Final News: Term 4, 2017

Advent and Christmas
Often anticipating an event can bring as much joy as the event itself. So it is with the season of Advent. We know that the Son of God was born once long ago. And we prepare once again to celebrate the event with rejoicing.

Carol Night
Special thanks to Anne Mullan and our Carol team for coordinating a very special night of singing on Wednesday. Despite the very warm weather, the children did a wonderful job of sharing the message of Christmas with us all. Thank you to all of our families who supported the evening. More photos are available on our school Facebook page: St Patrick's Murrumbeena, Inspiring Catholic Leaders of the Future.

Thank You
A HUGE thank you to all of our parents who dedicated their time to our school during 2017. In particular, Susie Frost who has led our Parents and Friends committee and Travis Westcott our Parish Education Board. Thanks to every parent who has helped with school excursions, sports events, fundraisers, the fete and P& F activities. Special thanks to Phil and Tina who are finishing up from the second hand uniform shop and Danny for all of his work coordinating the working bees this year.
We also thank all of our families who are leaving our community and wish them well.

A very HUGE thanks to our St Pat's staff, including Sandra and Deb in the office, our teachers, leadership team and learning support officers. Together we are a great team and believe we have made a positive difference to the lives of your children.

On behalf of our team, we wish you a very Happy Christmas and blessings for a joyous 2018.

Reports 
The teachers have worked hard preparing the children's end of year school reports. I have had an opportunity to read all of the reports and the outstanding achievements of every child at St Pat's. Our Year 6 reports in particular, highlight the all rounded excellent education that the children have had during their time at St Pat's. The opportunities for all children are immense and I especially thank our staff for the quality learning and teaching that they have provided.
The end of year reports have included an attendance notice this year. There is a letter of explanation with the reports and a link to a report feedback survey. Here is the online link to the survey.

Staff News
I am pleased to announce our new classroom teacher for Year 3 is Sarah Nolan. Fortunately Sarah has worked for us before in a CRT role and we know what a great teacher she is. Sarah is an experienced primary school teacher who also holds a Diploma in Psychology. We are looking forward to Sarah teaching in 3N and working alongside Nicole O'Halloran in 3O. Ms Nolan joined the children for the final transition session on Friday.

We warmly welcome Tia Croce as a new Learning Support Officer (LSO), to join our wonderful LSO team: Nayrie Haladjian, Noreen McCoy and Deb Wrigley. Tia has been in 1W for work experience this year and has graduated with a Certificate in Education Support from the Australian Catholic University.

Masterplan News - Our journey begins...
A team of architects and designers from K2LD met with our Student Representative Council (SRC) for the first masterplan visioning workshop on Thursday. It is apt that our students are the first to  contribute their ideas to the vision for the future of our school buildings and grounds. You can read all about the process, see more photos and videos at this link.
The parent visioning workshop will take place on Tuesday 6th February, 2018 at 7pm. Please mark this date in your diary.  We invite as many parents as possible to come along and contribute to the future development of our school. If you have ideas or concerns, eg. Kiss and Drop, parking etc then come along and have your say.

Thank you from the Staff
Special thanks to our Year 4 families for the delicious morning tea the staff shared this morning.

End of Year celebrations, Final Assembly and Break Up
On Tuesday 19th December, all of the children will need to wear their sports uniform. They will be walking to Packer Park during the day and joining in with the team from Proactivity Health for a fun School Sports Incursion. The children will need to wear sunscreen and have their hat and a water bottle. The P& F are kindly providing sausages for lunch. Please provide your child's lunch if they will not be able to eat sausages.

The final assembly will take place at 12pm on Wednesday and school will finish at 1pm. 

Health message for us all
Here is a message from our students - Kate, Ella and Mimi. This is an outcome of an enrichment group activity with Mrs Oliver.

   

Important Term 1 Dates for 2018      
(Reminder that Preps will not come to school on Wednesdays in February.)

