Newsletter No. 10 | Term 2 Week 9 | Friday 14th June 2024

Prayer

Lord, 
Your door is always open to us.
Help us to keep our doors open to all who struggle with poverty and homelessness.
Give us open hearts to recognise our sisters and brothers in need, particularly during these cold Winter months.
Fill us with the will to work in our community and country towards ending the pain that poverty and homelessness creates.
Amen.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________

For I was hungry, and you gave me something to eat;

I was thirsty, and you gave me something to drink;

I was a stranger, and you invited me in.

                                                         Matthew 25:35

Principal's Message

Dear Parents and Carers,
I hope you have all enjoyed the sunshine, rain, wind  and warmth of the fire over the last couple of weeks. We have had a bit of everything!

STAFF LEAVE
I would like to inform you all that I will be taking some Leave from school and will be away from school on the following dates:

Monday 24th June -  Tuesday 5th July

I will be embarking on a 12 day Spiritual Heritage Pilgrimage to Ireland, linking with the 150 year Anniversary of the Ballarat Diocese. I will be joined by a number of other Principals from the Ballarat Diocese. I am very much looking forward to the trip and hoping to see some historical sites relating to St. Brendan, such as the St Brendan’s the Navigator Village church in County Cork (as seen in this photo). 

Monday 15th July to Wednesday 31st July (the first 2 weeks of Term 3 + 2 days)
Long Service Leave

Monday 19th August (Week 6) - Friday 20th September (the last day of Term 3)
Long Service Leave

**During this time Mandy will be acting Principal so you will be in good hands! In order to keep things as consistent as possible for the students, Mandy will still be teaching for three out of four days a week, however provisions have been made so that she can come out of the classroom to address any needs that may arise. Allira and Tahlia will also have some time out of class to ‘man the fort’ and will call on Mandy if needed.

SCHOOL REPORTS and LEARNING CONVERSATIONS

School reports will be sent out on Monday 17th June.
Learning Conversations will be held on Wednesday 19th June. Due to me not being here for the last week of Term, this will be NEXT week, not the last week of Term as is usual practice.

Please remember to book in for your Learning Conversations via PAM. They are avaliable to book now! 
The Learning Conversations are an important part of our reporting process and are highly valued. They provide a wonderful opportunity for students, parents and teachers to come together to celebrate students’ successes and achievements and set goals moving forward. 

We look forward to you joining us for this special celebration of learning.

School Attendance and Absentee Notifications

A reminder that is a requirement that parents/carers notify the school if your child is absent. As a school, we are required to collate accurate data with respect to reasons for school absences. It also helps us to ensure that all children who have left home have arrived at school safely.
Thank you for your support with this matter.

EXCITING LANDCARE AWARD NOMINATION

We are excited to announce that Allira has been nominated for a Landcare Award. 

She has been invited by the Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action to a ceremony on Thursday 18 July at Docklands Stadium, Melbourne. 

The winners of the awards will be announced and the ceremony will showcase the remarkable contributions of individuals, schools, groups, networks and other organisations dedicated to preserving and enhancing the environment throughout Victoria. 

The event will be attended by the Minister for Environment, the Governor of Victoria, and hosted by environmental educator and TV presenter Costa Georgiadis.

We wish Allira all the best with her nomination. Whether you win an award or not, we are so proud of you Allira and grateful for all that you do to embed a deeper understanding, and sense of personal responsibility in us all, to embed sustainable practice in our school and our everyday lives. Good luck!

WORLD ENVIRONMENT DAY

World Environment Day was a great celebration at St. Brendan's. We had lots of planting to do and the beautiful sunshine added to the enjoyment.

Last year our Sustainability leader Allira, applied for, and then received, a Landcare Biodiversity Grant for our school. The project was to develop the back square area, with a meeting place being the focal point.

Allira engaged the services of Liz from Kui Nursery to help plan out the project. Thank you Liz and thank you to Brendan, Graham and Diane from the Colac Plant Society, as well as students and staff from Trinity College, who helped us today with the planting. (Thank you also to former student Abbey, who shared her extensive knowledge of silkie chooks with all classes, ensuring that our two pet silkies, Angel and Gem, will be cared for correctly.)

