Dear Community

It gives us great pleasure to inform you that St Paul the Apostle School has won a major National Award in STEM (Science Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) Education). Tomorrow our school will be represented by our Senior STEM Ambassadors at the 2022 National Catholic Education Conference held at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre tomorrow – Tuesday 6 September 2022

Along with our Culture of Thinking, STEM is a major focus in our learning in all Year Levels. Over the past few months, our Senior classes participated in a STEM for Humanity project which focussed on the theme of “Caring for Our Planet. As a result of research, ” The STEM team were horrified to learn about the significant impact that tons of discarded clothing had on our ecology. As a result they focussed on the repurposing of ‘Unwanted Clothing’ in a way that reduces the detrimental impact on the environment. Our Student Team aptly named our project ‘Trash to Fash’

Our Learning Journey was documented in a video which was submitted as part of the STEM MAD (Making A Difference) and our STEM Ambassadors presented our Trash to Fash Project at the Catholic Leadership Centre on 4 August 2022. Our Team was successful in gaining

2022 Victorian State Winner – Archbishop’s Award for Social Justice
2022 Finalist – Monash University Social Entrepreneurship

As a result we were then invited to the 2022 National Finals and last Wednesday, we were so excited to hear that that St Paul the Apostle School, Doreen had won the National Award for

2022 National Winner for Social Entrepreneurship
2022 Finalist – Social Justice

As a result of our project, our STEM Ambassadors have been invited to showcase our “Trash to Fash” project to a National and International audience at the 2022 National Catholic Education Conference held at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre. We look forward to seeing our Senior Students interact with other students and educators discussing their challenges using scientific, technical, engineering, artistic and mathematical problem solving in their own individual projects.

We are extremely proud of our achievements in STEM Education.In 2021 we were able to win a number of State Awards with our ‘Alertron Cat Collar’ Project

2021 Winner – Thinking Outside of the Box Mathematics Award
2021 Winner – Zoos Victoria Award
2021 Winner – Arkaroola Contribution to Wildlife Conservation Award

Click here for see our Winning 2021 Alertron Project

We thank all our Senior Students for their participation in this project, in particular, our STEM Ambassadors who have consistently shown a level of commitment and passion to take our ‘Trash to Fash’ Project to another level. We are very fortunate at SPA.

Special thanks to Laura Vissaritis (Ms V), Mr Fabri and all staff involved in the project.

A wonderful achievement all round.

Introducing our new Prep Orientation Website

Please visit http://spaschooltours.weebly.com/ or click on the picture below for all the latest news and events for Orientation.

Welcome to our Virtual Tour of our Prep Learning Areas. Please feel free to move around and explore the entire learning area. You can click on any space to explore, use your touchpad, computer mouse and arrow keys to move around and zoom in and out of displays, look at resources and to get a snapshot of our Thinking Culture.

Our Principal, Mr Phil Doherty also welcomes to the school in the following video discussing the unique culture of St Paul the Paul School and the exciting learning possibilities that exist for our students.

We look forward to developing our Prep Orientation Weblink which will be available shortly. This link will provide valuable information regarding our Orientation within COVID 19 Restrictions to onsite access. In the meantime, please feel free to contact us on office@spadoreen.catholic.edu.au or call 9216 2000 (9 am – 4:30pm).

Dear Parents and Carers of 2021 First Eucharist Candidates,

Given the current ‘Covid affected’ restrictions, unfortunately we have had to cancel the upcoming Faith Formation Night for First Eucharist families which was scheduled for Wednesday 16 June.

Instead we warmly invite all of our families of 2021 First Eucharist children of Christ the Light Parish to engage with the slideshow presentation. The slideshow contains an introductory message from Fr. Martin and Fr. Jude and encourages and provides suggestions for family prayer experiences. Its purpose is to also deepen an understanding of the Eucharist and its centrality to the Catholic Faith.

Warm Regards

Jenny McCormack (Acting REligious Ed Leader) on behalf of Adriana Bownds (SPA Religious Edu Leader)

We are proud to open up our new play areas. The long wait is over and our children can now enjoy playing Basketball, Netball and Downball during lunchtime and recess. We will also explore other sports such as soccer and volleyball and allow our children to use the running track to improve their running skills. This area is also scheduled for our PE lessons and will provide our main venue for our Twilight Sport Night.

Please feel free to visit our new play areas.

Dear Parents and Carers

We hope that you have all had a relaxing, safe and healthy holiday. Welcome back to Term One 2021

Just a quick note at this stage to establish or check in on our Home / School Communications.

Late last year, we were encouraging our families to sign up to our new Home / School Communication App.

The App is called School Stream and this app will become our main means of providing you with up to date, real time news events and a means for you to contact the school, report absences and access purchasing facilities (through CDF Pay) for the Uniform Shop and Special Orders etc ( This facility is coming soon). There are links to the Parent calendar and school events. An important feature of School Stream is that it incorporates a ‘translation’ facility to convert the text to over 150 different languages.

Please note that School Stream is now our main form of communication. Our Website also provides important information and we now have a weblink for our new parents and children transitioning to our school.
In light of providing you with accurate and up to date information, please note that we do not use social media apps such as Facebook and Instagram for official school communications. We feel that School Stream provides a safe, unique multidimensional facility for our communication needs.

For those who didn’t receive an Invitational Email from School Stream please follow the link below ( You can also go directly to the App store and search for School Stream)

School Stream – our new School Communications App

https://www.schoolstream.com.au/download/?profile=St+Paul+the+Apostle+Doreen&profile-url=https%3A%2F%2Fstpaultheapostledoreen.myschoolstream.net

Please note that we will continue to use Flexi Schools and our School Website in the short term to duplicate our messages.

In the meantime we will send out more detailed information on Wednesday 27 January regarding our Health and Safety considerations (in light of COVID restrictions) and also general information regarding the first day back for all children.

Remember

– Yr One to Year Six children return Friday 29 January 2021 – 8:55am – 3:25pm

– Prep students start Monday 1st February 2021 – 8:55am – 1:25pm

Looking forward to a great year

Thank you