Principal’s Message

Dear Parents/Carers

This is the final newsletter for 2021 and what a year it has been! The COVID-19 pandemic has certainly brought with it many challenges. Border closures, school closures, community lockdowns, COVID tests, guidelines affecting the day to day operation of the school and vaccinations and even a case of COVID in our school community… just to name a few things!! 

This period of time has been extremely challenging for everyone, for many and varied reasons. I would like to thank you all for your patience and understanding, and your continued support of our school community. I am very hopeful that next year, we can welcome visitors back on site and conduct events that will promote our identity and sense of community.

Thank you to all of you who have contributed to our St Vincent De Paul Christmas Appeal. If you haven’t yet donated, we invite you to send any presents for children or hamper items to the office. We ask that the children’s presents not be wrapped and the food items are not out of date. On Friday we will have a coloured clothes day, with a touch of Christmas with this fundraiser in mind.

We are most excited to announce that current guidelines will allow us to proceed with our Year 6 Graduation. This will take place on Monday 13th December. The evening will commence at 5.45pm with Mass in our Church with Father Henry Ibe (our new Parish Priest for 2022) as celebrant, followed by an Awards ceremony in our Hall from 6.45pm-7.30pm. A reality is that under the current Public Health Order, we are governed by the vaccination status of all adults. Current vaccination rules allow both non vaccinated and vaccinated adults to attend a place of worship meaning everyone is able to participate in the Mass. Vaccination rules for schools mean that adults in attendance must be double vaccinated.  

Each child will be able to invite two family members.

Thank you to Liz Ball for organising the Year 6 Luncheon today. It was greatly appreciated by the students (and staff).

St. Patrick’s Church Mass times can be found via this link.

Moving into 2022, there are a couple of changes to our school leadership team. After 14 years, Margie Moore has resigned from her Assistant Principal role and will return full time into the classroom, and after 12 years, Jane Fawcett has resigned from her Religious Education Coordinator role and will work part time as a Reading Recovery Teacher. I would like to thank both of them for their enormous contributions to our St Patrick’s community. Their commitment and dedication is greatly valued and appreciated.

Here at St Patrick’s we offer our learning through flexible learning spaces. Next year, part of this  for Kindergarten and Year One will look a little different. Rather than have all three cohorts within the one learning space, one class will work in a different classroom located nearby. The teachers will still work very collaboratively and the classes will still work together at different times.

As mentioned in our last newsletter, staffing hasn’t been completely finalised. We are currently interviewing for a full time and part time position. At this stage we are not definite on the third Year 1 teacher and the teacher that will share in Year 3 with Mrs Tankard. We will communicate this to you as soon as we know. Transition for the students will take place on Monday 13th from 11.30am-1.15am. 

Also mentioned in the last newsletter whilst we’re farewelling some teachers, we are also welcoming some new staff members to our community. Mrs Michelle Tankard will join us as our Assistant Principal and Year 3 teacher, and Mrs Lilly Cant will join us in a part time role, releasing Mrs Goss for her RE role. We have been allocated an extra day for an Inclusive and Diverse Learning Teacher so Mrs Nicole Hickey will join us each Wednesday. Rebecca Art from St Anne’s is exchanging with Mr Perczyk.

At this stage, this is what our 2022 staffing looks like:

Kinder: Mrs Whitfield, Miss Gallagher, Mrs Davis

Year 1: Mrs Dent, Mrs Wheatley (3 days)/Miss Turner (2 days) and ?

Year 2: Mrs Hibberson, Mrs Art, Mrs Brooks (3 days)/Mrs Rolls (2 days)

Year 3: Mrs Goss (3.5days)/Mrs Cant (1.5 days), Mr Brooks, Mrs Tankard/TBC

Year 4: Mrs Seckold, Mrs Moore, Mr Miller

Year 5: Mrs Duck, Mrs Wild

Year 6: Mr Shanahan, Mrs McKenzie, Mrs Good

Assistant Principal: Michelle Tankard

RE: Mercedes Goss

Inclusive and Diverse Learning Teacher: Mrs Scammell and Mrs Hickey (1 day)

PE: Mrs Hilton

Health: Mrs Robertson

Music: Mrs Brown

EMU: Mrs Musarra (3 days a week)

School Chaplain: Mrs McCormack 

Reading Recovery: Mrs Fawcett and Mrs Harrison

Maths Focus Teacher: Mrs Lane

Literacy Instructional Coach: Miss Turner

Teacher Assistants: Nicky Wright, Tarnya Crawshaw, Christine McDonald, Maria Bourdis, Georgia Jeffery and Louise Romanis,

Canteen Supervisor: Liz Ball

Groundspeople; Jindalee Ag

Admin staff; Di Matsinos, Teneal Jones (Mon-Thurs) and Tarnya Crawshaw (Friday)

Parish Priest: Father Henry Ibe

The final day of term for students is Tuesday 14th December 3pm.

2022 school start dates are as follows:

Friday 28th January: staff return for professional learning. 

Monday 31st and Tuesday 1st February: Maths Assessment Interviews (booking times will become available via Compass next week). 

Wednesday 2nd February: Year 1-6 students return

Monday 31st-Friday 4th Feb: Kinder Best Start interviews (booking times will become available via Compass mid December)

Monday 7th Feb: Kindergarten students commence.

This year we say goodbye to a number of families who have been with our school community for many years. We thank you for the contributions and support, and wish you all the best.

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. I hope that you are able to relax and spend time with your loved ones.

Kind regards, Liz