All families are most welcome to join us in celebrating our First Advent Liturgy on the turf this Friday at 2:30pm. Please enter through admin.

Dear families,

I hope you're having a great week so far! It's been a very busy week for us at St Patrick's. We're still buzzing with excitement from our recent Going Up Morning, and I wanted to take a moment to express our heartfelt thanks to our amazing parents, dedicated teachers, and enthusiastic students for making it a truly positive and memorable experience. It was a morning filled with exploration, curiosity, and the joy of new beginnings.

There are many great things underway at our school and plenty of ways in which we can share and celebrate what's happening. It's been a great time for reflection for my role at St Pat's, especially following on from hearing such quality discussions at our Community Conversations. I have a much stronger understanding of what our community desires. As a follow-up, it's exciting to be able to share that our 2024 junior years teachers completely invested in embracing a structured synthetic phonics approach. They have already commenced some intensive professional development with PLD (Promoting Literacy Development) and are requesting further purchases in this area to support the approach next year - purchases that the school will definitely be prioritising!

Building Project Update

There has been a significant amount of work undertaken in the next stage since our handover last Thursday. The demolition works are nearing completion already, with substantial civil works being undertaken between the back entrance and the new Madden Hall. There will be more and more activity in this area over the next week, with a rather drastic transformation. The builder's intent is to have the slab poured this Friday.

Recess today has been very interesting. Standing back a bit, I couldn't quite tell if Miss O'Brien or the students were more interested in the digger at work!

Before and After School Care

As promised, there is now further information available for our onsite before and after school care at St Patrick's. This will be available from the beginning of the 2024 school year. The service is available to all families - either pre-booked at a discounted rate or on a casual basis. The Extend service will be available to St Patrick's students only. If there is interest, we will likely be able to operate a service for school closure days 8:00am-6:00pm.

School Fee Statements

School Fee Statements will be emailed home over the following week, all direct debit and credit card payments have now been finalised, if you have an amount outstanding on your statement this will need to be paid separately. The school’s bank account details are listed on your statement or please be in contact with the office if you would like to pay via another method.

We would appreciate payment in full for any outstanding school fees by the end of November. If you are experiencing financial difficulty and believe this year’s fees will not be settled by the end of November please be in contact with Ben or Michelle ASAP to discuss your situation and come to an arrangement to suit both the school and your family.

2024 School Fee Increases & Outline of School Fees

In line with advice from Catholic Education Ballarat we will be increasing the Tuition Fee for 2024 by 3% which is a total of $55 per family and the capital fee by $65 per family. Due to increases in stationery and materials costs, excursions and the swimming program we have increased the student fee by $40 per student.

Outline of School Fees

Tuition Fee – is charged per family, for 2024 this is $1,600. This fee is levied to assist with the running costs of the school.

Capital Fee – is charged per family, for 2024 this is $400. This fee is levied for the ongoing capital upgrade of school facilities, as well as specific purchasing priorities such as computers, playground equipment and library resources.

Fundraising Levy – is charged per family, for 2024 this is $150. The fundraising levy assists with the local contribution required to supplement the state and federal funding to run the school. This fee also enables the ‘Drummo Social Circle’ to focus on community rather than fundraising.

Chromebook & iPad Fee – to ensure the school is able to provide high quality1:1 devices to improve learning opportunities students in foundation and year1 a $150 annual fee for iPads and years 3 to 6 are charged a $100 annual fee for Chromebooks. The family will retain ownership of the device at the end of year 2 for iPads and year 6 for Chromebooks.

Student Fee - is charged per student, for 2024 this is $360. This fee is used to meet the costs of running classrooms for the year purchasing items such as books and stationery, art & craft materials, costs of the swimming program and excursions.

Camp Fee – camp fees are charged to assist with covering costs of camps.

2024 Fee Payment Agreements

Each family will receive a hardcopy 2024 Fee Payment Agreement form. This document will also be an attachment with the newsletter. Please return this completed form to the office by the 1st of December. We recommend that families take advantage of setting up regular direct debit or credit card payments. Also keep in mind if you would prefer more regular payments to be deducted such as weekly or outside the nominated dates this can also be possible. Please detail on your form if an arrangement outside of the usual payment methods might be more suitable. If you have any questions or queries please contact Michelle by phone on 5332 7680 or email accounts@spballarat.catholic.edu.au.

School Fee Exemptions for families with Health Care Cards

Last week we sent home the Fee Payment Agreement for 2024.

For those families who are current holders of Health Care Cards there are 2 exemptions available to assist families with school fees. The Family Assistance Scheme is offered by the diocese of Ballarat and the CSEF exemption is offered by the State Government of Victoria.

The application forms are available from the office and we have also attached them to this week’s newsletter. Please remember we also require a copy of your current health care card to apply for the exemption.

Wishing you all the best for a great week ahead!

Kind regards,

Ben Shields

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