Newsletter No. 7 | Term 2 Week 3 | Thursday 2nd May 2024

Prayer

Loving God,

Pour out your blessing upon our Mothers, and those who are like Mothers to us.

They show us a glimpse of what you are like in your unconditional, tender love for us.

As we honour them on Mother’s Day, we pray that the greatness of your love will continue to flow through faithful, loving women, from generation to generation.  

We ask this in the name of Jesus.

Amen

Principal's Message

Dear Families and Friends,

This week is Catholic Education Week, a week to celebrate all that Catholic Education offers. I feel very fortunate to have been in Catholic schools for over 30 years as a teacher, and before that, in all of my own years as a student in schools.  There is a special feel about Catholic schools, a real sense of care and authenticity, with the heart of how we go about our everyday interactions, grounded in the teachings of Jesus Christ. At St. Brendan’s our Catholic faith underpins the culture of St. Brendan’s  setting an expectation that everyone acts with respect, dignity, compassion, and kindness.

The theme of Catholic Education Week this year is "Come and See" John 1:39.  

It's a timely message as we enter our enrolment promotion period.  As a Catholic School, we are inclusive of all who wish to "Come and See" what makes our schools, and in particular St Brendan's School, such a wonderful and vibrant learning environment. If you know of anyone looking to enrol their child in 2025, please take the time to share with them the great things that our school community is well known for and encourage them to contact the school for a personal tour.

Next Wednesday we will be joining the Catholic schools in Colac for Mass, in celebration of Education Week. We have much to celebrate in our Catholic schools which provide such high quality education to the local region. 

Leanne Eastman
leastman@sbcoragulac.catholic.edu.au

FAREWELL AND THANK YOU GRACESYN

This is the last Newsletter to go out before Gracesyn leaves us next Friday 10th May. I am reaching for the tissue box as I write!

In her 5 years at St. Brendan's Gracesyn has made an incredible impact on the culture of our school. She has been the perfect “welcomer” and has always shown patience, empathy, and genuine kindness. Nothing has ever been too hard for Gracesyn and she has a way of making  everyone feel valued and appreciated. This is true for students, staff, parents and all visitors to our school. 

In my role as Principal I have been extremely fortunate to work with someone as skilled, competent and calm as Gracesyn. As I said last week, the new Admin Officer has big shoes to fill.

On behalf of all sectors of our school community, I sincerely thank Gracesyn for all that she has done to support the community of St. Brendan’s. I will miss hearing all the children saying good morning to Gracesyn as they walk through each day and I know that they will miss seeing her when they arrive and when they need a bandaid!

We hope that we will still see Gracesyn from time to time and we extend our best wishes to her as she embarks on a new job and embraces fresh challenges.

SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION POSITION

I am pleased to announce that we have appointed Grace Monaco as our new Administration Officer. It should be fairly easy for us all to remember her name! We conducted interviews on Wednesday and we were extremely fortunate to have high quality applicants to choose from. 

Grace moved out of Colac to work in Melbourne for 9 years and has now moved back to Colac. She has been working at Bulla until she found her 'dream job' which she has now found!

I know you will join me in making Grace feel welcome and support her as she settles into her new role. Grace will be in next Wednesday and Thursday to do a handover with Gracesyn.  If you are around, pop in to say hello!

LEARNING AND TEACHING

Last Term, Mandy and Tahlia undertook 40 hours of Sounds Write training, largely in their own time. Congratulations to them both. They have begun implementing what they have learned about the teaching of reading and writing lessons. All of this is grounded in the evidence-based Science of Reading approach to teaching reading which is sweeping the world.

SRC STUDENTS

Congratulations to the following students who have been elected as our SRC reps for this Term. 

• Lewie Panther  
• Esther Lethbridge  
• Issy Coates  
• Sophie Carlon   
• Grace Bayne &
• Aden Coates

I look forward to joining you for our first meeting over a party pie lunch (date to be confirmed). 

THE WIZARD OF OZ

Good news! We have received the video of the Wizard of Oz! We will be watching it with the children today and will be saving the video to usbs over the next week. 

The usbs will sell for $10 with any profits going towards our fundraising total for the year. We will create a form on PAM. If you would like to order a a USB please let us know via the form on PAM.

I would like to extend a big thank you to Tom Billings. Media Trainee at Trinity College for taking the video and photos from the night. It is  great to have quality momentos from such a wonderful event.

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ANZAC DAY

Last week our school leaders represented our school at the Colac ANZAC Day memorial service in order to honour those who have served and died in War.  We were very proud of Ava, Brennan, Caleb, Mel and Samiyah for the way they presented themselves at the service.

