In Parishes throughout the Diocese of Wollongong we celebrated the 29th Sunday in Ordinary Time Year C. Last Sunday’s Gospel reading we heard Jesus use a parable to teach about persistence in prayer. While the parable seemed to present prayer as bothering God for what we want, God is not like the judge in the parable, worn down by requests and coerced to respond. Jesus explained that if even an unjust judge responds to the persistence of the widow, how much more so will God listen to our prayers. God truly wants to hear our needs and respond generously.  The parable is about the persistence of the one who prays. God wants us to be like the persistent widow, staying in relationship with God, confident that God hears and answers our prayers.

Dear Parents and Carers,

A warm welcome back to Term 4 and I hope you all had a chance to spend quality time with your family and friends.  Having spoken with quite a few parents and carers, grandparents and students over the past few days, it sounds like it was a balanced opportunity for rest, a bit of catchup for some, time with family and friends.  A very warm welcome to the Wright family and the Eager family who have joined the St Paul’s school community as of this term. St Paul’s is a community of spirit, hospitality and welcome and  I am sure our new students and their family will experience the beauty of the St Paul’s hospitality. Students have settled well into a term of quality learning and we look forward to many school events.  Please take a moment to take in the Term 4 Dates page of this newsletter and the SPAP Parents and Friends page for upcoming events. 

Kindergarten 2023

Next Monday 24 October we welcome our 2023 kindergarten students as they begin their transition to school through playgroup sessions. Starting school is an important milestone in any child and family’s life. Research suggests that children who have a positive start to school are more likely to engage well in their learning and school life. At St Paul’s, we nurture this positive start by offering a transition to school program that  includes informal playgroup sessions as well as formal orientation opportunities.

Playgroup will take place from 9:30 - 11:00 am in the School Hall on the following dates.

Families are encouraged to have their child attend as many playgroup dates as possible to help them prepare for school. While the children play, parents and carers will have opportunities to gather information, ask questions and meet staff.

Information has been sent to all families with  details of the above dates and also the Transition to School Orientation morning.  We are looking forward to establishing a great partnership with our new students and parents and carers.

2023 Class Placements

As we begin to move towards the end of the year, planning for 2023 is under way and as a teaching staff we continue to focus on our students and their learning. The process for student class placement will commence this Term. At St Paul’s we take into account the spiritual, academic and emotional well-being of each child, as well as considering their social interactions, so that we work towards our main goal of having balanced classes in all grades. I also recognise that as your child’s primary carer, parents and carers may have specific information that you wish to share with me, as the Principal of the school, that may assist in the organisation of class placements for next year.  If there are any special considerations or concerns that parents and carers feel the school should take into consideration, please put the requests in writing no later than Friday 11 November 2022 via email to Michelle Rodwell at

rodwellm01@dow.catholic.edu.au

In light of the above, the following factors be taken into consideration when making a request for class placements in 2023: 

• All requests must be in writing no later than Friday 11 November 2022 via email to Michelle Rodwell at rodwellm01@dow.catholic.edu.au 
• As there will be changes with teaching staff for 2023 please do not request a particular teacher as there is a possibility that the current classroom teachers on a grade for 2023 will not be the same in 2022.
• Please note that no changes to class placements will be made after classes are announced at our Meet the Teacher Transition morning on Tuesday 13th December.

World Teacher’s Day Friday 28 October 2022

On Friday 28th October is World Teachers’ Day, a day whereby we recognise and celebrate the many achievements of teachers. The theme for this year is Hats off to Teachers. I would like to express my deep gratitude to the amazing teachers at St Paul’s who work tirelessly and make a difference to our students. Thank you to our parents and carers for your ongoing support and words of affirmation for the care and support our staff provide our students daily. 

I look forward to seeing you all at the Term 4 SPAP Parents and Friends School Disco on Friday evening.

Thank you to all parents and carers for your continued support.

PB4L is an evidence-based framework that emphasises school-wide systems of support for all students and staff. These include proactive strategies for defining, teaching and supporting appropriate student behaviours. Positive behaviour supports are implemented for all students, across all school settings, by all staff, at all times. This continuum of support ensures students’ academic and social outcomes.

ACE Awards

Billy Glover

Jacinta Vieira

Lucinda Akele

Jack Miller

Ruby Whitehead

Principal Awards

Wezley Smith

Ruby Whitehead

Mary MacKillop Awards

Benjamin Joy

Welcome to Term 4! Year 6 have hit the ground running, immersing themselves in their learning and their duties as the leaders of the school. Let’s take a look back at the wonderful achievements from Term 3:

Christmas Art Competition

Throughout the term, Year 6 have been working hard on their Christmas Art works. They collectively used a range of art techniques to create a piece that reflects their understanding and perception of a chosen bible passage. With the support of Mrs Ferguson and their teachers, the students wrote a 200 word reflection that not only highlighted the significance of the event in the passage, it also allowed them to explain their chosen techniques and creative processes. 

