ALL OF US CAN MAKE A BIG DIFFERENCE!

Hi everyone and welcome to this edition of the newsletter. Before I begin my segment I hope that all of our mothers and grandmothers in our learning community had a wonderful Mother's Day on Sunday.

Even though we are in the early stages of Term 2, planning has commenced with the 2023 school year with the date of our Open Morning for prospective 2023 Kindergarten students that has been set for Thursday 23rd June. More information is included further down this page. Flyers have been sent to the preschool and very soon advertisements will start appearing in local publications. Hopefully this will encourage some new and existing families to join our team in the very near future.

To ensure that our learning community continues to thrive, we need to constantly reinvent ourselves and constantly review where we are at. All of us know what great things happen at St Patrick's but does the Walcha community and the rest of the region know? Markability is so essential to advertise ourselves and do we need to explore new ways in which we can promote ourselves? Last week I sent out a questionnaire to parents asking do they think it is worthwhile for our school to have our very own facebook page and/or maybe having an instagram account? We have had overwhelming feedback so far but we would definitely like more. If we use these social platforms, which could be benefital, we need to consider a number of scenarios on how we post our material to ensure it is productive, advantageous as well as protecting the privacy of all of our members.

To me appearance means everything and we are in the process of improving the general appearance of the front of the school. We are currently in the process of ordering and then installing a new school sign on the corner of South and Apsley Sts. We are to place four individual totem poles in our school colours broadcasting how everyone here at St Patrick's are valued, respected and cared for. Also I know that I am not an expert when it comes to gardening but we will be planting some trees just to the right of the front office entry.

I know these changes and additions will enhance the general appearance greatly.

WELCOME

I would like to formally welcome Katie Biddle who has just joined our staff. Katie is our new Inclusion Support Teacher (IST) and will be working here one day a week. Katie brings a lot of expertise to this role and she is looking forward to working with our staff, students and parents. Katie will be working here at St Patrick's one day a week as this role is job shared with both St Mary's Primary, Armidale as well as St Mary's of the Angels Primary, Guyra.

MASS & EXPOSITION

Tomorrow the school will attend Mass at 11:30am. All Parents & Friends are welcome to attend Mass with the school.

CROSS COUNTRY

Congratulations to all students on their excellent participation at the Diocesan Cross Country last Friday. Special congratulations to Angus & Annabelle who gained selection in the Armidale Diocesan Team that will be competing at the Polding Cross Country Trials on Tuesday 7th June.

Thank you to the parents who travelled to Barraba for the Cross Country and supported the children, a great day was had by all.

PRINCIPAL FOR THE DAY

On Monday Shaun had the experience of being the Principal for the Day. Shaun was given a special tie as well as a school blazer and for the rest of the day, he helped myself complete a number of jobs. Some of these included: creating school rules for the day, changing the school sign, working in classrooms, typing up notes as well as writing up an article for this newsletter that is included in the Classroom News/Gallery section. Overall Shaun had a great day but I am sure he definitely wanted to join his classmates on Tuesday.

OPEN MORNING for 2023 Kindergarten Students - 23rd June 9:30am-11am

Our open morning will be held on Thursday June 23rd from 9:30am - 11am.

The Open Morning is an opportunity for 2023 parents the opportunity to listen to what St Patrick's offers its students & families. Parents will be able to speak with the staff, have a guided tour of the school and enjoy morning tea. The Transition students are invited to join in with the current Kindergarten class for a morning of activities.

If you know of anyone with a child ready to start school next year, or anyone who would like to have a look at our school and what we have to offer, please invite them along for our Open Morning.

LET'S GET READY FOR KINDERGARTEN 2023

Enrolments are now open for Kindergarten 2023.

Our school open morning for Kindergarten will be Thursday 23rd June 2022.

Please contact the school for an enrolment package - 67772328 or email

spwadmin@arm.catholic.edu.au

UPCOMING CHANGES TO OUR SCHOOL FEE PAYMENTS AND ACCOUNTING SOFTWARE

Over the next few weeks our school will be transitioning to a new finance system. The change will include new ways in which you can make payments to the school which include Bpay, CompassPay and EFTPOS. Current direct debit options will still be available for a limited time. Our current school bank account will be closing and therefore we will be asking parents to make payments to the school via one of these new functionalities.

Shortly you will receive your new Fee Statement and included on the Statement will be your new Bpay payment details. You can easily set up regular payments from your bank account to the new school bpay account.

Via the Compass App, you can also make payments for School Fees and Events. Please contact the School if you require assistance with the Compass App.

Our School will also have EFTPOS facilities available. This means you will be able to make payments or purchases over the counter at the School rather than relying on cash.

THE 38TH ARMIDALE EISTEDDFOD 2022

Earlier in the week, we received the program of events for the Eisteddfod. Our Infants choir have been scheduled to perform at the NEGS Multipurpose Centre on Wednesday 25th May at 9.45am. The 3-6 Primary Choir have been timetabled for Thursday, May 26th at the same venue. The choir will perform at 10.15am and then head straight to the cathedral for the Catholic Schools Week Deanery Mass.

Also Year 3-4 and Year 5-6 have been allocated to perform their various recorder items on Wednesday 8th June at 9.00am at the Old Teacher's College. This clashes with our visit to St Joseph's Primary, Uralla for our Year 6 and 4 students to participate in the Real Talk program as well as the rest of Years 2, 3 and 5 students will participating in a number of challenges against the St Joseph's students. Again we have requested a change. As soon as dates and times have been finalised, I will let everyone know.

Audience Fees:

Adult $5.00 for a single session or $10.00 for the day.

Concession $3.00 single session or $6.00 for a day ticket.

www.armidale-eisteddfod.org.au

CATHOLIC SCHOOLS WEEK 22-28th May

The Armidale Diocese will be celebrating Catholic Schools Week in Week 5 (22nd-28th May). As mentioned in the section above, our students will be taking part in the Armidale Eisteddfod on the Wednesday and Thursday during this week. Also on Thursday our students will be celebrating Mass with other schools in the Armidale Deanery.

On Friday 27th May, the school will be hosting a House Challenge Day. This will see both the Red and Blue team resume their rivalry by competing in a number of scientific based challenges on the day. Parents, grandparents and carers are definitely welcome to come and view and even take part in some of the challenges. We plan to finish the day off by having a picnic on the green. Hopefully, we will have a nice and sunny day. Fingers crossed!

P&F Meeting

Due to a large number of apologies, the P&F meeting that was meant to take place has been moved to this upcoming Tuesday 17th May at 6pm in the library. All parents and friends are welcome to attend.

Pie & Lamington Drive

Thank you Trina Fletcher and Aimee Norton for organising the Pie & Lamington Drive. Please see the P & F Page in the newsletter for more details. Remember the final day to place your order is tomorrow!

NAPLAN

Well done to our Year 3 & Year 5 students who sat the Writing Test on Tuesday as well as the Reading and Language Conventions Assessment today. The children gave the writing task their best attempt using all of the skills they have learnt in the Big Writes & Cold Writes we do in English.

Next week on Tuesday 17th the Year 3 & Year 5 students will do the Numeracy test.

Thank you parents for your support with NAPLAN. It is important that all students attend each of the test days as this testing will provide valuable information for teachers to assist in the students’ future learning.

It is important to remember that NAPLAN is not about passing or failing, but about assessing learning progress. At the classroom level it is one of a number of important tools used by teachers to measure student progress.

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

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