St Patrick's believes in providing opportunities for all students. Not only do we strive for excellence in education, but we also want to help all students to succeed socially. We have a well-developed playground that includes a sports field, adventure playground, quiet play area and sand pits, but there are some students who would prefer to play in a quieter area. To provide opportunities for these students, St Patrick's supports the lunchtime Chill Zone. We also provide opportunities to develop other non-academic skills and social interactions.
CREATIVE & PERFORMING ARTS
St Patrick’s proudly offers a range of performance, drama, dance and music extra-curricular activities for students, to support their development and growth and encourage the expression of creativity, imagination and talent.
Our school encourages a number of avenues of support for students who show interest and skill in the Creative Arts domain including:
- the opportunity to audition for the Diocesan performing arts ASPIRE program;
- involvement in the choir;
- involvement in Band and Percussion;
- the opportunity to learn a musical instrument at the school with lessons offered by private tutors in guitar and piano; and
- dance experiences.
Debating
Interested students in Year 6 are welcome to be involved in the selection process for the All Saints Region Diocesan Debating Competition. Students receive instruction and tuition to learn the process and skills of debating before representing our school in the local competition. This competition features an impromptu process where each team is given only one hour to prepare their debates with no assistance from adults. The successful school team overall progresses to the Diocesan competition.
Public Speaking
Students at St Patrick’s are actively involved in activities to develop public speaking skills as part of the English curriculum. Our school takes part in the All Saints Cluster Public Speaking Competition for Kindergarten to Year 6. Skills are explicitly taught and practised before semi-finalists from each class are selected to participate in stage playoffs in front of stage-based audiences. Two finalists per stage are determined using the same topic under competition conditions. Speeches are prepared at school on the day of competition.
At competition level:
- speakers in ES1 and S1 present a prepared speech only
- speakers in S2 and S3 present 2 speeches - a prepared speech and an impromptu speech.
We recognise that public speaking is a life-long skill. The ability to communicate clearly, effectively and confidently with an engaging presentation style can never be underestimated.
STEM
Students have the opportunity to explore their interests in STEM (science, technology, engineering and math). Lunch time activities explore simple coding tasks, experiments, engineering challenges and hands-on projects.
CHESS CLUB
Chess club is held weekly at lunch times for interested students who would like to develop their skills in a social and competitive context.
GARDEN CLUB
The Garden Club for Years 4 to 6 is an educational and innovative way for students to discover and investigate the natural world and build a healthy respect and understanding for nature, nutrition and the environment. Students are supported to prepare the soil, plant seedlings, cultivate and tend the plants and pick produce to be used in the school canteen or in cooking activities.
