St Paul's Catholic Primary School Newsletter Term 1 Week 8 2021

Principal's Message

Good afternoon St Paul’s Families,

As we move to our new newsletter format, I would like to focus on a particular educational theme or relevant issue for each of my newsletter contributions, rather than summarising what is already contained in the newsletter. Of course, if there are matters that require urgent attention, I will reiterate this but for the most part, I will focus on one matter in particular.

Last Friday, we celebrated Harmony Day and National ‘Bullying No Way’ Day with an emphasis on welcoming and respecting. We know that when we follow the model of our leader, Jesus, and treat each other with kindness and a loving heart, that bullying cannot survive. Our children are well-informed of the difference between an unkind or mean action as opposed to bullying – repetitive and targeted behaviour, but understand that it is important to tell an adult when someone is hurt and upset so we can work together to prevent further instances.

Our Leader of Wellbeing, Miss Alex, did a wonderful job in preparing our Harmony Day celebrations last week, beginning with our assembly and organising a wonderful picnic lunch and culturally diverse ‘fashion parade’ at lunchtime. Thank you for your work in this space.

Wellbeing is crucial to learning, living and loving. This year we are implementing the Mind Up approach to wellbeing – a school-wide approach, including students, staff and families. We know that students will learn best when their brains are settled, calm and focused and the Mind Up curriculum helps all of us to achieve this. We have are looking to have a parent evening to share more about this approach early in Term 2 (April 29^th – TBC).

As we approach Easter, please note that Wednesday, March 31^st is a Super Session Day for us. The theme of this Super Session is Holy Week. Students will work in multi-age groups to participate in workshops for most of this day. Please ensure all students are wearing their sports uniform on this day and have a labelled water bottle and food containers.

May the spirit of welcome fill your hearts as we approach Palm Sunday.

Kind regards,

Ms Megan Evans

April School Holiday Vacation Care 12th -16th April

Please complete the Operoo form sent to you last week to advise us if you wish for your child to be enrolled in Vacation Care for the upcoming school holidays (12th-16th of April). 

If you your child has not attended After School Care or Vacation Care with us before, you will need to complete the  enrolment form attached to the Operoo form and return to St Paul's Reception by the 1st of April.

Vacation Care operating hours are 7.30am to 5:30pm during this holiday break.

FEE: $75 per day (part time)    OR    $325 per week (full time)

Payment is required 1 at least one week in advance.

FEE INCLUDES: morning tea, lunch and afternoon tea, activities and some excursions.

WHAT TO BRING: Hat, enclosed toe shoes, SunSmart clothes and clearly named water bottle. Please also bring a spare set of clothes as we are having water play each day.

Please be advised that you will incur a late fee of $5 per minute for any late pick up. 

It is essential for your child’s safety that you notify us if your child is to be absent. Please ring 8948 5362

Upcoming Events

Curriculum News

Class Dojo

Teachers will be using Class Dojo as their main form of communication of student learning with parents. By now you should have received a code from your teacher(s) to connect to your child(ren)’s class. If you are yet to receive a code or are having difficulties connecting, please see your classroom teacher to ensure you are not missing important messages and classroom updates. 

Homework Policy

St Paul’s Homework Policy is currently under review. We are working towards developing a consistent homework model throughout the school aligned with evidence based research.  Throughout Term 1, classrooms will be trialing different modes of homework delivery. We will be seeking feedback from families in the form of surveys soon.

RE News

Sacrament of Reconciliation

Sacrament of Reconciliation was celebrated on Tuesday 16^th March with a total of 8 students from Saint Paul’s. The students carried a small rock with them during their time with the priest. This was to symbolise a choice they have made which they weren’t proud of. Once they completed their confessions, they placed the rock into the bowl of water to reflect the symbol of life and for a fresh start through God’s forgiveness. Congratulations to all who were involved.

