Dear Parents and Caregivers,

Recently I attended an Assistant Principal retreat at the Marist Brothers Hermitage in Mittagong. I highly recommend a visit to The Hermitage, not only for its serene and peaceful location in the Southern Highlands, but also as a spiritual haven for prayer and reflection. Whilst at the retreat I was blessed to be able to listen to Jesuit Priest Father Richard Leonard speak about many contemporary issues facing society. One of the issues he spoke about was parents pursuit of their child’s happiness. Being a parent myself I have on occasions fallen victim to using the age old phrase “I just want my children to be happy.”

As parents when we see our children disappointed or frustrated our hearts feel their pain and we want to do everything we can to relieve them of this feeling and replace it with happiness. Assisting children to see stumbling blocks as opportunities to improve and grow by offering a different perspective such as, “I know it feels bad right now, but what can you learn from this?” will give them the tools they can use in the future and can increase their resilience, persistence and confidence. Perhaps then rather than wanting our children to be ‘happy’, we should be seeking for them to be grateful, purposeful and resilient, knowing that with this, happiness ensues.

Last week St Paul’s played host to One Nation Member of the NSW Legislative Council, Mark Latham, Manager Research, Data and Analysis from Catholic Schools NSW, Gary Molloy and Tim Gilmour, Professional Assistant to the Director of Schools. The purpose of the meeting was to discuss the way in which teaching and learning takes place at St Paul’s. I would like to thank Mrs Julie Smith from the Leadership Team for being part of the meeting with myself and assisting in telling the St Paul’s journey. We must be doing something right! I would like to share the Tweet that Mark Latham shared after the meeting.

I would like to take this opportunity to express my gratitude to the staff who attended the 2 night, Year 6 excursion to Canberra and Cooba and those who will be attending the upcoming overnight Year 5 camp to Teen Ranch. The amount of planning that goes into ensuring students are safe and supported in overnight excursions is extensive, with many of our staff needing to make personal arrangements to ensure their own children were cared for while they were away.  

May you all have a safe and enjoyable break with your children. 

God Bless,                  

Sheereen Brunetta
Acting Principal

NAPLAN

NAPLAN results have now been distributed to Year 3 and 5 families. St Paul’s strong and above state results in NAPLAN for 2019 validates the strategic journey the school has undertaken over the past 3 years, in transforming the way that literacy, in particular reading is being taught. I would like to acknowledge the leadership team and the teaching staff for the important role they play in transforming learning at St Paul’s by ensuring research and evidence based teaching methodologies.  

The National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) is an annual national assessment for all students in Years 3, 5, 7, and 9. All students in these year levels are expected to participate in tests in reading, writing, language conventions (spelling, grammar and punctuation) and numeracy. All government and non-government education authorities have contributed to the development of NAPLAN materials.

The assessments provide parents and schools with an understanding of how individual students are performing at the time of the tests. They also provide schools, states and territories with information about how education programs are working and which areas need to be prioritised for improvement.

Importantly, NAPLAN tests are one aspect of each school’s assessment and reporting process, and do not replace the extensive, ongoing assessments made by teachers about each student’s performance.

TechnologyOne Update

Next Term, St Paul’s will be moving to a new Financial Management system, TechnologyOne, and adding enhancements to our Compass Student Information System. This is an exciting transition for our school and will result in more efficient electronic financial management for our school office. 

School fee management will also move to TechnologyOne. Please be aware that:

• Your school fee statement and receipts for payments will look different
• The school fee statement you receive from the new financial system will have a ‘balance carried forward’ and any transactions that have occurred during the month rather than a detailed list of any transactions completed during the year due to the movement of the fees from the old financial system to TechnologyOne
• All current BPay, Direct Debit and Centrepay arrangements will continue as normal and be electronically redirected to your new school fee account in TechnologyOne
• After you receive your first statement from TechnologyOne, if you do pay via BPay we ask that you update the BPay details as per the new reference numbers on your statement

As part of this change we will also have new features available in Compass. These will include:

• Visibility of your school fee account in the Parent Portal
• The ability to pay school fees and pay for events such as excursions via the Parent Portal

We will provide you with further information on these Compass enhancements when they become available next term.

Should you have any queries please do not hesitate to contact the school office. The school appreciate's your patience and understanding throughout the first few weeks of Term 4 as we move through this change.

SCHOOL PHOTOS

Online Order link: https://www.advancedimage.com.au/keycode/keycodefinder.aspx?keycode=EPN197PN1

School photography day is coming up very soon. Group and portrait photographs can be purchased by following the link above or by using the envelope.

