Dear Parents and Carers,

On August 15, Catholics worldwide mark the Virgin Mary being brought into heaven with a feast, known as the Feast of the Assumption. The Assumption of Mary is the teaching that the Immaculate Mother of God, having completed the course of her earthly life, was assumed body and soul into heavenly glory. Pope Francis explains that  

“To magnify means to exalt a reality for its greatness, for its beauty, Mary proclaims the greatness of the Lord… she shows us that if we want our life to be happy, God must be placed first, because He alone is great”. Pope Francis warns us of getting lost in the pettiness of life, chasing after things of little importance, like “prejudices, grudges, rivalries, envy, and superfluous material goods”. Pope Francis encourages us all to look to Mary, who invites us to “look upward at the ‘great things’ the Lord has accomplished in her.”

 Almighty Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,

you have revealed the beauty of your power

by exalting the lowly virgin of Nazareth

and making her the mother of our Saviour.

May the prayers of this woman clothed with the sun

bring Jesus to the waiting world

and fill the void of incompletion with the presence of her child,

who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

Amen. 

Throughout this year a number of parents have spoken to me regarding the possibility of a service providing Out of School Hours Care onsite at St Paul’s. I have spoken to Fr. Leo and CatholicCare to determine the viability of CatholicCare providing before and after school hours care in the school/ parish hall beginning in 2021. 

The first step of the process is for families to complete a short survey so that CatholicCare can determine the viability and community need for the service. 

Could I ask parents and carers to complete a short survey so that CatholicCare can collate community data to inform them of the viability of the OOSH service. Please find the link to the survey below. The survey will close on Wednesday 26 August 2020.

https://forms.office.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=zlmHQHHqOUOz47-22C6OuCe6RogtQQNEgk7B6IPZm7BUNUk0UlVFMlpTT1dLUzYwUzdWRE03RzRRQS4u

CatholicCare have developed a video highlighting the activities they offer as paert of their OOSH service. Please find the link to the video below

https://forms.office.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=zlmHQHHqOUOz47-22C6OuCe6RogtQQNEgk7B6IPZm7BUNUk0UlVFMlpTT1dLUzYwUzdWRE03RzRRQS4u

A number of parents have discussed with me the possibility of their child wearing coloured joggers which enable orthopaedic foot inserts to be fitted more comfortably than white leather joggers. At the Parents and Friends Meeting last Monday I raised this request on behalf of those parents who had spoken to me, for the Parents and Friends Association to discuss. The Parents and Friends Association have endorsed this change to the St Paul’s Uniform Policy. Students can wear coloured joggers on Sports and PE days, please note that basketball shoes, converse shoes and any other non style joggers are not to be worn to school. 

At the Parents and Friends Association Meeting on Monday 3rd August an item for discussion was the St Paul’s School Uniform. The Parents and Friends Association would like to establish a committee of parents and carers to review the current school uniform. Mrs Amy De Santis will be the contact person on behalf of the Parents and Friends Association and if any parent or carer would like to be part of the committee to review the school uniform could you please contact Amy De Santis.

The second partnership principle asks parents and the school community to commit to building positive relationships of respect, trust and resilience. This principle involves;

• Treating every person with courtesy, respect and positive regard.
• Respecting parents as the first and primary educators of their child who bring a specific knowledge and perspective to the partnership.
• Respecting school leaders, teachers and school staff for their knowledge, professional skills and expertise in education.
• Assuming each member of the partnership is committed to the learning and wellbeing of each student.
• Supporting relationships with regular and meaningful communication.
• Adopting a positive and hopefilled attitude and seeking to proactively resolve any issues.
• Approaching any disagreement with an openness to respect the opinions of others, and a willingness to address concerns in an appropriate manner.
• Accepting that not all responses to concerns can be resolved with mutual agreement.

On Monday 31st August Week 7 staff will be involved in a Staff Development Day. This will be a pupil free day for students and students will not attend school. The focus of the Staff Development Day will be on curriculum development.

