St Paul's Bulletin Term 1 Week 2 2025

Principal's Message

“St Paul’s Catholic Primary School is a welcoming  

community inspired by the Gospel values of Jesus. As we  

nurture citizens of the future, we foster an inclusive learning  

environment based on collaboration, respect and 

the love of one another.” 

St Paul’s Primary School Mission Statement

Dear Parents and Carers, 

Welcome back for 2025 and welcome to all our new families, especially new Kinders who started today and the 10 other new families who started this week. The teachers and staff have worked hard in the last few weeks preparing for the year. We are excited to be back, and ready for a great year of learning! 

I am pleased to welcome Ms Elise Kellaway who will be teaching Year 4B each Thursday and Friday with Mrs Jane Butler for Term 1. I am also pleased to announce that Mrs Belinda Mayall has been appointed Teacher Librarian following Mrs Candice Gibson’s move to St Joseph’s Charlestown. 

It is with sadness that I inform you that Mrs Mary Price, our pastoral care worker, has retired from professional life for personal reasons. I thank Mary for her time at St Paul’s, supporting families and children. Her presence has been a blessing to St Paul’s. Mary’s pastoral care position will be advertised, and we hope to appoint a new person as soon as possible. 

The major areas for our School Improvement Plan for 2025 are writing, as part of the English curriculum, building our understanding of our school’s origins with the Sisters of St Joseph, the implementing of Zones of Regulation, and continuing to build St Paul's as a Culture of Thinking.  

Our continuing focus on Cultures of Thinking is an approach based on research from  Harvard University. Cultures of Thinking are schools where groups and classes, as well as individuals, where thinking is valued, visible, and actively promoted as part of the regular, day-to-day experience of all school members. It promotes the twenty-first century skills of critical and creative thinking.  

In 2025 will invite all children in Years 4-6, who are baptised, to continue their sacramental faith journey by making the sacraments of Reconciliation, First Holy Communion, and Confirmation. More information will follow. 

All children should be in Summer uniform Monday to Wednesday. Sports uniform is worn every Thursday and Friday. Just a reminder that shoes should be black, leather, and polishable. Also, I would also ask parents to be aware that our uniform policy says that “Hair must be the child’s natural colour and extreme styles must be avoided. Hair ribbons are to be gold or navy in colour. Hair below the shoulder must be tied back.” At St Paul’s we want children to stand out for being great caring people, demonstrating amazing thinking, showing great sportsmanship, or being creative, not for extreme haircuts.  

Lowes has informed me that they are experiencing delays in securing new school hats. In the interim, Lowes will stock a small quantity of plain blue hats which we will retail for $9.95. Anyone who needs to purchase one can return it to the store once the correct hats arrive, and Lowes will credit the $9.95 toward the new hat. These hats will be acceptable school hats until the new stock arrives. Thanks to all the parents who send their children dressed correctly every day! 

Communication between parents and teachers is paramount for a partnership to build for the benefit of the children.  Teachers will only communicate through email or Compass alerts. Teachers will always respond to all email messages, but the response will not be immediate. They will respond within 24 hours and only between the hours of 8am and 5pm. Teachers cannot respond during teaching time. Please ensure the school office has your correct email address. If you need to get an urgent message to your child, please ring the school office and the message will be passed on. Teachers in K-3 will use SeeSaw to share classroom learning regularly, but SeeSaw is not for communication. Teachers in Year 4-6 will use Compass to share classroom learning. Messages from teachers will come on Compass.  

Children are discouraged from having ‘smart watches’ as these are a huge distraction from classroom learning. Please do not message your child on a smartwatch during school hours. Children are not permitted to contact their parents during school hours using a smartwatch. If they are unwell, they need to let their teacher know. If your child has a mobile phone at school, it must stay in the child’s bag and can only be checked after school. The school cannot be responsible for mobile phones.  

On Friday, 28th February, at 9.00 am we will celebrate our Opening School Mass. We will formally welcome our new Kinders, as well as ask for God’s blessing on the year ahead. We will also formally ‘badge’ our Year 6 School Leaders. Please join us in St Paul's Church for this celebration!  

On Wednesday evening, 19th February at 6.00 pm at Club Charlestown, we will hold our P&F AGM. Please come and support our school. All welcome, especially new families to the school! 

On Wednesday, 26th February, we will be holding our Welcome Back BBQ from 5.30-7.30 pm. The P&F will provide free sausage sandwiches. We will have a jumping castle for the kids and drinks will be  available from the canteen. Everyone welcome! Many thanks to the P&F for organising this event. For catering numbers, please complete this online RSVP. Please join us! 

