CALENDAR

Detailed calendar can be viewed at www.spnhill.catholic.edu.au or on the FlexiBuzz app

SEPTEMBER Hats on from 1 September Th 21 Last Day Term 3—Dismissal 3:15pm Fr 22 School Closure Day—Staff PD OCTOBER Mo 9 First Day Term 4 Reading counts 1,2,3 … read with me 9am Mo 16 Reading counts 1,2,3 … read with me 9am Th 19 Nhill Show—Local Public Holiday Mo 23 Reading counts 1,2,3 … read with me 9am We 25 Kinder→Foundation Transition 9-

11am Th 26 SAC Meeting 7:00pm Fr 27 School Closure Day—Staff PD Mo 30 Reading counts 1,2,3 … read with me 9am

Tu 31 School Closure Day—Staff PD NOVEMBER We 1 Kinder→Foundation Transition

9am—1:30pm Mo 6 Reading counts 1,2,3 … read with me 9am We 8 Kinder→Foundation Transition (full

day)

Dear Parents and Members of St Patrick’s School Community,

Sunday 17 September—MATTHEW 18: 21—35— In Sunday’s Gospel, Jesus tells us we should forgive each other seventy-seven times. Numbers are not randomly used in the Bible. 1, 3, 7, 12 and 40 all have specific meanings. To number something as 7 is to describe it as being perfect. In Sunday’s Gospel Jesus used the image of the King settling his debts. Because the King is just, compassionate and forgiving with his servant who owes him money, he rightly expects that, in turn, his servant will be so as well.

It’s often easier to be forgiving in the big picture than in our own families. We can preach strongly about war, peace and reconciliation, but it’s quite another to forgive those closest to us. Sometimes the hardest place to be compassionate and just is our own home. If we are not speaking to a husband, wife, child, parent, sibling or friend then today’s Gospel has a strong challenge right where we live. We should always seek opportunities to forgive and ask for forgiveness. Jesus doesn’t tell us that forgiveness is easy, just necessary. To forgive someone in our family, our workplace, our circle of friends is not to pretend that a sinful situation did not occur, but to face it head on and demand justice with compassion. For when we stand before God with the weakness and sinfulness of our own life, God will not settle old scores, take revenge and exact retribution. Rather God will be perfectly just and completely compassionate. When we choose forgiveness over revenge, and love over hate we begin to glimpse God’s creative goodness coming to perfection in us, because forgiveness is a participation in the very heart of God.

[With thanks to Richard Leonard SJ for today’s reflection.]

YEAR 5 LEADERSHIP FORUM—Harrison, Heath and Nessa had a very challenging yet positive experience at the Leadership Day facilitated by Caritas Australia last Thursday. They joined with students from Horsham’s Ss Michael’s and John’s, St Malachy’s Edenhope, St Joseph’s Hopetoun, and St Mary’s Warracknabeal. After a brief discussion about the qualities of a good leader the students were asked to speak to a student from the other four schools; someone they didn’t know. They then formed a group and had to discuss what was meant by the saying ‘Aspire not to have more but to be more’. It was great to see Nessa, Heath and Harrison be willing to introduce our school to the group, quietly offer their opinions and engage in the activities presented. During the day they also learnt about the work Caritas Australia does to support the

St. Patrick’s

Church Times

Sundays at

10:00am

24 September

L.L.A.

1 October

Mass

8 October

L.L.A.

St. Patrick’s School is a Child-safe school. As a Catholic Christian community, we will nurture the children as they learn together to respond to the Gospel in their daily lives and explore their emerging role in Australian society.

