I would like to send a special thank you to all who attended last weekend’s Parish Festival. It was a great success with wonderful support from many of our families. Special thanks to those who co-ordinated and worked in the shop on the day. It was a very successful outcome with approximately $800 raised for our Parents and Friends Committee. We thank Scott Turner for providing us with many beautiful photos (a sample of which are on page 5). It was great to see so many of the children enjoying all that was on offer and the rock climbing wall was a bit hit with both children and adults. The Parents and Friends held a very successful disco last Wednesday night. There were many impressive “crazy hair” styles, as well as some great dance moves happening. It certainly took me back to my youth in the late 70’s! I was very proud of the great behaviour of all the children in attendance. Clean up Australia Day will be held this Thursday and children will be provided with protective gloves and rubbish bags at school. We have sourced a $1,000 Landcare Grant for our school and we are currently exploring the options for expenditure. I feel extremely fortunate for the strong partnership we have between families, staff and the wider community and I look forward to achieving many great things together this year.

Michael Kennedy.

NEWS FROM THE PRINCIPAL info@spgordon.catholic.edu.au www.spgordon.catholic.edu.au

Newsletter

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1st March, 2016.

Weekend Mass Times

Dunnstown Saturday 6.30 pm

Gordon Sunday 8.45 am

Ballan Sunday 10.30 am

The Ballarat Courier - Foundation Photo On Friday, March 4th our current Foundation students will feature in the Ballarat Courier newspaper in a supplement featuring Preps in Ballarat

and the surrounding districts. I am sure that this will be a lovely keepsake for parents and grandparents.

News from the Rooms….

Coming events…

SCHOOL BANKING IS EVERY WEDNESDAY. Please drop bank books at the school office.

Thursday 10th March - Moorabool Sports Day for all students and Families at Bacchus Marsh.

Book Club order due back - Wednesday 9th March.

Tuesday March 15th - Open Day at St Patrick’s School.

Thursday 17th March - St Patrick’s Day celebrations for all staff and students at St Brigid’s in Ballan. St Patrick’s Day and Opening of School Year Mass will be at 10.30 am at St Brigid’s Ballan. All welcome. Fr. Gary Jones is our Canonical Ad-ministrator (Priest overseeing our school) and he will be celebrating Mass with us.

RECONCILIATION CEREMONY March 17th

2016 St Brigid’s 4pm, St Patrick’s 6pm

THE FOUNDATION STUDENTS WILL HAVE ALL WEDNESDAY’S HOME IN TERM 1.

Term 1 Dates - February 1st (students resume classes) to Thursday 24th March.

Good Friday is the 25th March.

Monday 14th March: Labour Day Public Holiday

Wednesday 4th May - Mother’s Day Liturgy at 9.15 am, followed by morning tea.

Swimming/Gym Program 2016

Senior children - Thursday 14/7 - Thursday 11/8/2016

Junior children - Thursday 18/8 - 15/9/2016

YEAR F/1/2 This week in literacy we are focusing on the letters p and i as well as a-e words. On Friday children wrote some amazing stories in rocket writing which included words like gigantic, meanwhile, after that. This Thursday F/1/2 will clean up the school yard as part of clean up Australia day. STUDENT OF THE WEEK goes to Finn Conroy for using some amazing sentence openers in his rocket writing.

“In class we have been learning about the bible and the old testament. Moses led the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt, through the Red Sea and to Mount Sinai. The followers of Moses waited 40 years, until Moses came back down from the mountain with the 10 commandments—God’s rules to living a good life”. By Liam Lynch and Xavier Winter STUDENT OF THE WEEK Amy Conroy for sharing great research skills.

“On Wednesday the 24th of February, it was the disco at school. The Mums did a fantastic job setting up the Art room. I loved the way people dressed “cool” and lots of people went in the ‘craziest hair competition’. The winners were Eden with a Mohawk hairdo, which had spider webs in it and Beatrix with a lolly pops and sherbet ice cream hairdo. Later we played games like ‘bobs and statues’ and danced the limbo. The disco was awesome and it looked like everyone was having a great time’. We also welcome Miss Reidy into our school. She will be teaching our class for 5 weeks while Mr Lamb is on leave. Emily Murphy “At the weekend a Parish Fair was held at the Springbank football oval. There were great stalls and the most popular was definitely the rock climbing wall. There was horse riding, an ice cream van, jewel stall, Sweet and sour van and a visit from Peppa the Pig. Thank you to the parents for the great canteen work”. Gracie Fox STUDENT OF THE WEEK Ned Newman for making a big effort in learning his times tables over the holidays. This has enabled him to achieve success with Numeracy, specifically fractions.

Athletics Day Thursday March 10th at Mason’s Lane Bacchus Marsh. Our Interschool Athletics day which will be held at Mason’s Lane Reserve in Bacchus

Marsh on Thursday 10th March. This has traditionally been a fantastic family day where

parents join their children for with a picnic rug, camping chairs and lunch to support chil-

dren in their athletic endeavours. We hope many parents will be able to come along and

catch up with each other as you enjoy the events throughout the day. Children participate in

age groups with schools from around the district. The day commences at around 9.15 am and concludes

around 3pm. Training will occur during our Phys Ed lessons each week.

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St Patrick’s Primary School will be conducting an Open Day on Tuesday March 15

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as part of Catholic Education Week. Please spread the word to any potential

families who may wish to check out our great school. The school will be open all

day for visitors. You may also wish to invite your family members, grandparents etc.

to visit on that day. They would be most welcome.

BRAIN TEASER QUESTION

What occurs once in every minute, twice in every moment, yet never in a thousand years? (Answer on Page 4)

Project Compassion

Caritas Australia’s annual Lenten fundraising and awareness-raising appeal brings thousands of Australians together in solidarity with the world's poor to help end poverty, promote justice and uphold dignity.

Dear Families, This year as we prepare for Easter let us remember those less fortunate than ourselves.

Each family has been sent home with a project compassion box. This year we ask that you donate what you can to help others in need. Upon returning your box families will be go in the draw for the annual Easter egg raffle. This year Easter eggs for the raffle will be provide by the staff of St Patrick’s. Can all project compassion boxes please be returned by Tuesday 22

nd of March.

The Easter raffle will be drawn concluding our Liturgy on Thursday 24th of March at 3pm.

“Caritas Australia is celebrating 50 years of Project Compassion with the theme “Learning more, creating change”, by demonstrating how education, training and sharing knowledge is empowering individuals and communities in six countries around the world to transform their futures and create lasting change. “

MEASLES OUTBREAK IN BRUNSWICK

As you may be aware there has been a recent outbreak of measles in Brunswick in Melbourne. We ask that all parents supply a history of immunisation for their children at the time of enrolment.

This ensures that the school can act quickly identify the immunisation status of each child and implement advice received from the Victorian Health Officer.

Letters are attached to the newsletter of any family needing to supply the above information.

BRAIN QUIZ ANSWER

The Letter M

I come into your presence, Father, and ask that you help me

to be as trusting and close to you as many little children are with their

parents. May my life today reflect

that you rejoice in my company. May I rejoice in yours