Learn from Mary how to make decisions, trusting in God.

Pope Francis

Dear Families,

Last weekend some of our Year Three children made their First Holy Communion on the feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary which is our Patron Saint for the diocese. This was indeed a special occasion and a wonderful celebration. Thank you to our families for continuing to support your children in their spiritual journey.  A big thank you to Fr Marek for making it such a special mass and the catechists for preparing the children Ms duBois, Mrs Lambourne, Mrs Streater and Sr Maria. The children were reverent and are to be congratulated on the way in which they participated in this important occasion.

Reports and Parent Teacher interviews

On Friday the children’s reports for Year 1 to Year 6 will be available on compass. Kindergarten reports are an update report and will be sent home in hard copy with the children. These reports are an opportunity to check in with your child’s progress. Parent teacher interviews will take place in Week 10 (next week). All families are encouraged to attend the parent teacher interviews to discuss your child's progress and where to next for semester two. Bookings are now open on compass.

It is these partnerships between families and teachers that ensure the best possible outcomes for students. The Parent School Partnership framework is a guiding example of what it means to work in partnership. To view the Parent School Partnership Framework you can access it via the link. The partnership principles fall under the following five areas: 

• Co creating a Catholic Community
• Building positive relationships of trust, respect and resilience
• Maintaining a safe, supportive and respectful school environment
• Creating a connected and welcoming community
• Supporting engagement in learning and wellbeing.

These principles underpin the work we are doing in embedding our vision and mission and we look forward to continuing to work with  families in developing this.

Athletics Carnival

Last Friday was a wonderful day for the first part of our school Athletics carnival. We were blessed with the weather and it was wonderful to see all the children participating and enjoying themselves. On Thursday we plan to hold the running part of the carnival. We will monitor the weather and make a call should it be wet as soon as possible.  It has been lovely seeing families being able to come and watch and thank you for your support of these events.

St Paul’s Feast Day

During Week 10 we will celebrate our school Feast Day. There are a range of activities that will take place over the course of the week with the main celebration day being Wednesday 28 June. On this day we will have a school liturgy at 12 noon in the hall followed by a BBQ and then open classrooms for the afternoon. Friday 30 June is P Day with the students being able to wear their pyjamas to school, enjoy some pizza and the pie orders can be collected.

St Paul was a Pharisee and was not nice to people. One day he saw a vision and was transformed by this experience. As a result he became a humble and respectful person who dedicated his life to teaching about Jesus. Paul wrote many letters and was known to be a tentmaker which helped to build relationships with people. 

Our second goal on our annual improvement plan is to embed our vision and mission. Part of this work is to focus on the five values we have chosen to be the guiding values for our school.  As a school community we are developing a values matrix that articulates what our vision and mission will look like and how we develop these values. We have chosen to align three of the values with each of the three saints that we aspire to with the values of Community and Spirituality being embedded in everything we do.

Respect aligns with St Paul who was transformed by a vision to become a humble and respectful person having not been a nice person before his vision.

Determination aligns with St Mary MacKillop because she was determined to ensure poor people could access an education in Australia.

Kindness aligns with St Dominic because he sold all his belongings to help those in need.

During Week 10 the teachers will focus on the value of respect with the children and ways we can be respectful towards ourselves, each other, learning and the environment. Some of the questions we will consider are; What is respect? How do we be respectful? What does Jesus say about respect?

We look forward to celebrating our school feast day and opening our doors to the community as we focus on our Spirituality and live the vision and mission of St Paul’s just as Jesus modelled for us to do.

We wish all families a safe and happy winter holiday. A lot has been achieved in the first half of this year. May the holidays be a good time to rest and recuperate ready for the second half of the year. Thank you to the P&F for all the work they have done this year in building the community of St Paul's. The buddy chairs are a wonderful addition to our playground and are bright and cheerful.

Thank you and God Bless,

From Term 3 Mr Farrugia will be taking Year 6 on a Friday to provide Ms duBois with her REC release time. Mrs Smith has filled this position for Term 1 and 2 and is reducing her hours so she can focus fully on the Library and STEM work.  I would like to thank Mrs Smith for the work she has done with Year 6 and Mr Farrugia for stepping into this role.

Professional Development

Over the next two weeks Mrs Browne will be participating in the Cyclic Inquiry for Holy Cross Primary School Helensburgh. This is a wonderful opportunity to see up close how another school of similar size is operating. It will also assist us in seeing first hand how a cyclic inquiry works in preparation for our own later in Term 3.

In Week 10 Ms duBois and Mrs Browne and diocesian clergy will attend a day with Fr Richard Lennan. Fr Richard Lennan is a renowned Australian theologian currently working as a Professor at Boston College’s School of Theology and Ministry.

Uniform Survey

We will keep the survey open until the end of Week 10. Thank you to  the families who have already contributed their thoughts.  Click here to fill in the survey.

Please let the office know if you would be able to assist with timing on 22nd June for the Track Events.

Parents are encouraged to come along to watch.  There will be a coffee van on site to purchase coffee and hot chocolates.