www.stpatscooma.nsw.edu.au 1 ST PATRICK’S PARISH SCHOOL A SCHOOL WITH ALTITUDE

Dear St Patrick’s Community What beautiful clarity there is in the words above that were shared in the

Gospel last Sunday. They were the answer to a big question about seeking eternal life. I wonder if I had been present at that time what it would have been like to actually hear Jesus saying those words to me. As we watch in the media examples of pandering to the rich, trampling of the poor and the

pursuit of a path of intolerance and violence, it is tempting to point the finger at ‘the other’. But these words are meant to reach deep inside everyone of us, especially me. Another big question for this week is ...will we have beautiful sunshine for

the biggest ever St Patrick’s Community Fair on this Saturday? We certainly hope so! Please help in any way you can: donations for the chocolate wheel baskets or tombola stall, cooking cakes and slices, potting plants or putting your hand up to share the load on a stall. Even if it is just for an hour, there is still room for you! I wish to acknowledge the wonderful work done in preparation for the Fair by a very energetic Community Fair committee. Thank you Erika and Alison for leading this group. Believe it or not, they are fun meetings! Their work has paid off and we currently have 77 stalls. That’s impressive. I also wish to thank our Parish and Fr Mick for taking charge of the Tombola stall. We appreciate that practical support from the parishioners. Our canteen manager, Bec Croke, is managing the whole of the BBQ with a very supportive team. That’s a big job. So many others have also been beavering away preparing for a variety of stalls. The Community Fair is a great celebration of our place in the Cooma community. We are nearly there. Let’s make it a wonderful joint effort.

Frances Robertson Principal

Jesus answered, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind; and, love your neighbour as yourself." Mark 12:28-31

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Week 4

Term 4 2017

and coming events…. K-6 Swimming Permission Notes Due – Thursday 2 November K-2 Grandparents and Friends Day – Friday 3 November SPOT orientation day for Year 7 2018 – Friday 3 November 11.30am Community Fair – Saturday 4 November Yr 7 2018 Transition to High School Meeting – Monday 6 November 5.30pm Raiders NRL - Girls League Tag Stage 3 – Finals – Tuesday 7 November KINDERSTART Day 12.30-1.40pm – Tuesday 7 November 12.30pm – 1.40pm

www.stpatscooma.nsw.edu.au 2 ST PATRICK’S PARISH SCHOOL A SCHOOL WITH ALTITUDE

From the AP’s Desk

St Patrick’s Parish School is a place of learning, safety and belonging.

I would like to focus on that work ‘belonging’. How great does it feel to belong to a group? To know you are accepted and loved for who you are, without having to prove yourself. To know you will be supported by others, be encouraged and are safe, knowing that others will speak respectfully of you.

“For just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.” Romans 12:4-5

We are blessed at this school to have so many talented and gifted teachers, parents and students. We can all contribute and have a part in the essence of what St Patrick’s School is, bringing our differences, our varying viewpoints and our individuality to this place, to grow together and make us a vibrant learning community.

We continue to welcome more people into the ‘body’ of the school and try to support

them along their learning journeys, with the high school SPOT transition days and the

Kinderstart days.

There will be a Transition to High School Meeting for Year 6 parents on Monday 6 November at 5.30pm in the Secondary Library, where we will be welcoming quite a few new parents to the St Patrick’s family. Please join us and help to welcome them to our community.

We welcome visitors for the Grandparents’ and Grandfriends’ Day this coming Friday (12.30-2.00pm) and respect the important role of family in our students’ lives. Other friends of the school (neighbours, former parents, parishioners) are also very welcome to join us. School has changed a bit in the last few years and we happily open our doors for everyone to have a look at the positive learning activities that are happening now.

Let us go out of our way to make others feel they belong, as we are all a part of God’s family.

Kind regards

Mary-Ann Fraser

www.stpatscooma.nsw.edu.au 3 ST PATRICK’S PARISH SCHOOL A SCHOOL WITH ALTITUDE

SPOT Day Year 7 2018 are in the middle of their St Patrick’s Orientation Time or SPOT Days. We are welcoming quite a few new students coming from other local schools.

Last week saw the students compete in a Race around St Patrick’s assisted by some Year 10 students, followed by a STreEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics and RE), presentation from Mrs Knott.

They then participated in a PE lesson run by Mr Lawley and some Year 9 PASS students. The students certainly looked like they were enjoying themselves.

This Friday we have the second SPOT Day where they will experience a taste of three different subject areas- Science, Music and TAS. More photos are coming in next week’s newsletter.

Pam Fletcher

Secondary Coordinator

SOCCER Would you like to join a 6-aside U12 soccer team?

The Hornets are looking for a few more players for a fun and casual afternoon of soccer on Wednesdays.

Games start at 5pm with 2 x twenty minute halves.

Please contact Mark Burke on the Cooma Tigers Junior Soccer Facebook Page or phone Kath Freihaut: 0490 524 621

Community Fair Cake and Slice Stall

Can you do some cooking for our stall? It needs

to be labelled with ingredients, fully covered and then dropped to the school on Friday or the stall on Saturday. Thank you!

www.stpatscooma.nsw.edu.au 4 ST PATRICK’S PARISH SCHOOL A SCHOOL WITH ALTITUDE

We are getting ready!

The Fair is on Saturday and the baskets for the chocolate wheel are filling. Tombola jars are lined up. Volunteers are adding their names to the lists (there is still time and room for your name– just call the office and ask for your preferred time slot).

Today, we trialled a brand new game called Lob A Choc where participants can throw a coin onto a chocolate bar to see if they can land it success-fully. If it lands on the chocolate, they win that chocolate. There was plenty of excitement and cheering for this game!

