18 - 26 Church StreetGympie QLD 4570Subscribe:Subscribe: http://sppgympie.schoolzineplus.com/subscribe

Email:Email: pgympie@bne.catholic.edu.auPhone:Phone: 07 5482 3293

Fax:Fax: 07 5482 6601

30 November 201630 November 2016

FROM THE PRINCIPAL

“A good heart and a good head are always a formidablecombination. But when you add to that a literate tongue or penthen you have something very special”.

Nelson Mandela 1918-2013

As a Catholic School we educate our students in the light ofgospel values – those modelled and taught by Jesus. They giveus a united vision and direction. We teach and promote thosevalues, and strive to live them out in the way our students aretreated. They provide a matchless context for what is the corebusiness of every school – Literacy.

Literacy is traditionally and most simply described as the abilityto read, write and use mathematics. This definition is timeless.In its broadest sense, Literacy is competence and knowledge inany specific area.

All Australian schools are now using the Australian Curriculum,which implements sequenced content and skills to be taughtnationally, giving cohesion and consistency to our educationsystem. The Australian Curriculum is recognised internationallyas robust, rigorous and effective.

In the past however, few schools have had consistency ofteaching through all grade levels, where teachers have sharedunderstandings, shared goals and expectations, a commonlanguage and a common pedagogy, or way of teaching. Thiscollaborative approach is the most important contribution aschool can make towards its students’ progress.

During this year Brisbane Catholic Education has begun toimplement Excellent Learning and Teaching, providingstrategies and professional development for teachers to enablethem to build collaboration, consistency and expertise, and tocontinue to improve and enhance their professional capacity.As the initiative continues to develop we hope to see its benefitsin increasingly positive outcomes for our students.

On a more personal note, may I thank our wonderful staff fortheir warmth and welcome, our parents for their strong supportand honest feedback and above all, our students, for theirrespect for themselves and each other, for their striving forexcellence, for never giving up; for their life-giving positivity,vibrancy and laughter.

To spend your career in the company of children is to have afortunate life.

I wish you a truly happy Christmas and a wonderful holiday.

Susan GeaneyPrincipal

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MISSION & RELIGIOUS EDUCATION andADMINISTRATION MATTERS

Mission and Religious Education

Reflection for the Second Sunday of Advent

Emmanuel! God is with us. This is theprayer of the prophet John, the prayer ofone calling from the wilderness. For manythe wilderness is a reality. As we preparefor the celebration of the coming ofJesus, let us pray for all who are lost in the wilderness ofmodern life, that they may find a way and the wisdom toguide, console and transform them.

Thank you to all those parents and other family members whowere able to be with us to celebrate our End of Year Mass ofThanksgiving last Friday. It was wonderful to see you all and toshare morning tea with you to say thank you for your supportthis year.

Every year St Patrick’s Primary School has a major focus onsupporting the St Vincent de Paul Christmas Appeal. Duringthe time leading up to the Christmas holidays we invite ourfamilies to donate non-perishable food items or items suitablefor Christmas gifts for boys and girls.

All of the donations we receive go directly towards supportingthe local Gympie St Vincent de Paul Society and thereforeassist local people.

The local St Vincent de Paul group have provided thefollowing information which may be of assistance to you ifyou are able to support this important appeal.

The suggested guidelines for toysare:

Suitable items would be:

Students have been asked to take donations to theirclassroom.

Thanks for your ongoing support of the St Patrick'sConference of St Vincent de Paul.

Other Administration Matters…

Annual Classroom Move

Thank you to the wonderful parents – Peter Bailey, ShaneWalker, Amy Malone, Joel Albion and Joe Laffey - who assistedus with our annual classroom move last Friday. We reallyappreciated your help.

O’Flynn Awards

We would once again like to mention the following studentswho were presented with an O’Flynn Award for ChristianCharacter On Wednesday afternoon. These students havedemonstrated Christian Character and we would like tocongratulate them. They have truly let their light shine duringtheir years at St Patrick’s Primary.

