In Parishes throughout the Diocese of Wollongong, last Sunday we celebrated the 16th Sunday of Ordinary Time Year B. In last Sunday’s Gospel we hear Jesus affirm the importance of times of rest and renewal. Jesus wanted his disciples to come away and spend time alone with him. This is what we seek and find in our life of prayer and in our celebration of the Eucharist.

In the Gospel, we hear the Twelve referred to as “apostles.” The word apostle is a Greek word meaning “one who is sent.” Jesus chose twelve men from among his disciples whom he sent to share in his ministry of preaching and healing. We who are Jesus’ disciples today have also been sent to share the Gospel with others. How do you share the Gospel with others? Is it through your actions and words, your care for others? 

Dear Parents and Carers,

Term 3 certainly hasn’t begun the way that we would have all hoped with the strict stay at home orders and lock-down of the greater Sydney region including Wollongong and Shellharbour, impacting our daily lives. The St Paul's Staff are missing engaging with our community and the vibrancy that a school full of energetic and happy children brings.

I would like to express my deep gratitude to the amazing staff of St Paul’s, who continue to be at the front-line of our remote learning platform. Each of our staff continue to juggle the competing demands of their own family commitments, supporting the home learning of their own children, whilst keeping at the forefront the continuing learning needs of our St Paul’s students. 

The St Paul’s staff continue to be very grateful for the wonderful support of our parents and carers in ensuring continuity of learning for our students. The staff value the way that you have again embraced this mode of learning for your child and the support that you are providing your child on a daily basis while you juggle other responsibilities and commitments. None of us imagined four weeks ago that this is where we would be again with students learning from home. 

Please know the St Paul’s staff are here for you if you are experiencing any difficulty at all, we have tech support on site every day and can help you easily over the phone and our Pastoral Care Team and School Leadership Team are here to support your pastoral needs.

Yours in Faith and Learning,

Michelle Rodwell

Principal

During the last term, we managed to squeeze in Learning Conversations before restrictions increased. It was an opportunity for teachers and parents to collaborate and discuss the learning progress of their children. 

We would like to thank parents and carers and teachers for engaging in conversations around learning. If you were unable to make time last term and would like to meet with the teachers you can phone the school office and organise a learning conversation by phone.

Thank you to everyone for supporting the St Vincent de Paul Winter Appeal. On the last day of Term 2, all students and staff were dressed in their warm pyjamas and received a warm chocolate and donut. The final amount raised is to be finalised.

Pope Francis has proclaimed the First World Day for Grandparents and the Elderly, to be held on Sunday 25 July 2021 (Feast of Sts Anne & Joachim, grandparents to Jesus).

In announcing this, Pope Francis has chosen the theme “I am with you always” (cf. Mt 28:20) to express the closeness of the Lord and the Church to every older person, especially in these challenging pandemic times.

This promise of closeness and hope is one that can be shared by young and old alike. Not only are young people called upon to be present in the lives of grandparents and older people, but the elderly also have a mission – to pass on their faith.

On Friday at our virtual assembly we will honour and give thanks for all grandparents on the Feast of Saints Anne and Joachim who were Jesus’ grandparents. Grandparents are very special people. They can bring much joy into the lives of their families and especially the lives of their grandchildren. Their life experiences have taught grandparents many valuable lessons that they

can share with the young. Grandparents can bring a real sense of history to a family as they share many family stories. They can give the rest of the family a sense of belonging. Our grandparents have a special place in our families, our society and our world.

Dear God, 

Please bless our grandparents.

Thank you for the life they gave my parents

and for the life they give to me.

For the ways they helped me and made me strong, I give thanks.

For the ways they love me no matter what, I rejoice.

For the ways they have paved the road

that leads me here, I am grateful.

Let them grow in wisdom and joy in life.

Let them find peace and rest from their work.

Let them be healed of every sickness and pain.

And let them see with their own eyes

the glory of your Son, Jesus,

in the love of their children and grandchildren.

Bless them always.

We ask this through Christ our Lord. 

Amen.

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PARISH NEWS

Currently due to restrictions there are no weekend Masses.

Just as Jesus and Mary entrusted themselves entirely to the care and protection of St. Joseph as the head of the Holy Family, so too can we follow their example. “Jesus, living under the roof of St. Joseph and being his Son, gave us a personal example of total entrustment to St. Joseph” (Fr. Donald Calloway, MIC).