We now wait with anticipation for the native plants to grow. Liz has ensured there will be plenty of colour so it should look spectacular!

A big thank you goes to Allira who has worked hard to make this happen.

SUSTAINABILITY LUNCHTIME GROUP UPDATE

The children had lots of fun making reusable beeswax wraps. 
Beeswax wraps provide one way we can cut back on our use of soft plastics such as gladwrap.Check out some of the beautiful designs!

RECONCILIATION DAY

As you are aware, to commemorate 150 years of Catholic Education in the Ballarat Diocese, an Aboriginal message stick is being passed from school to school, travelling through an expansive area which spreads 'from the Murray to the Sea'. The message stick was handed to us from Mercy College Camperdown, just in time for Reconciliation Week, which made it even more special. Last Monday, we handed the message stick to Sacred Heart in Colac.
It has been a really special time for our school to reflect on the historical significance of both Catholic Education in the Ballarat Diocese and the ancient ritual of the message stick.

SCHOOL ADVISORY MEETING UPDATE

On Monday night we had our second School Advisory School meeting of the Term.   I thank our Advisory members for taking the time to come out on a cold night to represent our parent community and support our school.

Please note the following items of discussion: 
Parent Survey
We had 11 responses to our parent survey. I thank the parents who took the time to give feedback to the school on various items.

• 72 % of families either agreed or strongly agreed that their children benefited from Wizard of Oz production
• 81% of families either agreed or strongly agreed that we should do the production every 2 - 3 years
• 72% 0f families agree that it is important for students to be in full school uniform
• 36% of families believe we should phase out the woolen jumper - 54% said maybe
• 50% of families agreed that we should add a tortoise-shell jacket to the uniform list - 40% said maybe
• 36% 0f families said we should use the sports jumper as the everyday jumper  - 36% said maybe
• 36% would like there to be a P & F group - 36% said No
• 27% of families would like to participate in working bees - 45% said maybe
• 54% of families either agreed or strongly agreed that they were happy with the level of parental involvement at St. Brendan’s school. 27% were Neutral

The School Advisory engaged in discussion around these results and will give more thought towards these issues.
We will inform you of any recommendations going forward.

FUNDRAISING

The total the parent/carer group has raised so far this year is $960 from The Wizard of Oz Raffle. Our target for the year is $6000. Next Term the school is set to raise approximately $2500 from the footy gate and we also raise money at the Warion Flower Show in Term Four. Another suggestion was to raffle of the wood from the gum tree trunks on the back square that will be cut up in the next week.
If anybody else has any suggestions for fundraising ideas, please let us know.

Our Advisory Board Chair, Vanessa Tait, is working with Allira and myself on attaining accreditation for us to be a Resource Smart School.  There are quite a number of conditions to be met but we are well on the way, with solar panels installed and the monitoring of water usage systems, being two big items we already have in place. Vanessa shared a draft of a new sustainability policy with us. It is a comprehensive document which outlines the importance we place on being a sustainable school.
I thank Vanessa and Allira for all of there work in this very important area.

LAST WEEK OF TERM CELEBRATIONS
Please see Mandy’s message in the Catholic Culture section of the Newsletter, giving some details around special events in the last week of Term.  It should be lots of fun for all!

Class Awards
Congratulations to Jaxon, Luca, Zayne and Eden for receiving the class awards last week.

Holiday Homes for our School Pets

We have two guinea pigs and two silkie chickens that will need homes for the holidays. If you are able to help out please let Grace know. The children love having school pets but we can only continue to have them at school if we have support from families in the holidays. 

Thank you for your support.

Ideas for Housing our Pets

We are currently having discussions about how best to house our guinea pigs and chooks. The current enclosures have a few problems and are requiring high maintenance. If anybody is able to give us assistance with this, or if you know where we can find a mobile chook cage please let us know.  I would like to say a big thank you to Hayley Beardsley who, along with some of the children, has done an excellent job of taking care of our chooks and guinea pigs. She has been making sure they are comfortable and well fed.