Matilda D, Rhys J, Morgan M, Tristan V, Phoebe S, KaneM, Josh A, Romy S, Elloise H, Lucy D, Kaitlyn C and

William R

Missing from the photos is Tristan V

Year 6 Rite of Passage

Our Year 6 students celebrated their Rite of Passage last night.Congratulations and best wishes to our graduates of 2016.

Child and Youth Risk Management Strategy

We have recently reviewed our Child and Youth RiskManagement Strategy to ensure that all the relevant procedureshave been followed. No changes have been made to thisstrategy and you can find a copy of this on the School Websiteunder the “About Us” tab.

Final Assembly

All parents are warmly invited to join us for our final assemblyto be held in the Church on Friday morning commencing at10:45am. Students will return to their classrooms after theassembly and will be dismissed from there at 12 noon.

• New or pre-loved, but clean, as-newcondition (something you would behappy to have given to your child)

• Not wrapped but donations of wrapping paperappreciated

• Balls, skipping ropes, water toys, outdoor gamessets, fishing rods, beach or pool toys

• Dolls, tea sets, soft toys suitable for very youngchildren, building blocks, carpentry sets, craft sets

• Board games, puzzles, books, activity packs, diaries/note books, paints and art materials

• Trinkets, jewellery, toy watches, stickers, novelties ofthe stocking filler type

• Suggested food items would be:

• Christmas pudding, tinned fruit, Bon Bons, tea,coffee, milo, long-life milk/juice, sweet biscuits, candycanes, jelly, jams, Christmas cake and pancake mix.

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What’s Happening?

Religious Life of the School Calendar

28th November – 2nd December – Week 9

29/11

Tuesday 9am Noclass

rostered

ParishMass

Church

29/11

Tuesday 6:30pm Year 6Rite of

Passage

Church

30/11

Wednesday All Day Year 6 OrientationDay

College

5:30pm Picnic & BBQ30/11

Wednesday

6:30pm Christmas Concert

MatthewHoranCentre

10:45am Final SchoolAssembly

Church2/12

Friday

12 noon SCHOOL CONCLUDES FOR2017

Thank you very much for your support and participation in thelife of the school during the year. Best wishes for a wonderfulfamily time over the holiday period and a happy and joy filledChristmas.

Vicki Major

SCHOOL NEWS

Last Day of School 2016

The last day of school for this year will be on Friday 2/12/2016.

School will finish at 12 noon on this day (after the End of YearLiturgy).

WE ASK PARENTS / CAREGIVERS TO MAKEARRANGEMENTS FOR YOUR CHILDREN TO BE

COLLECTED AT 12 NOON ON THIS DAY.

Happy Birthday

We would like to wish the following children a very HappyBirthday for this week:

Stella C

With birthdays around Christmas, and during the holidays,children miss out on the fun of having a birthday at school. Wewould like to acknowledge all those children and hope they notonly enjoy Christmas and their holiday, but we wish them a veryHappy Birthday too.

Elly K Imogen O Austin W Alex G James W

Jemali T Zachary W Ingrid B Sophie D Sarah B

Slayter M Scarlett C-N Taya C Scarlett D Noah B

Archer B Adeline C Jesse F Marissa S Owen N

Ryan F Hunter M Montana M Riley T Moondara M

Emily G Sam O Lucy D Addison M

We will look forward to wishing our January birthday children“Happy Birthday” at the beginning of the new school year.

SVDP Raffle Winners

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Book Lists

Reminder

2017 Book Lists were sent home last week. If you would liketo order through Nextra News, please complete the form andreturn it to Nextra at Goldfields Plaza.

Forms are available on the School Website.

Have you met…

REMINDER –Year 5 Parents re Speedway

This is a great opportunity for our school.We run the canteen for the speedway andin return we receive funds directly forindividual families who help in the canteento support their student with the Canberra trip. We would loveto see more parents of Year 5 students helping out with theSpeedway canteen and receiving this support. It would be greatto spread this around as many Year 5 families as possible.Please note the next dates are all during the school holidays, soplease help us out as filling the roster may be difficult if familiesare away:

If you can assist on any of these days please email SoniaSwinbourne isgmr@bigpond.com or call 0417 077 500 at yourearliest convenience.

Thank you to those families who have already given us yourdetails.

