2025 Term 1 Week 4

Vision & Mission Statement

Principal's Reflection

Welcome to the first newsletter of 2025. We have enjoyed a very positive start to the school year which was reflected in our beautiful Beginning of the Year Liturgy yesterday morning. It was lovely to see many people from within our community with us to celebrate all we are here at St Patrick’s. We had a very full celebration which included welcoming our new students from Years 1-6, staff and our 2025 Kindergarten students who were presented to the community and received their very own St Patrick Medal. We launched our Positive Behaviours for Learning (PB4L) initiative which encompasses our School Vision and Mission through our core Josephite values of Kindness, Compassion, Forgiveness, Justice and Respect. There will be extensive communication with you through the newsletter and at Friday school assemblies throughout the year around this work. Additionally, we launched our new class names which reflect our school colours of Emerald and Gold. Each class received a Mary MacKillop Statue and personalised class St Patrick’s Cross for their Prayer spaces which were blessed by Fr Solomon. Finally, our Year 6 elected student leaders received their Leadership badge and gave their pledge, and our Year 6 cohort received their Leadership Team badges and gave their pledge. They were commissioned to the Ministry by me and received a special blessing from Fr James. Our celebrations concluded with a Morning Tea for visitors and time in the playground with the students during their lunch break. 

Today we welcomed Fr Solomon to the St Patrick’s Community. Fr Solomon is joining Fr James in the Vineyards Parishes. Throughout the year Fr Solomon will be around our school sharing and leading in celebrations and also spending time in classrooms complimenting the student’s Religion lessons. Fr Solomon has been in the Newcastle Parishes prior to coming to us. 

This year we welcome a number of new staff to the St Patrick’s family: 

• Miss Shona Creighton – Year 2 Emerald 

• Mrs Kareena Coleman – Year 1 Emerald 

• Mrs Ella Santoso – Year 5 Emerald (Mon) Gold (Fri)  

• Mr Will Girvan – Year 4 Gold (Thurs and Fri) 

• Mrs Gabrielle Durham to the Library Admin staff 

• Mrs Rochelle MacPherson – LST 

• Kim Dooley, Jasmyn WIlliams, Sarah Russell, Kirsty Wanless, Deb Swift, Joan Porter, Kate Vogt, Kiona Sunerton to our team of Learning Support Assistants.  

This year we welcome our new Kindergarten families as well as some students to the other grades including: 

• Finn and Parker Lee 

• Logan Mackenzie 

• Elijah and Isaiah Van-Steen 

• Grayson and Isabella Diola 

• Evelyn Stokes 

• Shreena Pant 

• Nike Zani Pawhay 

Throughout the last break there was a hive of activity within the school grounds. Good things come to those who wait.... or so they say! New air conditioners were installed in many of our classrooms which now means there are no more old window wall rattlers, and every classroom has split system air-conditioning. Our Astro Turf area was replaced with  a lush new cover, solar panels were installed to assist in the Diocese’s goal of sustainability across schools, bollard lighting was replaced, electrical and shelving works completed in the new Infant storage area and the tireless work of our grounds men Peter and Pete meant our school gardens, cement areas, playground softfall and grass were ready for our return. The storms certainly hindered their efforts and we are grateful for their resilience in redoing their work to clean up after each weather event. Our new shade sail to replace what we lost in the storm was installed on Wednesday we are very grateful to the Catholic Schools Facilities team for working hard to get this to us on a fast turnaround to ensure we have shade in these warmer months.

Your children’s teachers are the first people you should contact for any concerns about your child. Email is the most effective way of making contact. During the school day teachers are teaching and on duty, therefore do not have the ability to actively check emails, so please don’t expect an immediate reply. If there is an urgent message, please phone the school office. You can always phone the office and leave a message for a teacher if email is not a possibility. 

If at any time you feel unsatisfied with the result of a conversation or the follow-up from a conversation, please contact me through the school office. There is nothing too small when it comes to our students and parents.  

I am very happy to meet with parents on confidential matters or matters they do not wish to talk about to anyone else. I endeavour to make myself available as much as possible and the office staff can slot in emergencies or other planned times. It is all about working together to achieve success for your children.  

I commend our Year 6 students! Yesterday at our liturgy their uniform stood out as being very well presented and following our guidelines. What great leaders we have already!  

Our uniform expectations were clearly communicated during Term 4 and in the lead up to the school holidays. Across the school we are noticing that polished black shoes on formal uniform days need addressing by some. Black joggers are not school shoes. Additionally, there is an eclectic mix of socks, our school socks are not ankle socks and should have 2 navy blue stripes.  

