Newsletter No. 3 | Term 1 Week 3 | Thursday 17th February 2022
Prayer
Principal's Message
Dear Families and Friends,
I hope your children all enjoyed the long weekend. This week has looked a little bit different to the usual routine but it has still provided many valuable learning experiences for us all.
Writing Professional Development Day
The Writing PD attended by Mandy, Tahlia, Allira and myself was extremely worthwhile. Ideally, we would not book a PD Day this early in the Term but due to all of the interruptions with Covid restrictions last year, that was the change of date that we were given. The day was focused on teaching Writing and was presented by the highly knowledgeable, engaging and respected, Misty Adoniou. The teachers are excited to put their learnings on how to enhance student’s writing skills into practice.
Police Visit
This Term, our curriculum focus is Civics and Citizenship. To tune children into the unit, Mandy organised policeman and ex St. Brendan's student Josh Goonan, to speak to the whole school. The session was extremely informative and we were all very impressed with the questions that the students asked and the knowledge that they had around road rules, bike safety and personal safety. The main message conveyed to the students was that the role of policemen is to help keep us all safe. We would like to say a BIG thank you to Josh and his co-worker Kate for giving up their valuable time to speak to our students.
Surf’s Up!
It was great to see so many families join us for our surfing day on Wednesday. Once again the children had a ball. In last year’s Newsletter, I outlined the many factors that make this such a valuable experience for our students. Rather than reinvent the wheel, here it is again!
- Challenge: Learning to surf is challenging and takes perseverance and grit. When we place ourselves in positions where we are challenged, we grow and develop confidence in ourselves. It encourages us to step out of our comfort zone and realise that with persistence we can achieve success. What a valuable learning experience this is for our children, a lesson they can take with them when faced with further challenges.
- Fun: The children clearly enjoyed the experience immensely and the smiles on everyone’s faces indicated that parents and staff felt the same. Having fun increases wellbeing and positive wellbeing was at an optimum yesterday!
- Water Safety: Australia is renowned for its beautiful beaches and places great importance on safety in the sea. Giving our students the experience of being in the sea, with experts guiding them on how to be safe in the water, was another valuable learning experience. It also enhances our indoor swimming program which begins next week.
- Parent/School Partnerships/Community: Yesterday was a perfect example of the benefits that come from parents and staff working together to enhance learning. Many parents were in the water helping the students, others were taking photos, students were continually encouraged and cheered on by staff and parents. The tremendous support that all students received from everyone clearly made them feel good and would contribute to their sense of belonging to our school community.
PAM (Parent Access Module)
It was great to see so many of you accessing PAM to book in for the Meet and Greets. It can sometimes be a bit hard to get used to new ways of doing things so we totally understand if it has not been easy for you. Please come up to school if you are having trouble setting it up and Gracesyn will walk you through it. Once you get going you will find it a lot more efficient. Just log into PAM and any information you need regarding excursions, interviews etc. will be right there.No more looking for lost notes!
Sustainability
This Term we are going to increase our recycling practice by recycling soft plastics. Soft plastics include: Plastic bags, cling wrap, bread bags, pasta packaging, frozen food bags, cereal box liners, biscuit packs (not including trays), lolly packets and more.
WANTED: Bread bags. We will use these to store all the soft plastics and take them into Coles or Woolworths each week.
Multi-age Activity
Whilst Meet and Greets were happening on Tuesday, the whole school participated in an outdoor learning activity. Students learnt about weather vanes and many of us discovered that we have our very own weather vane on the outdoor shelter. Apparently it has been there for a few years!
Students then worked in multi-age groups to create their own weather vanes. They used a straw, stick, pin and leaves. Students mostly followed a plan but they had to problem-solve how they would attach the leaves. Well done to Caleb who decided to slit a hole in the straw (rather than use sticky tape) as he felt that this would allow it to move more freely. Caleb’s weather vane mirrored the movement of the weather vane on the shelter shed. Great job on leading your group through this activity Caleb!
Have a wonderful week ahead.
Warm Regards,
Leanne Eastman
PRINCIPAL
principal@sbcoragulac.catholic.edu.au
Y O U ' R E I N V I T E D !
It's our beginning of year Parent get Together! Happening on Wednesday 23rd February from 9am until 10am in the Hall. Refreshments are provided and pre-school aged children are more than welcome to tag along.
We would love to see you all there!
Student News
SRC (Student Representitive Council)
Congratulations to the following students who have been selected to be on the SRC for Term 1:
Prep/1: Pearl Armistead & Isabella Coates
2/3/4: Brianna D'Altera & Jerry Robb
5/6: Annabelle Carlon & Indi Sutherland
Class Awards
Congratulations to our first recipients of class awards for 2022:
Ivy Robb Kaitlyn Bourk Maverick Lenehan
What a terrific start to the year you have all had. Thank you for being so responsible, respectful and safe. You are excellent role models for your fellow students.