Prayer To you, O blessed Joseph 

To you, O blessed Joseph, do we come in our afflictions, and having implored the help of your most holy Spouse, we confidently invoke your patronage also.

Through that charity which bound you to the Immaculate Virgin Mother of God and through the paternal love with which you embraced the Child Jesus, we humbly beg you graciously to regard the inheritance which Jesus Christ has purchased by his Blood, and with your power and strength to aid us in our necessities.

O most watchful guardian of the Holy Family, defend the chosen children of Jesus Christ; O most loving father, ward off from us every contagion of error and corrupting influence; O our most mighty protector, be kind to us and from heaven assist us in our struggle with the power of darkness.

As once you rescued the Child Jesus from deadly peril, so now protect God’s Holy Church from the snares of the enemy and from all adversity; shield, too, each one of us by your constant protection, so that, supported by your example and your aid, we may be able to live piously, to die in holiness, and to obtain eternal happiness in heaven.

Amen.

Due to COVID restrictions the majority of staff professional learning has been postponed or cancelled. St Paul’s staff are continuing to participate in our weekly professional learning sessions via zoom.

Kindergarten Home learning – Week 1

It has been so wonderful to see so many smiling faces each morning on our Kindergarten Zoom meetings.  Thank you parents for helping your child complete the tasks each day. We love looking at your amazing work.  Enjoy some of the pictures below of some wonderful work completed by some Kindergarten students so far during remote learning.

From the Kindergarten Teachers

Year One and Year Two have been engaging in Remote Learning using SeeSaw. Each morning we have been gathering on Zoom to say Good morning before completing our tasks for the day.

All Year 3 and 4 teachers would like to congratulate the students and parents for a successful start to remote learning. We have been very impressed with the level of maturity and etiquette shown in our daily zoom meetings. It has been lovely to be able to see the children’s faces each day. We encourage you to continue logging on and participating in these sessions. 

Year 3 have not let remote learning slow down their progress with learning a number of comprehension strategies. Students have been continuing to investigate ‘Making Connections’ and ‘Inferencing’ by engaging with a variety of texts and presenting their understanding on Seesaw. 

Year 4 have also continued their comprehension learning by combining all of their strategies to answer questions about different texts. They are also doing a great job at striving to do their best work by looking at the star system and making sure they include all of the expected success criteria. 

Well done Stage 2!

Year 5 & 6 students are logging in to Zoom's daily and complete some wonderful learning tasks. They are communicating with their teachers using both Google Classroom and Seesaw. They are working well and trying to be independent with their learning tasks. The Stage 3 teachers are very proud of how mature and responsible the children are. 

Year 5 have been learning about the Early Church in Australia. They have been working on their multiplication and division facts and engaging in reading and writing tasks.

Year 6 have been learning about influential women in society including those in history from the Bible. They have been identifying how Mary is a faithful disciple. They have learnt about the connection between fractions and chance. They have explored states of matter and used some comprehension strategies to help with reading such as predicting.

 

Mathematics Update

One of the benefits of remote learning is that many of us have more time with our children around the house. There are lots of opportunities to engage children in numeracy learning through everyday tasks. Some examples are: 

-telling the time at different points in the day on both an analogue and digital clock 

-measuring using mL, L and grams when cooking 

-doing chores around the house to earn a small amount of money then adding it up to find a total 

-estimating lengths and distances e.g. how long would it take for me to walk to the corner and back?

In the Week 10 newsletter there was information about arrays and the benefits of finding them in the environment. Below are some examples of some numeracy learning that Year 3 have been doing using arrays to assist in learning times tables. Similar activities can be easily done within the home environment.

ICAS Assessment registrations close this Friday the 23rd of July.

Please see Compass for information on the ICAS Assessments and how to register your child online. 

Olivia Djodan
Acting Middle Leader

During our recent Learning Conversations, many parents reviewed their child’s Personalised Plan with their child’s classroom teachers.  Parents input in this process is highly valued and as such, a Collaborative Planning note was sent home with each Personalised Plan.  This is an opportunity for parents to comment on their child’s Personalised Plan and reflect on the goals that have been set for their child.  

If any parents have not had an opportunity to review their child’s Personalised Plan and return the Collaborative Planning note, could we ask that the note is sent back to school either as a hard copy or an email to the School Office at your earliest convenience.  

Thank you. 

