Newsletter Thursday 12^th May 2022

Dear God,

Thank you for our school, our teachers, our family, our friends and everything. We are so privileged to have these amazing things in our lives. We hope you can keep giving us these amazing things in the future.

We pray for the people in Ukraine and Russia. Let them be free and have a good life. We pray that Russia and Ukraine can be in harmony and not fight. We thank the soldiers that have fought for us.

We remember all our loved ones and hope they are safe up in Heaven.

Amen.

Sophie and Lucas Langen

Good afternoon Parents/carers and guardians,

On Tuesday evening, we held our School board meeting where we met to disucss educational matters concerning the school. Each week, one of the committee members begins the meeting with a prayer. Last night, Karen Langen, (Sophie (ex-student) and Lucas Langen Grade 2KK, wrote this prayer for their mum to share. I was so amazed at this special prayer put together so simply. I just wanted to share it with the community (see above). I am hoping that in doing so, that other familes will also like to take the time to compose a simple, heartfelt prayer that I can include in the newsletter each week. Please email principal@stppakenham.catholic.edu.au or simply hand the prayer to your child’s classroom teacher.

Last week, the P and F committee put together a very successful Mother’s Day stall! With a wide variety of gifts at affordable prices, the students were spoilt for choice when choosing the perfect gift. Thanks so much to the wonderful work of the committee and to the volunteers who helped out on the day! The Mother’s Day Raffle was also a great success!

Over the next few weeks, you will see myself and my Deputy Principals, Jacki and Lisa, at the car line with clipboards in hands. We are stopping and asking parents a very simple question and that is:

“Can you give us 3 words to describe how you would like your child to be after their time at St Pat’s?”

We are hoping to hear words such as ‘faith filled’, ‘resilient’ ‘courageous’. We are also asking your children the same question. What we are hoping to achieve are key words that can help create our new Vision statement for St Patrick’s as we move into the future. This way we have sought to hear the voice of our parent and student community.

An online survey will also be sent to all families via PAM this week and families are asked to reply to the question (stated above), with the words you hope your child will ‘be’ after their time at St Patrick’s.

Take care and God Bless

Meg

Sick Students

This past week we have noticed a big increase in the volume of students we are sending home that are unwell. I ask all parents to NOT send their child/ren to school if they are sick with a runny nose, sore throat or a cough. Apart from these being Covid symptons, we are finding that parents are dropping off children and then having to collect them from school within the hour. The last 2 years in lockdown will see their immune systems not likely to cope with the common cold as it once did. Please be considerate when making these decisions.

The Avenue Exit

I have spoken to both the Cardinia Council and the Police about the irresponsible and dangerous driving behaviours I am seeing from parents as they exit THE AVENUE car park. There is a NO RIGHT TURN sign here (faded but it is there), however parents/carers and guardians continue to ignore this sign and attempt to turn right and in the process cause a backlog of traffic in the car park. I have aksed the council to update this sign as well as to ask traffic management officers to come during our busiest times to ensure parents are doing the right thing. I thank you for your co operation in this matter.

Staff Updates

As mentioned last week, I am still currently in the process of engaging a teacher for grade 4GD for the remainder of the year. You will be aware that staff shortages are very common at this time, but particularly so in the teaching industry. In the meanwhile, Mrs Angharad Doran and Miss Katherine Mirabella will continue in the role.

Parents for school board

I am currently looking for new members to be part of the school board. We meet twice per term and during the colder months, the meetings are done online so we do not need to come out on the cold and wet nights. I would be very keen to involve new families to the school on the board. In terms of ‘workload’, there is not much to be done as the board is separate from the P and F committee. The board acts as an advisory service to myself on school initiatives. If you are interested, please contact the school office at 5943 9000 or email office@stppakenham.catholic.edu.au

NAPLAN

This week we have had the NAPLAN tests running at our school for our year 3 and 5 students. These standardised tests have been conducted online and I would like to commend the students for the way they have gone about managing their attitude towards these tests. Our students will hear things from the news and other media applications, however they have taken it all in their stride and got through most successfully. I would also like to thank Lisa McDonald, Jacki Taylor, Neesha Bateson and Jacky Merrey along with the year 3 and 5 staff for their support in getting this testing up and running.

Project Compassion

We are pleased to announce that the students at St Patrick’s raised $1,180 this year through Project Compassion and this money will be donated to CARITAS. Your generous support can help change the lives of the world’s most vulnerable people.

SCHOOL Tours and ENROLMENTS for 2023

Please contact the school office if you have a child that is due to begin school in 2023. If you would like to come for a tour, please contact the school office to make an appointment. Please let your friends and families know about us.

