"That they may all be one, as you Father, are in me and I am in you"
Filter Content
Newsletter Thursday 10th October
We the staff of St Patrick’s acknowledge the traditional owners, the Kulin nations, of the land on which we learn and play.
We pay respects to the Aboriginal Elders, past and present, who are our teachers.
We thank them for taking care of children and country for countless generations.
A reading from the holy Gospel according to Mark
Go and sell whatever you have and come follow me.
Jesus was setting out on a journey when a man ran up, knelt before him and put this question to him, ‘Good master, what must I do to inherit eternal life?’ Jesus said to him, ‘Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone. You know the commandments: You must not kill; You must not commit adultery; You must not steal; You must not bring false witness; You must not defraud; Honour your father and mother.’ And he said to him, ‘Master, I have kept all these from my earliest days.’ Jesus looked steadily at him and loved him, and he said, ‘There is one thing you lack. Go and sell everything you own and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.’ But his face fell at these words and he went away sad, for he was a man of great wealth.
Jesus looked round and said to his disciples, ‘How hard it is for those who have riches to enter the kingdom of God!’ The disciples were astounded by these words, but Jesus insisted, ‘My children,’ he said to them, ‘how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.’ They were more astonished than ever. ‘In that case’ they said to one another, ‘who can be saved?’ Jesus gazed at them. ‘For men’ he said, ‘it is impossible, but not for God: because everything is possible for God.’
Peter took this up. ‘What about us?’ he asked him. ‘We have left everything and followed you.’ Jesus said, ‘I tell you solemnly, there is no one who has left house, brothers, sisters, father, children or land for my sake and for the sake of the gospel who will not be repaid a hundred times over, houses, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and land – not without persecutions – now in this present time and, in the world to come, eternal life.
Dear Parents, Carers and Guardians,
This week the Gospel tells us Jesus knows the way possessions and wealth and comforts can tie us down. He knows that his compassion makes up for much human weakness. We offer to the Lord in prayer all we are and all we have, asking for help in using wisely what we possess, and live easily without what we might like to possess but cannot.
What will this man whom Jesus loves do? The text says he became dismayed, and he went away (the opposite of following) grieving. Doubtless Jesus commanded a hard thing, but why this overly sad reaction? Only now are we told, “For he was having many possessions.” If we had been told this detail from the outset, would it have skewed our perceptions of him?
It’s a question we — who most likely are among the world’s most privileged — must also ask. Wealth is clearly a problem. The case of the well-behaved, socially-responsible, apparently-blessed rich man demonstrates how possessions can interfere with the more important need to follow Jesus as a disciple along the way that will lead to a cross. With respect to salvation, however, the rich only have a bigger challenge than that faced by anyone else.
If it came down to the crunch and we had to choose our possessions or our God-which would you choose????
Welcome to our final term of 2024!
Once again, we have an amazing school term filled with so many wonderful events. These include our: Year 6 camp and their fun week, Year 5 UPP incursion, swimming for Foundation and Year 1, Athletics carnival for the whole school (to be held in 2 separate days), Year 6 Confirmation and workshop, Year 5 Mad About Science Incursion, Year 4 Incursion-African Drumming, Year 5 and 6 Incursion with SFX-It’s a Mad House, Year 3 excursion to Scienceworks, Year 3 Fun Day and evening, Year 1 excursion to Legoland, Year 2 excursion to Old Gippstown, Year 4 excursion to ACMI and of course our Christmas Concert! Phew! So much fun and learning to be had.
In connection with our Parish community, we will celebrate the Sacrament of Confirmation, and we will welcome our new Parish Priest Fr Jeff Kleynjans to our wonderful community of St Patrick’s. This evening, we are hosting Fr Elio Capra who will be conducting the parent information evening for the Sacrament of Confirmation at 7pm in the Parish Hall. We look forward to welcoming all parents.
Thank you to my staff for a fantastic first week. With a lock down called on the first day, every single student was safe and well versed in what to do in such an emergency lock down. Everything went to plan and I so proud of our students and my staff.
Yesterday we held the first of 4 2025 Foundation transition sessions and held the Parent information session alongside this. It is honestly so incredible to welcome so many new families to our St Patrick’s community. The students had the most wonderful time and were very settled. Thank you to my team of Nadine, Yoke, Kelly, Geraldine, Katherine, Lisa, Melissa, Nicole and Angharad for your support as ensure that these new children have the best possible start to their school lives.
God Bless
Meg
HAPPY BIRTHDAY !!
Sebit 5RM, Shahbaaz 1NC, Zephyr 1AF, David 4AT, Khloe 2NB, Deng 2NB, Noah 3AG, Mayom FKG, Tigerlilly FGW, Dot 5RM, Mesina 1AF, Azaan 2NB, Fateh 3AG, Heyan 2SM, Paramie 6BC, Oliv 3OG, Amelia 3AG, Harmanpreet 6BC, Joyce 3AG, Maeva 5SA, Kenneth 2SM, Ronal 6BC and Scott 5RM !
