Newsletter No. 10 | Term 2 Week 11 | Friday 28th June 2024

Prayer

We thank you Lord, for this term. For our challenges, our successes, and the mistakes from which we have learnt. Be with us as we spend our time with family and friends.

Give us strength and courage to do what is right: to be witnesses of our faith. Help us to appreciate what others do for us, to give time and effort to help others. 

Keep us safe in our activities; give us good rest and good fun. Bring us back refreshed and ready for a new term. We thank you for our classmates, teachers, parents and a community that cares for us.

Amen.

Principal's Message

Dia dhuit! (Hello in Irish Gaelic, literally means 'God to you')

And just like that another Term has gone by! It has been wonderful to see the children enjoying school life and learning lots along the way. Thank you for your continued support of our school and your child’s education. 
As you read this, I will be on my travels through Ireland. I will enjoy my own special celebration of St. Brendan’s Feast Day. I may be down in Tralee by Friday, Tralee is the town where St. Brendan was born so that would be pretty special.

On Wednesday Fr. Michael invited the Colac Catholic principals for lunch to wish the three primary school principals well for the Ireland trip and to thank us for the celebrations of his 50th Anniversary. Behind us is a picture of The Last Supper. We were hoping that wasn’t an omen for our trip!

I wish Mandy all the best in her role as Acting Principal. I know that you will all support her with anything she needs. Please contact Mandy if there is anything you need while I am away.

Andre will be finishing up as our Sport teacher this week. Both students and staff have thoroughly enjoyed having Andre at school. Thank you for everything Andre! We are really pleased that Andre will be doing some CRT work with us so it will not be a final goodbye.

In Term Three, Kate Parker will resume her roles as Sport teacher and Learning Diversity Leader. We look forward to welcoming Kate back.

I just want to give a special shout out to Grace Monaco for all that she has done since joining us this Term. Grace has done an amazing job ensuring that the transition has been seamless. As of Week Two in Term Three, Grace will be working on Wednesdays. It will be great to have Grace at school five days a week. 

We have a new Year 3 student starting next Term. His name is Finlay Pigdon and he is moving from Geelong to Coragulac. We look forward to welcoming Finlay and his parents, Murray and Joanne to our school community. 

Have a fabulous holiday everyone. See you on the 31st of July!

Leanne

A message from Mandy
Hello everyone! I will try  my absolute best whilst Leanne is away to keep the school running smoothly! I hope Leanne enjoys her time away, and that you all relish time at home during the holidays staying warm and safe.

Andrew Chinn
On Monday we were blessed to have a concert with Andrew Chinn. Andrew worked as a classroom teacher for nearly 20 years before going into the music industry. He has released 12 albums, 5 DVD’s and 6 picture story books. Andrew has traveled extensively throughout Australia, New Zealand, the USA and Canada performing 5,000 concerts!

It was a delight to watch the genuine engagement, and pure joy the children radiated during the session. Andrew was incredible, and I was particularly impressed with his ability to remember the children’s names. He was so funny and shared his own experiences in the classroom.

We thoroughly enjoyed his time with us, as you could see from the photosI Thank you Kara for the stellar shots. I heard several students say, “We love Andrew!” That is a real testament to his impact.

Corangamarah Visit
On Friday 21st June, Tahlia took members of the Social Justice group: Aden, Melody, Harriet and Archie to Corangamarah to drop off cards that the 5/6 children had made for the residents. The idea was to brighten up their day with some lovely illustrations and kind words.

The staff were appreciative of the gesture and delivery sending the following response to school:
"The Lifestyle team on behalf of the Corangamarah residents would sincerely like to thank the Year 5 and 6 children who created beautiful cards for distribution to our residents. The joy it brought to each recipient was priceless and so appreciated. Your effort and thoughtfulness certainly brightened their day."

Principal of the Day
Eden Robb was the lucky winner of Principal of the Day for this term. She will be running assembly today, and presenting her own award as part of the duties. Tomorrow as we celebrate St. Brendan’s Feast Day, Eden has organised a drawing competition for everyone to participate in and is co-ordinating a whole school game to enjoy together.

St. Brendan’s Feast Day
We are looking forward to our annual St. Brendan’s Feast Day activities tomorrow. In addition to Miss Robb’s activities, we are having rotations after our 10.00am liturgy. We finish the day early at 2.15pm.

Warm wishes,
Mandy

School Reports and Learning Conversations
Thank you to the parents who were able to join us for the Learning Conversations. The children are really proud of the work they have done and enjoy sharing it with you.

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.

Class Awards
Congratulations to Archie, Ruby and Java for receiving the class awards last week.

Holiday Homes for our School Pets
Thank you to Kristy and the rest of the Robb family for offering to take the guinea pigs. Thanks also to Lynda, Jeff  and family for volunteering to care for our two silkies Angel and Gem. We really appreciate your generosity.

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 - Can you help?

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
A BIG thank you to Mel Drayton for cooking the toasties this Term, and thank you to Janet who did it last week.

The children really appreciated you doing this for them. 

