NEWSLETTER - TERM 3, WEEK 5

Father in heaven,
all creation rightly gives you praise,
for all life and all holiness come from you.
In the plan of your wisdom
she who bore the Christ in her womb
was raised body and soul in glory to be with him in heaven.
May we follow her example in reflecting your holiness
and join in her hymn of endless love and praise.

We ask this through Christ our Lord.

Amen.

Welcome to Week 5! It's hard to believe we will be halfway through the term at the end of this week.

Tomorrow is the Solemnity of the Assumption of Mary into Heaven, which is a holy day of obligation in the Catholic church. Our Pre-Primary to Year 6 students will be attending Mass at 9:15am tomorrow so please come along and join us. If it is too wet in the morning, we will have Mass in the Barbier Hall rather than going down to the church.

How are you going with spotting strengths in your children? I included some information in previous newsletters about the work we have been doing with character strengths and spotting these in each other. Teachers have been working with classes on this so it would be great to see some strength spotting at home as well!

Our Pre-Primary students presented their first assembly on Friday and did a fantastic job! I was so impressed with the confidence that they presented with. Well done, Pre-Primaries!

I have included some information below about things to be aware of around our school so please have a read.

Don't forget that there is a student free day next week on Monday (21 August).

St Paul's had our Spelling Bee in Week 3 and what a great competition it was! The following students got through to represent St Paul's at the interschool competition last week.

Year 3 - Harrison and Hope

Year 4 - Peter and Lucy I.

Year 5 - Orlando and Sophia

Year 6 - Sebastian and Xavier

Congratulations to everyone involved and particularly to Hope in Year 3 who got first place in the interschool competition!

Please remember, the safety of our students and community must come first during pickup time at the end of school each day. Once students come out of class and down to the drive through, it doesn't take long to get things moving and the cars cleared. Queuing up before school finishes and blocking the street causes significant safety issues. Please do not queue in the street and please ensure you exercise patience while using the drive through. Thank you in advance for your support with this.

Our liturgical dancers performed an amazing dance at the Catholic Performing Arts Festival recently and were awarded a Merit. Congratulations!

Jose from Year 6 was recently selected to represent WA in the 2023 Bruce Cup Tennis Championship in Brisbane in October. Well done, Jose!

Eight of our students competed in an interschool chess competition hosted at St Paul's last week. Our team won overall and Jose and Daniel got the top scores in the competition! What a great result!

Today, Amelia, Sebastian and Grace from Year 6 represented St Paul's at the Speak Up competition. Congratulations to all 3 students and to Sebastian and Amelia for getting through to the next round!

Our athletics kicked off today with our throws. Firstly, I'd like to say a huge thank you to the parents who came along and helped out. Your support is very much appreciated! It was also great to see some other parents along to watch the event. The students put in a great effort and the students who placed first and second will be invited to attend the interschool carnival to represent St Paul's in this event.

Unfortunately, Ms Wise will not be back for our carnival. She had a fall at the other school that she works at last term and is still unable to return to full duties. She has been working in the background doing all of the organising for our carnival. Thank you for your patience as we get things sorted out for the carnival. We will have the program out to parents as soon as possible.

Our Athletics Carnival is on Thursday this week (17 August) and our Year 3-6 students will come down to Hamer Park by about 9:00am for a 9:15am start. Our Year 1 and 2 students will join us at about 11:00am. Students need to wear their St Paul's House shirt (or their normal St Paul's sports shirt if they do not have a House shirt).

Please make every effort to be there as this is a big day for our students and it is always great to have as many parents as possible there to help cheer them along!

Our Kindy and Pre-Primary carnival will be on Monday 4 September at 2:00pm on the grass area at the school.

We have received some wonderfully positive data from our School Climate Survey. We are able to track our data from previous surveys to the current one and the organisation that ran the survey, NSI Partnerships, reported some truly impressive growth in our parent/caregiver and middle primary surveys in particular.

The data showed a clear perception that our staff care about our students and treat them with respect. We also received strong positive feedback about student behaviour and motivating students to learn. A clear strength of our school that was identified through the survey data was the welcoming environment that we create. Our parent community indicated that they value that we are a small school with a community atmosphere.

Our parent/caregiver and middle primary surveys reported higher results in all school climate constructs. This is a great reflection on our staff and all of the work they put into our school and students. This is something to celebrate! What a great school we have here at St Paul's!

If for any reason you are not intending on continuing at St Paul's next year, please inform the school office as soon as possible.

Some of our students have started making blankets for those in need in our community. They meet in the library at lunchtime on Mondays and Tuesdays. Any parents who are able to help would be most welcome!

SHARED LEADERSHIP APPROACH

At St Paul’s, we don’t limit leadership opportunities to a select few. We deliver a unique shared leadership program for senior students who play a key role in co-designing and running programs, activities and events. Year 6 students share responsibility for our important ministries. This philosophy of shared leadership provides each and every St Paul’s graduate with important leadership skills including self-awareness, responsibility, organisation and teamwork.

As a small school, we are able to offer leadership opportunities for all of our students over their time with us.

Don't forget the P&F Mum's Day Out is coming up on 26 August. Please book your tickets as soon as possible as ticket sales close at midnight Friday 18 August. Details and bookings are at this link.

Have a great week!

Regards,

Mr Pete Merry

Principal

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Email: admin@stpaulsmtl.wa.edu.au
Website: https://stpaulsmtl.wa.edu.au/
Location: 7 Learoyd Street, Mount Lawley WA, Australia
Phone: (08) 9462 6000
Facebook: facebook.com/stpaulsmtl