Mrs Burton 

WELCOME TO TERM 4

Welcome back to Term 4.  I hope that everyone enjoyed the holidays and have recharged after a particularly challenging Term 3 on all. 

It was lovely to see the children on Tuesday, they were very excited to be back to see their friends & teachers.

Next time you drive past school have a look at the Tulips flowering in the front garden. The Tulips were planted by the children as a Resilience exercise from the Walcha Council in response to the drought in 2020.

Term 4 - Staffing for Year 5/6

Sadly Mrs Roberts is unable to return to St Pat's for Term 4. Mrs Roberts joined the staff mid-year 2020 and has been a wonderful staff member and Stage 3 teacher. I would like to  thank Mrs Roberts for her contributions to St Patrick's & Stage 3 over the past 12 months, she will be sadly missed at St Patrick’s.

Mrs Meggie Davey will teach the Year 5/6 class Monday to Friday for Term 4. Thank you Mrs Davey for accepting the additional three days a week in Year 5/6. 

Term 4 - Summer Uniform

The children look great in their Summer Uniforms. Please support the staff in ensuring your child/children are fully dressed in their correct uniform each day.  This includes the correct hat, shorts, socks and black shoes, blue/red hair ribbons.

St Patrick's has always had high expectations around the school uniform and it is an expectation that everyone wears the correct uniform with pride everyday.

Parents please make sure your child has the correct uniform on each day. 

Please send a note to school if your child has a reason for being out of uniform. 

SUMMER

SPORT

TRANSITION for Kindergarten 2022 Term 4

I am very happy to confirm that we are able to offer Transition to our 2022 Kindergarten children with the following restrictions. 

Level 2 & Level 3 restrictions allow some COVID-safe practices in line with the kindergarten orientation and transition guidelines.  Under these settings students are allowed on site. 

Parents and carers are only permitted to drop off and pick up their child and must not remain on-site.

For orientation visits to take place within the school, the following requirements must be inplace:

• Ensure all students attending the orientation have a completed enrolment form, which has been reviewed by the school.

• Develop a risk assessment for any student with additional learning, health care or behavioural needs.

• Confirm with parents and carers that all students are well and free of any flu-like symptoms.

• Allow parents and carers to enter the school site and report to a designated drop-off and collection zone.

• Parents and carers should not remain on site for longer than 10 minutes.

• Reduce crowding where possible and promote physical distancing with markers on the floor in areas where people are asked to queue.

• Start classroom orientation/transition visits after the regular school start time to avoid congestion and to avoid interaction between students attending the visit and current students. 

• Stagger start times to limit the number of people on site and to prevent queueing.

Ensure each parent and carer: 

• Maintains physical distancing. 

• Signs the external visitors form or checks in using a QR code. 

• Follows the relevant advice for their location including wearing a mask. 

• Maintain a record of names and contact details for all students for at least 28 days after the event. This record must only be used for the purposes of contact tracing for COVID-19 infections and stored confidentially and securely. 

• Adopt and promote good hand hygiene practices and make sure that bathrooms are well stocked with hand soap and paper towels or hand dryers and have hand sanitiser at key points around the venue such as entry and exit points. 

• Parents and carers should not be allowed access to areas outside of the designated drop-off and collection points and should leave promptly at the conclusion of the event. 

A email will be sent to our 2022 Kindergarten families confirming the dates and procedures as soon as they are finalisied.  We are looking forward to having our 2022 Kindergarten children come to 'big school'.

2022 will see a new Principal at St Pat's

On the last day of Term 3, the CSO announced that I have been appointed as the Principal at St Mary's Catholic Primary School in Armidale, 2022.  I will be completing my term as Principal of St Patrick's at the end of this year.  I have had a wonderful four years at St Pat's, seeing our amazing students grow and develop into young individuals with knowledge, wisdom, faith, pride and spirit that equips them to face each day. I have made life long friends in the school community.  I am truly blessed to have shared your story & journey and to call you friends.

The CSO has begun the process of advertising the Principals position for St Pat's for 2022 and we look forward to the appointment. 

P & F Street Stall

P & F will be holding a second street stall fundraiser for the year on FRIDAY 15th OCTOBER from 8.30am - (approx.) 4.30pm.

