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Dear Parents/Carers,
We have recently placed signage around the school that documents our school vision and mission. Our vision speaks of the essence of the philosophy of our school. It outlines what assumptions we make decisions about, the people in our school and our goals as a Catholic primary school in Camden. Our vision has at its centre, the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Our christian story provides an orientation of consciousness about the ethos of St Paul’s. It is the values that are shared in the Gospel that offer the criteria by which our effectiveness needs to be evaluated. I am of the belief, this was never more so apparent than during lockdown and remote learning.
With this in mind, I leave you with our vision and I ask all to make a little list of how you see this in our school, especially during the challenges of the past two years:
With Jesus as our model;
In the tradition of St Paul and St Mary MacKillop
we strive to provide an education that
challenges and encourages all to achieve their full potential.
We do this in partnership with our families,
parish and the wider community.
We are committed to our school motto of ‘Truth, Love, Faith’.
Students Preparing For First Holy Communion
I am mindful of the students in the parish currently preparing for their First Holy Communion. Now that we can celebrate the mass as a community again, I look with great satisfaction as the families have obviously made the effort to pass on their Christian tradition, faith and spirituality to their children. This is not only something that happens within a Catholic school but must come from home first, as well as from connection with parish. Jesus is obviously central to everything we do at St Paul’s and there are also many other aspects of life that children, parents and teachers value. This is our story and we are formulating it in some way every day.
A man by the name of Thomas Berry in his book; ‘The Dream Of The Earth,’ reflects on our Catholic story and the challenges facing the Catholic Church. I found this following statement by him quite thought provoking:
It’s all a question of story. We are in trouble just now because we do not have a good story. We are in between stories.
Our vision tries to articulate our new story at St Paul’s. The commitment from parents and the staff to passing on our positive new story is happening right now. I am responsible for this and so are you!
Go gently,
Michael Reardon
Principal
Welcome To Our New Staff
I would like to officially welcome Mr Matthew Messina (3F) and Mr Andrew Birkett (4F) to St Paul’s School. Both are replacing staff who are on maternity leave. Mrs Marchant, who has just given birth to a little girl and Mrs Buchanan who is close to having her first child as well. I know the staff and parent community will do their best to make both Matthew and Andrew welcome.
Congratulations Our New School Leaders 2022
Congratulations to the students in Yr 5 - Anna, Bianca, Tabitha, William, Aidan and Ben who have been successful in their nominations for the Student Leadership Council. This week we will continue the process to choose from this group our school captains for 2022.
Haircuts
Now that we are fully back at school and have been so for 2 weeks, part of re-establishing routines is to focus again on our school uniform and presentation. Since the students have returned, there have been some interesting hairstyles that are outside the school uniform policy which parents signed.
Next week I will be focusing on students’ hair. As per our policy students are required to:
- Wear their hair in a neat and tidy manner.
- Haircuts should be of an even grade (No fades).
- Bleaching, colouring and dying of hair is not permitted.
- No undercuts, steps or shaved lines.
- Nothing shorter than a number 3 comb. Hair should not extend over the shirt collar (Boys)
- Man buns are not permitted
Uniform constitutes part of the discipline code of the school. When uniform and hair operate outside what we seek to identify with it is also reflected in the students’ behaviour and learning. Can you please support the school with this, as I am sure that everyone can get into a barber/ hairdresser by now.
I will be approaching parents next week if their children come to school outside the guidelines.
Students NOT returning to St Paul's in 2022
Unexplained Absences
A reminder to parents to enter your child's absences in the Compass Parent Portal on the day the link is forwarded to you by the school.
Letters will be forwarded to families this week with outstanding unexplained absences. Please ensure you either enter the explanation in Compass (tip sheet below) or sign the form and forward back to the school office.
Mackillop Awards - Year 6 Students
Year 6 students who are eligible to receive a MacKillop award are asked to submit the required number of Principal awards to the school office no later than Friday, 3 December 2021.
