TERM 2

WEEK 5

2026 TERM 1 WEEK 6

WEEK 2

TERM 3 - 2024

WEEK 4
WEEK 6
WEEK 8
WEEK 10

A MESSAGE FROM THE PRINCIPAL

Anna-Marie Bothe

Principal

It is an exciting time at St Paul’s, with action underway to enhance our outdoor play spaces! Based on research, we are getting creative to provide the following types of play:

Nature Play

We are adapting a garden bed next to our dry rain garden and water tank for playing in the dirt and mud with sticks, logs, leaves and rocks. The addition of pots and pans, plates and containers add to the fun of creative play!

“Research shows that outdoor play in natural environments supports children’s cognitive, social, physical, and emotional development by offering freedom, rich learning opportunities, and essential motor-skill building experiences.” Ji Hyun Oh. The benefits of children’s outdoor play in naturalized play environments. Educational Research: Theory and Practice, 35 (1).

Loose Parts Play

We are refreshing our cubby house by adding dress ups and kitchen items for role play and our sandpit toys are being upgraded!

Risky Play

This is the big one – our NEW PLAYGROUND! ‘Rock climbing’ walls, rope webs to clamber through, speedy slide, parkour-style balancing challenges, monkey bars – we can’t wait! Mrs Biar will provide more details in this newsletter on recent progress.

Loose parts play: “gives children the chance to use their imagination, work with others, and build important thinking skills while creating and exploring with everyday materials.” Simoncini, K., Meeuwlssen, K. 2024, 'Don’t hog, share and just let your imagination flow'.

In risky play, children: “build confidence, develop coordination, and learn to assess challenges, all while supporting their physical, social, and emotional growth.” Nowogrodzki, J. (2025). Why kids need to take more risks: science reveals the benefits of wild, free play.

We can’t wait to share updates on the installation of our new playground. We love the way children of all ages play together at St Paul’s, most certainly sharing our school value of being compassionate towards each other:

Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.

Ephesians 4:32

wedge

CHRISTINE'S

CORNER

New Playground

Last week, the students were very excited to see progress in the playground area – all the softfall was removed, ready for the instalment of the new playground!

The students have been showing great patience and understanding when their play routines have been disrupted, and I hope they can continue this for just a little longer! The installation will begin in Week 7, after most of the NAPLAN tests have been completed.

NAPLAN

This week the Year 3 and 5 students have been involved in their NAPLAN tests. Thank you to Mrs Bassett for all her work in preparing the students for these tests.

Student Leave of Absence from School

If your child needs to be absent from school for 10 consecutive school days or more, parents are required to seek permission from our Principal by completing the ‘'Application for Extended Leave – Travel’ form which is available at our School Office.  

For absences from school of more than 49 days, parents need to seek permission from the Principal by emailing principal@stpaulshenty.nsw.edu.au – the NSW government requires that parents and staff collaborate on preparing ongoing learning for students on such leave, or parents enrol students in distance education.  A certificate of extended leave needs to be completed and taken on family travel.

Upcoming events:

  • RAS Netball trials – Thursday 19th March
  • Paul Kelly Cup – Tuesday 24th March
  • Combined Schools Easter Service – Now Friday 27th March at 9.30am
  • Spirit Awards – Now Tuesday 31st March at 9.20am
  • Cross Country – April 1st @ Henty Golf course
  • Last day of term 1 – Thursday April 2nd

SchoolTV Webinar

Just a reminder of the free SchoolTV webinar to be held on March 18th at 7.30pm – Understanding Anxiety and depression to foster resilience. This promises to be very informative. Please scan the QR code to register.

Congratulations Wylie

Congratulations to Wylie who was victorious in a mechanical bull ride at the Merrijig Rodeo. He competed against adults in the competition. Way to go, Wylie!!

Just a friendly reminder that students need a HAT everyday!

Thank you.

GRANDPARENTS' DAY

CHAPEL - K - 1 - 2

Tuesday 17 @ 9:20am

CHAPEL: SPIRIT AWARDS - YEAR 3 & 4

Tuesday 31 @ 9:20am

CROSS COUNTRY

Wednesday 1

COMBINED SCHOOLS EASTER SERVICE

Friday 27 @ 9:30am

APRIL

MARCH

IMPORTANT DATES

mainly music

Monday 16 @ 9:30am

mainly music

Monday 30 @ 9:30am

MRS BIAR'S CLASS

It was lovely to be able to chat to all the parents last week and share the students’ goals and highlights. They proudly showed some of the work they have been doing.