Wishing you every blessing,

Michelle Rodwell

Principal

1. Remove devices from the bedrooms. This means parents too, unless you have an on-call occupation. Let your children see that you too can sleep without the phone next to the bed.
2. Follow the rules of the site. Read the Terms and Conditions of Use and ensure that your child is following them, especially around age restrictions. Do not help your child lie online!
3. Have a family online contract. What are the expectations around safe and responsible technology use? Involve your children in the process of drawing up this contract.
4. Know your children's pass codes and passwords. This is not an invasion of privacy, it is PARENTING.
5. Be an active participant in your child's online world. Play and explore together
6. Use filters.
7. Learn to say NO!
8. Know what sites, apps and games they are using and use them as well.
9. Ensure your child is only talking/ engaging with people they know IRL (in real life).
10. Know where your child is in the online world, the same as in the real world.

If you would like to learn more register for the following free webinar:

"Raising Your Child in a Digital World" Dr McMahon 

27th August 6:00 pm- 7:00 pm

See attached flyer for more details.

We strongly encourage road safety at St Paul's. At the back gate, it is a requirement at afternoon pick up that you walk from your car to the cement area to collect your child.  Could all parents and carers be mindful when exiting the car park that there may be parents, carers and students walking to their car? 

When dropping off at the back gate in the morning please ensure your children are getting out of the car on the safe side (passenger side) to stay safe.

The Tongarra Road pick up is closely monitored by police and rangers. Please do not double park when getting your children.

“What is the “feast of the Assumption?”

This is the day we remember when Mary was taken (“assumed”) into heaven, body and soul, after she died. You will not find this story in the Bible. However, a tradition handed down from the earliest days of the Church says that Mary died in Jerusalem and was buried in a tomb. But when the apostles opened the tomb again, her body was gone. 

This day is very important to our faith and is a Holy Day of Obligation, asking us to attend Mass to celebrate that Mary is special for all of us.

As it is difficult to attend Mass at the moment, it would be wonderful for your family to say a prayer together, asking Mary to bless you and keep those you love safe.

Our school will again participate in the Christmas Story Art Competition in 2020. Years 5 and 6 students will read and reflect on a variety of Bible passages that tell parts of the Christmas story. They will then create their own artwork (either 2D or 3D) and explain in detail what they created in the art piece, also including a written reflection on how they have retold part of the story of Jesus’ birth.

As in previous years, successful entries from students of the Wollongong Diocese will be selected to be displayed at the Sydney Christmas Art Competition. Our school community was very proud that last year Sean Bancroft (Year 5, 2019) took out one of the highest awards at the Sydney Exhibition.

The format of this competition and exhibition may be modified this year to comply with government COVID requirements. We will give you more details of the dates of the exhibition towards the end of this term.

We have been fortunate this term that Fr. Leo can again visit us in class groups. Both he and the students have commented on how much they have enjoyed the chance to ask Father questions about their faith and also show their enthusiasm to have him as a visitor in their classroom. Fr Leo was entertained by Kinder last week and will visit Year 3 classes next week, as part of their preparation for their First Reconciliation.

It is disappointing that due to COVID restrictions that families cannot enter the school to see the class displays of artwork that the students are so proud to exhibit. Students from other class are always seen stopping and carefully looking at the work created by their peers.

We thank Year 3 for showing us their wonderful work over the past 5 weeks.

Hoping all families are keeping safe and well

Julie Ferguson

Religious Education Coordinator

Congratulations to the following students who have received or will be receiving a Principal Award and/or a Mary MacKillop Award:

Principal Awards

Zali Barrett - 2 Red

Chloe Fletcher - 2 Red

Mary MacKillop Awards

Isabella De Santis - 4 Blue

Congratulations to these students who have received a PB4L Award in Week 4 Term 3 for playing safely, respectfully and responsibly on the playgrounds.

Ryder Hollingsworth - Kindergarten Red

Ava Van Akker - 1 Red

Alivia Veljanoski - 3 Blue

Andre Pires - 1 Blue

Natalie Moon - 6 Blue

Dear Parents and Carers,

On 21 August your child will bring home a workbook. This time it will be their Science book to help celebrate National Science Week (15-23 August).

Pasted inside will be a confirmation slip that you will be required to sign.

