Dear Parents/Carers,

Welcome to a new academic year. I trust that you and your family were able to celebrate Christmas in a special and joyful way. I’m sure each family found a way to make the christmas and new year celebrations meaningful even with the challenges of being compliant with the COVID-19 regulations which still continue to change constantly. I know from personal experience, that the Christmas masses were a blessing after a year where, for the first time in my life, for a period of time you couldn’t attend mass and receive communion.   

We particularly extend a warm welcome to our new kindergarten children and families new to our community. We also welcome our new staff members; Mrs Donna Rae (1F), Miss Lauren Allen (1T), Miss Grace Marabello (2H) and Mrs Carolyn Manning (5F) who is returning to St Paul’s after two years at St Anthony’s, Picton.  We also welcome Mrs Claire Murphy (6T) and Mrs Frances Acitelli (KH) who will be doing executive release on those classes.  Whilst both worked here last year, this will be their first full year of employment at St Paul’s. Miss Jennifer Ihlein, is also an additional member on our Diverse Learning Support Team. We are a “can do” community and I’m sure all will experience the beauty of St Paul’s hospitality which was so very evident when I came to the school at the beginning of 2018. 

I would like to share with everyone our focus areas for 2021. Some, you will notice begin to happen very early this term, others will become more evident as the year progresses.

1. Last year we worked very hard on reviewing our school vision and mission.  This year we will give focus to embedding it in the work we do and the community initiatives we plan.  You will find the school referring back to our vision and mission statement when we inform you about anything of significance happening in the life of the school.  
2. We will focus considerable teacher training  around social and emotional wellbeing and ensure that this is a significant focus when covering the PDHPE syllabus.
3. Last year it was our intention for every child to set their own learning goals that they would work on throughout the year.  These were to be constructed with both the child, parent and teacher at the end of term one.  Hopefully, with further relaxing of COVID regulations, we will be able to implement this during 2021.
4. St Paul’s plans to continue our focus on improving writing K-6.  It is our intention to implement clear whole school editing protocols, necessary for giving feedback to the students during the writing process.  As part of this focus will be a greater emphasis placed on the explicit teaching of grammar and punctuation.
5. There will be a focus on the pedagogy of teaching problem solving to apply the content knowledge in mathematics.  In addition we will continue to focus on building student number fluency ability through recall of basic number facts.

Last year, much of our professional learning agenda for staff and the areas of focused school improvement that had been planned was “hijacked” by the impact of COVID19 and the regulations we were required to follow concerning social distancing.  It will be my wish that our improvement agenda can be followed through and the restrictions created by the COVID19 pandemic are gradually relaxed over the course of the year to better enable the achievement of our goals.

COVID19 Compliance Update

The major changes are outlined below:

• Professional learning can proceed for staff within the same region (Illawarra, Macarthur, Shoalhaven or Southern Highlands) and may include CEO staff. Professional learning should be limited to 30 people indoors, and 30 people outdoors using the 4sqm rule for schools within Greater Sydney and Wollongong or 100 people outdoors using the 2sqm rule for schools in other locations. If exceeding an hour or involving more than the recommended limit of people, a COVID-19 Safety Plan must be completed.
• Staff and students are not required to wear masks at school, but may choose to wear one. When travelling to and from school on public transport or by chartered transport services, and during external activities, staff and students over the age of 12 must comply with current Public Health Order(s) related to mask wearing.
• In secondary schools up to 5 performers can sing indoors. In primary schools, in-class repetition, chanting, recitation and singing are permitted with no cap, provided they take place outdoors or in large, well-ventilated classroom settings. There is no limit on the number of performers singing outdoors in primary or secondary schools.
• Parents and carers of Kindergarten and Years 1, 2 and 7 students will be allowed on the school site to drop off and pick up their children at their classes on the first few days of school provided they follow COVID-safe physical distancing and hygiene measures.
• Parents and carers are not allowed on school sites or at off-site school events held during school hours except for the following purposes only:
• Essential parent and carer meetings with teachers and/or school executives with a scheduled appointment.
• Parents and carers who attend a school administration building or another defined location for the purpose of picking up their child if they are unwell or where they have been asked to arrange for a COVID-19 test after their child has displayed flu-like symptoms while at school.
• Parents and carers who need to be on-site for canteen and uniform shop duties or to collect or purchase uniforms.
• Parent or carer volunteers required in educational support roles for activities essential to the delivery of the curriculum such as reading groups, music, dance and kitchen garden areas. Schools are required to have scheduled programs in place and remind parents and carers that they must not attend school unless it has been previously arranged.
• Parents and carers can attend parent orientation meetings and ‘meet the teacher’ meetings with school staff for all year/stage groups. Meetings should be limited to 1 hour where possible, with a COVID-19 Safety Plan in place.

These are the latest directives from  CatholicSchools NSW and Catholic Education Diocese of Wollongong.  Should the above change we will ensure you are informed via a school notification, as well as through this newsletter.

Change to Meet and Greet Meetings/Information Evening

Due to the above plans and COVID restrictions, the Leadership Team are again seeking more effective and less time consuming ways to provide you with the information you seek about your child’s progress and well being at St Paul’s. We need to do this in a way that alleviates both parents and staff having to add additional evening meetings to your already busy work life and family schedule. Due to this, we have decided not to have the Parent Information Meeting held in previous years in about the third week of school. However, we will be having a progress and data meeting towards the end of the term to outline your child’s progress in term one, their particular strengths and needs and strategies that will assist your child in moving forward for the rest of the year. This will mean that we won’t have to ask you to come in for an additional meeting in term one.  Meet and Greet Meetings are still available for you within the first four weeks of the term either at your request or the request of your child’s teacher. If you would like a Meet and Greet meeting please contact the office as soon as possible to arrange a time with your child’s teacher. Quite often these meetings are beneficial should your child suffer from anxiety, there has been a significant change or loss to the family or simply because you would like to directly meet your child’s teacher at the beginning of the year to create a positive working relationship. I am very aware in most cases, such a meeting is not needed either by the parent or the teacher and this is why we have chosen to make this on a needs only basis. You may find that it is necessary to arrange a Meet and Greet Meeting for one of your children but not the other, and that is perfectly fine and understandable. Due to this meeting not being formally timetabled, the same information about homework, timetables, sport days etc will be sent home in a thorough Grade Outline for term one.

