30 June 2023

From the Principals Desk

Happy Winter Holidays

As we embark on a restful break, we hope that everyone has a lovely holiday and we pray that we all return safely for next term.

Thank you for the involvement you have shown in our school, our open days, Mother’s Day, biggest morning tea, St Paul’s feast day and athletics carnival were all wonderful community events that we could share with families and our wider parish community.

BIGGEST MORNING TEA

This was such a successful turn out of families and the community. The day was run by Mrs Carmel Boland, Mrs Rosina Broadley and her Yr 5 class. I thank them for all their hard work and an enjoyable day for all our students!

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Breakfast Club Success.

Thank you to Clare Collett and her volunteers for putting this successful support together every Tuesday and Thursday. We have great volunteers from St Vincent de Paul, Sr Joseph, Paula Hartigan and Mandy Shipard who give their time early in the morning to get breakfast started for the kids.

P & F Success

Thank you to the dedicated work of the team on the P&F for initiating the Pie Drive for term 2. They are looking for more volunteers to help only occasionally to support the fundraisers and fun activities for the students. Coming up: Father’s Day stall.

REPORTS

Last week reports were opened on COMPASS for you to view and download to your files. A note for YR 6 parents – download all COMPASS reports from previous years as you will not have access to these when your child transitions to high school.

It was a pleasure reading the reports of our students and noticing their strengths, but also areas for them to improve. I hope you continue this conversation at home to support their resilience and perseverance when some things are a little more challenging than we expect.  

LOST PROPERTY

Please remember to check that your child’s jumpers, jackets, hats, lunch boxes etc. are all clearly marked with their name. Recently, large numbers of expensive school jumpers and belongings have been found discarded during playtimes- unfortunately unnamed. Please review your labels in the holidays and check the lost property boxes at school for missing items.

Spelling and Maths Bees

Congratulations to all the St. Paul’s students who participated in the Lower Hunter Spelling and Math Bees. Their excellent performances were truly commendable. Our school is very proud of Anna Malkani who made it the Diocesan spelling Bee Stage 3 level.

HOLIDAY CLEAN UP

Holidays are always a great time to clean out wardrobes and toy cupboards. While you are cleaning out the toy cupboard, our Infants grades would like to ask for donations of cars, dollhouse furniture, tonka trucks and dress up gear for our outdoor play area. We have many children that would love these additions to our playground for recess and lunchtime play.

Athletics Medal Winners

Congratulations to the McAuley Red house for winning the Athletics 3^rd year in a row.

And a big congratulations to our champions and runners up.  Students were presented with their medals on Tuesday Assembly.

Assistant Principal

PBL

This week’s PBL Focus is Move safely around the school. This focus aligns with our school rule of Responsible. At St Paul’s we all have the right to feel safe and the responsibility to ensure that we are keeping ourselves and others safe.

We have a whole-school approach to Positive Behaviours for Learning to help support and ensure the wellbeing of all in our community. In line with this goal, our Japanese rotation for Term 2 was replaced with a Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) Focus. These fortnightly lessons have been run by Mrs Jessica Stefanish-Smith who has been filling the position of Mrs Diana Dastoor.

During this term’s sessions the students have been learning about fair play and resilience skills that they can implement when a game or activity does not go their way. These lessons help our students to develop a growth mindset. I encourage parents to watch the below clip with their children over the holidays and have a discussion around how they can have a growth mindset.

Breakfast Club

St Paul’s we are here to support the growth and development of the ‘whole child’. The introduction of our Breakfast Club this term is another initiative that supports this. Research has found that children who eat breakfast, have an increase in their ability to focus and to pay attention in class and remain on task for sustained periods of time. Research findings have also shown that eating breakfast supports children’s memory and alertness at school.  Lastly, eating a nutritious breakfast has been shown to positively affect learning in children in terms of positive behavior and school performance.

We could not run our breakfast club without the support of our sponsors and amazing staff and volunteers who all give up their mornings twice a week to help prepare and serve breakfast to the children each week. A huge thank you must also go to our parish volunteers. It is heartwarming to see the strength of our community connections.