Unfortunately awards submitted after this date cannot be accepted as sufficient time is required for the printing of award certificates.
New Medication Procedure
Following a review of the school sick bay and the dispensing of long term daily medications the school has been advised to update our medication procedure.
Commencing term 1, 2022 all long term medication must be provided to the school in a WEBSTER PACK containing one months supply per pack, clearly labelled with your child’s prescription, name, quantity and time medication is to be taken. The school advises that you consult with your GP or pharmacist to discuss the different styles of packs that will work best with your child’s medication.
Should your child require short term medication, no longer then one to two weeks, the webster pack is not required. Parents are to provide the medication in the bottle or packet that it is provided by the pharmacist with the prescription clearly labelled. All liquid medication requires a syringe or medicine cup to be provided for dispensing the medicine.
An ‘Authority to Dispense Medication’ form must be provided to the school for all prescribed and over the counter medications before any medication can be dispensed to your child. Parents can access this form via the school website and the school office.
Should you need to discuss this change in procedure in more detail please contact the school office (46548900) before the end of 2021 school year to ensure that your child’s medication is compliant for the commencement of the 2022 school year.
School Fees Credits
If you have a fee credit, have no children attending St Paul’s in 2022 and are not sending your child to a Wollongong Diocesan high school please email info@spcdow.catholic.edu.au to request a refund including your bank account details BSB & account number. The school will forward your request to the Catholic Education Office to action.
For families that have a fee credit and their child is attending a Wollongong Diocesan High School in 2022 the fee credit will be forwarded with your child to their new high school.
School photos will be held Friday, 3 December 2021. All orders will be taken via advanced life photography's website. Group and portrait photographs can be purchased by following the link below.
http://www.advancedlife.com.au/ and enter the school order code below:
| EPN 197 PN1 |
(Should you require a payment envelope, please email this request via info@spcdow.catholic.edu.au and it will be sent home with your child.)
As we lead into the season of Advent, we feel that it is now timely for us to take this opportunity to help our Catholic mission agencies and to teach our children the true meaning of ‘giving’. We will do this by encouraging our students to make some personal sacrifices to raise funds during Sabbath Week and then by celebrating with a ‘Colours for Missions Day’ on Friday, 19 November 2021.
We ask you to encourage your child/children to spend some time to support our mission focus at home. Students may donate some of their own pocket money to this mission appeal or perhaps do jobs for others for a small donation for the missions.
Today, a letter was sent home with all students along with an envelope to place their donations in. We ask the children to return the envelopes to school on Friday, 19 November 2021. On this day, as a school community, we will celebrate our good work of supporting the Missions.
Each grade is allocated a colour for the day;
Kindergarten – pink 
Year 1 - purple
Year 2 - yellow
Year 3 – green
Year 4 - orange
Year 5 – blue
Year 6 – red
Students may come dressed fully in their allocated colour or wear a T-shirt and perhaps socks in the allocated colour with their Sports uniform. If you do not have items in the allocated colour then your child can come to school in their sports uniform. All students need to wear their sports shoes on this day. We do not expect parents to go and buy a new outfit for this activity.
Moving Forward in 2022 …
As you are aware St Paul’s have been running the 1:1 iPad initiative for a number of years. Each year the school has recommended that parents purchase an iPad for use in Year 5 and Year 6. This has been called BYOD or Bring Your Our Device. As you would be aware, Technology is constantly changing and there are many pros and cons to BYOD. For these reasons, St Paul’s is moving to a School Managed iPad Program for our Year 5, 2022 cohort.
St Paul’s takes the responsibility of teaching students to be responsible and respectful users of technology seriously. This program helps us better manage the technology in order to support the educational benefits of the iPad. The first interaction with an iPad for many children is that they see it as a gaming device. This program focuses on changing the students' thinking from a gaming device to an educational tool. We would like to inform parents about the benefits of this program.
