St Patrick's Tongala Newsletter

Specialist Classes

2025

ITALIAN

10 Fascinating Facts About Italy 🇮🇹

  1. Home of the Smallest Country in the World Inside Rome is Vatican City — the world’s smallest country! It’s only about 44 hectares and is the centre of the Roman Catholic Church.
  2. Shaped Like a Boot Italy is famously shaped like a high-heeled boot kicking a ball (Sicily). It’s one of the most easily recognised country shapes on the map!
  3. Birthplace of Pizza & Pasta Pizza was invented in Naples in the 1700s, while pasta dates back even further. Italians take their food very seriously — spaghetti and gelato are national treasures!
  4. Leaning Tower of Pisa Isn’t Falling (Yet!) The famous Leaning Tower of Pisa began tilting shortly after it was built in the 12th century. Engineers have worked hard to keep it from toppling over!
  5. Trevi Fountain Wishes Come True Tourists throw about €3,000 a day into the Trevi Fountain in Rome. Legend says if you throw a coin in, you’ll return to Italy one day!
  6. A Country Full of Volcanoes Italy has three active volcanoes: Etna, Stromboli, and Vesuvius — the latter famously buried the ancient city of Pompeii in 79 AD.
  7. No Cappuccinos After 11am! Italians believe milk after breakfast upsets the stomach. So, drinking a cappuccino after 11am is a big cultural no-no!
  8. Italian Is a Musical Language Many music terms — like forte, piano, allegro, and opera — come from Italian. That’s because Italy played a key role in the development of classical music.
  9. Gelato Is Not Just Ice Cream Italian gelato is creamier, smoother, and has less air than regular ice cream. It’s served slightly warmer — and tastes even better!

SPORT

This fortnight saw the conclusion of our football unit and the beginning of our basketball unit.  For a lot of us it's been a welcome relief to change back to a nice, predictable round ball!

Sports lessons have also been a valuable time for us to work on our dance performances for the upcoming production.  Every class has been working hard, and we now know the moves without watching the screen.  We can't wait to share what we have been working on.

 

ART

We've been very busy in the Art room lately finishing off Pop Art creations that are now displayed around the school. We've also been starting some really exciting projects including designing, drawing and adding colour to backdrops for our production! 2 backdrops from each class will be chosen as the backdrops that will be displayed during their classes dances at our production in a few weeks time. We have also started creating some costume accessory pieces that we will be wearing in the production too! 

 

PERFORMING ARTS