Public Speaking

Over the final few weeks of term, in English, students have been learning essential skills and techniques that are involved with giving a successful speech. During Week 7, every student presented their speech to their classmates and from this, 4 students were selected from each class to present their speech to all of the staff and students in Stage 3. Congratulations to Isabella De Santis who was chosen from Year 6 to represent St Paul’s in the Diocesan Public Speaking Competition. We wish Isabella all the best and we look forward to celebrating her achievements in late October.

Taekwondo 

Last term Year 6 participated in the Taekwondo program with Master Kevin as part of their Physical Education sessions. The students learnt a variety of skills and disciplines each week which they capably demonstrated. It was a wonderful opportunity for Year 6 and we thank Mrs Evans and Mrs Lyons for organising this.

Goal Setting

As we approach a busy Term 4, students have been reflecting on all of their achievements throughout their final year. They have been given the opportunity to set some goals to keep them on track. Students have created a personal, English and Maths goal and have been involved in conferences with their teacher to record these goals and discuss strategies that will help them achieve them. Year 6 are looking forward to smashing their goals this term.

 

Mrs Bianca Koczka and Mrs Katie Colquhoun

CEDoW’s annual Spotlight on Technology 2022 is an opportunity for students and teachers across the Diocese to showcase innovative learning and teaching experiences that have been occurring in Primary and Secondary classrooms over the last few terms. 

An integral part in the lead-up to Spotlight22 has been the Digital Citizenship Spotlight Competition for primary students. The competition Students in Years’ 3-6 were invited to attend an expression of interest and info session with Mrs Koczka last term. This resulted in an enthusiastic group of Year 4 students attending the initial session to learn more about the competition and the commitment they would need to make. The competition involved creating a digital product or resource that addressed one of the following areas of digital life:

• Social Media
• Digital Citizenship
• Staying Safe Online
• Being Respectful Online
• Digital Footprints

The students were asked to work in pairs or small groups to create either a short animation or video (30-90 seconds); or a digital poster /  infographic. Each of the teams decided to create a video and were supported by Mrs Koczka to develop their ICT skills using iMovie during some of their lunch breaks. Once they had developed some skills in animation, transitions, adding audio, images and text the teams were highly motivated and continued to work on their product ready to submit on the final day of Term 3. Congratulations to each of the students involved for demonstrating leadership and innovation in using technology. We are eagerly awaiting the results of the competition and look forward to sharing some of the final products later this term.

Bianca Koczka

Middle Leader ICT and Special Projects

Professional Learning

Staff professional learning is a key component for professional growth for the staff at St Paul's and a key component for teacher accreditation and maintenance as established by the NSW Education Standards Authority. At St Paul’s, we value the critical role ongoing professional development plays in enhancing quality learning and teaching. Therefore, throughout the year all staff are encouraged to engage in professional learning opportunities. The New South Wales Education Standards Authority requires Staff to ‘participate in learning to update knowledge and practice targeted to professional needs and school and/or system priorities’ and regularly ‘undertake professional learning programs designed to address identified student learning needs’. (NESA Standard 6)

Week 3

In the coming weeks as part of our PD, Health, PE units, St Paul’s will be running a Transition to High School Program for our Year 6 students. Developed by our Catholic Care School Counsellor, Doreen Waddington, the program covers thoughts and feelings around leaving primary school and starting high school, organisation, building relationships and friendships, communication, confidence and self esteem, strategies for managing anxiety and positive self talk. All year 6 students will be involved in the program, which will be facilitated by Mrs Koczka, Mrs Colquhorn and Mrs McCann.

Last Tuesday, Year 9 students from St Joseph’s visited Year 6 to teach some skills that are involved in a range of different sports. Year 6 were split into 8 small groups and participated in activities around tennis, hockey, soccer, rugby, cricket, volleyball, oz tag and basketball. This experience allowed students to have fun with their peers while learning new skills. The St Joseph’s students were very engaging and the St Paul’s students look forward to their return.

Students from Year 3 to 6 continue to have the opportunity to be involved in the Pivot Survey each week.  

Following a review of the data, an area of need identified in PIVOT Survey is promoting a positive response to the question: 

“I believe I can learn things that are difficult.”