Tues 30th Jan -    Staff return
Wed 31st Jan -    Years 1-6 students return
Thurs 1st Feb -    Prep students commence
Tuesday 6th Feb - Parent Workshop for School Masterplan
Mon 12th Feb -   Parent Connection evening
Mon 19th Feb -   School Photo Day
Wed 21st Feb -    Parish Education Board meeting 7pm
Wed 28th Feb -    Parent Sacramental Family Night for Years 3 & 6
Wed  7th Mar -    Preps commence Wednesdays
Mon 18th Mar-   Year 5/6 Camp to Canberra  - Thursday 22nd  Mar
Wed 28th Mar -  School Closure Day
Thurs 29th Mar  School Closure Day 
Fri 30th Mar -     Good Friday

Week 9, Term 4, 2017

St Patrick’s Community Christmas Carols

The gentle strains of ‘Silent night, Holy night’ fill the air and our hearts. The Christmas season is upon us!

At 6pm on Wednesday the 13th of December the St.Patrick’s community will gather to recount the story of Jesus’ birth and sing along to some new and traditional Christmas carols. All children are expected to participate as this is a whole school celebration. Please notify jhawkins@spmurrumbeena.catholic.edu.au if your child is unable to attend.

 At St Patrick’s we have a tradition of donating gifts at Christmas to charitable organisations. This year we are supporting a local Melbourne group, the Holy Spirit of Freedom community, which works with the homeless and street kids in the CBD of Melbourne.
Suggestions of gifts that will best meet the needs of this group at Christmas time: Small Christmas cake, 2 packets of Tim Tams, 2 Packets of diabetic lollies, Small bottles of shampoo and conditioner, Small boxes of chocolates, Men’s deodorant, Ladies deodorant

Men’s socks, Tinned ham, Fruit mince pies, Sports socks, Ladies handkerchiefs, Men’s handkerchiefs, Tin of biscuits, Packet of lollies

The gifts do not need to be wrapped, however, if you wish to wrap your gift could you please label what is inside. Please bring the gifts on the night of the Carols and place them under the Christmas tree.
The children are asked to arrive and be seated with their class by 5.45pm to ensure our Carols night can begin promptly at 6pm. All audience members are reminded to BYO a chair or blanket and enjoy the event in comfort. Everyone is encouraged to wear a touch of Christmas to create a truly Christmassy atmosphere!
In support of the children, please bring family and friends along to attend this wonderful occasion to celebrate the birth of Christ.

Staff News for 2018

We will sadly be farewelling Brigid Little and Cathy Landsdowne at the end of this year. Congratulations to Brigid on her appointment as Project Officer for the Disaster and Resilience Education Network. After ten years here, Cathy is taking on a new teaching position at St Patrick's in Mentone. We congratulate them both on their new roles and thank them for their service to our school. As a result, there will be some changes to the nominated class teachers for our children for 2018. I wish to thank our teaching team for their flexibility and willingness to accomodate our children's needs with the changes.

Special thanks to the very experienced team of Marg O' Dwyer and Kerryn Oliver who will take over Brigid's Year 6 class for 2018. The planned 6L class will now be known as 6O. Marg and Kerryn will continue to work closely with Matt Hale and 6H for 2018.

We will be appointing a new full time teacher to 3L and will inform the children and parents as soon as the appointment is made.

Here are the revised class teachers for 2018:

6H Matt Hale
6O Marg O'Dwyer, Kerryn Oliver
5M Lisa Maraschiello
5 J Paul Jones
4W Fiona Walsh, Bern Gallagher
4V Wendy Verstoep, Bec Maddocks
4P Clare Petrovich, Maria Lucas
3O Nicole O'Halloran
3L New teacher to be appointed
2T Paige Tomlins
2M Ange Mason, Bern Gallagher
1M Anne Mullan, Jacinta Minter
1W Kim Whitfield
Prep C Helen Curry, Maria Blair-Smith
Prep Y Angela Yates, Katherine Hadaway

We will also be farewelling Jill Hannan who has been teaching in a part time role at St Patrick's for seven years, Gayle Butler a dedicated Learning Support Officer (LSO) for 11 years who is retiring and Lisa Younger who joined us this year in the LSO role and is returning to Sydney. We thank these staff members for their dedication and commitment to our school community and wish them all well in the future.