School Managed iPads vs BYOD
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School Managed iPad |
BYOD |
|
|
Cost |
Cheaper price (School purchase price) with 2 years interest free payments with your school fees. School price includes the iPad, a cover and Applecare. |
Choose where to buy paying retail prices. |
|
Screen Time |
Aimed at preventing iPad addiction and improving child health. Apps are not available between 9pm and 7am (for example) each night. No arguments with children about extending screen time. |
Choose how often and how long children can use iPads. Can configure Screen Time as desired. |
|
Accounts |
All children accounts managed and configured by the school. No creation or password issues which can cause undue stress. |
Parents create Apple IDs for their child and manage their passwords and privileges. Parent AppleIDs must not be used on the child’s iPad, otherwise parent messages, notifications and content appears on the child’s iPad while at school. |
|
Apps |
All Apps remotely installed by the school. No Apple ID required. No inApp purchases. Parents can request Apps that they need individually installed onto the iPad. |
Parents can install any apps and are responsible for any costs incurred. Need to ensure the necessary apps for schoolwork are installed, Remember AppleID password. |
|
Social Media |
No social media apps on the iPad. Children don’t meet minimum social media age requirements. |
Parents monitor and control social media. Ensure their child is not involved in peer group cyber bullying through social media. |
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Content Filtering |
iPad websites filtered. Remote blocking and enabling additional sites. |
Parents decide whether to set up filtering on iPads and monitor and adjust if necessary. |
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iCloud |
Free school managed educational 200GB iCloud account for every student. |
iCloud account with parent managed AppleID has 5GB storage. Then you are required to pay a monthly fee to increase your iCloud account. |
|
Locked and Disabled iPad |
The school can remotely unlock a locked iPad. School can erase and rebuild Disabled iPad with little-to-no files lost. |
Locked and disabled iPads will need to be restored, support may be required. Lost content is dependent upon settings and setup. |
The School Managed iPad Program is sincerely designed to help families and foster the development and learning of the school’s children. At the completion of Year 6, if all iPad payments have been received, the iPad will be restored to factory settings and students can take it home for further use.
Attention: Year 3 Parents
Please be aware the 2023 Year 5 Cohort will be required to purchase their child’s iPad through the School Managed iPad Program. Your child will receive their device during Term 1, 2023.
Ways to talk to your children about their school day
Getting a sense of your child's life at school by asking questions that elicit more than a one-word response may seem to be almost impossible at times.
The trick is to ask about things that are specific, but still open-ended. Move beyond "fine" and "nothing" by asking your kids to describe his or her world.
Try one of these conversation-starters:
- What was the peak (best part) or pit (worst part) of your day?
- What was the hardest thing you had to do today?
- What did you learn about in English/Maths/Religion today?
- Did any of your classmates do anything funny?
- Tell me about what you read in class.
- Who did you play with today? What did you play?
- Do you think math [or any subject] is too easy or too hard?
- What's the biggest difference between this year and last year?
- What rules are different at school than our rules at home? Do you think they're fair?
- Who did you sit with at lunch?
- Can you show me something you learned (or did) today?
- What is something you would like to learn about next?
It's also great to start the conversation with an anecdote from your own day. By opening the conversation up, you may gain a deeper insight into your child's world and their busy school lives.
| Tuesday, 16 November 2021 | Kindergarten 2022 cohort Orientation Day |
| Wednesday, 17 November 2021 | Kindergarten 2022 cohort Orientation Day |
| Friday, 19 November 2021 | 'Colours for Mission Day' |
| Wednesday, 1 December 2021 | Canteen Caper Day |
| Friday, 3 December 2021 | School Photos |
| Wednesday, 8 December 2021 | Year 6 Farewell Mass |
| Wednesday, 8 December 2021 | Year 6 Farewell Dinner |
| Monday, 13 & Tuesday, 14 December 2021 | Day Camp - Wedderburn Christian Campsite |
| Wednesday, 15 December 2021 | Last Day of Term 4 for Students |
| Friday, 17 December 2021 | Last Day of Term 4 for Staff |