CALENDAR

Detailed calendar can be viewed at www.spnhill.catholic.edu.au or on the FlexiBuzz app

SEPTEMBER Hats on from 1 September Fr 1 Father’s Day Breakfast 8-9am Meals on Wheels 12pm Mo 4 Reading counts 1,2,3 … read with me 9am BookClub orders due Tu 5 Parent/Teacher Interviews W-F 6-8 Senior Camp, Halls Gap Th 7 School Nurse visit (Foundation

students) Mo 11 Reading counts 1,2,3 … read with me 9am

Tu 12 Little Desert Div Athletics Horsham Th 14 Year 5 Leadership Day Fr 15 Junior Extended Day Mo 18 Reading counts 1,2,3 … read with me 9am

Tu 19 PAC Meeting 7:00pm Th 21 Last Day Term 3—Dismissal 3:15pm Fr 22 School Closure Day OCTOBER Mo 9 First Day Term 4 Th 19 Nhill Show—School Closure Th 26 PAC Meeting 7:00pm

Dear Parents and Members of St Patrick’s School Community,

Sunday 27 August—Last Sunday was the 103rd World Day of Migrants and Refugees - Pope Francis wrote “Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me; and whoever receives me, receives not me but him who sent me.” (Mk 9:37; cf. Mt 18:5; Lk 9:48; Jn 13:20). With these words, the Evangelists remind the Christian community of Jesus’ teaching, which both inspires and challenges. This phrase traces the sure path which leads to God; it begins with the smallest and, through the grace of our Saviour, it grows into the practice of welcoming others. To be welcoming is a necessary condition for making this journey a concrete reality: God made himself one of us. In Jesus God became a child, and the openness of faith to God, which nourishes hope, is expressed in loving proximity to the smallest and the weakest. Charity, faith and hope are all actively present in the spiritual and corporal works of mercy.

Pope Francis reminds us of our call to welcome others in his name and this year he called us to be mindful of child migrants, especially those who are alone for they are particularly vulnerable. Pope Francis writes, “Migration today is not a phenomenon limited to some areas of the planet. It affects all continents and is growing into a tragic situation of global proportions. Not only does this concern those looking for dignified work or better living conditions, but also men and women, the elderly and children, who are forced to leave their homes in the hope of finding safety, peace and security. Children are the first among those to pay the heavy toll of emigration, almost always caused by violence, poverty, environmental conditions, as well as the negative aspects of globalization. The unrestrained competition for quick and easy profit brings with it the cultivation of perverse scourges such as child trafficking, the exploitation and abuse of minors and, generally, the depriving of rights intrinsic to childhood as sanctioned by the International Convention on the Rights of the Child.” We are asked to pray for all children and adults who are forced to leave their country of origin and embark on a treacherous journey to find somewhere safe and welcoming to live.

CONGRATULATIONS MILLIE AND AIDEN DENT—Recently Mrs. Dent had her baby; a boy called Maxi Gordon. Our warmest congratulations to Millie and Aiden on the new

St. Patrick’s

Church Times

Sundays at

10:00am

3 September

Mass

St. Patrick’s School is a Child-safe school. As a Catholic Christian community, we will nurture the children as they learn together to respond to the Gospel in their daily lives and explore their emerging role in Australian society.

Our Vision

St Patrick’s School

is a child safe school St. Patrick’s School

29 Leahy Street, PO Box 113, Nhill 3418

Phone 03 5391 1575

Mobile 0419 929 271

Fax 03 5391 1506

Email principal@spnhill.catholic.edu.au

Web www.spnhill.catholic.edu.au

Term Dates Class Times Administration Office Hours 2017 Term 3 17 Jul to 22 Sep 8:55am Class time

2017 Term 4 9 Oct to 22 Dec 11am Recess Monday Closed

11:30am Class time Tuesday 9am

3:50pm 1:30pm Lunch Wednesday

2:15pm Class time Thursday

3:15pm Dismissal Friday 9am1pm

Newsletter No. 2017/27 Thursday, 31 August 2017

Parent

Advisory

Council

Members

Lisa Braybrook Helen Cannell (Chairperson) Michelle Dickinson Jamie Donnell Kimberley Philip Melissa Polkinghorne Ex Officio Fr. Peter Hudson Kathryn Bendall Ann Munro Karen Rintoule

This week’s

winner is Sienna who was caught

using our school rules by displaying responsibility.