Our specialist teaching program PE ( Michelle Barclay), Music (Marg O'Dwyer), Library (Bernadette Wood) and Italian (Veronica Sciulli) will continue in 2018 with the addition of E-learning (Bec Maddocks) as a specialist subject to further support the requirements of the Victorian Digital Curriculum.

Report of the Youth Leadership Graduation Night on 28^th November 2017

Congratulations to all the students who graduated from the Advanced Presentation Skills Youth Leadership Course on Tuesday 28^th November.   All students impressed their teachers and families with a very high standard of Prepared Speeches, Off the Cuff Speeches and evaluations.  Students who delivered Audio Visual presentations handled them in a very mature manner with excellent timing of their slides.

45 students were awarded their certificates of completion. Trophies were awarded to:

	5M	5J
Best Speech	Maggie Anderson	Nikolas Popovic
Best Off the Cuff Speaker	Christian Saito	Emily Tippett
Best Evaluator	Jessica Newman	Damian Middleton
Most Improved	Mackenzie Pickering	Daniela Pino

Special thanks to the Masters of Ceremonies, Matt Rosas and Ainsley Joy for their fine efforts. The Off the Cuff Presenters, Jessica Newman and Lana Cannatello were well prepared with excellent questions and superb control of their respective audiences.

Thank you to all the students who participated in the Entertainment Segments including two dance pieces from 5M “Stronger”and “What makes you Beautiful,” joke tellers and we also learnt the 15 Happiest Facts in the World!

A very big thank you to Miss Maraschiello and Mr Jones who encouraged and supported the students work and helped make the evening a success – The Principal, Ms Hawkins and two parents (Mr Tesoriero and Mr Brooks) also responded to “Off the Cuff” questions.  Thank you for participating.  Thank you to Mrs Wood and Miss Karen not only for attending but for helping on the judging panel.  The standard of work seems to be getting better each year, making it very difficult to select the recipients for the trophies.

The team efforts of the students and teachers alike were much appreciated. I have enjoyed witnessing an incredible level of camaraderie and support between all the students, as I did with the grade six students.  I believe your support and positive comments to each other aided in the increase in confidence and improvement in the standard of work and I certainly hope the school can maintain this culture for many years to come.

Thank you all for your dedication in becoming confident, vibrant and at times humorous young presenters.  I’d like to finish by saying how impressed I was with the enthusiasm of all the students.  Not only was the work standard incredibly high, but your manners and level of maturity was very evident.  Well done grade five !

Sandra de Geest

ST PATRICK'S COMMUNITY NOTICES

The 2018 St Pats Dads Golf Day has been booked.

Next year our talent will be on display at the Flinders Golf Club in Flinders. Great course, lunch spot ideal and guaranteed cold beer. What could go wrong!!

The day will consist of a similar agenda to this year that included 4 ball Ambrose, lunch, bus to the course and back, prizes and drinks. 2 full size buses have been booked to accommodate 80 spots that have been booked. First in will secure the positions.

Date: Friday 23^rd March 2018

Course: Flinders Golf Course

Cost: $160

If you would like to be part of the fun please send an email to Andrew Pickering apickering@ebosgroup.com.au to book your spot.

