competition. We have some very talented swimmers in our school. Our Spirit Cup house winners were Chevalier.
Encouraging words and school spirit were definitely on show.
Thank you to our P&F for keeping all well-fed and hydrated at their food stall.
We have been working with Catholic Education Northern Territory to finalise and confirm our Annual Implementation Goals for 2023. These were shared with our St Paul’s School Board Meeting at our Annual General Meeting (AGM) on Wednesday evening.
On Wednesday evening at our first face-to-face board meeting, we welcomed new members, Janet Hanigan and Amy Peterson. We thank them for their time and commitment to working with us for continual improvement for our school community.
I thought this would be a good opportunity for us to reiterate our St Paul’s Vision statement and really highlight that we ‘walk together’ to keep this document alive. We work in partnership with families to ensure the best learning and wellbeing outcomes for our students. In Week 10, our Three-Way Interviews will be a great opportunity to ‘live’ this intention. Further information regarding the interviews are included in this newsletter. We look forward to seeing you all at this event.
Have a blessed week ahead.
Jo Knight
Events
Please join us at our upcoming Parent Engagement session to keep abreast of how we are supporting our students in their emotional regulation and readiness for learning. We look forward to seeing you here.
School Photos will be held on Wednesday 5th April
Order forms will handed out to students from their teachers in the coming weeks.
Please visit reception for the Sibling Order envelope.
Forms are to be returned to teachers and cash payments to be placed in the envelope or payments can be paid online via instructions on the envelope.
Do not pay at school reception - payments are managed by The School Photographer company directly.
Important Notices
2023 Back to School Vouchers
Families are entitled to receive $150 of educational goods and services for each child enrolled in a government or non-government NT school. If your child is in transition to year 12, you will receive the entitlement in term one each year. The entitlement must be used by the end of term one.
If you have not yet used your 2023 $150 Back to School Voucher(s) please visit the front office before the end of term one to use it for uniform purchasing or to use towards the Book & Resource component of the School Fees.
Please note, any amount from Back to School Vouchers that is to be applied to your School Fee Accounts will be applied AFTER School Fee Statements are sent out so please keep note of the amount from your Back to School Voucher that is to go towards your school fees and deduct that from your School Fee balance before making payment.
Updated St John's Catholic College Prospectus for our upcoming Open Days:
https://www.paperturn-view.
Application for Enrolment:
https://stjohnscollege.
Fortes in Fide,
Cameron Hughes Principal
St John's Catholic College Darwin
https://www.stjohnsnt.
Catholic Care School Counselling Program
Hi, my name is Sarah and I am the School Counsellor from CatholicCare NT. I am located at St Paul’s Catholic Primary School one day a week on Thursdays and I'm here to provide students with support and emotional well-being. Through the School Counselling Program during a counselling session I conduct a child centred approach with modalities that are developmentally appropriate, evidenced based, therapeutic intervention for school aged children from 3-12 years old.
Here are some of the following referral reasons that your child may be struggling with or having worries and may be seeking additional and non-judgemental support. School counselling referrals can provide students and parents/ guardians/ carers with another safe place to explore their immediate needs/ concerns.
Some examples of when families can refer to the School Counselling Program can be; 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…
RE News
Community Flyers
Hello - I run the Darwin School of Ballet and kindly ask if the following could be placed in your newsletter:
DARWIN SCHOOL OF BALLET offers ballet in a fun and supportive environment where we introduce young dancers to the foundations of dance and movement. We have places available from 5 years and classes held at Casuarina Senior College. Please contact Lisa for more information
https://www.facebook.com/darwinschoolballet/ or heath.lisa@bigpond.com
