“The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; 

repent, and believe in the gospel.”

Mark 1:15

(from the Gospel for the first Sunday of Lent, Year B)

Dear parents and carers

Yesterday we celebrated Ash Wednesday Mass with Fr Richard. Ash Wednesday begins the liturgical season of Lent. As we received the ashes yesterday, we were implored to “turn away from sin and believe in the good news”. Sin is a rather unfashionable word in our contemporary world and word that is often misunderstood. I am sure that we are all familiar with the concept of “Catholic guilt”! Our Catholic tradition’s understanding of sin is a “turning away from the love of God” (CCC 1850). Whenever we act individually or collectively in any manner that ignores God’s loving beneficence, we fall into sin. 

The word Jesus used to describe how we ought to respond to and overcome sin is often translated as “repent” in the Gospels. The word Jesus used was reported as using “metanoia” in Greek, can be better rendered into English as “change your heart and mind”. I think this is perhaps closer to the spirit of what Jesus meant. He is asking us to consider our words, actions and motivations in all we do and say. Jesus is inviting us to respond to God’s love by sharing that love through our own words, our actions and by examining our motivations in our relationships and within our communities. 

Lent is a time when the church suggests that we spend time praying and discerning how we can each better “change our hearts and minds” and align ourselves with God’s plan. That plan, as St John writes in his Gospel, is that God wants to “have life, and have it abundantly” (John 10:10). Our part is to intentionally accept this invitation and embrace “the love of God”. Are my words, actions or motivations moving towards or moving away from God’s love and His desire that we have life abundantly?

PANCAKE DAY- a great result!

Well done to our Year 5 Mini Vinnies group who planned and delivered the fantastic pancake day on Tuesday. They were so organised and service focused. Great job Year 5 and Mrs Smith! The children thoroughly enjoyed the delicious pancakes. We raised $297.00 for Caritas Australia’s Project Compassion Lenten appeal.

This year’s Project Compassion theme is “Be more”. This theme is derived from a quote from Saint Oscar Romero, “Aspire not to have more, but be more”. Our school student leaders participated in a virtual launch for Project Compassion on Tuesday. They joined schools from right along the Australian eastern seaboard to learn about the work of Caritas and the meaning of Oscar Romero’s statement. They have begun planning for some additional activities later in the term to support Caritas.  Caritas and the annual Project Compassion appeal works towards ending poverty and injustice globally. You can read more about Project Compassion on the Caritas website.

SWIMMING CARNIVAL tomorrow Friday 19 February

We will be conducting our annual school swimming carnival tomorrow at the Moss Vale Aquatic Centre. Years 2 to 6 will be competing in the carnival. The children will walk to the pool departing from school at around 9:00am. We expect the first events to commence at 9:30am with the carnival concluding by 2pm. The children should wear their swimmers under their sport uniforms. We are not able to use the change rooms at the pool with the exception of toilet facilities under the pool’s COVID measures. The children will change when we return to school. 

We will not be dismissing children from the pool. All the children will walk back to school. They will be dismissed as per our regular daily procedures. We will distribute awards, announce age champions and the colour house results at the assembly on Thursday 25 February. Arising from our school carnival we will select a school swim team to compete at the Western Region Swimming Carnival to be held on Wednesday 3 March. The organisation and selection criteria can be found on CEDoW Sport page.

Unfortunately, parents are not able to attend the carnival to spectate due to COVID-19 restrictions. You will be sorely missed.

Kindergarten and Year 1 will have water play activities at school. A COMPASS notification with all the details has been sent home yesterday. We are looking forward to a fun day of learning and water based activities with our youngest children.

WORKING BEE- Friday 5 March from 3:15pm till 5pm

Our first P&F activity for the year will be a working bee after school on the 5 March. COVID restrictions state, “After hours outdoor activities that involve parent/community gatherings, such as working bees can proceed, with up to 100 people outdoors for schools in the Southern Highlands and  Shoalhaven.” 

We have soft fall to spread on the Adventure and Infants playgrounds. We also have some pruning and weeding to be done in the gardens around the school. Children are welcome to attend and help out. Please make a note of this date. Whatever time you and your family are able to give will be both helpful and appreciated. Many hands make light work!

STAFF DEVELOPMENT DAY- Monday 8 March

We will be conducting a staff development day on Monday 8 March. This means that there will be no classes or supervision at school on that day. The staff are undertaking mandatory first aid training including anaphylaxis and asthma training. These skills are important in keeping your children safe at school. All schools are required to stay up to date with first aid annually.

COVID-19 Advice

There have been no further adjustments to COVID-19 restrictions this week. Regrettably, the restrictions on parents and community members being on the school grounds or attending school events off site remains in place. This is inclusive of tomorrow’s swimming carnival. If these restrictions change we will certainly let you know. We would love to have our community with us at these important milestone events. Click here for the  current COVID- 19 guidelines for Catholic Schools in the Diocese of Wollongong. 

RESPONSIBLE USER AGREEMENTS- due back to school

All children at St Paul’s are required to sign a “Responsible User Agreement”. This is a diocesan expectation for all CEDoW schools. Last week, the Year 3 to Year 6 classes brought home a copy of the Responsible User Agreement (RUA) for you to read through and discuss with your child. The RUA forms the basis of our shared understanding and commitment to how technology is used and managed at our school. We ask that you sign and return the agreement at your earliest convenience. If you need another copy, please contact the school office. We would like to finale this process by the end of next week.