Uniform Shop Hours

Monday: 2:30pm – 3:30pmThursday: 8:30am – 9:30am

Please drop in to order your 2017 BACK to SCHOOLuniforms

Order form can be found on the newsletter side panel, theschool website or collect one from the office.

PLEASE NOTE

Uniforms that have been ordered are now ready to becollected.

The Uniform shop will be open onMonday, 23 January 2017 from 1pm to 3:30pm

Don’t Forget to Return to Office

ACTIVITY DUE DATE

End of Year Excursions Permission and money ASAP

Unpaid SCHOOL FEES ASAP

NOVEMBER

WEEK 9

5:30pm BBQ or PicnicWed30th

6:30pm Christmas Concert – Matthew HoranCentre at the College

DECEMBER

Year 5 End of Year Excursion – at school.Thurs1st

9am – 3pm

Year 6 End of Year Excursion – AussieWorld

10:45am –11:45am

Final AssemblyFri2nd

12noon TERM 4 FINISHES 12noon

P & F NEWS

CHRISTMAS CONCERT

Don’t Forget!!!

Tonight is our school Christmas Concert. What a great way toend the school year and bring our school community and theChristmas spirit together.

The P&F will be selling Food & Drinks and will also have Rafflesand Lucky Door Prizes available.

Don’t forget everybody, dress up in your Christmas T-Shirts,Tinsel and Santa Hats etc.

Please don’t bring wax candles, only battery operated LEDcandles will be permitted in the Hall.

• Saturday 03rd December

• Thursday 29th December – help needed for this dateplease as it is midweek and between Christmas andNew Year

• Saturday 07th January

• Saturday 04th February

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Reminder – We will be having a Home Bake Stall at the concertand would love it if you were able to bring along plates ofChristmas goodies such as Rum Balls, Apricot Balls, RockyRoad, Christmas Fruit Cake and Cupcakes & Slices for us tosell at the Stall. Just not too heavy on the rum, people….Hiccup!!

Also, a reminder to tell your family and friends that it will be heldin the Matthew Horan Centre at the College this year.

Now, the hard bit, WE REALLY NEED SOME HELP PLEASE!If you are able to assist us on the night with our BBQ, Serving,Raffle tickets or are able to donate homebake items or prizesfor our raffles, please contact:

Shane Lutton on 0401 272 217 orshanelutton77@hotmail.com

Hope to see you all there!!

2017

The P&F Committee would like to reiterate that we sincerelylook forward to working with you in supporting our school withanother great year of fundraising and events in 2017. Alreadywe have tentatively booked our Family Fun Day (WelcomeBBQ) to be held on Friday 17th February from 3:30pm-6:30pmand also our 1st disco for the year on Friday 24th March. Ofcourse, these dates are to be confirmed.

Remember if you have anything you would like to bring to ourattention or have any fantastic ideas, big or small, please do nothesitate to contact one of our P&F members or even pop alongto one of our P&F meetings.

Next P&F Meeting

Our 1st Meeting for 2017 will be Tuesday 14th February in theschool Staffroom at 6:30pm.

Once again we’d like to stress that we thank each andevery one of you for all the support you have given ourP&F this year. As I’m sure you can all understand, themore support we receive, the more successful we will be inproviding much needed funds and resources for our schooland our children.

As they say............ "Many hands make light work!”

Shout out… THANK YOU

Thank you to Sue Geaney, the school administration, theteaching staff, the ladies in the office, Ron, our Groundsman,the other School support staff and all the other wonderfulfriends, parents and children who have helped the P&F outthis year. We’ve had a great year and are sincerely anticipatinggreat things for 2017.

Shane LuttonP&F Presidentshanelutton77@hotmail.com

OSHC NEWSThe December/January Vacation Care program is out now andwill run from 2nd December – 23rd December 2016 and from9th January – 23rd January 2017. Please see our attachedprogram for more information about what we will be doingand return any booking forms along with excursion permissionforms to St Patrick’s OSHC (located in the demountable next toprep).

OSHC will also be offering a program to care for children whenschool finishes at 12noon on 2nd December (the last day ofschool)

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COMMUNITY NEWS

From the Parish…

Safeguarding Children

As part of the Archdiocese of Brisbane’s “SafeguardingChildren and Vulnerable Adults Protection and PreventionPolicy” each parish/agency is to have a local safeguardingrepresentative.

