Principal's Report

Dear Parents,

This is our 2nd last Newsletter for the 2024 school year.  I would like to thank you all for an amazing year with many milestones reached for students and staff. Many friendships have been made, sporting achievements gained as well as development in academic achievement and personal wellbeing.

I would like to acknowledge some of our achievements for this year:

• Introduction of the Resilience Project - school wide
• Year 5 and Prep Buddies, Year 6 and Year 1 Buddies
• Expanded Year 6 Leadership Program
• SRC, Social Justice and Sustainability leadership positions for Prep - Year 5
• Senior Playground replacement (happening over the 24/25 summer break)
• Senior Classroom refurbishment (Ready for the 2025 School year)
• O'Hanlon Centre refurb - Painting, Carpet and Lino and removal of Bi-folding doors
• Relocation of the main school bins from the playground to the front corner of the school
• Re carpeting of downstairs admin area and the senior upstairs corridor area
• Year 4 Bike Ed program and Camp
• Whole school Swimming program
• Relaunch of the St. Patrick's Festival
• Whole School Production @ Robert Blackwood Hall 
• Whole School Sex Ed and Protective Behaviours Program
• Purchasing of Chromebooks annually for the Year 3 cohort
• New Year 6 Hoodies and design for 2025 - selected by the students
• Naming of the 4 colour houses with logo designs
• New school website and virtual tour
• Hall floor polishing 
• Italian Day Festival
• P & F Mother's Day and Father's Day activities and Stalls
• Very successful Interschool Sports program - State Championship won! (Year 6 Girls Lacrosse Team)

Schedule for 2025:

• Creation of new school song to be sung at special events/assembly
• Creation of 2 Deputy Principal offices in the admin area
• Re- carpeting of the senior classrooms (to be completed by end of T3, 2025)
• Staffroom refurbishment
• Junior Playground fundraising and concept designs - SRC to assist
• Relocation of Chook Pen to garden area
• General maintenance of creek
• New Staff Softshell Jacket and Cap
• New assembly day and time (See further on this page for more info)

Next week's newsletter will have the full staffing schedule for the 2025 school year including the 2025 - 2027 leadership team, teacher class placement and our Learning Support Officers.  

Some achievements for our staffing schedule for 2025 are the appointment of a 2nd Deputy Principal, 6 specialist teachers (45 mins each per class per subject) as a part of our main specialist rotations and additional LSO's to support in the classrooms.

Also due to the unprecedent interest in enrolments for St. Patrick's School we will be capping each year level at 72 students.  This gives us a maximum total number of 24 students per class - 3 straight classes per year level (21 classes in total).  With a projected starting enrolment of 462 students at St. Patrick's in 2025, our school class average stands at 22 students.  We currently have a waiting list for new students for one of our year levels, and I fully expect this to increase by the end of next year.

Changes for 2025

Please note the following changes for the start of the 2025 school year.

Canteen

The canteen will operate on Wednesdays and Thursdays during the 2025 school year. The first day of canteen in 2025 will be Wednesday, 5th February (Week 2, Term 1).

Assembly

After consultation with the School Advisory Council, the P&F, and school staff, I have decided to move our weekly assembly to Friday afternoons. Assemblies will begin at 2:50pm and will conclude at 3:15pm, ready for afternoon dismissal. The reason for changing the assembly day and time is to streamline our week, avoiding disruptions to Monday mornings, whilst better utilising the last 25 minutes of Friday afternoons.

Confirmation 2025 

Next year is a Jubilee year for the Catholic Church. As such, Archbishop Comensoli has invited all parishes to celebrate the Sacrament of Confirmation at St. Patrick's Cathedral. The combined parishes of St. Patrick's (Mentone), St. John Vianney (Parkdale), and Stella Maris (Beaumaris) will celebrate the Sacrament of Confirmation on Thursday 28th August, at 7:30pm at St. Patrick's Cathedral, East Melbourne.  More information will follow next year.

Grandparents Day Mass

We will trial the Grandparents Day Mass at 12:00pm on Tuesday 29th July, 2025. This change is intended to alleviate the pressure on families and allow special visitors plenty of time to arrive. The schedule for the day will be:

• 10:00 am – Arrival for classroom activities
• 11:00 am – Morning tea in the hall
• 12:00 pm – Grandparents Day Mass

End of Term finishing time

In 2025, all end of term days will now conclude at 12:30pm.

Beach Program Years 4-6

Thanks to Mr Colin Edwards for organising our annual Beach program for the Year 4 - 6 Students.  The weather was very kind for our visit to Mentone Life Saving Club yesterday and today.  Thanks also to the many staff and parents for assisting with supervision for this event.

P & F Christmas Breakfast

Our annual Christmas breakfast is on for Tuesday 17th December from 7:30am - 8:45am.

Booking details are listed on th P & F Page of this newsletter and also below.

Staff Baby News!

Congratulations to Mr Ian Leach and his partner Steph on the safe arrival of Lachlan on Thursday last week.  A little brother for Harrison!  Mum and baby are doing well.  

Parents and Friends Dates for 2025

Term 1 - Tueday 4th February - 7:30pm

Term 2 - Tuesday 29th April - 7:30pm

Term 3 - Tuesday 5th August - 7:30pm

Term 4 - Tuesday 11th November - AGM - 7:00pm

School Advisory Council Dates for 2025

Term 1 - Wednesday 12th February - 7:00pm

Term 2 - Wednesday 7th May - 7:00pm

Term 3 - Wednesday 20th August - 7:00pm

Term 4 - Wednesday 19th November - AGM - 7:00pm

School Fees for 2025

In 2025, we will be introducing an Annual Capital Fee per family to help cover the costs of our current school building loans. The School Advisory Council (SAC) has approved a fee of $250 per family, effective from 2025. This new annual charge will be billed with the Term 1 invoice. The Capital Fee will be reviewed by the SAC every three years, considering factors such as projected student enrolments and the school’s financial outlook. It is anticipated that the fee will increase by approximately $40 per year over the next three years. The SAC will conduct another review of the fee structure at the end of the three-year period.

The completion of this building project provided the space required to facilitate the growth of the school and increased enrolments over the past 3 years, resulting in the record number of students enrolled in 2025 in 21 classes between Prep to Grade 6.

The building project completed in 2022 had a total cost of $3.4 million, with half of the funding provided by the government and the remaining half covered by a 15-year, interest-free loan from the Catholic Development Fund. To maintain the interest subsidy on this loan, repayments must be made on time, and the Capital Fee will be used to cover a portion of these repayments, in accordance with the guidelines set by the Catholic Archdiocese of Melbourne.

Please see below our 2025 school fee letter.

Taekwondo in 2025

Sophia and her team will be continuing the Taekwondo program at St. Patrick's in 2025 on Monday's and Thursday's in the school hall.  Registration/booking information can be found on the communtiy page of this newsletter.

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.  The 2025 school google calendar has been updated to reflect all of the main events.

Alternatively you can access the whole 2025 year as a PDF Document below.

** Please note that dates are correct at the time of publishing but there may be changes during the year.  The google calendar is always the most up to date calendar.

God Bless,

Pat Berlingeri

Principal