From the Assistant Principal.
Dear Families,
CYBER SAFETY
We constantly live in an online world. Our students navigate this in their school work as well as their interactions with their friends outside of school using a range of devices. As parents, it is important for you to remain vigilant and aware of what your children do when online. This includes messaging services and social media chat groups, which especially our senior students are often part of. Recently it came to our attention that some students have been sending inappropriate messages and images to each other. While this did not occur at school, sometimes the impact is felt at school. Please have a chat to your children about using appropriate language and not sharing images of others without their permission. Early next term the police youth liaison officer will be coming to school to speak to our Stage 3 students about cyber safety.
Here is a link to an interesting article from e-smart regarding some online messages that you might be able to speak with your children about:
UPDATED MOBILE DEVICE POLICY
Please see attached an updated mobile device policy. Please check procedures regarding smart watches and devices in our younger grades.
All smart watches must be set to 'airplane' or 'school' mode and not accessed during the school day 8.20am - 3.10pm.
FRUIT AND VEG MONTH
Fruit & Veg Month is a free annual event for NSW primary schools that puts a positive focus on fruit and vegetables. Each year, children are encouraged to eat, enjoy and learn about fruit and veggies in the classroom and at home.
Fruit & Veg Month 2023 runs from Monday 28 August to Friday 22 September.
This year’s theme is: Fruit & Vegie STEMs!
During this month, students will be involved in various classroom and school-based activities to encourage them to eat more fresh fruits and vegetables. One way to do this is through Crunch and Sip time. All classes have a crunch and sip time each day. Students are encouraged to bring fresh fruit and veggies they can crunch on while they are working, or during brain break time. They should be items that are easily snacked on eg apples are great, but cut up apples allow them to be more snackable while working.
Here is some more information about Crunch & Sip.
Here are some ideas for Crunch and Sip:
SCHOOL UNIFORM
Please ensure all students are wearing the correct uniform. The staff of St Patrick’s take a positive approach to the wearing of the correct school uniform and constantly encourage students to be wearing their uniform correctly. Students who are not wearing correct school uniform will be reminded of what the correct uniform is. A Compass notification may go out to parents of a student who is continually wearing the incorrect uniform. This includes appropriate hairstyles for both boys and girls. All hair longer than shoulder length should be tied back with hair ties. We do not encourage extreme haircuts.
If there is a reason why your child is not in the correct uniform, please send a note to your child's class teacher or an email to our info address to explain.
As the weather starts to become warmer, students may move between winter and summer uniform depending on the forecast. Please remember if you choose to wear summer uniform you are to wear all summer uniform and if you choose to wear winter, it must be all winter uniform, no mixing and matching of the uniforms.
Please ensure all uniform items, including jumpers, jackets and hats are clearly labelled.
Have a great week,
Jim Heelis
Assistant Principal