Read To Remember

Coming up on the 11^th November is Remembrance Day. St Patrick’s has been registered to take part in the Read to Remember initiative. Read to Remember is a free event designed to promote the wellbeing of children and young people by engaging them in the importance of Remembrance Day. This years theme is courage. As a part of the package, the school received a book to read to the classes called “A Quest for Courage” and access to study guides, lesson plans and activities. As Remembrance Day draws closer, classes may take the opportunity to read the story and complete some of the activities. Parents and carers could possibly take some time with their children to discuss the importance of Remembrance Day and the significance of Australia's current involvement in military and peace keeping missions around the world.

Welcome Back for Term 4

Term 4 in the library is shaping up to be very busy from start to finish.

This term in library lessons the children will continue learning how to be more skilled with age appropriate computer applications, take part in cybersafety lessons and learn how to use the library inquiry database to locate books and research information. As always too, stories and books related to lessons will be shared and enjoyed with the children.

Mid Term 4, as part of library / computer lessons, Children in years 2 to 6 will also be taking part in the online ACER (Australian Council for Educational Research) Progressive Achievement Tests as part of St Patrick’s data collection and assessment program. The online assessments for reading comprehension, vocabulary and mathematics will provide assessment data for teachers which will be used for planning purposes for 2013.  

Woolworths Earn and Learn and Coles Sport For Schools

Many thanks to everyone who collected and returned the Coles Sports for School and Woolworths Earn and Learn Vouchers last term. Thanks to the effort of the school community, St Patrick’s had a total of 39000 Coles voucher points and a 73000 Woolworths voucher points. In the last two weeks I have been having great fun over many hours online shopping to redeem the points for sport and school resources. With such a large amount of points to use, St Patrick’s sport shed, classrooms and library have been well resourced again for 2013. As in previous years, I have ordered a wide variety of equipment and resources that the school needs to update on a yearly basis as well as ordering new items that will be able to be used in the school for years to come.

Once again, thank you very much to the school community for your support with these initiatives.

Public Speaking Championships

Congratulations to the winners in Public Speaking. Each of these students made their speeches before an audience of parents, siblings, grandparents and teachers. The Infant students also had their classmates present. The Infants competition was held in the morning and the judges were Mrs Anne Fitzgibbon & Mrs Jackie La France.

The Primary competition was held in the evening and the judges were Mr Warren Parsons & Mr Chris Quinn (Asstt.Director from the Catholic Schools Office).

It was amazing how confident each of the speakers were and how varied the topics were. They kept the audience engaged with information and humour.

The Championships were awarded to:

Stage 1 Ethan Burgess

Stage 2 Ellie Ryan and

Stage 3 Harry Whitfield

Finalists and their topics:

Early Stage 1 Topic

Jack Hillliar - Spiderman

Tyler Jifkins - My Family

Harper Williamson - My Holiday

Cleo Hunt - My Brother

Stage 1

Jade Unahi - Justin Bieber

Angelina Sater - My Bunny

Ethan Burgess - 10 Minutes More at Recess

Grace Wells - Cooking

Bianca Hewitt - How Annoying my Family is.

Laine Meyers - Motorbike

Stage 2

Joel Benkoe - Dementia

Kurtis Allan - My sister Skyla

Ellie Ryan - Hair

Mikaylah Alchin - Storybook Characters

Seth Eagleton- - Shopping

Alexia Vowles - Bratty Children

Stage 3

Harry Whitfield - Socks

Jade Eagleton - Newspapers

Hayden Davies - Underpants

Charlie Willis - Heroes

Joseph Barber - Phobias

Emily Murphy - Stranger Danger

 

Thank you to everyone that made it such a special day.

Success at Polding Athletics

On Friday the 7th September, one of St Patrick's talented athletes took part in the Polding Athletics Carnival. William Garland of Flinders class travelled to the Hunter Sport Centre at Glendale to represent the Maitland Newcastle Diocese. William competed in the 8 year old 100m event. To make it to the Polding Athletics Carnival, William had to progress from school level, through to All Saints Regional, then Diocesan level and finally Polding.
In his event, William ran third in his heat, progressing to the final where he came 6th overall. A wonderful achievement.
To top the day off, William's time in the final was a personal best of 15.30 seconds for the 100m. Very quick indeed!!
Congratulations William, St Patrick's are very proud of you.

Book Parade A Great Success

The book character parade on Friday 17th August was a terrific way to start Book Week celebrations. Students and staff joined in the spirit of the day dressing up as characters from many different books. Book Council of Australia short listed books were popular for costume inspiration. 
 The Last Viking proved a hit with quite a few children and Mr Dilley, all dressing up as Viking warriors and The Dream of The Thylacine story was turned into a walking book by Joel Benkoe and his family. Very creative!!
As always, there were lots of princesses and fairies. Spiderman, Batman and the Hulk made an appearance. Little Red Riding Hood and other fairytale characters were popular. Where's Wally was spotted a few times as were some Kindergarten teachers impersonating blue Smurfs.
Great fun was had by all.
Post a comment saying what you thought of the Book Week Parade.

And......Don't forget that the Scholastic Book Fair is on this week. So pop into the library, have a look and perhaps buy a book.

Book Week

With Book Week only two weeks away, the excitement is building as teachers and children discuss favourite books and characters. Creating and organising costumes for the parade on Friday 17th August is a high priority for the children and staff. Past book character parades have been lots of fun with wonderful costumes on display. Some families go to very creative lengths to stand out as these two photos show.

What is a favourite book of yours? Who would you like to dress up as?

Cyber Safety

A brand new cyber safety website for parents and their children is being launched by the Diocese of Maitland-Newcastle’s Catholic Schools Office (CSO) this week, to ensure parents are well informed when it comes to the internet and have access to user-friendly information, links and resources from one central point.

The site aims to inform all parents including those from the CSO’s 55 schools, on ways they can be proactive and cyber savvy whilst also ensuring their children are educated to use the internet safely and are aware of the consequences if they don’t. View the site and learn more about cyber safety at the following link.


http://www.cybersafetyforparents.mn.catholic.edu.au/