Term 3 Week 1 Newsletter

St Patrick's Parish Newsletter: 25/07/18

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VOLUME 12 ~ 25th July 2018

Term 3 Week 1

444 Kiewa Street, Albury 2640
Phone: 0260214464
Fax: 0260213694
info@spaww.catholic.edu.au
www.spaww.catholic.edu.au

Dear Parents & Friends,

It is with great pleasure and a wonderful sense of anticipation that I write to you for the first time as Acting Principal of St Patrick’s.

Welcome to Term 3. I hope you were able to enjoy some family time over the past two weeks and that your children have come back to school feeling rested and ready for a new term of learning. I would also like to welcome Lucy Hyndman who is working Thursday & Friday in Kinder sharing with Kirby Hilton and also Trish Harrison who has returned from LSL this term.

A lot of maintenance work commenced over the school holidays. The new Kinder area was painted, new doors installed and the old Kinder space is being renovated in preparation for the Year One students to move into.

Over the weekend some staff had the privilege of celebrating with the Sisters of Mercy, recognising their arrival in Albury 150 years ago, and the significant contribution they have made not only to the St Patrick’s community but the wider region of Albury/Wodonga. A big thanks must go to Sister Anne Hagan who spent countless hours preparing for the occasion and to the staff members here who volunteered their time to lead groups of visitors, many of whom were Sisters of Mercy, around our school. It was incredible to listen to their reminiscing and sharing of history as they made their way around the school.

The Year 2 Maths bead stringing morning yesterday was both informative and fun. There was a high attendance rate and I thank those parents/grandparents/friends who were able to make it and find out about the teaching of Maths in Year 2. Thanks must also go to the Year 2 teachers and Mrs Allibon for her organisation of the morning. Year 1 will be involved in this on Friday and once again all parents, friends etc. are invited. There will be a Maths Information Evening for parents on Wednesday, 5th September at 7pm. Please put this date in your diary and there will be information in relation to this coming home next month.

Further in the newsletter is a letter sent to the school regarding parent pick up and the dangerous practices being displayed by parents. It would be appreciated if everyone could see the attached information in relation to the "Kiss & Drop" Zone. Please don't get out of your car when in parent pick up and don't double park. Also use the Traffic Lights to cross the road. There are lights at each end of the school in Kiewa Street available to ALL pedestrians. Teachers will never leave children unattended of an afternoon so if you need to drive around the block in that time the children will be waiting safely in the school grounds.

The School Council has approved a style of Beanie for students to wear during winter. These will be available in 3 weeks and order forms will be sent home next week. The cost is $20 each. This is a sample of the beanie.

MINDFULNESS

During our visit from the Resilience Project Hugh spoke about the importance of Empathy.

EMPATHY is the ability to understand how someone else is feeling or to understand the situation they are in. It is the ability to “put yourself in someone else's shoes” and to understand the way a situation might make them feel.

An activity you might like to do as a family to continue to develop empathy amongst your child/ren is:

READ MORE

Sisters of Mercy Sesquicentenary Celebrations
The Sisters of Mercy first arrived in Albury on 22nd July, 1868. The 150 years of their service was celebrated last weekend. Tours of our school were conducted on Saturday for the Sisters of Mercy and past students. The Mass was a beautiful celebration of their work and it was a very memorable moment for all involved. Sr. Patricia Osborne is a very special part of our school community and we are very lucky to have her involvement within our school. Congratulations Sr. Pat.

Term 3 Dates:

Tuesday 31st July. Confirmation Parent/Child Meeting 7pm. St. Patrick's Church.

Wednesday 8th August. St. Mary MacKillop Whole School Mass. 9.30am St. Patrick's Church

Saturday 11th August. Confirmation Commitment Mass. 5.00pm St. Patrick's Church

Wednesday 15th August. Assumption of Mary Whole School Mass. 9.30am St. Patrick's Church

Monday 3rd September. Confirmation Reflection Day. All Day.

Saturday 8th September . Confirmation (All welcome) 6pm St. Patrick's Church

Saturday 15th September. Parish/School Mass. 5pm St. Patrick's Church.