Teachers use many different approaches to marking books. Some items will not be marked as they were consolidation tasks. This does not mean the teacher has not seen this work. Other items will be marked only for a set focus eg: using capital letters when writing. Some work samples will have notes directed to the child to remind them of what to do and some items will be marked for the teacher’s reference to remind them of teaching focuses for a particular child. Occasionally, there will be marking rubrics which give feedback to the student, teacher or parent about a child’s progress against the standard for that grade. Teacher’s give feedback to children through verbal means as well as what is seen in the workbook.

Your child would love you to look through their book and use this as a starting point to discuss what they have been learning. If you would like to give your child some feedback you might like to try the following format. 

This is a copy of what the slip will look like:

Child’s Name:		Child’s Class:
Workbook subject/ title:
I have sighted my child’s workbook and given them some feedback. YES
Parent Signature:

If you would like additional information contact your Stage Leader.

Yours Sincerely, 

St Paul’s Leadership Team

Just a reminder that all entries are officially closed for the 2020 ICAS Assessments. There is a testing window of a week to complete the assessments therefore, if a student is absent from school on the date of the assessment, we will ensure they sit the test during the testing window. On the day of the test those students participating will be supervised by Mrs Rodwell in the library.

The dates again for the 2020 ICAS assessments at St Paul's are as listed below:

ICAS Science - Monday 17 August
(Testing Window Monday 17 August - Friday 21 August)

ICAS Writing - Not available in 2020

ICAS Digital Technologies - Monday 24 August
(Testing Window Monday 24 August - Friday 28 August)

ICAS English - Tuesday 25 August
(Testing Window Monday 24 August - Friday 28 August)

ICAS Mathematics - Tuesday 1 September
(Testing Window Monday 31 August - Friday 4 September)

ICAS Spelling Bee - Wednesday 2 September 
(Testing Window Monday 31 August - Friday 4 September)

Brian McCann

Middle Leader

The School Captains have formed a committee to organise a doubles handball competition for each grade. On Friday the committee will visit all of the classrooms in the school to talk about the competition and go over the rules that will be used. The winners from each class will then compete against the other class to determine an overall grade winner with the winners being awarded a voucher to use at the canteen. 

We thank the Captains and their committee for organising this initiative and look forward to the friendly competition.

Theme: ‘Deep Blue: innovation for the future of our oceans’

Week 5 is National Science Week and to celebrate our students will be engaging in some fun ‘hands on’ experiences using some of the robotics we have at our school. Each class will have an opportunity to visit the library to view a ‘STEM Robotics Expo’. The students will be able to code, control and experiment with some of our robotics such as VEX, Blue-Bot, Ozobots, Mbots, Makey Makey, Sphero and Strawbees. This will be a great opportunity for our students and teachers to experiment with robots and to develop skills in collaboration, communication, problem solving, coding and sequencing algorithms.

We thank the P&F for your generous STEM fundraiser donation last year so we could buy new robotics and upgrade some old ones. We are looking forward to the experience and learning about coding robots.

In addition to the STEM Robotics Expo, the students will also be involved in a STEM activity during their Science lesson in their class. Thank you to the students who have entered the STEM challenge this year. All entries are due by Friday 14 August.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1VQvO_hBOX37ju7yStRjurxiq5fCwmFv7KkL5f_s6AoY/edit

Belinda Evans

Middle Leader

Well it’s that time of year again when our school seriously starts talking about walking! 

Friday the 11th September  is Walk Safely to School Day WSTSDD).

WSTSDD  is an annual event when all primary school children are encouraged to walk and commute safely to school. If any students and parents would like to participate in this event we will be meeting between 8:15 am - 8.25am on Friday the 11th September outside the entrance to Albion Park Swimming Pool. 

Please meet St Paul’s staff between these times. We will start walking to school by 8:25 am. 

All welcome to join us.

Remember, Active Kids are Healthy Kids 

Angela Spaccavento

School Banking will be on pause until further notice due to the current Covid restrictions.  If there are any changes to this we will notify you through our School Newsletter or via a Compass Newsfeed.

The School Office