CALENDAR

Detailed calendar can be viewed at www.spnhill.catholic.edu.au or on the FlexiBuzz app

NOVEMBER Su 19 Book Fair at Lions Market 9am-1pm M-F 20-1 Book Fair Mo 20 Reading counts 1,2,3 … read with me 9am Mo 27 Reading counts 1,2,3 … read with me 9am DECEMBER M-F4-15 Water Safety Program Mo 4 Reading counts 1,2,3 … read with me 9am We 6 School Advisory Council Annual

General Meeting—7:30pm M-F11-15 Year 7 Transition Program at Nhill

College Mo 11 Reading counts 1,2,3 … read with me 9am We 13 Year 7 Transition Information

Evening at Nhill College (Yr 6 students)

Mo 18 Reading counts 1,2,3 … read with me 9am We 20 6:00pm End of Year Thanksgiving &

Graduation Mass Th 21 Students’ Last Day—dismissal 3:15pm

Dear Parents and Members of St Patrick’s School Community,

32nd SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME—12 November

Last Sunday’s gospel contained a parable about the ten bridesmaids; five of whom were wise because they had extra oil for their lamps; and five of whom were foolish because they weren’t prepared with extra oil. Because they had to go and purchase extra oil they were locked out of the wedding celebrations. Parables are stories within stories so the question is “What relevance does this gospel hold for us?” As the end of the liturgical year draws to a close (Advent, which begins on Sunday 3 December, is the beginning of the new liturgical year) the Gospel message becomes one of urgency. Time is running out. Be alert. Stay awake. Are you ready for the arrival of God’s reign? Have you prepared adequately?

As the end of 2017 rushes towards us I urge you to be prepared and stay up to date with upcoming school events and do your bit to be prepared for them.

2018 STAFFING

It is with much sadness that I announce that Renee Anson will be leaving us at the end of this year. Renee has been travelling back and forth from Horsham for most of the last three years. She has found this to be very tiring, particularly this year, and she has been successful in gaining a position at Horsham West Primary School for 2018. We have already advertised and have appointed Miss Siobhan Webb to a classroom teaching position for next year.

We wish Renee all the best for the remainder of this year and for her future. She is a great teacher and we have been very fortunate to see her develop into the teacher she is today.

ABOVE AND BEYOND

This week we are acknowledging six students who are displaying growth in the following areas.

Lucas—for working hard on his reading to achieve a higher

level and for great results on his spelling tests.

Erin—for dedicating time and effort to ensure her

handwriting is neat and legible; and for using questioning

and monitoring skills to help her comprehension of more

difficult texts.

Mia—for focusing on improving her writing by using a

thesaurus to change simple Tier 1 words into more

interesting and complex Tier 2 words.

Shai—for her sunny disposition and the kind, gentle way

she cares for everyone in the school.

Heath—for sharing his knowledge of football skills during

St. Patrick’s Church Times Sundays at 10 am

This Sunday 19 November—Mass

St. Patrick’s School is a Child-safe school. As a Catholic Christian community, we will nurture the children as they learn together to respond to the Gospel in their daily lives and explore their emerging role in Australian society.

Our Vision

St Patrick’s School

is a child safe school St. Patrick’s School

29 Leahy Street, PO Box 113, Nhill 3418

Phone 03 5391 1575

Mobile 0419 929 271

Fax 03 5391 1506

Email principal@spnhill.catholic.edu.au

Web www.spnhill.catholic.edu.au

Term Dates Class Times Administration Office Hours 2017 Term 4 9 Oct to 22 Dec 8:55am Class time

2018 11am Recess Monday Closed

Term 1 29 Jan* to 29 Mar 11:30am Class time Tuesday 9am

3:50pm Term 2 16 Apr to 29 Jun 1:30pm Lunch Wednesday

Term 3 16 Jul to 21 Sep 2:15pm Class time Thursday

Term 4 8 Oct to 21 Dec 3:15pm Dismissal Friday 9am1pm

Newsletter No. 2017/35 Thursday, 16 November 2017

SCHOOL

Advisory

Council

Members

Lisa Braybrook Helen Cannell (Chairperson) Michelle Dickinson Jamie Donnell Kimberley Philip Melissa Polkinghorne Ex Officio Fr. Peter Hudson Kathryn Bendall Ann Munro Karen Rintoule

winner is Kaw Mu who was caught using our school rules by

displaying respect.