Important Information:

● School photos purchased online DO NOT require envelopes returned to school*
● Don’t forget to order your sibling photos now  
  *Online Sibling Ordering will close at 11.59pm on 17-10-2019
● Late fees/additional charges will be applied for purchases after photo day
● Photos will be returned to your school for distribution approximately six weeks after photos are taken
● Past years’ photographs including sports, co-curricular and representative groups available at school’s advancedlife & your advancedyou photo sites (follow the link above)

*Sibling photographs (if available) must be ordered either online or by order envelope prior to the day of photography. A photograph will not be taken without an order. Sibling photographs only apply to children enrolled at the school.

This term, Year Six students undertook an educational tour of the national capital.  While on this tour they participated in a variety of educational programmes focused on Australia’s history,  culture, heritage and democracy.

The Australian Government recognises the importance of all young Australians being able to visit their National  

Capital as part of their civics and citizenship education.  To assist in meeting the cost of the excursion the Australian Government is contributing funding under the Parliament and Civics Education Rebate (PACER) program toward the travel expenses incurred.  This contribution is paid directly to the school upon completion of the excursion.

We would like to thank the Australian Government for their support of this program. The excursion was a rewarding  experience for all the students in Year 6.

COMPASS
Parents consent to excursions through the parent portal.
Parents now provide online consent to events (School excursions & sporting events) via the parent portal. This means excursion notes will no longer be sent home in a hard copy. Parents will receive an email alert directing them to log into their Compass site to view the excursion note and provide consent.

Please ensure your email address is up to date. This can be done via the Compass portal. If you have not logged into Compass or require another copy of your log in letter, please make contact with the school office.

It is imperative that all parents log into Compass as at the end of Term 3, Friday, 27 September 2019, the Skoolbag app will be turned off and all parent correspondence and alerts will be via the Compass parent portal only.

Mackillop Awards
Students who are eligible to receive a MacKillop medallion are asked to submit the required number of Principal awards to the school office no later than Friday, 6 December 2019.

Unfortunately awards submitted after this date cannot be accepted as sufficient time is required for the printing of award certificates

Interschool Equestrian Carnival

Congratulations to Chloe and Tayla Fail, who represented the school, competing at the Arndell interschool equestrian carnival on Saturday, 17 August 2019. Both girls had a successful and fun day placing highly in every event. 

On Thursday, 10 September, 100 students in 8 teams represented St Paul's at the Western Region Soccer Gala Day. Congratulations to all our students who displayed fantastic sportsmanship throughout the day. The primary purpose of the diocesan gala days is about students playing and experiencing the game in a non-competitive environment. It was fabulous to see all our students developing new skills and enjoying themselves during every game.

Todd Woodbridge Cup

On Wednesday, 21 August, 16 students represented St Paul's at the Todd Woodbridge Cup. It was St Paul's the first time we have entered this event run by Tennis NSW. Our students showed off their sporting and mathematical skills today at the Todd Woodbridge Cup. The teachers were incredibly proud of our students who showed enormous perseverance throughout the day, battling every match until the end. We are excited to use our new Sporting Schools equipment to be ready for the 2020 Todd Woodbridge Cup.

T20 School Cup

On Tuesday, 10 September, 42 students represented St Paul's at the Razorback North Cricket Blast T20 School Cup. For many of our students, it was their first experience with Cricket. It was fabulous to see all the students developing new skills and enjoying themselves during every game. Our Senior Boys & Girls progressed through to the final and lost to an experienced Mawarra team who will now advance to the regional level. The junior teams played four non-competitive matches against various schools and improved tremendously throughout the day.

Western Region Basketball

On Thursday 19 & Friday 20 September, St Paul’s students were among the 1500 children in 179 teams competing over the two days at the Western Region Gala day. There were some strong physical games with other teams and our students were able to stay composed and play the game with our fabulous St Paul’s sportsmanship.  

Finally a huge thank you to all the parents and teachers who assisted and offered assistance on our gala days in various roles. Without your contribution, we would not be able to attend these gala days. 

Congratulations to Domenico  Cocco who recently attended the Mayor for a day competition. Dom delivered his speech with enthusiasm and thoroughly enjoyed the experience.

Recently our school band competed at the MacaFest event held at the Camden Civic Centre with Bandemonium. Both the Concert and Training Bands received a Gold Trophy Award. Congratulations to our Band members, well done!

Holy Communion Programme

The number of enrolments has been quite high with almost 200 children expected to celebrate their First Holy Communion over the weekend of 23rd/24th November.

After Masses this weekend, parents are asked to return their enrolment forms with $20 and collect another form to indicate their preferences for workshops. Please complete this form before leaving church. With thanks.