The MJR focus for weeks 8 and 9 is Be A Winner and A Grinner.
It is very special when we win a prize or a soccer match or a competition but it that’s not the only things we can win in life. We can win by making the right choices in life. You need to think of yourself as a winner every day. We are winners by showing the best attitude, motivation, and determination through personal goals.
You win when you show personal excellence not just through a competition!

We are now in the 6^th week of Lent. This is a time we can reflect on ways we can change and follow Jesus more closely with prayer. In 2021, Caritas Australia’s Project Compassion theme is ‘Be More’. The Caritas project compassion boxes have gone home to families. All money raised is used to assist in project development for those communities most in need both in and out of Australia. 

We now have another exciting group of students are involved in the Mini Vinnies Action group for 2021. We have so many wonderful dedicated students at St Paul’s who really want to make a difference and contribute back into the community. The students will need to attend some lunch time meetings, help with fundraising and promotion of Saint Vincent De Paul. They have already attended 3 meetings and said their pledge to the group. Well done!

Holy Week

Next week (week 9) we enter into Holy Week. This is the last week of Lent before we move into the Easter season. It commences on Palm Sunday and we will be holding a Stations of the Cross liturgy on Thursday 8:30am led by room 13. School will break for 4 days and return on Tuesday with a resurrection liturgy at 8:30am led by room 14.

Children's Mass

On the last Sunday of each month, Saint Paul's Catholic Church hold a Children's Mass. This Mass is directed to children of all ages with adapted readings and a child-centred homily. We encourage students from Saint Paul's to attend. This is a lovely way of connecting and reconnecting with our Catholic faith. We encourage our children to also join in the choir at these Masses. Please not that this Sunday the 28th March, there will be no Children’s Mass as there will be Palm Sunday celebrations.

 These students saw the spirit of Jesus: 

Dear Lord
Thank you for today. Thank you for ways in which you provide for us all. For Your protection and love we thank you. Help us to focus our hearts and minds now on what we are about to learn.
Amen

Rochelle De-La-Mare - REC

Weekly Awards - Week 7: Attitude of Gratitude and Week 8: Achievement

ELC

Thomas Haynes - Received the Attitude of Gratitude Award Week 7

Leni Smith - Achievement Award Week 8 - Leni, you are enthusiastic, kind, confident and a great team player. You are always willing to learn and  try new things. Well done Leni :)

Room 5 Transition Miss Jo and Sr Hilde

Tilly Bruce - Received the Attitude of Gratitude Award Week 7

Frederick Ryan - Achievement Award Week 8 - Well done Fred on being a great learning friend to others in the class. Your willingness to lean new things is wonderful. Keep aiming high!

Room 1 Y1/2 Miss Mona

Zienna Martin - Received the Attitude of Gratitude Award Week 7

Laney Sefton-Rowston - Achievement Award Week 8 - For being respectful, working hard and showing an awesome teamwork attitude when working with your peers in our Mathematics groups.

Room 2 Y1/2 Mr C

Jesleen Kaur - Received the Attitude of Gratitude Award Week 7

Tom Clifford - Achievement Award Week 8 - Tom, you strive to do your very best in all things you do. You are a wonderful student and a fine example to your class buddies.

Room 8 Y3/4 Mrs Mandy

Tayo Dada - Received the Attitude of Gratitude Award Week 7

Sevasti Dakis - Achievement Award Week 8 - Sevasti, you have made big improvements with your sentence structure in writing. You are able to use conjunctions to make your sentences more robust. Well done!

Room 9 Y3/4 Ms Alex

Hans Bigendako - Received the Attitude of Gratitude Award Week 7

Aiden Sajesh - Achievement Award Week 8 - Congratulations on working so hard during our writing lessons. You are trying your absolute hardest and I can see that it is paying off. Well done and keep up the good work!

Room 12 Y5/6 Mrs Del & Ibu Margy

Ashlyn McKernan - Received the Attitude of Gratitude Award Week 7 

Billie Freeman-Knox - Achievement Award Week 8 - For your fabulous achievements in maths. You have worked so hard to apply your knowledge in multiplication by two digits and division with remainders to hundredths. Keep up the good work. Well done!

