Welcome to a short edition of the School Newsletter. 

We are hoping to start publishing the full newsletter from next week.   

Newsletter Thursday 3^rd February 2022

Term 1 Week 2

Welcome back to the 2022 school year!

As I am sure most of you are aware, I have been given the privilege of taking over the role of Acting Principal. I am honoured to be taking this on and thank Simon for his role in acting as my mentor for the last 2 years.

St Patrick’s community is a special place. What a pleasure it is to come to work every day and to see the faces of our students as they walk through the gates each morning and greeting me on their way to class. I wish to continue instilling in all, this sense of community we have and I think now is more important than ever before as we continue to live with Covid.

Now is the time to be supportive and to let the divides go between us. The greatest wish as a teacher and now Principal, is that the students in my care understand the values of respect, honesty, trust and kindness. To show Integrity in times of crisis and challenge.

I would like to thank my wonderful staff for the commitments they have made again to be your children’s teachers. To be their guide and their mentor. May they continue to grow strong and be comfortable in the knowledge of what a privilege it is to be a teacher.

I ask God to bless the families of St Patrick’s and to keep us safe in his arms as we make our way through 2022.

Welcome to our newest staff member Katie Koulouris who is teaching grade 2 this year. Katie comes to us after being with us last year in the role of a casual relief teacher and she has displayed a dedication to our students and school.

Congratulations to Trish Gibson (Grade 4) who has announced the news she is expecting her second baby. Trish will be with us for the remainder of term 1 and early term 2 and we will begin the process of finding a replacement teacher later this term.

Captains 2022

I am delighted to announce our Captains for 2022

School Captains: Alex Chol and Violet O’Loughlin

Vice Captains: Daniella Kershaw and Deng Akol

Congratulations also to our Sports captains for 2022:

Blue house- FLYNN- Tayte Royakkers 6BC and Ryan Byrne 6BC

Green house- BOURKE Biak Thla Ceu 6TA and Willow Harris 6DD

Red- HUNT Joseph Tafesse 6DD and Brandon Preston 6BC

Yellow- AHERN Xavier Gridley 6TA and Samadie Weerakondaarachchige 6BC

School Closure days

Covid Requirements

Quarantine Requirements – A student who tests positive to COVID-19, either through a RAT or PCR test must:

• isolate for 7 days at home.
• inform the school that they have tested positive to COVID-19. A negative test result is not required to return to school following completion of seven (7) days of isolation.

Close Contacts

A close contact is someone who has spent more than four hours with someone who has COVID-19 inside a house, accommodation, or care facility. A contact at school is not included in this definition, unless contact has occurred in a school-based residential setting, such as a school camp. Students who are close contacts must quarantine for seven (7) days (inclusive of weekends) and must not attend school during this period.

Other Contacts

Where a student has been in contact with a case of COVID-19, including at school:

• if asymptomatic, students should continue to attend school and monitor for symptoms
• if symptomatic, all students must stay/return home, take a RAT, or get a PCR test if a RAT kit is unavailable. On receipt of a negative test result, and if well enough, the student can return to school.

Rapid Antigen Testing

The Victorian Government has strongly recommended that all students complete twice-weekly RAT at home prior to attending school for at least the first four weeks of Term 1, 2022.

Tests will be provided to families at no cost. Parents, guardians and carers must advise the School if their child receives a positive RAT result and must register the positive result on the COVID-19 Positive Rapid Antigen Test Self-Reporting Form available on the Coronavirus Victoria website www.coronavirus.vic.gov.au as soon as possible.

Further information in relation to the collection of RAT kits will be made available to families once the School has received delivery of the RAT kits from the Victorian Government.

A reminder to all visitors – Parents/guardians, when coming into the school office you MUST check in on the QR code and show your proof of vaccination even if you are entering for less than 15mins.   

If you enter the school grounds but not any buildings then you do not need to check in but you do need to wear a mask.

Have you set up your PAM account yet!

From the start of 2022 PAM will be 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.  

A new app (SimonEverywhere) will soon be available to download to allow easy access to PAM but for now please save the PAM log on screen to the home page of your device or bookmark it in your browser.  

Access PAM via this link   Link to PAM 

SIMON -  a Learning Management Software solution for schools.

St Patrick’s Primary school is now using SIMON in the classroom to keep track of your child’s progress and learning as well as attendance.  SIMON will also be used for School Reports and Student Wellbeing.

PAM, SIMON’s Parent Access Module

PAM (Parent Access Module) is our new 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.cathlic.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.  

The medical profile section of PAM has also now been turned on.   This needs to be updated as soon as possible.  

To update any contact details please contact the school office.