In last Sunday’s Gospel John reminds us that God loves us so much that he gave his only begotten Son: “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son so that everyone who believes in Him might not perish but might have eternal life.” (John 3:16).  Pope Benedict XVI stated in the opening of his Encyclical on love, “Being Christian is not the result of an ethical choice or a lofty idea, but the encounter with an event, a person, which gives life a new horizon and a decisive direction.” And that is an apt description of the season of Lent: a transforming encounter with a person, the Son of God, who gives us life, direction, purpose. Lent is a time to come into the light and to embrace the gift of eternal life, and last Sunday’s Gospel invites us to reflect on our own Lenten sacrifice as we journey with the whole church toward the cross.

Dear Parents and Carers,

Over the past week we have been delighted to again welcome parents and carers back on site with the further easing of COVID-19 restrictions. At St Paul’s we recognise that your partnership with the school is so important in the life of the school as we share in your child's learning, wellbeing, and faith development. There has been much to celebrate across our school community over the past few weeks including student participation in many sporting events, liturgies, SPLICED and of course the great learning that occurs in each classroom every day.

This week in particular we come together as a school community to celebrate St Patrick’s Day, the Feast day of St Joseph, our school Cross Country Carnival and next week students will participate in activities that take into account Harmony Week, World Happiness Day and National Day Against Bullying. I would like to express my thanks to the staff of St Paul’s who create valuable learning experiences for our students as we seek to continually extend their boundaries and enrich their education.

From Wednesday 24 March till Thursday 1 April I will be taking Long Service Leave. In my absence Mrs Jan Hutton and Mrs Rebecca Nunes will be relieving Principal. Members of the School Leadership Team will be stepping into the relieving Assistant Principal role. If you have any concerns during my absence could you please see your child’s classroom teacher or Stage Leader. I would like to thank both Mrs Jan Hutton and Mrs Rebecca Nunes for their support and leadership.

Wishing you every blessing,

Michelle Rodwell

Principal

Class teachers are currently in the process of contacting students with Personalised Plans to discuss their goals. Individual parents have been emailed with a time frame and date that teachers will be contacting parents. 

This term we have offered multiple ways for parents and teachers to communicate. We look forward to continuing this relationship with parents throughout the rest of the year. 

Just a reminder that if you have questions, concern or reason to discuss your child you should: 

• call the school or email the office to request a conversation with your child's class teacher.

Your child's class teacher is with your child all day and has the best means to address most concerns or questions. 

If the need arises you may also wish to discuss ongoing or sensitive matters with the Stage Leader (see names below). 

Certain matters that have gone through these channels will then be referred to the Assistant Principal or Principal.

Early Stage One Stage Leader: Belinda Evans

Stage One Stage Leader: Jodi Marsh

Stage Two Stage Leader: Olivia Djodan

Stage Three Stage Leader: Rebecca Nunes

This year NAPLAN will be held for students in Year 3 and Year 5. Information regarding the NAPLAN Assessments has gone home to parents and carers of year three and year five students. 

Do not forget ALL Year 3 & 5 students need to have earphones/headphones by 25 March to engage in the practice test.

Should you have any further questions or queries please discuss them with the NAPLAN Coordinators- Miss Djodan and Mrs Nunes

The Council of Catholic School Parents (NSW/ACT) has joined with the eSafety Commissioner to present two free webinars for parents and carers in late March 2021.

The webinars are:

• Helping kids thrive online (for parents/carers of 5-12 year olds)
• Tech, teens and time online (for parents/carers of 12-18 year olds).

Both are free but registration is required.

Provided are two flyers to give you more information regarding the webinars.

Rebecca Nunes

Assistant Principal

A big thank you to all families and students who participated in today’s activities, dressing with a touch of green and raising money for Project Compassion.

The aim was to raise $500 as a school. Many classes have been contributing in their own way. Year One Blue have set themselves a target of raising $5 to buy a chicken to provide eggs for children at a school in the Solomon Islands. With the money raised so far in Year One Blue they could purchase 17 chickens. A great effort Year One Blue!

To mark the 150th anniversary of Blessed Pope Pius IX’s declaration of St Joseph as Patron of the Universal Church, Pope Francis has proclaimed a special “Year of St Joseph”. Pope Francis describes Saint Joseph as a beloved father, a tender and loving father, an obedient father, an accepting father; a father who is creatively courageous, a working father, a father in the shadows.