Room 13 Y5/6 Miss Lauren & Ms Jess

 Ayin Yong - Received the Attitude of Gratitude Award Week 7

Mickeal Rogers - Achievement Award Week 8 - Mickeal, You have shown kindness and compassion for other students. You have had a positive attitude towards your work and have really found your voice this week! We love your positive energy! Well done!

Room 14 Y5/6 Mrs Pond

Harshika Madhivanan - Received the Attitude of Gratitude Award Week 7

Darcy Lunney - Achievement Award Week 8 - Darcy you always show such enthusiasm towards your lessons and you did some amazing expressive writing this week. I especially liked this part of your poem.  In the morning when the gutter water was still dripping and the frogs were still croaking I could hear the thunder slowly creeping away. “I wonder when the next storm will come?’’

Classroom News

Week 7: News From Room 12

We are loving our classroom environment and all the exciting learning that we are exploring.

In English our focus text has been ‘Wonder’ written by R.J. Palacio. We love listening, viewing and reading this text. We choose interesting words to research, we explore the characters, read and record ourselves to develop fluency and summarise what we have read.

We thoroughly enjoyed the past few weeks at swimming lessons. The weather was perfect and the pool was refreshing. The swimming carnival was so much fun.

Throughout our Religious Education studies, we have been focusing on the first 2 commandments of the bible and how they are reflected through scripture. We read and acted out the parable of the Good Samaritan and how this teaches us to ‘love your neighbour as yourself’. We made a tetraflexagon to help us remember this ‘golden rule’. We have also identified other names that Jesus has been referred to through scripture.

Visual Art lessons with Ibu Margy are very enjoyable. We have been learning about the elements of art in particular how line draws the eye to a certain point. This art piece we crated is called crayon resist and we represented torrential rain which is related to our HASS topic of Natural Disasters.

Week 8: News From ELC

In the past few weeks children have been exploring earthworms and frogs. Children has been great observers and were using their senses to learn about environment. By incorporating nature into the curriculum, children are developing their inquiry skills, wonder, understanding and curiosity.

Bringing the natural world into the classroom…Two of our friends brought some tadpoles and fishes into ELC. Children became very involved in observing and exploring the life cycle of frogs – tadpoles into frogs. Children fed the tadpoles and discussed the changes in their appearance.

St. Patrick’s Day and Harmony Day Celebrations… Everyone belongs! Children are developing a sense of belonging to groups and communities and learning to interact with care and respect regardless of differences.

Bread Donations

A local bakery is kindly donating bread to the school each Thursday. There is enough bread that the eldest child in each family will receive a loaf of bread to take home. There will be an e-form going out on Operoo for families to advise us if they would not like to receive this. Please note that we do not have a choice of which kind of bread we are given and therefore cannot provide a choice of bread to families.

Book of the week

Book of the week is…I'm Australian Too

Author: Mem Fox, Illustrator: Ronojoy Ghosh

What this is about: This book is about everyone who is welcome in Australia, no matter where you come from we are  all Australian.

Why we chose this: We chose this book because it was  Harmony Day and we think that this represents Harmony Day through the power of reading, and like we said before this book is basically saying that everyone is welcome in Australia no matter where you come from. We are all Aussie!

Review from Pippa and Matilda: This is a great book! You should definitely read it! 

Review from Ava: I like that it has different cultures.

Review from Olive: I like how it says that everyone fits in.

Review from Billie: I like how it says it doesn’t matter where you’re from you are a part of the community.

This book review was done by Matilda Uden and Pippa Elliott

Rating: We would rate this book 5 stars no complaints what so ever!

General Information

SCHOOL HOLIDAY OFFICE CLOSURE: Please note that the school office will be closed in the April school holidays apart from Friday the 16th of April we will be open 9am-2pm.

