THANK YOU FOR TERM 1 & HAPPY EASTER

As I had mentioned last week, it is quite scary how quickly the year has gone so far and we have only one more day remaining for Term 1. As the saying goes: "time goes fast when you are having fun!" Thank you families for your wonderful support during my first term of recommencing my principalship, it is very much appreciated and I am blessed to be working with a fantastic learning community.

On behalf of all of our staff, I wish you and your familes have a safe and rewarding break and I look forward to hearing all of the wild adventures the children will have when we are back at school on Tuesday 26th April.

Have a restful holiday & may the Spirit of Easter fill your hearts with joy and gladness.

CROSS COUNTRY

Well done to all of the students who ran exceptionally well at our Cross Country today! After the large amount of rain that we had in Walcha yesterday afternoon, our only viable option to ensure that we didn't have to cancel our cross country for this year was to have it at school. I have to admit from what I saw today was that the course that will be set out for the Diocesan Cross Country at Barraba early next term is going to be a breeze compared to the course that the students ran today. Thank you to all of the students who ran to the best of their ability as well as the large number of parents who came and supported their child/ren. However, a big thank you goes out to Mrs Healey, for doing a lot of work behind the scenes in allowing for this event to happen today.

Congratulations to the following Champion & Runner up winners:

Cross Country 2022
Juvenile Boys Champion	Teddy Healey
Juvenile Boys Runner Up Champion	Levi Williams
Juvenile Girls Champion	Lucy Rizzi
Juvenile Girls Runner Up Champion	Darcie Owen
Junior Boys Champion	Angus Fletcher
Junior Boys Runner Up Champion	Shaun Zorgdrager
Junior Girls Champion	Jessica Patterson-Kane
Junior Girls Runner Up Champion	Georgina Arundale-Fuller
11 Years Boys Champion	Lachie Provost
11 Years Boys Runner Up Champion	Connor Imberger
11 Years Girls Champion	Frankie Healey
11 Years Girls Runner Up Champion	Annabelle Patterson-Kane
Senior Girls Champion	Brydie Elks

We haven't received any official information in regards to the Diocesan Cross Country Trials being held at Barraba on Friday 6th May. All students who have made our team to run at these trials will receive their information/permission notes on the first day of Term 2.

There are some photos from our school cross country further on in the sports section of this newsletter.

A Big Finish To Term 1

Tomorrow is going to be action packed! Not only are the students allowed to wear their favourite sporting team colours, we will be having a modified 'Stations of the Cross' liturgy, so that we are complying with the new COVID safety guidelines that are included in this newsletter as well as being sent home late last week. Unfortunately we are unable to have our planned school assembly due to whole school gatherings being temporarily put on hold. However, we will still have the drawing of the Principal for the Day Raffle as well as our Easter Hat Parade under the COLA. A big thank you goes out to Mrs Davey for organising this event. I hope there will be a lot of photos taken as unfortunately I will be in Armidale at the Diocesan Football Trials on the last day of the term. I definitely wished that this event could have gone ahead last Friday.

Street Stall Raffle Winners

Thank you to the P & F for organising the Street Stall (Chloe Hoy) & thank you to Chloe & Trina for working on the Street Stall. A big thank you to all the families for supporting the Street Stall raffle.

Winners

1st Prize - Noni Young - Wood

2nd Prize - Amanda Scott - Fuel Voucher

3rd Prize - Beau Brazel - Meat Voucher

4th Prize - Peta Carter- Easter hamper

P & F Easter Egg Raffle Results

Thank you to everyone for the Easter Raffle donations & purchasing the tickets. We had 42 prizes! Congratulations to the winners. The P & F Easter Raffles made a total $1724.00 Thank you.

1. Nellie Foster	2. Nigel Fuller	3. Penny Wauch
4. Dave Healey	5. Vanessa Arundale	6. James Patterson-Kane
7. Jason Hoy	8. Nat Brazel	9. Tylar Foster-Wall
10. Shaun Zorgdrager	11. Georgina Arundale-Fuller	12. Nina Blomfield
13. Penny Wauch	14. Annabelle Patterson-Kane	15. Heather Scott
16. Hannah Marchant	17. Margaret Burnham	18. Amanda Scott
19. Shaun Zorgdrager	20. Nigel Fuller	21. Maddie Brennan
22. Josie Wauch	23. Josie Wauch	24. Nigel Fuller
25. Shane Zorgdrager	26. Katie Rizzi	27. Josie Wauch
28. Brayden Blake	29. Annabelle Patterson-Kane	30. Aunty Noni Young
31. Vanessa Arundale	32. Teddy Healey	33. Teddy Healey
34. Shaun Zorgdrager	35. Penny Wauch	36. Nat Brazel
37. Josie Wauch	38. Shaun Zorgdrager	39. Hannah Marchant
40. Brayden Blake	41. Shane Zorgdrager	42. Hannah Marchant

ANZAC DAY MARCH

St Patrick’s School has been invited to attend the ANZAC Day March. Those children who are available to march on Monday 25th April, need to assemble with the school at 10:30am at the corner of Hill and South Streets. The service will begin at the end of the march, approximately 11:00am in ANZAC Memorial Park. At the conclusion of the service, the march will go down Darby street to Fitzroy street and finish at McHattan Park.

Parents could you please make sure:

*your son/daughter is in the correct school winter uniform, tie, black shoes and school hat

*you collect your son/daughter at McHatton Park at the conclusion of the march

A note was sent home earlier this week to determine how many students from St Patrick's will be marching as well as allowing us to select our school leaders who will be available to perform certain roles with the march as well as the ceremony. A big thank you goes out to all of the families who have already indicated their availability to take part on this day.

NAPLAN 2022 Dates

Students in Years 3, 5, 7 and 9 will take part in this year’s National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) on the following dates:

NAPLAN 2022 online test window: 10–22 May

The National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) is held in May each year for Year 3 and Year 5 students. NAPLAN tests assess student knowledge and skills in Writing, Reading, Conventions of Language (spelling, grammar and punctuation) and Numeracy. The results of the tests provide information for students, parents, teachers and principals and can be used to improve student achievement.

If your child is planning to do any preparation for this upcoming assessment and/or you are interested in seeing what the format of the various NAPLAN Assessments may look like. There are various websites that allow all Years 3 and 5 students to practise for the upcoming Online NAPLAN Assessments beginning in May. A really good site is the ACARA website (address listed below).

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

This is not the whole assessment but it gives you an idea on what certain types of tasks our Year 3 and 5 students could be asked to do:

Mini Vinnies

Principal for the Day Raffle