Head Lice

There has been another outbreak of head lice in the school once again. Can I please ask that parents are checking their children for any signs that they may have this and go through the correct protocols to ensure it does not spread in school. Please see the link below for advice.

https://www.health.vic.gov.au/infectious-diseases/head-lice-resources

Teacher emails

Please note that teachers will NOT be replying to emails after 5pm. If you send an email to a staff member after this time, it will be responded to in the following 48 hours. As I am sure you will agree, teachers have their own families and other responsibilities to attend to after this time. If the matter is an emergency, please contact the office at office@stppakenham.catholic.edu.au or call 5943 9000

Thank you for your understanding in this matter.

St Francis Xavier year 7 enrolments 2023-TALK AND TOUR WITH HEAD OF CAMPUS

Any parents wishing to begin the process of enrolling their child/ren for Year 7 at St Francis Xavier next year, may be interested in one of their Head of Campus Talk and Tour dates. Families can register on their website. See below for details.

St Francis Xavier will also be holding specific tours (with translators for Chinese speakers and people from South Sudanese languages) for our community and dates will be sent to you when they are confirmed.

Head of Campus Talk & Tour Dates 9.30 to 11.00am

17 May, 21 June, 26 July, 6 September, 11 October, 8 November.

COVID Update

VISITORS AND VOLUNTEERS PERFORMING WORK AT A SCHOOL

Any visitor or volunteer performing work at a school must be fully vaccinated (boosted) (with three (3) doses) with an approved COVID-19 vaccine or have a valid exception to attend on-site for the purpose of working.

• Visitors or volunteers working on school sites include, but are not limited to:
• Parent and Friends Committee members
• School Advisory Committee members
• Volunteers performing volunteer work at the school (for example, parent helpers and those participating in a school working bee outside of school time)
• Volunteers attending school camps or excursions
• Schools must collect, record and hold vaccination information for all workers, including visitors or volunteers performing work at a school whether inside or outside

This term, the covid mask mandate for teachers and students in years 3-6 has been scrapped. However if you would still prefer your child to wear a mask whilst in the classroom, that is not a problem. The school still has plenty of masks on hand. The latest COVID information is listed below so please read carefully.

LATEST COVID Update

WATCH FOR SYMPTOMS

If your child is unwell, even with mild COVID-19 symptoms, you must keep your child at home until their symptoms resolve and get your child tested with a PCR test (nose and throat swab) or complete a Rapid Antigen Test (RAT).

If symptoms continue, your child should stay home and take another RAT or PCR test in 24 hours. If that test is also negative, your child may return to school if another diagnosis is confirmed (such as an underlying health condition or medication).

Checklist for COVID contacts

Checklist for COVID contacts

VACCINATIONS 

All students and their families are strongly encouraged to get vaccinated.  Children aged 5 to 11 can now get vaccinated. Parents, guardians and carers are encouraged to book their child in for a vaccination at the first available opportunity.

TESTING

RATs will be provided to all staff and students at no charge. Schools will inform parents, guardians and carers on how these kits can be collected from the school. Students and staff should take a RAT twice-weekly on the morning before attending school. Test kits will continue to be supplied by schools during this time.

HOUSEHOLD AND HOUSEHOLD-LIKE CONTACTS

Household and household-like contacts are no longer required to quarantine but are required to undertake the following additional safety measures in the seven (7) days that would have been their quarantine period: 

• Notify the school if returning during their seven (7)-day period;
• Undertake daily rapid antigen testing five (5) times within the seven (7) days;
• Wear a face mask indoors (if aged eight (8) and above) unless a lawful exemption applies; and are not permitted to visit hospitals or care facilities unless an exemption applies.
• Household and household-like contacts are still permitted to participate in school activities, including camps and excursions, as long as they wear a mask when indoors (if aged eight (8) and above or have a valid exception) and complete five (5) rapid antigen tests within the seven (7)-day period that would have been their quarantine period.
• A household or household-like contact attending an off-site activity during this period must notify the school they are attending under these requirements.
• If a student, parent, guardian or carer cannot comply with the additional safety measures at any time, they must quarantine immediately for the remainder of their seven (7)-day household contact period to get tested on Day one (1) (or as soon as possible) and on Day six (6) of their household contact period and not attend school until a negative Day six (6) test result is received.

COVID-19 POSITIVE CASES

If your child has no symptoms and there is a positive COVID-19 case in their household, class, year level or other grouping, your child can continue to attend school in line with Victorian Department of Health advice.

