Dear Parents/Carers,

I am pleased to announce our second Listening Assembly.

Listening Assembly - A date for parents calendar

In 2019, St Paul’s had their first community Listening Assembly.  The outcome from the last Listening Assembly led to a number of focus areas that the St Paul’s community has worked on, even with the many disruptions that COVID brought the school over the past two years:

• Establishing a school choir

• Mathematics - Quicksmart Intervention Program

• Focused identification of gifted students and new strategic response to learning needs

• Buddy Bench

• Parent Meet and Greet by request only

• More regular checks about student progress (goal setting end of term 1)

• Better transition to school - Playgroup

All of the above achievements were a result of the recommendations that came from our last Listening Assembly.

A Listening Assembly is a clear structured process to seek feedback from parents in our school community about Catholic Life and Religious Education ( Prayer life of the school, Religious Education, opportunities to share faith, community service etc), Students and Their Learning ( Teaching and delivery of the curriculum, learning intervention and support, use of technology to support learning etc), Parents and Partnership (Work of the P&F, community events such as Grandparents Day, fete etc) and Respectful Relationships (student to student, teacher to student, teacher to parent).

The process will value everyone’s thoughts and ideas and “funnel” them in a way that we come up with the top three ideas in each of the four areas outlined. These ideas then will become our focus and work as a school community over the next three years and I will report on our progress throughout each year.  This will be our big opportunity to seek feedback from parents that will influence the direction of the school 2024 - 2026

The process will begin with finger food and drinks outside the canteen area for approximately sixty minutes before the Listening Assembly commences to make it a true social gathering to get the balance right between “work” and “fun”.

The process will not require individuals to share their thoughts with the whole school, just a group of 8 - 10 parents which you will be seated with inside the school hall.  The ideas of each table are then funnelled further to become our shared ideas and recommendations.

I have only received positive feedback from our first Listening Assembly and as can be seen from the list of recommendations, as a community, we have largely delivered!  It is time to take on some new challenges.

Please RSVP your attendance to the listening assembly on Wednesday, 26 April 2023 from 6pm via the link below;

2023 Listening Assembly RSVP

Go gently,

Michael Reardon
Principal

Principal Awards

Congratulations to the following students who have recently received a Principal Award. 

Ashton Youkhana, Lucas Muscat, Gavin Wilson, Annabella Starr, Zoey Szabo, Mya Withers, Oliver Melisi, Evelyn Armstrong, Harvey Brooker, Logan Lewit, Sarah Murphy, Kalanee Pierce, Clare McLachlan, Rocco Vecchio, Ava Bruce, Peyton Azzopardi, Jude Geddes, Leo Borg, Ariana Criniti, Patrick Waters, Matilda McLaren, Sebastian Vella, Giovanni Anastasio,Lily Vella, William Griffin.

RE NEWS

Lent - Project Compassion

The season of Lent began with Ash Wednesday. Lent is a season of reflection and preparation before the celebrations of Easter. During Lent we experience a type of spiritual makeover. Personal pledges to forgo favourite foods, to

fast, to give to charity and to extend our prayer time are simple and effective ways to re orientate our hearts towards life and love.

On Ash Wednesday Years 3 to 6 celebrated a beautiful Mass with our parishioners. Our Kindergarten, Years 1 and 2 classes attended a liturgy in the church and also received the ashes. All classes have been focusing on Lent in their RE units. Project Compassion boxes have been placed in all classes and students have been encouraged to contribute. 

On Tuesday, 21 February 2023, our school captains, Olivia and Lucas, accompanied Mr. Reardon and myself to the annual Caritas launch for Project Compassion. Following is their report on this experience:

‘As school captains of St Paul’s, we were invited to the Caritas Launch of Project Compassion for 2023. This launch was held in Corrimal and we travelled with Mr Reardon and Mrs Debrincat. When we arrived, we attended a liturgy with representatives from other schools around the Wollongong diocese. During the liturgy we received a Caritas mission box for our school. This mission box is a symbol of kindness and generosity. The funds we raise through this project, can help others and future generations.

During the liturgy we heard stories about different people that have been assisted by Caritas. For example, 16 year old Laxmi, who lives in one of the most remote areas in Nepal, lost her father at a young age. Caritas supported her. Laxmi now helps other children in her village. Thu from Vietnam was injured by a landmine. He was given support at the time of his injury and now cares for his wife who is very ill.

These stories are very inspiring. They tell us about people who have experienced hard times. The generosity of the Catholic community has helped to change their lives for the better.  This illustrates that kindness and generosity can make a life changing difference and creates a better future for coming generations.