Nominated by Olivia

Full colour version of newsletter is on our website spnhill.catholic.edu.au/newsletters-2017.html and FlexiBuzz

This week in the Junior class we have been reading ‘Grandad’s Island’ as our Shared Reading text. This aligns with the upcoming celebration of Father’s Day, as our grandfathers are also very special to us.

In Numeracy the Foundation students have been counting and comparing groups of numbers by connecting names, numerals and quantities together. The Year 1 students have been exploring ‘half’ and describing it as one of two equal parts of a whole. The Year 2 students have been exploring area by comparing and ordering different shapes based on their area using informal units of measure.

During our Writing lessons we have been reading, listening to and writing different procedures for things at school and at home. We are currently writing instructions to use a new shampoo we each invented.

Integrated Studies this week has been focussed on Citizenship and how people can become Australian citizens.

This week in Literacy, the seniors are working on publishing texts as well as creating a narrative piece of writing. Our vocabulary words this week are ‘exhibition’, ‘dabbler’, ‘fathom’, and ‘classified’. We are reading about fathers in the spirit of Father’s Day this weekend.

In Numeracy, the focus is area and perimeter. The students have been learning how to measure, order and compare objects using familiar metric units of length and area, and calculate the perimeter and area of rectangles and irregular shapes.

In Integrated Studies the students have been learning about voting. We have looked at the importance of voting, how votes can become invalid, how people vote and what it means to come to a consensus.

We are all getting extremely excited for our senior camp to Halls Gap next week.

addition to your family. We hope all is going well.

VICTORIAN GOVERNMENT REPORTABLE CONDUCT SCHEME—From 1 July 2017, the Victorian Government has legislated for the introduction of a Reportable Conduct Scheme (RCS) to improve oversight of how organisations respond to allegations of child abuse and child-related misconduct by employees and volunteers. The RCS seeks to ensure that organisations providing services for children and young people prioritise their safety and wellbeing. It forms part of the broader child safety framework and complements initiatives already in place in all schools. Our school is now implementing the RCS. Under the Reportable Conduct Scheme, there are five types of ‘reportable conduct’ which a school must report in relation to staff, volunteers and contractors:

sexual offences committed against, with or in the presence of a child

sexual misconduct committed against, with or in the presence of a child

physical violence against, with or in the presence of a child

any behaviour that causes significant emotional or psychological harm to a child

significant neglect of a child.

More information about the RCS is available at the website of the Commission for Children and Young People, which is the organisation responsible for overseeing the Scheme: https://ccyp.vic.gov.au/ reportable-conduct-scheme/about-the-reportable-conduct-scheme/.

If you have a concern about the conduct of any adult who works or volunteers at St. Patrick’s School, please report this to the Principal as soon as possible. If you have a concern about the conduct of the Principal, the protocol is to report such concerns to the Director of Catholic Education for the Diocese of Ballarat.

SCHOOL MASS and MIA’S BAPTISM—Last Thursday afternoon we had our first school mass with Father Peter Hudson. This was a really exciting afternoon as Mia was baptised during the mass. Mia made the decision to receive the sacrament of baptism so that she could receive further sacraments of initiation (Confirmation and Eucharist) on Sunday 17 September. All students were invited to trace the sign of the cross on Mia’s forehead as a sign of welcome and acceptance into our Church community. The students have been learning about the sacraments in Religious Education this term and this was a fabulous practical example of a sacrament of initiation that all students could learn about and be engaged in. Thank you Mia for allowing us all to be part of this wonderful event.

ABOVE AND BEYOND—This week’s Above and Beyond focus was ‘Embodying St. Mary MacKillop’. St. Mary MacKillop was an amazing lady who was always helping

Mondays, 9-10am Term 3 Dates September 4, 11, 18

Another fun morning was had on Monday when pre-schoolers and their parents explored the letter Uu.