Bree-Anna Fogliada

Diverse Learning Support Teacher

A feature of our fortnightly newsletter is an overview of Term 3 dates. The best platform to view the Term 3 dates is a laptop or iPad rather than a phone. Some of the Term 3 dates are outlined below and please note that these are pending COVID 19 Restrictions. 

Resilience refers to the capacity of an individual to overcome odds and demonstrate personal strengths needed to cope with hardship.  At St Paul’s we teach our students strategies for building resilience using the BOUNCE BACK Acronym. The Bounce Back Program teaches students how to ‘bounce back’ after encountering negative events, challenges, difficult situations or adversity and return to a sound level of emotional wellbeing.

While the social and emotional skills for developing resilience start with explicit teaching of these skills, it is through continual practise of these skills that children build their resilience and capacity to ‘bounce back’

The first letter of the BOUNCE BACK acronym represents the strategy Bad feelings go away again.

They key messages are:

• Bad times and unpleasant feelings are (nearly) always temporary.  Things in your life will get better so don’t give up.  It is important to stay optimistic and hopeful.
• Sometimes it takes a while for a difficult situation to improve, but it does always improve.
• Sometimes situations may not improve (such as a person or pet passing away or losing a special item), but your feelings about it will improve if you work on them.
• When things are really bad, just try to get through one day at a time.

Some strategies for supporting your children to learn and practice this strategy at home include:

• Developing a survival pack - Using images, photos or drawing, help your child to create a Survival Pack filled with people, items and other resources that can help them to get through a tough time. 

• What Went Well - at the end of each day, spend some time with your child sharing all the things that went well in your day and ask them to do the same.

• Plan a positive activity every day - make time to do something with your child that you enjoy everyday.  Remind your child that, even though bad feelings can come up, there is always something to look forward to. 

The most powerful way to build resilience in children is to remind them of the strategies they have been practising in real life contexts.  Reminding children that bad feelings go away again and that they have the ability to BOUNCE BACK when they are faced with hardship is integral to developing children’s resilience to a level of independence.  

Bree-Anna Fogliada

Diverse Learning Support Teacher

SPLICED and Enrichment Mathematics

To ensure that our students involved in SPLICED and Enrichment Mathematics continue to be extended in their learning during this period of Remote Learning, a number of resources are currently being developed.  These will be shared with students and parents throughout this week.

Bree-Anna Fogliada

Diverse Learning Support Teacher

How can you care for our Earth from home? 

Our waste-free warriors are missing the opportunity to make St Paul’s an eco-friendly place during this lockdown so they’re proposing some ways that you can help care for the environment throughout your time at home.

1. Compost at home! Use this lockdown as an opportunity to research how to compost and turn those glorious food scraps into rich soil that the planet will thank you for.
2. If you don’t have a compost bin, use the fogo bin. Our council allows our food scraps to be disposed of in the green bin every week.
   
   
   
   
   
   

1. Recycle! All packaging has information on how to correctly dispose of it. Read it carefully and do the right thing.
2. Reduce energy use. Become an electricity detective at home. Make sure your lights and televisions are turned off when not in use.
3. Purchase and use reusable items such as metal straws and cloth bags. 

National Schools Tree Day is an annual event and this year is celebrated on Friday 30th July. Unfortunately, due to COVID, some of the planned activities will not be going ahead, however, students will be engaged in virtual activities to learn more about this special day.

Although this special day is called Tree day, you can also plant shrubs and grasses. Planting indigenous (or at least native) trees, shrubs and grasses are super important to create food and habitat for our native animals. Habitat is related to many other environmental issues such as climate change, soils, loss of species and biodiversity. 

- Trees are important because we use the timber for furniture, housing frames, paper etc. The bark of trees is very important to First Australian peoples to make canoes and water/food carrying vessels. Particular species also have medicinal, food and fibre uses. 

- Old growth forest trees store more carbon than young trees. Their many crevices, leaves, branches and hollows provide food and homes for animals from minibeasts to koalas! When trees burn due to bush fires or deliberate clearing, carbon is released into the air which exacerbates climate change. Soils and the animals that inhabit soils dry out when left exposed.

Theme: Old Worlds, New Worlds, Other Worlds

Week 7: August  21 - 27

“Book Week is the best week of the year!” cried five students huddled together in the front playground last week. I have to agree with you dear students and we don’t have much longer to wait until this joyous week!  

Book Week is five weeks away and the St Paul’s teachers and Book Week Committee have been busy planning activities to help students access and dive into Old Worlds, New Worlds and Other Worlds when they read.