Today all families of children in Years 1-6 received a Compass alert to complete an IT User Agreement. Please sit with your child to complete this online agreement together. Cyber safety is of paramount importance and we need to have sound systems in place to keep our children safe when on the internet. If you have any questions about internet safety, do not hesitate to contact me or your child’s teacher.  

In the week of February 24, we will be conducting Parent-Student-Teacher Interviews.  These fifteen-minute meetings are an opportunity for learning to be discussed between children, their parents and teachers. They involve highlighting student strengths, current achievement and next learning steps. Following these conferences parents and teachers should have a clearer picture of their child’s current developmental learning needs and goals. There will be a link in your Compass News to book your interview in the coming weeks. All families must participate in this process for the benefit of all children. 

The canteen will open next week. Our canteen is operated by The Right Bite and is open each Thursday and Friday. Lunches must be ordered online through the canteen portal. Drinks, ice blocks and chips are available over the counter. Many thanks to Mrs Nikki Vittadello for providing this service to our school community. 

You may have noticed that our new outdoor learning/yarning circle is taking shape on the east end of the field. Many thanks to the P&F for funding this and to Rory Stone (Remi 1G) for the work. Special thanks to Rory for volunteering his time to extend the drain on the field to keep it drier during heavy rain.

With every blessing,

Greg Cumming  

Principal 

Important Dates

2025 School Dates 

Assistant Principal's Message

Attendance 

Education for your child is important and regular school attendance is essential for your child to achieve their educational best.

St Paul’s implements the CSO Attendance Policy and Procedures. All absences must be explained promptly.

Compass Attendance Notes

Please note that adding attendance notes in Compass is for 'Whole Day' absences. This needs to be completed each time your child is away. Notes can only be added within 7 days of your child’s absence. Each week I will be sending attendance notifications on a Friday for students who still have unexplained absences.

If you are bringing your child to school late due to an appointment etc, you will receive the text message. Please disregard this if the child is with you. Then upon bringing them into the office, you will need to sign them in through the Compass Kiosk. This then adjusts the class roll in real-time.

If you are collecting your child early, please DO NOT add a note in advance, can you please sign out through the Compass Kiosk. Please come to the office, and we will call the class/es for your child to meet you at the office. 

Volunteering at St Paul's

Please see the below link if you would like to register to volunteer at St Paul’s. Our school is always in need of volunteers in our school for many school activities. We will let you know once we receive your clearance from your registration, this must be received prior to volunteering. 

Zones of Regulation 

This year St Paul's will be adopting the Zones of Regulation curriculum. This is a curriculum to support student social and emotional development and regulation skills! The Zones of Regulation provides a simple way for learners (and the adults who support them) to understand, communicate around, and care for their feelings.
The Zones of Regulation Digital Curriculum (2024) uses evidence-based practices, strategies, and activities to build skills that are essential for wellbeing.

Over the course of this curriculum, we will:
• Explore feelings and build emotional awareness.
• Recognize body signals related to our feelings.
• Identify situations and triggers that impact our feelings.
• Explore a variety of regulation tools.
• Pause to problem-solve before acting on our impulses.

Together, we will practice regulating feelings and behaviours in real-time and reflecting on whether our regulation is working well for us. 

You can learn more about The Zones of Regulation here: https://zonesofregulation.com/how-it-works/

Jessica Moulder

Assistant Prinicpal 

Catholic Culture at St Paul's

Welcome back - Opening School Mass and Leadership Induction

We warmly invite you to celebrate the beginning of a new school year with us at the

Opening School and Leadership Induction Mass

on Friday, 28th February at 9:00 AM

in St Paul’s Church.

This special Mass marks the start of our academic year and the induction of our new school leaders.

We encourage all members of the St Paul’s community - parents, family and friends – to join the students in this meaningful occasion as we come together to seek guidance, inspiration, and blessings for the year ahead.

We look forward to seeing you there!

Project Compassion - Caritas Lenten Appeal

Lent is a special time of year – a time for prayer, fasting, and almsgiving, and a time to live out the good news for those in need. Caritas Australia invites you to put your compassion into action this Lent.

As individuals, we can make a difference, but when we come together through Project Compassion, our efforts become even more impactful. Our collective kindness has the power to grow, and by uniting with each other and with those living in poverty, we can create BIG, lasting change.

Let’s all Unite Against Poverty! Together, we can make 2025 a year of hope and transformation.