Thursday 27th September. Mercy Sisters Celebrations for the Whole School. Time TBC.
READ MORE

TUCKSHOP

Due to PSSA sport each Friday we have 2 packing times & 2 serving times. I really need some extra helpers each Friday....
12noon - 1pm or 12.30 to 1.30pm. for packing and serving. PLEASE!
Reminder: Friday 10th August Pupil Free Day. Will not need helpers on that day.
Tuckshop Roster 2018 Tuckshop Price List Reusable Lunch Bag Order

MATHS NEWS

Targeting Maths News

Welcome to back to Term 3.
I would like to say a massive thank you to all those people who generously spent part of their holidays making bead-strings. On behalf of all the teachers I would like to say how much we appreciate you devoting your time to make these. This Wednesday’s staff meeting is dedicated to practicing teaching/learning activities which can be used in all the classrooms from K - 6.
We promise you they will be put to very good use.

Attached is this week’s Math's Challenge. As previously mentioned this is a great way to generate family discussions about Maths.

* Patrick Durant 3MW was impressed with all the caves and different shapes you could find on Uluru – including this one which looks like a face.

* Patrick Lum KH enjoyed looking for numbers in his environment. He used numbers to work out the measurements on the scales while cooking with Nonna. He also found many numbers while walking to the park, on houses and cars.

SAVE THE DATE: Wednesday, 5th September 7 pm

Lea Allibon ~ Targeting Maths Teacher

SPORT NEWS

* PSSA Sport continues this week. Buses leave school at 1pm and you can view the draws here.
* Children doing Dance this Friday need to bring a blanket for cool-down & may wear leggings if they wish.

AROUND THE SCHOOL

St Patrick's are undertaking our first Tournament of Minds (TOM) experience. TOM is a problem solving program for teams of seven students consisting of two challenges:

1. - Long Term Challenge which is an open-ended challenge, in that it does not have any one specific solution the team must work this out collaboratively and creatively to satisfy multiple criteria and present their solutions in a dramatic format. They are required to solve the open-ended challenges from one of the following disciplines:

The Arts
STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics)
Language Literature
Social Sciences

2. - A Spontaneous Challenge On Tournament Day that is a previously unseen ‘on the spot’ challenge. They allow only a short time for teams to discuss and plan their response. The purpose of the Spontaneous Challenge is to closely analyse the team’s ability to develop ideas and work collaboratively towards a solution.

This year’s team ‘Powerful Paddies’ consists of Sadie Wiseman, Adelaide Hiscock, Noah Edmunds, Hamish Whiteside, Stella Biles, Zali Sims and Elli Lowry.

The team has chosen the Social Sciences challenge ‘Don’t Fence Me In”. They have five weeks to resolve this challenge. Regional Tournament day is Sunday the 26th of August at Stuart Public School Wagga Wagga.

We have enjoyed the experience of TOM because it has helped us to work as a better team. We have learnt there is more than one answer. We as a team have escaped the escape room, cracked the code and got the gold. It made us think on the spot like the Spontaneous Challenge. It was an awesome experience together as a team. Our team have started to think more outside of the box.

We thank Mrs Good (our facilitator) and the school community for this extraordinary experience!

Stella, Noah, Sadie, Hamish, Zali, Adelaide and Elli.

LETTER OF CONCERN RE TRAFFIC IN KIEWA STREET:
I am a concerned office worker that works near your school. This afternoon when I went to leave work, I attempted to drive out across the road in Kiewa St. I could not get out due to the 5 double parked cars across the road, and 3 families with small children jay walking in the middle of the street. Coming out of that driveway, I not only have to check for cars coming from the Kiewa/Smollett St traffic lights, but also the entrance/exit to the multi story car park. And now on top of this, I also have to manoeuvre around the double parked cars and families jay walking in the middle of Kiewa St. I hope it never happens, but someone will end up getting hit or worse if these issues are not addressed. I should also mention that the 3 families crossing the road were running, dodging traffic from both ways, trying to drag their children across the road to get them over safely. I am hoping that you can reiterate to the parents of your school to use the lights at either end of Kiewa St. A few extra minutes to make it to their car safely is preferable to the alternative, to save a few seconds of time. In regards to the double parking, I have also been in contact with Albury Police to patrol the area around this time. It is hard enough with buses at the other end and is not acceptable. I go through this nearly every day leaving work. I have children of my own. I just would like to see everyone get home safely. Thanks

Order Forms have gone home today and these are due back Thursday, 2nd August. Please make sure your child's name and class are on the order form.