Catholic Culture

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

What a fabulous couple of weeks we have had in Prep/1! The highlight was definitely having Andrew Chinn in to perform a concert with the whole school. Andrew was engaging and super fun. He managed to get all the kids up dancing and singing. They all appeared to have a wonderful time.

Word work: The preps have been working on words with 4 sounds such as: nest, pond, bump and band. The Grade 1’s are investigating the sound /igh/ like in light. There are 5 different spellings: <i> <ie> <igh> <y> and <i-e>. 

Writing: The students have been reading and writing about endangered animals this week for literacy. After investigating several animals on the ‘threatened species’ list, each student chose an animal that resonated with them. They researched where their animal lives and what it looks like. They then painted an artwork showing their chosen animal - these turned out to be exceptionally colourful and vibrant!

Maths: In Maths, we have been learning about 2D and 3D shapes, their names and their characteristic features. They can now identify how many sides, vertices, faces and curved surfaces these shapes have. They are also experts at noticing shapes in the environment around them!

RE: All families are welcome to attend St.Brendan’s Feast Day this Friday. There will be mass followed by some activities for the students to participate in.

Congratulations to all students who have been doing such a wonderful job. Only a few more days until holidays.

Allira Kluver
akluver@sbcoragulac.catholic.edu.au

2/3/4 Classroom News

Welcome to Week 11!
On Tuesday afternoon we were very lucky to have Sr. Marg Carmody visit our school to share her experiences as a student of St. Brendan’s a few years ago. The children were fascinated to hear the stories and couldn’t imagine a life without the internet and devices!
Thank you Marg, for giving up your time and being such an engaging speaker and storyteller.

We look forward to celebrating St. Brendan’s Feast Day on Friday. We are also excited to see how our Principal of the Day, Miss Eden Robb, handles the top job!

Thank you to the families that were able to attend the Learning Conversations.           

Seeing the interaction between parents and children, whilst your child presents their Portfolio, is one of my favourite things. If you couldn’t make the interviews, please let me know a time that suits you to discuss your child’s learning journey.

Religious Education: In R.E. we have been practicing Andrew Chinn songs and enjoyed a lovely concert with him on Monday. The children had a fantastic time!

Literacy: We have been learning about synonyms and antonyms and practicing our fluency with Aussie Decodable readers. In writing, we have been creating sizzling starts for our fire stories. We are trying to engage the reader and want them to be excited and curious as to what happens next in the story.

Numeracy: In Maths, we have completed our post tests for Multiplication and are finalising our learning about division.

Homework: There was no homework this week, but revision of tables and nightly reading is encouraged to be worked on regularly.
I wish everyone a relaxing and rejuvenating holiday. Keep yourselves warm and cosy!
The Star of the Week award goes to Lexi D’Altera. Congratulations on your excellent effort!

Kind regards,
Mandy

Mandy Sutherland
msutherland@sbcoragulac.catholic.edu.au

4/5/6 Classroom News

Welcome to Week 11! We made it to the final week of Term 3! I hope everyone has a relaxing and enjoyable break.

Leadership groups: Over the past two weeks the Wellbeing and Social Justice groups have been busy planning and implementing their leadership group initiatives. The Wellbeing group organised a superhero dress up and scavenger hunt at lunch time last week, which was very fun for all age groups. The Social Justice group also made cards for residents in Corangamarah Aged Care and they dropped these off last Friday. 

Writing: In Writing we have been working on narratives. The students have been writing a story about a topic of their choice and are including a sentence expansion in their writing. 

Maths: In Maths we have been finishing up our Multiplication unit. The students have been mastering how to multiply large numbers using either the distributive property method, the lattice model or the formal multiplication algorithm. 

Integrated Curriculum: In Integrated Curriculum the students presented their dioramas. Each group read their research, explained their diorama and shared their sound effects to the class. As a reflection each group gave feedback to another group; giving two stars and a wish as peer feedback. 

Tahlia

Tahlia Whytcross
twhytcross@sbcoragulac.catholic.edu.au

WELLBEING AT ST BRENDAN'S

Peaceful Kids Program
Peaceful Kids. We have had 2 groups - the Grade 6s and the Preps, complete the Peaceful Kids program. Parents/carers have been receiving emails each week with an outline of what the students have done in that week and some links to resources. If you have not been receiving these emails please contact me at - lmcguane@sbcoragulac.catholic.edu.au or check your junk mail.

Wellbeing Resources...
Some fantastic resources you may like to access over the holidays! Lael Stone is amazing to listen to, I wish I could have listened to her when my own children were younger - but knowledge like this is never too late! She has podcasts on The Imperfects or Google her.

Wellbeing Padlet: Through Peaceful Kids we are able to access a free Padlet that has fantastic resources for parents and children.
The link is:
https://padlet.com/info959/mindfulness-positive-psychology-parenting-www-peacefulkids-c-qjf0hp540ep8

Birthday Corner

Wishing a very big Happy Birthday to everyone who is celebrating their special day! Especially...

9th July   -   Brennan Robb (12)

13th July   -   Jessica Beardsley (8)

17th July   -   Zayne Ellen (11)

Important Dates

Local News & Events

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