Newsletter No. 8 | Term 2 Week 3 | Friday 9th May 2025

Prayer

Principal's Message

Dear Families and Friends

It was a joy to celebrate all the amazing mothers, grandmothers, and special women in our lives. The children especially loved sharing why they love their mums — it's clear you are truly the best! A big thank you to everyone who was able to join us for this special occasion.

On Mother’s Day, we also take time to remember the mothers who are no longer with us, while cherishing and celebrating those who are. Wishing you all a wonderful and love-filled Mother’s Day.

Leanne

Division Cross Country

Congratulations to Kaitlyn, Claire, Eden and Jackson who represented St. Brendan’s in the Colac Division Cross Country event. The event was held at the Colac Golf Course with the children running 3 km - a great effort by all!

A special mention to Kaitlyn who won the 12/13 year old 3km event. Kaitlyn will now move onto the next stage in Warrnambool. Amazing effort Kaitlyn - you showed us all that training and hard work pays off!

Little Learners

A reminder that our next Little Learners session will be held THIS upcoming Monday, 24th March. It is always a lot of fun.

The whole school loves welcoming our Little Learners into our school. Spread the word. ALL WELCOME.

Advisory Meeting

Our next Advisory meeting will be held on Wednesday 14th May at 7pm. We will be joined by Lee Schlooz (Education Consultant, Ballarat) who will talk us through the new principal application process.

I look forward to seeing you all there.

Goat Farm Excursion

On Friday, the students visited “Pygmy Park Goats” at Barwon Downs, entirely funded by RACE. It aligned perfectly with our studies about “Farming and drought conditions” in outdoor learning. 

The Farmer, Renee, allowed us to pat her milking goats and the young goats. They were very friendly and their fur was surprisingly coarse.

We saw the goat dairy and the cups that suck the milk out of the goats. The milk was collected into a sealed bucket. 

At the moment, Renee makes soap out of the milk and cheese for her family but has a plan to make goat cheese to sell to the public once the plant is built. 

The male goats were entertaining with their funny singing and dancing showing off in front of the females. They were also very smelly! We did not pat these guys. 

We had a lovely morning tea in the valley surround by bush and the creek. 

Renee was extremely generous and gave everyone a cake of goat soap to take home and use. Lots of fun on the great outdoors. 

-Alice Armistead

5/6 School Camp

The Year 5/6s will be heading off to school camp at Warra Gnan Coastal Camp in Warrnambool from Monday 19th May to Wednesday 21st May. 

School camps are a great way for students to grow, build relationships, and discover new interests. Stepping outside the classroom gives children a chance to build confidence, learn to work with others, and become more independent—all while having a lot of fun with hands-on activities and adventures.

Gerard, Mel and I are looking forward to sharing this time with the 5/6s. The excitement is building!

School Maintenance

Last week we added new sand to the gaga pit. It was amazing to see the children immediately grab spades and set to work to distribute the sand and level it out. They are the best helpers! I wonder if they help a lot at home?

Wellbeing with Liz McGuane...

Calling all Parents... we need you!

School-wide Positive Behaviour Support (SWPBS)... is an evidence-based framework designed to help schools create positive, safe, and fair settings where students and teachers can thrive. It focuses on teaching and encouraging positive behaviour, supporting all students, and providing extra help to those who need it. By doing this, SWPBS helps improve behaviour, wellbeing, and academic success.

It also supports teachers by giving them strategies to manage classrooms effectively, reduce disruptions, and spend more time on teaching and learning.

Schools implementing SWPBS:

• Use proven strategies to meet the needs of all students
  
• Work with students, families, and communities to ensure rules and practices are fair and inclusive
• Regularly review and improve their practice
• Build expertise in behaviour support among staff
• Form teams to guide and maintain the framework
• Use data to identify issues and solve problems
• Provide training and coaching to help teachers improve.

                                                                     St Brendan’s Behaviour Matrix

It has been 7 years since we collaborated with students, parents and staff to create a Behaviour Matrix for St Brendan’s. As you can see from the underlined points above, we are due to review our Matrix.  We have asked students from Grades 2 -6, all members of staff and now we would like you to contribute to this process.

Thinking of St Brendan’s and what you think is important for our school, if you could please read through the list of expectations below and highlight 10 words. If you could then rate those 10 words from 1- most important - 10

Please click on the link below and fill in your top 10 expectations and email to lmcguane@sbcoragulac.catholic.edu.au

Bike Wheels Wanted

In our ‘Bike Wheel Drive’ we have currently collected one bike wheel - thanks to Pat O’Shea! We need at least 20, so if you have any spare bike wheels it would be appreciated. A variety of sizes would be great!

As mentioned in the previous Newsletter we will be using them for an Art project. The painted bike wheels will be used to decorate the front of the sports shed. 

Please note: We do not need the whole bike, just the wheels.

However, if you happen to have any bikes in good working order, we are always looking for bikes for the children to ride.

School Uniforms

School uniforms are now available for purchase. The online platform is up and running so if you wish to place an order scan the QR code below or get onto the Borne Apparel website and search for ur school.

Please Note: The last order preview did not have the school beanie on it. They are adding it to the online platform. It may take four weeks to come in so if you would like to order one for Winter it might be a good idea to do it soon.

There will also be the option of a school dress (the same as what we have) and optional navy pants (dressier than a tracksuit).

A reminder that you are under no obligation to buy anything at this stage. The transition period is two years.

School Photos 4th June 2025

There is no need to return any forms or money to school. Unique image codes will be issued to all students on/after photo day so families can register online to view images when they become available in the webshop.

Social Media

A reminder that you can follow us on the following social media platforms to stay up to date with all of the happenings in our vibrant school community.