3/4 FOOTBALL GALA DAY

On Thursday some of our Year 3/4 students participated in the Colac Schools Year 3/4 Football Gala at Central Reserve. Our students joined forces with 8 students from Sacred Heart. It was such a great day!

The main purpose of the day is for children to have fun and have the opportunity to mix with students from other schools. Our students thoroughly enjoyed the day.  I was so proud of how they all had a go with the footy and how easily they made friends with their new teammates. 

Thanks to Kynan for managing the team. As you can see from the photo below he had his work cut out for him with so many eager players!

SCHOOL ADVISORY MEETING UPDATE 

Last week the School Advisory met for their first meeting this Term. There was a lot to discuss and as always it was a positive experience to review all that has been going on at St. Brendan’s. Please note the following key points discussed:

• The Wizard of Oz was very well received and members of the advisory agreed that it would be wonderful to be able to do a school production every 2 - 3 years.
• Parent Survey: There will be a Parent Survey coming out shortly. We will be seeking your feedback on the school productions, school uniform and school communication. Please take the time to complete the survey when you receive it.

SCHOOL FUNDRAISERS

Each year our school receives approximately 85% of funding toward the overall cost of running our school for the year from the Federal and State Governments. Consequently, our school community is required to raise the remaining 15% each year to provide the tuition, programs and resources our children need to ensure the best education. This 15% is raised through School Fees, Student Levies, donations and fundraising.

Some schools choose to raise the fees, rather than fundraising.  At St. Brendan’s we choose to include fundraising to keep fees down, and to also provide opportunities to build community. When school communities work together towards a common goal, they build relationships and develop connection and pride in their child’s school. There is always a buzz around the school when we are all working together to organise a special event. This good feeling trickles down to the children, they love to see their parents involved and it really enhances their sense of belonging to the school community.

We have already made a good start to our Fundraising with the Easter raffle. Throughout the year there will be other fundraising events such as Fundraising events such as the Footy Gate and the Warrion Flower Show. Stay tuned!

Catholic Culture

Stations of the Cross

I would like to thank Eden Robb for her willingness to represent our school at The Stations of the Cross on Good Friday. Eden was extremely respectful throughout the service and read beautifully. You were fantastic Eden, and I was so proud of your attitude and participation.

Mandy Sutherland

St Brendan's Coragulac & St Joseph's Pirron Yallock Mass Times

St Brendan’s Coragulac: 9.30am Sunday Lay-led  /   Mass 5pm 4th Sunday of each month
St Joseph’s Pirron Yallock: 10:30am Mass 1st Sunday of each month

Our Diocesan Community Magazine

Please find below the link for the March 2024 edition of “Our Diocesan Community”. The aim of the magazine is to share the good news stories of our schools, parishes and agencies across the diocese.

If you have a good news story to share with others in the diocese, ODC welcome articles and photos for publication in the magazine and the diocesan e-News.  Please forward to odc@ballarat.catholic.org.au

Prep/1 Classroom News

Week 3 is here already! It's been a couple of busy weeks in Prep/1. I’ve been so impressed with the way all students have been trying their best and showing perseverance. 

I have sent home a couple of sheets which describe how to sign up to Seesaw and the Home Readers site. If anyone needs help accessing these, please let me know. More than happy to help you.

Literacy: Preps are working on the letters d, e, v and f before moving onto the letters k, l, r and u. They have been reading and writing lots of small words containing these letters eg. vet, dog, dig, pet. The Grade 1’s are working on the sound /ir/ and the 4 different spellings of this sound - <er> like in fern, <ir> like in girl, <or> like in word and <ur> like in turn.

In writing, students have loved learning about some enormous beasts that once roamed the land. 

Using this knowledge of ‘Australian megafauna,’ we have been learning how to make our sentences more interesting. The students have consolidated their understanding of what constitutes a sentence (i.e. capital letter, full stop, subject and verb) and then learnt to expand them by answering when? Why? And Where?

Eg. “In the ice age, megafauna roamed the land.”

Maths: To continue our addition unit, students have been learning their doubles facts and friends of 10 (i.e the number combinations that add to 10, such as 1+9, 2+8, 3+7 etc). They have been playing lots of card and dice games to help learn these important number facts. 

On top of this, we have been practising our number formation and making sure we start and finish our numbers in the correct place.

Religion: For RE, students have been considering how we might experience God in ordinary/everyday life. We have identified different places, things and events that can remind us of God.

Well done to all students for an excellent couple of weeks!

Allira Kluver
akluver@sbcoragulac.catholic.edu.au

2/3/4 Classroom News

Welcome to Week 3!

As the weather declines, I offer the suggestion that your child brings a spare pair of socks in their backpack in case their feet get wet. If they wish, they can also bring slippers to wear in the classroom.

