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- From the Principal - Mrs Katie Browne
- From the Assistant Principal - Mr Simon Farrugia
- From the REC - Ms Catherine du Bois
- From the School Office
- P&F News
- Calendar Overview
- Who We Are - Bearers of Christ's Love
- School Holiday Art Workshops
- Council of Catholic School Parents NSW/ACT Webinars
- 2025 Term Dates and Pupil Free Days
- NSW Health Winter Campaign
- Awards
- Year 6 Colouring in Competition
- Mini Vinnies Winter Appeal 2025
- Wellbeing Officer
- SEL Focus - Week 9 and 10
- Canteen for Term 2 - Thursdays only
- Community News
Dear Families,
This week, we're excited to celebrate the Feast of Saints Peter and Paul, officially on Sunday, June 29th! To honour this special day for our school, we'll be holding a celebration this Friday. We're particularly thrilled to present our very first Respect Awards at the end of our whole school mass. One award will be given per grade, with recipients nominated by teachers using our Student Respect rubric as a guide. See below for more information about this. This is a brand-new initiative, designed to truly acknowledge students who embody our school values. You can also look forward to awards being presented on other special days throughout the year, aligning with our other important school values.
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Celebrating Our Progress
Last week, we received some incredibly positive news from our Tell Them From Me survey data. The results show a fantastic increase in overall student engagement! We saw notable improvements in how students feel about their peer relationships, with over 90% reporting that their friendships at school are positive and supportive. It’s wonderful to see that 90% of our students believe they try hard, value education, and see it as beneficial for their future. There were also increases in how much they value homework and a rise in student motivation and attitude towards learning. Most of these results were above the Tell Them From Me norms, which is a significant achievement for St Paul's! In fact, the majority of open-ended responses from students highlighted their love for our school grounds and how safe they feel, both at school and when coming and going.
Our parents' feedback was equally encouraging, showing that we are a welcoming, inclusive, and safe school. These results were also above the TTFM norms, with learning and behaviour results similar to the norms. A huge thank you to all the families who took the time to provide such valuable feedback.
It's clear that the hard work we've been putting in since the Cyclic Inquiry recommendations in 2023 is having a real impact on our school community. As we continue our efforts, we anticipate seeing our learning data trend upwards. We truly believe that students need to feel safe and included before they can learn successfully, and we've worked hard to lay that foundation. Our staff are continuously developing their collaborative practices and deepening their understanding of student engagement. Our aim is to ensure we provide high expectations and targeted feedback so that every student can achieve engagement in their learning.
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Stronger Together: Home and School Partnership
This level of engagement is also strongly supported by the partnership we are building between home and school. The recent parent forum, the development of our parent liaison group to support school carnivals, and the establishment of CatholicCare in the area for families are all vital first steps in strengthening these important partnerships.
Understanding Respect: Our New Rubrics
At our recent parent forum, we were excited to share our new Community Respect Rubric and Student Respect Rubric. These valuable tools were developed collaboratively by our dedicated staff and students.
You might be wondering how we create something like a "respect rubric." We were very fortunate to work with Professor Jim Tognolini, who guided our system in understanding how to measure important concepts, especially values. He taught us a key principle: you can measure anything as long as you clearly define it. Our school rules prominently feature the word 'respect,' but without clearly defining what respect truly means, it's challenging to teach our children its deeper significance. That's precisely why we developed these rubrics.
These rubrics will now serve as a practical way to help students identify where they see themselves on the scale of respect. More importantly, they provide a positive pathway for students to understand how they can grow and develop their respectful behaviours. The same applies to adults within our school community. These rubrics help us all visualise what the highest level of respect looks and sounds like, ensuring we're all working towards a shared understanding and goal.
At St Paul's, respect is a non-negotiable. Every member of our community deserves to be treated with respect, and there is simply no excuse for disrespect, at any time or in any place. We encourage you to take some time to look at the rubrics and discuss them as a family.
As we come to the halfway point of the school year I would like to wish all our families a happy St Paul’s Feast Day and say thank you for your ongoing support and commitment to our school community. Students return on Wednesday 23 July. On Monday 21 and Tuesday 22 July staff will be engaging in professional learning focused on our school strategic priorities.