Friday Fun Groups

For part of next Term, we are looking to introduce "Fun Friday" afternoon activity groups. We are unsure of the finer details until we know what activities we will be doing. We are calling out to see if any families or friends would like to join us for these groups, teaching children new skills along the way. 
Ideas include: crocheting, knitting, sewing, woodwork, water-colour painting, drawing, writing workshops, yoga, embroidery, cooking, basketball or general sport sessions.

*You may have other ideas. If so, please let us know.

Toasties on Friday
Mel is away this Friday and our LSOs will not be available.
Thank you to Janet who has volunteered to help out tomorrow.

Catholic Culture

On Monday the 24th June Andrew Chinn will be visiting our school. Andrew is a well-known Christian songwriter and performer, who has created many of the songs we sing at liturgies and masses. Andrew will be working with the children then we will have a performance of the songs they have been learning.
We warmly invite you all to come along to watch the whole school concert at 2.00pm -3.00pm.

St Brendan’s Feast Day Celebration
Our celebration of St. Brendan’s Feast Day will occur on the last day of school, Friday 28th June. On this day, we honour and remember Brendan, our patron saint, for the dedication and courage he showed spreading the Word of God around the world. The liturgy will commence at 10.00am, and then the children will move around in Pastoral Care groups to participate in set activities. The students can wear casual dress for the day and school will provide a hot dog lunch.
We would love you to come along and celebrate with us!

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

Prep/1 Classroom

Allira Kluver

akluver@sbcoragulac.catholic.edu.au

2/3/4 Classroom News

Welcome to Week 9!

We look forward to celebrating St Brendan's Feast Day on the last day of term. It is always a great day, and it's important to acknowledge the tradition and history associated with our amazing school and community.

If you cannot attend the Learning Conversations, please let me know and we can arange an alternate time to discuss your child's learning journey.

Religious Education: In R.E. we have been reviewing the qualities of Mary and discussing why she is important to the Catholic tradition. We have also listened to some of Andrew Chinn’s songs in preparation for his visit.

Literacy: Our phonics focus this week is ‘d’ for Year 2’s (band, middle, played) and the ‘t’ sound as in doubt, rotten, chocolate and triangle, for the Year 3’s and 4’s. We are building the words and identifying the sounds represented in each of the words. In writing, we have been creating short stories that include focus words. After a designated time, we edit the text and the share with the class.

Numeracy: In Maths, the Year 2’s have been investigating the two times tables, the Year 3’s have been exploring the three times tables and the Year 4’s have been learning about the six times tables.

Homework: There is no homework this week, but the Year 2’s can be practising their 2 times tables, the Year 3’s their 3 times tables, and the Year 4’s their 6 times tables, if you wish to do so. 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: This week we are concluding our research of explorers. The students will present their findings to the rest of the class.

The Star of the Week award goes to Sophie Carlon. Congratulations on your excellent effort!

Mandy Sutherland
msutherland@sbcoragulac.catholic.edu.au

4/5/6 Classroom News

Welcome to Week 9! I hope everyone enjoyed the long weekend and has been staying warm. Over the past two weeks we have had two children in our class earn their pen licenses, congratulations to Brianna and Claire!

Phonics: In Phonics we’ve been focusing on the sound /t/ and exploring the different spellings of this sound. Year 4 students have been working on words such as; chocolate, triangle and doubt and Year 5/6 students have been working on words such as; torrential, appreciate and satellite.

Writing: In Writing we have been working on expanding sentences. Students have been learning how to add detail (who, what, when, where, why, how & adjectives) to a simple sentence. We’ve been focusing on correct structure and using punctuation correctly.

Maths: In Maths we have been working on Multiplication. Year 4 students have been solving 3-digit by 2-digit problems using the distributive property method. Whereas, Year 5 students have been solving 4-digit by 2-digit problems using the lattice method, and Year 6 students have been solving 4-digit by 3-digit problems with the lattice method.

Religion: In Religion we have been learning about the seven sacraments. After studying each one, students chose one sacrament to sketch and represent as a stained glass window.

Integrated Curriculum: In Integrated Curriculum we have finished our dioramas on events that shaped Australia. Students are up to recording background conversations and noises that will enhance their displays.