The school office is open 7:50am to 3:30pm Monday to Friday during term time.

UNIFORM ORDERS: The company that supplies our uniforms notified us in January that it will take 3 months or more to complete our order (they are making the uniforms from scratch). This means it will still be a few more weeks until we expect to receive our order. Families will be advised when they are ready for collection. We thank you for your patience, Covid restrictions have made this process lengthier than we would wish.

LOST PROPERTY: Please check the names on your children's hats and other property as we have discovered that children are accidentally taking other children's belongings home.

SCHOOL FEES:  School fee invoices have now been sent out to all families via email, please contact us if you have not received your email. When paying fees please ensure you include a reference for what the payment is for, either 'School Fees', 'OSHC Fees' or 'ELC fees' in the name.

SIBLING DISCOUNT: If you have more than 1 child studying at a Catholic School in the NT, you will be eligible for a sibling discount. Please contact finance.stpauls@nt.catholic.edu.au to inform our finance team of which schools your other children attend.

Rm  4 Transition - Miss Jo  & Sr Hilde   - SPORT DAY: Tuesday  LIBRARY DAY:  Friday

Rm 1  Yr 1-2  -  Miss Mona   -   SPORT DAY: Tuesday  LIBRARY DAY:  Thursday

Rm 2  Yr 1-2  -  Mr C   -  SPORT DAY: Wednesday  LIBRARY DAY:  Friday 

Rm 8  Yr 3-4 -  Miss Mandy & Sr Hilde  - SPORT DAY: Wednesday   LIBRARY DAY:  Monday

Rm 9  Yr 3-4  -  Miss Alex   - SPORT DAY: Tuesday  LIBRARY DAY:  Thursday

Rm 12  Yr 5-6  -  Mrs Del & Miss Margy - SPORT DAY: Tuesday  LIBRARY DAY:  Tuesday

Rm 13  Yr 5-6  -  Miss Lauren & Miss Jess - SPORT DAY: Wednesday  LIBRARY DAY:  Wednesday

Rm 18  Yr 5-6  -  Mrs Pond  - SPORT DAY: Wednesday  LIBRARY DAY: TBA

BACK TO SCHOOL VOUCHERS: Have you used your Back to School Voucher?  If not, please call into the office to complete your voucher. The NT Government provides $150.00 for each child attending school in the NT. This may be put towards uniforms or your book and resource levy. Vouchers are only valid for Term 1.  

BOOK CLUB ORDERS: Book Club orders are sent out from Scholastic through the school twice per term.   We use the “LOOP” system which means online ordering only.  For more information on how to do this please see the link below www.scholastic.com.au/LOOP Please remember to use your child’s classroom No when ordering.

SPORTS VOUCHERS: Parents are asked to order their voucher online at www.sportsvoucher.nt.gov.au  Simply visit the For Parents or Carers section and scroll down until you find the Request a New or Replacement Sport Voucher link. Please allow 2—4 weeks for delivery to your postal address.    

Semester 2, 2020 Learn to Swim and Sport Voucher applications are now open to apply online.

Semester 1 2021 Learn to Swim and Sports Voucher applications opened 4^th January 2021

Parent or carers are able to print or save the voucher if the child/s details are in the system. If the child/s details are not found, you will receive a voucher to your nominated email within 7 days of applying. Please check your junk/spam folder prior to contacting us if you have applied and not yet received your voucher.

Sport Voucher:

The Sport Voucher Scheme is available to every urban school-enrolled child from preschool to year 12 and home-schooled children. Parents or carers need to apply for vouchers online each semester.

All vouchers expire on 31 May each year. Applications close 24 May each year.

Learn to Swim Voucher:

Children under 5 years old and not enrolled in preschool or school may be eligible to receive the Learn to Swim voucher. Children must be registered for the water safety awareness program run by Royal Life Saving Society before you apply. Parents or carers need to apply for vouchers online each semester.