Nominated by Jobe

Attachments

School Advisory Council Nomination Form

BookFair

This week’s

Full colour version of newsletter is on our website spnhill.catholic.edu.au/newsletters-2017.html and FlexiBuzz

This week in the Junior Classroom our Shared Reading book is 'Pete and Paul's Salty Adventure', which explains the effect salty water has on the environment. We have been busy practising letter writing to ensure we have a letter ready by the end of the week to send to Santa, to give him enough time to write and send a letter back to us.

In Mathematics, Foundation students have been working on addition problems and matching the names of numbers to the numerals. Year 1 and Year 2 students have been developing their knowledge of fractions this week, looking at half, quarters and eighths.

During Integrated Studies, we have been discovering how each of the four zones make ourselves and others around us feel at different times.

This week in Literacy, the seniors are focussing specifically on adverbs and adjectives and are working on orally retelling narrative text. Our vocabulary words this week are ‘devoured’, ‘fossil’, ‘disregard’ and ‘adapted’. We are reading about survival and extinction.

In Numeracy, the focus is still decimals and fractions. The students have been learning to match fractions with their decimal equivalent, and add and subtract decimals and fractions.

In Integrated Studies this week the students have been expanding their ‘Zones in Me’ posters by explicitly identifying situations and times when they may be in each zone and identifying how that would make others feel when they are in each zone.

recent Physical Education lessons, demonstrating his skills in

a kind and considerate way.

Lani—for always trying her best in classroom tasks and

being willing to share her ideas and knowledge, especially

in relation to the vocabulary chart work.

LIONS PEACE POSTER COMPETITION

Recently the Nhill Lions Club asked students to create a poster that demonstrated their understanding of Peace. All three local schools were involved in this competition and a winner was decided for each school. The three winner posters went onto a regional judging panel where an overall winner for this part of Victoria was decided. Nessa Dickinson’s peace poster was chosen as the winner for St. Patrick’s School and commendations were given to Madi Schneider and Jayda Polkinghorne. Congratulations girls.

CHRISTMAS RAFFLE

The School Advisory Council fundraising working group are seeking the support of school families to organise a raffle for Christmas. The working group is asking all families to donate cash (between $10 and $20 if possible) so that items can be purchased from local businesses for the raffle. Donations can be left at the office and are requested to be made before the end of November. Please contact Helen Cannell for further information.

SCHOOL ADVISORY COUNCIL 2018 - CALL FOR NOMINATIONS

The Annual General Meeting of the School Advisory Council will be held at 7:30pm on Wednesday 6 December. We are seeking nominations for two vacant positions (both two year terms). Council members play a vital role in the operation of the school. Roles are not onerous, meetings are scheduled for twice a term and generally are no longer than 2 hours. Past members have derived great satisfaction from their achievements during their terms as Council members. If you are interested in playing a role as part of this advisory group please complete the attached Nomination Form and return it to the school office by 4:00pm on Tuesday 5 December. If you have any questions about what is involved in being a member of the School Advisory Council, please contact a current Council member (Helen Cannell, Jamie Donnell, Lisa Braybrook, Michelle Dickinson, Kimberley Philip or Melissa Polkinghorne), or myself at school.

STUDENT ATTENDANCE

Attached today are some reminder notes for unexplained absences (selected students) to 10 November. Please provide an explanation for your child’s absence on the highlighted dates by next Friday.