The Covid-19 pandemic, has helped us see more clearly the importance of “ordinary” people who, though far from the limelight, exercise patience and offer hope every day. In this, they resemble Saint Joseph, “the man who goes unnoticed, a daily, discreet and hidden presence” in the life of Jesus.

In response, to celebrate St Joseph’s Day at St Paul’s, we are asking students to dress as an essential worker in order to remember those who offer hope every day. Due to Cross Country on the Feast Day, on Thursday 18 March, students are invited to dress up as an essential worker. Students will also participate in a liturgy on this day.

Holy Week will be celebrated in Week 10 of Term 4. On Thursday 1 April, we will have a Whole School Liturgy at 12pm in the hall. At this liturgy we will recount the events of Holy Week in prayer.

With the easing of Covid Restrictions parents are invited to attend. For the purpose of contact tracing, all parents will need to enter via the office, sanitise and sign in. Chairs in the hall will be spaced to ensure adults are sitting 1.5 metres apart.

Project Compassion boxes were sent home with each child a few weeks ago. Donations to Project Compassion allows Caritas Australia, the Catholic Agency for International Aid and Development, to work with local communities around the world to alleviate poverty, hunger, oppression and injustice.

We encourage you to put your compassion into action this Lent through prayer, fasting and almsgiving by supporting Project Compassion. Boxes can be returned to the school office by the end of Term One and money will be forwarded to Caritas Australia.

Parish News

Father Leo Duck has given dates for the celebration of the Sacraments for 2021.

Further information about preparation and registration will be forwarded to you as it comes to hand.

FIRST RECONCILIATION (for students in Year Three or above)

21 June to 25 June

FIRST HOLY COMMUNION (for students in Year Three or above)

11 September or 12 September

CONFIRMATION (for students in Year Six)

29 April or 30 April

Jodi Marsh

Religious Education Coordinator

There is so much to be learned from St Joseph – so much we need right now in this present age! It is prophetic that Pope Francis calls us back to St Joseph with his apostolic letter Patris Corde (With a Father's Heart). Being a husband and father is possibly the hardest and greatest task that many men are given. St Joseph teaches us much about the noble roles of being a father or grandfather. The Diocese of Wollongong has produced a number of great resources to assist people understand and reflect upon the life of St, Joseph. The resources can be found on this link St Joseph Resources

This Friday 19 March the students will be participating in our Cross Country Carnival.  Parents will be required to sign in at the School Office to enter the school to watch.  This will be the only way for parents to enter and leave the school on the day.

As part of our School Review and Improvement priority we are engaging parents in our students’ numeracy learning. This page in our newsletter is part of our strategy and gives helpful hints on how to assist numeracy learning at home.

A fraction is part of a whole that has been broken into equal parts. It has a numerator (top number: how many parts we have), denominator (bottom number: how many parts the whole has been broken up into) and a fraction bar (the line in between). It will help your child to use these words when talking about fractions. Pictures are hugely helpful in understanding fractions. A common mistake is thinking the larger denominator creates a larger fraction. It is the opposite for fractions. The smaller the denominator, the larger the fraction.

Olivia Djodan

Acting Middle Leader

"The Power of the Imaginative Mind: Exploring Possibilities through Multidimensional Thinking."

SPLICED (Strengthening Potential through Learning in Interactive Challenging Environments in the Diocese of Wollongong) is a program offered to select students in order to extend and enrich their thinking.

The unit of exploration this year is entitled “The Power of the Imaginative Mind: Exploring Possibilities through Multidimensional Thinking”. The unit is a Critical, Creative and Reflective Thinking process and can include engagement in a broad selection of Key Learning Areas such as Mathematics, History, Religious Education, English, Science and The Arts.

Students who are engaging in the SPLICED program will be meeting with Mrs Fogliada once each week to work on their project and receive feedback and support.  Students will also be provided ample opportunities to continue their project as a means of quality differentiation in the classroom.  

In addition to weekly sessions with Mrs Fogliada, some students will be invited to participate in whole or part day workshops.  These workshops are facilitated by John Charadia, the CEDoW Education Officer: Gifted Education, Creativity and Critical Thinking, and are supported by various tutors specialising in visual arts, literature and higher-order thinking.  Our first ½ day workshop was held on Wednesday 17 March and was incredibly beneficial in refining students direction for their project.