COVID-19 Update
Household Contacts & Multiple Exposures
We have received some information and clarification from DOBCEL regarding Rolling Quarantine Requirements, which may be helpful to some families.
We have had a few questions as to whether a household contact needs to begin their 7-day quarantine again if another person in the household tests positive during this period. According to advice for contacts on the Victorian Government Coronavirus website, this is not required. Specifically, the advice provides:
If another person in your household tests positive:
- If another person in your household tests positive during your 7-day quarantine period as a household contact (in addition to the initial case) your 7-day period doesn’t start again.
- You can complete the rest of that 7-day quarantine period, and you are cleared from quarantine if you have a negative result from a test taken on Day 6.
- However, if you test positive on Day 6 (or on any day of your 7-day quarantine period) your quarantine period will start again because you are now infectious with the virus. You must isolate for another 7 days following your positive result.
Rapid Antigen Testing
Thank you to our families and students for participating in the RAT program. If you need more tests, they can be collected from the office.
CATHOLIC CULTURE
PROJECT COMPASSION
Lent begins March 2nd this year. As a Catholic school we use the time of Lent to raise funds for Project Compassion, a Catholic based charity ran by Caritas Australia. This charity works to promote justice and uphold dignity for people living in less fortunate countries. Over the coming weeks we will share information about Project Compassion with you. In the meantime, your child will be bringing home a donation box for you to start thinking about how you can support others less fortunate. Your child may like to forgo an icy-pole one day and instead donate their 50 cents to the family donation box.
BEGINNING SCHOOL MASS is taking place on Sunday 27th February in St Brendan's Church at 5pm. We encourage all families to attend and ask that students please wear their full and correct school uniform.
ASH WEDNESDAY MASS will also be held at St Brendan's Church this year on Wednesday 2nd March at 12pm. Mass will be led by Fr. Michael and members of our Parish. All parents, families and community members are welcome to come along.
Prep/1 Classroom News
What a whirlwind week we’ve had so far! Hope everyone enjoyed their day off on Monday - the teachers were very privileged to have attended a writing PD workshop! We learnt lots and look forwards to bringing lots of new strategies and ideas back to the classroom.
Surfing - Surfing on Wednesday was an incredible day! All students were very excited to board the bus to Ocean Grove knowing that they had an entire day of beach fun ahead. They took to the water like fish. Everyone had a go at surfing or boogie-boarding and demonstrated some very impressive skills. It was an awesome experience all round.
Police visit - On Tuesday, we were very lucky to have two officers from the Colac Police Station visit and talk to the students about their work. Josh and Kate discussed the types of jobs they do on a day-to-day basis and showed the students all their gear. It was most exciting when Katie used her radio to make a shout-out to the team at the station and they replied, “Hello everyone at St.Brendan’s Primary school.”
Readers: Well done to everyone for their home reading so far this year! I’ve been extremely impressed with the frequency and consistency of reading. Keep it up! A friendly reminder to send reader folder’s to school in students’ bags everyday (if possible) or at least each Monday. This way I can sign diaries, update word lists and help change readers.
Home reading practice: I’ve sent home small books labeled “Home Reading Practice.” These contain a list of words to practise reading at home with your child. These words contain the spellings and sounds we are working on in class. Encourage your child to sound out the words, “Say the sounds and read the word.”
Maths: Have you ever wondered how many? How many people in my class? How many sheep in that paddock? How many blue cars on the way to school? This week in class we have been discovering that ‘How many?’ is a very common question. We’ve discussed and tried ways to count and work out the answer to this. At home, you might like to do some counting of your own. Encourage your child to count the number of pens in the top drawer… the number of tiles on the bathroom wall… the number of chair legs at the dinner table. Opportunities for counting practice are endless.
Religion: In Term 1, the theme for our RE unit is ‘belonging.’ We have been talking about all the different groups and places to which we belong. I invite students to bring in some family photos over the next week or two. We will share these photos and discuss how belonging can make us feel happy and valued. With permission, photos will also be put on display in the hallway to celebrate our wonderful families.
Allira Kluver
akluver@sbcoragulac.catholic.edu.au
2/3/4 Classroom News
What a busy week we are having!
We all enjoyed a visit from the Police on Tuesday morning. We would to extend a huge thank you to Josh Goonan and Kate Busfield for their talk and interaction. They showed us some of the equipment they use, they spoke about the role of the Police in the community, and they discussed some of our laws and online usage and bullying. They were excellent and the children were engaged and happy to be part of the friendly presentation.
Thank you to the families who attended the Meet and Greets. It is a privilege to share in the learning journey of your child and I appreciate your time and input.
This week we are looking at sentences and identifying nouns, adjectives and verbs. The class did a great job last week with unpacking sentences.