Student Goal Reflections

Please keep an eye out for your child’s Semester One learning reflection sheet that will be coming home this week. These reflections are focused on each student’s learning goal from Semester One. Reflection components include:

• Student’s learning goal
• Things that have been done to achieve the goal
• Coloring in the face to visually reflect upon how their goal is going
• Semester Two Goal, which is completed in discussion with the teacher.

I encourage all parents to take the time to read through and discuss their child’s reflections with them. Remembering that it is important to equally share successes as well as set go ls for improvement. This could be an opportune time to talk about Growth Mindset and watch the clip together!

Student Awards Weeks

Religious Education Update

THE FEAST OF SAINT PAUL – THURSDAY 29^th JUNE

At the time of publish, we will have celebrate the Feast of our Patron Saint: Paul the Apostle.

We model our values of Learn, Love and Serve, just like St Paul did after his conversion 2000 years ago. His mission to spread the good news of Jesus was a dangerous one, but he also knew it was the right thing to do. In doing this, he showed many the message of Christ so they too could Learn, Love and Serve.

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Thank you to Kinder for facilitating, Fr George for presiding, my wonderful liturgy team that always put in a huge effort to help, and to our wonderful families that came along to celebrate with us.

FORTNIGHTLY CATHOLIC LESSON

This week, we are looking at the Sacrament of Anointing of the Sick. This is the sacrament where God, with his power, comes to the aid of the sick and those close to death. Anointing of the Sick gives you the gift of consolation, peace, and strength. You meet Jesus, who strengthens you. Sometimes sick people are healed by this sacrament.

The Anointing of the Sick is for those who are very sick or in danger of death from illness or old age. The sacrament helps the sick person to bear the hardship of suffering and to pass on from this life in peace.

The priest anoints the forehead and the hands of the sick person with holy oil. While doing so, he prays a special prayer to free the person from sin and cleanse them to be ready for heaven. This is only administered by bishops and priests and can be received as many times as someone needs it.

Next term we look at sacrament number 6: Holy Orders.

SACRAMENTS OF INITIATION

If you have any questions regarding the Sacraments of Initiation, please contact the parish office on (02) 4933 8918. Below are the significant dates for 2023:

SUNDAY'S GOSPEL
Mt 10:37-42
Take up your cross.

ATSI Education

 Anikanya Everyone, 

NAIDOC Week 'For Our Elders' is the 7^th to 9^th of July 2023. There are many events held around Newcastle and Maitland to attend. 

The Newy for Kids website advertises a number of events for NAIDOC Week 7^th to 9^th of July 2023. Please click the link for details. 

Library News

PRC

Congratulations to Sienna (5W) for completing the PRC this fortnight.

There is still plenty of time to complete the challenge with the closing date Friday 18^th August.

See PRC NSW website link for further details.

NSW Premier's Reading Challenge 2023 : Home (det.nsw.edu.au)

AUTHOR VISIT

Kinder and Year 1 had a wonderful time being engineers with local author Katrina McKelvey.

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Author Tim Harris will visit Years 2-6 in Term 4. Unfortunately, he postponed our original date booked for last week. Students are enjoying his latest book Rat bags during library lessons.

STORY BOX LIBRARY

BOOK CLUB

A big thank you to all families who supported our school Book Club this term. We managed to save enough reward points to order some amazing books- and this was all because of you!

If you would like to checkout the Scholastic website and set up your LOOP account ready to order for next term please click on the below link.

HOLIDAY ACTIVITIES

Checkout the local libraries for something fun to do in the holidays.

School Holiday Program | Maitland Libraries (maitlandlibrary.com.au)

LUNCH ACTIVITIES

Australia’s Biggest Morning Tea

Congratulations to everyone who helped us celebrate Yellow Day and Biggest Morning Tea.  

This was truly a group effort. Mrs Broadley, Mrs Howard, Paula Threlfo and Sr Jo collected items for our raffles.

A massive ‘Thank You’ to all the businesses that donated items for our raffle, we had around 30 prizes. Also, to all the people who cooked and supplied all the delicious goodies for the morning tea, the parents, relatives and friends who came and supported our cause through donations and raffle ticket purchases. And finally, to all the students at Saint Paul’s for participating fully in all the activities.