God Bless,
Katie Browne
Principal
Christian Meditation
On Friday there will be the opportunity to learn about and experience Christian meditation. Robyn Gallagher will be leading this session for families. Please see the flyer. We would love you to attend. If you can attend please RSVP so we can cater for you. If you have little children and would still like to come there will be a play space set up in the hall for them to play and Mrs Browne will supervise them while you enjoy the experience.
Road Safety: Let's All Do Our Part!
We want to send a friendly reminder to all parents and carers about the importance of road safety, especially around our school at drop-off and pick-up times.
Recently, Berrima Buslines expressed concern about adults gathering and talking on Innes Road in the afternoons. This makes it tricky for their buses to navigate safely. We all have a shared responsibility to follow road rules and ensure everyone's safety.
We know that drop-off and pick-up can sometimes be challenging, and we saw this reflected in the feedback from our recent TTFM survey. Please be assured that our school has worked closely with local councils, bus companies, and the police to develop our current processes, which have been rated as extremely safe.
To keep things running smoothly and safely for everyone, we kindly ask that individual road users also play their part by following the rules and moving on promptly once your children are dropped off or picked up. Your cooperation helps keep our whole school community safe!
Head Related Sport Activities
Recently students were reminded that they are not to engage in any activities that include their head, for example, “Heading” during a lunch time soccer game. The NSW Education Department has mandated activities that are not to be engaged in at school that put children's heads and necks at risk. While heading is not on the banned list it is an activity that requires appropriate training and supervision. Soccer at lunch time break is to be played at a low level that includes all participants and is not competitive. If you would like to see further information about the banned activities please access it via this link.
Assistant Principal Appraisal
Simon Farrugia will be undergoing his appraisal as his first contract comes to a close as Assistant Principal. We encourage you to take a few moments to complete the survey and provide feedback for Simon. This feedback is invaluable as it helps shape the goals for his next contract term. It's a truly affirming process that allows leaders to focus on their strengths and identify areas for growth.
New Eating Time After Break
Beginning in Term 3, we'll be trialling a change to our eating time: students will now eat after their break, rather than before. This trial will run for the entire term, and we'll be closely monitoring its effectiveness.
This decision was partly inspired by a recent visit to another school in our system, which reported significant positive impacts from this change. By eating after playtime, students have time to settle down and refuel, bringing their energy levels back down and preparing them to focus on learning. It also allows our teachers to address any playtime issues immediately, leading to quicker resolutions and less disruption to classwork.
Students will still have access to "Munch and Crunch" during the morning learning block, and all other existing eating arrangements for students will remain unaffected. Please note that bell times may adjust slightly; we will share these updated times with you once the new procedure is reviewed and confirmed.
Semester 1 reports will be made available to parents at the end of Week 9 (Friday June 27). These reports will include the following elements:
Kindergarten: An academic report with a three-point scale for each KLA, with a comment section for Religious Education, English and Mathematics.
Years 1-6: An academic report that uses the Common Grade Scale for each KLA, with a comment section for Religious Education, English and Mathematics. The Common Grade Scale describes performance at each of the five grade levels.
General Comments: General comments are included in the Semester 2 report only.
Off-level reporting: An academic report for off-level reporting will be available, where appropriate, for students with a diagnosed or imputed intellectual disability that inhibits them from accessing outcomes at their stage level. This applies when:
- students are accessing outcomes in SOME or ALL Key Learning Areas (KLA) below the stage level of their cohort
- students are accessing outcomes below the stage level of their cohort in most focus areas/strands within a KLA.
Newly enrolled students: These students will receive an “Update Report” provided by their teacher. This is due to the fact that not enough time has been available to assess and collect enough data to make appropriate decisions. These families will be notified before Friday.
Common Grade Scale Descriptors
Students gave it their all across a range of track events, cheered on by their peers and teachers. Whether they were sprinting down the track for 100m or 800m, everyone contributed to a wonderful day of friendly competition. The tabloid events are also a highlight for all ages! Well done to everyone on your wonderful marching too!
A big thank you to all the staff and parent volunteers who helped make the day run smoothly with set up and pack down, and congratulations to all our participants for their enthusiasm and effort. The carnival was a true highlight of the school year!