After the liturgy we were lucky enough to receive a special morning tea. It was nice to meet other school representatives and share our faith. We enjoyed this experience and look forward to other opportunities like this.’

Donations to Project Compassion allow Caritas Australia, the Catholic Agency for International Aid and Development, to work with local communities around the world to end poverty, promote justice and uphold dignity. 

Lent

Yesterday, the whole school celebrated with a liturgy in our beautiful church to reflect on Lent. Considering this was the first time our Kindergarten students had celebrated a Mass in the church as a whole school community, it was wonderful to witness their response and behaviour. Our choir led us with beautiful singing. Fr Victor led the liturgy. He spoke to the children about Lent as being an important time for us to follow our Catholic traditions of prayer, fasting and almsgiving. For the children, Fr Victor reinforced the importance of prayer and gave them some examples of different types of prayers. He spoke to them about holding hands with all those sitting around your dinner table as you say your prayer before the meal each night. What a wonderful practice to build into your family routines! Lent is a time for personal reflection as we find new opportunities to turn back to God.

On Friday, 17 March 2023, we look forward to celebrating St Patrick’s feast day. At 9am, the school will be celebrating with an assembly Prayer to remember St Patrick and the work that he did in the early Church.

Students may wear something green with their uniform on the day e.g. ribbon, socks, hat or glasses.

As part of our Lenten tradition of Almsgiving, we also ask that the students bring in a gold coin donation to place in their class Project Compassion Box. 

Funds raised will go to Caritas Australia. Caritas is an international aid and development organisation of the Catholic Church. 

Please support Project Compassion to help end poverty, promote justice and uphold dignity for vulnerable communities around the world.

Mrs Maria Debrincat
Religious Education Coordinator

There is no such thing as losing, there’s winning and there’s learning

“I never lose.  I either win or learn.” - Nelson Mandela.

Think about that Nelson Mandela quote for a second.

Everybody makes mistakes or experiences that something bad happens now and then. But how do you react to the challenging things that happen to you? Very often you do have a choice. You can either let it pull you down, or you can think that this is something you learn from. Next time something challenging happens you’ll be even stronger. 

It is important to teach our children to understand that you should always be open to learning and never underestimate yourself even if you have to meet with a loss. 

You ought to understand the fact that life is all about meeting new challenges each and every single day and you should never take a loss as your downside. At the end of the day, it is all about your perspective that is going to matter. 

You have the potential to understand that no one has won the battle at the very first attempt. All those people who are successful today have attempted tasks a million times before they all actually hold the trophy of success in their hands. 

In the same way, it is good even if you are struggling, that you ask for the help and practise so that you may turn it into your favour, which also means that you are making attempts or trying hard to make it work! 

This is definitely a good point in itself and if you truly want to be successful, make sure that you embrace your defeats. 

Know that there is learning in each and every obstacle, and that’s the greatest thing of all. You should always be ready to accept your situations and take your circumstances as they come. 

Instead of running from situations, you should make up your mind to fight the battle till the end and keep your spirits high for you are never going to lose because you either learn or win. 

When you are unsuccessful, you become aware of all the reasons that it didn’t work out so that you can discover the areas where you can improve, allowing for growth. 

You get to know your mistakes, and that is extremely important to make sure that you are not repeating them all over again the next time. 

When you lose, you know all the codes that didn’t work out so that you can eliminate them and, thus, focus on working out with the other ones. 

Therefore, the next time you do not win or are unsuccessful, make sure that you’re still holding a positive attitude in yourself, and that will eventually help you fetch the trophy sooner or later.

Western Region Swimming 2023

On Wednesday, 1 March 2022, 22 students represented St Paul's at the Western Region Swimming Carnival. Congratulations to all our students who proudly represented our school by wearing their swimming caps. We achieved some great results throughout the day.

Congratulations to Samuel, Ruby Mariah, and Bryson, our Senior and Junior Girls Relay teams, who have progressed to the selection trials.

Wollongong Representative Selections - 2023

Last week, we had students attend Diocesan selection trials for the netball & hockey. Congratulations to all students who attended these trials and displayed St Paul's school spirit.

Special congratulations to Ellaney who was selected to represent Wollongong in Netball at the Mackillop Trials in May.

St Paul’s have worked extremely hard at establishing strong behaviour expectations. On occasion redirections may need to occur. These will be dealt with on a school based level. Sometimes parents may be informed of behaviour related incidents which would require your support. We look forward to working in partnership with you in supporting our policy and practice.

Canteen Caper Day - Wednesday, 22 March 2023