A huge thanks to Year 5W & 5M who manned the stalls with great maturity, this could not have been so successful without you. To the staff who ran around plating cakes and serving coffees, you were amazing.

Due to everyone’s generosity we were able to raise an astonishing $3124.30.
$1068    online
$2056.30 from Yellow Day and The Biggest morning Tea.

Thank you once again,

The Biggest Morning Tea Committee
Mrs Boland & Mrs Broadley

St Paul's Public Speaking Competition 2023

This year we will be running our public speaking program in the first four weeks of Term 3. Our Regional and Diocesan Competitions are being held earlier this year on the 22^nd of August and the 29^th of August, respectively.

This year all students K-6 will be prepared for the competition in class at school where students are given a set time to prepare a speech on a given topic before presenting. This aligns with Regional and Diocesan guidelines. This year students are not required to prepare any speeches at home. Your child's teacher may provide any further information that is specific to their grade or stage.

The Public Speaking Committee

Guitar, Bass & Ukelele Lessons available at school

Term Dates 2023

Term 1 Friday, 27^th January – Thursday, 6^th April
Term 2 Monday, 24^th April – Friday, 30^th June
Term 3 Monday, 17^th July – Friday, 22 September
Term 4 Monday, 9^th October – Tuesday, 19^th December

Winter School Holidays Saturday July 1^st – Sunday 15^th July

Term 3 2023

Week 1 17^th July – 21^st July

Mon 17^th July – Term 3 Commences Students and Staff
Tue 18^th July – Regional Athletics Carnival
Tue 18^th July – Breakfast Club 8.20am – 8.45am
Tue 18^th July – P&F Meeting Library or Zoom
Thu 20^th July – Breakfast Club 8.20am – 8.45am

Week 2 24^th July - 28^th July

Tue 25^th July – Breakfast Club 8.20am – 8.45am
Wed 26^th July – ASPIRE 2023 Year 5 & Year 6
Wed 26^th July – Newcastle Permanent Primary School Mathematics Competition Examination
Thu 27^th July – Life Education Van – Healthy Harold
Thu 27^th July – Breakfast Club 8.20am – 8.45am
Fri 27^th July – 100 Days of Kindergarten dress-ups and 100 activities
Fri 27^th July – Grandparents Day Liturgy 12pm followed by a shared Picnic Lunch 1pm
Fri 27^th July – Kindergarten 2024 Acceptance and Fee due
Fri 28^th July – Life Education Van – Healthy Harold

Week 3 31^st July – 4^th Aug

Mon 31^st July – Life Education Van – Healthy Harold
Tue 1^st Aug – Life Education Van – Healthy Harold
Tue 1^st Aug – Breakfast Club 8.20am – 8.45am
Wed 2^nd Aug – Life Education Van – Healthy Harold
Thu 3^rd Aug – Breakfast Club 8.20am – 8.45am
Fri 4^th Aug - KM Assembly 2pm

Week 4 7^th Aug – 11 Aug

Tue 8^th Aug – Breakfast Club 8.20am – 8.45am
Thu 10^th Aug – Breakfast Club 8.20am – 8.45am

Week 5 14^th Aug – 18^th Aug

BOOK Fair – Mon 14^th – Fri 17^th August
Tue 15^th Aug – Breakfast Club 8.20am – 8.45am
Thu 17^th Aug – Breakfast Club 8.20am – 8.45am
Fri 18^th Aug – 2W Assembly 2pm

Week 6 21^st Aug – 25^th Aug

BOOK WEEK Mon 21^st – Fri 25^th Aug
Tue 22^nd Aug – Breakfast Club 8.20am – 8.45am
Thu 24^th Aug – Breakfast Club 8.20am – 8.45am
Fri 25^th Aug – Regional Debating Day – St Peter’s Maitland
Fri 25^th Aug – Kindergarten 2024 Transition Day 9.30am – 10.30am
Fri 25^th Aug – Kindergarten 2024 Transition Day 10.45am – 11.45am
Fri 25^th Aug – Kindergarten 2024 Transition Day 12pm – 1pm