To view the full uniform policy, please click below:

As we begin a new school year it is timely to have a reminder about the importance of attendance at school. EVERY DAY COUNTS in the learning of your child. Not only is it a legal requirement that your child attends school it is certainly in their best interests to ensure they reach their full potential. Additionally, being late or leaving early has a significant impact on learning over time.

Some reminders of Absence procedures for 2025 should you child be away from school

• Absences must be entered into COMPASS with explanation by the child’s parent BEFORE 9:30am on the day of absence. After this you will receive a text message that your child is absent and please take this as the reminder to go to COMPASS and give reason ASAP.
• Parents can only give reason for absence for one week otherwise this is locked and becomes an Unexplained absence.
• If your child is late to school or is leaving early you must report to the office and sign your child in or out. Any child who is late and not accompanied by an adult cannot go to class until the adult returns and signs the child into school.
• Please make appointments etc. outside school hours as much as possible.
• Please leave for weekend breaks after school on a Friday – in 2024 the rate of students absent and leaving early on a Friday was very high.
• Students should remain at school following special events including Liturgies as the remainder of the school day is learning time.

The CSO have clear protocols and procedures around attendance and monitor our data continuously, please assist us by adhering to these procedures.

RE News

Year of Jubilee – Pilgrims of Hope

Beginning of School liturgy

In 2025, Pope Francis has called a Year of Jubilee- a special time of joy, forgiveness, and renewal. It is a time when the Church invites people to grow closer to God, ask for forgiveness, and help others.

The theme for this Jubilee year is “Pilgrims of Hope,” as the Pope urges all Catholics to renew their hope in Christ

It’s like a big celebration of God's love, where everyone is invited to start fresh and grow in faith!

Yesterday we celebrated our Beginning of Year liturgy with this theme in mind. We welcomed our families and community into our space to celebrate our Catholic Identity and reflect upon how we can embed our school values of kindness, justice, compassion, forgiveness and respect into our everyday interactions with others. 

We particularly welcome our Kindergarten 2025 and new students and staff to our St Patrick’s community. We also commissioned our school leaders into their role of servant leadership for 2025. Thank you to Year 6 students for demonstrating to your peers and teachers the significance of being positive role-models and working together to achieve a common goal.

Melissa Greenup

PB4L

The Positive Behaviours for Learning (PB4L) Framework is a Catholic Schools Office (CSO) initiative for implementation within our school communities to help create inclusive, vibrant and positive learning environments in which all students are supported to reach their full potential.

Positive Behaviours for Learning (PB4L) is an evidenced-based, organisational framework for behaviour support to enhance respectful relationships and engagement of students in their learning. 

Here at St. Patrick’s our PB4L is based around our five Catholic Values that underpin everything we do at our school – Respect, Kindness, Compassion, Forgiveness and Justice.

Our Week 7 and 8 PB4L Focus has been;

Use kind words, use manners and follow instructions.

Our focus for the next two weeks (Weeks 9 and 10) will be;

Respect the school environment & put rubbish in the bin

Library News

Kindergarten in the Library

This week, our new kindergarten children borrowed from the library for the very first time. Mrs Massey, Mrs Durham, and Mr. McKenzie were very impressed with the way they conducted themselves by selecting their books and lining up at the borrowing counter. Some children said they forgot their library bags, but we let them borrow anyway. Borrowing will now be a weekly activity on a Tuesday, but if your child is away this day, we can always accommodate them at other times, if they wanted to renew their loans. Just a gentle reminder, parents, to put their library bags in their school bags on a Tuesday.

Library Borrowing

Library borrowing takes place during library lessons.  Below is the timetable for library lessons:

• Monday: Years 4 & 1
• Tuesday: Years 5 & Kindergarten
• Wednesday: No library lessons
• Thursday: Year 6 & Year 2
• Friday: Year 3

Please remember to send a library bag in, especially for our infant children.

Thank you for helping our children learn to read.  

Premier's Reading Challenge

The Premier's Reading Challenge opened last week, so students and parents can now start to upload books. Our kindergarten children and new students are enrolled and have been issued new login details. I will begin to distribute the new login details to parents and carers on behalf of your students in the next week. If, however, you can't wait, please drop me an email and I'll reply to your request promptly. Similarly, if you are a parent/carer of students who are experienced campaigners and have misplaced your login details, please drop me a line: michael.mckenzie@mn.catholic.edu.au

Happy Reading!