Religious Education: This week we have been brainstorming personal traits that make up part of our individual identities. We also looked at ‘I am Moana(Song of the Ancestors)’ that highlights the personal qualities of Moana as she travelled on her adventure.

Literacy: Our phonics focus this week is ‘ar’ for Year 2’s (car, path, calm, draught) and the ‘h’ sound as in happy and whole, for the Year 3 and 4’s. We are building the words and identifying the sounds represented in each of the words.

In writing, we are focusing on sentence expansion. The children take a simple sentence such as ‘The bird swooped’ and add the components of where, when and why to create more complex sentences. For example, ‘The angry, squawking bird swooped down to the ground yesterday when it saw the people getting closer to its nest’.

Numeracy:  We have been investigating subtraction this week. We have discussed other terms for the concept and are revising simple subtraction facts with the Year 2’s. The Year 3’s and 4’s are revisiting vertical subtraction with 2 digit numbers.

Homework: This week for homework, an activity related to our current concept subtraction has been sent home to complete. Nightly reading is part of the homework expectation for each year level. Just a page or two is sufficient but any extra is a bonus.

Integrated Curriculum: Our students will learn about changes over time and how those changes affect our lives. They will consider changes in their community and learn about people who shaped our interconnected world as they research the life and legacy of an explorer from the ‘Age of Exploration’. They will also learn about the significance of celebrations and symbols in Australia and around the world.

The Star of the Week award goes to Pearl Armistead. Congratulations on your excellent effort!

Kind Regards,

Mandy Sutherland
msutherland@sbcoragulac.catholic.edu.au

4/5/6 Classroom News

Welcome to Week 3 of Term 2!

Year 6 Leadership Conference: On Monday Hayley and myself took the Year 6 students to Geelong for the GRIP Leadership Conference. It was a fantastic day where students learnt tips and tricks about being good leaders. Here are some reflections from the day:

Melody: I enjoyed the ‘Loud Noises’ section because the presenters were very funny.

Brennan: I learnt that sometimes you have to sacrifice things to make the right choice.

Samiyah: I would like to work on trying new things.

Caleb: My favourite part was playing UNO because I got to meet new people.
Ava: I learnt some tips on how to be a better leader; like to befriend new or lonely people.

Homework: Spelling and maths homework was sent home at the start of this week. This is due back to school on Friday 10th May. A reminder that students are expected to be reading for 20 minutes each night and filling this in their dairy.

Phonics: In Phonics we’ve been focusing on the sound /h/ and exploring the different spellings of this sound. Year 4 students have been working on words such as; whole and behave, and Year 5/6 students have been working on words such as; behaviour and wholehearted.

Text Study: This week we have started reading a novel; Black Cockatoo by Carl Merrison and Hakea Hustler. This novel follows a young Aboriginal girl exploring her connection with her family and her culture. Over the coming weeks we are going to be completing a text study on this novel that will involve analysing words and working on sentence and paragraph structure.

Maths: In Maths we have been working on Subtraction. Students have been practising subtracting two numbers with borrowing. Year 4 students have been working on 3-digit numbers, Year 5 students have been working on 4-digit numbers and Year 6 students have been working on 5-digit numbers and beyond.

Integrated Curriculum: This term in Integrated Curriculum we will be exploring events that shaped and changed Australia. Before we start exploring specific events, we have explored what Australia looked like before colonisation. This has included learning about Indigenous Australians and their culture, customs and ways of life and we have represented this learning on our storyboard.

Tahlia Whytcross
twhytcross@sbcoragulac.catholic.edu.au

School Photo Day

School Photos 2024 – St Brendan's Catholic Primary School

Annual school photos have been taken by Arthur Reed Photos.

To view the images of your child and order photos, you will need to first register online.

1. Go to https://order.arphotos.com.au and enter the 2024 image code for your child (from their personalized flyer)
2. Tap on ‘Add another child’ to enter the image codes of any siblings
3. Fill in your email and mobile details and then review all details before confirming your registration

That’s it! When 2024 photos are ready, you will be notified by email and SMS.

Even if you registered last year, it’s important that you do it again each year using your child’s new image code to link their photos for the current year with your contact details.

To ensure you are ordering school photos for the current year, please wait for notifications that 2024 images are online before placing orders.

In the webshop you can view photos and customize your photo package; Choose ANY layout, ANY image and purchase multiple digital image downloads.

All photo orders will be sent directly to the address you provide when ordering.

REGISTER ONLINE NOW to be notified when 2024 school photos can be viewed and ordered.

Birthday Corner

Wishing a very big Happy Birthday to everyone who has celebrated their special day recently! Especially...

7th May   -   Esther Lethbridge (7)

7th May   -   Java Quinane (6)

11th May  -   Jaxon Ellen (7)

11th May  -   Ruby Wilson (8)

Important Dates

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