Message From Our Principal 

Welcome back to Term 4! I hope all of our St Patrick’s families enjoyed a relaxing break and had the opportunity to spend some quality time together. It has been wonderful to welcome our students back these last two weeks and see the energy and enthusiasm they have brought with them. Term 4 is always an exciting and incredibly busy time, filled with learning, celebrations and many special moments as we reflect on just how much our students have grown throughout the year. For our Grade 6 students in particular, this term marks the beginning of their final chapter at St Patrick’s, and we look forward to celebrating them and supporting their transition to secondary school. As always, thank you to our families for your continued support and partnership. We are looking forward to a fantastic final term together and finishing 2026 strongly as a school community.

We are very excited to welcome our 2027 Foundation students as our Little Paddy’s Transition Program gets underway! This program provides our newest little learners with the opportunity to become familiar with St Patrick’s, spend time in the classroom, meet staff and begin building friendships with their future classmates. Starting school is such an exciting milestone, and these transition sessions are an important part of helping our Little Paddy’s feel safe, confident and connected before their first official day next year. We can’t wait to watch them grow in confidence over the coming weeks and officially welcome them and their families into our St Patrick’s community.

There is plenty of excitement building for our St Pat’s Specialist Showcase, which is back this term! On Thursday 29 October from 2:20–3:00pm, families and friends are invited to join us in the Cil Dara for a gallery-style walk-through celebrating the fantastic learning and achievements happening across our Specialist subjects. Students are very excited to share what they have been working on in Art & Media Arts, Italian, Physical Education & Health, DigiTech and Drama. This is always a wonderful opportunity for our students to proudly showcase their talents, creativity and learning, and we can’t wait to welcome our families along to celebrate with us!

A huge congratulations to our Grade 5/6 students who represented St Patrick’s so wonderfully at camp in Queenscliff. Our staff received some fantastic compliments about the students’ behaviour, attitude, manners and the way they conducted themselves throughout the camp. Hearing such positive feedback makes us incredibly proud! Our students embraced the activities, supported and encouraged one another, showed respect to staff and others, and demonstrated what it means to represent St Patrick’s with pride. Well done, Grade 5/6 – you should be very proud of yourselves!

A huge thank you to Katie, Geenah, Sean and Lara for giving up their time to attend our Grade 5/6 Camp in Queenscliff. Camps are such a fantastic experience for our students, but they simply wouldn’t be possible without staff who are willing to spend time away from their own families, manage some very long days (and often very little sleep!) and ensure our students are safe, supported and having a great time. We are incredibly grateful for the energy, care and enthusiasm you brought to the camp and for helping create some wonderful memories for our Grade 5/6 students. Thank you!

Supporting Wellbeing at Home – Mindful Parenting

As we continue to work in partnership with our families to support the wellbeing of our students, I wanted to share the following article on mindful parenting. Parenting can be incredibly rewarding, but we also know that busy routines, competing demands and challenging moments can sometimes make it difficult to respond in the way we would like. This article offers some simple and practical ideas around being present, listening to our children, communicating about emotions, modelling how to learn from mistakes, practising gratitude and building connection as a family. Institute of Positive Education There is certainly no such thing as perfect parenting, but taking small moments to slow down, connect and respond intentionally can make a real difference.

Mindful Parenting | Institute of Positive Education

With the ever-increasing concerns around online safety in children and young people, it's more important than ever to support our families in being able to discuss topics with their children or young people such as gaming and social media, to cyberbullying and AI-generated content. The eSafety Commissioner have an Online Safety Parent guide that provides practical ways for parents and carers to support their child to have more positive online experiences. The guide will help:

                    - Understand common online risks and issues

                    - Learn what helps in different scenarios

                    - Talk with their child about what they do online

                    - Know how to respond if something goes wrong

Online Safety Parent Guide - https://www.esafety.gov.au/parents/resources/online-safety-book

There is also a range of parent resources that are available as well via eSafety, including age-based Family Tech Agreements: https://www.esafety.gov.au/parents/resources