2020 School Captains and Student Leaders

Congratulations to Holly Garbutt and Dylan Teuma who are the St Paul’s School Captains for 2021. They will be supported by our Student Leaders, Jasmine Bartolo, Samson Ragusi, Giuseppina Vecchio and Luke Vella. These students will receive their badges at the Week 3 Friday School Assembly.  Unfortunately, until we can have the whole school at a school mass, where such important presentations are made, the Friday morning assembly, without parents present, is our only option.

Parent Volunteers Orientation to Assist in Classes or go on Excursions

Last year most parents attended the parent volunteer orientation.  This has to be repeated every two years.  Unfortunately, due to the impact of COVID19 very little opportunity for such situations was possible. This term we will run two workshops for parents wanting to volunteer within the school. 

Thursday, 18 February 2021        - Session 1  1:30pm - 2:30pm
                                                - Session 2  6:30pm - 7:30pm

There will be limited places available in each session and if you are wanting to attend you MUST RSVP via the school office on 46548900.

This session provides parents with information about child protection protocols, privacy matters and expectations of parents seeking to assist in classes and on school excursions.

Student Supervision

A reminder to all parents that morning supervision begins at 8.30am, when the school gates are opened and afternoon bus supervision ends with the last bus leaving at 4.00pm. Supervision on area two, in front of the canteen finishes at 3.40pm.

Your child should not be dropped off at the office area on a regular basis before 8.30am. Last year some children were at school at 8.00am and were sent to the office. This is beyond our regular hours and is an unreasonable expectation. It would be expected that you take them to ASPIRE like other parents do and pay for this service that is available to you. If you are going to be late for any reason ,when picking up your children, please contact the school office. The phone is attended until 4.30pm, after this time it will go directly to the message bank and will not be followed up until the next morning. Ringing after this time to make appointments to meet with teachers or members of the Leadership Team would be an unreasonable expectation and will need to wait till the next morning after 8.30am. Teachers have considerable administrative responsibilities to attend to, various meetings, lesson planning to complete and unfinished marking that weighs heavily on them. Please be mindful of this when you ring and expect to speak to them beyond these times.

Protocols When Seeking To Meet With Staff

Last week, even with it being the first week, I had a situation that reminded me to make sure I explicitly state the hierarchy we follow when dealing with matters at the school. Naturally, as a parent, you would usually seek out the teacher first if you are concerned about any matter to do with your child. Should this not be resolved at that point then you would seek a meeting with the Middle Leader assigned to your child’s grade to seek their wisdom in how to move forward with your concern. Only after this point, should Mrs Brunetta or I be involved. At any point, Mrs Debrincat, our Religious Education and Wellbeing Coordinator is available to support children and parents for many of these matters. If everything went to either the Assistant Principal or Principal first, nothing would be resolved effectively as there simply would be no time to do so with 633 children and 420 families! Also, usually such meetings are not five minute matters and our time needs to be prioritised to the more pressing or high end immediate matters. It is also highly inappropriate for such concerns to be addressed on the line in the morning, just before the children go into school.

In summary:

Below are the Middle Leaders responsible for each grade:

Kindergarten - Mrs Rae

Year 1 & Year 2 - Mrs Mourinho

Year 3 - Mrs Hatter

Year 4 - Mrs Debrincat

Year 5 - Mrs King

Year 6 - Mrs Martin

Go gently,

Michael Reardon
Principal

School Fee Statements

School fee statements will be emailed out to families over the coming weeks. All fees are due in full on 28 February 2021, unless you have a request to pay by instalments agreement in place. 

If you are experiencing financial hardship do not ignore your fee statement, please make contact with the school immediately via email; info@spcdow.catholic.edu.au outlining your current situation. All correspondence is confidential.

Kindergarten 2022 Enrolments

Enrolments for Kindergarten 2022 will open Monday, 15 February 2021. Enrolments packs will be available to download from our school website. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1LHwPLISl8HYk4CC0GxTGaY-NLKSiMeLb/view 

Bubblers Now Open

St Paul’s Catholic Primary School is a nut free school.  Please make sure that your children’s lunches and snacks are free of nut products.  We have a number of children who have severe allergies to nut products (even the smell of nut breath from another person) and they can go into anaphylactic shock.  Thank you for making our school environment a safe one for all.

Updating Computer Records     

Accurate school records help us to operate much more efficiently.  Please ensure that you update your Compass records via the parent portal when you change phone numbers or address.

As the students come back to school this week we will be focussing on re-establishing strong routines within the classrooms and across the playgrounds. This helps to maintain an environment that is conducive to learning.

This year the children will be given the opportunity to unpack the weekly target and then journal on something that was positive for them during their school week. This new initiative will lead our students into our final chapter of PB4L Social and Emotional Learning.

Book Club

Book Club order forms will be sent home later this week. All orders are placed online via the parent book club loop and orders will close Monday, 15 February 2021.

The first P&F Meeting for the year will be held tomorrow, Wednesday, 3 February 2021. All are welcome to attend, however if attending you must RSVP by phoning the school office. Due to COVID-19 restrictions numbers will be capped.

Below is the agenda for the meeting.