Last week we were very excited to see the machinery at school that was digging up the old softfall in preparation for the new playground. This led to some writing-

This week the Kinders have started learning their letters! There was much excitement around this! Now the fun begins!

We are looking forward to leading Chapel next week on Tuesday 17th March. You are all most welcome to come along and join us.

Blessings,

Mrs Biar

MRS BASSETT'S CLASS

This week, 3/4 are working with large numbers and using maths skills including multiplication strategies to calculate and record data, such as how many days they have lived.

Blessings,

Mrs Bassett

MISS H'S CLASS

Last week, students were working on investigations during Maths. Year 5 completed ‘Race Around Australia’ in which they had to schedule flights to race around Australia in less than 48 hours. They used  maths skills including mapping, reading and interpreting timetables, and organisational skills to predict and plan their race route.

Year 6 completed ‘Lilja’s Locked Level’ in which they had to use computational thinking to solve a number pattern puzzle. They worked with additive and multiplicative patterns and used maths skills including estimation and substitution strategies, and explaining rules used to create their own puzzle to swap with their classmates.

4/5/6 have been exploring the work of Quentin Blake, Jeannie Baker and Shaun Tan as illustrators. We have discussed what illustrators do and recognised that they can have very different styles. Students enjoyed creating their own character with a strong personality using Quentin Blake’s style of line and character drawing.

Next Tuesday, we look forward to our excursion to Bonegilla Migrant Centre to find out about the lives of migrants who spent time at Bonegilla after arriving in Australia. This will undoubtedly inspire and assist us in creating our own books to tell the stories of migrants.

Blessings,

Miss H

SRC SPOTLIGHT

2026 Fundraising

Fundraising this term will be going towards the purchase of new cubby house and sandpit equipment. We have been holding ‘Zooper Dooper Fridays’ and have an upcoming casual clothes day (theme – spots or stripes) in week 8

Meg and Tilly

RAS SWIMMING

This year we had seven participants for RAS Swimming Azariah, Wyatt, Gabriel, Ryan, Samson, Harriet and John. Even though nobody got on the podium, everybody had fun. Wyatt, Harriet, Gabe and Azariah participated in the mixed relay and came fifth.

Harriet - Sport Captain

AWARDS & CHAPEL

Merit & Values Awards

K - 2 - Storm & Roswitha

3 & 4 - Jonathan & Abel

5 & 6 - Isabelle & Meg

K - 2 - Maeve & Eli

3 & 4 - Solomon & Jude

5 & 6 - Gabriel & Ryan

K - 2 - Noah & Liam

3 & 4 - Sora & Lacie

5 & 6 - Wyatt & Evie

Week 4

Week 6

Week 5

P&F UPDATE

Well the Year of the Big Shed came, we saw it and we conquered it! The 2024 HMFD was a huge success. We had 150 shift spaces to fill and we did it! Thank you to all our families & friends who pitched in over the event. We needed your support and you didn't let us down.

Thanks to our combined effort we raised over $50,000!!

The P&F have decided to contribute $50,000 to be put towards a new playground and outdoor learning space at school, a place current and future students will be able to enjoy for many years to come.

Our first event in 2025 will be our annual Welcome BBQ to be held on Sunday 2nd February. This is always a great day to catch up after the summer break. More details to come in the New Year.

TUCKSHOP TERM 1 2026

February 9 + 23

March 9 + 23 + 30

COMMUNITY NOTICE BOARD

Parents and carers: need support with your family’s wellbeing?

The Go4Fun Online program is here to help!  

As a family with primary school-aged children, you can access this free, on-demand healthy lifestyle program.

What you’ll get:

🔹 Personalised support from your own health coach, who provides advice tailored to your family's needs.

🔹 Weekly calls with your coach, plus online sessions and fun, practical activities to do together as a family.

🔹 Access to a closed Facebook group where you can connect with other families on their journey.  

Your child will learn practical skills like:

✔️ understanding food groups, serving sizes, and food labels ✔️ reducing screen time with fun, creative games

✔️ helping prepare meals

✔️ sharing activity ideas for family fun.  

Ready to start?

Visit Go4Fun | NSW Government for more info and to register today!  

28th April 2026