Our Vision

St Patrick’s School

is a child safe school St. Patrick’s School

29 Leahy Street, PO Box 113, Nhill 3418

Phone 03 5391 1575

Mobile 0419 929 271

Fax 03 5391 1506

Email principal@spnhill.catholic.edu.au

Web www.spnhill.catholic.edu.au

Term Dates Class Times Administration Office Hours 2017 Term 3 17 Jul to 22 Sep 8:55am Class time

2017 Term 4 9 Oct to 22 Dec 11am Recess Monday Closed

11:30am Class time Tuesday 9am

3:50pm 1:30pm Lunch Wednesday

2:15pm Class time Thursday

3:15pm Dismissal Friday 9am1pm

Newsletter No. 2017/29 Thursday, 21 September 2017

SCHOOL

Advisory

Council

Members

Lisa Braybrook Helen Cannell (Chairperson) Michelle Dickinson Jamie Donnell Kimberley Philip Melissa Polkinghorne Ex Officio Fr. Peter Hudson Kathryn Bendall Ann Munro Karen Rintoule

This week’s

winner is Madi who was

caught using our school rules by displaying respect.

Nominated by Nessa

MONTH

Full colour version of newsletter is on our website spnhill.catholic.edu.au/newsletters-2017.html and FlexiBuzz

This week in the F-2 classroom we have been reading "Thrills and Chills" a big book with all sorts of different poems.

In writing we have been busy completing all sorts of different poems to make our own poem book.

In Mathematics, Foundation students have been working on their addition problems, Year 1 have been working on Place Value and Year 2 have also been solving addition problems.

Finishing up Integrated Studies for this term, we have been collating all of the information we have learned so far and making it into a poster.

This week in Literacy, the seniors are working on transactional writing. They have been looking at how to write professional letters and friendly emails. Our vocabulary words this week are ‘traditional’, ‘presence’, ‘indelible’, ‘ancestors’ and ‘integrity’. We are reading about Aboriginals and their rules and beliefs.

In Numeracy, the focus is angles. The students have been learning to identify angles, compare angle sizes in everyday situations, compare angles and classify them as equal to, greater than or less than a right angle; estimate, measure and compare angles using degrees and construct angles using a protractor.

In Integrated Studies this week the students have been putting all the knowledge learnt from our lessons, camp and incursions into a poster to demonstrate their learning. They have presented and shared these with the class.

many millions of people who suffer poor health due to insufficient food, lack of clean water and sanitation. Next term these three students will talk to the rest of the student population and see what ‘projects’ they can lead into the future. Thanks for a fantastic day Year 5s.

JUNIOR EXCURSION—We returned at about 7pm on Friday with 11 very tired students. They’d had a number of different experiences over the day including a talk from an Aboriginal man about the laws of the Wotjobaluk people, a tour of Horsham Art Gallery by Gallery director Adam Harding, a talk and tour of the Horsham Police Station from Leading Senior Constable Linda McLennan, followed by a swim at the Horsham Aquatic Centre and pizza and ice-cream at Bonnie & Clyde’s Pizzeria. We are very grateful to all these businesses/service groups for catering for our school’s students and I personally am very grateful to Georgia Hudson and Caroline Pilgrim who accompanied me and made the day a success. Finally thank you to the students for your inquisitiveness and curiosity about the places we went.

TERM 3 CHALLENGE—The winner of the Term 3 challenge was Riley Philip. There were eight students who completed the minimum requirements and we were pleased with the level of response and the enjoyment gained from this challenge. Mrs Dickinson is already working on the challenge for next term.

SACRAMENTS OF CONFIRMATION AND FIRST EUCHARIST—On Sunday we had eight very excited young people receive the sacraments of First Eucharist and Confirmation. Five of these children were students of St Patrick’s school—Shai, Mia, Jessi, Jayda and Hanna. A huge thank you to Ann Munro and the parents of these children who prepared them to receive these sacraments. Our thanks also to Father Peter Hudson who worked with the children and the families to make this event as memorable as what it was. These eight children are now able to participate more fully in school and parish masses and other areas of Church life.

ABOVE AND BEYOND—This week’s focus was Showing Initiative and Leadership. Staff were keen to observe students who consider how others might think about something, ask questions to clarify issues, look at things from different points of view and consider the consequences of their behaviour on others. This week’s awardees are Erin and Mia. Erin has shown initiative and leadership with her willingness to participate in PE. She has wanted to be involved in the activities and is showing enthusiasm and enjoyment throughout the lesson. Mia demonstrated leadership by organizing a dance-a-thon for all students yesterday lunchtime. All students had a great time and it was wonderful to see Mia take the lead and organise something special for the students to do during lunch. Well done Mia and Erin.

