Principal’s Message

Dear Parents and Carers,

Next week our Diocese will celebrate Catholic Schools week. As part of our celebrations here at St Pat’s, we will be conducting our annual school Open Day. We will run a morning session from 9.15am-11am and an afternoon session from 4.30pm-6pm. Each session will commence with a short information meeting followed by school tours led by our student council. If you know of anyone who is interested in enrolling for 2024 could you please let them know.

This year will also see the Diocese celebrate a number of new events and activities to celebrate Catholic Education. On Tuesday, March 7th there will be an exhibition of wonderful artworks from across the diocesan primary schools, including ours, at the Civic Theatre in Wagga Wagga from 2.30pm to 5.30pm. That evening at 7.00pm at the Civic Theatre, there will be a Secondary Schools Showcase – “A Time to Shine”. A wonderful evening of entertainment from our talented secondary school students is assured. Tickets can be purchased at https://civictheatre.com.au/…/a-time-to-shine-cedww… Then on Thursday, March 9th at 4.30pm the Catholic Schools Week Mass will be celebrated by Bishop Mark Edwards at St Michael’s Cathedral. Following Mass, the first Catholic Schools Week dinner and awards will be at the Rules Club. At this dinner there will be an opportunity to recognise and celebrate with staff who have served Catholic Education for 30, 40 and 50 years. Several staff from here will be recognised: Margie Brooks, Phil Shanahan, Jane Fawcett, Fiona Cresser and Helen Ryan. We congratulate them on this significant milestone.

Last week marked the beginning of the Lenten season,, a 40 day season of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving concluding on Holy Thursday. Lent is a period of preparation to celebrate the Lord’s Resurrection at Easter. Our celebrations commenced on Shrove Tuesday (Pancake Tuesday) with Liz Ball and her band of helpers cooking pancakes for the whole school. The name Shrove comes from the old middle English word ‘Shriven’ meaning “to repent”, to say sorry for the wrong things you’ve done. Lent always starts on a Wednesday, so people went to confession on this day. This became known as Shriven Tuesday and then Shrove Tuesday. The other name for this day, “Pancake Day”, comes from the old English custom of using up all the fattening ingredients in the house before Lent, so that people were ready to fast during Lent. The fattening ingredients that most people had in their houses in those days were eggs and milk. A very simple recipe to use up these ingredients was to combine them with some flour and make pancakes! A big thanks to Liz and her helpers! 

Following Pancake Tuesday we celebrated Ash Wednesday. The Year 1-3 students participated in a liturgy in Mercy Hall led by Father Jomar and Deacon Michael, and the Year 4-6 students attended the parish Ash Wednesday Mass in our Church.  

Last week we were very excited to see our audio system and projectors in our Mercy Hall updated. This was a costly exercise and was made possible through the fundraising efforts of our parent community over the past couple of years. A big thanks to those of you who actively involved yourselves in leading these events and to all of you who contributed financially. Next week we have our next school council meeting where we will discuss  fundraisers and where this money can be spent. If you have any ideas, please let me know.

We have had several positive cases of COVID 19 reported. Can you please ensure that if your child is feeling unwell or showing symptoms please test and 5 days is the current isolation time. This link provides the Dept of Health information. If you require any RAT kits please collect from the office.

Just a reminder that NAPLAN testing is taking place for Year 3 & Year 5 students from Wednesday 15th March – Monday 27th March. This is earlier than in previous years.

If you know your child will be absent for any of these dates, please email Michelle at gittoesm@ww.catholic.edu.au so she can mark them accordingly. If you have any concerns around your child completing these tests, please see their classroom teacher.

Attached is a brochure for parents. The National Assessment Platform website is attached here for your information also.

Enjoy the week

Liz