Each year, we are astounded by the incredible work produced by our students participating in SPLICED and we are excited to see what this year holds for our students.

Bree-Anna Fogliada

Diverse Learning Support Teacher

We love to be in Year 3

Now that Year 3 are a little bit taller and a little bit wiser, they have thoroughly enjoyed taking up more leadership roles at St Paul’s, particularly taking responsibility of the Fogo Bins. We collect all of our food waste and scraps in our Fogo bins to be composted in our school compost area. Each day a small group of responsible Year 3 students collect, empty and return the Fogo bins for every classroom in the school.

We are enjoying working independently in our literacy groups each fortnight as we rotate through various activities to assist with our literacy development. Our favourite at the moment is Switcheroo.

This term we have become historians as we delve into the past of Albion Park. We have analysed many photographs of the past, and listened to the Dreamtime Story of The Five Islands. If you have any photographs or information about Albion Park’s past please send them in, we would love to see them!

Clean Up Australia Day

Last Friday St Paul’s joined with hundreds of other schools and organisations across Australia to be involved in Clean Up Australia Day 2021. We were blessed with beautiful weather as students excitedly grabbed their gloves and got outdoors to help tidy and clean up our wonderful school grounds. Students enjoyed the fresh air and exercise as they took part in the annual event which helps foster respect for creation and helps us learn how to take responsibility for our own waste.

Week 8

• Extending Mathematical Understanding- Miss Djodan 
• NAPLAN Coordinators Day- Miss Djodan
• SPLICED workshop with CeDow personnel- Mrs Fogliada 
• Reading Recovery- Mrs McCann and Mrs Evans 
• School Leadership Team Planning Day- Mrs Rodwell, Mrs Nunes, Mrs Marsh, Mrs Evans, Mr McCann, Miss Djodan
  

Week 9

• Stage 1 Collaborative Planning Day- Mrs Marsh, Mrs Bennett, Mrs Rippon,  and Miss Allison 
• Wollongong Environmental Network Day- Miss De Sousa 
• Early Stage 1 Collaborative Planning Day- Mrs Evans, Mrs Hingston and Mrs Grove

Olivia Djodan
Acting Middle Leader

The following dates have been planned as Staff Professional Development Days for St Paul’s this year. Being Staff Development Days they are pupil free days, so children do not attend school. The dates are as follows:

Please note that CatholicCare OSHC Care will put a survey in the newsletter closer to the Staff Development dates to seek parent/carer feedback regarding the provision of Vacation Care style service for the Staff Development dates.

CatholicCare OSHC Care would like to thank parents and carers who completed their recent survey regarding vacation care. They did not have enough response to run during the April Holidays however the feedback is looking promising for June/July!

CatholicCare OSHC Care process will be similar for Staff Development Dates. When these are coming up please keep an eye out in the newsletter for a survey to register your interest with them. If they gain enough feedback to warrant running the day they will provide a Vacation Care style day, from 7am to 6pm, based off of children's interests and ideas! Please give them a call at 0460 666 010 or email them at albionparkoosh@catholiccare.dow.org.au if you have any further questions.

This year In partnership with Catholic Care, St Paul’s is very fortunate to be participating in the National School Chaplaincy Program (NSCP). The NSCP is an Australian Government funded program which focuses on the mental, emotional, physical and spiritual wellbeing of students and school communities through the provision of pastoral care services. These services offer students holistic support and opportunities for personal growth and development, through strategies and programs delivered by a pastoral care worker. 

Through the NSCP program I will  have the opportunity to work individually or in small groups with students. This year as part of the NSCP we will be implementing a number of programs in various grades at St Paul’s. As we look towards term 2  we will begin the Good Sports Good Mates program with some of our year 5 students, and the Everyday Peacemakers program with some of our year 2 students. 

Monica McCann

Reading Recovery Teacher and Pastoral Support 

This year the CEDoW has organised a day for students within our diocese to come together and discuss important environmental actions occurring within each school.