IMPORTANT UPCOMING DATES:

Mon 11th December     Music Concerts by Prep Y, 1M, 3O & 3W @ 2.05pm
                                                                    by Prep C, 1W & 3L @ 2.50pm

Wed 13th December     Carols Night 6-7 pm

Thu 14th December     Music Melodies Concert 9-11 am

Mon18th December     Year 6 Graduation

Wed 20th December     Last day for 2017.  End of the Year Mass @ 9 am, Assembly @ 12 pm

Children dismissed @1pm

School resumes in 2018 as follows:

Tues  30th January        Staff return

Wed   31st January        Students year 1 -6 return

Thurs 1st February       Preps commence

Week 8, Term 4 2017

Advent
This Sunday, we come to the beginning of Advent and the Church’s new liturgical year. In Advent we remember Jesus Christ, who has been born into human life, and look to the future when God’s Kingdom will come. We look forward to celebrating the coming of Christ at Christmas, while we know that Christ has already been born. We can live in this paradox, because we know that Christ continues to be born in us. Each time we let go of those parts of ourselves that are not life-giving or loving, and choose the God of life and love, Christ is born again in us and we are born again in Christ.

It is always hard to hold to the invitation and challenge of Advent in all the busyness of the end of the school year and the preparations for Christmas and the holidays. But somewhere in the midst of the busyness we are called to find space to make the choice anew for love and life and open our hearts to the God who waits to be born there.

(Taken from Catholic Education Melbourne Director's e-News, November 2017)

Catholic Education Today
The Term 4 edition of Catholic Education Today will arrive in schools in the next few weeks.

This edition features an article on Advent, an explanation of the Year of Youth, a discussion on opportunities for learning in the use of digital technologies, a reflection on the role of parents as mapmakers, and the usual features of Educators in Profile and Around the Archdiocese.

School fees and funding for 2018.

Please take the time to read the important letter from Father Paul on Flexibuzz regarding school fees for 2018. You can read more information in the Parish Education Board letter below.

Youth Leadership Programme
Congratulations to all of our Year 5's who graduated from the Public Speaking Programme this week. All of the children were outstanding. Special thanks to Sandra De Geest who ran the 5 week programme. The speech skills are skills for life.

POPE Meeting Cultural Consultation
You can read the minutes from the meeting at this link.


Get off the screen and into the green

Two of our young Year 4 leaders have a special message for us all.

Our names are Ivy and Mackenzie and we’re in Grade Four.
We are doing a project about Healthy Habits that we’d like to share with you.

We love being outdoors in nature and we’d like to encourage you to get amongst it too.
Three years ago an important study found that most Australians spend almost 24 hours a week online, plugged in, looking at a screen.
That’s one whole day a week. Then last year a report found we spend about 10 hours a day plugged in.
We think that’s crazy, 10 hours each day you're not moving, talking and enjoying a healthy lifestyle.

Being outdoors can be active or relaxing. It is also good for our bodies and minds.
It helps us to concentrate, learn, solve problems and be creative.
The air is fresh and the plants and bugs are so interesting.
The garden has many different smells and the sounds of nature are always changing.
We love bike riding, trampolining, gardening, exploring, climbing trees and just hanging out

It’s time to GET OFF THE SCREEN and INTO THE GREEN.
Check out our video HERE:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uy8lVp9hU0w&feature=youtu.be

Spread the word!
From Mackenzie and Ivy

A letter from Parish Education Board

Dear School Community,

As the year draws to close on another successful year at St Patrick's Primary School, the Parish Education Board, has recently discussed the school finances, which also includes the review and setting of school fees for 2018.

As you may be aware the Federal Government announced in its 2017 budget, that the government intended to change the funding of schools, which also includes the Catholic Education system.  There has been media reports about how this may impact Catholic Schools, however, no definitive funding changes have advised to the Catholic Education Office or St Patrick's at this time.

So what does this mean for the fees at St Patrick's?

The board has been following a strategy over the past few years to provide a steady and measured approach to fee changes, to ensure that the quality education provided at St Patrick's Primary is affordable for our families.  The Board, after lengthy discussion, has passed a resolution to increase the fees by $200 per family.

We understand that any change in fees has an impact on the family budget, therefore we have tried to keep the increase to a minimum.

Over the past few years the school has operated a refundable “working bee levy” of $150 per family, Following a recommendation by the school accountant, and to reduce the significant administration required, the Board has approved the change of the “working bee levy”, to the “Building Maintenance levy”.  The fee will be reduced to $75 per family and will be non-refundable. 

