Term 2 Issue 2 20th May 2022

Principal's News

Dear Families,

It is hard to believe that we are halfway through term 2 already. Although this term has been a busy one with a number of short weeks, our students have continued to show their commitment to their learning each day. I encourage our students to continue their commitment to their learning over the last few weeks of term.

We have recently welcomed a third year prac student to our school. Lily Graham is with us for 5 weeks and she is working with Mrs Silvester and our students in our 3-6 class. Lily has settled in nicely in our St Patrick’s community and she has already formed great relationships with staff and students in her short time already.

Last week our students shared their creative and artistic flare with our local community at the Mitchell Show. Students had their charcoal self-portraits and photos on display at the show and many of our students’ received awards and acknowledgements for their work. It was wonderful to see their work on display at the show and it has been lovely to hear how proud many of our students were when sharing their work with their families. On Friday 27^th May students will be presented with their show awards at the conclusion of our Peace Garden ceremony. We invite our families to attend this special presentation.

St Patrick's School Students Show Entries

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Naplan

Our Year 3 and Year 5 students displayed great dedication and persistence last week when they completed all of their Naplan testing. Well done to all of our students who put in 100% effort to complete each test.

School Review

Thank you to all of our staff, students, family and community members who have welcomed the opportunity to be involved with our upcoming school review. We are excited to be engaging in the process and looking forward to hearing what our next steps may be for the coming 4 years. We look forward to welcoming our review team to our school on Tuesday 31^st May and Wednesday 1^st June.

Mother’s Day Liturgy

It was wonderful to see so many parents and friends attend our Mother’s Day liturgy last Friday afternoon. Our 3-6 class presented the liturgy with great enthusiasm. They sung a beautiful song for our mother’s and it was enjoyed by all. We hope that all of our mother’s had a wonderful day celebrating Mother’s Day.

Staff News

As many of you are already are aware, Mrs Silvester and her husband are expecting the arrival of their first child in the coming months. Mrs Silvester will be taking leave from the beginning of term 3. I have currently being engaging in the interview process and I will inform our school community in the coming weeks of who will be joining our team next term.

PPF News and our 2022 End of Year Awards Celebration

This year for our whole school end of year awards celebration we have something new and exciting happening. We will be sharing more about this exciting event in early Term 3 but for now we ask that you all mark Saturday 26^th November in your calendar for a St Patricks event not to be missed. This event will be held in Mitchell and it will begin in the late afternoon/early evening.

We invite and encourage all of our families, extended families and community members to join us for this exciting new event. All students will be required to attend.

The next meeting of the PPF Assn will be held at school on Thursday, 9th June at 5.30 p.m. Everyone is welcome to join us to share your ideas. We will once again be offering the option for families who are not able to attend in person to join us using the Teams app. An invite will be sent to family emails.

Warm regards,

Kylie

St Columba's Parish Mass Dates

Student Protection

At St Patrick’s School the safety and wellbeing of our students is our highest priority. All children should grow up free of violence or exploitation and be able to learn in a safe and supported environment. Schools have a number of specific child protection reporting obligations that are detailed in our Student Protection Processes and Guidelines.

If a student wants to talk to someone about harm, abuse or inappropriate behaviour toward themselves or others, they can speak to a trusted staff member or one of our School Student Protection Contacts (SSPCs).  The SSPCs receive additional training and are identified in the student protection posters displayed around the school.

Felicity Ray, Jenny Bye and Kylie Millar are the Student Protection Contacts for St Patrick's School.

Summary documents have been developed for parents and caregivers about our student protection obligations and our broader strategy for maintaining safe school environments.

Further information on all of the above topics can be found on the Toowoomba Catholic Schools website at https://www.twb.catholic.edu.au/parents-and-community/student-protection/

Student Protection Contacts

School Photos

St Patrick's School photos will be taken in the last week of school in Term 2.  They will be taken on Tuesday, 21st June.  Envelopes for ordering and payment will be sent home when they become available.