Sora

Sora is an online platform that provides e-books, audiobooks, magazines, and comics for students to read online. It is endorsed by the CSO and is available for all students in the diocese. A Sora app is available to download from the Play Store for iPads and tablets. You will need the following details to install the app. Code: cenetauACEN MemberYour child's login details that they would use at school (Ensure you have clicked the Maitland/Newcastle Diocese)

You can get help at this address to learn more about this useful resource:  https://soraapp.com

Here is a help link: https://help.soraapp.com/en-us/home.htm

Gardening Club

The Gardening Club has been buzzing along quietly this term with a focus on repotting our current pot plants. It's amazing what a top up with a quality potting mix can do for a plant's health. Of course, there are the usual things like watering and weeding but these are a given. Our fundraising at Return and Earn has paid for all our gardening requirements and I am pleased to report that our tally for recycling is almost 58 000. A big thank you to all our students and staff who take the time to put their empty drink containers in our recycling bins. Not only are we fundraising, but we are also reducing our landfill. If you put your drink containers in your yellow bin, please consider bringing them into school instead. We would be happy to accept them as every 10 cents counts.

LEGO Club

St. Patrick's children were invited to the library at recess on Thursday to take part in Lego Club. About 40 children turned up, so the response was great. The children were organised into pairs or trios and were given a Lego set that included Harry Potter scenes, flowers, cars, and a boat. In their little groups, the children proceeded to construct their Lego sets following the instructions carefully. It was not expected they would finish their projects in one session, so they were given a resealable bag each to put their unfinished work in until next week. The children obviously enjoyed themselves and are looking forward to next Thursday when we meet again. As they complete their projects, we will include photographs of the children with their completed works.

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Swimming

Swimming News 

Last Tuesday, a selection of our students qualified to attend the Lower Hunter Regional Swimming Carnival. Unfortunately, due to the dangerous weather conditions, the carnival was unable to go ahead. We are grateful to the parents, carers and students who exhibited patience whilst the decision-making process was undertaken by staff and pool attendants to keep our students safe. 

As always, we are proud of the resilience and sportsmanship demonstrated by our students, and realise that for some of our Year 6 students, this was their first carnival they had qualified for throughout the duration of their primary schooling and we share their disappointment.  

As a result of the cancellation of the carnival at this level, and as communicated to parents and students on the day, the results from our school carnival were considered alongside the results from other lower Hunter schools to move to the Diocesan level carnival. 

Unfortunately, our students didn’t meet qualifying times for a place at Diocesan level but we encourage all our swimmers to keep practicing throughout the year ready for our next school carnival in December. We are proud of you! 

Congratulations to our 2025 swimmers: 

St Patrick's School Canteen

Our canteen is open Wednesday, Thursday & Friday each week.

Volunteers are needed each Wednesday, Thursday and Friday to assist. If you can volunteer in our canteen, please contact the school office or email admin@cessnock.catholic.edu.au with your availability. Thank you!

The canteen uses an online ordering system Quickcliq.  Please use the link below to set up a Quickcliq account if you have not done so already.

Also a reminder if you are a current Quickcliq user - please remember to update your child's class and teacher details on Quickcliq at the beginning of each school year.

Calendar Dates

There is a parent and community calendar on COMPASS which is consistently updated with important dates. Checking this regularly throughout the year will ensure you are up to date with events. You will also notice that upcoming important dates appear at the top, left side of each newsletter.  A couple of key dates I thought I would highlight are:

Pupil Free Days – At this stage 3 of our Pupil Free Days this year are locked in.

• Monday 10th March

• Monday 28th April (First day of Term 2)

• Friday 29th August

We will have a further Pupil Free day to be advised.

Term dates FOR STUDENTS

• Term 1 concludes Friday 11th April.
• Term 2 TUESDAY 29th April Students – Friday 4th July.
• Term 3 Monday 21st July – Friday 26th September.
• Term 4 Monday 13th October – Wednesday 17th December.

2026 Kindergarten Enrolments are now OPEN!

It is important that applications for enrolment are made within the enrolment period as the Diocesan enrolment prioritisation structure may result in places filling and late enrolments being unsuccessful.

If you have any family or friends wishing to seek enrolment at St Patrick’s for next year, for Kindergarten or any other grade, please make them aware enrolments are open and they can enrol online now. If anyone has difficulty with online enrolment they can pop into the office or alternatively call the school on 49903152 for assistance.

Enrolments close FRIDAY 23rd MAY 2025.