In maths we are still investigating Place Value. We are identifying and revising how to represent the value of ones, tens, hundreds, thousands and tens of thousands in word and number form.
Homework was sent home on Tuesday. Everyone has new words to learn and a contract to complete as well. Homework is due back on Friday.
From all accounts surfing was a huge success again. We are so lucky to have the opportunity to participate in such a fun and exciting activity.
Our R.E. concept is Belonging with our rich question being ‘What does it mean to belong?’ I believe being part of a wonderful school and family event such as surfing is a perfect example of belonging and community.
Our Beginning School Mass is on Sunday 27th February and we look forward to seeing our school and Parish community coming together to celebrate.
Star of the Week award goes to Samiyah McLeod. Congratulations on your excellent effort!
If you have any concerns or queries please contact me at school or by email.
Cheers,
Mandy Sutherland
msutherland@sbcoragulac.catholic.edu.au
5/6 Classroom News
Welcome to Week 4, what a week we’ve had! On Tuesday we had two local Police officers, Josh and Kate, come and speak to us about their job and how they help our community. We also had a fantastic time surfing in Ocean Grove on Wednesday, there are some very talented surfers in our school!
We also announced our SRC’s for Term 1 and they are Annabelle Carlon and Indi Sutherland. These girls are excellent role models for our younger students and will do a great job representing our class.
This week we began our Maths unit on Place Value. We have started off revising some prior knowledge; reading and writing large numbers. Year 5 students have been working on numbers in millions and Year 6 students have been working on numbers in billions.
We also began our Religion unit this week, our focus being ‘Belonging’. The students have been sharing what they think it means to belong and reflecting on the groups they belong to in their lives.
Homework was sent home on Tuesday afternoon, this is due back at school on Monday.
Just a reminder that students are expected to read for 20 minutes each night and this is to be logged in their diary. Diaries are expected at school every day as I will be checking them each morning.
Have a great week and please don’t hesitate to email me if you have any questions or concerns.
Tahlia Whytcross
twhytcross@sbcoragulac.catholic.edu.au
Birthday Corner
We would like to wish a very big Happy Birthday to everyone who has celebrated their special day throughout the Summer Holidays including:
February 19th - Brianna D'Altera (8)
Clearing Sale Fundraiser
The first clearing sale for this year is the Roache Clearing Sale at Nalangil on 18th February 2022.
All families are asked to contribute to reduce the costs associated with running event. Donations have been kept to under $10 per family. If people feel they need to swap they are welcome but need to self-arrange. We thank everyone for contributing especially those manning the BBQ on the day.
DONATIONS - Thank you to the families who have already delivered their items!
Please leave at the front office anytime from now, and prior to Friday 18th February:
10pk Coke Cans: Quinane / Lettieri
10pk Diet Coke Cans: Baker
24pk Homebrand Water Bottles: Gray
2Lt UHT Milk & 1pk Paper Towel: D'Altera
Please leave at the front office on Thursday 17th February or Friday 18th February before 8.30am:
6 x Loaves of Bread: Day (Please also check the gas bottle)
1 x UNCUT Loaf of Egg & Lettuce Sandwiches: Lenehan
1 x UNCUT Loaf of Ham & Tomato Sandwiches: Rock
1 x UNCUT Loaf of Mixed Sandwiches: Scott
12 x INDIVIDUALLY WRAPPED Slices or Cakes: Wolter/Coates/Robb (Kristy)
VOLUNTEER ROSTER (ON THE DAY)
Set Up 8.30am Campbell / Bourk / Armistead
Shift 2 10.30am (Cut & wrap sandwiches) Wilson / Robb (Jayne) / Bayne
Important Dates
FEBRUARY
18th - Swimming Session 2
21st - Dental Health Van Visit
24th - Swimming Session 3
27th - Beginning of Year Mass 5pm St Brendan's Church
28th - Yr. 6 Dream and Lead Conference (Excursion to Melbourne)
MARCH
2nd - Prep Students begin attending on Wednesdays (Full-time)
2nd - Ash Wednesday Mass 12pm St Brendan's Church
4th - Pupil Free Day (School Review Process Begins)
9th - School Sports Day
11th - Swimming Session 4
18th - Swimming Session 5
APRIL
8th - Last Day of Term 1
Acknowledgement of Country
At St. Brendan’s Primary School we pay our respects to the traditional owners of the land, the Gulidjan people and pay our respect to their Elders past, present and emerging.
We will respect the land, animals and waterways, from the roots of the earth to the tops of the trees. Through the example of our first Australians, we understand that if we look after the country, then the country will look after us.
About Us
School Vision: 'For you I have a destiny and a hope.'
PARISH PRIEST: Fr Michael O’Toole PRINCIPAL: Mrs Leanne Eastman
SAC CHAIRPERSON: Ms Sophie Alliband CHILD SAFETY OFFICER: Mrs Leanne Eastman