Proposed activities:

• Book Week extraordinaire Mrs Frendo has set up the library display to spark student interest in books around this year’s theme.
• We are in the process of finalising author visits. These may be by Zoom depending on the restrictions at the time. In 2020 our author visits were by Zoom and students were still incredibly engaged and motivated to write and illustrate their own picture book following these workshops.
• Each class will be participating in learning activities based on the Picture Book of the Year shortlist leading up to and during Book Week.
• Finally, Book Week will conclude with the parade and assembly on Friday 27 August. Students can dress as their favourite book character or dress according to the theme: Old Worlds, New Worlds, Other Worlds.

Home Learning ideas:

• Explore the shortlisted books with your child or children. The Picture Book of the Year shortlist is a great place to start - https://cbca.org.au/shortlist-2021  
• Start to brainstorm and design your Book Week costume. What comes to mind when you think of Old Worlds, New Worlds and Other Worlds? Do you have a favourite book that fits into this theme? What do you have at home that can be reused or recycled to put together a costume?

Please be sure to check out our Facebook page,

give us a like and share with all your family and friends.

Please ensure when your contact details change to email the info account, so we have a record of the new details. info@spapdow.catholic.edu.au

Thank you to all those families who have finalised their fees for Term 2 and 2021.

New Enrolments for 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.

A reminder that 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:

Term 3- TBC due to COVID restrictions

Term 4- Friday 29th October 

The Catholic Education Office has released information on changes to when staff development days are held. This will now be the case from 2022 onwards, this change is in line with the direction that the NSW Department of Education has also taken. Please see below a summary of the dates for 2022. (Term 2 and Term 3 2022, Staff Development Days are yet to be determined)

Specifically for 2022 the CEDoW gazetted dates are as follows: 

• 26 January - Australia Day holiday (Wednesday) 
• 27 January - Student vacation (Thursday) 
• 28 January - Staff Return Pupil Free Day (Friday) 
• 31 January - Staff at School Pupil Free Day (Monday) 
• 1 February - Students in Years 1 to 6 return (Tuesday) 

For Primary schools - Best Start Kindergarten Assessment will be conducted 1 February to 7 February and the first official day of the school year for the 2022 Kinder cohort is 8 February (Tuesday). 

• 8 April - Last day of Term 1 (Friday) - 11 weeks (10 plus 1 day) 
• 25 April - First day of Term 2 (Monday) 
• 1 July - Last day of Term 2 (Friday) - 10 weeks 
• 18 July - First day of Term 3 (Monday) 
• 23 September - Last day of Term 3 (Friday) - 10 weeks 
• 10 October - First day of Term 4 (Monday) 
• 19 December - Last day of Term 4 (Monday) - 11 weeks (10 plus 1 day)
• 20 December - Pupil Free Day 

NSW Health is seeking the support of schools to encourage parents and carers to vaccinate their children against flu this winter and has provided the following advice.

For young children, flu can be life-threatening, and the flu shot is their best protection against severe flu. Flu shots are free for children from 6 months to under 5 years of age, as well as pregnant women, all Aboriginal people from 6 months of age, people aged 65 years and over, and people with medical conditions such as severe asthma, diabetes, and cancer.

For more information and resources from NSW Health please see the link below

https://www.health.nsw.gov.au/Infectious/Influenza/Pages/schools_and_childcare_resources.aspx

Hey families! We would start by thanking everyone that utilised our service/ came to holiday care with us. Over our fun filled days the children we able to chill out and game during our cozy slumber party day, participate in NAIDOC week where we deepened our knowledge of indigenous Australians through many stories and activities, obscure sports day where we explored unique sports that were out of the ordinary competing for their name on our Annual sports day champion plaque. This year we congratulated Sophie Kennedy on her excellent efforts, throughout the day Sophie showed immaculate sportsmanship, amazing leadership and always put in 110%. Once again we thank you all for a very successful vacation care and we hope you had as much fun as us! We look forward to continue growing our holiday program and offer you with many more fun filled days in the future.

Please find below our survey for interest for September Vacation care! As per last holidays we will only run the days we can show interest in so please complete this, even if you're not entirely sure what days you might/might not need yet 

https://forms.office.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=zlmHQHHqOUOz47-22C6OuDU3mCK-EnxGsym12WV0MppURFlNTkQ0TkFBWUlVQUhBMUFIRVFLT0FHQy4u