All classes in the school will undertake a digital citizenship program during Term 1 at an age and stage appropriate level. We want all our children to be skilled, critical and safe users of technology.

Gym on Friday- make up classes 

As you are aware, we have engaged a specialist sports company, Gymnastrix, to conduct gymnastics lessons with all classes on Fridays. The cost of this program is included as part of your school fees. All children will need to wear their sport uniform on Fridays for Term 1.

Due to the swimming carnival tomorrow and Good Friday, we have negotiated make up classes to be held on Wednesday 24^th February & Monday 22^nd March. The children will need to wear their sport uniforms on these days.

Sport Uniforms

Sport uniforms are to be worn on the following days for each class:

Kindergarten – Wednesday & Friday

Year 1 - Friday

Year 2 - Friday

Year 3 – Wednesday & Friday

Year 4 - Wednesday & Friday

Year 5 - Wednesday & Friday

Year 6 - Wednesday & Friday

Photograph Permission

The second round of Photo permission forms were sent home this week.

We ask that you return the consent forms at your earliest convenience.

School Terms for 2021

Sacramental Program

Please pray for the students who are preparing for the sacrament of First Reconciliation.

Ash Wednesday Mass

Yesterday we held a lovely Ash Wednesday Mass to mark the beginning of Lent. A big thank you to Fr Richard for celebrating Mass, and to staff and students who participated with such reverence and enthusiasm.

Thank you

Catherine du Bois

Religious Education Coordinator

Reading Intervention and Support at St Paul’s

Learning to read and read well is one the principle goals of primary education. It takes seven years for a child to become a competent, independent reader.  Most children make steady progress towards this goal during their primary school education. Not all children progress at the same rate. This is to be expected and is a normal part of learning to read. All children require support and attention as they learn to read. We have a number of ways in which we support children’s reading growth and development.

At St Paul’s, we provide a number of reading interventions from Year 1 to Year 6 to support those children who require additional support at any given time. We use a suite of well researched programs from MultiLit, an organisation who are attached to Macquarie University. Teachers and support staff are trained in administering these programs to ensure the integrity and rigor of the program. We work hard to ensure quality and consistency so that the lesson delivery is of the highest standard. The lessons complement classroom instruction. Children who participate in these programs are being given an additional opportunity to learn and grow. They do not miss out on what the class is learning. These programs are a regular part of the holistic education program that we provide at St Paul’s. 

Entry into the reading interventions is based on a thorough data analysis of the student’s literacy skills. If your child is identified as needing to participate in a reading intervention, you will receive a letter explaining the intervention program your child will participate in. You will also be notified as to who will be working with your child.  At the conclusion of the program, you will receive a report on your child’s progress with learning gains and further recommendations.

MiniLit targeting Stages 1- 2

MiniLit is a small group intervention of up to five children that focuses on developing student’s initial reading skills. On occasion on a needs basis, MiniLit is run as a one to one intervention. There are two levels to MiniLit each comprising forty sequential lessons. 

Level 1 focuses on letter sound knowledge and developing decoding skills for consonant-vowel-consonant (CVC) words. 

Level 2 focuses on extending word attack knowledge by teaching commonly used digraphs and longer words. 

Groups run on a daily basis until the children have achieved all the lessons. 

Reading Tutor Program  targeting Stages 2 - 3

The MultiLit Reading Tutor Program (RTP) caters for students who have not sufficiently acquired basic reading skills to become functional readers. This program is a one to one program, occurring up to 4 days a week. This research based program incorporates intensive, systematic and explicit instruction in three areas identified by research as to being the most effective for low-progress readers. They are phonics (or word attack skills), sight word recognition, and supported book reading. 

Word Attack Extension Skills targeting Stage 3

After completing the Word Attack Skills component in the MultiLit Reading Tutor Program many students are able to generalise the strategies they have learnt to all text. However, in some cases, students do need further assistance to continue to make progress. The one-to-one Word Attack Skills – Extension program teaches strategies to help struggling readers tackle multi-syllable words with confidence. This is a one to one program that occurs up to 4 days a week.

Corrective Reading Comprehension targeting Stage 3

The Corrective Reading Comprehension Program is a program that has been developed and published by McGraw Hill Education. Corrective Comprehension uses direct instruction approach to target comprehension skills for students who display difficulties with understanding instructions and understanding what they are reading. Direct Instruction is a well researched strategy that communicates learning expectations and skills to students, allows evaluation of their performance on a moment to moment basis and supports student mastery of the skills being taught. It is consistent with our school wide approach to reading being an extension of that approach. It works best in a small group setting. You will receive a letter to indicate if your child will be participating in the program and a report at the end. It is mainly for Stage 2 and 3 students.

Personalised literacy instruction

A personalised literacy instructional program is administered on a case by case basis. Typically children who participate in these bespoke programs have previously worked in one or more of the other programs described above. Children who participate in a tailored literacy intervention do so to address a specific need for the student. You will receive a letter explaining the purpose of the intervention and the amount of time it is expected the intervention will take. You will receive a report of the student’s progress at the end.

If you have any questions regarding the interventions we run at St Paul’s please do not hesitate to contact me at school.