Tahlia Whytcross
twhytcross@sbcoragulac.catholic.edu.au

WELLBEING AT ST BRENDAN'S

As part of our supporting and encouraging the wellbeing of our students at St Brendan’s, we are pleased to be able to offer the Peaceful Kids Program. We have begun with 3 groups and over the course of 2024 we hope to include all students in a Peaceful Kids group. All the details of the program are below and if you have any questions don’t hesitate to email myself, Liz McGuane, at ldmcg65@gmail.com or catch me at school on a Wednesday or Thursday.

Peaceful Kids Program
‘Peaceful Kids’ is a Mindfulness and Positive Psychology based program to lessen anxiety and stress and increase resilience in children. The program gives children the skills, practice and support to utilize coping strategies that lessen the symptoms of anxiety and stress and to build resilience. The program also involves parental involvement and commitment to supporting the strategies at home.

Outcomes of the Peaceful Kids program:

•   Lessen symptoms of anxiety and stress in children
•   Teaches children to self-calm
•   Empowers children to manage their own anxiety
•   Develops emotional intelligence skills
•   Teaches children life-long skills to manage stress and prevent stress build up
•   Supports children so they know that they are not alone with suffering from anxiety
  

Peaceful Kids is based on evidence-based therapies and research:

•   Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction program (MBSR)
•   Mindfulness-integrated Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (MiCBT)
•   Positive Psychology
•   Acceptance and Commitment Therapy
  Program structure:

•  Peaceful Kids is a 8 week educational program for children
•  Sessions are for approximately 1 hour each week.  (40-50 minutes for Prep and Year 1’s)
•  Sessions include learning a range of mindfulness strategies and meditations and positive psychology exercises.
•  Children are guided through meditations daily online via the Peaceful Kids website:  peacefulkids.com.au
• Peaceful Kids is not a counselling or therapeutic program, rather an educational program.

Parental involvement:

• Each week the children learn a new mindfulness meditation and positive psychology strategy that they can share with you at home.  It would be great to give your child the time to practice these strategies at home, so they learn to incorporate these into their daily lives.
• A parent session is run for interested parents to explain the program and the pivotal role of mindfulness to lessen and prevent anxiety symptoms.

Program Content
Children learn about:

• Basic theory on Mindfulness and how it affects the brain and lessens stress and anxiety
• The different ways to practice Mindfulness and integrate it into their lives
• Their feelings and how this relates to anxiety and stress levels
• Understanding stress and how it relates personally to them
• Understanding triggers for stress and how to calm down when feeling stressed
• Physical symptoms of stress and learning to identify when they need to take time out to calm themselves
• Worrying and how it affects their happiness
• Different types of thinking that increase anxiety or lessen anxiety
• Noticing their own self-talk and how this is affects worrying and stress levels
• Creating a balanced lifestyle including lots of chill out time and being in the flow
  

Children learn life skills of:

• A range of Mindfulness meditations
• Positive psychology exercises
• Techniques to lessen worrying
• A variety of coping strategies
• A variety of problem solving strategies
• Journaling and expressing their worries
• Facing challenges and fears step by step
• Preventative strategies to help prevent stress build up
• Being attuned to their own bodies and minds
• Being in the flow more regularly and enjoying more of the present moment

Research:
If you would like to learn about Mindfulness and Positive Psychology and its benefits, the following links may be useful to outline the science and evidence-based research that the program is based on. 

http://au.reachout.com/what-is-mindfulness
http://www.umassmed.edu/cfm/research/
http://www.mindfulschools.org/about-mindfulness/research
http://www.mindful.org/the-science/medicine/the-science-of-mindfulness
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/01/110121144007.htm
http://www.actionforhappiness.org
http://mindfullearning.com.au/about-mindful-learning/authors/
http://www.mindfulness.net.au/what-is-micbt.html

Birthday Corner

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

14th June   -   Lexi D'Altera (8)

16th June   -   Declan Ellen (9)

Important Dates

Local News & Events

Find Your Light Choir
When: Sunday 23rd June 2024 @ 2pm
Tickets available at the COPACC Box Office or online

Bluewater Sensory Quiet Time Pool Session
When: Every Saturday between 1-3pm
Please contact Bluewater Colac if you have any questions.