School Attendance and Absentee Notification

Please ensure you are logging onto PAM, calling or emailing the school to advise if your child will be away or late to school prior to 9:30am each morning. This is a very important matter and we wish to ensure each child arrives to school safe.
Please remember students are not permitted to leave school unless permission has been granted. In these circumstances, the student needs to be signed out in the register at the Office. Thank you for your support in all these school matters.

Prep/1 Classroom

Welcome to Term 2! I hope everyone had a lovely Easter break. We’re now back in full swing at school, and it’s been wonderful to have everyone back.

To begin the Term, we have been focusing on the features of plants. We planted White Mustard Seeds and Cherry Tomatoes and will (hopefully) watch them grow. This experiment links in with our Literacy, Maths, Religion and Integrated Curriculum topics for the term. Stay tuned for the results!

Readers: Students have been given readers that reflect the units they are working on at school. I encourage you to read with your child at home each day and write it in their diary. Please ensure the reader folder is in your child’s bag every day so we can check and change it once a week - this is usually on Friday’s.

Literacy: This week in Sounds-Write, Preps students have been learning the sounds b, c, g and h, with words such as; bag, bin, got, cat and hit. Year 1 students have been learning all of the spellings for the sound /oe/, with words such as; stone, toe, croak and know. In Writing, we have introduced the book Giraffes Can’t Dance by Giles Andreae and we will be working on this in the coming weeks.

Numeracy: In Maths this week, Prep students have been practising counting to 20 and reading, writing and making numbers up to 10. Year 1 students have been practising counting by 10’s into the hundreds, making numbers using groups of ten and breaking numbers into tens and ones. All students have also been working on ordering the days of the week and months of the year.

I hope you have a lovely week,

Tahlia

Tahlia O'Keeffe
tokeeffe@sbcoragulac.catholic.edu.au

2/3/4 Classroom News

Welcome to Term 3!

I hope everyone enjoyed their holiday, had a beautiful Easter, and made the most of the extra week off!
This week we look forward to our Mother's Day celebration. The children take great pride and joy in the words they prepare, and the gifts they create for their mums. You are so precious to them and they adore you! I hope all of our mums immerse themselves in their special day, and feel the love and appreciation that they deserve.

Literacy: Our phonics focus is the 'ar' sound for the Year 2's (ask, laugh, calm, card, path, draught, half, star, palm, car, scarf) and the 's' sound as in dresses, spelling, listen, century, instance, nonsense, scent, address, Christmas and cent for the Year 3's and 4's.
We have been investigating a variety of homophones (words that sound the same but have a different spelling and meaning) in class. We are currently revising and identifying different sentence types: exclamations, commands, questions and statements, and creating our own. We are also investigating idioms and this week's idiom in "His bark is worse than his bite'.

Numeracy: In Maths, the Year 2's and 3's have been revising 10 more/ 10 less and 100 more/ 100 less of numbers. The Year 4's have been learning about rounding numbers to the nearest 10 and 100. The Year 2's are focusing on the 2 times tables, the Year 3's the 3 times tables and the Year 4's the 6 times tables.
Next week, the Year 4's will be comparing 2 and 3D shapes and identifying prisms and pyramids and their features.
The Year 3's will be comparing and classifying geometric shapes, and identifying the features of 3D objects and the Year 2's are naming 2D shapes and their features.

The Star of the Week award goes to Kyle Wright. Congratulations on your excellent effort!

Mandy Sutherland
msutherland@sbcoragulac.catholic.edu.au

5/6 Classroom News

Welcome to Week 3 of Term 2 or Week 1 for Gerard who has just returned from Long Service 

This Sunday is Mother's Day! We want to take this opportunity to express our deepest gratitude and love for all the mothers, grandmothers, stepmothers, and mother figures who enrich our lives in countless ways. Your unwavering support, endless love, and tireless dedication make a world of difference.

Year 5/6 Camp is coming up on Monday the 19th of May through to Wednesday the 21st of May. More explicit details and information will be sent home in the next couple of days but if you have any questions please contact Leanne or Gerard. 

Congratulations to our Year 5-6 students who represented the school at Cross Country on Thursday. We are all very proud of your efforts and your conduct.

Gerard Douglas
gdouglas@sbcoragulac.catholic.edu.au

Birthday Corner

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

11th May - Ruby Wilson (9)

11th May - Jaxon Ellen (8)

Important Dates

Catholic Culture

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

Mass & Lay-Led Times.

1^st SUNDAY of Month             9.00am   Mass - St. Joseph’s, Pirron Yallock

                                                10.30am  Lay-Led - St. Brendan’s, Coragulac

2^nd & 3^rd SUNDAY of Month    9.30am    Lay-Led - St. Brendan’s, Coragulac

4^th & 5^th SUNDAY of Month     9.00am    Mass - St. Brendan’s, Coragulac

Stations of the Cross

During Holy Week, the Colac community celebrates the Stations of the Cross on Good Friday with an ecumenical service at the Botanical Gardens. St. Brendan’s presented a station and this year, Ivy Robb very kindly agreed to help me. Ivy read her part beautifully and represented her family and our school with pride and excellence. Several people approached her and congratulated her on her lovely reading.

 Thank you Ivy, you were amazing! 

-Mandy Sutherland

Alleluia Afternoon

On Thursday afternoon we celebrated Alleluia Afternoon. The children participated in a liturgy to celebrate Catholic Christians belief in the resurrection of Jesus. The children were excellent, reading and singing beautifully to acknowledge this important tradition of the Catholic faith. The children also participated in a mindful colouring activity focused on Easter Sunday.

Community News & Events

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