2025, Term 1, Week 2 Newsletter

Acknowledgement of Country

Principal's Message

Dear Parents and Carers,

A very warm welcome back to all families, both new and returning, as we kick off the 2025 school year! We are filled with excitement for the opportunities that lie ahead and look forward to an exciting year for our students, families, staff, and the entire community.

Last week we welcomed our 2025 Foundation students. They have made a fantastic start to their school life as you can see by the pictures below!

We have a number of new staff commencing with us in 2025. We welcome the following staff and look forward to them engaging with our school community and contributing to the education of all our students. 

Georgia O’Keefe (Grade 5/6 Teacher)
Meg Hamilton (Grade 3 Teacher Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday)
Amy Jones (Learning Support Officer Trainee) 
Josie Collins (Learning Support Officer Trainee) 

Congratulations to our new school leaders for 2025!

School Captains: Isla Dobson and Mazie Fechete
Sport Captains: Sadie Langdon and Ava Monnier 
Sustainablilty Leaders: John Kelly, Bailey Askew and Denham McCauley

P&F News

Folkie is fast approaching us! I would like to thank co-coordinators Celeste Lane and Emily Batt for their work so far in organising the St Pat’s BBQ! Please see the link below to register your interest in volunteering.

We have some exciting news to share! Our school, along with our incredible parent volunteers and the Picnic in the Paddock committee, received a fantastic honour—PIP was nominated for Best Community Event of the Year and won! This well-deserved recognition is a testament to the hard work and dedication of everyone involved. A huge shoutout to Amy Atwell (coordinator) and the entire committee for their outstanding efforts!

Further news from the P&F is included later in this newsletter.

Playground update - I have some news about the new play equipment: there’s been a delay in its delivery and installation. Like all good things, it seems we’ll have to wait a bit longer, but I’m hopeful it won’t be too long! I’ll keep you in the loop as things progress. I’ve already had numerous inquiries from students eager to know about the playground’s status, and they’re certainly keeping me on my toes to provide updates.

Finally, thank you to Emma Read and Peta Blackburn and families for ensuring our beloved chooks were well looked after in the break. As they were getting quite old and grumpy, they have decided to retire to greener pastures at the farm. In return, we have two new chickens, Ginger and Snowy, to love who were kindly donated by the Bidmade family.

Kind regards,

Tegan McDonald 

Principal

Reflection

Loving God,

May the God of hope fill you with joy and peace as you guide and nurture the minds and hearts of the young.

May the God of hope grant you wisdom to teach with truth, patience to lead with compassion, and faith to inspire with love.

May you always find strength in the mission to reflect Christ’s light in your service, and may your work bear lasting fruit in the lives of those you serve.

Amen.

Years of Service Celebration

Staff commenced the year by joining with staff from other schools in our network to celebrate Mass at St Pius X.

At the conclusion of Mass, staff achieving milestones for their years of service to Catholic Education were acknowledged.  From St Patrick's Koroit, Kayla O'Connor is entering her 10th year and Helen Swarbrick her 30th!

Congratulations Kayla and Helen on your commitment to Catholic Education.

School Closure Dates

These dates will be added to the School Calendar in the coming days.

Parent Teacher Interviews

Parent teacher meetings are now open for bookings in PAM. They will be held next Monday and Tuesday (Week 3).

The purpose of these initial meetings is to focus on information-sharing between parents and teachers and to discuss anything that your child's classroom teacher needs to know to help your child/ren experience success in 2025.

PAM can be accessed via this link or through the tile in SZApp - PAM

School Fees

Details of the 2025 Fee Schedule are attached.  Fees can be paid by credit card, bank transfer or by Direct Debit which can be set up as fortnightly, monthly or quarterly (dates attached).

Bank Transfer 

Account :St Patrick’s School Koroit
BSB:083-532
ACC:515853205

Direct Debit 

If you wish to pay by Direct Debit, please complete the attached form and return it to the office.

CSEF (Camps, Sports and Excursions Fund) and Family Fee Assistance Scheme (Concession Card Holders)

Financial Support is available to holders of valid concession cards by way of the CSEF and Family Fee Assistance Scheme. (See attached information for further details).

• CSEF - if you have applied for this previously and there has been no change in circumstances (eg. additional students starting school), no action is required
• Family Fee Assistance Scheme - must be applied for annually.

Printed copies of these forms can be collected from the office.

Student Medical Profiles

Thanks to parents of new Foundation Students who have already navigated the system and created a Medical Profile for their child.  A request has now been issued in PAM for parents to create a profile for all students without a current profile.

The beginning of the year is a timely reminder for parents to review the medical profile for all existing students.

Please follow the instructions below to update a medical profile for each of your children by:

1. Click on link to PAM (found on our webpage or SZapp)
2. Click on student (if more than 1 child, this will need to be done individually)
3. Click on Medical Profile (drop down list)
4. Check all questions and select Edit Details for updates to be made.
5. Once you get to the end of the questions please confirm by clicking on the Green “Update Details” Box found at the bottom right of screen.

As a parent/guardian you are able to access your child/rens medical profile on PAM at any time to update as needed.

If your child has asthma, please ensure the school has a copy of their current Asthma Action Plan.

If you have any queries or require your PAM login details, please do not hesitate to get in contact with the office. 

Working With Children Check

Parent volunteers at school do require a current Working With Children Check (WWCC). 