Week 7 28^th Aug – 1^st Sep

Tue 29^th Aug – Breakfast Club 8.20am – 8.45am
Thu 31^st Aug – Breakfast Club 8.20am – 8.45am
Fri 1^st Sep – Father’s Day Breakfast 7.30am
Fri 1^st Sep – Father’s Day Liturgy 9am
Fri 1^st Sep – 5W Assembly 2pm

Week 8 4^th Sep – 8^th Sep

Tue 5^th Sep – Breakfast Club 8.20am – 8.45am
Thu 7^th Sep – Breakfast Club 8.20am – 8.45am
Fri 8^th Sep – Kindergarten 2024 Transition Day 9.30am – 10.30am
Fri 8^th Sep – Kindergarten 2024 Transition Day 10.45am – 11.45am
Fri 8^th Sep – Kindergarten 2024 Transition Day 12pm – 1pm

Week 9 11^th Sep – 15^th Sep

Tue 12^th Sep – Breakfast Club 8.20am – 8.45am
Wed 13^th Sep – Newcastle Science & Engineering Challenge – Tomaree High School Yr 5 & Yr6
Thu 14^th Sep – Breakfast Club 8.20am – 8.45am
Fri 15^th Sep – Kindergarten 2024 Transition Day 9.30am – 10.30am
Fri 15^th Sep – Kindergarten 2024 Transition Day 10.45am – 11.45am
Fri 15^th Sep – Kindergarten 2024 Transition Day 12pm – 1pm
Fri 15^th Sep – 3W Assembly 2pm

Week 10 18^th Sep – 22^nd Sep

Tue 19^th Sep – Breakfast Club 8.20am – 8.45am
Thu 21^st Sep – Breakfast Club 8.20am – 8.45am
Thu 21^st Sep – Yr 2 Taronga Zoo Excursion
Fri 22^nd Sep – LAST DAY OF TERM 3

P&F News

June News

Pie Drive – Time to stock your freezer!!

Thank you to all who purchased items from the pie drive, a successful event raising funds to assist the school in upgrades and learning tools for the children.

June Monthly Meeting

 This month’s meeting was very productive with lots of dates planned and locked in for terms 3 and 4!!

Here are some fundraising dates for your diary.

Term 3

August – Chocolate and Natural Confectionary Lolly boxes!

September – Father’s Day Stall and Sock Drive

Term 4

November – Colour Run

November / December – Summer Disco

If there is a fundraising idea that you would like to see at the school, please send the committee an email and we will surely discuss it at the next meeting… we have a few more fundraising opportunities that we are looking into for the rest of the year.

Comments…..

It is nice to see the parents and friends’ community of St Paul’s offering support and communicating with the committee. Keep it coming the P and F are here to support the students and staff by assisting in funding classroom additions like the infants’ readers and help upgrade the school.

We will be looking for volunteers at all our events, if you can assist, we would love to hear from you. You will need to go online and fill in the documentation to volunteer at the school.

How to Contact Us

Send us an email – stpaulspandfrutherford@gmail.com
Asked a committee member to invite you to the closed facebook group.
Join us at the next meeting either via zoom or in person.  

Next Meeting

Tuesday 18th July 2023
6.30pm
School Library

Uniform Shop News

Just a reminder that if you need to exchange or refund any items the tag needs to be attached and the original package kept with the item too, please. 

Uniform Shop Hours 2023

Monday 2.15pm – 3pm
Wednesday 8.30am - 9.30am
Friday 8.30am - 9.30am

Elissa Purdon
Uniform Shop Coordinator

Canteen

Opening days will be Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays, CLOSED MONDAY.  Please order via the Qkr.

Lunch orders will be sent to the classrooms as normal.

Please ensure your child has their current class.

Celebrate Children’s Week – Art Submissions

Healthy Lunch Box

Check out our new recipes

• Vegetable congee
• Spinach triangles
• Fish taco

Check out our new blogs

• What's in season for autumn
• 5 tips to reduce your grocery bill
• 6 ways to make vegies taste even more delicious

Good for kids