Master Plan

We are excited to announce the appointment of K2LD architects to begin work on the St Patrick's Parish School Master Plan.  We look forward to several workshops run by K2LD with Teachers, Students, Parents and Parish to gather ideas, concerns and successes about the buildings, grounds and their operations, to form these into a Master Plan that suits our school and community now and into the future.  Exciting times!

This involves:

1.       Developing a snapshot of the school building and grounds;

2.       Advising the school on what is required to maintain the standard of the current buildings;

3.       Developing a staged plan for what the school might do in the future, to further improve the learning environment;

4.       Enabling funding and grants to be accessed at the appropriate times.

The Board wishes you and your families a safe and wonderful Christmas.  To those families and the grade 6’s who are leaving us this year we wish you well in years ahead.

Regards

Travis Westcott

Chairman,  On behalf of the Parish Education Board.

CyberSafety

Here is a link to a new police site that has resources for helping to keep children safe online www.thinkuknow.org.au

ST PATRICK'S COMMUNITY NOTICES

The 2018 St Pats Dads Golf Day has been booked.

Next year our talent will be on display at the Flinders Golf Club in Flinders. Great course, lunch spot ideal and guaranteed cold beer. What could go wrong!!

The day will consist of a similar agenda to this year that included 4 ball Ambrose, lunch, bus to the course and back, prizes and drinks. 2 full size buses have been booked to accommodate 80 spots that have been booked. First in will secure the positions.

Date: Friday 23^rd March 2018

Course: Flinders Golf Course

Cost: $160

If you would like to be part of the fun please send an email to Andrew Pickering apickering@ebosgroup.com.au to book your spot.

IMPORTANT UPCOMING DATES:

Mon 4th December       5/6 Sailing program

Wed 6th December       Buddy afternoon 2:30 pm (Year 5s and new preps)

Fri 8th December          5/6 Beach program

Wed 13th December     Carols Night 6-7 pm

Thu 14th December     Music Melodies Concert 9-11 am

Wed 18th December     Year 6 Graduation

Wed 20th December     Last day for 2017.  End of the Year Mass @ 9 am, Assembly @ 12 pm

Children dismissed @1pm

Week 7, Term 4 2017

Family Mass Thank You
A special thank you to the children who participated enthusiastically with reading, singing and bringing up the offertory during the family mass on Sunday.

Assembly Monday 27th November 3pm

The final awards assembly will be at the later time of 3pm this Monday due to the swimming programme. RSL and Hooptime certificates will be given out as well as other weekly awards.

Swimming 

Just a reminder that swimming commences this Monday for Years Prep - 4 for the next nine school days. Children are to wear their bathers under their sports uniform (girls to leave their arms out of straps).  All children are to wear their runners to school and bring thongs (to change into just before going to the pool) along with their other change requirements.  Parents who opted to help with the swimming program  by registering with the school office, should meet at the pool where they will  given an identification badge allowing entry into the change rooms to provide assistance.  Parents who haven't registered are still welcome to spectate.  

Fete Thank You

Thanks to everyone who organised, helped and supported the fete on Saturday especially Mikaela Kelly. We were certainly fortunate with the weather. Great fun was had by all.

A message from Michaela - A big thank you to all the stall holders and crew that pulled the fete day together. Massive effort year in year out but of course the kids just love it!! 

A few significant farewells this year with some families finishing their educational tenure at St Patrick’s. Your efforts loyalty and ability to pull it all together on this day for many years has not gone unnoticed. 