RESILIENCE, RIGHTS and RESPECTFUL RELATIONSHIPS

Our school will be implementing this program from next year as part of our commitment to Standard 7 of the Child Safe Standards, Promoting the participation and empowerment of children. Please note that the Resilience, Rights and Respectful Relationships program is NOT the same as the Safe Schools program that you may have heard much about in the media.

Mondays, 9-10am Term 4 Dates 20, 27 November 4, 11, 18 December

The letters Kk and Ll were the focus of Monday’s Reading Counts sessions. The children had a great time reading the Grumpy Bear and making a zoo animal behind a fence.

There are only a few Reading Counts sessions left this year so please make an effort to encourage as many families with young children as possible to attend these free literacy activities.

1, 2, 3 … read with me Reading Counts There are 8 topics of Resilience, Rights and Respectful Relationships, many of which already fit with what we do in our Zones of Regulation program.

Topic 1: Emotional Literacy: the ability to understand, express and manage our own emotions, build empathy and respond appropriately to the emotions of others. Topic 2: Personal Strengths: recognising and understanding strengths and personal qualities in ourselves and others. Topic 3: Positive Coping: identifying different types of coping strategies, such as positive self-talk to mange challenging situations. Topic 4: Problem Solving: developing students’ critical and creative thinking skills and applying them to situations. Topic 5: Stress Management: recognising personal signs and symptoms of stress and developing strategies to help deal with stress. Topic 6: Help-seeking: understanding the importance of seeking help when dealing with problems that are too big to solve alone. Topic 7: Gender and Identity: challenging stereotypes and promoting respect for diversity and difference. Topic 8: Positive Gender Relations: focusing on the standards associated with respectful relationships and building an understanding of the effects of gender-based violence.

The Victorian Curriculum strands of ‘Personal and Social Capability’ and ’Health and Physical Education’ have a specific focus on developing knowledge, understandings and skills to explore, identity and promote safe and respectful relationships. Our teaching of the Resilience, Rights and Respectful Relationships program can only enhance our students’ understanding of emotions, empathy and developing respectful relationships with others. There will be more information about the implementation of this program next year.

UPCOMING DATES—

SCHOLASTIC BOOK FAIR AT NHILL MARKET Sunday 19 November 9am-1pm at Goldsworthy Park

You’re invited to our Book Fair which will be at the Nhill Market on Sunday morning. A Big Thank You to Lisa Braybrook, Kimberley Phillip, Melissa Polkinghorne, the Donnell family and Ashley Dickinson for assisting. If you are still willing to help us then it would be appreciated; just come and see us at our stall The Book Fair will then be set up at school for the following two weeks—Monday 20 November until Friday 1 December. Please come and support the school and get some Christmas presents for your family.

START OF 2018 WORKING BEE

We are seeking your support for a working bee on Saturday 27 January 2018 from 8.30 to 10.30am. We would like to undertake the following work: tennis balls off the roof; spread soft fall in the undercover playground; replenish gravel / fill in compacted area in front of sports shed ; general sweeping and tidying up; remove faded banners; clean hardcourt.

We will be sending home a note early in December asking for your commitment to this working bee. If you have can think of other jobs that need doing about the place then please let us know. Please mark this date in your diary so we can create a great impression for the start of the 2018 school year.

As always, please contact the school if you have any questions about what is happening at St. Patrick’s School.

Kathryn Bendall, Principal.

Tia

Star Quality:

Confidence.

Hobbies: Sport, singing and

dancing.

At school I like: Sport.

Favourite activities at school: hurdles,

computer and iPad.

I like to eat: tomatoes, gnocchi, chicken

and vegetables.

What I want to be when I grow up:

A dancer.

My hero: My cousin Lara (she is older than

me but I am taller) we share special times.

I barrack for AFL team: red, blue and

white are the colours I like and I love

dogs.

I love my pet Frankie, she’s fun to play

with and sleeps in my bed. She’s funny.

Why I like St Pats: Because of my friends

here.

The staff say that: Tia is outgoing and full

of life. She is always wanting to make

friends and she is always willing to share

her ideas with enthusiasm and confidence.