School Profile

St Patrick’s Catholic School in Katanning caters for students from Kindergarten to Year 6 and is an integral part of the St Patrick’s Parish.

Katanning is situated within the Great Southern region of Western Australia, and the town is a regional hub, boasting excellent leisure, and sporting, medical and shopping facilities. The town also has two State Government Primary Schools, a Senior High School and a TAFE facility. The community has a wide diversity of cultural backgrounds.

St Patrick’s School is highly regarded by school and parish families and a significant number of the school’s students are second, and in some cases, third-generation. St Patrick’s School was established in 1926 with the arrival in January of that year, of three Our Lady of the Missions sisters. The school opened on 3rd February at 9.00am with 47 pupils, and the first classes were originally located in the Church. The school finished that year with 108 pupils.

The sisters continued to teach in the Church until 1927. By then, three rooms and a verandah were built in the Church grounds, and these were opened and blessed by Archbishop Clune on 5th December 1927. These classrooms faced Annie St and were the School Library and Canteen. In 1958, two additional rooms were added, facing Amherst St.  1966 saw the building of the Parish Hall.

St Patrick’s School continued to grow rapidly, and the building of additional classrooms was completed and opened in 1975. A new classroom, a dedicated Multi-Purpose Room for the Arts, and a large Covered Area was completed in 2004. More recently, a new Library was built in 2011 as part of the Primary Schools for the 21st Century government funded project.  St Patrick’s School is currently a composite school catering for children from Kindergarten through to Year 6. In 2021, there are currently 84 children (Kindergarten to Year Six) attending the school with a staff of 13 comprised of 7 teachers (full- time and part-time) and 6 non-teaching staff. The staff is hard working and committed to providing a high level of pastoral care and quality education to their students. St. Patrick’s has an experienced staff, with many staff members taking on leadership roles within the school.

There are specialist programmes in the areas of The Arts, Physical Education, Technologies, Geography, History and Enrichment The school is very well resourced and boasts iPads, Apple TV’s and large screens in all classes.

2018 saw a renewed focus on teaching and learning with the introduction of an explicit teaching agenda and improved literacy support, including MiniLit and MacqLit.  In 2019 we introduced InitialLit Foundation in Pre-Primary and have employed the services of DSF as we embark on the Talk4Writing initiative.  In 2021, we have established the Making Jesus Real program to help is further develop a positive school culture. Building community has been a major focus too with many new initiatives started, including the building of a nature playground, redesigning of the early years centre and the introduction of a parent involved three-year-old play group.

The school also has a Positive Behaviour Reward System in place reflective of our school vision, student Code of Conduct and our core value of ‘Concern’.

School Values – Concern

CONCERN for God, Self and Others 

At St Patrick’s, students will show concern for God by: 

• Treating others the way that they would like to be treated. 
• Owning their own actions and admitting when they make a poor choice. 
• Forgiving others and seeking forgiveness when they make poor choices.  
• Trying to speak, act and think as a child of God. 

At St Patrick’s, students will show concern for self by: 

• Being optimistic and having a positive outlook. 
• Learning from their mistakes.  
• Taking pride in their school and work at all times. 
• Trying their best in all that they do. 

 At St Patrick’s, students will show concern for others by: 

• Respecting their peers, teachers and the school community. 
• Treating property belonging to the school or others with care. 
• Helping others when they are in need.  
• Finding ways to make others smile. 

Pastoral Care

At St Patrick’s Primary School Pastoral Care is central to the ethos and identity of our school.

There are many faces of Pastoral Care. it is best defined in the expressions of care that bring to wholeness the physical, social, intellectual, emotional and spiritual development of all within the school community.

Above all, St Patrick’s Primary School is a community that creates a cooperative, enthusiastic and supportive environment where each person feels safe, accepted, valued and able to learn in order to reach their potential.