St Paul's Year 6 Drum Circle Facilitators

The recent easing of COVID-19 restrictions around student gatherings has meant that we are now able to proceed with Choir activities. Great news for our students who have missed showcasing their talents and coming together as a group to rehearse and perform at various celebrations! During Term 1, as restrictions were still in force, a small group of Stage 3 students have been coming together to rehearse our School Song and National Anthem. 

Looking forward to Term Two, our choir numbers will increase, allowing students in Stages Two and Three to participate. We know this will be welcome news for those who love to sing. We look forward to both revising songs that are already familiar to the students and introducing some new repertoire. Hopefully, in the near future, we will share our love of singing once again by way of public performances.

The Choir Committee

On Thursday 18 March at 10 am our school will be joining hundreds of schools across NSW to break the record for the most students crunching vegetables simultaneously.

But we need your help to make it a success!

On Thursday 18 March, please pack your child a container of vegetables (not fruit this time) for them to crunch on.

Some ideas to help you:-

• carrot, celery, cucumber – cut into sticks or left whole
• capsicum – cut into sticks or wedges
• corn – raw baby corn spears or a cooked corn cob
• broccoli or cauliflower florets - raw or lightly cooked to keep their crunch
• tomatoes – small cherry tomatoes or a large tomato that can be eaten like an apple
• beans or snow peas - raw or lightly cooked to keep their crunch
• mushrooms – sliced or left whole

 Thank you for your support

Angela Spaccavento

Year 4 Blue Teacher

I thought you might be interested to know the top five presenting issues for Counselling at our school. These are:

Peer Relationships, Family Relationships and breakdowns, Emotional Regulation, Anxiety and Self-Esteem/confidence

One of the main ways a School Counsellor addresses peer relationship issues and emotion regulation, is to teach children how to understand their emotions and to learn not to react to their feelings.

When there is an event that triggers anger, there is usually another emotion holding that anger up.  It may be frustration, embarrassment, sadness, a feeling of unfairness, or any number of things.  When we feel the anger, we are not necessarily aware of the underlying emotion, and what the anger does is cause us to react in the following pattern:

Trigger = Anger

REACT (yell, fight, etc.)

RETREAT (after we react, we generally either retreat into ourselves or walk away angry, etc.)

RETHINK (after we retreat, we generally rethink what just happened and regret how we reacted)

What we have to try to do is teach children how to identify the emotion they are actually feeling besides the anger, and then reorganise the pattern of behaviour as follows:

Trigger = Anger = Frustration and sadness

RETREAT (slow the emotion down by taking a time out, breathing, etc.)

THINK (once we recognize and slow down the emotion, we can think about what happened and what we should do next)

RESPOND (once we are calmer, we can identify the best way to move forward, we can respond appropriately, rather than reacting inappropriately)

If your child is struggling to manage their emotion, this is something you might want to use at home so that your child can start to understand that they have a choice in how they manage their strong feelings, and that putting their brain in charge, rather than their emotion, is the way to go. 

If you have any questions, please feel free to drop me an email to doreenw@catholiccare.dow.org.au Just a reminder that I am here at the school every Monday, Wednesday and alternate Fridays.  Enjoy the rest of term one and have a Happy Easter.

Doreen Waddington

CatholicCare Counsellor

On Friday 26 March the St Paul's P & F are hosting an Easter themed crazy hair day fundraiser. The P & F are asking students to come to school with crazy hair and donate a gold coin, if possible, which will go towards the purchase of more playground equipment.

We are looking forward to seeing some crazy hair on the 26 March.

Enrolments for Kindergarten 2022 are now open. Enrolments packs are available for collection at our school office. Please let your friends and the wider community know that enrolments are now open.

Applications close 3:00pm, Thursday, 1 April 2021

The 2nd hand uniform store is particularly in need of the following items in good condition:

• Boys grey summer shorts in small sizes 4-8
• Boys summer shirts
• Girls summer dresses in larger sizes child's 12 and larger
• Sports polos and shorts all sizes
• Sports tracksuits sizes 4-8
• School jumpers size 8

All items $5

Please Note:

The Office can only accept EFTPOS payments when purchasing uniforms.

DONATIONS of uniforms which you no longer require are always needed to replenish our stock. It is important that all uniforms have been WASHED and are in relatively GOOD condition (no rips, big stains or broken zippers please).

Parents and Carers are welcome to drop off the uniform donations at the front office.