Mr Hyatt

September, September!

Hi Everyone. I hope all of you had a great Father's Day and had the opportunity to spend this day with your family. I know a number of families at St Patrick's would have been involved with various sporting events on Father's Day and all of our lives are very hectic with all of the commitments that we have. But Father's Day gives us the opportunity to spend time with loved ones and these moments are priceless. This is what Father's Day is all about and I do hope you spoiled your father in some way.

Even though I know we are still going to have a few more cold mornings and days ahead of us, it is great to see that we are officially out of Winter and now are in the early days of Spring. It was a great way to acknowledge Spring by having a very successful Father's Day Breakfast, Grandparents and Book Week Fashion Parade. This couldn't have been as successful as it was without the hard work of the P and F organising the Father's Day Breakfast and the morning tea, Mrs Healey for leading the Book Fair as well as all of the staff members who organised various activities in the all classrooms. So thank you and I will need to keep a very quiet profile in the upcoming weeks as like last year, I made a fool of myself, especially with my new hairstyle. I know that there were a number of photos and videos that were shared of myself and the staff members showing off during the parade.

Getting back on track, so what is going to be happening during September? Even though there are just over two weeks before the term finishes, there are still a number of events quickly approaching. Very soon, all of our Years 3-6 students will be traveling to participate in both netball and soccer at the Diocesan Gala Day. A number of our staff will be traveling to both Moree and Tamworth to participate in the Clarity Suite Days, which is a whole diocese initiative. The Clarity Suite days are designed to further improve our teaching as well as collect and use up-to-date data to best inform our teaching practices to cater to all learning abilities, needs, and styles. Our transition program will continue every Friday as well. We still have two more tennis sessions and finally, we are planning to mark off another successful term with a parent assembly at 2.30pm on the last day of the term. 

P and F Winter Raffle Winner!

Last Friday the P and F's Winter Raffle was drawn and congratulations go to Karina Partridge who won the prize of $5000. Well done Karina! Thank you goes out to Amy Clark who was the main driver of this fundraiser as well as any other member of our P and F who assisted in any way. Also, thank you to all members of the community who purchased at least one ticket. Your support of our school is greatly appreciated and fingers crossed, I hope I will be in the running of the next raffle like this sometime in the future.

Grandparents Day, Book Fair and Book Week Fashion Parade

Thank you to all of our parents, grandparents, supporters, students and staff members for making our annual Father's Day Breakfast, Grandparents Day and Book Week Activities a huge success! It was fantastic to see nearly everyone in our wider school community take part. The students and staff members should be very proud of themselves with the ideas and originality of their costume designs and I have to admit it was very difficult judging the winners of each learning stage group with their costumes. I could have handed out a lot more prizes. Again, well done to everyone, and thank you once again for coming out and supporting us on the day. 

Official House Groups Name Survey

Thanks again to all families, staff members, and students who took part in the survey in regard to the proposed action of giving the Red and Blue Houses an official name commencing next year. I am going through all of the results and suggestions and an announcement will be made in the very near future on what the Red and Blue Houses will be formally known as.

Term 4 Excursion Update

Very soon all classes will be participating in their major excursions for the year. In the first week of Term 4, all K-2 students will be traveling to Tamworth to watch 'Possum Magic' at the Capital Theatre. More information will be sent home to all K-2 families in the upcoming days.

Thanks again to all of our Years 3-4 parents who have indicated that they would like their child to participate in the overnight excursion to Thalgarrah Environment Education Centre on the 23rd and 24th of November. Mrs Makeham and myself will be supervising the students on this excursion.

Also, more information went home to all of our Years 5-6 families in regard to their major excursion to Coffs Harbour from the 23rd to the 27th October. Mrs Davey and myself will be supervising the students on this excursion and looking at the itinerary, we are going to have a great time. Parents need to be aware that they need to complete their child's registration on the online portal before Monday 9th October. The link to access the online portal is included in the note that went home to all families via Compass earlier this week.  

Thank you to all the families who have paid the full costing of the Coffs Harbour excursion. Please be reminded that all students attending the excursion need to have payments finalised by the 30th September 2023.

The link below is a copy of the letter that was sent home to all of our Years 5-6 families. If anyone is encountering any difficulties and/or has any further questions/queries in regard to the Coffs Harbour Excursion, please feel free to contact the school.

Bushfest

Congratulations to all of our Years 3-6 students who went to Armidale yesterday to participate in Bushfest organised by The New England Conservatorium of Music. Led by Paul Jarman, the students sang with other schools in the region who also work with the Conservatorium. In the morning session, all of the schools combined as a mass choir in rehearsing two songs that we have been practising with Nicole Mackson as part of the Mini Minstrels lessons this term. This was followed by a short break and then the mass choir held a performance for the wider community. Thanks to some of our parents who made the effort to travel to Armidale to watch our students perform, it is very much appreciated. Also, well done to all of our Years 3-6 students as they were great ambassadors for our school.

Contacting Your Child's Teacher

Teachers welcome contact from parents, if you need to talk with staff please either contact the class teacher by phoning the school – 67772328 or email the school at spwadmin@arm.catholic.edu.au.