Class News : Years 3, 4, 5 and 6

Drama

The classic Roald Dahl story “Matilda”, with its range of characters and evolving storyline, is the focus of our Drama unit this term.  Students began the term by watching the movie and familiarising themselves with the characters, setting, and twists and turns in the storyline. 

Students examined some of the characters from the movie and were able to use some impressive vocabulary to identify and describe each characters’ personality traits.  They used their knowledge of the characters to engage in short improvisations involving an exchange between two of the characters in the movie.  Students were given teacher and peer feedback on the drama techniques they used well to engage with and portray their character. 

More importantly, students thoroughly enjoyed speculating what it must be like having a principal like “Miss Trunchbull” running the school!!! 😊

Physical Education

The Year 3-6 students have also been busily preparing and honing their skills in readiness for the Mitchell Combined Schools Athletics Carnival.  So far this term we have focused on learning correct running techniques and transferred our learning to relay races, with a particular focus on baton exchanges. 

Students have also begun learning basic shot put and discus skills with many students being able to combine the skills learnt in these activities to perform technically correct shot put and discus throws.    As the term progresses, students will have opportunities to practise skills associated with long jump and high jump. 

Mrs Donaldson

Specialist Teacher

Class News: Prep to Year 2

Drama

This term we are learning about and exploring Drama as part of The Arts curriculum.  In this unit, students will explore and view different types of drama, experiment with different techniques including body language, voice, facial expression, movement and relationships, and will use dramatic action to communicate messages to an audience. 

Our unit this term is centred around the much-loved story ‘The Jungle Book’ and our P-2 students kicked of the term familiarising themselves with this story by watching the recent remake of the movie.  The students thoroughly enjoyed this activity and were able to recount many of the tense interactions between characters in the film. 

Students progressed to conducting character analyses of some of the key characters in the story such as Mowgli, Baloo and the infamous Shere Khan.  They then used their knowledge of these characters to create body movements, facial expression and voices to match each one.  It was delightful to see students eagerly volunteering to engage in improvisations of each character and allow other students to guess which characters they were impersonating.  These have been such engaging and enjoyable lessons and I look forward to seeing what the students can create in the upcoming weeks!

Physical Education

This term we are eagerly preparing for the Mitchell Combined School Athletics Carnival scheduled to be held at Mitchell State School at the end of Term 2.  Our focus during PE lessons is on learning correct running techniques, practising relays and batons exchanges, and learning a variety of different ball games including Captain Ball, Tunnel Ball and Overs and Unders, just to name a few. 

Our warm ups each lesson have focussed on some of the key fundamental movement skills pivotal to students in these early years.  These are skills such as running, jumping, skipping and hopping and we have combined these skills to form a variety of different obstacles courses and relay races. 

Mrs Donaldson  

Specialist Teacher  

Principal's Awards

Hallie Page 

For participation in the Anzac Day March

For participation in the Anzac Day March

Emmie Crow

For participation in the Anzac Day March

Linnea Gant

For participation in the Anzac Day March

Mercy Awards

McKenzie Mitchell

For being such a kind and supportive classmate. I love the way that you celebrate other students’ successes with such enthusiasm and encouragement. I know that your classmates feel so good about themselves when you congratulate them for their great work and offer them a high five. Keep following in the footsteps of Catherine McAuley.

Myhia Mitchell

For demonstrating the Mercy Values of Mercy and Dignity. You consistently show respect towards all staff and students through your kind words and thoughtful actions. From asking people if they need help and using your manners when asking a question to cleaning up after other people. You make our school a wonderful place to be. Continue to let the Mercy Values shine through in everything  you do!

Awesome Achiever Awards

Josef Mailman

For  using the Learning Power of Persistence during Guided Reading this week. You were giving your best effort, focusing on reading the book Up in the Tree with your group. It was great to hear you have another go to read a word again when you made a mistake and joining into the conversations and answering questions after reading.   

Keep up the great work! 

Vin Henricks

For how engaged and active you were during our shared reading lesson with Mrs Keefer. She was very impressed with the answers you were giving and the passion you showed during the lesson. Keep up the great work

Important Dates for 2022