Dear Families,

Welcome back to Term 4, St. Patrick’s community!

I hope everyone enjoyed a restful and refreshing break and found some time to relax and reconnect with family and friends. It’s hard to believe we’ve reached the final term of the year — a time that is always filled with wonderful celebrations, rich learning opportunities, and special moments together as a school community.

This term promises to be a busy and exciting one, with many events on the calendar, including our Year 6 Graduation, transition programs for our 2026 Preps, Christmas concerts, end-of-year celebrations, and much more.

As always, I thank you for your ongoing support and partnership as we work together to make this final term a positive and memorable one for all our students.

Let’s make Term 4 a great finish to another fantastic year at St. Patrick’s!

Staffing Updates

I am delighted to share the happy news that Mrs Stephanie Hulse and her husband Luke are expecting their first child in early March next year. Mrs Hulse will continue in her current classroom role until the end of this year and will remain with us for the first few weeks of Term 1 next year in a support capacity.

We are currently in the process of interviewing for replacement staff to fill the positions of both Mrs Hulse and Mr Leach for 2026. Further staffing announcements will be made later this term when finalised.

Looking ahead to 2026, St Patrick’s will have approximately 470 students across 21 classrooms, with three straight classes per year level from Prep to Year 6. This equates to an average class size of just over 22 students per class—a wonderful reflection of the continued growth and strength of our school community.

Please note that all classes remain capped at 24 students per room.

Summer Uniform

From the start of Term 4 all students can begin to wear their School Summer Uniform. The full transition to Summer Uniform will be by Monday 20th October (Week 3, Term 4).

Please note that as we are a sunsmart school, all students are required to wear their school hats from the first day of Term 4 whilst outside. There will be a 1 week grace period for this.

At the start of Week 2, Term 4 all staff will be enforcing the 'no hat, no play' policy. I also strongly encourage all students to wear sunscreen every day and to reapply sunscreen before going out to lunch.

Cyber Safety Evening

My sincere thanks to Mr. James Daidone and Mr. Brodie Ross for organising our recent Inform and Empower Parent Information Evening. It was a valuable opportunity for parents to gain insights and strategies to help support their children in navigating the online world safely and responsibly.

Our gratitude also goes to Marty McGuaren and Carley McGuaren for their engaging and informative presentation. Their expertise and practical advice were greatly appreciated by all who attended.

Thank you to everyone who attended to make it such a successful and meaningful evening for our school community. A recording of the session will be made available to the community in the coming days for those who could not make the session.

Welcome to New Students

I would like to warmly welcome the following 14 new and returning students to the St. Patrick’s School community for Terms 3 & 4:

Prep – Max M

Year 1 – Thomas G, Celeste G

Year 2 – Jaxon M, Daniel M

Year 3 – Sebastian C, Klaudia K, Gus G, Niamh M, Harry L

Year 4 – Gabriel D, Frankie B

Year 5 – Louis T

Year 6 – Fletcher M

We are delighted to have you join (or rejoin) our wonderful school community. I wish each of you a smooth transition and every success as you settle into life at St. Patrick’s. May your time here be filled with new friendships, great learning, and many happy memories.

2026 School Year

If your child or family will not be returning to St. Patrick’s School in 2026, I kindly ask that you notify me via email principal@spmentone.catholic.edu.au by Monday, 13th October. We currently have a number of children on our waiting lists for next year, and having clarity around available places will help us with planning and enrolments.

Thank you very much for your support and assistance with this.

Important Message from Kingston Council Road Safety

Dear Parents and Carers,

We hope you had a wonderful break. Keeping our students safe around school crossings is very important. As part ofongoing efforts to improve safety, traffic management audits are currently workingwith Kingston Council to conduct a Traffic audit of our local crossings and concernsthat have been raised in the area. Once complete, these audits will help identify ways to make crossings safer and reduce congestion around the school. In the meantime, we are supporting the campaign by installing safety banners around the school fence to remind drivers to slow down and stay alert near our school. These banners will be in place over the next couple of weeks. We encourage all parents and carers to talk to their children about crossing safely and to model safe driving when dropping off or picking up students.

Thank you for helping us keep our school community safe.

Michelle Galileos

Community Road Safety Infrastructure

School Calendar

Please use the following google link to add the school calendar to your own calendar for ease of information exchange. School Google Calendar HERE.

God Bless

Pat Berlingeri

Principal

Community Information

Music Lessons at St Patricks