They read the book ’Baby Bilby, Where Do You Sleep’ by Narelle Oliver before making an umbrella and learning a poem about an umbrella.

Please come and join the fun next Monday between 9 and 10am in St. Patrick’s Community Hall.

people and righting injustices. She was kind, compassionate and caring and fighting for those who suffered injustices. This week our awardees are Montana and Mia. Both girls have been observed helping out without expecting anything in return. Montana spent a lot of time cleaning up bark and stone in the yard after a recent incident with vandals and Mia helped out a fellow student who was on crutches for a period of time. Congratulations and well done to both Mia and Montana.

BOOK WEEK PARADE and GREAT ESCAPE CHALLENGE—On Friday our students participated in an ‘Escape Challenge’ organised by the very innovative Mrs. Dickinson. Students were divided into four groups and they had to work together to ‘solve’ the clues to achieve their ‘escape’. All the students enjoyed this challenge and it was great to see them working cooperatively together to achieve their goal. The escape challenge was followed by our book week parade. As usual the students enjoyed this chance to show off their costumes and we are ever grateful to the creative parents and grandparents who dress their children for this annual event. As the photos indicate we had some really great costumes again this year.

NO NEWSLETTER ON THURSDAY 7 SEPTEMBER—Can all families please be aware that no newsletter will be published next week due to the Senior camp. Our next newsletter will be published on Thursday 14 September.

PARENT TEACHER INTERVIEWS—Please remember to return your request for a Parent Teacher interview time by 10am tomorrow morning so that the times can be finalised tomorrow and sent home at the end of the day.

WWSSA ATHLETICS RESULTS—Congratulations to Shai, Jobe, Hanna and Heath who participated in the WWSSA

1, 2, 3 … read with me Reading Counts

Athletics at Warracknabeal yesterday. Jobe came second in the discus and third in the triple jump and Hanna came second in shot put. Heath came second in the long jump and 200m and has qualified for the Little Desert division of Athletics in Horsham in two weeks time. St. Patrick’s School is very proud of the way these students represented our school. Thank you to Mrs. Dickinson for acting as time keeper at this event and also to the parents who transported their children to and from Warracknabeal.

VEGGIE PATCH—The abundant rain in recent weeks has enabled the veggies planted by Mrs Pilgrim last term to grow and flourish. Tyi is pictured with some of the crop which was picked last week.

ST PAT’S FOOTY COMPETITION—At the end of the 2017 season the winner of our footy tipping competition was Ash Dickinson who correctly selected 133 winners for the year. In second place was Alistair Taylor with 126 winners and in third place was Emma Dickinson with 124 correct selections. Thank you to everyone who participated in this fun activity.

UPCOMING EVENTS—

FATHER’S DAY BREAKFAST—We are looking forward to sharing breakfast with our fathers and grandfathers, and those like fathers/grandfathers to our students, tomorrow morning in the hall from 8am.

SCHOOL NURSE VISIT—Foundation students will be assessed by the school nurse on Thursday 7 September. This is part of the program offered by the government. Parents are invited to attend the assessment or contact Debbie after the assessment is completed. Debbie’s mobile number is 0419533547.

SUNSMART SCHOOL—Please be aware that from tomorrow all students, staff and visitors are required to wear a broad-brimmed hat when outside. This aligns with our Sunsmart policy and the need to minimise the harmful effects of UV radiation on our skin.

YEAR 5 LEADERSHIP DAY—Students in Year 5 have been invited to attend a leadership formation day in Horsham on Thursday 14 September. They will join with other Year 5 students from Catholic schools in the local area and work with a facilitator from Caritas. It promises to be an exciting day.

LAST DAY OF TERM 3—Don’t forget that St Patrick’s School has a school closure day on Friday 22 September. Our students last day of term will be Thursday 21 September. Students will finish at 3:15pm on this day.

As always, please contact the school if you have any questions about what is happening at St. Patrick’s School.

Kathryn Bendall, Principal.