Mr Hyatt

Old Chromebooks and Classroom Furniture Still Available

Thanks again to all of the families who have already indicated they are interested in purchasing some of the school's old Chromebooks. Hopefully by the start of next week, all of these Chromebooks will have been taken off the Catholic Schools Office system and will be ready to be used in various households. We still have a number of Chromebooks still available for $40 each. If your family is still thinking about this offer or even if you would like to order some more, please contact the office. Please note, it is essential that your home has Wifi capabilities for these devices to work. Also these Chromebooks won't be able to be updated with the latest software and it is advisable that the user will need to have a Google account to utilise all of the applications that Google has to offer. If you encounter any difficulties with your Chromebook at home, please feel free to contact me and I will be happy to assist to ensure that they are working in your household.

Also, we have a number of items including old students' work desks (single and double), teacher's work desk and a number of excess chairs in various sizes available to go home. If you are interested, please feel free to contact me and I am sure that we can work out a great deal at a very low price.

Congratulations on a very successful Show

Congratulations on a wonderful show on the weekend. The entries in pavilions from the children and St Patrick's families were absolutely fantastic!  Congratulations to everyone and well done to those who received a prize for their efforts. Please see other photos in the upcoming page - 2023 Walcha Show.

Radio Stars!

I have heard that very soon a number of our students will be on the radio advertising the P and F's upcoming 'Congi Open Garden Day' on Saturday 1st April. For all of the students and adults who were involved with the making of this advertisement, well done, and I am sure that if I was John Laws, I would be quite worried as I knowhave a number of radio stars in the making. Anyway, the Congi Open Garden Day is coming up very soon and I encourage everyone to go out to Congi on this day not only to look at the beautiful gardens that Congi has to offer but also to support our P and F and the school. I am definitely looking forward to this event.

The Winner of 'Wearing Uniform With Pride' Award Is.......

Congratulations go to Nate who has won this week's 'Wearing Uniform With Pride' award. It was definitely a hard decision to make as there were a number of students who could have won this award for this week. Well done Nate, you thoroughly deserved it! 

World Of Maths Workshop

The World of Maths Workshop visited St Patrick's yesterday. World of Maths is a unique traveling maths show that provides fun, colourful, hands-on, mathematical, problem solving activities for students.

The activities or “displays” were invented/designed and manufactured by World of Maths and therefore are not be found anywhere else in the world.

The program is designed to cater for all abilities with 34 activities covering ages from 5 to 14 year old.  All of the students enjoyed the different activities and below there are a number of photos showing what they got up to in attempting to solve various mathematical problems..

Occupational Therapy Services Coming Soon

As mentioned in the last edition of the newsletter, I received more information in regard to the process of booking a screening with the Happy Dots team. If you and/or your child's teacher believe your child would benefit from an OT screening, please complete the Carer Consent and Carer Intake Forms, and return both items back to school by Thursday 23rd March. If you would like further information about this process and/or would like to know more about various programs that an Occupational Therapist can offer, please feel free to contact your child's teacher.

Both the Carer Consent form and Carer Intake form are also attached at the end of this segment.

Forms that have been received by this date will then be triaged and children prioritised based on the information provided. Sonia Ussher and Karen Barnes will collaborate with the Happy Dots team to finalise a schedule for their first visit. Educators and parents will be advised of their allocated day and screening time in early April. 

If Happy Dots do not have sufficient time to screen all of the children that are initially put forward, those who have to wait will be prioritised where possible when Happy Dots return in August. As this is the first time that the service has been offered it is not known how many intake forms will be submitted. 

Happy Dots will also be running information and Q&A sessions during their visits. More information regarding this will be sent out after the schedule has been finalised. 

Walcha Central Taster and O'Connor STEP Days

On Monday and Tuesday, a number of our Years 5 and 6 students participated in the Walcha Central Taster Day as well as the O'Connor STEP Day. I was fortunate to supervise some of our Year 6 students at the STEP Day and they should be very proud of themselves as they were great ambassadors for St Patrick's at this event. From all accounts, the students who took part in either or these days had a great time. Below are some images showing some of the highlights from the O'Connor STEP Day.

NAPLAN

Today most of our Years 3 and 5 students complete both of their NAPLAN Reading and   Language Conventions Assessments. On Monday morning commencing at 9.15 am, these students will be completing their NAPLAN Numeracy Assessment. Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday will be used as catch-up days for any students who may have missed out on completing the three assessments already conducted so far. Please refrain from making appointments during school time on these test days. 

Further information for parents and carers can be found here: 

https://www.nap.edu.au/naplan/parent-carer-support

I encourage all parents of students in Years 3 and 5 to explore the Public Demonstration Site with your child (click on button below).  Here you will find sample questions for each of the areas assessed. 

https://www.nap.edu.au/online-assessment/public-demonstration-site

Click below to see a short video showing how to navigate the Public Demonstration Site.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ElaxjY7xKzPkl4QijbH_YPs9IRtkr8FU/view

Contacting Your Child's Teacher

Teachers welcome contact from parents, if you need to talk with staff please either contact the class teacher by phoning the school – 67772328 or email the school on spwadmin@arm.catholic.edu.au.