If I have forgotten anyone who is finishing up this year with their babies in year 6 or year 3 /4 or 2 please let me know as I would like everyone to be acknowledged by the community for their continued support and contribution.
Brasher family, Galvans family, Seletto family, Downie (The Sashman) family, Nugara Family, Davey family, Bremner family, McAuliffe family, Higginbotham family, Stewart family
Lea family although they finished last year they had a swan song thanks Stuart.
And big thanks Nicole Lalande for always sorting the finances Pete Righetti and Wayne Pickering who pull a set up out of the sky and Dannae that is the stall holders fairy making this process as painless as possible for everyone!!
Many thanks again for all your support ,Michaela Kelly and the Fete team

Student Participation Programme
Thanks to John Middleton who coordinated the student involvement in the fete again this year with the support of Kylie Telfer. Here are some extracts from John's very informative report:

I am pleased to advise that the most ever students participated in the program providing 84 hours of support. This is the best result since the program’s inception in 2012.
1. We had a record number of 66 grade 5 & 6 students take part in the sixth year of this program providing 84 hours support to the fete stall holders. The number of hours of support provided this year is up 12% on last year. Refer to chart below for details.
2. We had 3 groups of Grade 6 students (Cake decorating, Origami and Soccer) and 1 group of Grade 5 students (Black Rhino) run their own stalls this year. This is the up from the one group who did it last year.
2. Approximately 70% of all Grade 5 & 6 students participated in the voluntary program
3. Since the program introduction in 2012, student participation has grown at 44% pa, with the total hours of support provided increasing 42%pa. 359 hours of support has been provided to the stall holders over the last 6 years.
4. The students that are volunteering are also doing more, with more students working more than 1 hour than ever before.

Yr 5 & 6 Chromebook Programme
Our school is embarking on a new digital device programme going forward for our Year 5's and 6's. You can access full details on our Learning Community Site at this link.

Cultural Consultation Tuesday 28th November 7:30-8:30 
Just a reminder that the focus of the next POPE (Parents as Open Partners in Education) is around our school cultures. Looking forward to meeting with you.

IMPORTANT UPCOMING DATES:

Tues 14th November     Host Family Night

Sat 18th November       St Patrick's Parish Fete

Wed 22nd November    School Closure Day

                                        Parish Education Board Meeting @ 7.30pm

Mon 27th November     Swimming commences P-4

Tues 28th November     Cultural Consultation @ 7.30 - 8.30pm in the staffroom

                                        Advanced Presentation Skills Year 5 @ 5.30 - 8.30pm in the hall

Mon 4th December       5/6 Sailing program

Wed 6th December       Buddy afternoon 2:30 pm (Year 5s and new preps)

Fri 8th December          5/6 Beach program

Wed 13th December     Carols Night 6-7pm

Wed 18th December     Year 6 Graduation

Wed 20th December     Last day...Mass  9 am, Assembly 12 noon, students dismissed 1 pm

Week 6, Term 4, 2017

Family Mass this Sunday 9am
We look forward to joining our families in prayer this coming Sunday. We have so much to be grateful for in our lives, and coming to mass is an opportunity to give thanks through prayer and participation in the Eucharist celebration.

Hooptime Congratulations
I was fortunate to be given the opportunity to support the Year 4 girls basketball team at the Regional Finals on Monday. Our talented girls team qualified for the finals at MSAC and played 5 games  winning 4 out of 5 to make it through to the qualifying final. They lost the final by one point but their sportsmanship, skill and enthusiasm shone through to the end. A big thank you to all of the parents who supported the team on the day, especially coach Rob Magnanini and scorer Pip Compton. Certificates will be presented to the team on Monday 20th November during assembly.

Fete
We are all looking forward to the annual Parish and School Spring Fete this Saturday 10am-4pm. You can learn more about the fete by joining this Facebook group at this link.

Host Family Night

Thanks to Sandra, Deb, Liz, Helen and Angela for helping to ensure the night for families with children starting at St Patrick's was a success. Thanks to all of our existing families who came along to support our new families. We are looking forward to our new children starting school in 2018 and to families joining our vibrant community of engaged and motivated learners always faithful to our loving God.

Out with the principal's desk !! Desk for sale.
I have never felt comfortable talking to adults or children from behind a desk. Although desks are great to sit and work at, they can prevent opportunities for genuine collaboration. Many workplaces encourage shared ownership of work spaces. In order to create a more collaborative work space, the principal's desk has been dismantled and is ready to go to a welcome home. The desk will be replaced with a large meeting table to support a collaborative space for the principal and groups of staff, students and parents to utilise. I did something similar a few years ago in my last work place. If you are interested in learning more about the reasoning behind this you can go to this link.