Staff and students who receive a positive RAT result must register it on the COVID-19 Positive Rapid Antigen Test Self-Reporting Form available on the Coronavirus Victoria website https://www.coronavirus.vic.gov.au/report as soon as possible.

Staff and students who receive a positive RAT or PCR test result must tell their school as soon as possible, and follow Victorian Department of Health advice.

Students who test positive to COVID-19 must isolate for seven (7) days and not attend school during that period.

Students who have recovered from COVID-19, are not required to get tested or isolate if they are re-exposed to a positive COVID-19 case within 12 weeks of ending their isolation period. If more than 12 weeks have passed since their isolation period concluded, students must follow the relevant testing and isolation advice depending on the type of contact they are.

Schools will regularly communicate to parents, guardians and carers about the presence and impact of COVID-19 in their school community. Parents, guardians and carers should expect to be provided with details of any impacted grade, year level or other grouping.

VENTILATION

The Victorian Government has provided air purifiers and new filters for all schools.

Fresh air is the most effective form of ventilation to minimise the risk of transmission.

Schools are required to increase fresh air flow into indoor spaces (including shared spaces, staff areas and thoroughfares) whenever possible.

Using outdoor spaces will continue to be encouraged, where practicable.

FACE MASKS

Staff and students are no longer required to wear a face mask indoors or outdoors at school.

Everyone aged eight (8) years or over must wear a face mask when travelling to and from school, on public transport, taxis or ride share vehicles, unless a lawful exemption applies. This includes when travelling to and from activities, school camps and excursions on school buses or via public transport.

Visitors to primary schools are no longer required to wear a face mask indoors or outdoors at school.

Any students or staff members who wish to wear a face mask may do so, including those who are medically at-risk.

ACTIVITIES

COVID-19 will continue to be considered in all activity risk assessments. Guidance will be provided to schools on applying appropriate safeguards across a range of activities, including school camps and excursions.

Parents, guardians and carers will be made aware of the risk of exposure and will need to provide their permission for their child’s participation in extra-curricular, out of school hours or off-site activities.

VISITORS

Visitors on school sites should be kept to a minimum to support essential school activities or student needs.

Visitors will be required to comply with COVIDSafe measures, including physical distancing requirements and practise respiratory etiquette and good hand hygiene.

The use of Service Victoria QR codes for electronic record-keeping is no longer required in school settings.

Parents, guardians, carers and other adult visitors are no longer required to show evidence of two doses of a COVID-19 vaccine if not performing work or volunteering at the school. 4 April 2022

VISITORS AND VOLUNTEERS PERFORMING WORK AT A SCHOOL

Any visitor or volunteer performing work at a school must be fully vaccinated (boosted) (with three (3) doses) with an approved COVID-19 vaccine or have a valid exception to attend on-site for the purpose of working.

Visitors or volunteers working on school sites include, but are not limited to:

• Parent and Friends Committee members
• School Advisory Committee members
• Volunteers performing volunteer work at the school (for example, parent helpers and those participating in a school working bee outside of school time)
• Volunteers attending school camps or excursions
• Schools must collect, record and hold vaccination information for all workers, including visitors or volunteers performing work at a school whether inside or outside

KEEPING SCHOOLS OPEN 

Parents, guardians and carers are asked to respect the rules at their child’s school to help keep the community safe.

Schools will do everything they can to maintain continuity of face-to-face learning including the increased use of casual staff.

Schools will continue to make localised staffing decisions to ensure appropriate supervision can be maintained.

Schools will not be able to guarantee particular staff for any cohort and students may not have their regular teacher for a class.

LEARNING FROM HOME

We will continue to monitor the situation and where face-to-face learning is not possible, learning from home options will be supported for short periods.

Students who are required to isolate or quarantine will be provided with learning materials to support their continued learning. Schools are not expected to provide a full remote learning program in these circumstances.

TERM DATES

The applications for government secondary schools are due tomorrow the 13th. Please fill out the form and hand it in to the office or directly to your preferred secondary school.

If you chose to hand the form in directly to your preferred school please provide a copy  to the office.

If you are sending your child to a Catholic or Independent school please fill out section 5 of the document and return it to the office.

If you have any questions please contact the office directly.

Years 3 and 5 have NAPLAN testing this year. The dates are as follows:

Mother’s Day originated from humble beginnings in 1908 as a simple tradition to honour all mothers, living and deceased. However, it did not take long for florists, confectioners and card companies to jump onboard and commercialise the day, much to the disappointment of its founder, Ann Jarvis.

