St Ita's Primary School Drouin eNewsletter

St Ita’s Catholic Primary School acknowledges and pays respect to the past, present and future Traditional Custodians and Elders of this nation and the continuation of cultural, spiritual and educational practices of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

A PRAYER FOR ROSE

On Monday we had our special Remembrance Day for Rose McMahon. Our students came to school in all the colours of the rainbow to celebrate a very special and beautiful life.

Rose was a beautiful, intelligent, kind, earthy person with a love of nature and birdlife. She was a great friend to so many of the children in our school community and was inclusive of all.

We thank all our families for supporting this special day and the $700 in funds we raised will go towards our 3^rd Rose’s Friendship chair.

I would also like to thank Rose’s parents Kat and Chris for the beautiful keepsake that every child received as a reminder of this special little person who lives in our hearts.

TOYOTA TREE PLANTING DAY?

Today the Grade 1’s and 2’s got to participate in this great initiative. Sharon from Habit Creations and a few Toyota representatives came to speak with the children about the importance of having many plants in our school environment and how they can benefit us and create habitats for many insects, bugs, and animals. Specific plants had been chosen for our school which attract butterflies and birds.

From here the children received gardening gloves and hats and we got outside planting. The children loved every minute of it. They named their plants and plenty of chats were had about Rose McMahon as she was a bird and nature lover too.

We will now work with the children to make sure these new plants are well looked after and grow and thrive in our school environment.

PICK-UP PROCEDURES FROM CIVIC PARK GATE

Thanks to everyone in the school community for supporting us to ensure we have our child safety practices in place.

The Civic Park pick-up is working well, I just ask all parents to be patient, mindful, and respectful of the school's Child Safe expectations.

We have two staff on gate duty morning and night and the expectation is that if students with siblings are using the gate, they must wait and exit the school together as a family. Children will not be dispersed by staff individually.

If you want your child to leave or to be picked up by another family or if your pick-up procedures change and someone else is collecting your children, we ask that you inform the school via a class dojo to their teacher or a written note.

We thank you for your ongoing support to keep St Ita's a Child Safe school.

IMPORTANT DATES FOR YOUR DIARY

Wednesday 27th Nov - 2025 Foundation Transition Day
Thursday 28th Nov - Board and Parents & Friends Dinner
Wednesday 4th Dec - Foundation Excursion to Botanical Gardens
Thursday 5th Dec - Grade 6 Graduation Mass / Dinner
Friday 6th Dec - Grade 6 Celebration Day
Friday 6th Dec - 2025 Foundation Transition Day
Tuesday 10th Dec - State-Wide Transition Day
Wednesday 11th Dec - End of Year Mass 12pm
Friday 13th Dec - Kinect2Dance Concert
Tuesday 17th Dec - Last day of term 4 - Final School Assembly at 12pm.

ST VINCENT DE PAUL / ST ITA'S PRIMARY SCHOOL CHRISTMAS GIFT APPEAL

2024 Christmas is quickly approaching with just over five weeks left of our school year.

In past years, the families of St. Ita’s have helped bring joy and hope with donations of gifts to children in less fortunate situations within the wider community, at Christmas time. This charitable act invites you, as a family, to be involved in a simple, hands-on project while focusing on the true meaning of Christmas, Jesus Christ, God’s greatest gift. Last year we were able to support well over 200 children that are under the care of St. Vincent de Paul within our Parish and local areas, and we have been asked if we can help a similar number again this year.

This year, families who wish to support our Christmas Gift Appeal will have the option of either purchasing their gift in their chosen store for a child/children aged between 0 - 13 years and bring this to school or visiting Warragul Toyworld to purchase a gift and leave it there to be collected.

Alternatively, families can donate an amount of money to an account held at Warragul Toyworld and a St. Vinnies member will select toys to the value of any financial donations. Please do not wrap your gifts as they will need to be sorted and labeled for the appropriate aged child.

Simply pop your gift into a gift bag and drop it into the school to be placed in the foyer. It is preferred where possible for you and your children to select gifts, to give children the important life lesson of the joy of giving to others. We will require all gifts to be dropped into the school foyer by Monday 2 December at the latest, for collection by the St Vincent de Paul team.

Please support the St Vincent de Paul team to continue their work in our Community, the need this year is greater than ever. Thank you all for your continued support, and a happy and blessed Christmas to all.

REMEMBRANCE DAY

A sincere thank you to the wonderful St Ita's community for your generous support of the Remembrance Day Poppy Appeal.

We raised $721. Money raised goes to support local veterans and RSL Victoria.

Thank you,

Mandy Buttner (on behalf of Warragul RSL)

GRADE 6 GRADUATION

Our Graduation Mass and student presentation will be celebrated in St Ita’s Church at 6 pm on Thursday 5^th December.

Due to the significant growth of our Grade 6 population and school, we have elected to celebrate our Graduation dinner at the Drouin Football Club rooms. Our Graduation dinner will be catered by Alimentos Catering who will provide a sit-down, two-course dinner with a main meal and dessert. Soft drinks can be purchased over the bar, and a reminder that this is a school function therefore this is an alcohol-free event.

The cost of this event will be $32 for adults and $16 per child. The graduation event is for parents and Grade 6 students only, unfortunately, we do not have the capacity to host siblings or extended family. All family members are welcome to attend our Graduation Mass.

Closer to the event, we will advise parents to park on Victoria St or in the Church carpark and walk up entering the gate off Victoria St near the Scout Hall as car parking is limited at the ground due to the renovations.

