Principal’s Message

Dear Parents and Carers

Welcome to Term 3.

Yesterday we celebrated the Feast Day of St Anne and St Joachim, Jesus’ grandparents, and what a lovely celebration this was! It was so wonderful to welcome our grandparents, parents and special friends, and to celebrate and give thanks for the joy they bring to our lives. It was quite astounding to see so many in attendance to which we are truly grateful. Both adults and children alike were very excited and it was so appreciated that many of you could visit our learning spaces and witness the children’s learning in action. Occasions like these emphasise how lucky we are to be part of an amazing community which holds rich tradition. 

Congratulations to all those children who represented our school at the Diocesan Athletics carnival yesterday. Again our students participated with pride, showing great sportsmanship. A further congratulations to those children who have proceeded to the next level in Sydney.

Please keep our Year 6 students in your prayers as they prepare for the Sacrament of Confirmation. The Parent meeting will be held in our Church at 7pm tonight.

As mentioned in a previous Compass message, we are very excited to announce that we are partnering with Peer Support Australia and introducing the ‘Peer Support Program’ for K – 6 (10 – 11 students per group), starting next Friday, for 8 weeks. The focus is: Keeping Friends – Building Relationships. The whole school sessions will take place on Fridays for 30 minutes. Year 5 & 6 students are being trained (yesterday and today) to run these sessions, and will be assisted with a facilitating teacher. They follow a very structured program for each session. The Year 5 & 6 students will hold their first briefing session tomorrow afternoon, to prepare them for Friday’s whole school event. Attached is an information flyer for parents and a link to the parent portal from the Peer Support website! 

The influence of social media is vast amongst children and adolescents.  Here at St Patrick’s we are regularly dealing with negative issues that arise with our students using social media outside of school hours. It is so important that, as parents/carers, you are aware of your child’s online activity. There are various apps that can have a detrimental impact on their mental health and wellbeing. Click here to access a guide for parents and carers from e-safety on the popular app Snapchat features and changes. The eSafety Commissioner website also has useful and very relevant resources for parents.

You can view lots of photos on our website galleries or facebook pages.

Regards

Liz