Congratulations to our age champions:
St Paul’s Feast Day
A number of activities will be taking place on Friday of Week 9 (27th June) to celebrate Saint Paul’s Feast Day. In the morning session, students will complete some letter writing activities, as Saint Paul is famous for his letters. They will also complete some craft activities related to Saint Paul.
There will be a whole school Mass at 12:30pm midday in the Church. During this Mass, we will be presenting a new award, the Saint Paul Respect Award. This will be presented to one student per class, to students who consistently show respect in all areas.
The Mass will be followed by a picnic lunch (weather permitting). Please bring some picnic food and a blanket/chair to share with your family. In the afternoon session, parents/visitors are invited to participate in a Christian Meditation session in the library, run by Robyn Gallagher. There is an RSVP for this.
Parents and visitors are warmly invited to attend the Mass, picnic lunch and meditation session.
Please note that there will be an opportunity for open classrooms at the Saint Mary MacKillop Feast Day celebrations in early Term 3.
Thank you
Catherine du Bois
Religious Education Coordinator
Panadol and Nurofen at school
Nurofen and panadol are not to be brought to school unless a consent to dispense medication form has been completed and signed by a Medical Practitioner (pharmacist, doctor, dentist etc). Students are not permitted to self administer this.
Uniform Items
The school sells sun hats ($16), School Bags ($65) and the girls winter skirt ($70). These are available to purchase from the school office and payment is by cash or eftpos.
Volunteers
If you volunteer at the school, parents or carers need to do an induction by scanning the QR code in the document:
Contact details
It is important that your contact details are up to date. It would be appreciated if you could log onto the Compass Parent Portal and check that your mobile/telephone number and email address are correct.
If you find that they are incorrect, you may update them in the portal.
Please also check that your email address is reachable, we sometimes find that we receive ‘bounce backs’ due full inboxes.
School Fees
School fee statements have been issued. Payment of fees is by BPay, Compass Portal or at the office. Fees can be paid by instalments – weekly, fortnightly, termly or via a lump sum. The necessary form would need to be completed ASAP and returned to the school office.
From the commencement of the 2025 school year, the management of certain aspects relating to school fee accounts in Primary Schools has been transferred to the School Fees Liaison Office at the Catholic Education in Wollongong.
What does this mean for families:
- Your school’s administration office is your first place for enquiry regarding school fees. School staff will provide information regarding instalments, methods of payment, giving access to an Application for Fee Concession and attend to other general enquiries.
- If you are experiencing financial difficulty or need to make an arrangement for payment of your school fee account, please email sflo@dow.catholic.edu.au with your name and the school in which your children are enrolled. The School Fees Liaison Office will then contact you directly to offer assistance.
- Please note that each school has a dedicated School Fees Liaison Officer to provide a personalised service to individual families. This Officer will also have a close relationship with your school.
If you require further information about this initiative, please do not hesitate to contact the school office.
Injuries
If you child sustains an injury outside of school eg broken arm / leg and they have a cast/sling etc the office must be informed and a letter from the Doctor / ED report must be given to the office so that a risk assessment and care plan can be done for the student.
Only medication that is prescribed by a doctor is permitted to be dispensed at School upon completion of a “Consent to Dispense Medication” form which is available from the office. The form and the medication are to be given to the office staff in the original packaging with the student’s name and dosage. We are not permitted to administer Panadol unless prescribed by a doctor and the necessary form completed. Thank you for your cooperation with this.
If your child is Asthmatic or Anaphylactic please ensure the necessary plan has been forwarded to the office along with any medication so that it can be processed. We also need a "Consent to Dispense Medication" form to be completed.
Orders will be ready for pickup from the school hall on Friday the 4th of July from 12pm through to 3:30pm.
Pizzas:
Please see below the calendar overview for Term 2 2025:
| Week 9 |
Friday 27 June - St Paul's Feast Day |
| Week 10 |
Tuesday 1 July - Year 6 Mass with the Bishop at St Thomas, Bowral Thursday 3 July - Assembly at 2:15pm all welcome - Year 4 Leading Prayer Friday 4 July - P&F Pie Drive, Pizza and Pyjama day Friday 4 July - Last Day of Term 2 |
Parents and carers of tweenagers and teenagers, these two webinars are for you!
PLEASE JOIN CCSP'S FREE WEBINARS IN TERM 2
Register using the link - see you online!