Over the next few weeks we ask that you promote a Growth Mindset:

“Students with a growth mindset are able to persist in times of adversity and this can help to build their resilience. Having a growth mindset encourages students to view their failures and setbacks as an opportunity to learn and as a sign they should continue persisting to achieve their goals.”

One way to promote a growth mindset is to:

Use the language of a growth mindset. 

Model using language such as “I can’t do that yet…”, “What am I missing?” or “What strategies can I use to work this out?” to promote a growth mindset and help move students from using defeast language like “I can’t do that”, “I’m not good at this” or “This is too hard”

Mrs Jodi Marsh

Diverse Learning Needs Support Teacher Monday - Thursday

Mrs ALexandra Hingston

Diverse Learning Needs Support Teacher Friday

Throughout August and early September a number of students from St Paul’s participated in a variety of ICAS Assessments. These included: Digital Technologies, English, Spelling Bee, Science, Writing and Mathematics. The ICAS Assessments are quite challenging and all students that completed the assessments should be proud of their achievements and perseverance. The results for most of the assessments have arrived and will be presented during this term's whole school assemblies. 

At this week’s Assembly on Friday, the ICAS Digital Technologies, ICAS Science and ICAS English certificates will be presented. A Compass invitation will be sent to the parents and carers of each student that will be presented with their certificates this week. 

The following students have received Certificates of Participation:

Here are a few questions you can ask yourself that may help you find the answer

• Is my child sleeping enough and eating a somewhat balanced diet?
• Are they getting some form of exercise every day?
• Are they spending some quality time with the family every day?
• Do they keep in touch with friends?
• Do they do plenty of non-screen activities?
• Are they invested in school and keeping up with homework?
• Do they spend time on other hobbies and extracurriculars that matter to them?

If you can answer yes to most of those questions, then screen time is probably not a big problem; but if your child is spending all their time alone in their room, scrolling through social media or spending so much time gaming that you can’t get them to exercise or eat properly, that might be a sign that something needs to change. The important thing to look at is whether your child's screen time is infringing on other important things. 

Tips

- Try setting specific times of the day or week that are always open for screens, so that your child knows what to expect. 

- Use small amounts of extra screen time as a reward for positive behaviour, like getting ready for school on time. 

- Keep a list of non-screen activities to pick from if your child gets bored. 

-Model healthy screen use yourself.

- Keep the rule consistent and avoid making exceptions when you first put them into place

- Once it’s set, don't debate the rule; it’s not up for discussion

- Once a rule is fully established, if you need to make an exception sometimes, it's okay.  Just try not to do it too often.

Growing Good Men (GGM) Father and Teenage Son Weekend Experience, Friday 6.30 pm 21 October – Sunday 1.30 pm 23 October 2022 to be held at Cataract Activity Centre, Appin.

A weekend experience for fathers and their teenage sons.

One of the most important influences in the lives of men is the relationship they had with their father or significant father figure. The encouragement and affirmation that this relationship could, and should, provide, is a key ingredient for how young men view themselves and embrace their gifts as they take their place in the world. 

GROWING GOOD MEN is an experientially based program which encourages and enables fathers and sons to strengthen their relationship and explore important issues of growing into manhood. It is designed for fathers and their adolescent sons aged 12 to 16 years (school years between 7 and 10). See the flyer here. 

Don’t miss this! Spots are limited to just 25 fathers with their sons. This is a unique opportunity for dads and their sons to embark on a quest of discovery with Robert Falzon (founder of menALIVE) and his team.

Please register and pay online here.  

For any enquiries, please contact Helen Bennett by phone 4222 2403 or email at helen.bennett@dow.org.au.

Friday 4 November – Sunday 6 November 2022

Wooglemai Catholic Camping Facility/Environmental Centre, Sheehys Creek Road, Oakdale (15 minutes from Picton).

This will be an awesome opportunity for families throughout the diocese to come together in a relaxed camping environment for connection, formation, walks, fun, meals, prayer, games, music, and Sunday Mass with Bishop Mascord.

It will be a self-catered weekend, tents and caravans are permitted and with limited spots for a male and female bunk room. The cost is $50 per adult, or $100 per family regardless of size. Please register here.

For more information or to help with the organisation email helen.bennett@dow.org.au.

Please find an article from Michael Grose, founder of Parenting Ideas, is one of Australiaʼs leading parenting educators. Heʼs an award-winning speaker and the author of 12 books for parents including Spoonfed Generation, and the bestselling Why First Borns Rule the World and Last Borns Want to Change It. Michael is a former teacher with 15 years experience, and has 30 years experience in parenting education. He also holds a Master of Educational Studies from Monash University specialising in parenting education.