| DATE | ACTIVITY |
| 11/10/2024 | Year 5 Incursion: Mad About Science |
| 15/10/2024 | Hakka Chin Community Meeting @ 9:00am |
| 17/10/2024 | Year 4 Incursion: African Drumming |
| 17/10/2024 | 2025 Foundation: Transition Day 2 |
| 18/10/2024 | Year 5 & 6 Excursion: SFX Production |
| 21/10/2024 | Year 3 Excursion: Science Works |
| 22/10/2024 | 2025 Foundation: Transition Day 3 |
| 31/10/2024 | Year 1 Excursion: LegoLand |
| 31/10/2024 | Year 3 Fun Day |
| 01/11/2024 | Student Free Day |
| 04/11/2024 | Student Free Day |
| 05/11/2024 | Student Free Day |
| 06/11/2024 | Foundation Incursion: Splash's |
| 07/11/2024 | Year 3-6 Excursion: House Athletics |
| 08/11/2024 | Year 2 Excursion: Old Gippstown |
| 08/11/2024 | Year 5 Incursion: UPP Leadership |
| 11/11/2024 | Year 6 Camp Parent Information Night @ 6:00pm |
| 11/11/2024 - 22/11/2024 | Foundation and Year 1 Swimming Lessons |
| 26/11/2024 - 29/11/2024 | Year 6 Camp: Coonawarra |
| 16/12/2024 | Year 6 Graduation @ 6:00pm |
| 17/12/2-24 | Last Day of Term - Early Finish @ 2:30pm |
Year Level Camp/ Fun Day Dates:
| DATE | YEAR LEVEL | ACTIVITY & LOCATION |
| 31/10/2024 | 3 | Fun Day - St Patrick's Primary |
| 29/04/2024 - 01/05/2024 | 4 | Camp - Phillip Island |
| 29/07/2024 - 31/07/2024 | 5 | Camp - Kryal Castle |
| 26/11/2024 - 29/11/2024 | 6 | Camp - Coonawarra Farm Resort |
TERM DATES 2024
| First Day | Last Day | |
| Term 1 | 31st January | 28th March |
| Term 2 | 16th April | 28th June |
| Term 3 | 15th July | 20th September |
| Term 4 | 7th October | 18th December |
2024 PUPIL FREE DAYS AND SCHOOL CLOSURE DAYS:
The 4 Pupil Free days ensure that we can manage our commitment for all staff to continue to provide activities such as school camps for our students.
Please note, these dates are separate from our 8 Staff Professional Development days. Those 8 days are for our staff professional learning which will focus on Religious Education, Learning and Teaching and Student Wellbeing.
| 29/01/2024 | School Closure Day |
| 30/01/2024 | School Closure Day |
| 01/03/2024 | School Closure Day |
| 15/04/2024 | School Closure Day |
| 26/04/2024 | Pupil Free Day |
| 19/08/2024 | Pupil Free Day |
| 20/08/2024 | School Closure Day |
| 01/11/2023 | School Closure Day |
| 04/11/2024 | Pupil Free Day |
| 18/12/2024 | School Closure Day |
| 19/12/2024 | School Closure Day |
| 20/12/2024 | Pupil Free Day |
5RM have started off the term learning about different types of poems. Here are a few examples the students created:
If you have a younger sibling ready to begin school 2025, please come and collect an enrolment form from the office. All new children to the school, need their own separate enrolment form. You do not need to take a formal school tour. Please come in or contact the office on 5943 9000 or office@stppakenham.catholic.edu.au
If your child/ren ARE NOT returning to St Patrick’s in 2025, this also needs to be put into writing for to the school. Thank you for your understanding in this matter.
The Scholastic Book Club catalogue has been sent home with students today. If you would like to purchase anything from this catalogue please do so before Friday 1st November. All orders must be made through LOOP, you can find the log in link below.
The P&F will be running Popcorn Wednesday's for a few more weeks this term, starting on Wednesday 23rd October. Please note that the orders must be finalised before each Tuesday at 10:00am.
Each bag of popcorn is $2, and you can use the link below to access CDF Pay.
SiMON Everywhere is an app our school uses to acces PAM and CDF Pay. We will be sending reminders through this app, as such please download and sign in. There is a guide below for your reference. If you are having any issues please contact Alex Taylor in the school office ataylor@stppakenham.catholic.edu.au
Have you logged into your PAM account yet!
We use PAM as our main form of communication. All emails, Student Attendance, Sick Bay notes, School Reports, commonly used forms, excursion/camp permission notes and Family Learning conversations, will all be communicated via PAM.
Access PAM via this link Link to PAM
PAM - Parent Access Module
PAM (Parent Access Module) is our Parent to School communication platform. PAM will provide real time access to keep parents updated with their children’s progress, important dates and messages. Relevant resources – calendar events, student reports, parent notified absences, absence data and sick bay notes will all be accessed via PAM.
Parents will be able to easily book Parent Teacher interviews through PAM, and access teacher email addresses.
PAM accounts are linked via your email address that we have in our systems.
If you have recently changed your email, please call or email us on office@stppakenham.catholic.edu.au
Click on the 'forget password' link to set your password and then verify your email address. (Email addresses must be verified for PAM to work properly). Once your email is verified, your email can be used as the username for your account.
Once you have successfully logged in, you can save PAM to your homescreen on your device.
If you have any issues or need help with PAM please contact the school via email, office@stppakenham.catholic.edu.au
PAM Instructions
Parent Notified Absences via PAM
Once you have PAM set up and saved to your home screen you can easily send in Parent Notified absences. Please use this platform going forward as this automatically syncs with the class roll. This will fix the issues of receiving SMS notifications even though you had already notified the school.
Please remember to update your contact details and any relevant medical details for your child.
Most medical profiles have now been updated. Please remember to keep them up to date and upload any asthma/allergy plans that may be relevant.
To update any contact details please contact the school office.
