Specialist Classes

ITALIAN

Italian at St Patrick’s 

Signora Gee is our Italian teacher for students from Foundation to Grade 6. 

Learning Italian offers students rich cultural experiences. 

Throughout the year, students will explore not only the language, but also the traditions, food, celebrations, geography and history of Italy. From discovering famous landmarks to learning about Italian festivals and family life, students will develop an appreciation for the diversity and beauty of Italian culture.

It has been wonderful to see students begin their lessons so enthusiastically. In particular, our Foundation students have embraced the excitement of learning a brand-new language! They have already learned their very first Italian word — “Ciao!” — which means both hello and goodbye. You might hear this cheerful greeting at home as they proudly practise their new skills.

We look forward to a year of engaging, interactive and joyful learning in Italian.

Ciao! 🇮🇹

SPORT

Sport has returned with a gentle refresher on expectations and what it takes to make a sport lesson successful and fun.

The F-2 students will be following FMS (Fundamental Motor Skills), which are the building blocks of skills required for being able to participate in various sports later at school or elsewhere.  During a lesson this looks like a number of different, short activities that we 'hide' as a fun game.  For example, this week we practiced underarm rolling and throwing at a target and all the children were so excited for each other if they could hit a target.  We also played Freeze Dance, where we danced enthusiastically to a popular song and paused the music to hold our muscles into unusual positions; lots of challenges and lots of laughter!

The Grade 3-6's have commenced our unit on lawn bowls.  It was great to see how much knowledge they had retained from last year and watch them enjoy practicing using bias on the foam bowls.  As this unit progresses, we hope to extend this to using real bowls in a real game setting.  Stay tuned!

ART

We've loved being back in the art room and straight into some drawing. Students have been designing their own cover for their art journals and then adding to their drawing skills using techniques such as sketching and using correct proportions for drawing an image. F-2 students are beginning some funky chicken drawings, grade 3 students have been learning about Vincent Van Gogh and drawing some sunflowers, and grade 4-6 students have begun sketching their own shoe designs. Mrs Hill has also loved hearing from excited students that have brought in some awesome artwork they have done over the holidays! Can't wait to see what things we achieve this term in Art! 

DIGITECH

Tuesday, 10th February is Safer Internet Day. It is a Global Day of Action bringing communities, schools, organisations and families from 180 countries together to raise awareness of online safety issues and work towards a safer internet. Safer Internet Day is an opportunity to take a moment to talk about what’s really happening online and think about what we can each do to make it better. Because when we each do something small – whether that’s starting a conversation, sharing a tip or changing a habit – we make a big difference to everyone’s online experience.

Students all across the school have been talking about how to stay safe online. The graphic attached is a summary of what we’ve talked about – being aware, kind, brave and clever when using devices. Being kind is always important, even when we can’t see the people we’re talking to, and if in doubt about what we’re seeing/hearing/playing/watching, students know to talk to a trusted adult for help.

More information about Safer Internet Day in Australia is here: https://www.esafety.gov.au/newsroom/whats-on/safer-internet-day or all over the world here: https://better-internet-for-kids.europa.eu/en/saferinternetday