Mother’s Day is a good annual reminder to say thanks to the mums and other special carers who play an important role in our lives, but it is essential we mark the day with love and sincerity. This year is especially important due to the recent pandemic, where mothers played multiple roles over recent months providing care and support to those they love under difficult circumstances. Mothers will often put the needs of others above their own, so it is paramount to remind them to take care of themselves also, especially when it comes to mental health.

Research has shown that women experience some mental health conditions more so than men and at much higher rates. There are many factors that can impact a woman’s wellbeing physically and emotionally. Seeking effective treatment can enable her to engage more readily in everyday activities and fulfil the needs of her children and family.

This Special Report highlights the role mothers play in the developmental growth of her children and the importance of self-care for good mental health.

We hope you take time to reflect on the information offered in this Special Report, and as always, we welcome your feedback.

If you do have any concerns about the wellbeing of your child, please contact the school for further information or seek medical or professional help.

Here is the link to your special report:
https://stppakenham.catholic.schooltv.me/wellbeing_news/celebrating-mothers-day

Last week the P&F hosted our Mother's day stall and raffle, this was very successful with all children purchasing an item or raffle ticket. 

A big thank you to all the parents that volunteered their time and energy for the stall!

Congraulations to our prize winners:

Owen, Cung and Sophie

This past week our grade 5 and foundation buddies had a chance to catch-up in our stadium. Students spent this time reading their favourite books and creating pictures.

This weeks students created persuasive writing pieces about the promt 'Weekends should be 3 days long', here are a few for you to read:

By Sanadie Weerakonda

Weekends should be 3 days longer 

Have you ever wondered what a real holiday would be like? The exhaustion from a school day is hard enough, but wouldn’t school alone be a standard for students.  For others, a holiday would feel like a nightmare. With a load of homework and schoolwork rushing your way, how could you manage? Students should still have the right to feel educated and still have the privilege to complete school work. Everyone tends to become bored with nothing to do on the 2 days of the weekend. Plus, being at school would obviously keep you busy, rather than staying at home and doing nothing at all. So, should you save yourself from boredom or cure yourself from freedom?  

Surely, you would agree that school could use some time off, and that's why we have the weekend. But is extending them really the best option? As every student says, it is claimed that schools are boring, but many others think that this will be the exact opposite, and we all mean your education! Education is the main reason why we come to school, and having an extra day off will make this worse. This concept will not make the matter any better as it will casually make students feel lazier about their learning. Likewise, this will make you think about unnecessary content when going back to school.

Precisely, many students are obliged to not keep busy during the weekends, as going to school will actually get you somewhere. Students can suffer from boredom by being stuck inside doing nothing at all. Whereas at school, we will learn something while spending our time wisely and keeping ourselves busy. This would be true, as you will run out of the many things you could do at school whilst you are at home. For example, our time keeps us engaged in our learning and time being at school. 

Without a doubt, longer weekends are a bad influence on our day to day life. This will make us feel as if we don’t want to go to school any more as we are glued to our screens or doing something totally unnecessary. When going back to school you will be unfocused and distracted by many things as well as doing your work properly. This will waste your time as well as wasting other students' well being too. If we stick to our two day weekend then this will be an equal stability on breaks and school work. 

To sum it all up, a three day weekend will make you feel as if you forgot everything, whereas making sure we have a two day weekend only will stabilize your life as it is. Education, boredom and forgetting everything are only some of the reasons why we do not allow three day weekends, but making sure everything is productive then we can all forget about ever saying there was a three day weekend.

By Tayte Royakkers

There must be an extra day on a weekend

Doesn’t it feel like there is no time at all to do anything on a weekend? Well people may think that there is heaps of time, but I believe there must be another day on the weekend.

To start off people may not want an extra day off on weekends because they might be really good at school or it might be their job to work on weekdays. For example, you might want to keep doing school work because it’s something you enjoy, so therefore you don’t want an extra day of weekend and if it’s for your work you might lose money on payday due to you not working an extra day for a weekend.

Second of all, You might not want another day off because you’re guaranteed to see your friend or someone you know very well. This means that they may have had a day off or you just really want to talk to them again because you enjoy being with them. 

A reason for why we should have another day on the weekend is because on a weekend, we can all agree we feel very tired and because of this you might be able to do things you want. To give you an explanation, You may have just finished a long week of work or school and you are super exhausted and just want to sleep in the next day. So you do so, but you’ve realized you had slept in until 11:00am. You had just lost about 5 hours of your weekend then you could’ve if you had an extra day of the weekend.

Second of all on why we should have an extra day off is because you have very limited time. Especially if you have a pretty young child or sibling who might not get up for a long time and you might do cleaning on weekends, so it makes it very hard to do something like go out and have a nice day when you have very limited time.