We are calling for expressions of interest in the volunteer roleof Local Safeguarding Representative. This important rolewill assist our community to develop an extended culture ofguardianship. If you can spare two hours per month please askthe Parish office staff for a task description and volunteer form.

Abortion Reform Bill: We need you to take action NOW.There is a possibility that the debate on the two Pyne abortionbills could be brought forward to the last sitting week ofParliament this year, which starts on 29 November. If so, wehave very little time to persuade our MPs to vote against thesebills.

Cherish Life Gympie has requested parishioners ring theirLocal Member of Parliament or go to the website and voteon the e-petition. More information is available on thewebsite.

http://www.cherishlife.org.au/petition

http://www.cherishlife.org.au/take-action-now

Christmas Eve Eucharist

St Patrick's Parish invites children who are attending the 6pmEucharist at St Patrick's Church Gympie on Sat 24 Dec 2016(Christmas Eve) to dress as angels or shepherds. Before the

commencement of the Eucharist children will process in andgather around the crib to sing a Christmas Carol.

Any enquiries please contact the parish office 5482 1213.

Catholic Worship

On 11 Feb 2017 there will be a liturgical workshop on theCatholic Worship Book 2. This liturgical resource will beintroduced to parishes in 2017. The workshop will be anopportunity to engage with the resource and will involvedialogue about liturgical initiatives. The venue will be the StPatrick's Parish Centre and the proposed starting time is about10am. (To be confirmed)

Any questions or enquiries can be directed to the parish office.More details as they come to hand.

Tony Hallam. (Liturgy Committee)

Dental Van News

The Dental Van will take notes up until 2nd December. They willbe shifting to Central State School on Friday 9th December andwill still see patients there

They will be working up until 16th December.

PLEASE NOTE: THE PHONE NUMBER FOR THE DENTALVAN IS: 0412 491 905

Re-Register for Bus Travel in 2017

A Christmas/New Year Road Safety messagefrom your Wide Bay Burnett District police

It won’t be long until you have a rest from the routine schooldrop-offs and pick-ups for the year. At this time of year we alsoknow how excited children are preparing for end-of-school yearcelebrations and their concentration may wander away fromroad safety.

We’d like to remind you about road safety around schools andask you to revisit this with your children again at the start of the2017 school year.

Please read the attached message.

Christmas Holiday Twilight Junior Tennis Fun

Gympie and District Junior Tennis Association coaches BrettCottrill and Matt Watkins will be conducting 8 Fun Events andcoaching clinics in the holidays on Monday 12th Dec,Tuesday 13th Dec, Wednesday 14th Dec and Thursday

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15th Dec (2nd week) and Monday 16th Jan, Tuesday 17thJan, Wednesday 18th Jan and Thursday 19th Jan (lastweek) at The Reg English Memorial Tennis Centre onCartwright Rd. The tournaments will be held from 5pm until7:30pm. Costs $20 for 1 event, $35 for 2 events, $45 for3 events and $60 for all 4 events in the same week. Greatprizes and plenty of tennis for all. Levels from beginners toadvanced are welcome. Family Discounts. Sausage sizzle andor pizza included at each event.

Enquiries and bookings to Brett Cottrill 0417 746 795.

Entries for each tournament close 4pm day prior to theevent.

From the Art Gallery

A wonderful exhibition of illustrations byrenowned children’s author and illustratorShaun Tan is coming to the GympieRegional Gallery from 23 November – 7January. To celebrate this there will bespecial Story Time session at the Galleryread by professional library staff. These are on Fridays 2, 9, 16December starting at 9:30am.

Holiday Fun will be happening over summer holidays. Lots ofcreative workshops with things to make and do. Brochure willbe out late November and check out

http://www.holidayfun.com.au

Tiny Tots Artplay for littlies aged 18months to 3 years is onFriday 25 November from 10am-11am. Lovely way to introducea young child to the Gallery environment.

ART STARS for children is on Saturday 3 December from10am-12noon. Come and make some Christmas goodies withTina. All ages welcome.

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