Year 6 parents please note the enrolment period is the same for Year 7 at St Joseph’s College Lochinvar. I have heard that there are many enrolment applications already submitted for Year 7. Please ensure you apply for enrolment ASAP so your application is in prior to the closing date. I know the College would appreciate all the applications for students from feeder primary schools to be in soon so they are able to determine how many other places they may have available.

School Cyber Safety Agreement

All students K-6 will have bought home a Cyber Safety Agreement. This is in line with Diocesan policy with all students in all our schools required to adhere to this document.

Parents, please read through the agreement with your child/children and both of you must sign and date this. All agreements must be returned to your child’s class teacher by Friday 28 February.  After this time, any child who has not completed the agreement will be unable to use technology at school.

It is important that if you have more than one child at St Patrick's each child completes and returns an individual agreement to their class teacher.

Media Permissions

We love sharing all the successes of our students and community at St Patrick’s throughout the school year. On enrolment you nominate whether you agree or do not agree to give media permission for your child. That is:

I give permission for photographs and videos of my child to be taken for school and diocesan publications, social media and websites.  I understand that images relating to school and diocesan activities/functions may be included in school and diocesan publications, social media and websites.  Student, parent/carers and other family members will remove themselves from such photographs/video if they object to this practice. 

Should you believe your circumstances have changed since the enrolment and you need to revise the permission for your child please contact the school office.

School Community Code of Conduct

On enrolment parents/carers are required to agree to our School Community Code of Conduct.  A further copy is attached here for your information. 

Staff Car Park

Just a reminder that the staff car park is strictly for staff use only.  The only exception to this is any parent/carer who is displaying a mobility parking permit,is dropping off or picking up their child, and requires use of the designated disabled parking space.  

If you like to walk your child into school of a morning please park on either Millers Road or Wollombi, not in the staff car park.  Your assistance with this is greatly appreciated.  

Awards

CLASS CAPTAINS  

MERIT AWARDS   

Kindergarten

Kindergarten’s Exciting Start to School

The Kindergarten students have had a fantastic few weeks settling into school life! They have been busy getting to know their teachers, new classmates, and all the routines that come with being at school.

As part of the Successful Foundations program, our youngest learners have been developing essential skills like collaboration, problem-solving, sharing, and creativity. A favourite activity has been gathering around the ‘campfire,’ where they have cooked camp food, gone fishing, built tents, and shared stories with their friends.

The students have also been having a blast building with boxes and blocks —creating everything from car tracks and trains to pirate ships! The Kinder Café and kitchen have been bustling with activity, with students whipping up delicious café treats. Meanwhile, our little pirates have been on exciting treasure hunts, designing maps, and giving instructions to help find hidden loot.

Creativity has been shining through as students respond to some wonderful stories like The Very Hungry Caterpillar, Little Nic’s Big Day, and Starting School. Their enthusiasm for storytelling and imaginative play has made for a truly exciting start to the school year!

We can’t wait to see what adventures the Kindergarten students embark on next.

Shayne Coxon, Jessica Grant and Kirstie Barnett

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Year 1

We are excited to share that our Year 1 classes have had a positive start to the school year! Over the past few weeks, our students have been busy connecting with their friends and engaging in fun and meaningful activities that set a positive tone for the year ahead.

Play Provocations

One of the highlights of our early weeks has been the various play provocations we’ve introduced. These activities have encouraged our students to collaborate, communicate, and build friendships. Through play, they have transitioned into a new year at school and continued to develop important social skills that will benefit them throughout their school journey.

Learning Patterns in Maths

In our maths lessons, we have been exploring patterns! The students have been working in small groups, using hands-on materials to identify and create patterns. This interactive approach has made learning engaging and enjoyable, allowing each child to contribute their ideas while reinforcing their understanding of this essential mathematical concept.

Exploring Friendship

In addition to our academic pursuits, we have been exploring the theme of friendship in our religion lessons. The children have been discussing what it means to be a good friend and how we can embody the qualities of Jesus in our daily interactions. This exploration has led to meaningful conversations about kindness, empathy, and support, helping our students understand the importance of nurturing friendships both in and out of the classroom.

We are excited for all our positive learning to come!  

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Year 2

1st day of fun in Year 2 Gold

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We have loved learning collaboratively this week.  Here we are exploring language in English by categorising words into tiers and also playing Maths games

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Bus Safety

Swap It!

WOW your kids with colour! View more recipe ideas here: www.swapit.net.au/recipes

Good for Kids, Good for Life

Community Notices

You are invited to come along to the Exhibition Launch of the Reach Beyond Portraiture Project, on Monday 3 March 2025 at Performance Arts Culture Cessnock from 1pm..