Last of all, I believe we all deserve to see our families more. While if you're at work or school, you may not see them and miss them. You also get to have a lot of fun with them and you’d most likely be able to do more activities with them.

In conclusion, I strongly believe we all must want another day on the weekend to have lots of fun, you can sleep in more, spend lots of time with your family and just to feel much more relaxed, comfy and releafed. I do understand that other people still may not want another day off, but I truly believe that we should all have an extra day on the weekend.

By Roohani Kaur

Should the weekends be three days long

Having an extra day of the weekend is fun and all, but do you really know how much this one extra day of the weekend can do to you? Well, the answer is A LOT! A three day long weekend can cause you ( a student) to become lazy, it ruins your bedtime routine drastically and gives less days for actual school and learning. So, I strongly believe that there should not be a three day weekend.

To start it off, an extremely long weekend is absolutely NOT acceptable, not only is it 1 million days long, but it also makes the students that go to school get super lazy. It makes them think “ oh! There’s no school tomorrow, which means that I can go to sleep late tonight without any stress of waking up early for school.” But then when an actual school day comes they wake up late. Thus, being late for school.

Next up, don’t you love it when you finally get yourself back on track with your sleep schedule? Well, enjoy it as much as you can, because a three day long weekend is sure to ruin that sweet, sweet bedtime routine of your’s. Making plans with family and friends is a neutral way of bonding, but these so called ‘family get togethers’ can lead up to late into the night and sometimes even into the early hours of the morning. Yep! Not feeling too fond about that upcoming family get together now, are you?

Finally, everyone knows that it is a necessity to have plenty of facilities and plenty of time when it comes to school and studying, but how are you supposed to pull of such a amazing possibility when you only have four days of to study at school!!!Sure you have homework and all, but that isn’t an excuse to get an extra day of the weekend. Just think about it… An outstandingly perfect job, you're working in a multimillion dollar company, earning a 6 digit salary and all of this with your extreme intelligence that you got from going to school five days a week. See the outcomes, they're amazing!

To sum it up, I unconditionally believe that there should not be a three day long weekend no matter what. Utterly despicable, making you ( a student) lazy and it ruins your bedtime routine exceedingly, oh! Don’t even get me started about the amount of days that you get for school! You must agree that having a three day long weekend is crucial to you EVERY… WAY… IMAGINABLE.

Last week the Scholastic cataloguess where sent out for your child to bring home. This is a book club where you can purchase books for your child with 20% of your order donated to schools for the purchasing of valuable educational resources.

If you would like to purchase something from the catalogue please do so before the 26th of May. All purchases are done online, please refer to the last page of the catalogue for step-by-step instructions on how to process your purchase.

Have you set up your PAM account yet! 

Operoo is no longer being used!!!

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.  

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. 

Parish Secretary and Bookkeeper: Job Vacancy at St. Patrick’s Parish Pakenham.

A position has become available based at the St Patrick’s parish office, Pakenham.  The primary purpose of the role is to provide secretarial, administrative support to the Parish Priest and bookkeeping for the parish. Hours of work: 30 hours per week, 9.00 am to 3.00 pm Monday to Friday. Applications are to be addressed to the Parish Priest and emailed to parishoffice@stpatrickspakenham.com.au by Friday 20th May 2022. For a copy of the job description, please contact the parish office via email or directly on 03 5941 7315.

Our much awaited Church Renovation is about to begin and is anticipated to cost in the order of $4.2 million. After contributions from Parish funds, the “Be a Sponsor of Church Renovation” programme aims to provide extra funding for the Sacred Artwork that will adorn our new church as well as reducing the loan repayments to Catholic Development Fund and thereby reflecting our strong Parish Community.

Please see the flyers below for more information and keep up to date on the Parish webpage.   https://stpatrickspakenham.com.au/fundraising/ 

CSEF Applications are now due! 

The applicant must be one of the following:

1. a parent/carer (of a student attending a registered Government or non-government Victorian primary or secondary school) who is:
   • on the first day of Term 1 (31 January 2022), or the first day of Term 2 (26 April 2022)  a holder of one or more of the eligible financially-means tested cards (Centrelink Health Care Card or a Pensioner Concession Card), or
   • a temporary foster parent

The parent/carer must submit an application to the school by 24 June 2022.

If anyone has any questions or would like to discuss their school fee account, please contact Cindy in the school office cbyrne@stppakenham.catholic.edu.au   

Please download and fill in the form below if you qualify.

 Please read the flyer below from our School House Captains.