All vouchers expire on 31 May each year. Applications close 24 May each year.

PARENT CONTACT DETAILS: Please advise the office of any changes to your contact details. This includes phone numbers, address details and emails. It is vitally important that we have the correct contact number in view of any emergency. Thank you for your assistance in this area.   

INSTRUMENTAL LESSONS: Instrumental lessons will take place again this year with Andrew Arthur, Violin lessons with Kirsty McCullum and Woodwind lessons with Eliza Tobin.  Instrumental lessons will take place each Friday and Violin lessons each Wednesday during school hours.  Contact details for Andrew are – dapa@live.com.au 0428153355 and Kirsty McCullum-  kirstymac@bigpond.com and Eliza Tobin for Woodwind lessons - elizatobin@hotmail.com.

SCHOOL START TIMES: We request that families drop their children off at school as close to 8am as possible.  Should you arrive prior to this time please wait on the steps outside the staffroom before going to the classroom.  At 8:10am the first bell will sound which means the children and parents can then proceed to the classroom.  The classrooms and office will be closed during that time however, recess/lunch trays will be accessible outside the classrooms. 

SCHOOL DENTIST:  St Paul’s does not have on onsite dental clinic, however you can use the Dental Clinic at Nightcliff Primary school. Parents are asked to contact the clinic on 89226466 to arrange an appointment. Parents are to accompany their child to the appointment. There is no charge for this service and it is highly recommended that children’s teeth should be regularly checked. This also includes pre-school children.  

PICKING UP CHILDREN at the end of the school day.  We ask that all parents/carers who will be picking up their child from school please wait in the area outside the office and staffroom. 

CARPARK PICK-UP: In an effort to move the traffic along more quickly and freely we ask that parents safely follow the appropriate procedures.  Should you need to get out and buckle your child in—we ask that you use the car spaces available to do so and not the pick up area. 

CANTEEN NEWS: 

The Canteen will provide recess and lunch through quickcliq.com.au (account set up required). It seems that some children are choosing not to eat food brought from home and are instead requesting snacks and food from the canteen. Please note that families will be invoiced for this so please ensure your child is aware of what food is packed for them each day and that all food is labelled clearly (including packets of snack foods as it is confusing when children have the same snacks.

LUNCHES:  Lunch boxes are taken to the coolroom each morning between 8.15 and 8.30am.  It is important to be at school on time for the smooth running of this program and it is important that all recess and lunch boxes are labelled with your child’s name and Room No.

OSHC NEWS: If you have changed your child’s days from last year or would like more could you please let Anna-Lea or Ihrene know.  If you wish to enrol in the program—Enrolment Forms can be collected from the office or OSHC.  Thank you.

FULL TIME, PART TIME AND CASUAL BOOKED CARE: Please understand that fees will be charged for booked days regardless whether the child attends or not. As we need to consider rosters and menu food that are prepared and organised. There is a subsidy for your fees for this available from Centrelink. Please ring them for more information.

CANCELLATION OF CARE: Two weeks written notice will be required for cancellation of care for both full time and part time children. Change of care days should be supported by email and change to enrolment form. As above, there is a subsidy for your fees for this available from Centrelink. Please ring them for more information.

Please see the new 2021 OSHC Parent Handbook below.

CDU Children’s University returns to St Paul’s for 2021 and is open to students in years 3, 4, 5 and 6!

St Paul's Parents and Friends

St Paul's P&F is looking for new committee members to help organize and run events during the year. These events are a great way to meet new parents and be involved in your school community. We always need volunteers on the day of events too, watch out for our on line signup sheets.

If you are interested in helping please come to a meeting on the first Tuesday of the month or contact Bernadette McGrath 0432641999.

Information for families receiving Child Care Subsidy (CCS) for the 2018-19 financial year

Your income must be confirmed by 31 March 2021 or CCS will reduce to 0% and paying full fees may apply when you access child care.

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