Our Mini Vinnies team will be established tomorrow - stay tuned for their exciting fund raising appeal OR donate via this link: St Paul's Primary School - Gateshead • Project Compassion 2025 

Sports News

Welcome to 2025

Welcome to another year of sport! Here at St Paul's we offer a wide range of opportunities for students to participate in sport- this includes class sport/PE programs, non-competitive gala days in sports such as soccer, rugby league, rugby union, tennis, AFL, netball, touch football, league tag, swimming, cross country and athletics. We also provide an opportunity through the Diocese for students to pursue representative opportunities through regional and diocesan sport trials.

Please be sure to read this section of the newsletter each week to hear about upcoming events, and to celebrate the achievements and participation of our students! We value the assistance and support of parents throughout the year to ensure we can continue to provide students with opportunities in sport. Please reach out to me should you ever have any questions.

Lakes Regional Swimming Carnival

The Regional Swimming Carnival is scheduled to be held on Monday 17th February. If you child was successful in progressing to the regional carnival, they would have received a letter at the end of last year and an updated letter today, and further details on Compass events. Please note the change in venue this year to Wallsend pool, and the earlier start of the carnival beginning at 8:30am. More details have been sent home today and are on the Compass event. Please provide consent/pay online and return the competitor forms ASAP.

Winter Sports Trials

I am seeking expressions of interest for students in Years 5 and 6 to attend regional and diocesan trials for the following winter sports: Soccer, netball, hockey, rugby league, AFL, Rugby Union, touch football and softball.

In order to be considered for selection in the above sports, your child must have exceptional talent in one of the above sports. If you wish to nominate your child for the trials, please either ask your child to let me know or get in touch with me via email. I will then provide you with a form to provide important information such as present club, outstanding achievements (eg. best and fairest; coaches awards etc) and current representative honours, if applicable.  Written nomination, via the forms I will give to interested students, must be forwarded to the school no later than Friday 14th February. 

It is understood that children will be selected on their demonstrated achievements in the sport and that they be available for Regional, Diocesan and State Trials if successful. Please note that a school trial may need to occur and that not all interested students will progress to the regional/diocesan events, as selection criteria is strict and we are limited on the number of students we can send to each trial.

Remember, this is not to express interest in non-competitive gala days, but for those students with exceptional talent, wishing to follow the pathways sport program- school, region, diocese, polding etc. We provide many other opportunities throughout the year for our students to compete in gala days.

Tennis

We wish Minnie Cooper-Stone the best of luck as she competes at the Polding tennis trials in Tamworth tomorrow. Go Minnie!

Parent Helpers

During the year, we are very grateful for the assistance that parents/carers are able to offer at a variety of sport carnivals and gala days. In order to be able to volunteer and assist, it is a requirement that parents have had a volunteer clearance done. I strongly recommend parents applying for this at the beginning of the year so that clearance can be confirmed prior to any events as the year progresses. We appreciate parent help at events such as our school athletics and swimming carnivals, and touch football and netball gala days, among other events. The procedure for applying for this clearance can be found in the newsletter.  

Abbey Edwards 

abbey-jane.edwards@mn.catholic.edu.au

Creative Arts News

Office Messages

Complaints, Resolution and Feedback

St Paul’s Primary School, The Catholic Schools Office (CSO) and Schools in the Diocese of Maitland-Newcastle are committed to providing a positive, safe environment for all staff and students. There are occasions, however, when members of our schools and wider community are concerned about something happening at a school that appears to be unsatisfactory or unreasonable.

If you have a complaint, please follow this procedure. 

Volunteering
Throughout the year, we invite parents/carers to volunteer at the school. To volunteer, you must complete the volunteer's induction. 

IMPORTANT - School Fees

Anyone wishing to continue with a special Fee Agreement in 2025, please contact the office 4943 6369 to make an appointment with the Principal to discuss. It is necessary to reapply for an extension of the agreements into 2025

Parish News

Children’s Liturgy is held every Sunday at 9:30am during Holy Mass. WE ARE NOW BACK IN ST PAUL'S CHURCH! We have a beautiful, dedicated room at St Paul’s Gateshead where we hear and discuss the Gospel each week, working our way through the Liturgical Calendar.

There’s always lots of friendship and fun activities.

Safeguarding is our highest priority. Children’s Liturgy will only go ahead if there are two volunteers with current Working With Children Checks.

All are welcome! We look forward to meeting some new friends!

Jacqui Wilson (school mum at St Paul’s Primary) and the Children’s Liturgy Team.