SCHOOL ADVISORY COUNCIL REPORT—SAC met on

Taking a break ... ...returning in Term 4!

Mondays, 9-10am Term 4 Dates 9, 16, 23, 30 October

6, 13, 20, 27 November

4, 11, 18 December

Tuesday night for the second time this term. The agenda was short and we finished in record time, mainly because members had prepared well for the meeting by reading the draft policies and proposed mission statements. As a result SAC recommended the SunSmart and Asthma Policies to Father Peter for ratification. These have been uploaded to our website if you wish to read them. As a group we also completed the updating of our Vision and Mission Statements which will be included in the first newsletter next term. Apart from the reports which were tabled the only other item of business was the recommendation of two school closure days in early Term 4. Father Peter has ratified these closure days as:

Friday 27 October for staff to work on our PLC Essential Learnings in Reading; and

Tuesday 31 October for staff training about the impact of trauma on children and their learning.

Please put these dates in your diaries. I apologise that these two dates are so close together but unfortunately it is difficult to get external providers to travel to Nhill, let alone have a choice of dates.

UPCOMING EVENTS—

NO SCHOOL TOMORROW—Please don’t forget that tomorrow (Friday 22 September) is a closure day and students are not required at school. Staff will be working with Danielle Peters to unpack the concept of ‘ Catholic Social Teaching’.

FIRST DAY OF TERM 4—Term 4 commences on Monday, 9 October at 8:55am.

WALK TO SCHOOL OCTOBER—Don’t forget that there are prizes on offer for students who walk or ride to school, or the bus stop, during October. Please record the activity that you complete during the first week of October, which is during the school holidays.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS—And as you move into the Term 3 holidays please consider the following—

As you can see by our calendar we have a busy term ahead. There are many happenings at school which aren’t included on the school community calendar. We ask that you work with us for the best outcomes for your children, e.g. by arranging suitable times for appointments with staff rather than dropping in and expecting that matters can be discussed ‘then and there’; by staying informed about what’s going on at school by reading the newsletter, diaries, and checking the FlexiBuzz app; by returning completed consent forms by the due date; by keeping us informed by using Absent Notes or contact using the FlexiBuzz app. Occasionally inadvertent errors or omissions are made - but as we continually teach our students, we learn from our mistakes. Our staff are continually striving to make St. Patrick’s School Nhill’s ‘school of choice’.

We hope you, and your children, have a safe and relaxing holiday and that you return to school in two weeks ready for a very busy Term 4.

As always, please contact the school if you have any questions about what is happening at St. Patrick’s School.

Kathryn Bendall, Principal.

1, 2, 3 … read with me Reading Counts

It’s that time of year again to get ready for tennis. Junior and senior teams will be drawn up very soon. Juniors: Ages: Grade 3 to 16 years Time: 8:45am to approximately 11am Saturdays Please contact Wendy Zimmerman at Nhill College (office) by Wednesday 11th October, with the following information: Name, Age ,Parent name, parent contact number, parent email address Teams and fixtures will be worked out during holidays and you will be notified ASAP Seniors: Open to all, new members very welcome Time: 1:30pm – approximately 4:30pm Saturdays Call or text Rae Kennedy on 0429913212 Junior coaching: Wednesdays, all equipment provided 18/10/2017 – 13/12/2017 (9 weeks) Cost: $50/term Hot Shots Red: 5 – 8 year olds. 3:45 – 4:30pm Hot Shots Orange: 8 – 10 year olds, 4:30 – 5:15pm Hot Shots Green: 10+, 5:15pm – 6pm Limited private lessons available, $80/ term, 45 min session Call or text Rae Kennedy on 0429913212 Nhill Lawn Tennis Club

NHILL BASKETBALL IS

HOLDING HOOPS IN TERM 4

Starting Tuesdays from 24 October

Aimed at ages 5-10.

Check out aussiehoops.com.au for

details, registration and payment

Or contact Emma Dickinson 0408911664

A separate note has been

sent home with

foundation to grade 3

students.