Newsletter No. 19 | Term 4 Week 3 | Friday 24th October 2025

Prayer

Dear Lord,

As we move forward through this busy term, we pause to thank you for the gifts of our community and the energy of our students.

Grant us the patience to teach with kindness, the wisdom to guide with fairness, and the commitment to work together as a unified team.

Bless our families, keep them safe, and help us all to be a source of encouragement and support to one another this week.

Amen

Principal's Message

What a dynamic start we've had to Term 4!

It certainly feels like the weather is reminding us that it's spring, with plenty of wind this week. Thank you to our students for their wonderful flexibility and understanding as we've had to make some quick decisions about indoor play and lunchtime activities - they have handled the changes brilliantly.

We had a fantastic time celebrating Grandparents Day on Thursday afternoon. It was truly special to see so many grandparents and special friends sharing a learning experience with our students, and we appreciate everyone who came along.

We also want to congratulate our Year 5/6 students who did a brilliant job representing St Brendan's at the Basketball Tournament on Monday. They showed great sportsmanship and teamwork!

Our Term 4 Swimming Program begins tomorrow, Friday, October 24th. Please ensure your child is prepared. We ask that you remind them to pack:

• Bathers (wear them under their uniform)
• Towel
• Goggles
• A bag for their wet clothes
• Underwear if they have worn their bathers under their uniform

We also extend a sincere thank you to all the teachers and support staff in year 2/3/4 who have stepped in to "hold the fort" and ensure the smooth running of our school while Mandy has been away. Your dedication is highly valued.

I wish you all a safe and restful weekend!

Warm regards,
Gerard Douglas
Principal

principal@sbcoragulac.catholic.edu.au

Weekly Chats with our Principal

-Please scan the QR code below to see our new segment "Weekly chats with our Prinicpal" Featuring Aden C for this week.

Building Project

While we don't have any major new developments to share on our new building project at this time, please be assured that progress is continuing behind the scenes.

Hats - Term 4

Just a reminder that Term 1 and Term 4 of each year are our sun safe Terms and all students are required to wear hats. Please note this year we will not be keeping any spare hats at school as the sharing of hats is discouraged.

We ask all parents to ensure that each student has a hat and it is clearly labelled.

If you require a new hat or any new uniform please pop into Borne Apparel Colac and they will be able to help you.

School Closure Days

Just a reminder that we have two more School closure days later in the Term, Monday the 3rd and Tuesday the 4th November.

Wellbeing 

In this edition of SchoolTV - MINDFULNESS

Over the last decade, mindfulness has been slowly rising in popularity with many individuals practicing it on a regular basis. Evidence based research has found that there are many benefits to mindfulness which has prompted schools across the nation to implement this practice into their daily routines.

Mindfulness can be described as attention training for your brain, enabling you to focus on something without judgement and to stimulate curiosity. Mindfulness can be practiced in a number of ways and is something that can be done by everyone - no matter what your age! It has been practised by many cultures around the world, but is not exclusively affiliated to any particular philosophy or religion.

Mindfulness helps improve memory, engagement and performance. Its positive effect on the brain can improve immunity, mental wellbeing, learning ability, emotional health and even, time management. It is especially important in this era of information overload as our attention is constantly being pulled in many directions making us more distracted.

In this edition of SchoolTV, parents can learn the best way to introduce this mindfulness to their children, implementing into their daily lives to have an overall positive impact on family relationships.

We hope you take time to reflect on the information offered in this edition of SchoolTV and we always welcome your feedback. If you have any concerns about your child, please contact the school counsellor for further information or seek medical or professional help.

CHILD SAFETY STATEMENT

Enrolments

2026 Foundation enrolments are now open. We have upscaled our Social Media output to spread the word about our wonderful school. It has been really positive to see people responding positively to the advertisements. 

A reminder that one of the best ways to advertise a school is by word of mouth.  Spread the word!

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.

Prep/1 Classroom

Welcome to Term 4!

We've had a flying start in Prep/1. It's been wonderful seeing all the students back at school and keen to learn.

Today was Grandparent's Day so we were very excited to welcome our Grandmas and Grandpas into our classroom to show them a little bit of our learning. A huge thanks to all who came along. We hope to see you all again for Mission Day on 20th November.

In literacy, we have been reading the story, "The Gruffalo." Students have been learning about the different parts of a narative story and identifying the characters, setting, problem and resolution. We have also been learning about different sentence types (statement, question, exclamation and command) and the punctuation that is used for each.

In maths, we are learning about measurement. We have been exploring length, weight and capacity. We've been doing lots of hands-on activities and learning how to compare two objects to find which is longer, heavier or holds more.

Allira Kluver -
akluver@sbcoragulac.catholic.edu.au

2/3/4 Classroom News

In Literacy, we have been exploring the wonderful world of poetry, focusing specifically on shape poems. The students have enthusiastically blended writing and visual arts to create fantastic pieces where the words mirror the subject of the poem.

Our current Integrated Studies unit is taking us on a fascinating journey through local history as we research the story and foundations of St Brendan's Primary School. The students are enjoying looking at old photographs and learning about the people and events that have shaped our school community over the years. 

We are excited to be preparing for Grandparents Day this Thursday afternoon! The students are looking forward to sharing their learning with their Grandparents and special friends.

-From all the staff that have helped out in the Year 2/3/4 room

Mandy Sutherland -
msutherland@sbcoragulac.catholic.edu.au

5/6 Classroom News

Term 4, Week 3:

It's been an amazing few weeks of Term 4 so far for the seniors, it has been so enjoyable for us all to get to know one another. The students in this class have shown great leadership and have taught me some things about the school.

In maths we have been delving into division and fact families which the students seem to be enjoying. Learning about factors and what the inverse operations are of our division equations to better help us understand them. We have been working on our times tables in order to boost our divisional thinking, which we have done through some fun engaging games in class.

In soundswrite we have been looking at the sound 'a' in words like dominated, weighted and complained, and we have been working on putting these focus words into full sentences. The students have worked well throughout this sound and have come up with words they use everyday that have this sound in them.

In our integrated topic we have begun to look at Democracy, looking at exactly what it means to live in a democratic society and what that gives us. In this topic we have started to do some debating to engage them in parliamentary tasks. We have debated some interesting topics like should students be allowed to learn what they want at school, the students have been very interested in this and we will continue to deepen our understanding across this domain in the coming weeks.

Our year 5 students have been lucky enough to go on the worm farm excursion which they came back with lots of interesting facts to tell us about all things worm farms. The year 5/6's also went to Colac basketball on Monday which was well enjoyed by everyone who went, they all tried their best and had fun with each other. 

We have a very busy term ahead of us, which we are all very excited for and we can't wait to tell you more about the things going on in the year 5/6 room.

Mia Blackburn -
mblackburn@sbcoragulac.catholic.edu.au

Birthday Corner

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

November 6th - Kyle W (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

Community News & Events

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