PARENTING TWEENS: WHAT KIDS NEED NOW, BEFORE THE TEEN YEARS
For parents and carers of primary school students 8+
Presented by Michelle Mitchell
Tuesday 24 June
7pm - 8pm
CLICK HERE TO REGISTER FOR PARENTING TWEENS
PARENTING TEENS: STAYING CONNECTED THROUGH THE TEEN YEARS
Parents of high school kids 12+
Presented by Michelle Mitchell
Wednesday 25 June
7pm - 8pm
CLICK HERE TO REGISTER FOR PARENTING TEENS
PARENTAL CONTROLS
USING PARENTAL CONTROLS TO HELP PROTECT YOUR CHILD ONLINE
For parents and carers of primary school students
Presented by eSafety Commissioner Team
Thursday 19 June 2025
12.30 – 1.15pm
| Term 2 | Last Day - Friday 4th July |
| Term 3 | 21 July - 26 September |
| 21 July - Pupil Free Day | |
| 22 July - Pupil Free Day | |
| 23 July - Students Return | |
| Last Day - Friday 26 September | |
| Term 4 | 13 October - 19 December |
| 13 October - Pupil Free Day | |
| 14 October - Students Return | |
| 18 December - Last Day for Students | |
| 19 December - Pupil Free Day |
*These are provisional dates and are subject to change.
Health Direct
When you call health direct, you’ll speak to a registered nurse who will help you get the care you need. They can find you a nearby doctor, pharmacist, urgent care service, or even connect you to specialist virtual care.
Vaccinations
https://www.health.nsw.gov.au/vaccinationinfo
- Book a flu vaccine: www.healthdirect.gov.
au/nswfluvaccine - For more information about influenza: www.health.nsw.gov.
au/flu - For more information about respiratory illness: www.health.nsw.gov.
au/respiratory
Healthy Eating Active Living Campaign
https://www.healthyliving.nsw.gov.au/food/healthy-recipes#id=4
Congratulations to the following students who were awarded the Principal's Award in Week 8
| Kindergarten | Darcy | Goldsmith |
| Year 1 | Grace | Webb |
| Year 2 | Zayn | Smith |
| Year 3 | Kristen | Aguinaldo |
| Year 4 | Edison | Warburton |
| Year 5 | Asher | Norman |
| Year 6 | Matilda | Flanigan |
Congratulations to the following students who were awarded a Merit Award in Week 8
| Kindergarten | Ava | Kelleher |
| Year 1 | Arlo | Wright |
| Year 2 | Eleanor | Martin |
| Year 3 | Anika | Singh |
| Year 4 | Ida | Thompson |
| Year 5 | Amani | Turner |
| Year 6 | Eden | Noyes |
Congratulations to the following students who were awarded a Mission Star Award in Week 8
| Kindergarten | Devanya | Shree |
| Year 1 | Shanaya | Bassi |
| Year 2 | Ellie | Zhou |
| Year 3 | Aria | Moss |
| Year 4 | Grace | Desborough |
| Year 5 | Katie | Cumming |
| Year 6 | Madeline | Hely |
Year 6 students fundraise every year to purchase an end of year gift for the school.
Students in Year 6 are designing ‘Colouring in Competitions’. Students from K-5 can choose a colouring in sheet, take it home and colour in. When completed students can bring their completed colouring in sheet to the Year 6 room with a gold coin donation.
Year 6 will vote on a winner per year group. There are prizes to be won.
The colouring in sheets will be judged in Week 10 by the Year 6 students and prizes given to the winner.
Warm Regards,
Jacinta McAndrew
Accepting Compliments
Self Management
- Look at the person.
- Use a pleasant voice
- Say “Thank you.”
We we have a company called Lunch Bunch Canteens who will be fulfilling our lunch orders each Thursday only.
Please find the menu below and how to order details.
Mittagong RSL Junior Disco
If you are looking to have a birthday party , please contact the wonderful team at the RSL for help 4872 6700 – they can organise catering for your special occasion while the children have a great time dancing and catching up with their friends!
We have multiple gift vouchers that are drawn on the night.
All money raised goes back to the children in the Southern Highlands community.
Please note – the below remainder dates for 2025.
28/06/25
26/07/25
30/08/25
27/09/25
25/10/25
29/11/25