Principal's desk removed to make way for a collaborative meeting space.

The first desk I removed in Jan 2015.

Lost Property
With the ever changing Melbourne weather, jumpers and windcheaters are constantly being abandoned.  Please take a few minutes to check that all your children's uniform items are clearly named, especially coming up the swimming time.  The lost property cupboard is located outside the hall if you are missing any items.

IMPORTANT UPCOMING DATES:

Tues 14th November     Host Family Night

Sat 18th November       St Patrick's Parish Fete

Wed 22nd November    School Closure Day

                                        Parish Education Board Meeting @ 7.30pm

Mon 27th November     Swimming commences P-4

Tues 28th November     Cultural Consultation @ 7.30 - 8.30pm in the staffroom

                                        Advanced Presentation Skills Year 5 @ 5.30 - 8.30pm in the hall

Mon 4th December       5/6 Sailing program

Wed 6th December       Buddy afternoon (Year 5s and new preps)

Fri 8th December          5/6 Beach program

Wed 13th December     Carols Night 6-7pm

Wed 18th December     Year 6 Graduation

Wed 20th December     Last day...Mass  9 am, Assembly 12 noon, students dismissed 1 pm

Community Notices

Week 5, Term 4, 2017

Remembrance Ceremony

Saturday 11th November is Remembrance Day. Today our Year 4's led a school Remembrance Day Ceremony.

RSL Awards

Congratulations to the six finalists of the East Malvern RSL Remembrance Day Project : Emma Sanders, Josh Compton, Georgia Howard, Josh Draga, Sophie Theodorakis, Georgina Seletto (absent).

I was privileged to attend the Remembrance Day Ceremony with the finalists and their parents. Well done to Emma Sanders who read "In Flanders Field" and Josh Compton who recited "The Ode" at the ceremony. Special congratulations to Georgia Howard who was judged as the winner of the scholarship from the St Patrick's finalists.

                                                                                            

Staff morning tea
We don't often share photos of our staff.  Here are some of our wonderful staff enjoying an Oakes Day morning tea. There was much fun and laughter as we shared Sandra's collection of fascinators and displayed a range of creative hats !!

Fete
Thank you to all of our parents who are busy preparing for the annual fete next Saturday 18th November. We all appreciate your support and look forward to this exciting event.

Clothing Racks and Hangers for the Fete.

Do you own a clothing rack or two? We would be grateful to borrow some clothing racks & hangers for the Preloved Clothing Boutique stall.  If you can help, please call Liz Sullivan on 0438 141 004 or Julie Jacobs on

0421 700 794.

Celebration of Catholic Primary School Education, Victoria.

It is importance to celebrate and remind you of the daily success of Catholic primary school education. The good story to keep telling is about our vitality, our educational success and that we educate one in five Victorians with a message of a hope-filled world.

 Here is a link to a video from the Victorian Association of Catholic School Primary Principals. Engaging visuals, inspiring music and clear commentary celebrates what is right and great about our Catholic primary schools.The schools and students involved in the video are from across both metropolitan and rural Victoria. 

Be proud that you have chosen a Catholic education for your children.

https://vimeo.com/240096307/f2dda12558

IMPORTANT UPCOMING DATES:

Tues 14th November     Host Family Night

Sat 18th November       St Patrick's Parish Fete

Wed 22nd November    School Closure Day

Mon 27th November     Swimming commences P-4

Mon 4th December       5/6 Sailing program

Wed 6th December       Buddy afternoon (Year 5s and new preps)

Fri 8th December          5/6 Beach program

Wed 13th December     Carols Night 6-7pm

Wed 18th December     Year 6 Graduation

Wed 20th December     Last day...Mass  9 am, Assembly 12 noon, students dismissed 1 pm

Community Notices