Helpers are needed to:

- Assist on the day with the stall

Please see the below, we still need a couple of helpers throughout the day on the street stall. 

8.30am – 10.30am:         Chloe Hoy (Float/Raffle sheets/Posters) & Trina Fletcher

10.30am – 12.30pm:      Jess Healey & HELPER NEEDED

12.30pm – 2.30pm:        Jo Foster & HELPER NEEDED

2.30pm – 4.30pm:          Chloe Hoy & Sarah-Jane Hoy

- Provide baking to sell (Please make sure all food products are labelled with ingredients)

- Potted Succulents / Plants

If you are able to lend a small part of your day to help on the stall OR are willing to bake / pot succulents or plants it would be most appreciated. 

Thank you to Jess & Dave Healey for kindly offering to donate the wood for our raffle! 

All money raised goes back in to the school to assist and provide further opportunities for our children!

We will also be pre-selling tickets for the raffle, students have taken home this information this week. 

Please email your availability and willingness to help directly to me, chloemhoy@gmail.com or phone/text 0400 389 573.

Kind regards,

Chloe Hoy

P & F Meeting 

The P & F meeting is scheduled for Monday 11th October at 6.00pm via zoom.

SCHOOL SURVEY - Rescheduled 

The surveys of Staff, Parents and Students has been rescheduled for launch this Monday 11 October 2021.

The annual satisfaction survey of parents, students and staff will be conducted on behalf of all Catholic schools in the Diocese this term. The surveys are designed to gather feedback from parents, staff and students about our school and will be used to inform school improvement. Responses are confidential and individuals can not be identified. The surveys will be launched via email on Monday 11 October 2021 using the email addresses supplied to the school. If you do not receive an email with a link to the survey, you can access and complete the survey at the following link. https://www.research.net/r/StPatricksWalchaPARENT2021

COVID 19 - Level 3 Restrictions for School

We return to school under Level 3 restrictions, which means non essential visitors (which includes parents) are still not able to be on school grounds. Please read the updated advice.

CURRENT ADVICE - Wk 1 Term 4

Please continue to monitor the NSW Health regional and rural restrictions and the list of exposure sites and venues of concern and follow any directions from NSW Health. 

There are still a number of towns in regional NSW that are under stay at home orders. 

Please note that attending work and school is a reasonable excuse to leave home under the current stay at home orders. 

Operational matters

School operations - Level 3

All schools within the Armidale Diocese will commence Term 4 operating under Level 3 restrictions.  All staff and students are expected to be at school. There will be no provision for home learning. Schools will be required to restrict activities and, dependent on the size of the school, limit interactions between student groups.  

Masks

CSNSW has advised that under Level 3 settings, masks are required indoors and outdoors for staff. For students in Year 7 and above, masks are required indoors and recommended outdoors (unless exercising or eating). Masks are also recommended indoors and outdoors for primary students (unless exercising or eating).

It will also be mandatory for all staff and secondary school students to carry a mask with them at all times.

Full details of CSNSW advice regarding masks can be found here. 

Visitors

Non-essential visitors are not permitted in schools. Some visitors are permitted in schools based on these guidelines:

With regard to drop off and pick up arrangements, parents and carers must follow their school’s advice including staying in the car when dropping off and picking up children if it is safe to do so. 

If your child/ren cannot be dropped off/collected safely while you remain in the car, please walk with/to collect your child/ren to a point at which it is safe to return to your car, but this must be no further than the school’s gate.

Parents and caregivers should:  

• maintain physical distancing by avoiding gathering outside of school gates
• remain outside of school grounds (note some exceptions may apply regarding schools for specific purposes, vulnerable students or students with disability)
• follow mask-wearing requirements and sign in using the Service NSW QR code when entering the school for a pre-arranged and pre-approved reason.

School Fees

Thank you for finalising 2021 school fees. An overdue notice has been sent out his week to families who have overdue accounts. Thank you for attending to the fees.

SCHOOL OFFICE HOURS

Our School Office hours are from 8:30am -3:30pm Monday to Friday. 

If the school phone is unattended please leave a message on the answering machine.

In emergencies outside Office Hours you can also phone the school mobile 0428772328