What’s left to do? Donating books, plants, bak-ing cakes and slices, inviting your friends and neighbours to come and then joining in the fun on Saturday!

See you there.

www.stpatscooma.nsw.edu.au 5 ST PATRICK’S PARISH SCHOOL A SCHOOL WITH ALTITUDE

Real Life Learning for Commerce Students

Do you know how to make sure your name gets to the top of the pile when there are 200 applicants for one rental property?

This is a common dilemma for many students moving to a city for study or work. Are you allowed to keep a pet in rental accommodation and how do you make sure that you get your bond back?

Last week, Commerce students had these questions, and many others, answered by experienced rental manager, Glenda Bracher from One Agency in Cooma.

We have many experts in our community who can provide real-life

learning that ensures young people are well-informed and prepared

for when they leave home.

Sue Stubbs

Commerce Teacher

Musica Viva Concert This week, our K-8 students and the elective Drama class enjoyed an Indonesian music and dance performance at the Cooma Ex-Services Club.

Many of our students had been preparing for this event for the past two months, learning about Indonesian culture, music, dance and games. The music group Makukuhan is part of the Musica Viva program, where various music groups travel to perform to many schools in the region.

It was an exciting concert with artistic martial arts moves, Javanese

clapping, interlocking rhythms, counting to ten in Indonesian,

instrumental presentations, and monkey chanting. The performance

ended with a dance inspired by a story which is older than two

thousand years.

We love visitors at St Patrick’s!

Infants children want to invite the grandparents and grandfriends of our community to an afternoon of shared prayer, stories, classroom visits, games and light refreshments on Friday 3 November from 12.30-2.00pm. RSVP: to the children’s teachers by Wednesday 2 November.

Grandparents’ and Grandfriends’ Day

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SECONDARY LIBRARY

The Overdrive library system has extended the range of fiction and non-fiction books available to students and staff. Here are some of the most popular books with hundreds more being added each week. There are three ways to borrow books: read directly on your browser, download onto a portable device or listen to an audio version.

www.stpatscooma.nsw.edu.au 7 ST PATRICK’S PARISH SCHOOL A SCHOOL WITH ALTITUDE

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Wangari Maathai

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Year 8

Religious

Education:

Timelines of

the Early Church

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Year 8 English students proudly

display their completed

biographies. This work for a term

is now a treasure for a lifetime.

www.stpatscooma.nsw.edu.au 10 ST PATRICK’S PARISH SCHOOL A SCHOOL WITH ALTITUDE

Are you thinking about coming to the Community Fair on November 4 to get your Christmas shopping done…

Here’s the list of some of the stalls making an appearance this year:

MCCR Snowy Monaro Regional Council Restore Grace

Strawberry Field Bags Her Indigo (Kate Eddy) Cracking Corn

Milli and Max for Little People Stockman and Sticks Made on the Monaro

Christeja’s Indian Delights Ampa Creations (Indigenous Artwork) House of Shen (Kelly O’Brien)

Palette Framing and Furniture Bibs N Things Littlelirlin Tea Lanterns

3 x Bales of Wool St Vincent de Paul Society Monaro Woodworks

Nimmitabel CWA Monaro High School Cooma Railway Station

Cooma Rotary Coffee Van Tilba Cheese Lucky Bags

Lob a Choc Cooma University Centre Joseph’s Vilardi

Iced Cupcakes and Fairy Floss Show bags and Toffee Apples Cakes and Slices

Illawarra TAFE Berridale Public School St Mary MacKillop College,

Merrita’s Cakes Inspire Stones

Tombola Plants and Herbs Cooma Challenge

Eva Fancy Schmancy Shoes Cherry Tree Crochet Beautiful Wood Toys

Bredbo’s Garlic Chocolate Wheel Second hand Books

The Canberra and Region of Clinical Pastoral Education Face Painting

Nail Decorating Coloured hairspray Jumping castle

Sumo Suits

Cornia Podger Leather Goods and Jewellery Thai Clothing and Knitting Yarn

CSF Creative Skin Formulas and 25 carat earrings Succulents With a Difference

Lizzi and Rose – Candles, Melts and Soaps Angela Noble (Vegan and Gluten Free Products)

Creelman Designs (Fire pits and Metal Artworks) Daphne Fraser (teapot and microwave’s holders)

And the famous St Patrick’s Barbecue which starts for brekky at 7am

www.stpatscooma.nsw.edu.au 11 ST PATRICK’S PARISH SCHOOL A SCHOOL WITH ALTITUDE

KinderStart Most of the Kindergarten students for 2018 have been visiting the school for the Big Steps program during Term 3. This gave them a taste of a ‘normal’ Kindergarten classroom. Now it is time for all of the new students to come together for the Kinderstart times. They can meet their new class-mates and be introduced to their older Primary Buddies. The first KinderStart time is Tuesday 7 November 12.30 to 1.40pm. The next one is Friday 24 November 9.30-11.00am. We would like the parents to stay with us and enjoy some refreshments, as well as receive some supportive information from guest speakers on literacy and numeracy, sensory processing, healthy eating for school and how to engage in the parent community.

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Year 3 News This term, Year 3 has been learning about Limericks in Poetry. Here are some samples of limericks:

There once was a girl with powers,

Who would make people to animals for hours

This finger magic

Was very tragic

People say we should lock her in towers.

By Emelia

There once was a boy who had super powers

He would save people for twenty four hours

He had no use for a bed

Because he would be rescuing instead

He would save people from falling towers.

By Hannah

Fred the Speedster

There once was a boy named Fred

He had speed so he thought his costume was red

He went fighting crime

He had a good time

And nobody was dead.

By Benjamin

3W have been learning various dances including the ‘Heel n’ Toe’ Polka and ‘The Nutbush’.