Logistics on the night - Students will all sit together in the middle of the room and parents will be able to sit at either end of the room.

SCHOOL FEES

School Fees are now due and payable. Statements have been forwarded to all fee payers, please ensure you check your statement and bring your account up to date as necessary. All school fees must be finalised in the year that they are incurred.

Direct debit payments can be arranged at any time, please contact Beck Bradley (03) 5623 7222 or admin@stidrouin.catholic.edu.au to discuss payment options.

STUDENT MEDICATION

We understand that from time to time students need to take medication while they are at school. If this is the case, please contact the Admin Office to complete a Medication Administration Form.

All medication must be delivered to the office in the original packaging, if it has been prescribed by your GP it must have the pharmacy labelling on the packaging including your chilld's name.

Please Note: We will make every effort to help you with medication administration, wherever possible, medication should be scheduled outside the school hours, e.g. medication required three times a day is generally not required during a school day: it can be taken before and after school and before bed.

ST ITA'S MEDALLION

Our newest St Ita’s Medallist is Elias Martinez-Villalobos from Grade 2CB.

ST ITAS DAY CELEBRATIONS

On Friday 1^st November we held our St Ita Day celebration. All classes undertook lessons and activities learning more about St Ita. We also held a whole Prayer Service in the Church.

Some of the things we learnt were as follows

In the Spirit of St Ita

Saint Ita was a 6th century Irish saint and is the second most significant woman saint in Ireland (after St Brigid.)
She is the Patron of the diocese of Limerick
She founded monasteries and schools
She showed great love for the poor
She cared for the earth and its creatures
Her mantra : faith, peace, care, service
Her legacy continues today.

Grade 3 and 4 created a large vase with flower petals which they wrote some of St Ita’s qualities, they also composed their own St Ita Prayer

St Ita's PS Drouin Yr 5 & 6 Camp Blog

When the buses rolled through the gates of The Summit on a warm and cloudy Wednesday morning, we were preparing for what was going to be an amazing week. The energy and enthusiasm from all the students of St Ita's Primary School were addictive and we loved it. The other coaches and I gathered in the Lodge with them to introduce ourselves and our Five Keys of Have Fun, Play All In, Make Mistakes, Get Comfortable being Uncomfortable and Don’t Go Home Wondering What If, before playing a couple of games, showing everyone our harnesses and how to set themselves Targets, Stretches and Super Stretches, and getting into our first couple of rounds of activities.

The Abseiling and the Flying Fox were the instant highlights, the High Wire was challenging, the Bush Challenge and the Scavenger Hunt were epic, Orienteering was huge and our Inflatable City was just fun. There were many personal boundaries pushed and fears overcome, with too many kids pushing beyond what they first thought they were capable of.

Towards the end of the first day, each group was asked to come up with a name for themselves that was agreed upon by all, and these are the names they came up with;

Grp 1 - Potato Nuggets

Grp 2 - The Stags

Grp 3 - Sigmas

Grp 4 - Bananas

Grp 5 - Baddies

Grp 6 - Some Human Beings

Grp 7 - The Sigmas

After an evening Talent Show on Wednesday, Thursday was kicked off with a morning intentions chat from Logan with the help of Kid President before getting straight into the next round of activities. The afternoon turned out to be a bit cool, but everyone was so into the activities we couldn’t tell.

That afternoon we helped out at the local theme park by catching some Magical Creatures that had escaped in the form of some very dressed-up adults that the groups had to work together to catch and escort back to the stage. Once they worked out that the key was to work together and stay as a team, everyone had a fantastic time, the adults especially!

Thursday afternoon we also embarked on our epic Monster Course, a mud run around the grounds of The Summit involving tyres, charades, mud, cargo nets, holey buckets, mud, a ball pit, and more mud! The course was scored using each team's improvement time from the first lap to the surprise second lap, with everyone doing amazingly, but being dominated by Bananas!

Friday started with another chat from Sam, again with the help of Kid President, about gratitude before we rounded out the camp with everyone getting to experience the last couple of activities they had yet to experience.

After we wound up the last of our group challenges, we then asked each of the kids to vote on a Values winner, or the person in their group they felt used our Five Keys the best to make camp a rewarding experience for not only themselves but their whole team. The winners are listed below with all the times for each of the recordable activities. We gathered on the stage to say our thank yous to all the people involved in making this camp epic before reading out the winners of the various activities.

Thank you so much to Kristy, Kaitlyn, the parents, teachers and students of St Ita’s Primary School for an awesome week. You were all so incredibly dedicated to ensuring your camp was an amazing experience. We at The Summit can’t wait to have you back again soon.

Adam, Logan, Sam, Taylor, Ant, Matt, Fran and Liam

CAMP AUSTRALIA

Camp Australia Co-Ordinator: Carmelina De Cesari

Contact Number: 1300 105 343

Website: www.campaustralia.com.au

BOOKING & COMMUNICATION

Due to our increasing numbers and the increased demand for before and after-school care services, our families are encouraged to book early to ensure Camp Australia can accommodate our growing student numbers utilising their services.

We also encourage families utilising before and after-school care services to communicate with their children if they will be attending after-school care, students are often unsure of their collection arrangements which can be stressful for small children. For our Foundation students, we suggest a note in their lunchbox or a Class Dojo to let their teachers know about collection arrangements.

COMMUNITY NOTICE BOARD