Application can be done through the Service Victoria App and is free of charge for a Volunteer Card. 

When adding St Patrick's as a volunteer organisation, use the email address principal@spkoroit.catholic.edu.au when prompted for an email address for the organisation.

Folk Festival BBQ

We are finalising the planning for our involvement in the "St Pat's BBQ" at the Port Fairy Folk Festival. 

The BBQ is run in conjunction with St Pat's Port Fairy and is a long standing fundraising event which attracts significant funds from outside of our school community.

We are calling for registrations for volunteers interested in working at the BBQ stall & also for the pack up crew on Monday afternoon.

Working at the BBQ requires commitment of two x 5 hour shifts over the weekend, in exchange for an Adult Folk Festival ticket, free meal and drink on both shifts as well as a $200 credit towards your school volunteer levy.
The Pack Up crew work on the Monday afternoon for approximately 2-3 hours packing up the stall and returning all items to storage at St Pat's Port Fairy (having a ute is handy but not essential). This role attracts a volunteer levy credit of $25 per hour worked, but no Festival ticket.

We welcome volunteers from family & friends of St Patrick's to be involved in this event.

Please register on the form linked here. If you have more than one family member wishing to volunteer, please complete separate registrations.

Emily & Celeste
Folk Festival Co-ordinators 

Register here: 2025 Folk Festival Volunteers 

This year, as another option to contribute to your volunteer levy at the Port Fairy Folk Festival is by donation of drinks and condiments. Please sign up on the link below if this is an option that suits you.

Folk Festival BBQ Donation Items Sign Up

School Photos

Our School Photo day is on Tuesday 4th March. 

The code for ordering is on the flyer below (a copy will be sent home this week). Further information is available via the link below. 

A catch up day for any students away sick is Friday 7th March.

Parents & Friends

Opportunities for 2025

As we look ahead to 2025, we’re excited to invite new faces to get involved with one or more of our fabulous Parents and Friends subcommittees (see image below). Our P&F operates with an executive model, with coordinators for each of our key fundraising events: Port Fairy Folk Festival BBQ, Koroit Irish Festival, Picnic in the Paddock, and Student Engagement.

In addition to these subcommittees, we also run an amazing catering group all year round that provides delicious home cooked food and baked goods for events hosted by St Pat’s. This group not only provides our school community with yummy food, they also contribute significant fundraising for our school!

This setup allows families to volunteer at various events throughout the year without the need to commit to regular meetings. You can simply lend a hand when it suits you! Whether it’s helping with a specific event or activity like organising the disco, a family picnic, or milkshake day, there are plenty of opportunities to get involved.

The coordinators will meet with the principal and the principal’s delegate periodically to plan and review activities, but there’s no ongoing time commitment for volunteers—just jump in where and when you can.

We’d love to see more families join in and help make our school events successful and fun! If you would like any further information, please contact either myself or Todd Noble on todd.james.noble@gmail.com.

Tegan

Picnic In the Paddock

Canteen & Cake Raffle

The Canteen & Cake Raffle are coordinated by our P&F.

Canteen operates at lunchtime on Wednesday and Friday.  Wednesday is sales of  icy-poles and snacks and Friday includes distribution of lunch orders. 

Click here to sign up for the Term 1 Canteen Roster

Cake Raffle is just something for fun! Students can purchase tickets in the classroom on Friday mornings for 20cents and the raffle is drawn by a student from the family who has supplied the cake.  "Cake" is a general term - the prize does not have to be home made and you can choose to bring whatever you like biscuits, slice or chocolates.

Click here to sign up for the Cake Raffle Roster

You will receive a reminder email from the Volunteer Sign Up platform a couple of days prior to your duty and once we have some people signed up, the roster will be published in the newsletter.

Assembly Roster

Assembly is held in the hall at 2.45pm Fridays. Parents, siblings, grandparents and friends are welcome to attend.  Any changes to assembly times will be notified by ClassDojo.

Student awards are presented at assembly and published in the newsletter the following week. If your child is receiving an award, we do try to notify you beforehand.

Hats

In line with SunSmart requirements, students are required to wear hats outside during recess and lunch.  Please ensure your child brings their hat to school each day.  

If you do require a new hat, they can be purchased through CDF Pay.  

Lost Property & Second Hand Uniform

We've cleared out some long term items from the Lost Property but we don't want to refill it - please remember to label your uniform items so your uniforms don't end up here!

Second Hand Uniform

Please speak to Becc Sanderson 0423 956 556 if you wish to purchase or donate some preloved items of uniform.

Happy Birthday

Happy Birthday to all the students and staff who celebrated birthdays so far this year - Mrs Archbold, Miss Hamilton, Fraser Gleeson, Scout Langdon, Scout Buchanan, Layla Briggs, Lydia Andriessen, Florence Young, Milla Leishman, Spenncer Wood, Isabel Jervies and Ella Van Rysingen.  We hope you have all had a fantastic time celebrating with family and friends!

Star of the Sea - Parish Bulletin

Sports Polo Shirts

The School Sports Polo shirts are purchased through the school via CDF Pay.

There has been an increase in the price of sports shirts to $50 - this is cost price from our supplier.

Book Club

Book Club Catalogues went home earlier this week - take a look and see if you can pick up a good read for a bargain!

Dates to Remember

Please refer to the public calendar on the school website for the most up to date calendar items.

https://www.spkoroit.catholic.edu.au/news-events

Community News